Hoose stuff

We went down to Newcastle yesterday to sign the lease for the house. Unfortunately we needed to go and come back on the same day, so that was nearly 4 hours there and 3 1/2 back with only a couple of hours stop when we got there. Not too fun.

However, we not only signed the lease, we got the keys too. Went to have another look round now that the owners have left and gotten rid of all their stuff, and it's much nicer second time round. They kindly left the wendy house in the garden, which is great. It's built out of wood and quite big, so we're going to use it as a big dog kennel!

The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is huge, meaning that today, when we went to order furniture, we only needed minimal amounts for the bedroom. We've ordered a really nice queen bed, a bedside table each and a nice comfy mattress. Then for the living room we've ordered a corner sofa and ottoman. We've gone for stuff that's a bit more expensive, but it's good stuff that will last.

Before or when we move in we'll need to sort out a TV/Entertainment unit, but that's it furniture wise for now. We will however need appliance. Washing machine, TV. There's a dodgy old fridge there in the garage atm, so a fridge isn't urgent, but we will want one sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Rental Search = Over

We decided to put applications in for both the Dudley and Warners Bay houses and see what happens. Turns out that was a good plan. We were offered both properties, leaving us with a decision to make about which one we wanted. Fortunately we'd pretty much already made that decision - we went with the Warners Bay house.

It's right by the lake, it has a garden and Warners Bay is a nicer location generally, so it's good stuff. We now have to go to Newcastle and back on Friday which sucks, but got to be done to sign the lease. We've also got to part with some money. Two weeks rent, plus the bond and an admin fee, so we'll be parting with more than $2000. Ouch. We're going to look more seriously at furniture and appliances too. Furniture wise it will be toned down slightly because it's not big enough to stack loads in the lounge. We'll probably only want a sofa, tv unit and coffee table. Maybe even just a lamp table instead of a coffee table. 

In this house the master bedroom has a walk in wardrobe/closet and an en-suite bathroom, so that'll be very nice and means we don't have to share the bathroom with you smelly guests!

Now we're getting a place that's of decent size, and with a garden, we're also going to enquire seriously about getting a dog. We're both dog people and we've not had a pet yet, so we're excited about the possibility. And who knows, if I (Matt writing) can keep a dog alive, maybe in a year or two I can graduate to a baby! Maybe.

We're going to get a rescue dog, and probably a cross breed too. We've seen a gorgeous female dog on a rescue site, a black labrador/great dane cross. She's about 20 months old and needs a good home, so I think she'll be our first enquiry. Exciting!

Rental Search Part Deux

So, we're back from our trip to Newcastle. The weather has been great and the drive down on thursday morning was nice. Roads here are so easy to drive on and there were stretches of highway more than a hundred kilometers long where the satnav had no directions to give. The car is good on the more open roads, great for overtaking on the hilly bits and not once did I have to put my foot all the way down.

We saw three places yesterday. The first one was in Warners Bay. That suburb wasn't really even on our radar until recently, but it was recommended and we're glad it was. It's on Lake Macquarie and a really nice setting. There's a path around the lake, lots of shade, picnic  benches. Great. The house was on a road just down from the lake and has all the rooms we need and extra storage space. The lounge is fairly small, as is the kitchen, but they're both functional. There are three bedrooms, the master has an en suite and walk-in wardrobe. There's another bathroom too. I was put off at first because the decorating is a bit shoddy (made me feel great about the stuff we did in York). It has a garden which is a good size but not in great condition. It's got a double garage too, so loads of car room.

We then saw a place in Bar Beach, which is a suburb just off one of the beaches. It was a no-no almost as soon as we walked in the door. Much smaller than the pictures had appeared and very dated.

Then later in the afternoon we saw another one in Warners Bay. On a road just down from the lake again, but further round. This one was in decent condition, but not particularly big. Didn't have a second bathroom though and the toilet was in the laundry, which was also where the back door was. Weird.

We stayed in a hotel overnight and were back out today. We had another walk around Warners Bay and sat just by the lake for a couple of hours which was really nice. We're very keen on the area. This afternoon we saw a house in Dudley. This one was more modern, a fairly recently built townhouse. Had a big living room, three decent bedrooms, two nicely fitted bathrooms and a good sized kitchen. A private balcony at the back and a very small yard at the front but no actual garden.  The area is totally different in terms of it being more residential and close to the beach rather than the lake.

At the moment we're torn between the first one in Warners Bay and the one in Dudley.  We like them both for different reasons.  We like Warners Bay for the space and the very nice area (lake, walks, shops etc), but we like the house at Dudley.  We think we're going to apply for both and see what happens.

We found a couple of others that we wanted to look round too, but we called the estate agent twice and both times they didn't call us back!  They also operate on a "inspection day" system rather than "by appointment" which has meant we've missed out on seeing more as if you can't go to the inspection, then tough!  We'll se what happens with those and we might make another trip next week.

This is all very frustrating, but exciting at the same time!

