Our Treasure Boxes

Since the last post, we've acquired a BIG treasure box...our house at 41 Sturt Avenue, Narrabundah. We bought it on the 14th January, 2021, much to our surprise and, dare I say, horror. Leighton, Beatrix and I travelled to Canberra from Mallacoota on the morning of the auction, leaving the boys behind with Nana and Wonga. I don't know what we thought was going to happen, but shock set in when we won it, and I had the onset of a terrible headache that lasted a couple of days. It was a relatively hot, dry day for a La Nina summer, and I opted to remain at Nimbin Street rather than attend the auction, probably due to the combination of nerves, anticipation and the thought of having to keep Bea occupied and quiet (we had been at a previous auction where she picked ornamental plums and gave them out to people mid-auction!). Apparently the auction was relatively long and slow, starting at around $700,000 and going up and up in fits and bursts until Leighton called $905,000, at which point all bids stopped and the duplex was ours. I think the horror set in when we realised we paid $905K for a two bedroom duplex on a busy road, but our house hunting fatigue was such that we had lost perspective in a market that was jet-propelled and showing no sign of slowing. I spent the subsequent month unable to sleep trying to visualise how we would all squeeze in and thinking about what would need to be done first to make the place liveable.

Three and a half months in we are making do in the new house, and it feels like we have been here much, much longer, is that a good or bad thing? The house is smaller than Nimbin St, and in some ways feels smaller than the apartment in The Londoner, but it is sufficient for now. We are are making it our own slowly and are trying to make it more comfortable for the winter months that have now hit. I have done some draught sealing and bought some honeycomb blinds, and things are bearable. It does feel a bit tight, especially in the kitchen where dining chairs restrict the opening of the fridge door if in use, and traffic jams frequently occur between the sink and fridge, but for now it is manageable. The evenings are quite nice when we can warm up the living room and lie on the carpet in front of the heater - the kids (and my) favourite position! All of the things that I thought were essential to do ASAP are yet to be done, dishwasher aside, but we have made little upgrades to reduce the heroin chic appeal, such as replacing the cheap broken plastic toilet seat and the old rusted out shower curtain rail.

In the interim, so much has happened - Big guy and big girl have started school/preschool respectively, Beatrix turned 3, Huon turned 8. Life is happening as I fluff around and try to get on top of the house and housework, and suffer through our third Canberra winter. Jethro is doing really well in Kinder at Telopea, Beatrix likes her Butterfly class at Narrabundah Early Childhood Centre, so that is a big load off that they have settled in smoothly. The weekdays are very busy, the boys do swimming, piano lessons, Huon does soccer twice a week, and Beatrix goes to kindergym, so I've entered the "chauffeur" stage of parenting.

We've been reading "All my Treasures" by Jo Witek, and I thought it'd be interesting to ask what would go in our treasure boxes:

Jethro's Treasure box

Gold, acorns, chocolate, rainbows, TV, drawings, Fridays, bouncing on the trampoline, Christmas, birthdays

Huon's Treasure Box

Family, money to live,  exciting chapter books, crepes, friends, nice mum and dad, being the oldest kid in the family

Beatrix's Treasure

Acorns (big guys influence!), books, the colours of the rainbow, nappies, cake, textas, kindergym, scooting on my scooter, stars

Roanna's  Treasure Box

Sound of the boys playing piano, Beatrix's kisses, lying in front of the heater with the family on a cold night, watching my plants grow, Mallacoota time, Huon's skipping that won't last much longer

Leighton's Treasure Box

Don't know