The move turned out to be a case of necessity even though we had been looking for a suitable abode for all of us to share for quite a while. The urgency was moved up when, on Mother's Day, our 'lovely' (this term used VERY loosely) landlady (& her boyfriend) took it upon themselves to move some of our personal belongings out onto the nature strip for hard rubbish pick-up. I had already told them not to do that when they had arrived to do some garden maintenance, and before I left to go to my daughter's for Mother's Day. I told them that the Council had to be notified first before any hard rubbish could be put out or you could be fined (mind you I only had my old fridge, old TV & inner metal frame of couch bed near gate to be put out but these people decided that lots of other items of ours were rubbish and put them out as well).
When she was told again by my son (he was on the lease & he was still at home at the time) and my middle daughter that she couldn't do that because a date had to be booked with the Council first and that she did not have our permission to touch ANY of our property she told my children that "your mother's on a month to month lease, if you don't quit this I'll give her a month's notice?" It took us making a call to the Police to have our things moved back on to the property. Happy Mother's Day!!!
To cut a long story short, the following Tuesday, we were served with a Notice to Vacate. I was shocked to find out that standing up for your rights after being a very good tenant for 4 years could lead to this. It turns out though that she has actually done us a huge favour because we upped our house-hunting efforts and we found the most fantastic house, two totally separate living areas under the one roof and it is gorgeous. It is an older clinker brick house which has been totally modernised inside. It has ducted heating (our old place had a space heater which the landlady had not repaired/replaced since the first year we were in there when it broke down and she had a 'quick fix' job done on it) the new house has air conditioning (the old place had none) & a dishwasher. We also have a huge back verandah where I can sit and sip my morning coffee in the warm Winter sun and there are roses, roses, roses everywhere (my favourite flower of course), it's heavenly really. We are very, very happy indeed. (Photos later).
Anyway, now you know why I have been absent from cyber-space but you can't get rid of me that easily and I have lots more tales to tell.
My grandson asleep on couch last night