Our New Home

As I start to write 'Our New Home' I can't help but think of all the houses we've made home over the past few years. I think we bring 'home' with us wherever we go and as we unpack and become acquainted the home feeling settles into the building and we find our new normal.

I liked this house the moment our friend Chinh sent pictures of it. She was so kind to view it, and many others, for us and arrange the lease with the owner on our behalf. The first day we arrived, we faced a lengthy paper work delay including x7 visa applications to fill while bribing the children with lollies! Chinh was patiently waiting for us when we emerged, filled two taxi's and beeped our way through traffic to our house.

It has been interesting to move from living in one storey houses to this four storey one! Caleb just volunteered...ahem was coerced...into doing a stair count. We have 53 stairs! 

Through the green gates we have a small court yard with stairs leading up to the second floor - very Romeo and Juliet! I love this large bonsai tree.

Inside is a large living, dining and kitchen area and lots of little busy people!

The kitchens here don't have a big oven like we would at home, people mostly use the stove top. We have a two ring electric stove, a small oven that we have yet to use, a microwave and a rice cooker. A feature that I love about the kitchen is the drip drying area above the sink. You have two levels to put wet dishes and a grid at the bottom allows the water to drip into the sink. No drying dishes 👍🏼

Here starts the many stairs! We will be *so fit* by the time we come back - so long as we stay away from chocolate too! ☺️

Note our sad little collection of books. We will make a book depository purchase soon and make it more substantial. How we get them home is future Deb's problem!

The men hard at work.

This first bedroom belongs to Judah and Eli. Jude, who loves his teddies, managed to wrangle a deal to bring more  than the two limit and "only" brought a lion, a dinosaur, a care bear and four dogs. Believe it or not he also left some behind in Australia! They have a door that meets the stairs at the front of the house and the door remains closed and locked!

Jay and I are on the same level, across the hallway, and have a little bath in our ensuite that the children love. (And we use a lot because it's extremely humid here!)

Next floor up is the room Gracie and Sophia share.

The open drawer holds some of their toys, which explains the doll heads sticking out! A fun feature of this floor is that the ensuite is shared by the two rooms, making a "secret passage" to torture their big brother through!

Through the secret passage to the introverts dream...Caleb has long waited the chance to have his OWN room!

Caleb got to work as soon as we got here applying his Star Wars decorations and making the room his own.

But wait, there are more stairs!

The fourth floor (sauna level!) is home to the laundry area, spare room and another bathroom. It's the only bedroom without air conditioning so is a great additional drying space when it rains.

 The view from the top to Jason at the bottom!

The view from the top balcony out towards the lotus ponds, and the pre school's pool across the road. We think we are allowed to pay to use it, but haven't gone over yet except to play in their play ground with the little ones in the afternoon. There are lots of children about and although there are many cars and bikes, our little street is not very busy so the older kids have been out playing ball with local kids, despite the language barrier.

So that finishes the tour! We had hoped to have written more before now. It seems like we have done a lot in the very short time since we left Australia so will we write again soon.