Australia House Tour Before/After

When we found out we would be moving to Australia for David’s job, one of my first concerns was where in the world we would live.  We were lucky though because we didn’t have to deal with the stress of house-hunting in a foreign country – although the image of us on HGTV’s House Hunters International did cross my mind. J  David’s company provides housing for their employees who move here, so all we had to do was show up at what would be our new house when we arrived. 

David arrived about a month and a half before I did (July), while I stayed behind to wrap things up with packing, selling our house, and some last visits to family and friends.  David was able to move right into the house when he arrived (even though our belongings weren’t there yet), because the houses the company provides are pretty much fully furnished.   Here are some photos of the house from right before David moved in.  A couple of the photos show empty rooms, but don’t worry, the furniture in those rooms WAS moved in before he arrived. 

This is the view of the front of the house.  The photo on the left shows our street- our house is the one behind the Subaru, and the photo on the right is the front of our house (ignore the date- it was taken right after it was built).  Don’t you think the houses here look pretty different than what we’re used to in the US?  They all have metal roofs to help reflect the heat, but I still just can’t get used to that. 

After walking in the front door, there is a little entry way with a door into the garage and access to the laundry room- which is actually a pretty nice size.   

Then you move into the main area of the house.  This part of the house is very open- kitchen, living, dining in one open area.  This view is taken standing in the kitchen looking out toward the back of the house.  I love, love, LOVE houses with lots of windows and natural light, so I was happy about that feature of this house. But MAN, the sun here is just SO strong, that I swear I get a sun burn INSIDE our house.

 

These views of the kitchen are taken standing in the living room, looking back toward the front of the house where.  Again, see the crazy amount of blindingly bright white everywhere?!

Looking back toward the living area, there is a patio off the back of the house.  The house itself is on a hill, so although you can’t see it from the front, the back part of the house is raised above ground.  Our patio looks over the main street coming in to the neighborhood.  We do have a backyard, but you have to go down stairs to get to it. 

Off of the living room, to the immediate right is the master bedroom.  Kind of a weird setup if you ask me.  This photo of the master bedroom was taken before the bed was brought in- I promise you, David didn’t have to sleep on the floor.  The master bathroom is a nice size, but so weird that there is no door between it and the room itself.  This is especially annoying when your husband wakes up to get ready for work at 4:15 every day. 

 

There is also a small office:

And two identical guests rooms with one guest bathroom.  These photos are of just one of the guest rooms. 

 

So, that is pretty much how the house looked when I arrived at the end of August.  And actually, it stayed this way for another six weeks or so while we waited for our moving shipment to arrive.  We had a 1,000 pound limit on what we could bring over, so while I would have liked to have brought all of our furniture, decorations, etc. (because, let’s face it, the furnishings in the house aren’t my favorite), I couldn’t.  The only furniture that we did bring was: our bed and mattress (best idea ever!), David’s favorite chair, a rug, and a limited amount of general house decorations.  The rest of the shipment weight was taken up by clothes and kitchen gear.  Also complicating our ability to make this place more “our own” is that the landlord does not allow nails in the walls.  We are only supposed to use 3M hanging strips, and only 2 items per wall.  On the positive side, it does keep things simpler, less cluttered, and we just generally have less “crap” around.  Although don’t get me wrong, I do miss every single little thing that is in storage back in Houston and can’t wait to be reunited with it all (although I’m sure I will have forgotten what is even there by the time we return).  So anyway, here’s how the house looks now after unpacking our shipment, moving some furniture around, and creatively making do with what we have.

The front of the house pretty much the same except for a few potted plants.  Ignore the dead grass…

 

Entry way. Laundry room to the left, garage and guest room to the right:

 Living area (facing out toward the back of the house):

 

Kitchen:

 

A little storage/display area I faked:

 

Patio with a few added plants/flowers as well as some patio furniture.  This spot allows me to be an excellent neighborhood spy (I’m so nosey!):

Master bedroom now with our beloved bed and mattress: 

Oh- and take note of the ridiculous lamps- so stylish, right?  There are about 10 in the house- and every house that David’s company has furnished.  I will throw them out the window when we leave- they make me nuts. 

 

Guest room aka YOUR room when you come visit! :-)

Yes, I know it's not much different from the first set of pictures.  And trust me, I know even more so that this is a far cry from stylish and carefully decorated.  BUT we did the best with what we had, and it does FEEL much more homey now, and THAT is important since this will be home for the next 3-4 years! 

Ninjabread Men

On Friday, my friend Kim invited me over to make gingerbread men and watch a holiday movie.  When I got there, she told me that when she had sent her husband out to get a gingerbread man cookie cutter, he had returned with ninjabread men cookie cutters instead.  Aren't they funny- and way more exciting than plain old gingerbread men anyways?! 

This is the recipe we used (Gingerbread Cookies).  They were yummy and super easy, but if I were to make them again, I would probably add more spices (ginger, cinnamon, and cloves) and maybe even some more molasses.  The ginger taste in these cookies was very subtle, and I usually like a stronger ginger taste/spice. 

