Swap ID: 08084Canberra, ACT, Australia
(See location map below...)

Type of Home: House

x 3

x 2

x 5

Location: City/Suburbs - Weston is about 8 km (12 mins by car) from central Canberra..

Preferred Swap Length: Medium Term (4 wks to 3 mths), Long Term (3 mths to 11 mths)

Open to any Destination:  No

Profile: Family-of-3

We are Karen, Graham and Rose - a couple in 50s/60s and 18 year old daughter. We have holidayed in Britain twice before and we would love to have another holiday somewhere in Britain some time in 2013.
Graham is a public servant working with planning and designing new business systems. Karen has home educated Rosie for the last 9 years. This year Karen is studying art history through training to be a volunteer guide at the National Gallery. Rosie is passionate about music, drama and photography and plans to study a degree course in photography.
All of us are enthusiastic family historians and this is a major focus for our visits to Britain. We love seeing the places that our ancestors lived in and learning more about what their lives were like.
Our son and family also live in Canberra.
We have exchanged homes previously with families in Oxford and Ireland in 2001. Both of these worked out very well and we are still in touch. We loved having somewhere to base ourselves and 'to come home to' after a day's exploring.

Type: House,  Bathrooms: 2,  Bedrooms: 3,  Sleeps: 5

About our House: Our home is a warm and comfortable single-level brick veneer house, typical of Canberra houses from the 1970s. There are 3 bedrooms (2 with double beds) and 2 bathrooms. The living area (kitchen, dining, lounge) is at the north end (sunny in winter) and are open-plan. A central hallway leads to the bedrooms, study and library alcove. There is wooden flooring to the hallway and kitchen/dining room, while all other areas are carpeted.
We have excellent heating and cooling systems. There is a ducted heating system (gas) and a heat pump in the living area, which we use when we don't need to heat the rest of the house. The heat pump also cools in summer and there is an evaporative cooling system which cools the interior nicely when it is hot and dry outside.
We have lots of trees around the house and it is very private and quiet. Although we are on a corner, a wide nature reserve with trees separates the house from the street. It is a quiet street anyway, but we hear very little traffic noise in the house.
The swimming pool is enclosed and solar heated, and warm enough for swimming between about Nov and April. The large and covered deck at the rear overlooks the garden and distant hills.
Our garden is visited by lots of birds, particularly beautiful parrots (rosellas, cockatoos and king parrots) and currawongs.

Weston is in the geographic centre of Canberra, a 12 minute drive from the city centre and the other major cultural attractions such as the National Gallery, National Library, Botanic Gardens and Parliament House.
Canberra has natural areas of eucalypt forest and grassland very close to suburban areas. We frequently see kangaroos in a nature reserve just 10-15 minutes walk from home.
Canberra has a dry continental climate - frosty cold in the winter and (usually) hot in the summer. The best times to visit are spring and autumn, when the weather is mostly settled (cool nights, mild-warm days) and the city is beautifully dressed in blossoms or autumn colours.
From Canberra you can drive to the Snowy Mountains (camping, hiking, skiing) in about 2.5 hours. The sea coast is about 2 hours drive (at Batemans Bay) and there are many places to stay up and down the coast from there, with golden beaches and tidal inlets. Sydney is 3 hours on good divided highway right into the centre of the city.

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