When we moved from Nowra in New South Wales to Brisbane in Queensland we decided to move into our townhouse in Norman Park. We bought Norman Park 10 years ago as an investment but made sense to get to know Brisbane well before investing in a bigger house that would see us into retirement.
Norman Park is a typical townhouse with three bedrooms in two levels but very well situated, less that 5 km from the centre of the city and at a stone throw from train, bus and ferry stations.
Our original plan was to live in Norman Park for two to three months and then start looking for a house. However we did not think that we would be caught up by the convenience of Norman Park: the CBD just around the corner, CityCat river ferry across the road, Norman Park Train station at the end of the road, 10 minutes drive to the office even at peak hour ... the time passed by and only 5 years later we made the move and bought a new house.
Norman Park although small had just enough space to make us feel cosy. The small backyard was made very liveable with a nice covered area where we spent most of our time in summer and a small garden where Filu could pot around.
A family of possums living in the neighbours' trees, blue tongue lizards and fruit bats (flying foxes) added a taste of Aussie outback, 5 minutes from the centre of the most liveable city in Australia: Brisbane.
In the miniscule garden Filu grew Paw-paws, Pitangas (Surinam berries), Jindungos (chillies), Passion fruit and the traditional parsley, mint and coriander.
Althought Norman Park had most of what we needed, it was a bit too crowded when we had visitors and did not have space for my boat and a workshop... we had to move to a bigger house!!!
The search for the new home started mid 2007. We were looking for a three bedroom house with a relatively small backyard but with enough space for a workshop and space to store our boat.
Nowadays there is a tendency to build large houses occupying most of the blocks and therefore finding a house where Nhamalanda (our boat) could be parked and still have space for a workshop proved a harder task than we initially thought.
Filomena spent long hours inspecting houses and there was always something that did not meet our criteria: wrong layout, not enough space for the boat, kitchen not big enough, etc., etc.
Finally, in December 2007, after seeing numerous houses we came across No 6 Carisbrooke Court, planted on a 1040 m2 block, a stone throw from Erica and Bruno's place and with all the things we wanted and a bit more. We did not want such a big house but to have enough space for the boat we end up making an offer for this house. Here are the photos that caught our eye in the Internet.
