The Move: Part Two

When we landed, we got our luggage in silence as it sunk in that we had finally made it here, and now we had to get a house and get jobs and prove to everyone that we made the right choice.  We had arranged our mothers to come 2 days after we had arrived, because we were quite sure that with absolutely no rental experience, and having no jobs, that we had no chance of securing a house without a guarantor for the lease. We got in the taxi and headed off to a hostel we had booked rooms for, called Vic Hall (Now Space Hotel), just one block down from Lygon St.  Once we arrived, the receptionist confirmed our fears telling us that there were patrons staying at the hotel from overseas in the same boat as us who hadn't been able to find a house for 3 months. We took our bags to our room, and  reviewed the list of houses we had hoped to look at. We called about 20 homes before we got one that was having a home open very soon, but our spirits were down after calling so many agencies only to find they were either already taken, or aren’t available for a couple of months. After our 30th or so call, we decided it would be best to travel to some Real Estate agencies in the suburbs we most wanted an apartment.

We arrived at our first real estate agent  on Sydney Rd in Brunswick, and found an aparment off Lygon St that we thought we might like. It was a pretty decent home, asking for around $320 a week, two bedroom apartment in a 15 or so apartment building. It had vinyl wood floors and it looked pretty beaten down, it had a pretty cool garden outside though with a big white cat, and it looked like everyone in the apartment building rode a bike, so we kept that one as a maybe. We looked at a couple more houses way out of our price range, we distinctly remember a house in Northern Melbourne that was brand new, 4 buildings, 2 bedrooms with brand new kitchen, wooden floors, I’m sure we looked pretty out of place looking through these amazing homes, so we decided that one would be a maybe also, and kept the forms, although the real estate agent made it pretty clear we would have no chance and we were wasting his time. We didn’t see much more houses, except for 2 that will stick in our minds forever. They were in Coburg, and they were at around $230 - $250 per week for studio apartments, even the Real Estate lady gave us a funny look and told us they probably weren’t what we were looking for. We headed to both houses and had a look through, they were in what looked like Government housing, and they both felt like you were going to get stabbed real soon (They didn't even have doorknobs), We had a quick look, but we left almost straight away, baffled by how something so disgusting could go for $250 a week.

 Disheartened, We returned back to the hostel and threw out the list of houses we originally had and began finding new ones on Domain.com. We found a home in Brunswick West, it was a second story newly refurbished apartment for $280 a week. We decided to go and have a look. The owner of the home was a young greek lady who couldn’t make it to the home to show us, and her husband worked in Real Estate who also couldn’t be there, so her mother gave us a tour of the place. It was a pretty amazing house - big wardrobe and bedroom, brand new kitchen and bathroom, it looked perfect for what we needed.  We let the mother know what we thought of it, and gave the owner of the house a call immediately after we saw it. We got the forms, and filled them out back at our hostel. For the next day or 2, we still house hunted but our hearts where pretty set on that apartment. Emily purchased oversized scrabble letters, E & J, for the new house, whenever we would get it.

Our mothers arrived 2 days after we had landed, on the 16th of March. We had let them know what places we had looked at, and what we had applied for. They rightfully told us not to get our hopes up. We went out to Crown Casino for some tea and “good luck gambling”. Whilst  we were having tea we got a call from Danny, the husband of the the woman who owned the apartment, to say we had been successful in our application! I am guessing our mothers thought that might be the call we were getting when Josh had a massive smile on his face and said “Thank you so much”. Our mothers and Emily started screaming and crying, Danny heard them in the background and said to enjoy our night, and would speak to us tomorrow regarding all the paperwork needed. We had a great night after that, we played some Blackjack and had a couple of drinks, and got home at about 12am. We had just found a house to live in, with no rental history and no jobs, 2 days after we had arrived in Melbourne.