Canberra is a city with two histories - one as the nation's capital, and the other as a place to live.
And the houses Canberrans have lived in over the past century tell a story of the city's evolution.
As we mark our own centenary here at The Canberra Times, we've looked back on how we have covered the city through the decades and seen the city morph and grow, via the grand sweep of history and the changing aspirations of its people.
Jenny and Rob Ermini were just 22 and 24 respectively when they started hunting for a home together.
The pair weren't even engaged yet, but they knew what they wanted.
Yet it was a revelation to both of them as they drove up Erindale Drive, and saw the Brindabellas in the distance, and the Tuggeranong Valley in the foreground.
They had both spent their formative years in Canberra - Rob was the son of Italian migrants who arrived here in the 1950s - and had been looking in Woden and Weston Creek for a house.
But driving only a few minutes south, they saw new streets, houses on crests and plenty of space.
"We thought, let's have a look on that hill over there," Jenny remembers.
They came upon a house with a 'For Sale' sign, and decided to buy it.
"It had big clumps of dirt at the front, absolutely no landscaping, just in the raw, and very open at that stage," she says.
Inside was a five-bedroom home with three living spaces and a spectacular view out to the Brindabellas. Their future was decided, even though they were still hoping to one day move back to the Woden Valley, where Jenny's parents still lived.
"We did things in a hurry," she says. "We bought the house in June, and we got engaged more or less straight away, and we got married in October."
It was 1980, and Canberra's Nappy Valley was taking shape.
The Erindale Centre opened the same year; Kambah was established, and Wanniassa, Gowrie, Oxley and Richardsen were taking shape. Over the next decade, Monash appeared, alongside Fadden, Macarthur, Gilmore, Calwell, Isabella Plains and Chisholm,
The blocks were spacious and the views in the hillier suburbs were spectacular, and the residents a mixed demographic. Tradies lived alongside public servants; Rob owned a sportswear store in Civic, and business was good. It was the perfect place to set down roots and bring up a family.
"We weren't intending to stay that long, because we still would have liked to have been closer in," Jenny says.
"But as it turned out, we all settled in. The family started to grow, they had their friends, and we really didn't have a need to move. We didn't need more room, and everything was here."
Meanwhile, Rob was "spending money on the house on how we would like it spent".
He put in a pool, a barbecue, a pergola and, his pride and joy, a fully stocked bar in the rumpus room.
They had two children, Alicia and Daniel, who roamed the streets and went in and out of neighbours' houses - a real 1980s childhood, when the world felt safer.
"Back then, you didn't make playdates, you just turned up at someone's door and said, 'do you want to play?'," Jenny says.
"You just rocked up on your bike, or you walked. The parents didn't organise their children, there was freedom."
Families came and went, and the social demographic of the neighbourhood has changed over the years.
Now, 46 years after moving in, the pair are downsizing and moving out, to a smaller house in Mawson.
Real estate agent Duncan Macdonald, of Bastion Property Group, who's helping them sell it, says the house is a perfect example of an established family home in what used to be Nappy Valley - and may yet be again.
About 34 groups came through on the home's first open day, and he reckons 90 per cent were families looking to size up.
"One thing which is noticeable, and this resonates with most people who are looking, when they're considering, Wanniassa, Kambah and Fadden, they would nearly be considered as perimeter suburbs to Woden Valley, with amenity and accessibility, but without the price tag," he says.
He's a Wanniassa boy himself; his parents bought their home there in the late 1970s, before moving to Kambah in the 1990s.
"I've certainly seen the changes there over over the years," he says.
"It offers a real sweet spot in terms of in terms of value. It's a really good mix of a really good mix of housing. Areas like Wanniassa Hills - I grew up in the 'flats' of Wanniassa, the lowlands - are probably those aspirational areas if you love the Tuggeranong Valley."
For the Erminis, moving was a tough decision made easier by the nice house they're moving into - where they originally wanted to live in the Woden Valley, and the fact they're both healthy enough to make the decision on their own terms.
And they hope a new family will move in and stay for a while, and watch the sunsets off the back verandah like they did.
"That's what we're going to miss the most," Jenny says of the valley view.
"It is beautiful, it's interesting watching the weather, and the sunsets are magnificent."
