12 kids, 6 parents, 1 nana, 1 great grandpa & a fish tank splashback. Part 1

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Undaunted by the hospitality industries attempts to break us with rooms that only hold a family of 5, cannot cluster us in close proximity and don’t seem equipped to prevent children from exiting high rise rooms via the balconies, a new strategy for our short vacation with a large family was urgently required.

My first thought was airbnb.com and there were to be fair, a wide range of options which looked great. But when you got into the fine print, you were often sharing these properties with the owners, or other tenants.

Now that’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but if you’re going to book a whole house to yourself, and pay a reasonably high premium to do so, then total privacy would be nice.

So then I moved to stayz.com and that seemed to give me more successful search results. In fact it wasn’t long until I found a house that seemed to suit all our requirements.

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On the canals at Surfers Paradise just behind the Q1 Building (it’s the big tall one with the pointy thing on top), this house had 2 levels, sleeps 16, has 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. OMG we will all fit! (@Krystle and family decided to return home to sleep.)

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Upstairs has a beautiful gourmet kitchen with 4 ovens, (with 20 people for dinner on Monday night we needed all 4) and pretty much the most amazing splash back I’ve ever seen.

OK so I’m a little fixated on the splash back, but you have to admit it’s pretty cool… On a more practical note we could get all the food that the hoard could consume over 3 nights and 2 days in that fabulous big pantry too.

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Adjacent to Jacque Cousteau’s splashback which held some pretty tasty looking seafood I might add, (there were a couple of blue lobster things in there that looked damn tasty )was the dining area looking out on that great view of the Gold Coast day and night.

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The lounge room had comfy leather sofas and a chair or two and plenty of cushions for the floor for all the children to watch the enormous wall mounted television. (Dory looks soooo much better when she is the size of a great white!).

There are 4 bedrooms on the upstairs level, including a master bedroom with ensuite and private balcony. The ensuite and walkin robe are combined and have a very attractive tiling and lighting and an amazing rain drop shower.

You can almost see the raindrop shower in this photo, but not quite lol. This is looking from the shower across the bedroom of the master bedroom to the doors to the private balcony.

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The photo above is from the master bedroom across into the ensuite… And let me tell you that bedroom saw some action! But you will have to wait until Part 2 to hear all the juicy details…

This is the first of the other 3 upstairs bedrooms share a beautiful bathroom with a super deep tub a lovely big shower for showering multiple batches of kids.

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The second upstairs room with a double on the bottom and a single bunk on the top was perfect for a combination of little ones that needed to be near Mum and a teenager to keep an eye on them while Mum had the baby in with her.

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There was another double bedroom which I somehow failed to photograph which had a small walkin wardrobe, it's own little reading nook and access to it's own private balcony which was nicely decorated. So lots of quiet places to get away from the craziness of a big family, provided you have ear plugs.

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There are two large doors on the top floor that allow you to close off the living areas from the bedrooms and a second door that closes off the upstairs from the downstairs. So you can manage noise, traffic flow (of children) and if you had 2 families each could have their own space.

The first is right in the foreground of this photo, the second is just before the reading nook attached to the second double bedroom I mentioned above that you can see, way, way off in the distance.

Downstairs there is smaller bedroom with an ensuite, then a further 2 bedrooms sharing another large bathroom with a large bathtub and another great big shower too.

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The bedroom above is the master suite on the ground floor with a walkin robe and ensuite and shares the same view as the master suite upstairs, just slightly less elevation...

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The second double bedroom on the ground floor shares the big bathroom with another bunk room like the one upstairs with a double on the bottom and a single on the top.

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This level also boasts a 'Fun Room'! With an X Box, DVDs, TV and Foxtel, Air Hockey Table, ride on toys for the little kids, chalkboard, soft toys, and Space Invaders with 60 games installed and with one wall that is entirely glass and looks out over the pool and that great view, it's quite spectacular for the kids and the big kids too.

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There is also free wifi for everyone’s devices and the room is fitted out with large pillows and a nice big sofa, lots of ipads and iphones at work down here.

And if all that isn't enough to keep the troops amused there are swings, a ball pit and tether tennis as well.

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You can also take advantage of the canal and do a spot of fishing should you feel so inclined as well. We did and again I will keep the results of the fishing a secret for next time, it is quite astounding!

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