We went up there four weeks ago to research the area and to find a town to live in that was not too expensive, not too suburban and that had good schools for the kids.
This turned out to be a big ask.
First of all it is soooooo expensive to buy a home there. To buy something similar to what we have in Warragul was going to cost us at least $200,000 more than our home is worth here. And it is virtually impossible to get a block that is bigger than 700m2 within a 1/2 hour drive of David's work.
We found a town that we didn't mind called Medowie. It was quite rural and the homes were on big blocks. It only had a primary school in town but we would deal with traveling to secondary school when the time came. We even found a house for sale that we liked. There was not much in the way of infrastructure in town either. There were the basics such as a supermarket, chemist, butcher, hairdresser, bakery and post office but we were going to have to travel to get to swimming lessons, music lessons or to go out for dinner. But once again we thought we could deal with that.
Then David finally got his contract from his work and it was nothing like what they had indicated it was going to be. On the money they were offering we couldn't even afford to rent a four bedroom home that would fit all our furniture in let alone buy one. Which didn't really matter as 4 bedroom houses to rent seem to be as rare as hen's teeth in the Newcastle area. They were also not going to pay for our relocation which they had also said that they would.
Anyway, to cut a long story short after weeks of negotiations with David's employers they finally offered a half decent contract but it still fell way short of what they said they would give him. Also our time in Newcastle was up and because they had spent so much time dicking around with the contract we no longer had time to find somewhere to live. The kids had to get back to school. Our house in Warragul had still not sold and we could no longer afford to pay a mortgage and pay for David to fly to and from Newcastle every week and for accommodation for him during the week.
The whole move was no longer financially viable and to be honest, we really didn't want to go. We didn't want to leave our home, our friends and family and the kid's school to move somewhere were we knew no-one, had to live in a smaller, older home with kids probably having to share rooms. And we would have very little money to travel back to see our family and friends.
So we are back here for the moment. Hopefully David will find a job here soon because although I feel confidant he will find something, it is a little unsettling not knowing when he will be paid again.
But it is lovely to be back in our home and near our family and friends. I just hope we made the right decision.
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