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May15
Leafing through the papers, they
found their next home, initially “a bit
of a dump” in the Sixth Avenue area.
“Although the kitchen was a disaster
and the bathrooms needed redoing,
the house had good bones, and so we
put in an offer that included us paying
for the renovation work, and asked to be
locked into a three-plus-two-year lease.”
It sounds just a bit bonkers to me – after
all, who wants to carry out renovations
to a house they don’t own? – but Mel
explains that the rent was so low that it
made sense.
Three years later and Fin was
headhunted for a job in the Middle
East, so they readied themselves for a
move, pulled Jordy out of the Australian
International School, and went on a trip
to North America, where by all accounts
they had “a lovely time”, before getting
a call from Fin’s company ten days
before the big move, telling them they
wouldn’t be going just yet. Thankfully,
they managed to get Jordy into Tanglin
Trust School (TTS) two days before
term started, but the family still didn’t
have a home.
In desperation they moved to a house
in the Watten Estate area – “which I
hated,” says Mel – and in which they
lived for just one year. Next stop was
a six-bedroom black-and-white in Ross
Avenue. “It had a great outdoor area
and pool, and was just brilliant; we loved
living there.”
Things changed again when Fin
started his own company and then Jordy
got a place at Tring Park School for
the Performing Arts in the UK; they no
longer needed the space Ross Avenue
afforded them.