The New Housemate

After Neil told me he was moving out to travel I was stressed at the thought of finding a new housemate and relieved that I hadn't had to ask him to move out, as things were not working out as well as they could have. Nice guy, but had no idea how to clean or have respect for other peoples property.

So I first contacted Flatmate Selection and paid $75 for them to look for a housemate for me and have an ad placed on their website. They were quick to take my money, but pretty poor in all respects for their services advertised. They provided me a list of 6 possible housemates. I contacted 4 that met my criteria and all 4 had found places to live at. I checked the website for my ad, but after 10 days it was not there so I emailed them and got some bullshit response that it was the East Vic Park ad. That was a 4x2 place, yet I have a 3x2 place. Not my ad at all, so I emailed again and they fixed it up - no apology for their mistake either. They have since provided me with 2 more possibilities in the last 4 weeks, but both aren't willing to pay as much rent as I asked for.

Fearing Neil moving out on the 13th Sept without a new housemate took it's toll on me. I was very stressed. I placed an ad in the West Australian for the weekend prior to Neil's departure and only 1 girl rang up and checked out the place. She was a definite no-no as she used to live with my ex-housemate Sheryl. Sheryl had warned me about her not paying rent and trying to borrow money of you constantly. Good thing is that she didn't recognise me as I am a brunette now.

The stressed mounted and then I had a call from Bronwyn on Monday evening. She was staying in a hostel and was very keen to look at the place. I had to go to my poker game, so we organised for her to visit at about 9.30pm. Pam stayed to check her out and all I can say is that she seemed perfect. The deal was made that I just needed to confirm the exact date Neil was moving out and perform my reference checks.

Bronwyn passed all checks including a call to her previous real estate agent in Darwin, so she moved in the day after Neil moved out. Talk about timing! It has been 2 weeks since and I could not have asked for a nicer person to move in. Clean, tidy, respectful and intelligent. I hope that she is feeling ok with me as a housemate, and a bit disappointed that she will be leaving in about 6 months to continue her travels around Australia.