We've been in the house for about two weeks now. Hardly seems possible, but there it is. We now have beds, some furniture in the living room, a TV, a dinner table (well a $50 patio set with 2 chairs), crockery and cutlery, a fridge and lots of cardboard which I am using as coasters and place mats. We also now have a vegetable patch in our raised beds (which incidentally I am writing this blog from since it is a nice day) which we planted out on Sunday and everything is already getting up and growing.
We don't have a rolling pin, a kettle, any wood working tools (annoying since I have a workshop and a lot of free time at the moment) any new Australian friends or landline and therefore proper broadband. I am sure that all these things will come in time and the boadband needs to happen soon as 3g is costing a fortune and the connection keeps dropping :(
The copious amounts of barrier spray and bug bombs (we are up to >$100 of chemicals so far) are keeping the silverfish, cockroaches and spiders out and I have now found living or dead specimens of all the main scary ones, plus some other big black spiders that I have no idea about; crucially though, all outside or at least outside the screen doors. I am sleeping better now because of this!
Zach is now in school, which after a few days I think he is genuinely enjoying and is starting to make some friends and look a bit more settled.That is quite nice as he was getting seriously cranky at the slightest mention of going into the city to run errands which inevitably means about two hours walking and a lot of other boring stuff.
Picture of a happy Zach
I am temporarily a full time house husband, which at the moment is suiting me quite well, although I am longing for the day when I can afford a robot hoover and mop. Still, at least cleaning is easy because a) we live in a bungalow and b) we haven't got much stuff, which means no clutter!
With only one salary and the lack of relocation expenses and therefore no furniture imminently arriving, we have had to make some compromises. You need about $5k-$10k to sensibly kit out a house, which we just don't have. Fortunately we found Radio Rentals who as well as electronics also do furniture: much more expensive in the long term, but the only way we were going to get a fridge, bed, washing machine and sofa this year. We had to go a few days without a fridge which made life difficult to say the least. So we have rented as much as they would let us have, which is not as much as you might think and certainly not as much as we wanted. This meant constantly renegotiating and having to choose cheaper stuff than we originally picked and, alas, no big telly. Almost everything we have was ex-rental, i.e. someone's already had it, or ex demo and or shop soiled. Not my proudest moment to have to take the shop floor mattress that complete strangers have been lying on, but needs must. Having said all that, the guys at Radio Rentals bent over backwards to help us out and we got a good deal in the end. The delivery guys were fantastic, and I got called a whinging pom for the first time. They were good fun and clearly took pride in being helpful and quick.
Ironically enough the sofa we got, whilst not something I would buy in the UK, was probably the least hideous sofa I have seen in Australia (I am an hideous sofa snob, ask Gary). To be honest, since I had just given away my beloved 30yr old chesterfield I was in no mood to spend $3k upwards to buy another one without all the emotional attachment that one had. So we have probably the cheapest sofas in the world, but at least I can stretch out lengthways on the big one and watch F1 when it is on.
So here are a few pics of the house and garden:
The Fernery
Circle Patio outside two of the bedrooms
Frangipan Tree (smells amazing)
View from the road
Front of house
More
Back Verandah and Fern House
Living Room
Dining Room (complete with patio furniture and Ikea barstools)
Kitchen
View from the office/spare room
So we are here and we have the furniture and other stuff we need to start getting on with the process of starting our new lives here. I have a garden to potter in, which since I am not spending every waking moment worrying about a nursery full of plants that I am paid to keep alive, I am quite enjoying. It kind of feels like we've done most of the hard yards and the rest is routine and fairly easy. We shall see, but at the moment we are just enjoying the weather and our new house and home town.
To finish off, some of my personal favourites from the house:
The Doorbell
The water feature, depicting cherub urinating pathetically on the washing basket
The bin lorry
The garage door
If there's one lesson I've learned in my almost-37 years on this planet, it's never take Nick sofa shopping.
ReplyDeleteHouse looks gorgeous, though, even sans Chesterfield.
I imagine that the weather and the outlook of the neighbours (every needs good neighbours) helps with the early troubles.
Indeed. I am confident that, with a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend.
ReplyDeleteHaven't really met the neighbours yet actually, although I think Pen may have met a couple of them.