A house that found me

When we first moved to Sydney from the UK (in 2011), I imagined that we would find a nice rental house, make it into our home and live there happily ever after, or until the time came when we were ready to take the next step!!  IF ONLY someone had told me that my head was in fairyland and that finding a great rental and holding on to it is about as easy as running a marathon with no training!!!

We owned our house in the UK, so having never rented before, Mr D and I were both totally naive (and a bit clueless) about what to expect.  My first experience of the 'rental world' was a total eye opener and I am truly disappointed to report that the old cliche that Estate Agents working with rentals treat prospective tenants with very little respect is so true!  I don't mean to offend anyone but in my experience so far, this has been the case.  Perhaps I'll be proved wrong soon??  Just because we do not own the properly it does not make us any less respectable or responsible, especially we are paying a lot of month each month to look after a house as if it was our own!!  OK rant over and I'll jump down off my soap box now too and get back to the point!!

We did find a beautiful house to rent (you can find out how here) and I set about turning into our home.  We had just uprooted and moved half way around the world to be here so I really, really wanted to make the house feel as homely as possible to help us to settle in.  I did everything I could to turn it into a beautiful home and Mr D even did a lot of work in the garden.  So I'm sure you can imagine how devastated I was when six month later the house was put up for sale and we were literally kicked out!!  Just to make matter worse It was right over the Christmas school holidays, we had family staying with us and I was pregnant with Miss L!!  Yes, I did cry!!

Arrows shows roughly where we are currently and our new home is at the top of this hill from where this photo was taken (unfortunately not with the view).  Image credit www.genkin.org

We learnt a big lesson about not getting too attached to a property that you don't own and we picked ourselves up and (quickly) found a new place to live.  It wasn't ideal but it was on the beach - so really, I couldn't complain too much!!

Although we have LOVED living on the beach, we have just out-grown the house and need some more space.  The kids would absolutely love a back garden too and I would love not to have to do the drive to and from school so many times a day let alone week!!  So the hunt for a new house began.

A few weeks ago I was viewing a house (in a speedy 15 minute time slot, along with all the other perspective rental hunters) when a gentleman tapped me on the shoulder, who I hadn't really noticed, but just assumed that he was viewing the properly too.  "Hi", he said, in a really friendly manner, "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation a minute ago with the estate agent.  I believe you're looking for a family home and I have one that's almost ready for renting.  Would you like to come with me and have a look?"  "Of Course!!" I said (I mean this was like waving lollies in front of a kid - I didn't need to be asked twice.  Good rentals in this area are very few and far between).  So off we went (Miss H and I).   The house was perfect for us!!  An easy walk from the school and nursery, across from a lovely park, lots of space and a big, kid friendly back garden!!!  The only problem is that he is mid way though a lot of renovations, so we will just have to patiently wait until it's ready.

I rushed home to tell Mr D and his first response was "WHAT?????  You meant just followed some random stranger into his home without even thinking???"  "Errmmmm, yeeeeeees" I answer - with the realisation that it probably wasn't my smartest move only just sinking in!!  The part of the world that we live in is just so safe that it's a little too easy to become complacent sometimes. Anyway, it all turned out perfectly fine, and that 'stranger' has become and very nice almost landlord!!

We are just patiently waiting to find out when it will be ready before we start to get our heads around move number three!!  But they say three is a lucky number don't they?????

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