Once you finish making the dough, you are supposed to refrigerate it for about 2 hours- just the perfect amount of time to watch a holiday movie, so that is what we did.  We watched “The Holiday.”

 

After the movie was done and our dough was ready, we got back to our ninjabread men.  Here’s how they turned out:

In progress...

Final product!

These Ninjabread men didn't last long at all in our house- they barely made it through the weekend.

First Pinterest Craft Attempt

I’m fairly certain that I was one of the last people on the face of earth to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon.  I didn’t join until just a few months ago.  My reason being that I have a pretty addictive online personality- meaning that I get addicted to things like Facebook, blogs, etc. and then end up wasting more time than I’d like to admit.  I KNEW I would be obsessed with Pinterest so I purposely refused to let myself join for quite a while- especially while I was teaching (although now I kind of regret that seeing as how there are so many awesome teacher resources).   At any rate, I finally bit the bullet a few months ago, and I was right- I was almost immediately addicted.  J 

I have been pretty good about trying lots of the recipes that I’ve pinned, but I had yet to try anything crafty or DIY-y.  (Side note: I wish Pinterest would add a label or separate board or some way to mark the pins you've actually tried/created.)  Because we weren't able to bring very many decorations or wall hangings when we moved to Australia, I decided I would try and make a frame that would let me display multiple photos while at the same time covering up some of these blindingly white bare walls in the house.  Here was my pinspiration:

http://pinterest.com/pin/313281717798593690/
http://pinterest.com/pin/313281717798593691/ 

I was surprised to find out that Australia has a few of the same thrift stores we have in the states.  Here in Gladstone, we have a St. Vincent DePaul and Salvation Army.  But in true Aussie fashion, they must be abbreviated as Vinnie’s and The Salvie.  I’m trying not to shake my head and/or roll my eyes at the excessive amount of abbreviations here in Oz as I type this…   Anyways, I found the perfect frame at Vinnie’s for two bucks!  It was a pretty rough-looking white when I bought it, so after cleaning it up, I spray painted it blue.  I forgot to take a before picture.  Oops.  After it dried completely, the rest was super easy.

 

 I just used twine to create three rows for hanging pictures and secured the twine to the back with tons of hot glue. 

 

 Then I used the mini clothespins (or pegs as they call them here) to clip the photos into the frame. 

I like that I can easily change out the photos at any time.  I think it turned out pretty well for a first time Pinterest craft by someone who is not particularly crafty!  I’m thinking about trying to make a Christmas wreath (similar to this one) for the front door next.  You can follow me on Pinterest at username: Meggers315!

Aussie-isms - "Cross" and "Knickers" Edition

I admit it: as much as I enjoy a good Aussie accent, there are some things about Aussie English that do irritate me.  My tolerance has shortened for the tendency to abbreviate just about everything.  It's not breakfast, avocado, mosquito, afternoon, McDonald's, thank you, etc. Nope, it's brekkie, avo, mozzie, arvo/arvie, Macca's, and Ta.  It may just be me, but I do not feel very thanked or appreciated when someone says, "Ta."  But that's a rant/tangent for another day...

I've also run across more than a few words that they use that at times make me feel like it really is a foreign language they're speaking.  A few examples that come to mind: lollie (name used for any kind of candy), thongs (flip flops, NOT underwear), bloke (guy, man), coldie (a beer), bush (the Outback or basically anywhere with lots of trees/brush), heaps (lots!), and heaps more I can't think of at the moment. 

I do sometimes hear words that they use that I find totally endearing.  Two examples being: "cross" and "knickers."  I've been working a few days a week as a teacher aide at one of the local schools, and this is where I've heard these two words used most. 

*Knickers:
One day last week, the kids in the class I was working in had swim lessons in the arvo.  I just rolled my eyes at myself for typing that.  Oh, and Aussies are big on water safety and swim lessons, FYI, so the younger kids usually get swim lessons at school.  The kiddos I was with were pretty young and so needed some help when getting dressed to return to school.  I can't tell you how adorable it was when I heard one of the little girls shout that she couldn't find her knickers (don't worry, they were soon found).  Knickers.  Totally adorable.  Love it!

*Cross:
Cross as in the adjective, not the noun or verb.  Cross as in "Ms. Megan (except they say Meeeeegan, which drives me insane but whatever), so and so won't stop bothering me and he's making me cross."  I also often hear teachers saying, "so and so don't make that cross face at me!"  OR "You better get to your seat and do your work- you don't want to see me get cross with you!"  Even better is that the kids have the most amazing "cross faces."  Here's a random Google Images photo that I found of a "cross face." It is seriously amazing.  And I absolutely plan on practicing my best cross face.  You should, too.  :-) 

Heron Island – Great Barrier Reef

*Picture overload- you’ve been warned…

Our weekend trip to Heron Island to celebrate David’s 30^th can truly be summed up in one word: paradise.  It was so beautiful- almost surreal!  It is truly one of those places that really does look exactly like a postcard. The water really is that amazing clear blue/green/turquoise color. The fish really are as colorful as you’d imagine. The sand really is that gorgeous creamy white. Multiple times while I was there, I caught myself just looking around and thinking, “wow- this is just so beautiful” – almost overwhelmingly so. The crazy thing is that the most amazing part of it is actually what is under the water- what is IN the actual Great Barrier Reef. 

