Housing Butterfly
The world certainly changes fast. Mine has tipped topsy turvy in less than 3 days. After six months it looks like I'll be moving in with the boyfriend. We discussed it last night, worked out a budget of sorts. And while today wasn't the first time we'd gone house-hunting together, (it was the second) =P we/he/I never imagined to find a place.I'll be honest in saying I wasn't even prepared to look at the place properly. All I register is being faced with hallway that opend out into a warren of rooms after walking into the front door, freshly painted trimming, a front bedroom with a window seat, a smaller room off to the side, a walk through room, a fake fireplace and a pretty much newly renovated kitchen. The place is big. At least to my standards of two people, one of whom has old tacky furniture, the other who you could arguably say has no furniture at all.
The place just looks so much like a 'family' home. Like a place you'd expect your grandparents to live in and have little kids running around. Or maybe a couple with a child. Not a place for a couple. And certainly not a place for a couple like us.
We saw three places today, and the one we saw last was the one we both agreed on. Fruit trees in the backyard, a verandah full of sunshine in the afternoon (if I remember correctly) and stained glass windows.
OMG. It's actually starting to sink in.
Mum was fairly mellow. Only said to me in a strange tone, "I didn't expect you to come home at all" and I again seem to want to automatically fall back into daughter mode. I tried to be enigmatic and say to her, home is home, and I will always come home, even if I don't live here, or whatever. But I don't think she heard me.
Sitting quietly in the car trying to deal with it all, I suddenly felt like my entire world had turned upside down like one of those tourist balls you can buy. You know, those snow balls, where you tip it over, and then tip it back again so that all the white stuff goes everywhere.
One minute I'm arguing with my mother, next minute I'm making semi-concrete plans to move in with the boyfriend within the next three months, and then suddenly we're on the verge of renting a place.
But my boyfriend did point out that it's not all set in stone. That the landlord might not even like us. That they might not like it that we can't move in straight away, because we need time to get our affairs straight. You know, money, and me getting myself sorted. So who knows, by saying yes, it might well mean that we won't get it. And I'll take that as a sign any day. In fact, I want to place my bets on that. At least that way, I get first hand experience at how to deal with the idea of moving out.
I'm looking around at all the stuff in my room, and the things that I'll want to take with me. Do I want to take furniture? A wardrobe? A bookshelf? A quilt? Blankets? Books? That lamp, my stereo, the notice board, all the desky things. What about my filing cabinet full of uni stuff? My thesis notes, all my uni books, my photos.
What does one take with them when they move out anyway?
The only thing I know for certain is I take my computer, my cd player, and my clothes. They're all givens. Most of my cd collection is at work anyway - the disks themselves, if not the cases.
Moving out with the boyfriend? In a house that looks more like a 'real' house. If we get this place, I'll get the master bedroom as my 'study' with its window seat and walk out to the front verandah. I've always wanted a window seat. I can't remember if there were inbuilt wardrobes or not. Like I said, I wasn't really paying thorough attention. I was too busy noticing that the place seemed a bit big. But it's a real house - which was I wanted. A place with doors. With rooms. No half-assed 'open living plan' that meant every corner you turned you saw the other person.
We saw a place near the CBD that basically had two levels, open, that was essentially hewn out of the rock. He loved it. Thought it was quirky. I was more concerned with the fact that I'd have no privacy. It was either the bedroom or the living area. What about 'me' time? Sure a laptop means you can use it anywhere, but that doesn't mean I *have* to use it everywhere. And you'd get so sick of the place. Round and around and around. You, me, you, me. No place to go, no room to hide.
The second one we saw I liked. Except that the backyard wasn't really a backyard and that wasn't feasible for his dog. And I'll admit, I wasn't too sure about the neighbours. But the place overlooked a park. And the bedroom had a gable roof, with the window and stuff. Which I thought was really nifty.
And then this was, the third. After seeing the first two, I began to appreciate why people loved harbour views. So I wasn't 100% sure if I wanted to live in the inner suburbs. But there we were, and while it might not be 100% perfect, it sure does look like a 'home' home. I can see us curling on a couch in the living room, watching television at night before retiring. While I'd love for the master bedroom to be that - the master bedroom, he's all 'it's too noisy'. And I shouldn't really complain. I get a big room to do my own stuff in - yaay.
But that means that the bedroom becomes the smaller room. Which might be a bit tight. We could fill that place up with so much lovely stuff. "Build our futures together" as he put it. Buy things that were 'ours.'
I'm hoping.
I'm also a superstitious little thing. What if it's bad feng shui? =P ha! Mum used to tell me all these things about it, and having a little insurance invested in something like that isn't necessarily a bad thing if things are going well. But I'd be responsible for making the place good.
Maybe I'll be lucky and the landlord will say no to the negotiations. He's doing it as a private lease, anyway.
It's just that my boyfriend insists that it's a great deal.
"Places like that, at a price like that don't come often, do they?"
"No, they're very rare. I wouldn't be so eager if I didn't think it was perfect."
Moving out of home after 23 years to go straight into a house with a boyfriend I've only gone out with for 6 months. Tell me, is it too fast? I think it is. So much has happened since we started going out. But he insists that it's not fast. He believes it's fate that we found this place so soon. You know, the cliche that things only come when you're not seriously looking for them.
And we weren't really. I kept on repeating to him last night and this morning how scared I was at all this change. And I think that he kinda hoped it'd take a while for us to find a place that we both agreed upon, let alone put together the rent and such.
But here we are. He's going to ring the guy tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get the place, and hopefully not.
I'm going to leave this one up to fate and the stars and such. If this guy let's us negotiate it out, then this is the way it goes. If not, I'm fine with that too.
Deep breath now...
posted by Enigmatic Butterfly @ 3:05 pm
1 Comments:
Take your time if you're not sure! The last thing you want is a bunch of piglets running around (see Bipolar-land)!!
Princess
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