Central Coast Hobby No.1

I'm about to confess that I'm a house stalker. But don't be too alarmed, I don't stalk the occupants, just the house. Sometimes it happens by accident, I drive by a house, like the one in Point Frederick I've stalked for the past four years or see one in the local real estate mag (insert a recent incident with a house in Matcham). Whatever the scenario I fall head over heels in love.

Once a new house takes my fancy, it's then a matter of checking out the house in person by driving past on more than one occasion. After that I devise plans on how to buy it - until reality hits that I can't afford it, that it's too impractical, or I fall back in love with my current house. Not that I ever stop loving my current house you understand, but other models come along and well, make me stray.....

At times I wonder if the owners of the house have written down my number plate and are waiting one day to call the police just in case I'm really a robber, or if they never notice that the same car goes past regularly.

My house stalking habit started when I lived in the lower North Shore of Sydney and my husband and I needed to find somewhere bigger to live. Hours of roaming places in Kirribilli, Neutral Bay, Mosman and Cammaray spread to larger places in West Pymble and Turramurra. Then of course, once we decided to make a seachange, the search went further north.

So effectively I've been a house stalker for the past nine years or so and I don't see this changing. I don't consider it an obsession but it might be bordering on quirkiness - I'm not sure. Anyway it's all Kevin McCloud's from Grand Designs fault. He makes architecture sound like erotica. Have you noticed how he uses the words ''bespoke'' and ''integrity of the building''?

Here's a house in Matcham listed by McGrath Terrigal that I'm currently adoring.

I can recline in this baby.

Yes I can laze by the pool while my husband serves cocktails.

And look, here's a granny flat for friends and family to stay when they visit. Bonus.