Step One - an aside

It's a generally acknowledged fact that in order to get your own little slice of Sydney you have to part with a few vital organs even if you just plan on renting. However, it seems everyone who knows us thinks that this fact has completely passed us by. I can understand strangers or people with whom we have a passing acquaintance offering up the helpful phrase "Sydney's expensive" and even a personal anecdote about a sister's husband's cousin who lives there and rents a studio apartment for $3000 a day, in fact I almost appreciate their willingness to enlighten us should we be about to stumble into the Sydney real estate market without any forewarning.

But for those who know us and still feel the need to state the bleeding obvious ... why not tell us something useful such as 'sell your car because there's no way in the world you'll find a park within 5kms of your house even with resident's parking'? I mean we're on Domain daily sending potential properties back and forth - we've figured out that at least one of us is selling a kidney in Thailand for the bond.

I think the problem is everyone who knows us knows that we're not the slumming it types. Yet we're both totally on the same page with this move - we're happy for a total dive in the right location. It's a crying shame that no real estate agents with dives in the right area are remotely interested in responding to our emails or phone calls.

In the interim, we have both agreed to compromise on things. Mr Puddleduck no longer views a garage as essential and I no longer view a spare room as necessary and we've both concluded space is a luxury we can't afford. Whatever place we're fortunate enough to be accepted for is going to be treated as a hotel room - a place to crash. Sydney is going to be our house and the six of us are going to spend our days exploring its every crevice and then stumble home, exhausted, into our tiny little box called home. We can't wait!