A new home…

The day has arrived. We have now officially moved into our new home in the suburbs of Melbourne.

And what a long and exhausting day it was. Due to jet-lag, Luka and me were wide awake at 4:00h in the morning. Which left us with quite some time to kill before taking the shuttle bus to the airport at 5:30h, where we picked up our car for the next 1.5 weeks: a Mitsubishi Outlander with plenty of space in the back.

Which was packed to capacity, once we made it back to the hotel and loaded up everything. – Did I mention that we brought way too much stuff? Luckily everything fit and we made it into the city before the main rush-hour traffic hit.

The Ferris wheel in downtown Melbourne is quite the icon at night.

Since the real estate agent would not open till 9:00h, we spent the time at K-Mart and Aldi, buying such necessities as a vacuum cleaner, water boiler and cleaning supplies, further testing the capacity of out rental.

At 9:00h we were at the agent’s, where we finally got the keys to the house – all 11 of them. Interestingly enough, even though we have that many keys, we don’t have a full set for either of the doors to the house. The side door has three locks, only one of which has a matching key, and while the two locks on the main door have a working key, the key to the garden door is missing. And since the electric gate for the car did not work (main power was tuned off), we had to climb the fence to get in. Interesting start.

The house itself is in a state of being renovated on the outside, but due to the bad weather of the past few days, this is not finished. So we were greeted with ladders and timber in the yard. Again, not the best first impression, either. But the agent assured me that the works would be completed as soon as weather allowed.

Walking through the empty house with the checklist we got from the agent in hand, I realized in what a used state the property actually is. A lot of chips and bumps in walls, ceiling and carpet. I documented everything (I hope) and will have to go to the agent tomorrow to discuss, whether I just went over the top with my level of detail or whether this is something that will actually save me from paying repairs from the bond after we have moved out.

…wow, this all sounds pretty negative, huh? Well, it’s not all bad. 🙂

The house itself is actually very nice. The living room is huge, with a high ceiling, the kitchen area will serve excellently as a dining space and the three bedrooms are pretty large as well. And, as a bonus, we got our first piece of furniture in the form a built-in cabinet for free!

The large living-room, with view towards the kitchen, is the centre of the house.

The kitchen may be small, but has lots of storage space. Even if the refrigerator is still missing.

The dining area, with a little alcove into what I will expansively call "the garden". — The dining area, with a little alcove into what I will expansively call “the garden”.

The kids rooms upstairs are fitted with bunk beds under the sloping roof. Quite cool.

And they even have their own bathroom up there.

So we unloaded our stuff from the car and got ready for some packing away and cleaning.

One final image of everything we had taken onto the plane with us. It will never look like this again.

While we were starting to unpack, I got a call from the internet guy that he was done with his previous job and if it was OK for him to show up an hour early. Totally fine with that! So by 11:00h we were hooked up to the internet and ready to go. A great relief for the kids, as they could now get some down time and watch some of their favourite Dutch shows on the tablet.

It ain't pretty yet, but it works. — It ain’t pretty yet, but it works.

After some quick lunch it was back into the car to pick up more stuff. This time from the office, where we had left several bags and boxes on our previous trips. It turned out to be another full car-load!

So we needed to head back home and unload, before going off again, this time to Ikea, to buy the necessities for dinner: a table and bench, as well as pots and pans.

With that safely stowed in the car, it was back home again for dinner and some more cleaning and de-messing before collapsing onto our sleeping mats (no mattresses yet, nor a bed for mom and dad).

The day felt as long as this post is, and tomorrow will likely be not much shorter. There is still lots to be done and get organized. But we have made a start and, even though tired, we’re all pretty excited about what the next days, weeks and months will hold.