More changes

Due to the shifting numbers in the live intern ballot and logistics involved in attempting a renovation while only one of us is working, we have decided to put off the move until next year and I will be applying for the hospital that I have been at for a while, which is only about 20 minutes from my house (in traffic).

We looked at moving to a place in between our works, and there are some lovely neighbourhoods that would be closer to his work (via the motorway, cutting out the big suburbs drive that he now has), still close to where my hospital would be (as well as other hospitals I might switch to) and that would allow us to upgrade our area, if not the house as much.

My husband has only been working for his current employers for a little over a year, and most employers in his industry are in the city centre, so planning a big move based on his job may be a little premature when he may change jobs in the next year or so and go back to the city centre. His industry can be a little volatile with work contracts.

I don't really mind not upgrading the house much, if it comes to that. Our current house is quite comfortable, and could be a lot nicer if we did some renovations.

I am just not a huge fan of our neighbourhood. It is quite a safe one, but there are lots of "bogans", lots of fast food places and no decent restaurants nearby. I don't have much against bogans, but when your neighbour thinks it is okay to work on his motorbike/car at 10:30pm on a weeknight right outside your bedroom window, it can do bad things to your quality of life.

This way, we will get to take our time doing the place up, do a better job of it, and live in it for quite a few months to enjoy what we have done. It will be nice to not do one of those crappy renovation-on-a-shoestring-budget that you see for sale around the place.

If you live around my area of the world, you will know what I am talking about. Some people try to make a faster sale and profit by slapping on a quick coat of paint and polishing the floorboards over the whole house.

Frankly, polished floorboards in the bedrooms in a highset home is a BAD idea. There is no sound buffering, there is no insulation and it seems quite cold and uncomfortable. We have lived in places like that in rental properties, and I would never do it if I were renovating.

To be honest, I kind of prefer carpets, or tiles if you don't like carpet. Even floating floorboards are a better option than having nothing between you and downstairs than one thin layer of wood that may have holes through it big enough for venomous spiders to use as an entrance. (Yes, this has also happened to me.)

I have to wait for Mr TGWTBS to get back from working thousands of kilometers away, and then we will start to make plans to actually kick things off. It is still exciting, and not having such a set timeline is much more pleasant!

Time, machinations and all that stuff

I have completely switched my preferences around for the intern ballot. I figured that it was fairer on Mr TGWTBS to move somewhere closer to his work while we have the chance to do it (relatively) easily.

The only problem is that this means we have to sell our house. Which means that I have to tidy and unclutter it. REALLY unclutter.

I'm not a hoarder, but we have inherited furniture from his parents when they moved interstate, plus we kept some old cupboards that we had to buy for earlier rentals (which had no built-in wardrobes).

Then there is all of the clutter of 6 years that builds up with time. I really need to get vicious and go through things that we haven't used or don't need any more. A lot of it can be donated or maybe sold, I just have to work out where and who I have to contact.

We have been in this house for 6 years as of October. I started this blog in this house. I started contemplating medicine when we were living here. This is where I studied for gamsat, prepared for interviews, fell apart, pulled it all back together again, and lived a lot. It is amazing to think that so much can happen in such a short space of time.

I get attached to people and places, probably because we moved a lot growing up, so the thought of moving is challenging. However, I may end up with my holy grail in housing: an indoor laundry!!

I have always wanted one, and never had it. The closest we got was in our first unit, which had the laundry in the garage, two stories down from our bedroom. Not fun.

Previously we have been moving from rental to rental, so appearances meant very little. However, now that we have to dress the place up a little to sell it, I have to get my bum into gear.

On the bright side, we may get to upgrade our house a couple of months sooner than expected (or move into a rental in between) and I might actually live somewhere that has a decent asian vegan-friendly restaurant nearby. That would be entirely too brilliant.

It just feels like the right time to move.