3 Bay Street, Pallarenda, Townsville

This was not the first house I had bought but it was my first real home. I felt comfortable there.
I bought it for around $35,000 in mid-1981, lived in it for a few months, then rented it out and
eventually sold it in January 2000 for $115,000, well short of its true value. Why did I ever leave?
It was tropical and almost on the beach and my job in town was agreeable too.
I rediscovered it on the internet in March 2010, advertised for rent at $290 a week.

The new owners have done little to the outside except replace the porch with a simple set of stairs and paint the walls white and the roof blue. I guess it's just a rent-earner to them, and a good one at that!

This is an original photo of how I left it in January 1982 to go back to New Guinea and shortly afterwards to Saudi Arabia

The spacious backyard

The new owners brought the toilet inside. I should have done it immediately I bought the place

The kitchen has been slightly updated with an upright stove and removing the ghastly green decor