Good news and the squatter attempts to move in

We had some good progress on the renovation this week.  The builder as stated the 3rd week of November for the beginning of demolition.  That is great news.  We still have a bucket load of things that need to be sorted out by then but we're excited that the builder is good to go in only a couple of weeks.

In other news, the house across from our place was sold the weekend before last for a bumper outcome.  We have therefore made quite a sizeable paper profit so we're very excited about that.  We also had a real estate agent knock on our door (remember, our rental is in the same street as the house we're renovating) as they are looking for other people that may be willing to sell in the street.  I also had a neighbour ring the bell to see if we know anything about our landlord and their willingness to sell.  It is Hot Property in this street at the moment!

A side impact of the house selling this past weekend is that there has been a squatter living on their verandah for the past year or two.  The actual house as not been inhabited for at least 10 to 15 years and so this lady has set up her abode on the enclosed verandah which is quite private from the street.  We have all been quite interested to see what would happen once the house sold.  Apparently, straight after the auction, once the Sold sticker went up, she ripped it right back off.  It was put back up and she ripped it right back off again.  This week I saw a guy spray painting the word 'Sold' on the sign.  He must be the new owner.  So it has been intrigue after intrigue.

We have been a little concerned that the lady squatter would move her digs across the street to our house.  Our tenant friends moved out at the beginning of October so the place has been empty for a few weeks.  It is only a few weeks more before demolition commences.  But she doesn't know that.

This afternoon we got a call from one of our neighbours saying that the squatter was moving her mattress and other goods and chattels across the road over to our place!  It seems the real estate agent leant on her pretty heavily and so she made a show of moving her gear onto our front verandah.  He must have then left and so when I got a chance to go down to the house she had moved back to her original house.  The poor lady is obviously not well so I hope that there can be some better solution worked out for her.  I know that an outreach agency has been trying to make contact with her.

In the meantime, we have ordered a fence to be erected across the front of our house.