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March 26, 2008

A house or a home?..

Ok, so if you were wondering what's up with us, we've been busy moving and setting up our new home (and Sean came by and I'll write more about it next time!). This picture could well be an ad for IKEA scandinavian design catalogue. We were overjoyed to find IKEA in Sydney and went a bit crazy over the weekend. Well, the thing is, love it or hate it, if you're trying to settle down and you need a massive amount of stuff, nothing can really beat IKEA. It all is just so useful and cheap! We also stocked up huge amounts of dry cracker rye bread (nakkileipa), pickled herring and kallen mattitahna (not sure how to explain that, it is some sort of roe paste that goes incredibly well with nakkileippa).

This time moving went pretty smoothly, they delivery guys arrived when they were supposed to and only forgot the surfboards (that were dropped off a few days later).

Unpacking and finding places for stuff always takes a while, we still have things all over the place and everything still looks like storage. Hopefully it will start looking like home soon.

The surprise this time was elsewhere - we checked the house only once at a night time and it was raining. By that time we've seen tens of substandard apartments, and were extremely happy to find something that was really quiet, leafy and spacious.

Somehow we completely overlooked the unrenovated kitchen and bathroom. We knew that they were in "original" condition, but we didn't pay too much attention to that. Well, let me tell you that things have really improved since 50s (it is also very possible that our kitchen and bathroom goes back all the way to 30s when they house was built!). Our kitchen doesn't have much storage space and we hardly have a work benchtop. The sink is at one corner, the stove at the other, fridges all over the place. When you try to cook and start dragging leaking messy stuff back and forward all over the kitchen, you kind of start appreciating characterless laminate functional kitchens with drawers that open. I guess we had too good of a life in Coogee with all modern appliances and really nicely renovated apartment. This one has a bit too much of "character", what with shower system where you can have only one temperature shower (and can't regulate it) or a sink where you have to bend under cupboards to wash a cup or a hot water system that leaks 61 cubic meters of water in a year... Will it ever become our home?!?

Well, its not all bad, there are heaps of great things about our place: we have enough space, we don't have carpets (makes a huge difference!!!), it is super quiet (can't hear anything apart birds and frogs), with parks and beautiful leafy streets around, 2 minutes to the train station that takes me to work in 40 minutes (that's great, considering that I travel across the whole city), 7 minutes to shops and heaps and heaps and heaps of restaurants and cafes. I'm sure we'll be fine!

But if you plan to come for a visit, do not expect your usual creature comforts. Brace yourself for 40s style luxury where everything is a bit off and in a slightly different place than you expect it to be!

Posted by gkligyte at March 26, 2008 06:47 PM
Comments
Wow! I'm very happy to see my fan base growing! Welcome to my (not really) "secret" life on screen, Nicoletta! Posted by: Giedre on April 5, 2008 02:25 PM
YAY!!! You've finally got a home now, even if the kitchen and bathroom are approaching 'historically signicant' status. Good to see you guys can finally start settling in and enjoying your surroundings instead of either apartment or roach hunting ;-). Hope things just keep on getting better! Posted by: Nicoletta on April 1, 2008 10:17 AM
Sveikinu isikurus. Te namai tampa namais (hm, ner lietuviu kalboj kaip atskirti situ savoku:). Ir kada bus IKEA LT?! Posted by: rasa on March 28, 2008 08:12 PM
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