Project Bedroom.

This is the view from Doncaster Shopping Centre, where Kayla and I had lunch the other day. I love the cityscape so much! Though from this far away it looks miniscule and is probably more of a landscape with a nice bit of window. Whatevs.



So, the process of moving has begun and with it I have started the process of setting up what I hope will be an AWESOME bedroom.

My bedroom has french doors that lead out onto a little balcony. The walls are cream-ish. There's a big rectangle ceiling rose on the ceiling, which is high.

I'm thinking kinda french provincial but only kinda... I don't want it to look too try-hard, I'm doing this on a budget and can't afford things that look truly authentic. Basically, at the moment I like white, and lace, and anything remotely french looking, but still simple. Hmm...

My bed is going to be blue and white and cream, my wardrobe and drawers and bookcase will be white, and when I am done with it it's gonna look freaking awesome. Stay tuned.

Tom flies

Today, my younger (though much bigger) brother Tom moved to Melbourne. He has officially become a grown up, and what an epic way to do it! He arrived at 11 this morning, when me and Kayla greeted him at the airport with a massive green and gold sign (G'day Thomas!) and now I am no longer the only one of my family living out of New Zealand.



So in Tom's first few hours of being really and truly independent, he moved countries, and as soon as he arrived we were off to the real estate agent so we could sign the lease on our new place! That's some extreme nest-flying if you ask me!

I've almost teared up thinking about Mum and how upset she would have been saying goodbye to Tom, and how sad she would have been all day.
(Ok now I am seriously tearing up.) Poor Mum! Lucky she has two extra kids at home, haha.

Anyway, it's great to have him here. Though one thing I'll have to teach myself to do is think of him as a housemate as well as a little bro - I have already found myself on numerous occasions worrying about him and thinking that I'll have to look after him and make sure he's okay, or that I know where he is at all times. But then I think, he's my housemate now. I don't know where Maire, Kayla, Courtney or Aaron are half the time, and I don't worry about it.

Once Tom knows all the ropes, and his way around the city a bit better, he'll be sweet! It's going to be a lot of fun living with him and having family around all the time. Perhaps he can even look after me sometimes, haha. In the meantime, I will remain in protective big-sister mode till he's all settled in!

xx

Happy news.

So some pretty brilliant things went down today. First of all, I smashed out my final assignment last night, and I am officially DONE with university forever! It's exciting, but somewhat sad in a way. Another era of my life is over. I was definitely ready to leave though, after doing a semester extra than I should have, I was well and truly over attending classes and listening to douchey hipsters point out their pretentious opinions, or listening to mature aged students arguing with the tutor because they're old, and clearly know more about the world than anyone else in the room. However I will miss student life and the perks that come with it - youth allowance, going out on weekdays, cheaper everything... (wait, my student card doesn't have an expiry date! Muahaha, thanks La Trobe!)



The last thing I'll ever submit. Peace out LTU!


Anyway Kayla and I then went to get lunch at one of the uni cafe's, and the boy there made my day by bringing the price down on my meal. Bless his heart.



Nothing was more delicious than a big-ass burger to celebrate my finishing uni... The proper thing to do would have been to go and smash some beers in true graduate style.. but we had more important things to deal with and that brings me to my last BRILLIANT thing.


Earlier in the day we'd gone to a house inspection and fell in love. We were shown through an apartment above a shop on a busy street filled with cafes, grocers and random little shops. The apartment was perfect for us - newly renovated, it looked basically new. The three bedrooms were very decent sized, still had restored art-deco period features on the ceilings (which were HIGH and awesome) and the two front ones had little terrace balconies going out onto the street.


Kayla and I had a good old yarn to the agent and he was a very decent bloke - he made us feel as though we had the place secured already. The other group being shown through were three asian guys who seemed disinterested. We took some applications, went home, smashed them out, and took them straight back to the estate agent to apply.


Less than an hour later I got the call: THE APARTMENT IS OURS!!





This is our new kitchen! It's so newly reno'd that the exhaust fan still hasn't been installed, haha!


So THAT is my brilliant day! Been a while coming! I feel as though two great weights have been lifted right off my shoulders. 
Tom arrives in the country tomorrow and our household will be complete. We're going to sign the lease as soon as we get him from the airport, and then all the fun stuff like packing can begin! Hooray!

Hunting woes.

So I haven't posted for a while and this is because I am literally at my nerves end with this house hunting business!

We are really struggling to find something decent. Kayla and I have lived out of home for four years now, and while we aren't expecting a luxury home we've been trying to uphold some sort of standard when it comes to what we want. We don't want the tiny kitchen and grotty, cramped bathroom that is typical of a student house. We don't want grime in our shower and around our mirrors. We want bench space. We want some level of cleanliness.

It is seriously shit that we apply for somewhat decent houses, and immediately a family is given preference to it over us because it's a "family home". They look at our ages and we're immediately disregarded. We may be young, we may drink alcohol sometimes. This doesn't mean we're going to trash your house! We may not earn 100K a year, but we earn enough to pay rent and we only have ourselves to look after! Two thirds of our household are going to be full time workers and the other is a Masters student. Seriously!

Take in a family with young kids and I guarantee your nice white walls will be covered in felt-tip and sticky chocolate fingerprints in no time. Hey, they might even shit on your floor for good measure. It's all ok! That's what kids do, and this house was built for a family! Their parents will clean up after them!

Don't even think about leasing your house to a group of responsible twenty somethings who know how to clean up after themselves, and are certainly past the days of crapping on the carpet. GRR