It took us a while to get here, but now we truly feel that we’ve come into our own – Sydneysiders living the Australian dream. Dave and I joke that we’re now in our second chapter of our life in Australia. Our first chapter included our exhausting and wallet depleting move from South Korea to Australia. The story continued with the craziness of trying to find an apartment, securing jobs and creating friendships.
Our lease was to end on January 15, six and a half months since we moved into 8/298 Victoria Street. In December, my nerves began to fill my stomach and my head just thinking about how hard it would be to find an apartment during the holidays when most people are not looking to move. So for the whole of December, I was on domain.com.au looking for places within our price range, which has gone up because you can’t fight the property industry in Sydney – everyone pays sickening prices per week. Very few places showed up with the criteria we wanted:
1 Bedroom
Separate Bathroom, Living room, kitchen
In the Eastern Suburbs
Close to transport, shops and cafes
Furnished with at least a bed
And under most importantly $400 per week
Luckily, Dave took his birthday day off and looked at 3 places around Darlinghurst and Potts Point. Unfortunately, they were unfurnished and way too expensive for what they offer. Such a bust. So I went back to searching the website and emailed a lot of agents for inspection times. Luckily, one agent came back to me for an inspection on the morning of Christmas Eve. In Australia, the media shuts down from mid-December to mid-January. Therefore, as a PR professional, I got a lot of time off – perfect for apartment hunting. So while I was off, I went to the inspection while Dave was at work. I walked 15 minutes from our current apartment to 402/40 Macleay Street – just around the corner from Kings Cross. The building upon me was a serviced hotel converted into individual apartments. The agent was late, so I knocked on the door and was greeted by a lovely French couple here on a one year visa to casually work and travel. They said they use this apartment as a home base when they are travelling around Australia and Vanuatu – a French colony island where their families live. This was a great chance or me to ask the residents about the apartment directly without bias from the agent. They told me that this apartment was fantastic – quiet, clean, hot and strong water pressure, and all the furniture and appliances worked perfectly. Beyond the conversation, the apartment spoke for itself. On the fourth floor, it had a view of sail boats in Elizabeth Bay. Because it was a corner room, the huge windows revealed rooftops similarly fashioned to European skylines with terracotta rooftops. Listening to them describe the apartment, their words rang clear in my mind – we had to have this apartment.
Fifteen minutes later, the agent arrived with one other prospect. The agent was very matter of fact. He didn’t say much and was just there to show us the place within a 15 minute timeslot so he could go home. After all it was Christmas Eve! The other prospect seemed interested. He was a gay Filipino guy who was living in a studio in Elizabeth Bay area and wanted a larger apartment. Judging each other’s interest while remaining to look ambivalent, we asked each other if we were interested. We both said, “Yeah. It’s alright.” I asked the agent when he needed the paperwork and he said after Christmas or today by noon. I said, ok I’ll bring it next week after Christmas, hoping the other prospect would hear me and do the same.
Leaving the apartment, I called Dave frantic. This was a huge decision for two people and I was making it without Dave ever have seeing it! He assured me that if I liked it, then he would too. Plus, it had big windows and that’s all he really cared about. So in the next hour, I found our bank statements, printed receipts of our savings from an ATM, brought our pay slips and took out $400 for the deposit. At 11am, I returned to the agent’s office with all my paperwork and signed over my deposit. Even more lucky, the agent lowered the price to $390 per week because they were in the middle of selling it to a new investor and needed to show off the apartment twice a week. They would come in on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 12-1230pm. Once they sold the apartment, we would still get to pay the discounted rate! I left the office satisfied with the morning’s work. The deed was done and my search was over. I had anticipated a huge apartment hunt for the whole of my vacation, but now I had secured mine and Dave’s second chapter in Sydney.
Dumping the Luggage into the New Apartment
The Only Thing That Matters After 3 Hours of Moving
Absolutely Exhausted
A lot of Clothes to Put Away
So for 3 weeks, we waited in anticipation. We made it a point to walk around the building picturing our future selves taking our morning run from our new apartment, grabbing groceries across the street, and preparing for picnics to Elizabeth Bay or Rushcutters Bay. The night before we left our Victoria Street apartment, we cleaned it out for the next tenant and reminisced about all the times we had to eat on our bed because we had no table and laughed with delight because we would never have to share a kitchen again with people who never washed their dishes.
Moving day finally came on January 13th. Dave and I took off work early. We picked up the keys and walked over to our new home. I opened the door for Dave just watching his reaction. His face expressed quiet approval and content. Now was the hard part – moving all of our belongings.
Dave is never one to spend for cabs, moving trucks or anything that would expedite our moving trip if he can physically move it himself. So, despite my protests, we filled two rolling duffels and 2 rolling suitcases and walked our stuff from Victoria Street in Darlinghurst to Macleay Street in Potts Point – a 20 minute walk through the ‘red-light district’ of Sydney. Thankfully, this move consisted of only 2 trips with full luggage and 1 extra trip to grab the delicates like Dave’s guitar, lamps and the thing we looked most forward to – pizza and beer. Certainly a refreshing reward for a hard day’s work. We stayed up till midnight arranging our stuff to complement our new home and we rested like we had labored on a construction site.
View from Our Bedroom
New Plants to Bring Life into the Apartment
Lavender, Basil, Rosemary
Decorated like a Spa: Our Bedroom
Three Years without an Oven!
First Thing we made was Cupcakes
Living Room at Night
Resourceful Cooking: Makeshift Steamer
Continuuing the Tradition with Lamb: The First Meal we Made in Our First Apartment
Lamb, Salad and French Bread
White Fish, Jasmine Rice and Sauteed Pak Choy
Every morning when we wake to the sunrise over Elizabeth Bay we look at each other with thanks. We are so thankful for getting to this point in our journey of being together, making the move to a new country and new continent and establishing ourselves in a new city where we knew no one. This is the second chapter to the Shave story and we are so excited to experience whatever may come next.
