Why upgrading from a small Dee Why apartment was the right move for the Moodys

In one way or another, life in lockdown has changed the way we live. While most people are longing for things to get back to “normal”, others are taking this chance to make a permanent change.

This was the case for Hayley Moody, an avid surfer who, for the past 20 years, has lived and thrived in Sydney, purchasing her first property in 2008 in the coastal suburb of Dee Why – a two-bedroom unit that she came to call home with her husband, Joshua, their one-year-old son Asher, and kelpie Auri.

“It was bright and beautiful, but small, which was great when we were young and had no baby; we got to surf with our friends everyday, everything was in walking distance, and there was always stuff going on,” Moody says.

“But when Asher was born, we realised that we were going to run out of room quickly.”

In a new stage as a family and caught in the baby bubble, the couple found themselves dreaming of a life beyond the city limits,  which only amplified when the COVID-19 crisis hit, and lockdown had begun.

“It was a struggle; Asher had just started walking, running, climbing, and we were stuck in such a confined space, while also both trying to work from home – we couldn’t do all the things that make life with a toddler easy, like visit friends, or go to the beach and parks,” Moody says.

“We really weren’t sure where we were going to move to, or when, but we knew something had to give.”

As fate would have it, during a casual inspection of a property that had caught their interest online – a four-bedroom home in the coastal town of Forster – something simply clicked.

“When we saw this house in real life, we instantly saw so much potential,” Moody says. “It had high ceilings, a backyard, veggie garden, three-car garage, and perhaps the biggest selling point; it was close to the beach.”

With Joshua working in the disability sector and able to work from anywhere, and Hayley being made redundant from her marketing manager role, a move seemed practical. So the couple decided to make an offer, and to their surprise it was accepted.

“We were like, ‘oh wow, we are moving to Forster — now what?’”

And so the couple sold their Dee Why unit, making the move to their 30-year-old house 600 metres from the beach, with the intention to renovate over time.

“The change from living in a unit to a house has been wonderfully different,” Moody says.

“I have loved having more space to be organised, and it’s been a real fantastic experience making it a home, while Josh spends hours walking around outside, watering plants, pulling up weeds, and playing with Auri.”

As for Asher, Hayley says he is relaxed and happy and, unlike before, they no longer need to have the TV on all the time, as there’s so much else to entertain him.

“In Dee Why, we watched a lot of Wiggles and were saying ‘no’ to him a lot, as he was always climbing on stuff he shouldn’t be,” she says. “It was a real challenge, and looking back, I don’t know how we did it for so long.”

With life slowing down, the Moody family has made way for new family traditions, like fish and chips on Tuesdays, reading books every night before bed on a big cosy rug in the living room, and more visits from friends and family – a welcomed change thanks to a spare bedroom.

“Forster is so quiet that it’s made me realise how noisy Dee Why was,” Moody says.

“We had some great neighbours there who will be lifelong friends, but also some horrible backpacker ones who would make so much noise, making it hard for us all to sleep – the beach there was also always busy, while here you could easily be the only ones there at any given time.”

Nowadays, Josh works out of Newcastle one day a week, and the rest of the time from home or the nearby town of Tuncurry, while Hayley has decided to lean further into her creative side, creating products for her new brand, The Golden Kind.

Together, they have begun renovations of their property, with the goal to make it their forever home.

“We would love to put a small little pool out the front eventually and really make this place our own little oasis,” Moody says. “But the thing about Foster is that no one is really in a hurry here, and now neither are we.”

This is part of a series looking at how Australians bought their homes. For more advice, read Domain’s ultimate guide to buying your first home.