House move looming!
English: This is used to pee in the bathroom. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We have been house hunting. Not to buy, sadly – too many residual “battle” debts for that at the moment. We needed more space.
When I moved into this house in 2007 it was lovely for one. Lovely even for two! It is three bedrooms, lounge, diningroom, kitchen, laundry, bathroom with shower AND bath and a separate toilet. To the American readers: yes, we Aussies like our toilets NOT in the bathroom. I know, you think we are strange. Our water swirls in the other direction when we flush too: that IS true!
I had one bedroom set up as my study. The other thing I love is the huge amount of cupboard space. Linen closets to spare! All rooms have built-in wardrobes.
Housing six people? It is too small. We knew this would be the case, but it was a roof over our heads and the rent was reasonable and the nearby schools are great. Originally we planned to stay just to get ourselves sorted, then buy a place of our own. Any chance of THAT disappeared during our very expensive twelve months. So we are still here.
There is no space in the bedrooms for desks for homework. There is no family room for the kids to have their own space away from us – or more importantly, us away from them! The backyard, such as it is, is small and the clothesline is fine for two maximum.
The landlady increased the rent by $80 a week when the lease I signed just before the family arrived expired. That is a hefty increase, so Mr O and I decided for the money we would see if we could get more space. The problem was we didn’t really want to change the kids schools, given they were settled in so nicely. We felt it was just too much upheaval given they have only been here twelve months.
This area, though, is rather expensive. There are a few lovely homes for rent for $1,000 a week. $1,000 a week is just a little a great deal out of our budget range at the moment! Luckily, there are also some very nice not-quite-so-pricey ones!
We saw one house we liked as far as the space inside was concerned and the price was right. Close to transport and the kids could take the train to school. There was one problem: it has NO backyard and no nearby park. No, there was a second problem! No clothesline! So we passed on that one.
One agent had great homes, but each time I called, the place in question had just been leased. I’m not sure they had any at all!
Apart from space, we wanted two bathrooms and two toilets.
Oh well, you can’t always get what you want! The more modern homes have ensuites, but the houses are small. When we came out of one that had LOOKED lovely and large on the internet Mr O commented, “That is smaller than where we are!” The kitchen was certainly not nearly as large as the photo had implied!
I spotted a house not far from us. There was only an external photo on the internet. I was a bit worried as this can be a bad sign. Also, for the location, the rent was within our budget – just! Was it a dump inside?
We saw the house on Saturday. The oven door doesn’t seal (which will be fixed before we move in), but other than that this house really looked more than suitable. The downer? One toilet AND it is IN the bathroom! Damn, damn, damn.
We thought about it. We both liked the house, lots of living area, large bedrooms, great backyard without being a farm, terrific security door on the front meaning we can open the front door on hot nights and let the cool night air through. A lovely big clothesline for large-family laundry. But: one toilet AND it is IN the bathroom! Damn, damn, damn.
Location is perfect. Heating, cooling, dishwasher. According to Mr O, Mr O Jnr 2 “jumped with joy so high he nearly hit the ceiling” to hear there was a dishwasher! 
In the end we decided a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and we applied. I will admit with all the talk of Australia being racist lately, I was a little concerned. Also, we don’t have Mr O’s permanent residency yet: would that be a problem? Would we have difficulty? I am VERY happy (and I admit actually quite proud of my country) to confirm there were no concerns at all. Mr O being a budding horticulturist was, I think, an attraction given the garden and hedges!
OK, they asked us to pay an extra $10 a week over the advertised price but I think that was either because they checked with our current agent OR because we have four children. The average number of children in Australia is 1.9 and people seem to worry that four kids may be a problem!
We decided to go ahead. This will feel more like “our” home, I am sure. Not only is it bigger, it is something Mr O and I chose together, rather than just continuing where I had been since 2007. If we were buying, no, we wouldn’t go with the bathroom arrangement, but this will do nicely until we do buy. Rostering of showers will continue!
Moving and packing tips for us, anyone? Horror stories?
To all those I follow, please forgive my sporadic visits to your sites. House hunting on top of everything else in our lives has eaten into my reading time dramatically and now I will be packing and preparing to move. I am not even going to pretend I will catch up! I know you will all understand!
