The Move Part III: The Search For Our New Home

Leaving Melbourne

When we drove away from our home of 22 years we did not immediately drive to Queensland. We stayed at my sister Preethi’s home for a few weeks, during which time Jerome travelled to Bangkok with a mate for some well-earned R and R and I spent time with Preethi and Christopher and caught up with several friends, enjoying breakfasts, brunches, coffee or lunches most days. I also travelled to Bendigo to attend a dear friend’s wedding. A couple of days before our departure close family came over for dinner. Earlier that same day I held a cookery demonstration for my two sisters, showing them how I made crème caramel. The members of my family swear they have not eaten caramel that is even remotely as good as mine and it’s been a staple dessert at family parties for a few decades.

The night before we left Melbourne Jerome and Christopher packed the car. The next morning, we had an early breakfast and departed. I said a teary goodbye to Preethi. We made our journey from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in four stages: Melbourne to Wagga Wagga, Wagga Wagga to Sydney, Sydney to Port Macquarie and Port Macquarie to Pimpama. In Wagga Wagga we stayed with our friends Judy and Charlie, who very kindly fed us and put us up for a night. We spent a lovely evening with them, catching up on each other’s news. On to Sydney where we were to stay overnight with my cousin Carroll and her husband Kevin, who have been close friends for many years. Carroll had organised a family dinner and it was great to also catch up with two of her brothers and their spouses and her two daughters.

A surprising aspect of our journey was Jerome’s willingness to listen to an audiobook. He was a prolific reader as a young person but hasn’t read any books in years. I had read President Obama’s The Promised Land and wanted to share it with Jerome. I suggested we listen to the audiobook while driving, which we did. Jerome appreciated the quality of the writing and Obama’s rich beautiful voice narrating and we got through five chapters by the time our trip came to an end.

From Sydney we headed for Port Macquarie, our last stop before the Gold Coast. President Obama kept us company some of the way. We arrived at the Air BNB and I was so tired that we ordered some food and I showered and went to bed. The next morning, we had breakfast at a local hotel and started the last leg of our journey.

We arrive in Queensland and start the search

When we crossed the border from New South Wales to Queensland I scrambled to turn my camera on to take a photo of the ‘Welcome to Queensland’ sign but I wasn’t quick enough. Making it through the Coolangatta roadworks took time but we arrived at the home of our friends Patrick and Jackie in the afternoon, unpacked the car, stored the boxes in the garage and suitcases in our bedroom. We showered and sat down to a drink with our friends who had welcomed us to their home. It so happened that we arrived in Queensland on September 12, the 36^th anniversary of the date Jerome and I met. New beginnings?

Over the next few weeks, we got to know the Gold Coast better.  Jerome took to Queensland like a duck to water. He started to swim two or three times a week at the Sports Hub nearby. He and Patrick went walking around Oxenford Lake almost every evening. I prepared dinner two to three evenings a week.

We were happy in our new environment. I marvelled at how resilient and flexible we turned out to be. Having lived in the same house for 22 years, a large house at that, we settled into living in a bedroom at Preethi and Christopher’s and a bedroom at Jacqui and Patrick’s. Even though at both places we had the run of the house, we were still occupying a bedroom as opposed to a four-bedroom, 2 ½ bathroom + study, big backyard, big front yard kind of home we came from.

The search for our new home began. Each morning Jerome sat at the dining table with his iPad and searched for houses that were advertised for sale within the parameters we had decided on: location, size and budget. Before we left Victoria, we identified suburbs we thought would work for us but were flexible and willing to look outside those areas. Every Saturday morning, we set off to attend open homes, maybe three or four depending on how many we had identified as potentially suitable. Jerome had a proforma for recording potential properties, including information about location, asking price, Core Logic stated price and so on. There were many pages added to this folder by the time we found our home.

At first, it was exciting walking into a house that could be our home. We soon learned there were many ‘flip’ homes, houses bought by developers who do a quick makeover and put it up for sale, hoping to make a profit. The work on these homes was mostly gloss and underneath the veneer of brightness was often a tired old house. However, after several interest rate hikes flip homes petered out and we were mostly inspecting homes being sold by owners for various reasons: they were downsizing, moving elsewhere, and in a few cases moving back to where they were from originally, whether that was Sydney or Melbourne. In the seven months (exactly) that we were searching, we looked at more than eighty homes and saw maybe five or six that we liked. We made an offer on only two, one that we missed out on and the one we purchased. After looking at a few that we could not afford that were significantly above our budget, we stopped going to those inspections and concentrated on those that were within or about $50,000 above our budget.

