What a quite extraordinary system Sydney has for renting houses. Instead of the agents earning a living and, you know, showing you around, they just organise one open day when in half an hour everyone who wants to see the place can, and then they take in applications – on the day – and decide who they would like to rent to. Quite bizarre – and also, a huge pain if you want to rent a place, as you can go weeks without having an application accepted. But it’s a boon if you’re living in the house that is being let out – as we are – because you only get disturbed once, for half an hour, as an endless queue of people poke their noses into your house. Few of whom, it seems, actually want to rent it: it was fascinating seeing our neighbours trot around just for what the Aussies call a “sticky beak” (or, if you prefer that in English, a “Rubber Neck”). Others are on the continual hunt for a pot of gold – or, as it’s known in Sydney, a cheap decent place to rent. One couple at the viewing had seen 39 different places.
At least, once that is done and dusted, I can get on with the business of moving into the hovel, which will be the delightful abode while I’m renovating it.
Of course it’s only when you move into a place do you start to find the little quirks that leave you scratching your head, asking “why? Just... why?”
How, for example, did they get the dining room tabl
e – which has been left in the house – into the dining room? It’s just way too big to get through the door in any direction. I did think of either a) leaving it there, and it will, forever more, be the dining room. Or b) chopping it up for firewood. However, since it is sitting in the room that will become the main bedroom, and which is therefore destined to become the first room I’ll work on, I had to get the blasted thing out of there. Which entailed taking the whole thing to pieces. And of course, it wasn’t just screwed together. Oh no, they’ve glued and nailed it for good measure.
I’ve also started a list. It’s sort of leaning to one side, rather like my house at the moment. It’s a huge long list of jobs, including everything from as basic to removing the wasp nest around the security light, to sanding down acres – miles! – of ancient weatherboards.
