It’s no secret that the husbear and I have long loved Coochiemudlo Island; it’s our happy place.
What I have kept secret however, is that we bought a holiday house there about a year ago!
It’s been a loooonggg time coming.
We first dreamed of buying a property on the island, in the late 1990’s – when Miss 25 was a bub.
The years sped by and at the end of 2015 an opportunity arose to buy a holiday house for a very good price. I even hinted at it in my first blog post for 2016 …
Alas, it wasn’t to be.
We kept looking, and even made offers on a couple of places, but the timing just mustn’t have been right …
UNTIL this time last year, when we bought a two bedroom cottage in our preferred street. We’d actually made an offer about three years earlier, but the owners had decided to take the house off the market, much to our disappointment.
So when we saw it was up for sale again, we didn’t hesitate – and this time, success! (And in the meantime, they’d done some renovating – repainted the interior, and laid new flooring.)
When we took possession in October last year it was a bit of a mess. The previous owners were hoarders and when we did our final pre-settlement inspection, three days before we took ownership, it was still a mess – it looked like nothing had been done since we put the contract on it 6 weeks’ earlier!
Well. Let me just say that a bond clean should be mandatory not just when a lease ends, but also when a house is sold …
While all their belongings had been removed, the house was a pigsty. The floors had been swept but that was it.
The previous owners had kept two large English sheepdogs, two cats and a bird inside, and I swear they hadn’t washed the floors or wiped any cupboards in years. The house REEKED of cigarette smoke, and eau de dog.
Even though the curtains were relatively new, we had to throw them all out, they smelt so bad. We scrubbed the walls, windows and cupboards – and as for the floors – mopping did nothing. We literally had to scrub them with soapy water and a broom – the water became so black and filthy, that it had to be changed every square metre or two. Gross!!!!!
The idea was that we would split our time between our home on the mainland, and our Coochie house …
But before the sale was finalised, my mother in law was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer which meant that instead, the husbear was splitting his time between home, work, and caring for his mum in Toowoomba (2 hours’ drive away).
We snatched the odd day or even weekend there when we could, and I stayed for a week with my sister (and her dog!) after Christmas, but that was about it.
Until this past week, when we had our very first holiday there 🙂 .
Some might wonder – why have a holiday house?
It’s hard to relax and recharge your batteries in your own home – there’s always something that needs to be done.
Plus, I run a business from my home office which means it’s my workplace as well!
We’ve tried a motorhome which we did enjoy, but we don’t really have the room for it here, and we found each trip required so much preparation, it wasn’t really a relaxing break.
Coochie is different. It’s now all set up, and is the cutest little place you ever did see.
It took a long time, and a lot of work, but we are loving it.
Coochie has such a relaxed vibe. Our neighbours are lovely – they’re all retired and live on the island permanently.
It might be a sleepy island but we are never short of things to do. Beach walks, bike riding, swimming, kayaking, fishing, a couple of cafes, BBQs, and the world’s most relaxed golf course … plus I get to indulge in reading, jigsaw puzzles and nanna naps 😉 .
Even Fleur has been for holidays on Coochiemudlo Island!
It doesn’t have water views (we’re not made of money!), but it does back on to bushland.
While we are happy to lend it out to family, we’re not planning to put it on Air B’n’B or similar. (Believe it or not, the kidults aren’t interested even though it’d be a free holiday! Too quiet for their liking, I guess they prefer the bright lights / big city feel of the Gold or Sunshine Coasts.)
Others have wondered, will we retire there eventually? I’m not sure, but for now, we are loving having our own holiday house at the ready!
It truly is a dream come true.
Where is your favourite holiday spot?
Love your gorgeous beach shack!
Hi Janet, you are a girl after my own heart! Jigsaw, books and nananap….we even have the same picture in our homes!! Mine is above my bed where I can dream of taking that path onto the beach…lol love your blog.
Congratulations you secret squirrel you!!
It sounds like a nightmare to get it habitable!
Thank you for sharing your precious space.
The photos are truly beautiful and you have made it such a warm, loving home.
I know this is something that both you have wanted for a long time and the fact that you planned, got knocked back a few times……and then still went on and eventually found your dream……that is such a huge achievement.
Congratulations on achieving your personal goals…..you are a super star
You are my idol! Looks like a dream. Good for you and Husbear. If we were neighbors I think we would get on very well. Best to you both, livin’ the dream!
That’s so lovely. It is something I wanted to do a long time ago but wasn’t to be. I would do much the same as you but swap the jigsaws for reading and more reading! Enjoy x
Congratulations lovely, such exciting news. So happy for you xx
What a lovely little place Janet – and I’m so glad you finally got your dream home (after missing out and then having to do such a major clean up). It all looks gorgeous and restful and who wouldn’t dream of an island home?