When we left a house we both gave it a rating out of ten and it was rare that our ratings didn’t match up within .5 of each other. There were only a couple of instances where one of us liked a house and the other didn’t. For the most part, we were in unison. We agreed that a house had to be an 8 ½ or a 9 for us to give it serious consideration. The kitchen was always the focal point for me and I looked for a modern, functional kitchen. On a few occasions I liked a house and thought it was liveable but Jerome, who looked at the structure and upcoming maintenance issues, would point these out to me and I would soon see his point of view.

In January and February there was very little new stock coming on the market.  Since the Reserve Bank started increasing interests rates back in May 2023, we had a hope that prices would start to come down and while this happened, it was not to the same extent as big cities like Melbourne and Sydney, probably because there were so many people moving to the Gold Coast and not enough stock to meet demand. Also, people moving from big cities were usually cashed up, having sold their homes for $1 million plus.

We saw everything from very average homes to very beautiful ones. The former we were not interested in at all and the latter would usually sell for more than we could afford. We didn’t think we were asking for much: a solid build, an open feel, a garden with a pleasing appearance that was reasonably low maintenance, and bedrooms that were not pokey and tiny. Many of the homes we inspected fulfilled some of these categories but very few had all. There were some disappointments along the way. A journal entry extract from November:

We saw a house today that we both liked and felt would work for us, but while we were going through the house the agent came and told us that it had just sold to a buyer in Melbourne sight unseen.  They had a relative inspect the house and make an offer.  It was the first house that we really liked and I am sure there are others like it, so we will continue the search.

This occurred less than two months into our search and little did we know it would take many more months. But we were patient and happy to wait for the right one to come along.

In total we probably looked at more than 80 homes..

A temporary move to a beautiful home

About six weeks after arriving on the Gold Coast we acknowledged that our search for a house could take longer than we had envisaged, and we recognised that we could not go on living indefinitely with our friends, happy as they were to have us. We started to look for furnished rental apartments and Jerome found one on Facebook Marketplace and even though the owner had previously organised to show someone through, she called and asked us to come down to have a look. We did, we loved what we saw and she agreed to lease it to us for six months.  My journal entry not long after we moved:

Our new home is even nicer than we remembered. It’s a lovely apartment in a lovely complex.  The complex comprises 5 separate low-rise apartment blocks in one secure compound.  Our landlord Jackie said it was built around 2007 by a Chinese or Singaporean man using Feng Shui principles with careful planning of the structure and layout.  There are a lot of trees and greenery, a lovely pool and spa, a Serenity Centre which has a communal gathering area, a gym, sauna and steam room. We are in a very spacious, beautifully furnished ground-floor apartment. I’ve been to the gym and the pool a few times already, in the first week. We are less than a 5-minute walk away from the beach.

As it turned out, we ended up living in Runaway Bay for nine months and grew to love our home and the area. I was surprised by our resilience, how we continued to live with only the things we brought with us, that fitted into our car. Of course, we bought some clothing, kitchen utensils and other essentials, but it was interesting to note how little stuff we actually need in our daily lives. All the stuff in the two containers that were transported from Melbourne came in handy once we moved to our new home but we certainly didn’t need them and did not miss them while in the apartment.

After about four months of living on the Gold Coast I wake up one morning and think I am in my old home and then realise I am not, and panic a little. It’s the first time since we arrived in Queensland that I felt a pang of homesickness for my home of 22 years. As I orient myself I am reminded that I live in a beautiful one bedroom rented apartment on the Gold Coast. This apartment complex is like a resort and we have felt at home since we arrived.  We are less than a five-minute walk from the ocean and nearly every evening we walk on the walking track running alongside the beach, along with many others doing the same. The smell of the ocean is in my nostrils as I walk. I love the view of Surfer’s Paradise from Runaway Bay, especially from the Marina where I go walking some days.

