Where to next?
We haven’t been able to pay the bank for this beautiful house we live in. We haven’t made any payment of any kind to the bank for the past 3 years, maybe more. And even back then when we did pay, it was a reduced amount, because we went under debt review.
We couldn’t afford the debt review either. Because of the sheer amount of debt we have and complete lack of assets, we couldn’t even declare ourselves bankrupt! We’re too poor to declare bankruptcy… !!
The bank warned and begged and phoned and emailed about our non-payment, but we couldn’t do anything about it. The amount we offered to pay was about 12% of what they required, so they did not accept it. Duh… But it took them more than 18months to finally begin with legal action.
The whole process was long and drawn out, which of course was only to our benefit. And just as the house was being put up for sale on auction, Corona hit and everything was first put on hold, and eventually cancelled. The whole process were to start again. We were bought another year in this precious house.
This house. What a story!
After baby #4 we decided to get a bigger place, preferably a plot. Both me and my husband had good jobs, we could afford it. I saw this house in an ad and called the agent, who simply just didn’t return my call. So we went to search for the house and found it. We spoke to the person who stayed on the plot to take care of it and he gave us the owners’ numbers. We contacted them directly. As it turned out, they themselves are estate agents and the agent who didn’t return my call, was their son. Since we now dealt directly with the sellers, the commission fell away.
It took nine months of fighting with the bank to get the loan approved. They double deducted salary deductions, and added expenses to my husband’s leg of income, that was already taken into account under mine… Eventually it was sorted and the loan approved.
But someone else has made an even better offer in the meantime, but they couldn’t provide a guarantee from the bank that they can afford the offer, or that their loan would be approved. The sellers had the right to accept the offer they wanted to. We had to wait for them to choose.
They chose us, and the sale went ahead.
Documents were signed and the loan from the bank approved. In the meantime, however, I was retrenched. I didn’t have a job or any form of income anymore. And the loan was originally approved on both our salaries. There was no way the loan could go through only on my husband’s salary.
When we went to sign at the attorneys, it was picked up that we are married out of community of property. And the whole deal was stopped dead in its tracks. Apparently, you can buy anything together when you are married in community of property. And you can almost buy anything together when you are married out of community of property – except a plot. You can buy a business, a country, a yacht, a microwave, a car or an aeroplane… but not a plot.
The whole contract was torn up and drawn up again with me as surety. I eventually garnered the guts to tell the attorney that I don’t have a job anymore, and have no prospect of a job either. He didn’t even bat an eye… That’s fine, he said, sign here.
There is no way the deal should have gone through with only my husband’s salary. Please note that the deal had to be completely redone – from the bank’s assessment down to the attorneys. Somewhere someone must’ve picked up that even though we are buying as husband and wife, according to the law we cannot buy together and thus the incomes cannot be added together, and therefor we couldn’t afford the place. And even if they considered my income as surety, I didn’t have an income anymore, thus, again – cannot afford the place.
But the deal went through, the contracts were signed and the registration of the property took about 2 weeks, which is super fast.
We took possession of the property 1 October 2014, and started painting and cleaning and fixing and by 1 November we were moved in completely.
It’s a big house. 6 rooms, 4 bathrooms, kitchen, scullery, laundry, lounge, dining room.
Almost immediately after we moved in, things started to go wrong. Pipes burst, severe damage to the floors were done and we had trouble with the insurance because of fine print – but that’s a whole other story!
The roof leaks. And we can’t fix it. It’s a thatch roof and we didn’t know the extent of damage as the previous owners just added a layer on top to cover it. You can’t just add more thatch – the whole roof has to be removed and re-thatched. But we’re not talking drips here and there, we’re talking waterfalls. Holes in the roof where the water literally just falls through.
Due to the constant water damage, the floors are uneven. The walls are wet through and crumbly and the paint has water marks on it, and there are cracks. So many cracks.
