So, time for you all to hear about our actual move to Brisbane! I may have already said it, but this was by far the most stressful move Jamie and I have made. EVER!! Having Kylie added an entire laundry list of ‘extra’ stuff to deal with that usually wouldn’t be an issue. We tried to keep stuff as ‘normal’ as possible so she didn’t get too stressed out and with the exception of painting and packing her room (which screwed her up for a couple nights) she did really well. We had no issues at either temporary house and she handled all the running around once we arrived in Brisbane wonderfully.
We spent our first month in Brisbane in a temporary house that was about 45 minutes south of the city in an area called Windaroo. The house was great, it had a pool and was on a golf course overlooking the first green, but the drive was a bit annoying. Okay a lot annoying, for all involved! Even though Jamie was in a temporary office (their new offices in the city were being built) he was still heading north thus hitting all the traffic of everyone else going into the city. His commute was anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours each way depending on when he left and any issues that day. That was with taking toll roads, which cost a total of $16.00 per day! Since we weren’t planning on staying anywhere near the area we were in, I was stuck making the same drive (sometimes longer) every time I needed to go to a house viewing. This brings me to one of my biggest pet peeves in Australia – finding a house!!!
Here are some photos of our 'Windaroo House' before I get too far into our new one.
The house
View of golf course and pool area
Kylie enjoying the pool (our Christmas card photo!) and the garden
Our friend that came by to see us every couple of days.
Kylie *loved* him, but I don't see one in her future anytime soon!
Finding a house here, whether renting or buying, is not at all convenient. You can’t just find an agent and say “I would like to find a house in this area, this price range, etc” and have them show you everything listed. Instead you have to deal with every agent for every property. They will only show you the houses they have listed and trust me when I tell you they aren’t really even helpful with those!! I can’t tell you how many times we looked at a house that wasn’t quite right and asked the agent if they had anything that fit what we were looking for and never got a call back from them. Another problem I repeatedly ran in to was calling to set up a viewing for a house and having the agent tell me that a time had not been set up and they would call me when one was open. This would be for houses with no one in them!! You would think that they would want to get someone into an available house asap, but not so much. Instead, they would wait until multiple people called about it and then set up an open viewing so they could show it to several people at the same time. I HATE that! It’s so annoying to be looking at a house and have 3 other families there at the same time.
After 2 weeks of hard looking I started to get really discouraged. We only had the temp house until Dec 15th, and my goal was to have at least a week overlap so that it was completely move in ready to help Kylie adjust. We couldn’t extend our stay where we were because someone else was scheduled to come in on the 17th and to make matters worse it was school holidays (summer break over here) as well as Christmas time so everything else was already full (hence the reason we were staying so far away to begin with). When I did finally find a house that was PERFECT the management company said that the owners wouldn’t accept any pets, go figure!! Two weeks after finding ‘the house’ Jamie suggested we submit the application anyway since it was still available, thinking that maybe the owners might reconsider if they actually had someone ready to take it. In the end we didn’t have to submit an application on it because that morning another house was listed so we ran over to see it and submitted the application for it that day, yay!! It ticked all of our boxes, was available for move in and it was a new build...just perfect!
I won’t go into all the drama that was associated with our first week/10 days in this house but it’s all been worked out now and we’re here. The best part is we were moved in, satellite TV/internet on and aircon installed by Christmas!!
Our new home!
It doesn't look all that big from the front but it's really deep so it has plenty of space.
View as you're walking in the front door.
Behind the wall in the back are where the office and the master bedroom are.
View of kitchen area from living area. You can also see the small laundry area and the door to the half bath. Just past the area where the fridge goes is an opening to a massive butlers pantry.
Kylie's playroom all set up. I think the kid's got it made!
It was a little sad not being with family for the holidays but it was nice to be able to have Kylie wake up to a big Santa gift on Christmas morning. I made a beautiful Christmas dinner and we got to know our neighbors over a few drinks that afternoon, which was lovely. Overall it was a great Christmas! Jamie was also able to take a few weeks off over the holidays, which was great. We are definitely looking forward to being in the US for Christmas this year though!
Christmas Tree after Santa's visit!
He dropped off a few small things inside since her 'big' gift couldn't fit under the tree, lol!
Christmas morning!
She loved the swing so much she feel asleep while Jamie was pushing her, DAR-LING!!
Since Christmas things have been pretty uneventful. As of this week Jamie has moved into his office in the city, Kylie has started swim classes (that’s an entire post on its own!) and we’ve found a playgroup that meets once a week to get some interaction with other moms/kiddos. I haven’t started looking for work because the 2 places I want Kylie to get into for childcare have a wait list and they have no clue when she’ll get in. When I say wait list I mean like, probably won’t get in this year wait list! I wish I could say that we’ve explored the entire city and surrounding areas already but I can’t even name 1 trendy spot we’ve visited! Guess that’s life with a little one and a husband that seems to be working and travelling more than ever. We do have some exciting trips planned for this year though and hopefully a few more will pop up as we go along.
For now, here's a few more photos of us enjoying the new house and neighborhood.
Enjoying the new backyard
Helping decorate the Christmas tree
Enjoying a nice quiet book with Daddy
Hanging out at the park in our neighborhood
Oooh, I can name 1 place we've been!! A few weeks ago we took Kylie down to Southbank for the afternoon. We were really having a great time and then it started to storm so our afternoon was cut short. We’ll definitely be visiting again though so I’ll be sure to take photos next time.
