Quick house notes

I just wanted to give some quick updates before I head off to bed.  It's 10:45 here and typically I have been asleep for a few hours by now.  However, the tv was on in our room and some giant singing flower on a commerical woke me up.  That, combined with the Bailey's coffeee that I had after dinner, and I am awake. 
So, our Australian house hunting seems to be done for now.  We did what we typically do and picked the first place that we actually went inside.  Of course, we'd be driving around for a few days and had pretty much decided we wanted to be in the area of Corlette.  There were actually two houses for rent on the same street, but we could only get in to see one of them.  The second isn't available for viewing until after the current renters move out, on July 2nd.  We liked the one we did see.  It does have a few flaws, but some really nice points too.  First, it's the neighbor we want.  Second, killer water views man.  Third, five bedrooms.  The house is set way up on a hill which is how it manages to have a water view.  It's a steep driveway, but there is a garage at the top that we can park in.  Now, if you walk around to the main door which is actually on the side of the house, you enter on the main level.  The main level has two small living areas, a kitchen, a dining area, and half bath and a laundry.  Both of the living areas are on either side of the kitchen and open onto the very large balcony.  From the main level, you go up about 5 steps and you are on the first level of bedrooms and are at the back of the house.  This level has 1 full bath, a very large walk in linen closet and 3 bedrooms.  Turn and go up 5 more steps and we're back at the front of the house and the two upstairs bedrooms.  The bathroom is shared between the two bedrooms and is a passthrough bath.  The orginal idea when designed and built that the smaller bedroom would be a nursery.  We'll just use it as a guest room.  Now, back on the main level, you can also go down lots and lots of stairs to the ground floor.  This has the two car garage and ten tons of storage.  Of course, we won't have that much to store since we left it all back in the States.  We will be moving there about the 17th of July, which means that we will have to live in this apartment until then.  I posted a link on my Facebook page to the house. 
Our house in Pasadena:  We got an offer yesterday on our house.  It was listed at $345,000 based on advice from our realtor.  The offer was for $300,000.  To us, that's too low.  We counter offered and are now just waiting to hear a response.  It would be great to sell quickly.  The idea of paying rent and mortgage is not going to be great.  A huge weight would be gone if we sell our house.  I am hoping they accept our counter offer.  Please, please, please let them.

House hunting

So Jay will be working at the base in Williamtown, which is about 15 minutes north of Newcastle.  There are several smaller towns within a reasonable driving distance to Williamtown.  Here's a bit about all them and their pros and cons.

Williamtown- only the base and the airport, no residental area at all. 
Medowie- This is the closest town to the base and is just north of the base.  There are some really nice spots of town, some okay spots, and some not great spots.  There is a primary school, but only one store. 
Raymond Terrace-  This is the second closest town to the base and is just to the west.  Raymond Terrace is larger and has one really great residental area and a whole lot of "sketchy" areas.  There are several schools and lots of shopping.
Tanilba Bay and Mallabulla- these two towns are right next to each other and are located on the water.  They have one school between the two and lots of residental areas.  There are no shops or anything even close.  They are sorta out by themselves.
Anna Bay and Boat Harbour- again, two towns right next to each to other and are on the ocean side of the Port Stephens Pennisula.  There are some fantastic beaches in this area.  Not many shops, but close to the Salamander Bay shopping area.
Lemon Tree Passage- Just too long of a drive for Jay
Nelson Bay- This is a big resort town in the summer and is packed.  Shopping and eating out are expensive and the one school is very small.  One part of Nelson Bay would be great though because it is closer to Corlette than Nelson Bay proper. 
Corlette- This is where we would really really like to live.  It is very residental and very nice.  Not too far from the water, good schools and near the Salamader Bay shopping area.
Salamander Bay- Good residential, but spread out.  In our top three for areas for looking.

Okay, so we spent last week driving around and looking at all the above places.  It's how we decided where we would like to live.  We then started searching online for places to rent.  We really want a 4 bedroom house.  We found 13 houses on the Port Stephens Pennisula with 4 bedrooms.  We crossed off 3 right away because they were in Mallabulla or Lemon Tree Passage.  Cross off 2 more because they are in bad neighborhoods.  So we started calling about the other 8.  4 of them were already rented.  That leaves 4.  Two in Corlette, one in Salamader Bay and one in Nelson Bay. 
Now this is where things are a little different here than in the States.  We called about one of the houses in Corlette which is available to move into on July 6th.  We were hoping to get in to see it.  However, it is not available for viewing until after the current renters move out on July 2nd.  So we are on a list to be notified when available for viewing.  Of course, we could sign the lease and rent it without viewing it. 
We called about the other house in Corlette and the agent in charge was not in the office that day so we have to wait until this morning after 9.  We hope to go see it this morning. 
I feel like we are runnning out of time to live in the apartment, but that's just not true.  We've not even been in here a week and we have up to 4 weeks in here.  I think I am just ready to be settled.  Of course, we need the house before we can do anything else.  Without an address, we can't register for schools, open a bank account, buy a car, etc.  Hopefully, we'll have better luck today.