winston the puppy + new home!

Winston! Tomorrow marks the two week point of welcoming this adorable little sidekick into our world and oh my goodness he is the cutest puppy addition of all time. He's already racked up a hilarious concoction of nicknames like; Winnie Von Trapp, Winstable, Winstonia, Winestrone which turns into Minestrone! Haha!

He realllllllllly wants to be friends with Russell, but Russell has a completely different agenda (as in, is looking to bump him off somehow haha). Whereas Archie, on the other hand is extremelyy intrigued by him until Winston does that crazy puppy jumping...then Archie runs away as fast as possible haha. It's all high quality entertainment around here!

Winston is also the most hil-ar-i-ous when he is in a crazy running mood. He will run endless laps around the backyard until he's exhausted and wants to go sleep on the cold tiles in the laundry. He is the BEST! I love him.

Now onto another announcement of change around here. We are moving house! 4km away from where we currently live now so not far haha! We are moving to a much bigger house which will be absolutely perfect for a number of things we are looking for.

The only thing is that we are still living with my parents. 25, married and living with my parents. Not the ideal situation. There's good sensible reasons behind it though. A while ago now (8 years), my parents sold my childhood house in Lane Cove and decided to rent in the upper north shore. This was for numerous reasons like; Eddy and I went to school in the area, it was the area where both my parents grew up, they wanted to put more money into their business etc etc etc. Asset rich, cash poor was the main underlying reason though. And so we sold and rented a much bigger house in Turramurra. But then with Eddy moving to Canada and me living over in England, that house was getting too big for just Mum & Dad so they downsized to a smaller, but nicer house in Wahroonga (where we are now). I urged them to apply for it because it would be perfect for two with a little extra space for an office & storage.

Little did we know that George and I would be moving to Sydney just 8 months later, without a place to live (if Eddy hadn't left for Canada 3 days later we would have been stuffed haha). Mum and dad offered we live with them and not pay rent so we could save and move out to our own place (which is what we were/still are dreammmming about). However, then the realisation of paying for some of our wedding and a big honeymoon popped into our heads and so we reevaluated and said we would move out when we got back from our honeymoon. So a couple of days after we returned, we went to go check out a few places in the Manly/Freshwater area. It was actually kind of painful to see what you get for $500 per week (in size, the places were nice...ish but very small).

So on the way home we chatted about it all. On the honeymoon we had discussed the option of investing in a complete redesign of the What To Cook website which at the time seemed like a pipe dream, but after viewing the rental property market on the beaches, it was starting to feel like a good idea to look into now! We came home and pitched the idea to my parents - split the cost of the website, but move into a bigger house (before one of us went crazy). They were on board after reassuring if we were sure we wanted to go ahead. And yes, we were, as long as we could find a house that would allow us to live somewhat separate "at home" lives.

As I went about investigating for the website, mum & George went about investigating the house. We were planning to move after Christmas but last Wednesday the PERFECT HOUSE popped up. We went to view it straight away and applied immediately. And after a couple of days of pure waiting torture (I was dreammmming about that kitchen and that pool) we found out last Wednesday that our application was approved! We are moving on the 19th Dec and will be in the new house for Christmas!

It's an amazing house and we cannot believe how lucky we are we happened to see it online at just the right time! It has so much beautiful natural light, beautiful hardwood floors, heaps of extra space and rooms even for when Eddy comes back from Canada next May! It's perfect. But it's definitely not what we envisaged our living arrangements would be in the first year of marriage.

I've come to realise though that plans change, and there are different ways about going about things. I think I am the only person I know out of my friends who still live on the upper north shore (most have moved down closer to the city) and still live with their parents (however most live in share houses which George and I are not willing to do). But the bestttttt thing is that I have an incredibly supportive husband who believes in What To Cook and it's prospects. Let's hope/work really hard so it all pays off :) :) :)

Phases of life are so weird & funny don't you think? This is definitely an exciting and promising phase even if it's different to the original plan. It's all about adapting and making your dreams work under all kinds of circumstances. Plus, the new house will mean a fresh start (George and I have even bought a new bed & beautiful bedding for it) and I am a complete and utter SUCKER for fresh starts.

P.S Thank you so much for the comments on this post. I was beyond touched and it helped me so so so much! I'll have an update after my dentist appointment this Wednesday :) Check back to the post because I've responded to each beautiful comment.