SELLING ANSTEY ST

In order to fund our return to Perth, we had to sell our remaining contact with the city - our parents's unit in Claremont. After Susan and I left home, Alan and Betty downsized into a modest unit close(ish) to their beloved Cottesloe Beach. For years, we all squeezed into the place to spend summer Christmases with them and catch up with friends at Betty's famous backyard parties.Even our current cat, Indigo, spent her first Christmas at Anstey St. 

Susan, Sebastian & Betty, Christmas 2006 at Anstey St

Since Betty's death in 2008 we had been renting the unit out via Shellabears, the real estate company that had sold it to the parents in the first place, so we turned to them (after some due diligence) and saw the full impact of the ferocious Perth property market:

- Saturday opening

- First offer in by Sunday

- Shellebears pondering whether it was even worth doing another opening, but did so on Wednesday

- 6 offers in by Thursday

- sold by Friday.

I wondered whether I'd feel any remorse about selling a place with so much history but it had been years since we'd been physically been in it. To add to the sense of disconnection, the strata managers had arranged reroofing and painting and turned what had been a classic faux-Spanish building with orange tiles, green shutters and white walls, perfect for the Perth climate, into a grey tinned roof place with a dull cream paint and bleu/grey shutters. The ruined aesthetic of the place changed my connection to it.

One of the best memories I have of Anstey St is coming back to the unit after a summer swim and receiving a phone call from a Melbourne policeman. Someone had complained about the content of a David Hare play Melbourne Theatre Company was presenting. I confess I did feel somewhat self-conscious standing in my parents's living room in my bathers discussing scenes of nudity and oral sex with a stranger. Luckily, the police accepted that it was 'art' but with the publicity, we did have a sell out season. 

The only time I've made page 3 of The Age

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