Moving On Up

As some of you may already have gathered from my Facebook status, I am not going to be living in my current house too much longer. Some people have been asking why, and it is not the easiest of questions to answer.

When I moved out of my first Grahamstown house, there was a slight aspect of relief. There were a number of reasons for this. Part of it was living with four other people, all of whom had their own vices, myself included. Living with other people is always hard, and living with four of them, trying to juggle five personalities and keep everyone sane, was a job in itself. I think that we managed quite well. The fact that four of us were Journalism students helped, as it meant that we had a common ground that we could connect on. The fact that I spent a large amount of my time at my Grant's house meant that I was out of the way most of the time and not getting into too many arguments, which helped a great deal as well - one of my vices is my terrible temper which I struggle to keep in check, so having somewhere else to go when I got irritated was handy. Another part of the relief that I felt was that I would no longer be dealing with Homelet.
From the first month we started having problems with our rental agency. It all started when we asked for our washing machine to be fixed. It took them a month to send someone, it then took that someone two weeks to admit that there was a problem and it then took another full month for the machine to be replaced, all this while having five people doing washing in one bath. We were not impressed. When we next had an electrical issue, we therefore didn't bother going through the agency, a mistake that we soon realised as they refused to pay for the bill and it had to be split amongst us. One of the agents was incredibly rude throughout the washing machine ordeal (as was the electrician supplied by the agency) and by the end of the year, was refusing to speak to two of my housemates, preferring to deal with myself and Mike instead. Not wanting to shuffle things around too much, and with most of our ordeals settled, three of us decided to stay in the house for a second year while two of our housemates were replaced.
In our second year at the house there were also a number of ordeals including, but not limited to, having to pay for an alarm battery which I believe should never have died and having a break-in which we were blamed for because the alarm wasn't on at the time. Of course, these seem like nothing when compared to the drama that was faced when we left the house and were refused our deposits. Deposits are supposed to be given within twenty days of the tenants leaving the house. So, when over a month later nothing had been received, I decided to send them an email asking what was happening. No, they told us. We weren't getting them back. See, when one of the housemates left, it had been difficult to find a replacement, and though we eventually did manage to find one (and told her that she would need to pay for the full 12 months rent rather than the 10 that she would be living there, which she and her family accepted) our agency insisted on keeping our deposits to cover her first two months rent. As you can imagine, I was thoroughly unimpressed with this - the lease that I had signed was for a single bedroom, not a bedroom and part of another - and having a lawyer friend, threatened legal action. It took awhile, but I eventually got my deposit back, and I was not very happy with the agency. These days, if anyone asks me which agency they should go to when looking for a house, my only answer is "Not Homelet."

So that was my first house. When Grant moved out of his first house, it was simply because he wanted a little more privacy. He was no longer a student and living in a "digs" with six people was getting a bit much for him. So he moved into our current house was Jono, who had been one of the six from the original house, and when I returned from Korea, I joined them to make a house of three. When I first moved in, it did have a slight bachelor-pad feeling to it, but I soon made myself at home and made the place feel more home-like.

So, down to the real question: If it feels so much like home, why are we moving? Is it the people? Is it the agent or the landlady? Well, the landlady does have a little to do with it, but she is not the real reason. She is a little slow at getting things done, which is why it took a month to get our oven fixed, and she is a little stubborn about some things that tend to get on our nerves (ie. the burglar bars the jut into our driveway making it a hazard to drive through), but we love Peta overall and she is not the reason for our move. In fact, we felt terrible telling her that we were moving.
The fact is that we are now a little more grown up and are looking for a house that is not a digs but a home. We are looking for something a little more private than the semi-detached that we stay in at the moment. I, for one, am not so fond of waking up in the morning to a barking dog, or listening to banging as pictures are hung on the wall, or listening to children running up and down the stairs. While it was fine when Kim was staying next door, a single woman with one cat and one dog and one son who came to visit on occasion, having a full, growing family next door has become a pain in my neck.
We also wanted to find something in a better neighbourhood. African Street is not the safest in Grahamstown, and the area that we are staying in is close to what used to be the railroad. Three years ago, you couldn't have paid me to live here, and while the neighbourhood has cleared up a little, I still don't feel particularly safe climbing out of my car in the middle of the night to open up the gate.
And so, we started looking for something that was a little more private, a little more quiet, a little more grown up and a little more calm.
And we found it!

When I saw a picture of the house, I jumped on the phone to the rental agency and made a booking to see it. It wasn't a particularly good picture of the house - in fact it was mostly of the garden - but it looked nicer than anything we had seen so far. Being curious and not wanting to wait until the next day, I convinced Grant that we should drive past and have a look. And we liked what we saw. It is in a very nice area, near Graeme College which is a little far from the University (a slight problem for Jono who will still be living with us and will need to invest in a bicycle) but pretty close to work. The area also tends to be safer as most of the houses are bigger and the area is more secluded than African Street.
When we arrived at the house for the booking, it was with the mindset that if we liked it, we weren't going to hesitate. We walked up the driveway, at the end of which was a double garage (something new in itself considering that both of our cars have been parked outside for as long as we've had them), through the front garden (another first for me in Grahamstown) and into the house itself. We were greeted by a large lounge with a big fireplace - a good first impression. Off the lounge was a dining room (in a separate area, another first) and past that was a nice, big kitchen - room for a table and all. The kitchen also had a backdoor which led to the back garden, which was huge with steps going up to different layers of garden and the perfect braai area. Back inside the house, we were shown into the three rooms, all of which were a little smaller than we were used to, one with a newly redone en-suite bathroom (our room). That didn't deter us, however. Even with the smaller rooms, the house itself was much bigger, much nicer and much more private than the one that we were staying in, and it didn't take much for us to fall in love with it.

An hour later, the lease was signed, the deposit paid and we were the proud lessees-to-be of the house at 5 MacGowen. As many of you may have guessed, I am uber excited about the move and am already trying to convince Grant to go furniture shopping (one of the drawbacks of the house is that it doesn't come ready furnished as most houses in Grahamstown do) to no avail. I suppose I will just have to wait for 01 December. It can't come soon enough!