We found a house!

Well we finally found a house and we are moving in 3.5 weeks. Our furniture has arrived in Perth and has cleared customs and quarantine so we are good to go. It has been a bit of a humbling experience the last few months living with the bare minimum. It made me realize that what we need, and what we want/enjoy having are very different things. It really has made me appreciate how blessed we are with the things that we have.

The house is in Floreat which is a suburb of Perth. It is about a 10 minute drive from where we are now, a 5 min drive from the beach (no more ocean sunsets out our dining room window though - that is the one thing I am going to miss about this apartment) and a 10 min drive to Brayden's school. Initially I wanted a house within walking distance of the school but we were not able to find anything nice in our price range with the features that we were looking for (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage etc).

When we first drove up to our house I knew right away it was meant to be - there is a big maple tree in the front yard (or the Australian equivalent of it.) I personally cannot see the difference between these leaves and the maple leaf - it is in the same tree family for sure!! It has a garage with a built in wine cellar, 3 bedrooms (with a 4th bedroom/huge walk in closet off the master), 2 bathrooms, decent size back yard, playground down the street and lots of kids around. The only thing I wasn't wild about was the kitchen. It is big enough but it is dated - brown cupboards and yellow counters - yuck!! But i figure I can cover the cabinets with the kids art work and my counters are always covered in stuff anyway. And it has a dishwasher which was on my list of things I wanted. Plus the house came with a fridge, washer and dryer which most of them don't. So all and all it fit the bill for what we wanted. And really, we are renting it, not buying it!!

Unfortunately we had to take a lease on our current apartment until the end of August so please pray that we are able to re-lease or sublet it so we are not stuck paying double rent for a month. Not the end of the world but just a waste of money. Of course they decided this week to start fixing some things around the apartment so now there is scaffolding and dust everywhere. Not great for any potential newcomers. Ahh well, what will be will be. Our stuff arrived safely, we have a house we like and we are enjoying ourselves so far in our new city. That is all that really matters.

I don't have any pictures of the house yet but I will post some once we move in. In the meantime here is a couple pictures of Brayden at his school assembly. Not sure if you can tell but the auditorium is actually outdoors! They were allowed to wear whatever they wanted that day - no uniforms. So Brayden and a couple of his "mates" wore their West Coast Eagles jerseys (Australian Football League - Footy). They were showing off their art work. Their teacher is an amazing artist and does the most wonderful art projects with them. Brayden's has a fantastic portfolio of artwork. This art work was inspired by the style of Eric Carle's illustrations (The very hungry caterpillar). Brayden's is a Koala. I love it an can't wait to bring it home, frame it and put it on the wall next to our pictures of Bryan and I holding Koala's.