Living on Acreage

Hey Jacque

Nice move ! (Sorry I took a while to get excited - I haven't been on forum for a while)

Acreage living has been great for our young family - our once-terrified-of- anything daughter is now an official barefoot flower-child farming dynamo.

Benefits of acreage ? (for us anyway)
Lots of land content
Fresh air
Decent space between us and neighbours
Potential future rezoning although we hope not !
Tree change phenomenon
Grow your own everything
The way we want our kid to remember growing up
Relative peace and quiet (if we stay at friends city places now we just can't sleep!)
Almost everything can be transacted online anyway (incl. DVD rental, eBay purchases, all of my work from home biz etc)
No traffic (which is abyssmal in Brisbane's west)
(Multi) millionaire's lifestyle (as far as we're concerned) when we aren't multi millionaire's

Disadvantages
Upkeep
Seclusion / distance to amenities (8km to go for milk and bread)
Potential safety issues (snakebite, accident etc) and distance to emergency services
Long driveway if you want a sealed road to your door
Cab fare home if you are still keen on nights out
I can't think of any others - I am WAY biased to the positives

Necessities
Limit the upkeep - rider mower and walkman, kick-**** brushcutter, and mulch are all your friends
Repairing the world (and the mess we made building) - we have planted a ton of fruit trees, run the Biolytix system for septic, replanting local native species
Take time out to enjoy it (I spend way too much time inside and am gradually learning to address life imbalance)
Good soil is nice but its not too hard to improve with (a fair bit of) effort
Water supply (ideally not town water IMHO)

We are unsure about the whole 'super drought' SEQ is meant to be having as I hear rumblings all historical rainfall figures have been removed from Council and Govt websites to cover up the fact poor planning and failing to address additional infrastructure is the main cause of lack of sufficient water. Might not be true but it makes sense to me.

Certainly in our little valley 22km west of Brisbane GPO its always green, our water tank is always full and our bore never runs dry - we still conserve water as we'd feel greedy if we didn't.

Anyway, back on track, head for the hills ! Its nice up here

All the best
Carl

 

22km west of Bris GPO?

I used to live at Brookfield on acreage when I was growing up (not 30,000 acres but quite large). Nice are if you don't need to struggle with a daily commute.

For me thats a key. Mt Tamborine is nice, but only if you don't need to negotiate the trip down the mountain anything more than say once or twice a week... And thats one place a 4wd might not be just an unnesessary status statement.

 

Upper Brookfield People don't believe me about distance as it feels a LOT further, but the odometer doesn't lie Mainly bought here as we are surrounded by state forest and (touch wood) won't be affected by bypass roads, high voltage power lines etc etc - ie. all that 'price of progress' stuff.

The next escape is somewhere in TNQ, but that's some years away yet (according to my refuse-to-budge wife )

 

Nice to hear from you Carl - you have been missed

Glad to hear your optimism- though your points about upkeep and distance are valid and I am very aware of them, especially with three children in two different schools.

Could you enlighten me on what a Biolytix system is? I'm assuming it's similar to an Envirocycle? Basically recycling water from household use to re-use on gardens and lawn?

 

Sorry Jax

Biolytix Waste Treatment Systems

We put an envirocycle in the other place, but the upkeep has been a nightmare (and bloody expensive - failed chlorine canisters, dodgy pump, some other thing, pump out and refill etc)

There are 2 major differences in the Biolytix as I understand it (and no I'm not a shareholder) :

1. It mimics nature and the way it breaks down waste - so is much more environmentally sound (most other treatment systems are based on pumping air and chlorine into the waste - as far as I understand, and very 'unnatural')

2. Its at least a few thousand cheaper than competitor systems. It is also set up to auto-phone the maintenance people if anything goes bad (as opposed to needing a manual check). So ongoing maintenance is a lot cheaper too.

In terms of how it works everything gets lumped into one big tank, and runs through various stages of filtration, the last layer being earth worms (which arrive in Australia Post in a box for you to 'install' ) - the worm castes are the final stage of filtering that makes the waste water come out 'almost' drinkable. By law it has to go underground but its fine to grow fruit trees in. In fact our mangoes and custard apples are going mad for it The native trees in the area are two stories tall after less than a year from seedling - I kid you not ! (we expel good waste in this house, or some would say we're full of it !) ;-)

The school thing - actually part of why we moved out here is that there is a small primary school 3 km from our door - which Ella is still 4 years off attending. With 3 children and 2 different schools I feel for you - but you would get a lovely drive in the country twice a day

Cheers !
C

 

Great location Carl - 20km from the city is nothing - in Sydney that's just to Epping...

 

Hey Glebe

How's the pup ? Our 2 have taken over the new microsuede ottoman on my home theatre couch - there's another thing off to the dump in 6 months (not the dogs, the ottoman )

Its all relative I 'spose - people are gradually coming around to distance here - 5 years ago mates would visit us on the outskirts and say "man I could never live all the way out here" - now they say "is there anything for sale at the moment" I think that's purely the way Brisbane has changed - I don't like the drive in to town, but I HATE walking up the mall. Brisbaneites can't deal with being in a proper city - in Sydney people have learned to co-exist in close quarters, but not here. Plus our town planning appears to have left a helluva lot to be desired.

