house-hunting again!

So, for the last few weeks we have been house-hunting again. Our lease expires 24 January, but our landlords wanted to be in on the 7th if we could move earlier. With Christmas, that means a pretty tight turn around. We've looked at lots of places. Mostly we've focused on the neighborhoods that near the beach, the river, or Fremantle--which coincidently are almost all out of our price range. What I've been able to find in our price range, in those neighborhoods, either doesn't allow pets, doesn't have air conditioning, or was last decorated and cleaned in 1967.

Then last week, as I was leaving work, I noticed the price had dropped on a house near Fremantle. I called the agent, she would be able to show it to me in 15 minutes. I saw it and fell in love. Leaded glass windows, high ceilings, dark polished wood work, air conditioning, and A DISHWASHER!!!(this is a luxury item in Australia--and much needed in our house). Only thing is it had 2 bedrooms instead of 3. I went home that night, desperate to show Nathan. That evening, we pulled up to the house to look it over. He said it looked good enough from the outside to rent (interior unseen). As we walked from the prospective property to a nearby restaurant, we began making plans to put in a deposit on the place tomorrow. As we walked back from dinner, we came across someone moving into OUR HOUSE (we just hadn't told the landlords yet). I was devastated (we had already lost another house a few weeks ago). The next day Nathan went to the real estate agent to ask about the property--knowing I had my heart set on it. Surprisingly they took our money (we still don't know who these people were!). The next day, we got the call that we were accepted, but the original lease would only be for 6 months, with a possibility of renewing after that (of course, there's the possibility of house hunting again in 6 months, ugh!)

After some debate, we agreed to take it, in faith that this would work out and this is the place for us. We'll be moving over new year's weekend, and luckily will have an extra set of hands. Our friend Kirk from Rochester is coming to visit (and see the round the world clipper race). We'll post new addresses, and pictures when the lease is signed. We'll be getting mail at our current address for at least 2 more weeks, and set up forwarding after that. So don't worry about mailing presents--we'll get em!