Farewell Apartment..and Hello House!

I’d often day-dreamed about raising a family in the suburbs. The frequency of daydreams increased during the first 12 months of Ethan’s life, as I battled the three flights of stairs and drying my laundry on the balcony, whilst trying to entertain a curious toddler in the confines of an 8 x 10m lounge room. By the time Ethan had turned one, my browsing the pages of domain had become serious and before we knew it, we were the successful bidders at an auction for a 4-bedroom townhouse in Sydney’s inner-west suburb of Croydon.

We bid farewell to our apartment in February and set off for our new adventure in the suburbs. I’d organised the move with the precision of a seasoned professional, from utilities connections right down to furniture placement on the floor plan, using my own models I had cut out to scale. We had unpacked 95% of boxes within the first week and after an initial unsettled few nights, Ethan was starting to adjust to his new surroundings. Ah, now to settle in and become one of the locals, a real suburban mum…

I didn’t plan for everything, it would seem.

Gardening

At the conclusion of the auction, one of our priorities was procuring a mower for our new expanse of lawn.

Jack pot! This is all we would need to perfect our own back yard.

Surprisingly, there are other pieces of equipment one also requires to maintain one’s property including:

• Clippers to trim the hedge
• Garden Hose
• Citris feed for the flailing lemon tree out back
• Weed killer to tame the tufts appearing between the pavers; and
• A whipper-snipper for the edges

- just to name a few. I suspect we will need a few more visits to Bunnings than was originally anticipated.

Privacy

Being on the top floor of an apartment affords you a decent amount of privacy and so, despite living on a main road, Cam and I never had to concern ourselves with peeping toms or burglars (unless they were talented, rock-climbing ones).

Our lounge room in the townhouse has a large bay window that faces the communal driveway and upon our arrival, whilst dressed with heavy curtains for nighttime, was missing lace curtains for added privacy during the day/dusk. I didn’t think much of this until one evening when I was chillaxing on the couch watching tv and wearing my slippers and PJ’s, a neighbour arriving home from work peered in and waved…we visited Lincraft the next day.

Before...

and after!

Creepy Crawlies

I conceded some time ago that cockroaches and city-life go hand in hand. Despite this acknowledgement, we rarely saw a roach or other crawling creature during our tenure in the East, due partly to my obsession with insect spray but largely to the fact we lived so high up – I firmly believe they just couldn’t be bothered. Not so, it would seem, in a two-story townhouse.

One evening, shortly after our arrival, I was nestled in bed, drifting off to sleep, when I felt something odd in my hair. I have been known to hallucinate bugs before but despite this, brushed away the imaginary creature and flicked on the bedside light, just to be sure. A large cockroach ambled across my pillow and onto the floor. After deploying Cam to exterminate the beast, I went into overdrive with the roach spray and bates. Within that same week, I had two additional roaches visit (what? The spray wasn’t working??!) however they seem to have abated for now. Perhaps they are regrouping and planning a revenge attack for next summer.

The scene of the crime...

Despite these unplanned setbacks, we are very happy with our new home and chosen suburb. I am learning to let go and take things as they come, admitting that you can’t plan for everything.

But I will add these things to my moving GANTT chart for next time, just in case.

An Apartment Bub in the Suburbs

It has been a while between blog posts – 8 months to be exact. I could point my finger at the return to work and constant juggle between motherhood and office life however, truth be told, I’ve had writer’s block. You see, we have left our apartment in Sydney’s East and have now set up home in the sprawling suburbs of Sydney’s inner west.

What could I possibly write about? The purpose of my blog was to share the trials and tribulations of raising a child within the confines of apartment walls and we had done the unforeseeable and actually managed to acquire a house within 10km’s of the CBD. And so I began to ponder alternatives:

• Change the focus of entries to be about my return to work, work-life balance (haha!!) and living the corporate high-life (GFC anyone?);
• Do some soul-searching and host forums on hot topics such as daycare centres vs family daycare or fulltime work vs. part time work;
• Write about the lives of my mum friends still in the East and document their trials and tribulations about raising a bub in an apartment…

Amidst all of this consideration, I had been busily setting up home and adapting to our new suburban lifestyle, when one day, whilst I was cursing the remote control to the garage door, inspiration finally struck. You see, I’d made the assumption that I would settle into the suburbs with ease, given I’d spent my first twenty years amongst it. What I didn’t count on was the recency effect – truth be told, I had become so adept at living my apartment lifestyle, that any trace of my suburban upbringing had been trumped by the past ten years experience. Furthermore, living in the suburbs as a “grown-up” is a much different experience to what you see through the eyes of a child.

So, I have found my focus for blog entries herein – an apartment mum exploring the intricacies of suburban living. Let the journey begin…