Last week we moved to Chatswood. We’ll be here for just over 7 weeks so this is almost a permanent residence for us.
We’re enjoying the new house and while it’s in an amazingly quiet location (given it’s proximity to a road with heavy traffic) we have been subtly reminded about why we prefer the country (or at least the outer suburbs). So far there’s been a crying baby, a screeching woman, next door’s pool pump running constantly, lawn mowers, chain saws and leaf blowers. Apart from that it’s been very quiet. Even the dog here is quiet – in fact we’re not sure she can bark as we’ve never heard her – such a delight especially as we’ve come from a house with 6 dogs, 2 cats, 2 birds and more; all of whom were very vocal!
Allowing for the background noise we’re very comfortable here. It’s an older style house and both Danita & I feel like we’re back in our childhood homes – the photos on the walls look like our relatives, the furnishings are similar to what we had growing up and so on.
I remember visiting a museum a few years ago in San Fransisco. One of the displays was a 1960’s bedroom. I was amazed and horrified. It looked just like my childhood room; the same furniture, record collection, posters etc. That was amazing! The horrifying part was when I realised I now qualify as a museum piece – and I don’t think I’ve made it to the status of a living treasure just yet (still working on that one).
As I was saying, we are very comfortable here. It’s wonderful having our clothes in a wardrobe and not living out of a suitcase, having separate rooms properly set up as offices (not having to use the dining room table as one) and space in the kitchen to put our supplies. I’m finding we’re really appreciating the so-called “little” things in life.
There are still some disappointments we are confronted by though. When we met the house owners there was a Thermomix (an amazing piece of kitchen equipment). This was very exciting, as we’d had one in a previous house-sit and been very impressed by it. So the prospect of having one for a couple of months was thrilling. Shortly before they left they sent us an email saying their daughter had requested to use it while they were away and, of course, she had priority. While being very disappointed by this sudden change of plans we felt we could overcome the pain and grow through the experience. And so we soldier on 🙂