On Friday morning, we took the Heron Islander boat that leaves daily from.  I was a little nervous, because I had heard that the waters can be pretty rough, and sea-sickness inducing.  We lucked out though and it was a smooth ride the entire two hours. 

 

I immediately started snapping photos as soon as we got to the pier.  This shot is one of my absolute favorites and is now the background on both my laptop and phone.  I have done nothing to edit this photo.    

View from our room

After we got settled in our room and ate lunch, we were anxious to head right to the beach to go on a guided reef walk.  A reef walk is basically like tide pooling.  The tide there goes out SUPER far at low tide, and you can walk for what seems like forever and have the water barely at your knees.  During low tide, you can see so many amazing plants and animals in the shallow waters.  It was nice to have a guide too, because she pointed out things I would have gone right past.  We saw sea stars, sea cucumbers, crabs, clams, and tons of pretty coral- among other things. 

Our guide.

I think this was called a Sea Hare Slug 

Hermit Crab, Sea Star, Clam! 

 David's angry face because I forgot to wear my sunhat. Ha!

 

See how far out I am from the beach and the water is still super shallow?!

The next day, we spent almost entirely in the water.  You can snorkel from pretty much anywhere on the island, so it’s easy to do on your own.  It is unbelievable just how much life there is in the Great Barrier Reef – it really did feel like it was a completely new world (Little Mermaid, anyone?) underwater.  I kept choking on water as I would frequently gasp or squeal in excitement through my snorkel when I saw something cool.  The highlights were: stingrays, a reef shark, amazingly colorful fish, huge clams, a manta ray, and of course tons and tons of coral.  At one point, we happened to swim right into the middle of a giant school of fish- it was crazy! 

Hubby scoping out the perfect beach spot

 

Pretty fish! 

Stingrays- we saw about 10 of these! 

 Manta Ray



Reef Shark (supposedly totally harmless, but I was still a little freaked out) 

There is an old shipwreck right off the shore that you could swim out to at high tide.  We ventured out there, and it was really fun to explore-  except we stayed out there a bit too long, and almost got stuck out there as the tide was coming in. 

 

The island itself is pretty small, and you can walk around the entire island on the beaches (during low tide, of course) in about an hour.  We spent part of our afternoon doing this, too. 

 Excuse the squinty face- it was SUPER bright and glare-y this day!

 

David and I both realized that this was the first beach-type resort or vacation we had been to/on where people were not lounging on the beach or by the pool most of the time.  There seriously is just so much to do and see there that even though lying on the beach is one of my favorite things to do, you’d be a fool to spend much of your time doing that.  The resort itself is the only resort on the island, and it is pretty bare bones and minimalistic.  This is partly because the island is National Park and because again, it’s really not meant to be a “sit on your lounge chair with an umbrella in your drink” kind of place.  I actually loved that about it. 

 

 

On Saturday night, we had signed up to do a “Star-gazing” session.  I was a little iffy on this, but I’m so so glad we did this.  It was so neat!  My mind was officially blown to see a totally different sky full of stars than I was used to seeing in the Northern Hemisphere.  I mean, it makes sense that it would be completely different, but I had just never thought about it, I guess.  It was strange not to see the North Star or the Big Dipper.  But it was also interesting to have the staff point out new constellations I had never seen.  They had a big telescope too, and we were even able to see Jupiter and 3 of its moons!  There were quite a few shooting stars as well.  Between the crazy amount of life in the water and the amazing sky full of stars, it makes our little everyday world that we’re used to seem pretty insignificant.  Not in a bad way- just made me a little reflective about it all I guess. 

On the morning of our last day, we went on a guided snorkeling trip.  We took a boat out just about 15 minutes from the island, but that was as far as you needed to go to get past the big “drop off” into the deep part of the ocean.  We saw a lot of the same things on this trip, just MORE of everything.  Two new things that we saw though were a Crown of Thorns Starfish- our guide told us that these are very rare to see, and somewhat a bad thing to see because these guys eat the coral at a very quick rate.  And on this snorkel trip, we FINALLY saw what I had been hoping to see the whole trip: SEA TURTLES!  These guys were so big and SO SO cute!  I wanted to get closer to them, but we were told not to approach them since it is their nesting season and that might scare them away from coming to shore.  Boo.  Unfortunately, because the water was deeper here and because it was slightly overcast that morning my photos from this snorkel adventure didn’t turn out as clear as the ones from the day before. 

 

 Manta Ray



Sea turtles (above and below)! 

 

Overall, Heron Island was amazing!  I still have a hard time believing that I was actually in the Great Barrier Reef and that I saw all of the things in the photos.  I definitely think we will go back again, and I absolutely will insist that anyone who comes to visit us also make a trip to Heron Island. 

And some more photos I just couldn’t bear to “cut” from the post…