We are Down Under!!

We arrived in Sydney after an tiring flight. Baby would not sleep. At all.

We stayed in a self-serviced apartment near the Westfields in Chatswood. It was a good sized apartment with a laundry, one large bedroom, en suite bathroom, large lounge/dining room area and a kitchen. Best thing about it was that it was well- serviced.

We had so much to organise before hubbie started work.

We had to organise pre-paid sim cards for our phones, a hire car, start looking for a house to rent, find a daycare centre for baba so that I could look for a job, contact friends and family in Sydney, shop for food and of course look after baba. Sleep didn't fit into the equation at this stage. There was simply no time!

We started our house hunt on day one!

Domain.com.au is amazing. You get to shortlist properties that you are interested in and all the property agents use them.

We must have viewed around 15 properties over the next week. We realised that we were not going to find our perfect home. We also decided to only lease for one year. We looked in the North Shore area as we wanted space with a baba turned toddler.

We found the houses very old and dated inside. It completely depends on your budget. If you have a budget over 1000 Dollars per week then you will find a large, modern home to rent. If you want to pay between 800 and 1000 dollars per week then there will be something that you don't like.

We found an amazing house with a pool. Only issue is that the pool had no fence and by law if the house is an older property as long as the pool is locked away behind sliding doors etc then no fence needs to be installed. After umming and ahhhing we decided not to take the house because we just would always be so worried about baba. It's just not worth the pool.

We found another wonderful house very close to the train station. It will take hubbie 20 minutes to work. He used to commute for up to two hours each way on some days in the U.K. I will also try to get a job in North Sydney or in the City so my commute should not be too long- well compared to London.

The house is opposite a gorgeous park which is home to a tennis court, field, a playground and wildlife.

The house itself has a beautiful, small garden with stunning flora and fauna. Small garden steps lead up to the main entrance. We have three bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms (one en suite), a walk in wardrobe, a dining room, lounge and play room! We also have a large kitchen and laundry room and a lovely entertainment area for those barbies that I dreamed of having.

The best part about the house is that it comes with a lift for groceries. We have rear access to the house from the garage which is actually upstairs. The lift is in the garage and takes parcels down to the laundry room.

The worse part is that the curtains upstairs are old and boring floral. The carpets are also a light blue. However, I still love the house and I cannot wait for our container to arrive so that it can become a home.

C x