We Won't be Homeless!

We have an apartment in Wellington! Hip, hip, hooray! Yahoo!!!

J drove over to Wellington yesterday (Friday) and looked at two places. I had spoken to the landlords in advance to ensure that no one had claimed them already, to avoid a repeat of our previous problems. One place looked much worse in person than the pictures had indicated, but one looked even better in real life, and J snapped it right up! Yay!

It is a teeny, tiny flat (hilarious British word for apartment) in Karori, which is just to the west of downtown. It's a 5 minute walk to the bus stop, and then 20 minutes on the bus, which drops J off just 2 minutes from work. Which is amazing, given that our new flat is right up against a big national reserve, so J says when you look out the back door, it's like you're out in the country. The national reserve has mountain biking trails through it that are supposed to be great, so I'm excited to explore those. Also, the house has a beautiful deck that overlooks the reserve, and I'm looking forward to lots of reading out there. Tiny doesn't bother us as long as our furniture fits, and makes it easier to heat, so I think it will be perfect.

While I continued to exercise self-control and keep my housing-related stress to a manageable level this week, it is still a weight off J's and my backs to have the whole thing settled. And it's about time, because we're moving exactly two weeks from today, which is amazingly imminent. But now that we have a place to live, my stress is rapidly giving way to excitement!

I'm going to wait until we move in to show pictures of our flat, but in the meantime, here are two things that made me smile.

This quote is in a beautiful area on the waterfront in Wellington, and it makes me happy. It reminds me of the passionate involvement of children in every aspect of life, which is one of the things I love about them.

J bought me these roses and brought them to me at work the day I drove to Jan's on the way to Wellington. I was inspired to take this picture by how loved I felt, sitting in my cozy, beautiful room at Jan's house, looking at the lovely flowers J had given me. I am a lucky person.