February 5th

One of the things A’s pregnancy has imposed on us is the need to find a bigger place to live in. A move from the unit we live in now – which I’ve been renting since the early '90s – was probably inevitable at some point, if only because modern society emphasizes the importance and relative security of owning one’s own home rather than ‘throwing your money down the drain’ through renting. I’ve argued with A the advantages of renting, but I was resigned to moving out of this place at some point.

My reluctance largely stems from the fact that this unit, for which the rent is very reasonable, is in such a great location – a quiet street, a five minute walk to the closest tram and train stops (and equally close to restaurants and convenience stores), a ten minute drive to my work (or a 20 minute ride along the nearby bike path), etc. Where could we hope to find an affordable place as well-situated? Certainly our preliminary house-hunting has not been very hopeful – each place that seems within our price range (according to the advertising) ends up spiraling way beyond it, and we’re having to consider options further and further from the city (and my work). Of course, people had warned us how expensive inner suburban housing is, but somehow we figured, with the potential house deposit we have in the bank (largely from the sale of A’s own inner suburban flat), plus a bit of luck, we’d find what we were after.

Well, no such luck so far. And we don’t have many months left before it’s going to be too difficult to handle the rigors of moving house, and we’ll need to postpone it till some time after the baby’s born. That would mean converting our spare bedroom/study into the baby’s bedroom, which wouldn’t be easy. The spare bed would probably have to go (there’s little enough room as it is), and I’d need to find space for various boxes of books, comics, etc, that are currently cluttering the floor (the damp garage might be our only option there).

The books and comics, by the way, are another reason I’m dreading a house move. I’ve accumulated such a large collection of these, filling numerous bookcases and cupboards, that I can’t imagine how long it would take to pack them and lug then to a new place. I keep thinking maybe I should try to sell some of them so I don’t have so many to move, but I find it so very hard to part with them. The first time we went to a flea market to get rid of various household items, I came home with pangs of regret for selling some of my ‘unwanted’ comics. They were cheap Australian reprints, of no real value, but my nostalgic longing to have them again couldn’t be denied….

Anyway, whether it’s the book-situation or the baby-situation, we’ll have to find a larger place eventually – even if we end up renting again. So, in the hope that we can resolve this situation sooner rather than later, it looks like most of our weekends for the time being will be focused on this issue….