Another move, another house!

We tackled the big move and won.  We decided to make the move a day early this week as Marcus had the Grand Opening of their engine plant the next day, even the new Prime Minister of Thailand was supposed to attend, however due to the crisis of floods in northern Thailand she could not make it.  But back to the move.  A colleague of Marcus' offered the use of his driver and Ute for the day which made everything so much easier.  I had majority of our stuff boxed and ready to go and had dropped a few things off the night before while the land lady was here with her team of cleaners.  She had them scrubbing the grout in the floor tiles with Hydrochloric acid and toothbrushes!  Unfortunately they didn't realise was that in the process of all that scrubbing they have taken the shine off the tiles and there is a milky film covering them that wont wash off.  But at least the grout is white again.  This land lady is quite meticulous, she has her nose in everything and was even hanging about the day we moved in making me feel a little bit uncomfortable.  However in saying that she has kept this house very well maintained and in great working order, especially compared to our last place.  The furniture is well thought of and quite tasteful, the kitchen is immaculate and outside is well landscaped and kept very tidy.  Makes me feel a bit scared of any damage we may do in the process of living here with 2 kids and a dog.  Already the dog has attacked the garden and dug up the pots but I am sure everything will be fine.  There is a pool out the front of the house right near the front door with a small spa and an outdoor shower.  There was no fence when took the lease but the owner agreed to let us have one installed at our own expense for the safety of the kids.  We had a team of guys come in yesterday, Friday, and install a black steel fence that Marcus designed to comply with Australian standards.  Surprisingly they succeeded in putting together a pretty good fence, I did however have to point out a few gaps where the fence joined the boundary and asked them to weld in a few more pieces to block the hole.  The only thing I really don't like about this fence is the gates, the latches are placed down the bottom of the gate on the inside so in order for me to unlock it I have to get down on my knees, reach through with the key to undo the padlock and open it up.  To me that is a obvious design fault but once I looked at how it was built I realised that the land lady who was here during the design process would have told them to not drill any holes in the upright pillars and only drill into the cement on the ground.  She told Marcus that she is happy with a fence as long as we remove it when we leave and putty up holes.  I mean this fence cost us 15000baht ($550) and is an obvious enhancement to her being able to lease the property again, especially to a Western family who are educated enough to realise the importance of pool safety with children.  But if that is what she wants then that's fine, it wont cost much to hire a few men to come in and take it away, maybe the same guys who built it will want it back.
So far we have gone swimming everyday and yesterday was so nice to just sit on the sun lounge and watch as Lilly and Judd played quietly in the pool with their pool toys rather than being up at the communal pool feeling self conscious and always scared the kids will slip over on the slippery tiles that surround the pool area.  Now I can sit in all my glory, with the lap top or a book for as long as the kids like and they can come and go and swim and play as long as they like.  We picked the perfect time for a pool I think as Judd can now swim without any floaties and Lillie is growing more and more confident everyday.
The other great thing I love about this new house is the automatic gate!  OMG!  How wonderful to not have to get out every single time to open and shut the gate, especially in the rain.  The kids think is like magic that it can open all by itself. 

Overall we are feeling very happy here, straight away it felt like home and we have moved in, settled and feel like we have been here for ages already.  If Marcus was to get a contract extension I think we would be more than happy to stay here even longer, can't say that the cold winters of Melbourne are calling us home, not yet anyway.