Don't panic! We haven't moved to Somalia, but to Mogadishu Street in Amman.
Most
of the other streets near our new house are named after places in Iraq-
(Mosul St, Karbala St., Babel St., Basra St.) But for some reason our
road is named after the capital of Somalia. There is a nice group of
shops on the corner of our street which has most things that we need.
After so many problems in our house with water leaks we had been wondering about whether or not to move to a new house. Even though the water leaks into our house had stopped, there was a lot of mould on the ceilings which came back very quickly whenever we cleaned it off. The rent for our house was due at the end of March, and we pay once every 6 months, so we knew that if we wanted to move, now was the time, even though it seems a bit of a crazy thing to do with a one month old baby.
A house in high demand
The first house we looked at was amazing and perfect for our needs, but it was a bit too expensive for our budget. We looked at a few other houses but they were more expensive and not as good, so we decided to try and bring the price down for the first house. Lots of other people had wanted the house but the owners had turned them all down because they had been waiting for a family they liked. Apparently, they like us, because they reduced the rent down to what we wanted and, less than a week after starting to look at houses, we signed the contract.
Jordanian version of Pickford's
We decided to use a removal company which we heard about through one of the parents of Isaiah's classmate at school. They had promised to handle everything except for our clothes, which we should pack and transport ourselves.
Miscommunication
After dropping the kids at school, I started packing a few of the more delicate things into our cars, before the removal guys arrived. When they arrived with their truck, they were surprised at the amount of stuff we were expecting them to pack in addition to the furniture and had not brought any boxes. It seems there had been some miscommunication between them and our initial contact. One of them went off to get boxes while the others started dismantling our big wardbrobes. Even when they brought the boxes, they were not enough, so I had to get some bin bags from the supermarket.
When we arrived at the new house and, as we had anticipated, our big wardrobe was too tall for the ceiling in our new bedroom, so they cut off the decorative layer on the top, which meant that it would just fit with a couple of centimetres to spare. The removal guys worked very quickly and we were a bit concerned about things getting broken, but they did a good job and the only damage was a dent in the side of the cooker.
Our new house has just been renovated and is bigger than the old house, which is good for our new family size. There is quite a big lounge so that we can have lots of visitors, it has a nice garden for the kids to play in, and is located much closer to most of the places that we go to regularly. We feel so blessed to have found such a nice house in such a good place.
Mogadishu in Iraq?
Mogadishu St from the front door
Time to move
Our new house
A house in high demand
The first house we looked at was amazing and perfect for our needs, but it was a bit too expensive for our budget. We looked at a few other houses but they were more expensive and not as good, so we decided to try and bring the price down for the first house. Lots of other people had wanted the house but the owners had turned them all down because they had been waiting for a family they liked. Apparently, they like us, because they reduced the rent down to what we wanted and, less than a week after starting to look at houses, we signed the contract.
Our new lounge area
Jordanian version of Pickford's
We decided to use a removal company which we heard about through one of the parents of Isaiah's classmate at school. They had promised to handle everything except for our clothes, which we should pack and transport ourselves.
Miscommunication
After dropping the kids at school, I started packing a few of the more delicate things into our cars, before the removal guys arrived. When they arrived with their truck, they were surprised at the amount of stuff we were expecting them to pack in addition to the furniture and had not brought any boxes. It seems there had been some miscommunication between them and our initial contact. One of them went off to get boxes while the others started dismantling our big wardbrobes. Even when they brought the boxes, they were not enough, so I had to get some bin bags from the supermarket.
Ethan brumming his car around our new garden
Making the wardrobe fit our bedroom
The local shops
Our new house has just been renovated and is bigger than the old house, which is good for our new family size. There is quite a big lounge so that we can have lots of visitors, it has a nice garden for the kids to play in, and is located much closer to most of the places that we go to regularly. We feel so blessed to have found such a nice house in such a good place.
