Finding a Place to Call Home

Our first week and a half in Sydney, we lived in what was claimed to be a furnished apartment at the Quest on Dixon Darling Harbor (http://www.questondixon.com.au/). It was nice, but it was just a nice hotel room more than an apartment. The location was fabulous, right on Darling Harbor in the CBD of Sydney and within walking distance to PB. It was right next to the Chinese Gardens and at the north end of China Town. Since neither of us worked our first week, it was a great place to be. But after a week and a half of listening to Chinese drummers every night, eating $10/plate meals everyday, and spending $190/night, and all three of us in the same space, we were ready to move on.

We started looking for a rental house immediately, but the real estate business doesn't work the same in Australia as it does in the USA. It is literally a race to be the first person to view a place and make it to real estate office and fill out an application. Then, it can be a bidding war and the landlord can be as picky as he/she likes. Not to mention, almost every place we looked at was a dump and the landlords had no intention of fixing it up or even cleaning it up. Jay and I began to get concerned because we were in a race to find a place to bring our animals’ home. We had two weeks to find a place before they were sprung from quarantine.

In the mean time, we moved to the Travel Lodge (http://www.travelodge.com.au/locations/features.aspx?hid=703) in down town Sydney for 2 days before settling at the Spanish Inn in Homebush for another 2 weeks (http://www.spanishinn.com.au/contact.htm). The Spanish Inn is located not too far from the Olympic Stadium and was much more affordable.

We lucked out and found our house here in Ingleburn thanks to the lady, Jodi, who sold us our Mercedes. She just so happened to have a 4-bedroom house for rent and we didn't have to fight for it. WHEW. We still had to wait a week longer than we wanted too, having to board the animals for another week until the house was available. But at least we found a place with relatively modern conveniences and two bathrooms.

We have really good neighbors, Theo and Marg, their daughters, Lisa and Kylie, and Kylie's beau, Toni, and our buddy Russ that have all taken us under their wing. Theo helped get Kevin into St. Gregory's College because he is an "Old Boy" of the school. Without Theo's recommendation, Kevin's chances of being accepted were nil. We are happy here and will probably stay right here until we leave. Ingleburn is a lovely little community in Campbelltown Council (County) http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/. There's lots of things to do around here and Kevin LOVES it.