We found a house!

After looking at quite a few underwhelming houses, we finally found our new home! It doesn't check all the boxes, but we quickly realized you can't be too picky here. The location is pretty great - two blocks from the beach and golf course and a 15 minute bike ride along the coastal pathway for Tyler to get to work. It's a bit far to walk into town (40 mins) but I guess you can't have everything :)

It was built in the 1920's and has lots of character, which we like. The bathrooms and kitchen are renovated, thank goodness, and the backyard is pretty awesome! There are no homes behind us, and with lots of trees in the yard it's very private. The house is quite a bit smaller than our house in Calgary, but I guess that just means less cleaning for me!! And the best part of the house...it has a heater! It's quite common for homes here to rely on a wood fireplace for heating in the "winter" and I just wasn't sold on throwing logs in the fire all day, so having a heat pump was a definite prerequisite.

The lovely yard :)

We get possession May 23rd, but unfortunately we won't be able to move in then as our sea shipment hasn't even left Canada yet :( There was a truckers strike in Vancouver that was just resolved last week, so our shipment is still sitting in the shipping yard waiting to be trucked to the port. The next ship leaves on April 6th, so we are crossing our fingers it makes the boat! It takes 4-6 weeks for the boat to arrive in NZ and then another 1-2 weeks to clear customs. So hopefully we can move sometime in June. I will definitely be ready to leave this hotel by then! We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a larger room, so at least we are not feeling as cramped as before.

Most rental homes here don't include larger appliances - what they call "whiteware", so unfortunately we have to buy our own. Fridge/freezer, washer and dryer - which are all so small here, very European sized! We will also need to buy all new smaller appliances as the voltage is different here -  such as a microwave, vacuum, toaster, blender....etc. Since we won't be able to take anything home with us when we leave, we are looking for deals and even trying to source out used ones that are in good condition. It's actually really time consuming, but at least it gives me something to do ;)

Our experience living downtown has been great, but I think we will feel more settled and comfortable once we actually move into the house and set it all up with our own things. We can't wait until June for that, but at the same time aren't looking forward to summer coming to an end!