Old kitchen is gone!

well technically it is still on the property but the skip is being picked up tomorrow so not for long!

The whole kitchen has been ripped out including almost all the floor (I moved the pantry out to the laundry (it will be my linen cupboard – woohoo I get a linen cupboard) but haven’t pulled up the tiles from under there yet – it’s only a 5min job though so will get that done today.

It looks a mess. I have quite a bit of spac fillering to do this morning before I go out to diggers rest. The scout group camp is on and my Brett had his first joey sleep over there and Owen had his last one …he is going up to Cubs this afternoon – can’t miss that!  So off for a bbq lunch and watch him go up to cubs. Should be back by 4ish and we will just have a sandwich for dinner methinks and I will get stuck into cleaning the walls with sugar soap with the hope of being able to throw up a coat of undercoat this evening after the boys go to bed.

That’s the plan because I might well need two coats of undercoat – the green on the walls at present is quite dark.  I only have two more days to get it done and tomorrow I have a morning tea at school so will be out from 9-10.30 and then I have Owen’s eye test so out again from 12-1.30 then school pick up…hoping that I can get up a coat of something in the morning  – I have two hours and am only aiming to do the two walls that the cupboards are going on really. Then another coat between lunch and school pick up if I can which may even leave time for one last coat between the kids bedtime and mine before the installers arrive at 7.30ish on Tuesday morning!

So far though…

I have learnt…..

- never to get ‘a mate’ who says ‘yeah I can do that’ to do brickwork (window still not completely bricked on the outside.

- never to let the size of the job to freak you out – just think of the next thing that needs doing and do that…one step at a time I can do anything!

- to plaster! yes I singlehandedly plastered up what used to be my window (someone else removed the window). But I built an inner frame to attach the plaster to because the frame of my house is hardwood and very difficult to screw/nail into – had to use my hammer drill to make pilot holes to screw into

- to buy more than one tiny drill bit so you have a spare if you break one

- that liquid nails is a girls best friend

- that no matter how much you think it will cost, it will mostly likely actually cost more!

still here…

Christmas tree is up, Kitchen is not empty….I need to get organised but as usual I am procrastinating on it.

Plumber, tiler, sparky, skip and mate to destroy/remove old kitchen all organised. I just need to empty it out and be prepared to let people in and out to get it all done…and of course hope that nothing goes over budget (although there are more quotes than estimates now so crossing fingers on that one).

Tomorrow I’m taking Brett for his eye test (in school time – lunchtime) so here’s to hoping that he doesn’t need a  new script then it is just Owen to go.

Also got to work on reindeer antlers – got them 1/2 done for Brett and the rest of Owen’s costume for their scout camp next weekend.

Stressed and Cranky

went back to Ikea today to get the last 5 things I needed for the kitchen. My oven frame cupboard and a few draw fronts etc. Got there around 20 past 10. Waited my turn at the kitchen counter. Put my order in. Went downstairs and paid for it. Waited for it to be gotten from out the back somewhere. No cupboard. Really, they had checked the stock levels but oops sorry someone stuffed up. There was no cupboard. Got the 4 little bits I needed but not the major part! They had to refund me and said to come back tomorrow as they are expecting them back in tomorrow! grrr!

So I have rescheduled Brett’s eye test and am hoping to get it tomorrow – what’s the bet it isn’t in? Think I will call first to check.

Putting my feet up for a minute!

Today was always going to be busy!

the plans were to do the following

take kids to Werribee int the  the morning then home to change into school uniform and back to school.

Pick up my white kitchen tiles in the city somewhere (a guy was selling them cheap and I had to meet him)

Get Brett’s glasses repaired.

Get kinder fees paid.

Pick kids up from afterschool sport.

Put the tent down and pack it away

try to get rid of the ‘wet sock’ smell from the car since our camping trip

go to kinder AGM tonight (with the kids).

ok sounds busy but had to scrub out the pick up the tiles as I couldn’t meet the guy at 9.30 am so thought we would do it next week instead. So got to the plaza to get Brett’s glasses repaired and they said they could do Corey’s eyetest on the spot so did that. She said she would write him a script if I really wanted to but she felt that on the whole he was coping ok with his vision as it is at the moment. An astigmatism can’t really be corrected permanently with glasses so it won’t hurt him to put them off until he needs them more. He will need them eventually but she said just to reassess in about 9 months with a view to maybe getting them before school starts but possibly not even til later when he is reading for longer and smaller print.  I made an appointment for Brett to go in next Monday and will get Owen in the following week (that way I can take just one kid at a time – much easier).  Brett’s glasses may need to be completely replaced he is going to see if he can do that under warrantee and if not will wait to see if his script needs changing before we decide what to do.

I had a call on Monday to say my new purple tiles were in so I thought I would pick those up today too – so popped in there and paid for them. She told me to drive around the back and I said oh I thought I’d just walk through its only 4 sheets of mosaic after all. So I walked through….and what do you know they have a clearance section. So my white kitchen tiles just changed again! Who could walk past 200mm x 250mm plain white gloss tiles for $5 a BOX (1.5m2 per box) and they had 3 boxes left. I only needed 2.8 square metres but I figure at that price would grab all 3 boxes so that I have some spare in case of breakage etc. So all my tile shopping is done (wasn’t committed to the other sale as he said not to bother putting it through ebay – his loss).  And it came in under budget….still laughing that my purple border cost about $90 while all the white ones only cost $15!

