Moving out and moving in

Sunday, 1 March 2026

Last year Zali and Jett were both at Melbourne Uni and living in our shared Melbourne Apartment.   While this worked in the most part (and was by far the most cost effective option for us), it was a bit of a hassle for everyone.  If someone came to stay, the kids had to move into a room together, and no-one got the place to themselves. We did once move them out into an airbnb for a week so both bedrooms could be used by the other owners, but that was also a bit of a hassle as they had to almost completely move out and get the place back up to airbnb standard.

So this year we planned to move the kids out into their own apartment.  We had budgetted quite a lot to find something nearby and furnished, but after a tough weekend of inspecting and applying we discovered that only wanting a 9 month lease (as the kids would come home over summer), and not having any recent rental history, made us undesirable tennants.  And in a situation where there was a lot of competition at every livable place, we realised we weren't going to find anywhere.

However just as we steeled ourselves to breaking it to Paul and Dani that we would have to  have the kids stay in our apartment again, Zali and I did a tour of the fancy new build-to-rent building which was just opening up just a 5 minute walk away.  We were totally blown away by the facilities and apartments, the ony problem was the extra $75 above budget and unfurnished status (although it had all appliances).  The upside was that this building had apartments available and they were willing to rent to us, despite the short lease and lack of rental history.

So after working out that we could balance out the cost by reducing the total lease time (and move the kids back to our apartment before the end of the school year), we decided to apply and sure enough, they accepted us. Yay!

So this weekend we got the keys to the new place and to a GoGet van,  and set about rounding up furniture from everywhere.

Ikea shopping and loading the van.. 

We got a 'kitchen bundle' of just about everything we needed for $40 from Facebook Marketplace, plus a small couch from another person.  We sourced mattresses from the Salvos and everything else from Ikea or Kmart.  Today we finished putting the last few things together (for now) and the place looks great.  It has such good views that aside from practically being able to watch the F1 from their bedroom windows, they will also be able to see whenever people in the surrounding area put furniture out for free - so they will hopefully be able to snap up the last few things they need - including a coffee table, vacuum cleaner, and if they keep their eyes out, maybe even a tv. For now though it looks pretty good (and worlds away from my first Uni accomodation which had an outside toilet and a bedroom with no windows).

The kitchen and lounge area above, and Jett's room below.

Zali's room: