Our House

2/156 Marsh Street, Armidale, New South Wales Australia





Matt was able to find us a lovely home (lovely - a term used often here) just minutes from the main shopping areas in town.  This has proved to be nice since we've been without a car and have needed to transport supplies by foot.  It's seems fairly new but is surrounded by older homes.  The zoning is somewhat strange here.  It's not uncommon to have several houses in a row then a doctors's office or a real estate office.  In the neighborhood I jog through there's a store in the middle of the block with houses on all sides. 

 

Looking east on Marsh Street

Here's what our street looks like.  You can't really see in the down the street picture but there's a McDonald's and a KFC about a block away.  There are McDonald's everywhere. In fact, this was the first thing Hannah spotted as we touched down in Sydney.




Looking west on Marsh Street - up the hill

Inside the house it's similar to those in the States. The kitchen is quite small.  When I used the oven for the first time I thought this doesn't go up to 350.  It was then that Matt reminded me that everything here is done in metric so the stove temperature is measured in celcius.  The hardest thing to get used to so far is not having a garbage disposal.  Apparently, you don't find many here.  They just aren't that popular.  This is amazing to me.  Another thing that's interesting about the kitchen is the appliances beep at you if you leave them open.  For instance, you can't stand and look in the fridge for more than a minute or it assumes that the door has been left open and is giving you notice to close it. 


Electrical outlets and switches are a bit different here.  Everything  seems really simple, no frills, just basic items from what I've noticed.  Plugs have to be turned on to work. 

The bathrooms are very basic, sinks with faucets on the side seem to be the trend.  We're still trying to get used to that.  It's hard to remember which way is hot and which way is cold.  They're also really small with no counter space.  This is a bit of a pain. It's hard to balance everything in the small spots around the sink.  I'm going to look for some type of board to cover the sink and turn it into counter space.

Finally, this is the heating source for the house.  It's an electrical heater attached the the top of the wall in our living room.  It keeps this room pretty warm but the rest of the house is freezing.  Matt keeps reminding me that it doesn't get that cold here so people just bundle up when it's chilly out. Since we've arrived I've went and bought blankets, sweatshirts and slippers.   

Favorite thing I did yesterday: going to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop and the Pet Store with Hannah.