Off we go to Toowong. We checked out the house today. I wonder when I became a snot, but the house is definitely a rental. There are lots of good things about it - high ceilings, lots of windows, high on a hill with a view of the city, a pool. Plus Ellis had a great time running around and around and around (with Rowan trying to keep up while crawling). It is old, so has lots of weird spaces (which I have always liked).
For example - the living room has two doors into it - one off the hall and one off the kitchen and there is an opening in the back wall with the dining room on the other side. The dining room has a door at one end (kitchen) and on the other (square room in corner of house with no purpose - maybe Cyp's office) that has a another door that leads to a another room off the end of the living room. I'm not describing it very well, but I guess this gives the sense that it is a series of rooms that are all connected by doors that Ellis could run around and around in - opening and slamming the doors behind him.
The bedrooms are like that too - a room, with another room just off them. Both bedrooms have doors that open onto the front verandah. I checked Ellis's - I think he would have a hard time opening it (I hope) as it is essentially a door from his room straight into the front yard.
Ellis wants to share a room with Rowan (I guess he would be happy with Rowan out of our bed - I think this really hurts Ellis - the fact that he has to sleep all by himself when the three of us do not). I think Rowan will go in the room off our room though.
I'm also afraid to say that the guest accommodation does smell a bit. Not sure of what yet, but hopefully it will get aired out. I fear not though as I seem to recall it smelled when we first looked at the house. That said - it is a nice bright room with doors opening onto a patio which overlooks the pool. Plus there is a bathroom. This is the weird thing about Queenslanders (the houses here). The downstairs are essentially outside. So the downstairs bathroom and guest room are not really part of the house. Is someone wanted to, they could walk in off the street and use our bathroom. Funny. So - is everyone really tempted now to come and visit? The laundry is similar - it's kinda like everything is built underneath the house in an open area - with a few walls added in but you have to leave the house to get access.
The only other thing is that the walls and baseboards could definitely use a coat of paint. Things are a bit dingy - that said - they will just get dingier with us as the boys are definitely hard on things. You should see our patio doors. Ellis stands on one side, Rowan on the other and they pound away with their soot blackened hands (from crawling around the patio floor).
Ok - that is enough of that. I will post pictures soon.
The other thing we did today was go to see a live version of the Gruffalo. It was really great - imagine 300 kids and parents crammed into an intimate theatre. I enjoyed the play so that says it must have been good as the kids did chatter and scream a lot. Ellis and Rowan were super well behaved (Rowan was fascinated until he fell asleep 20 minutes in). Ellis was glued to the acting. Later on he said:
"I wasn't scared of the Gruffalo. I might have been scared if he was bigger, but he wasn't big so I wasn't scared."
The theatre was located in a planned community near downtown (Kelvin Grove). It actually seemed to work quite well - lots of apartment buildings surrounding parks and cafes. They also had a market today.
Tomorrow we may go to a park opening and hopefully move the rest of our stuff from the apartment. Movers come Monday. Tuesday is Australia day. We'll be cleaning the apartment a bit. Then it's back to school for the kiddies. Ellis starts new daycare on Friday.
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