This morning I woke up to an email from our broker, saying the bank lender had a question about our loan application:

“He has asked to get more clarity around one of your accounts showing Nami and Kino University Funds, can you please provide clarity what is this for and if this is going to be an ongoing liability?”

…it was the savings bucket we made for the dogs, and named it as if Nami and Kino were going to school one day. Which honestly was super funny at that time (and still amusing to me today).

The moral of the story is to not create a university savings account for your dogs, haha.

Anyway, that aside, we’ve got the conditional contract signed. Building and pest inspection will be done tomorrow, and we’ve got our loan application just waiting to be approved. I’m also waiting for my FHSS funds to be released to add to our house fund — driving me to check my bank account every few hours every day like a starving customer waiting for my Uber Eats order.

Things are coming together, and while I wasn’t excited about the house when we made an offer (trying to not like it too much in case things don’t work out), I’m definitely looking forward to moving now. It doesn’t matter that we’re buying at an outer suburb — it’s going to be our house, we will turn it into our home, and I really do hope that we will like living there. :)

The first property I bought was for my mum, so I wasn’t feeling quite excited once it was fully paid and handed over. It’s what I ought to do as the eldest child. I wanted to do something for her for raising me and putting me through school but as I was overseas and can’t take care of her physically — a condo can be a good asset for her in her retirement. I never saw it as something for myself. It didn’t quite tick a certain milestone in my life. It happened quietly, paid off completely without further ado, ready for my mum to furnish and live in.

But this time, I’m buying a house for myself and Dylan. It’s our house, for the life we’re building here together. We’ve worked so hard without the support of our parents. We’re lucky too, yes, but we have been doing most of everything on our own: making our way to Australia, finding jobs, buying cars (a shitbox, replaced by an old car, replaced by a more modern car), getting two dogs, getting engaged, planning a wedding, and now buying a house. There’s every reason for me to be very, very proud of how far we’ve come. We moved here separately with nothing but our luggage, met each other, and now we’re ready to make a place our own.

I grew up watching my mum decorate my childhood home and saw the care and thought she put into make our home hers: the cozy yellow couch, the plants in the patio with bamboo blinds to keep it cool in summer, the seasonal christmas decor that adorned the staircase in November, the kitchenware that matched regardless of occasion. I can’t wait to experience being in her shoes and personalising my living spaces, decorating my own home, and making everything as comfortable for us to live in for every season. At this moment, there’s nothing more exciting than manifesting all of that and it’s only a shame we didn’t get to buy a house before the End-of-Financial-Year sales. :P

But that’s okay. One step at a time. We probably need a few months of saving money for new furniture after we’ve moved in anyway, which means we might just be in time for Black Friday. I just need to be patient, and fingers crossed everything is settled smoothly from here.