We found a house!

A day or two after the fire, when news of our fire had spread through our local community, we were visited by one of our neighbours, who is also our accountant. During the course of the conversation we told him that we hadn't yet found alternative accommodation. Casually he mentioned that one of the rental propertys that he administers had recently become vacant and that we were welcome to inspect it to see if it would meet our needs.

As luck would have it, it is a short 10 minute walk from our old house with ample space for us and our meagre possessions. We moved what we had managed to recover from the house into it last Tuesday (17 May) and have made ourselves quite at home. We borrowed other furniture from work colleagues and friends and, despite the house being substantially smaller than our old home, figuatively rattle inside it. We even have an entire room spare for interstate visitors.

We are indeed fortunate that due to the provisions of our home insurance policy, we are able to stay in appropriate accommodation for up to one year at the insurer’s expense. Unfortunately we have to keep meeting the mortgage payments!

Moving away from our old house was more traumatic than I would normally care to mention, but now that we have some normality in our lives, I’m glad that we moved when we did. We are comfortable (with lots of borrowed furniture), warm (reverse-cycle airconditioning is lovely), safe (deadlocks on all external doors) and far enough away from the old house that it takes more than a casual effort to go and visit it. I can now report that I have not visited the site for 2 whole days, although I have to go back tomorrow to collect some gear.

We have retained our old telephone number, and remain in touch with friends and relatives across Australia.

Thank you for the many well-wishes and offers of support.