The plan was to move North for 10 years and come back when Brisbane has sorted itself (traffic, residential zonings, water, lifestyle, crooked politicians) out. Unfortunately the free and easy attitude got caught out with the arrival of offspring, which made the missus even more resistant to change ;-)

It'll take a disaster to make me sell this one as it might not be a goldmine yet, but when Ella goes to university in year 2027 owning 12 acres and 2 houses within 15 kms of University of Queensland I reckon her and her hanger-on squatting drug-smoking mates might just name the bar after me - nothing like leaving a legacy

 

Nothing like having high aspirations for one's offspring either...

Don't you become one of those pushy parents now

 

My angel won't be a drug-smoking squatter - just her mates

 

Haha. That's what I thought, 20kms here is considered reasonably close!! Acreage here will more likely be 40kms + out at least

 

Hi Carl,

My little bulldog is going well, thanks Hope your boxers are still clowns

Two questions:

a) How long would it take you to drive to Brisbane City at 09:00am
b) How long would it take you to drive to Brisbane City at 02:00am?

Cheers!

 

Hey Glebe

9am isn't a bad run - I reckon 30 mins (peak hour is dead by 0900 - if you leave at 7am though - could be 1.5 hours on a bad day

2am - I have never in my life been capable of driving at 2am ! About the same as 9am timewise I'd reckon - I think 25 mins is the best run I have had

 

Did'nt realise you were a country girl Jacque! Good on you I say, I have been trying to talk my wife into it for ages but being from England really dosen't like the snakes and spiders that go with it!!

We are lucky here in Brissy in that only 20mins from the CBD (Gumdale) you can have the best of both worlds. Country acreage with city convenience, at a price though!

Cheers

 

I'm not so much of a county girl as an idealist- if I can possibly get what I'm after then all well and good

Time is on my side, however, as I'm preparing to sell up first and maximise the price I get for my current PPOR. Also aiming to sell my home privately as well as an experiment of sorts, so I'll keep you posted as to how this pans out as well......

Nice to see you posting again, Jarrod!

 

I hope you don't have some nasty buyers agent try to bargain down the price for your lovely house Jacque
We look forward to seeing how this one pans out for yourself, Steve and the kids Jax. Good luck!!

 

Thanks Dave
Nasty buyers agents? No such thing! Anyway, I'll be ready whoever the buyer happens to be. Negotiating skills work both ways after all, despite what side of the table you're on

 

I thought, for those interested, you might like an update of where I'm at in my quest for the perfect plot

Have been looking for some months now, on and off, as well as preparing my current PPOR for sale. That's been fun, fitting it all in on weekends and weeknights- especially the painting! (I wouldn't recommend trying to cut in under a 60w globe for light- let's just say the results were somewhat mediocre compared to my usual fastidiousness)

Work done so far to jazz up the PPOR has included revamping kitchen benchtops and appliances, several days of scraping/sanding/painting, recarpeting (to be done next week) new window treatments in some rooms, gardening, cleaning (though that never stops!) electrics (new points and fan removal) and stencilling the driveway. I've also had a carpenter in to do some repair jobs and have enlisted the assistance of my amazingly stylish mother to arrange the "dressing" of the house. All exhausting stuff!

Amongst all of this, naturally I've located several properties that have caught my eye and have warranted further investigation, and will keep you all updated when I do locate the property of my dreams
The more acreage I inspect, the more I hanker for it.... there are really some amazing places out here in the beautiful Hills District.

Wish me luck as I aim to list my own property in the next 2-3 weeks and hopefully sell for a great price

 

Good luck!

Although from what you've posted I don't think you'll need it. It sounds like you're doing an awesome job readying the PPOR for sale. Can't wait to see what you end up buying for the new place.

Dural perhaps? Although prices there have gone crazy since I lived in the Hills...

Cheers,
Michael.

 

Hi Jacque. So you gonna become a neighbour?

Arcadia and Berrilee are the cheaper cousins of Dural and I actually prefer the topography of the land around Arcadia (but I'm biased).

For my mind, must haves with acreage in the Hills
- town water
- working septic or enviro cycle, avoid pump out as it CO$TS
- minimal easements or rights of way
- some usable/arable land!
- easily accessable power and phone lines - get used to heaps of blackouts!
- preferrably neighbours who aren't market gardeners
- no power lines overhead or nearby
- not on Old Northern Road

Like to haves
- dams
- stables/sheds etc
- pool, good for fighting fires

 

Well an update for you all....

I've purchased my little piece of paradise and broken my own golden rule of buying before selling - when this particular property came up for sale, I simply fell in love!! Who says you don't get emotional about your own place?!

No pressure though, due to my seriously talented broker (Thanks Rolf )and a bit of refinancing/juggling, which means I can take as long as I like to sell my present PPOR.

Being the control freak that I am I'm attempting to sell it myself and have listed it on Domain - wish me luck! So far the "Keeping it pristine" part is already wearing thin, with three active children and a partner who clearly defines uncluttered differently from me!

So, now to all those other acreage questions.....

Carl,
I'm getting a quote for the Biolytix system to replace the current septic- any tips appreciated, from an old farmboy such as your good self