Well at least you have space in Oz. In London we’re expected to pay premium prices for boxes under bridges.
We were settled by you lot, remember. They built a lot of tiny terrace houses. With small windows to keep out the sun!
I see you will be making a toilet rota!
Definitely. Well, actually, just keeping the one we have. We were hoping to get rid of it! Although even better water pressure would be nice, for at the moment we can’t run a tap anywhere if someone is in the shower! Very annoying, but common over here.
Good bedrooms will make up for lack of bathroom – they will learn to cross their legs
LOL – would you believe, since we took up the new house, Miss O 2 and I have both headed for the toilet at the same time more often than we EVER have in the last 12 months!
But we will manage – pros and cons and the pros won out over the single con of not having two bathrooms!
I moved 4 times in 5 years and one was from Ireland back to England.. tips?? try to keep your sense of humour as you’ll need it.. Love Richards comment .. hilarious and I am well behind with my reading and commenting too.. hey blogging isn’t our lives… hmmm ??? or maybe it is!
I’ve moved countries 3 times and that IS tough. In fact, I’ve never moved such a short distance as we are this time!
No, blogging isn’t our lives – unless it is our author’s platform – but even then real life and husband and children and work HAVE to take priority!
I don’t have the husband and my children are both grown-up
I have four that are not grown-up! LOL
I know! and do you have 2 who are as well?? or am I imagining I read that somewhere ??
That would be me. 6 in total.
Glad you have found a house that suits all of you (in spite of the lack of a second toilet), so rostering of showers still stands!
I’ve moved lots of times, including 2 countries and it is never easy. Just start packing stuff you don’t use to get them out of the way and then just do a little bit each day.Use towels and bedding for packing fragile stuff.
Good luck with the move!
I’m collecting boxes from work and we are saving the newspapers for packing crockery and glasses.
At least we aren’t moving far!
But with 6 people, my old plan of packing everything except one plate, a knife and fork and a cup is just not going to work – unless I resort to paper plates etc for a week!
Best of luck with the move. If you were in Perth, you would certainly have a hard time getting a place, it´s just crazy…they blame it on the many immigrants coming due to the WA boom. Rentals are also through the roof and there are people offering to pay more than what is being asked, can you believe that?
I have moved many times – countries and houses – but I just seem to throw out or give a lot of stuff every time! It´s never easy.
It used to be like that in Melbourne, but I have been told at the moment it is a tenants market here. I did once hear of people paying a year’s rent up front to secure places. Now we are seeing places vacant for weeks on end.
We are just glad the house hunting is over!
How exciting! I’ve moved lots of times and I still don’t have any advice. One advantage of moving is you get rid of a lot of stuff. I always have a large pile of things I decided just weren’t worth packing. But I’m lazy and may go a little overboard in that department.
Your toilets flush counter-clockwise? Well, that’s just weird.
I don’t think we have much to get rid of, we shall see. It is very exciting!
We also have MUCH less water in the bowl!
Woo hoo! What exciting news this is. I too have been so busy offline that I have only been posting sporadically to my personal blog. It’s been over 20 years since I last moved so I’m sorry I don’t have any tips to share.
Oh, 20 years! That would be lovely!
I have moved a few times, so I am not bad at it, just a little rusty. I have moved countries 3 times, that is hard!
I grew up in a household with just as many people and only 1 toilet. We had a schedule for showers and bathing and a rule that we didn’t hang out in the bathroom – we moved right along. All primping and makeup application, etc. was done at dressing tables in our bedrooms. When I visited my friend homes I was surprised that they didn’t have dressing tables like we did. They did only had a couple of kids in their families and all primping was done in the bathroom.
Very good point! We don’t have a lot of mirrors, but we can get some! Hairdryers can be used in bedrooms, rather than in the bathroom.
It is actually quite strange – if you want a bigger home, most of those are the older homes (when families were bigger), while the modern homes have more bathrooms, but are just smaller overall. Unless we are talking millionnaire’s mansions, of course, which we are not!
A toilet in the bathroom is worth two in the bush.