Got the kinder fees paid on the way home.

oh forgot to mention school. They told me the boys coped really well with everything and just as she did that Owen had a bit of a meltdown…he was stressed that he hadn’t gotten to ask his questions…she just said to ask her and his question was ‘what are the school rules’ lol! Poor kid was very distressed and not really happy with her explaination that they would explain them on his first day of school to the whole class. It sounds a little silly but Owen loves rules – they give him the sense of order he craves. I am glad that they were able to see an example of  Owen’s more challenging behaviours because I am sure from the way she was talking that she thought he was a perfectly ‘normal’ 8 year old – mind you that is good too – he isn’t too far away from the ‘normal’ 8 year old some of the time.

So just got to pick them up and put the tent down and get them to the kinder meeting and NOT get elected to any of the big committee jobs…am ok with being on committee but not on the executive and them get them home and into bed asap as the meeting starts at 7.30 (bedtime here is usually 7, 7.30 and 8pm here).

Busy busy day!

Corey went to family daycare today so I could get stuff down around home…only I remembered Owen had a check up with his surgeon Prof Paddy Dewan – all is ok just  a regular 6 monthly review.

But by the time we did that half the day was gone and I was obsessed with tiles – spending too much time thinking about them so I went shopping. Found some that really are perfect and ordered them – will be in in 5-10 days.  Meanwhile I think I am going to go down from the 200mm square tiles to 150mm square as the mosaic border tiles will allow  for any size tile and I think I have found an awesome deal on the tiles saving me HEAPS – should be sorted by tomorrow at $6per square metre (instead of $20).

Camping on the weekend – of course hot as all hell right up to the weekend then we are expecting rain! hope we don’t get too much rain on the weekend!

am off to bed now b4 I fall over.

oh come now Just found this are realised it didn’t post….i’m still counting this as being posted yesterday – my list my rules so ner!

Retreat was great

I really enjoyed the retreat this time.  I was a bit disappointed that I brought the wrong Orings with me so couldn’t bind my mini albums but I will get them done in the next day or two.  I got the last of my halloween shots of the kids scrapped too.   So I was fairly productive.  It was very relaxing. Took a walk on Saturday evenings and saw just how close the fires got to the place where the retreat is held.  It really was close. The forest around the venue was black and green and orange. The trees were scarred but the greeny is regoing and there was the most amazing orange groundcover.

Chrisco is coming tomorrow – freezer defrosted. With the kitchen going in next month (in 4 weeks) I don’t plan to unpack it except for the freezer stuff.  Once the kitchen goes in it really will feel like Christmas.

 

I have a date!

yes finally spoke with Brad this morning and confirmed that the kitchen will go in on the 15th & 16th of December!

Now just to book in the skip, plumber,  & sparky and to get the window bricked up and plastered over, the room painted, the tiles bought and tiler organised and the rest of the kitchen emptied…oh and of course to pick up the other bits of the kitchen that Ikea didn’t have!

progress though….progress is good!

checked off the to-do list!

I know I know 2 posts in one day….but then I thought it would be cool to pop in and say that the kitchen is now all (flat packed) and stacked in the scraproom AND I can still access 90% of my stuff.

The stuff got delivered (I outsourced and got one girl to pick them up and deliver).

I went to bunnings for the bits with the guy who was doing the work. Door frame was stuborn – apparently my house is very well built and doesn’t come down easily. He is coming back tomorrow to put the plaster up over the doorway and will do the window probably next week.

The kitchen cupboard got pulled out (with a little help from my friends dh who was here to do the door/window) and was collected (thanks to freecycle) this afternoon.

And I’ve been listening to music from my ipod all day – all in all I’d say a very constructive day!

I am however now thoroughly exhausted.

 

 

little bit tired…but lots to do.

I was up past 1am and am now paying for it. I had a great day/night yesterday. Things are exciting with the kitchen but busy. I got 3 Halloween LOs done last night – one more to do.  Had chocolate cake and cheesecake …..just didn’t have room for the carrot cake too!  Got another pressie too – a full set of purple towels with ‘Jude’ embroided on them lovely and soft too! I was thoroughly spoilt by friends and family yesterday.

Today its down to work.  I am just uploading the last of my 5 cd set ready to put on my iphone and ipod..think I’m going to need some music pumping today!

So todays to do list

upload cds to ipod/iphone

clear more room in scraproom for kitchen cupboards (by noon)

clear out unused kitchen cupboard of last stuff in it plus heaps of stuff on top by 3pm and preferably get it off the wall

get plaster, timber and mortar for the guy who is to brick up the window and block up the doorway

deliver my last SU order around the corner and up the road

ok that’s the absolute essentials for today…I can do that…afterall I have 2.5hrs before noon….ahhh ok quick delivery now while music is going then scraproom then kitchen…not sure when/how I’m gunna manage bunnings though!

Shopping Day!

Man buying an Ikea kitchen is a lot more time consuming than I had thought! Got there at 10 and got back to Werribee at 2.05pm!

Still I have most of the kitchen. There were a few things out of stock which will need another trip in but I have plenty of time and will be able to fit the other things in the car which is good.  Only one cabinet was out of stock the rest is mostly doors.  The best bit about that is that I still got my $300 in vouchers which means that I can go and use the voucher to get the last $325 worth of stuff in effect shaving $300 off my slim kitchen budget and giving me some much needed breathing space.

I don’t have a date yet but as I only faxed the paperwork at midnight I am giving them some breathing space and will call them on Monday morning to organise a date if I don’t hear from him before then.

And I got home to find some cool 80s cds, a voucher from my fav book store and a beautiful handmade card with a note to see the girls at Scrappe’s for my present so that rounds out a pretty good birthday I reckon!

oh except of course – I am off to said Scrappe’s tonight for crop as the kids have now gone to Daddys! A pretty good day all in all. Tomorrow will be busy with the Ikea delivery in the afternoon and hopefully the window being bricked up and the doorway blocked off as well as someone coming to collect one of the old kitchen cupboards. It is all REALLY happening now!  Happy Birthday to me!