Sunday, December 2, 2007

Suburban dilemma

As many of you know I have to move out of my beloved Northbridge apartment in about three weeks. As many of you also know I have been so unbelievably slack (and have also been a victim of circumstances outside my control, I assure you) getting it together that I have left it to the last possible moment to find a new place. Meaning I shall be homeless in oooh 15 days or so.

The circumstances-out-of-my-control bit is more or less to do with where I want to live. Which is to say I want to live in Northbridge and my would-be roomie not only does not but has rejected a perfectly wonderful place just down the road on the grounds that it does not accept pets and appparently he now requires a dog (the fact that the proposed dog would be called Jean Luc Picard is not quite enough to melt my icy heart). I love, love, living in the middle of the city, love the immediacy of everything, love the close proximity of my beloved Tarts and so on this one point I have been extremely firm. I may even have yelled, once or twice, that I was not ready to move to the fucking suburbs, buy a dog and spend my weekends at Bunnings.

And then my lovely parents not only go and drop a huge chunk of my future inheritance on a sweet-as little place in Shenton Park but offer to rent it to us at a knock-down fee and I'm presented with a dilemna. The house itself is lovely - it has a great bath and a great living area, both surely necessities - and is generally very cute and aesthetically appealing. Furthermore this means I won't actually be homeless and living out of a storage facility in the near future but will have a sweet-arse house in a matter of weeks and will have a pair of very understanding landlords who won't require a reference from that stupid bitch Pam at Property People with whom I once exchanged a flurry of furious emails and who probably still has a doll-sized version of me with a pin sticking out of its left eye socket sitting on her desk.

So taking the Shenton Park place and sucking up my inner-city ambitions (for the short term anyway) may seem like an obvious step but I'm conflicted. On the one hand part of me actually believes that moving to the suburbs is the death of hope and the start of a trajectory that ends with me in a cable knit sweater watching The Bill, but the other part of me remembers that a)I was once perfectly happy in Mount Hawthorn, b)Shenton Park is a perfectly lovely suburb as suburbs go and c)I do own a perfectably serviceable (suspect thumping noise aside) vehicle with which to leave the suburbs when I choose to do so.

So I seek your opinion, readers. Am I being a big girl's blouse about the entire thing? Is it actually possible to find an awesome Northbridge apartment in 15 days that is big enough to fit the biggest couch every known to mankind (and the Chesterfield)? Should I just suck it up and start working on the cable knit sweater set now?
.
UPDATE: It has been brought home to me, ever so gently and kindly, that I am a bint who doesn't know how good she has it. This is true. Shenton Park is starting to sound rather appealing to me after all even if I don't get to live over the road from one crack den and two houses down from another. Sigh. Still, one can't have it all...

16 comments:

shiny said...

If someone offered me somewhere to live in Shenton Park I'd be there in a heartbeat. And I'm a person with only three realistic "liveable" suburbs on the list of places that must be better than here. I even contemplate the "renovators dream" options from time to time. Then my brain re-enters my head.

my name is kate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
my name is kate said...

Well my dear mother today offered the immortal words 'it can always be a stop gap..' so, you know, seems more attractive all of a sudden...

my name is kate said...

Oh but wait observer don't you actually OWN your place? I'm a bloody renter. My most signficant assets are my books... and, first edition of Great Gatsby aside, that's actually quite sad.

Bolton said...

Yeah I think you'd actually be nuts not to take it. Shenton Park is also quite close to work, on the back roads. If Selby St is a back road.

Anonymous said...

hey, you know if that big couch (or the chesterfield) doesn`t fit in your oh-life-is-so-hard shenton park pad, then we can babysit for you until our even-bigger couch arrives. sorry for making you homeless, and you can always come and hang at our place and pretend tarts is still your local.

shiny said...

Your first edition gatsby is probably worth more than my flat, love.

Anonymous said...

I don't know - the burbs might not be that bad. Maybe Corey Feldman will live across the road and you can have wacky Tom Hanks styled shenanigans.

And Shents??? It's not like you're moving to Baldivis is it.......

my name is kate said...

Damnit other kate you're going to steal the hot tarts barista from me, aren't you? His big dumb hot face is mine, I tells you, all mine...

(and i think perhaps i should be thanking for you giving us the place in the first place, at a knock down price no less, bless your cotton socks).

my name is kate said...

And hee hee Feldman. Here's hoping. I'm not sure hijinks or shenanigans are allowed in SP but I'll do my best.

On the plus side once we're in I can have big fat housewarming drinks and knock a few grand off my parents' investment with some drunken shenanigans.

Okay, I'm feeling better about this...

Jessica said...

I once found a place to live, in the city, 5 days before my lease was up. It's possible!

Dave said...

I think we're all missing the point here. The Western Suburbs can hardly count as "the burbs."
Try lving in, oh I don't know, Nollamara or Morley even. (Disclaimer - I have never lived in either of those two suburbs) Then you'll really know what the burbs are like...

Anonymous said...

I know we barely know each other, but are you insane? Take the damn house.

Anonymous said...

Looking for houses sucks and Shenton Park rocks. Oh and being a renter does suck :/ My biggest asset is my new scooter.

- Mike G

my name is kate said...

I want a scooter... or I would if I were a better driver or less attached to, you know, being able to walk.

Thankyou all so much for the comments - I am an indecisive bint at the best and at the blurst of times and do appreciate it.

my name is kate said...

Oh and frick me I've just remembered that Moist Eyes lives in Shenton Park (er to the two of you who know to whom that referes yes, yes that IS a good point). Awesome.