Rental search

Time is rapidly counting down until we need to have a place sorted to move into in Newcastle, so we've been dredging every property website in Australia looking for places in the suburbs that we liked and have been recommended. For anyone that's interested, our top choice would be Merewether or The Junction, but we've also been told the next best thing is Warners Bay. It's a bit further out, but if it's nice, it's nice.

Sarah's on her 9th day of 10 days straight, on evening shifts yesterday, today and tomorrow, so we're hoping to get down to Newcastle Thursday/Friday to view some places, providing we can get in. Fingers crossed we can get something decent for our money.

We've also been looking at furniture as we'll have to furnish wherever we get. We went to look at Fantastic Furniture first. They have some half decent stuff that is cheap and would last for a few years, but it's not forever stuff (or as forever as any furniture is). Second we looked at Harvey Norman. They had some very expensive stuff that was alright (including LazyBoys!) and Sarah's Mum suggested getting a minimum amount of furniture but getting better stuff, especially if we're fairly sure about staying long term. So that's something we'll have to think about.

Busy bee... or am I?

The answer to the above question is that no, i'm not busy at all. Most days i've gone and gotten the food shopping for that evening dinner, but yesterday we had takeaway pizza (not bad, but we still haven't found any as good as Pizza Hut in the UK - Pizza Hut here is different, and not good at all), so i've got the lamb rump steaks I bought yesterday to cook.

I've got some episodes of Desperate Housewives to watch and i'm working my way through those, but I don't want to watch them too fast or i'll run out and have nothing to watch. What a conundrum. Daytime TV is as bad, if not worse, here than it is in the UK, so i've tried not to watch too much. The main annoyance is advert breaks. In the UK, everyone moans about ads. I did too. But believe me, it can be a lot worse. I have my Nintendo DS, which was spared from the burglary, but I've found i'm not particularly interested in it at the moment. There's the Xbox 360 (which I bought second hand a couple of weeks ago, cost saver), and i've got two games for that, but again, i'm trying not to finish them too quickly because I don't want to spend a load of money on more. I had a paperback novel, one of the Kathy Reichs books, but it was so good I finished it in a couple of days.

It's been suggested that I go out and explore or walk. And while it's a common suggestion, it's just not something i'm into. I'm happy to walk to get places, or if there's something specific I need. But i've never gotten my head around walking for the sake of it. It just seems pointless and vague. It's easier when Sarah is around because we chat while we walk, but on my own I just can't be bothered. I don't have an MP3 player anymore (my iPod Touch *was* a victim of the burglary), so i'd just be roaming the streets like a vagrant. Not my thing at all.

So that reads like one big boredom moan really and makes it sound worse than it is. On the plus side, i've been up when Sarah gets up for work chatting to folks online (in the evening UK time), getting up a little bit after she goes to work, going for the shopping a bit after that, then after I get back it's time for lunch. I dawdle in the afternoons and before you know it, Sarah's home.

In other news, we've been keeping an eye on domain.com.au and realestate.com.au because in a week or two we need to be driving down to Newcastle to view and hopefully get a rental property. We're hopeful of getting something in the area we're keen on (Merewether, for anyone that's interested) for around or under $400pw. When we get set up there I should be able to find work and i'll be posting about not having enough time in the day!

Navimigation

The car is reeeeally nice to drive! It's by far and away the biggest car either of us have ever driven, both in physical size and engine size, but it's really easy to drive. Feels very lazy driving an automatic, but I like it and could definitely get used to it. Just hope I don't forget how to drive manually!

Yesterday I got a new gadget, a Navman S30 Sat-Nav. It's a luxury, not a necessity, but it's a luxury that will make it a lot easier to get around. I'm going to try it out Thursday as i've offered to take Anna (not sure if i've mentioned, we're sharing with another Dr and his fiance.. she's the fiance), to Tamworth Airport so she can catch a flight to Sydney. She's been here just under 4 weeks and she's jetting back to Rome and Barcelona for two weddings before going to London and flying back to Oz. Crazy.

Sarah had to be at work for 7:30am today, so she wasn't very happy about that, but she'll have been fine when she got there. Not a morning person, bless her. Then again, neither am I.

The Falcon flies

Second hand cars are quite a bit more expensive here than they are in the UK, so we weren't sure how soon we'd be able to get a car, or even if it would be possible to manage without one at all. As it turns out, while we're here in Tamworth, it's possible to manage without one. However, yesterday we went for a look to see what was available and came across a really good deal. So, we're buying a car!

It's a 2001 Ford Falcon (which is a saloon, not a million miles away from being an Aussie Mondeo). It's green, has tinted windows, air-con and cup-holders! It's really spacious inside and has a big boot too. Oh, and of course it's automatic and has a 4.0 litre, 6 cylinder engine. We would both have preferred to have a manual, but autos are more common here. The engine is huge, but much like american cars, it's not as powerful as the engine size might suggest. 

It's only had one previous owner, an elderly couple that kept it in great condition. The other good thing is it's only got 75,000kms/46,000 miles, so nice low mileage. The test drive went really well and we can pick it up friday. 

The challenge will be getting used to the kilometers an hour, new speed limits, school zones with different speeds at different times and the indicators being on the wrong side of the steering column!