And, Melbourne rents smack us down once again.
Just coz we're back in Melbourne town, doesn't mean the adventure is over! We're currently having a 'holiday' at Chatau de Jamez - e.g. house sitting for my folks while they galavant amongst the Scottish Highlands. Their place is truly amazing - wow I wish I could have a place like this! Perfectly reno-d, smack in the heart of South Yarra (awesome coffee but a 14 second walk away). These guys have taste, and they have also set us the challenge of eating our way through the pantry so they can 'start afresh' when they return. All I can say, is that is a whoooole lotta condiments. Mum and Dad have only lived in South Yarra for about 4 years, however I still seem to discover items that passed their use-by date in 2002.
Here is some fancy images from a fancy magazine where their courtyard was featured. If you look veeeery closely, there is a little sploodge of red in the distance, where we created a bespoke mural for their wall. I would feel bad about stealing images without crediting them, but seeing as the photographer quite happily sampled our artwork in several of his/her shots, sans credit, I'm not losing sleep over it.
But as you can see, we seem to be continuing to score some pretty sweet accommodation.
so - we're changing tack here, in more ways than one.
back from our wonderful european jaunt, refreshed, stimulated, motivated (soothing water fountains and luxury pillows helped) and ready to pursue life with vigour and focus, some new things are on the horizon. Oh are they ever!
when we left to go on our honeymoon, we were expecting to come back to melbourne, after our 3 months of experiencing the northern hemisphere, and find a place in the inner northern suburbs to live. This was an awesome, no fail plan. we wanted a house of some description, maybe a backyard, but something with enough room to work in, given that we both work at home. for those that don't know, we're both artists, and we also work freelance doing editing and proofreading work, and for one semester a year, i teach art history at uni. lucy managed a clothing store for a while, when we lived on the southside of the river, but we're now looking to prepare to develop our own enterprise.
we were expecting to live in coburg, maybe thornbury or northcote. most of our friends live northside and there's a strong artistic/creative vibe in that area. but after keeping track of the rental market on the internet, while in berlin, our hearts plummeted as it became super obvious that weren't going to be able to afford anything close to the sort of house we needed. we could stretch it, financially, but we'd be living by the skin of our teeth. In case you guys haven't noticed, Kent and I like our creature comforts. It has taken us 3 months of personal reflection to admit to this, but now we can quite confidently say that we prefer 'light and bright' over 'dingy shit box'.
I confess, it never actually occurred to me that houses were going for THIS much in Northcote these days - by about March, we had given up when they soared well past $400, and sought the 2-3 bedroom option for $400 in Coburg. Sigh.
we started to look at houses that were about 90 mins drive, in towns along train lines. this lead us to castlemaine and kyneton, where 3 bedroom houses were $100 cheaper than coburg houses, per week. over a year, that's about $5000 - the price of a basic second hand car. we'd lost our car just before our wedding, when a complete douche bag ran a red light and totalled it. so we need a car, as a well as a house anyway. So really - how about this being the best plan ever?
after many hours of discussions, thinking about what we wanted out of our next few years, this option became more and more attractive, particularly as developments in running our own business are coming underway. Not to mention the large property sizes, awesome surrounds and low rent. HELLO!
when we got back to melbourne we took off, up the calder highway, to check out the area ...
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