I marvelled that we were not homesick, either for Melbourne or for our home or the suburb we’d lived in for 34 years. I was also surprised that I didn’t feel a yearning for Melbourne – not yet anyway.  I have come to realise that many Melburnians believe that it is the greatest place on earth and in many respects, it is. The diverse culture and access to the arts and theatre, restaurants and good food are all pluses.  Melbourne also has an amazing café culture. While thinking along these lines one day, it occurred to me that I haven’t given up Melbourne.  I can go back whenever I please and partake of its delights; I don’t have to live there to enjoy what the City has to offer. That was a reassuring realisation.

One aspect of life on the Gold Coast is the laidback vibe and friendliness and helpfulness that has met us everywhere we go. If you walk into a retail establishment the sales staff usually go above and beyond. I liken it to Hawaii, which is the only other place I’ve been in where people have been as friendly and helpful.

We were also fortunate to be welcomed into a group of friends that Patrick and Jackie were part of, which meant that we had a social network the moment we arrived on the Gold Coast. We considered ourselves very lucky.

While living in Runaway Bay we were very active – much more than we, or at least I, have ever been.  I walked nearly every day and went to aqua aerobics classes run by a lady who lives in the complex, and exercised at home a lot.  I had been following various Instagram exercises and doing some each day at different times of the day and fond it helped me with my overall strength, strengthening of my knees and legs and overall fitness.

I joined the local library, which is a beautiful light-filled space with friendly staff. I would take my laptop and do my writing. Often a trip to the library involved printing documents we needed, as our printers were in storage.

Visitations
Even though we were in a one-bedroom apartment it didn’t stop us from entertaining – not just having people over for a meal but having actual interstate visitors. The first of these was my sister and brother-in-law who were visiting their daughter who lives in northern New South Wales and decided to make the trek to the Gold Coast and spend a few nights with us a week or so before Christmas. We really enjoyed their company and had a lovely day visiting Tamborine Mountain during their visit. Another sister and brother-in-law visited in February and stayed a few days. Our daughter who lives in Los Angeles also visited during a trip to Australia in April, with her boyfriend. We look forward to welcoming many more visitors once we are settled in our home.

Our home
In March, when I was somewhat despairing of ever finding a home and feeling like I was willing to compromise, Jerome told me he was sure we would find a place soon, and that it would happen by April. In early April he saw a house advertised online that he liked but when he contacted the agent about making a time to inspect, was advised that the house was already under offer. The agent took our contact details. After this conversation Jerome said to me with certainty that he was sure the buyer’s funding would fall through. He had never made such a comment before and I was a little bemused by it. But about a week later the agent called to say that the sale had fallen through and the house was back on the market and advised it would be open for inspection the following Saturday. On Saturday Jerome had two homes on his list. After we inspected the first home and were working out how to spend the time gap between that and the next one we were seeing, I said to him “What about the house at ***? The one where the sale didn’t go through?” He metaphorically slapped his forehead and couldn’t understand how he forgot. But we were in time to inspect and we really liked what we saw and made an offer the next day, which was accepted. It was meant to be and I still wonder at Jerome’s premonitions about finding a house in April and about the original sale falling through. But as a believer in higher guidance I didn’t question it. And it seemed fortuitous that our offer was accepted on Jerome’s birthday.

The next steps were organising quotes for the work that we wanted done at the house before we moved, including installing central air conditioning and having the internal area painted.  We also wanted to install vinyl flooring over the existing ceramic tiles.

An interlude
As soon as our purchase was confirmed we booked flights to Los Angeles, to visit Jerome’s Dad and his sister and family, and our daughter who was now living and working in LA. It was a quiet but lovely time spent with family. I rarely shop for clothes in Australia but find I am able to get clothes that fit me in LA. In Australia even the very overpriced Petites clothing is usually too long or too big and not really made for a petite body. I speculated that it’s because LA has such a huge Hispanic population, and the women are generally built more like me, that it stands to reason I am able to get clothes that fit me well. Of course, the cheaper prices at stores like Ross are an added bonus.

On our return we hit the road running, finalising quotes and getting ready for the move.

I went in the spa every day, sometimes not turning it on but simply sitting and luxuriating in the hot water. Another phase of our journey was nearing its end.