We have bought a house!

We didn't want to jinx anything so we have waited until we got guaranteed finance and the inspection passed to blog about it. So here it is! It is in North Rockhampton in the suburb of Frenchville and it has to be one of the most prestigeous addresses at Forbes Avenue. We didn't pay anything like a prestigeous price for it - real bargain!


There is a lot of bush around and we have a huge backyard. The only thing, that is not shown on the picture, is that it is up a HUGE hill. The backyard goes Dooowwwwnnnn. It is really high! We had looked at the houses on the next 'hill' just south of the house and then went up to Forbes and it was amazing how low the others looked.

These are the pics from the realestate website so still have the sellers' furniture in it, but it gives you a good idea. This is the front. The driveway is a bit steep on the left, but that side of the garage is going to be my workshop anyway :) That's why we needed a double lock up garage! The door on the right is a double entrance door.

This is the side. The neighbours are going to build up to the left, but it will take away hardly any view. You can see how steep the back yard is on the right and it just keeps going like that!

And then the view! Well, some of it anyway. It goes around to the left up the valley. Gorgeous!

And a great patio to admire it from. One day we will probably put an insulated roof on so we can enjoy it all weather as at the moment it might be too hot in summer and if it rains...
The window and door on the right hand end are the master bedroom. The second window is the second bedroom and the main door leads into the dining room.

Here are the lounge and dining rooms as taken from the side of the kitchen. The entrance is basically beside the TV to the right (out of view), behind the wall on the right is the study, and further to the right is the door to the garage. On the left is out to the patio and behind is the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom.

The kitchen may look a little small, but it feels bigger when standing in it. There is always room to expand. The door at the back is the walk in pantry, and out to the right is open to the other part of the dining room, or breakfast alcove, if you wish. It is not gas as Llew wanted, but he thinks he will put in an induction stove since Marianne can't stop raving about how wonderful they are!

The main bathroom with bath and shower. All to Luisa and guests as we have an ensuite!

Yep, this is the master bedroom (our room) with the ensuite on the right and the walk-in-robe on the left. The door to the hall is beside that. Behind is the door and window to the patio. On the far right are two windows looking down the backyard.

The second bedroom. These two rooms are oriented such that the walls the two beds are against are back to back. So the window in the second bedroom looks out to the patio too.

There is a third bedroom which is a decent size too, enough for a double and with built in wardrobes, that will be for Luisa.

Overall, we think it is wonderful and really couldn't go past it. It was just what we wanted and had fabulous views and a great price to boot! More photos after we move in.

Lack of posts

Yeh, yeh, been slack. Been busy to tell the truth.
Many things have changed since previous posts. I am not going to be working in Gladstone for one thing. On Friday June 13 I put in a written job application. On Friday June 20 I had an interview. On Thursday June 26 I was told I had the job. On Friday June 27 I completed the forms. On Monday June 30 I started work!

It was an incredibly fast process but they needed someone to take over at least a week before the previous person left. That was last week. This week I am more in self-propulsion.

So, what am I doing?
I am the First Year Experience Coordinator at the Student Support Centre for the whole of the 6 CQUniversity campuses plus distance students. BIIIIIGGG! Important :p

Yeh, what does that mean?
I organise the orientations and make sure they are run consistenly across all 6 campuses (and a few other places for distance students). That involves coordinating faculty, administration and everything to do with the week long event in Feb and 3 day event in July. This past weekend was the mid-year orientation which was already organised, but I helped run it and had a learning experience.

Next part is the student mentoring program where we get 2nd year or above students and allocate them to all of the first year students at all campuses and distance. Big job, especially when I really don't know what is going on.

Third part is much smaller and is one of the scholarship programs.

The great thing is that I can work towards improving all of these things so that the students in the future have as best experience as possible. Actually that's the biggest part and I get to call in all my research skills and find out what others think too. Not to mention data analysis of surveys and focus groups.

Along with that, I have made contact with my Physics students and started to answer their preliminary course questions. That's so much fun.

So more later. But if you want a blog with interesting photos of an amazing European adventure, see the Normals blog!