Happy Birthday, Here’s a Terrible House

Most teenagers would like a car for their birthday. I’m going a step further and giving my daughter a house.

Not one I’ve bought…no, that would cost money. It’s just that I’ve never seen any teenage girl quite so enamoured with the concept of DIY. She gets top marks in woodwork, metal tech and textiles, all subjects she chose herself. If there’s something that needs doing around the house, I can count on Faye to get it done, like she actually wants to. Never seen anything quite like it, and NO idea where she gets it from.

So…that’s why I think she’ll really enjoy this new project. It’s a long story involving people around Melbourne, property advocates, estate agents and an inheritance from a very strange aunt, but in the end we were given a ramshackle old house out in the boons, so now it’s just sitting there. I don’t have much of a use for it, nobody in the family wants it…but Faye could. I asked all the buyers advocates, all the house people who were sent to deal with it, and they said that I can have it put into her name. It’s a huge place, something like eight bedrooms, so definitely something where you’d actually get a buyers advocate involved if you wanted to purchase it. The only problem right now is that it’s falling apart. Not as creepy as you’d expect, and there’s no real water damage that can’t be undone, but it definitely needs a load of work.

So…perfect for Faye! I want to give my only daughter a good start in life, but also a choice. If she wants to sell the land and buy her own place, that’s fine. But I just thought that maybe she’d like to get in there, do the place up, make it her personal project. I can just see some Melbourne buyers advocates walking people around it in ten years or so, showing them pictures of what it used to look like and mentioning off-hand that one girl did it up all by herself. And then they ask for a six-figure sum. Retirement sorted!

-Dan