In Like Flynn

We've been in our new cottage for one week now. While it is new to us, it is not really new. In fact, it is probably over 100 years old. We have three rooms: bedroom, office and a kitchen/lounge combination. For a place this size we have lots of storage and a beautiful courtyard with a mature lemon tree. Our place is cozy, but the location is second to none. We are three blocks from 2 grocery stores, 2 bakeries, a wine shop and a mile long road full of shops and restaurants. Almost everything you would need is within walking distance. Larry's office is moving to downtown next week and he will be able to have a pleasant 30 minute walk to work, or a 15 minute bus ride. From the locals I've heard that Subiaco, the name of our suburb pronounced sue-bee-AH-co, is quiet in the evenings, but the one night that we walked to dinner there were plenty of people around for our liking. I think the person I was talking to was referring to the night club scene to which I reply, been there, done that. In my ripe old age of 36 I find that a nice dinner out followed by a simple stroll can really elevate the soul.

Some pictures of the empty house:



The front of our place. It is a duplex with one common wall.



This is the back courtyard area. We are really looking forward to spending more time out there when the weather warms up. It warmed up a little bit over the past weekend, just enough to tease us, but now the temperatures are back into the teens and single digits at night. A humorous aside related to weather; the Australian Broadcast Channel (ABC) does national news and weather. I was watching the weather forecast one night and the weatherman actually said, "and for those of you who care, the barometric pressure is ...." That made me laugh out loud, but perhaps you had to be there to see it.



This is the kitchen/lounge area. Lounge translated into American English is living room. If it looks quite empty to you, that's because it is. The furniture should start rolling in perhaps as early as tonight. It will be really great to have before and after pictures. I won't bore you with pictures of the front room and our bedroom. They are pretty non-descript especially since they are empty.

While the saying "in like Flynn" would connote that the transition was smooth, we have faced some challenges as well. I hate to label these things as challenges because in the grand scheme of life they are just slight nuisances. As one of my mom's friends used to say, a pebble in the sneaker of life."

Challenge 1: Buying furniture.

Furnishing a home from scratch is not easy, especially if you are as spatially challenged as I am. Thank goodness that with the help of my super designer friend, Brynne, we took the first steps of ordering bar stools and a couch. Originally, we thought we would get all the furniture for the lounge in one fell swoop. This fantasy lasted about 15 minutes as we wandered around the furniture store trying to figure out whether each piece would fit in our space and whether it would match. Furniture is not cheap here and since we didn't want to make a mistake we decided to start baby stepping.

After we get the stools and couch we can decide whether the next piece will fit and so on and so forth. While this will mean that getting settled might take a little bit longer, it will mean that we hopefully will not make any big, expensive mistakes.

Another lesson I learned is that buying major furniture is like buying a car. Apparently there is a large mark up on the price and store keepers are willing to negotiate a deal. I found a bed, for example at one store. The sales person told me that the bed was on sale for one price, but he could do a little better and wrote another price down on a card for me. I thought this interesting so a few hours after I got home, I called him back, told him I wanted the mattress, but my husband thought it was too expensive. I asked him if he could do any better and he took another $80 off the price!! While I didn't get that particular bed, I did end up getting a bed that retailed for $4,999.00 for $2,300. The bonus was the delivery. They told me between 2 and 4 PM and actually showed up at 3:30!! Given the reputation of Western Australians for having their own time table, I was impressed.

Challenge 2: Home Wares.

If you've been following the blog you know that much of what we packed up in the container to send over here was supplies for the kitchen, homewares, glasses, dishes, pots and pans. We learned about a week ago, that our container has not even left the US yet and is not due to arrive in Perth until October 20 after which it must have the customs inspection that can take up to 14 days. Basically, I should have all of my kitchen gear in time to make Thanksgiving dinner (forget the fact that if I am working by then I will have to use a slow cooker for the turkey since I will have to work that day - no Thanksgiving celebration here). As a result, I have had to do things like buy a couple of pans, replace the dishes, glasses and cutlery and purchase a few other cooking implements. Oh darn (sarcasm added).

Having my new kitchen implements has actually been a bright spot as I can now investigate the local cuisine and start to use some early fruit of the bumper crop off our lemon tree. I've made some great dishes with our lemons, including a pasta with broccoli in lemon sauce with pancetta croutons (almost burnt down the house because we had no idea how to operate the ventilation hood - smoke EVERYWHERE!) and moroccan chicken with lemons and green olives. For the recipes, just search on Epicurious.



The first lemon from the lemon tree out back!!

Challenge 3: Cleaners.

We got the keys to the cottage about 3 days before we actually made the transfer from our temporary place. During that time, I wanted to clean the apartment. I went to the grocery store to pick up my cleaners and guess what? None of them are the same as any cleaner that you might get in the US. My bad, I was able to get Windex. Think about a world without Tide, Lysol and Scrubbing Bubbles! Instead, I have Pine Cleen (sic), Shower Sparkle and Morning Fresh. Picking out the cleaners was a bit of a crap shoot, but what's the worst that can happen? (Shower Sparkle is a bit asphixiating, so that might not get back on the shopping list) Dealing with this perceived challenge has actually caused me to change my attitude a bit. Instead of lamenting over the loss of Tide Total Care Clean Cotton, I get the opportunity and adventure of trying an entire new range of detergents and products. Keeping focused on new experiences, both positive and negative - in the case of Shower Sparkle, is helping me to survive a bit of the culture shock. While you might think that given the fact that Australia is an English speaking country our cultural values would be similar, but in fact the differences would truly surprise you.