"It was just common sense at our age" Norm: Moving into a village, it had to happen; it was just common sense at our age. Noeleen: I didn’t want to do it. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming. I had this idea of little dog boxes with old people. I was wrong.
Norm: She now bows to the superior knowledge of the male species!
Noeleen: Norm was very conscious of our age difference (he was 76 when we signed up) and he was concerned that if anything happened to him would I be OK.
Norm: It was really a matter of security. I have had health issues, with two shoulders done, my knees and so on and each time I was in hospital Noeleen was on her own and she was uncomfortable about it. Here I can go away on a golf trip and she is fine, totally comfortable and feeling secure. This has been a big factor for us.
Noeleen: We have also been able to travel a lot, just walking out the door and going. In fact we have had five holidays in the past 12 months. We have just been to Honolulu and America, where we drove from LA to Chicago along Route 66. We like driving holidays.
Norm: Several years ago we returned from driving around Australia with our caravan and Noeleen said we should park the caravan down at our beach house at Mandurah. I had been thinking about it and I said “no way”. In fact we had to get rid of Mandurah because our block was full of big gum trees and I was forever having to climb up them to cut down branches – it was crazy stuff at my age.
Back here in Perth we had a 900sqm block with a big house on it (the roof area was 390sqm), we had a big, lovely garden and a big fish pond with a water reticulation systems and all these things that could go wrong. We had to get rid of all this stuff.
Noeleen: We looked at apartments, we looked at townhouses; I was not the least bit interested. Then on one wet, gloomy day in June Norm insisted we come and have a look here. It is just 10 minutes away from where we lived at Winthrop. We thought there were just the villas here; we did not know the apartments were being built.
When we saw the plans and the architecture, we signed up even though it was two years before we could move in. Even then I was skeptical; but when I walked in I realized our apartment was huge. We have a really big master bedroom plus two other bedrooms; we have three bathrooms and a 25sqm covered balcony, where we entertain and barbeque a lot.
We didn’t think we knew anyone here but the people below turned out to be members of our golf club. We quickly discovered a lovely group of people and we all clicked. While we do not live in each other’s pocket, a group of 14 of us regularly have dinner in the St Ives dining room and then go down stairs to the Pavilion, and we can stay there to midnight talking, with someone slipping back up stairs for another bottle of wine or a bottle of port.
Norm: Moving into a village also made good financial sense to me. For a start, we saved ourselves $45,000 in stamp duty. I liked that a lot. Our monthly fees are $400 – the stamp duty savings will pay that for eight years! On top of that we only have the lights, insurance, water and some local rates left to pay. Compare that to buying an apartment with stamp duty, body corporate fees and so on.
I have to also say that I personally don’t think you can fault St.Ives. They have done it really well; for instance we have the lovely Pavilion which we can use any time to meet with friends, it has a big plasma screen there we can use any time, there is always fresh milk and good coffee. It all works.
Noeleen: My life is better for making the change. I am still very busy; I play cards on Monday and golf on Tuesday and Thursday with my friends outside the village. We still have the same local doctor and dentist and hairdresser. I do now feel secure and we have made a new circle of friends. While not conceding to the superior knowledge of the male species, it was the right move.