We had an ant infestation which almost drove me to edge of sanity. Eventually got the pest people in and the ants left. Then the rats came. So many rats. It sounded like they played soccer in the ceiling, and my little ones were afraid to sleep by themselves because of the immense noise the rats made. They ate everything. They chewed through the cupboards in my kitchen – from the ground up in! And they were huge. Nothing helped. No traps, no poison, nothing. The nests they made in the ceiling used the thatch roof and there are 2 places where the ceiling is hanging very low, due to the weight of the grass… It got to the point where the rats would actually sit and watch us eat! That was the final straw and I called in the pest people again. And now the rats have gone. Most of them, anyway.
Bathroom #1 is a guest toilet, with a toilet and an urinal. The toilet leaks, and cannot be fixed. The pipes and fixings have to be completely replaced. Bathroom #2 has a toilet, basin and shower. There is no door. You have to put in concertina door, as there is no space for a normal door. After 2 of those doors broke, we stopped replacing them. So the toilet works but you can’t really use it and the shower doesn’t work. Bathroom #3 has a toilet, basin and bath. The toilet works. And it has a door. But the bath and basin doesn’t and without completely redoing the pipes, it can’t be fixed. And then there is the bathroom in the main bedroom, with a shower, bath, toilet and basin. All work. So everyone has to use the en-suite bathroom, as it is basically the only working one.
Our borehole dried up and we had to sink a new one. The new one has less water than the original one, so we can’t pump as often or as much as we want to. With the amount of people in the house, the toilets use much more water than you would imagine. Thus, we have decided to gather the grey water and use it to refill the toilets. But because we can’t afford to install piping to have it happen automatically, we are refilling the toilets by hand.
We only have 1 geyser, that is on a timer. Our electricity bill has been a point of deep and severe anxiety over the years, as it is way more than what we actually use, but you can’t fight the government. So we had to ensure we cut as much as we can anywhere we can. We used to have a gas geyser in the kitchen, but it broke, somehow… So now we have to carry warm water from the bathroom in the main bedroom to the kitchen to do the dishes.
There are so many trees here. The birds are amazing! The crescendo of song as they welcome the dawn in the morning is simply beautiful and awe-inspiring. It also means that I don’t have any fruit from my fruit trees as the birds get to it before I can.
It’s a beautiful place, with a lot of sadness and brokenness as well.
Give or take a little, between the house where I lived from birth until my first move and this one, it is the longest I have stayed in one place. The move to this house was my 34th move. I am going on 41 years old.
On the one hand I cannot imagine having better.
We have no idea where to next. We don’t know where to even begin looking. We can’t buy and because of our debt, we can’t rent through an agency either.
What we do know, is that we want out of the area we are living in now. I have lived in the same triangle of despair my whole life and I think it’s time to find somewhere else to stay, to work, to rest. As lovely as this place is, the troubles have been even more.
I believe this is God’s house. He ensured that we got it, whether it was an answer to our desperate calls, like king Hezekiah, to our own detriment – I don’t know. But He uses everything for good. And if there is one thing that we have learnt here, it is that He provides.
There is no way that we could have survived all the storms we have faced in this place, nothing on paper makes any sense. Yet, here we are. He has provided every step of the way. He has drawn us closer to Him and to each other. We have forged our family bonds in ways that many others in today’s society are deprived of, simply because we are not part of the rat race. We were forced out of it and kept out of it.
We have experienced blessings and curses and good and bad and better and worse. We have stories to tell that will give you nightmares. Enough to fill a book or three… and that’s just the past 7 years. The chapter in my life called : Homelands. And it is coming to an end.
I am scared to expect better. And I feel ashamed that I feel that way.
I have had enough of constant drawbacks and failures and really, really am hoping for better circumstances, for a little less adventure, but I don’t know what God’s plans are for me. I know that He even gave Jesus rest after His trial in the desert and I am hoping – really asking – for a little rest of my own.
But, in the end, my life is His and if He doesn’t grant me some rest here on earth, I know that I will have an eternity of rest when my time on earth is done and I go to heaven. Makes me tired to even think that, but somehow He gives us strength beyond comprehension to get up and get through every new day He grants to us.
No matter what waits for us, I know He is already there.
