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Published: September 5th 2016
Well, it had to happen one day and let's face it, it's been a long time coming and I know for some of our regular readers we have been very remiss in publishing blogs, which is not for the want of doing it, we just have not had the time and life got busy, work got in the way and our social life is pretty hectic nowadays.
Today is a big day for Andy and I, huge as a Matter of fact and for the past 6 weeks we have been living with anticipation and what felt like constant paper work and phone calls. So, the waiting is over and as I type this in 22 minutes time we pick up the keys to our new house. Yes, "our new house" which of course will be our "Place to Call Home".
Finally, almost 8 years after leaving England for a new life and an amazing adventure we decided that we needed to put down some roots, and pull our lives from 3 cities and 2 countries, Southampton England, Canberra and Perth back together again.
We have chosen a house, not very old,
but it is nestled in a nice cul de sac up in the Perth Hills, is it perfect? Well it is for now and we are so very excited to be settling down. Will the adventure stop? No, we hope not, it just takes on a different style, it means that we have a home to get back to everytime we go away.
Our current house sit is in Bull Creek, only about 30 minutes from our new house, so we set off very early, bearing in mind we don't have any furniture or anything to move. Upon arrival in our new village, we went and sat in the local cafe for a brunch of eggs on toast to while away an hour awaiting the Estate Agent to call and let us know when he was 10 minutes away and in a position to hand over the keys.
The village was a bustle with people, where they all locals? I don't know, they could be visitors, but it seems a popular spot, and we were very much looking forward to being a part of this community that we had chosen to make our home,
our first proper home in Australia.
At about 11.40, we got the call and the previous owners were on their way to their new home and ours was ready and waiting 10 minutes early. The wave of excitement was amazing, we had not realised how much we wanted this after 8 years and 1000's of kilometres of travel and transient living. It felt like we were going to burst at the seams!
Thoughts that sprung to mind were of all the people that we have to say thank you to for their kindness, hospitality, friendship, home comforts when they were needed and support. It will be our pleasure to be able to welcome our friends into our home and extend our hand of hospitality as it has been extended to us. Way too many people to mention, but let's just say there are 52 weeks next year and 8 of them are already booked, so get in quick, otherwise you might have to wait a few years.
We drove up to the house, I was behind the wheel and sitting at the bottom of the driveway we were slightly earlier than
the Estate Agent, and I wondered, shall I drive up the driveway? It is my driveway now, so why not? So I did and no sooner than I had parked, Fraser arrived with his size 14 feet and big beaming smile and an envelope containing a huge bunch of keys.
A brief chat, lots of hugs, congratulations and kind words Fraser said "Welcome to Roleystone, you are going to love it here." We knew that, and we were so excited to get inside which Fraser obviously was aware and very quickly left us to it.
Andy did not want anyone to come inside the house until we could unlock it as our own home and carry me over the threshold (being mindful that I am only slightly heavier that I was when we got married (stop laughing Andy!!)), so both front doors were unlocked and wide open, just in case, and with a quick move, Andy whisked me off my feet and almost dumped unceremoniously in the hall (fortunately he does not need another hernia operation!)
We didn't know where to start, all this room, no furniture and virtually nothing to
put in there. We bought a bed from the previous owner as a temporary stop gap so that we had somewhere to sleep, we will only be coming up at weekends at the moment, while we sort out shipping and purchasing new stuff in the coming weeks. I had also been into IKEA during the week and purchased a Poang chair each. With two camp chairs that was our moving in, done for the day. Oh, and I brought some bedding so that we could spend our first night in our new house.
What would moving in be without a bottle of bubbles, a bottle was being chilled in the fridge that we normally use in the truck that temporarily resides in the kitchen, whilst we await the one on order. Our friends Andy and Karen came up to see us later that afternoon to help us toast our new home, they bought us a great moving in package which included a piggy bank (I think we will need this, it looks like bread and jam for the time being), which we will cherish.
A colleague of mine had also bought us a house
warming present, a beautiful China bowl which will come in handy for fruit or salad, I have no doubt it will be used a lot.
Dinner that night was back in town as we had nothing to cook on or eat with, or no food come to that. I only catered for 4 champagne glasses, well, it was important, 9 new cups, a box of teabags, a carton of milk and no teaspoon. We were well organised, Andy ended up squeezing the teabag out with a pencil. Happy memories to be made.
That night we said our goodbye's to our friends and we were home alone again. We looked around and to say the least, it just felt weird. Our kitchen, our bathroom, our living room, it was all empty but it was ours. So we retreated to the sanctuary of bed, although both feeling exhausted neither of us slept that well that night, perhaps it was the excitement or perhaps it was just a strange bed and a place to call home.
Andy reminded me that of course we have had hundreds (not joking there) of strange beds on this
8 year adventure.
Every room has an echo, so I have to remind Andy to speak with his inside voice because they can hear him in the next village with this echo. It won't echo so much when we start to fill it, but hey I have an excuse to go shopping now, because I have an empty wardrobe, just don't tell Andy.
Waking up the next day with the birds tweeting and looking out over the garden, it was bliss, very tranquil and neither of us wanted to get up, it was a moment to savour, but one of us had to get up and make a cup of tea, for a change it was me. I know that we will enjoy our small piece of tranquil Australia.
We had a little walk around our 1 1/2 acres, it is very much bush land at the moment, we do hope to keep it that way, but it does need a little bit of management. Researching the wildlife of the area, we note that we hope to get Brush Tail Possums, Bandicoots, Children's Python, Shingleback Lizards in the garden. Western Greys
are found in the surrounding area, but it would be nice to find one in the garden. Sadly for Andy, no wombats, WA does not have wombats.
6 weeks to buy a house from start to finish, with every step mapped out and target dates, there was no messing around, we knew that from the minute we put in an offer we had to be committed all the way, because as soon as the offer is accepted we are on that train.
No regrets.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
About time...
...that you two settled down. Looks to be a nice place. We are currently in Stratford-upon-Avon waiting on our ship back to Oz at the end of this month (the Emerald Princess). We'll be passing through Fremantle in early November. Maybe we could do coffee with Litttlewing if she is back from Reunion.