We have recently moved out of a two bedroom apartment to a free standing three bedroom house. We've only been here a week, and already my life has changed.
Alright, we are still renting, it's not our own, but it feels more like home than I could have imagined. Tilly loves it, and I love seeing her so happy. I feel good when I can look out the window and see green.
We have been tentatively looking for a bigger place for a little while now. Our budget is pretty small, so it was a bit of a struggle. When I saw this place, I knew it wasn't perfect, it has many flaws, but we seem to fit in so well. Because the rent is "relatively" low for Sydney, there were a lot of people inspecting it, and I didn't know how our application would go. I was so thrilled when we actually got it, but I'm also very relieved, because I had started to imagine us living here and I think I would have fallen pretty flat had we not been successful.
On the application form it asks for each tenant's occupation. Since stopping paid employment and staying home with Tilly I have always struggled with this on forms. I just don't know what to write. I could say "mother" but there are engineer mothers, doctor mothers teacher mothers etc. The pre-fixes are all occupations, I just don't see mother as being an occupation as such. I don't actually have one. Would a big N/A suffice. Anyway, on the rental application I had no trouble coming up with an answer. I put "homemaker" in the hope that the owners would want someone who was home to take care of the place. I'm sure that answer wasn't the one that got us the tenancy, but it is a title I'm starting to quite like.
I really want to make this place our home. I want to do all the little things to make it feel like our special place. I'm no gardner, but I am having a ball getting out there and planning and watering. We have pretty severe water restrictions going on in Sydney, but you can water with a hose on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10am and after 4pm. It's Sunday today and I was out there this morning watering our front lawn, and the neighbours were out there too, doing the same. It gave me such a buzz! Who knew an act so simple could be so satisfying?
My grandparents gave me a tomato plant and a parsley plant for the new place. Tilly has decided that the tomato is mine and the parsley is hers, we take out respective watering cans out each morning and give them a drink. Tilly with the little orange watering can above, and me with my green gardening one. The image I have in my head of us doing this little thing together really melts my heart.
There is a lot of work to be done. The back lawn for one is pretty dug up, the previous tenants had a dog. But already with the little care I have given it (I load up the watering can with the water from Tilly's paddling pool at the end of each day and spread it around the garden), I think it is showing some improvement.
I'd like to plant some lavander and other things, and there is already a plot where I can plant some veggies. I'm so excited.
There are things to do on the inside too, like making curtains and cushions and getting new lamp shades. All little things, that will make a rented house a home. Stay tuned for further developements.
Oh and here is the afternoon tea that Tilly and I sat down to in the garden yesterday.
I whipped them up while Tilly was having a rare afternoon sleep. We had virtually no food in the house, but there was some flour, an egg, a splash of milk and a lemon. All you need really.
They didn't rise quite as well as they should have, because Tilly had been into the pantry (I have a pantry!!!!!) and mixed plain flour with self-raising. Also, I misread the dial on the oven and had them cooking at far too low a temperature. All the same, they were yummy.