I’m still alive…

just in case anyone noticed I haven’t blogged in ages again.  So we moved and all is well. Some good and some bad news – the house sold a couple of days after the Auction (pending finance but am told shouldn’t be a concern), the bad news is that the price was very dissapointing.  In the end though I/we decided that it wasn’t worth holding out for the hope of a better price because it was simply too stressful.  He has til the 30th to organise the finance then it will all official and settlement is to be the 21st December ‘or earlier by mutual agreement’ …..I agree to earlier lol!  Will see how it goes, but at least we know where we are headed.  We are still going to be able to upgrade to a Kia Carnival (with enough proper seats for all instead of the dicky seats in the back of the wagon which are only good til Corey gets too big – and in the summer he cooks back there).  My mate let me drive her Kia Carnival yesterday. I had decided that based on our needs and our budget that it was the ideal car for us but wow after I drove it I can’t wait! It was awesome to drive, up high you can see everything – so comfortable I am going to love it!  We should also still be able to afford to get the jayco hawk campervan that we decided on.  We’ll be looking at 2nd hand for both the kia and the camper so might take a while to find the best deal we can get seeing as we will have less money than hoped for.  Looking forward to being debt free (except my hecs debt) by xmas. No repayments for credit cards, for loans etc means I will actually be able to save!

Had a mate come help me clear out my scraproom yesterday. She took 3 big boxes of stuff home with her and there is more yet that has to go so back again next week.  Lee is gunna clear out a cupboard for me here (like linen cupboard sized) and everything pretty much will have to fit in there so massive downsizing happening, but I think that once that’s done I’ll be more inclined to scrap as I won’t have as much stuff – a good clear out is probably healthy.

So still alive and happy

Jude

starting to get organised now

I picked up some new wooden bunk beds that I bought on ebay ($150 bargain) today and took them around to Lee’s place for the boys.  We haven’t put them up yet because the boys are objecting to a bright pink room so we need to repaint.  This weekend we are re-arranging some furniture over there this weekend so we can empty out the pink room and repaint. the other bedroom is brown and a bit dark so we will repaint that one too then they will both be ready for furniture.  Picking up Corey’s new tallboy (a bargain at $60) tomorrow morning – aparently he has outgrown Thomas the tank engine.  Yogi painted the tallboy with thomas the tank when Nic was little (Nic is going to be 19 in a couple of weeks). Didn’t have the heart to repaint so passing it on to another little Thomas fan.  Hopefully this weekend we will also get the rooms over there painted this weekend so we can start getting them sorted out (not that we can move just yet but will start moving some things over.

Getting excited now – although a tiny bit stressed as really there is a LOT to do but now we are more at the ‘what goes where?’ and ‘what do we keep and what do we get rid of?’ stage…..we can justify two bread makers (one white loaf and one fruit loaf at the same time) but two lawn mowers (both less than a year old and identical) we just don’t need!

Jude

I should be writing my essay….

but I am procrastinating….suprised? nah didn’t think so! lol

Well after a discussion with the mortgage bloke who wasn’t to confident in our plans to buy a 5 bedroom house together, and also some issues with the new school in Tarniet not having funding approved for the next stage of development which had me doubting my decision to move the boys their….we have had a rethink of our plans.  We are going to sell my place still but then we will move into his.  He has 4 bedrooms and 2 big living areas (and potentially a 5th bedroom in a one room only bungalo out back when the kids are older).  Two boys will still need to share a room but they have to do that here.  The other option would be to wait a few years til I am working and we can improve our chances of getting a loan and frankly the idea was unappealing.  We may decide to look and buy together down the track. For now we just want to be together in one house.  So now I’ve started on a list of what to keep and what to get rid of.  We’ve discussed and are organising additional storage in the kitchen (because I will insist on having such things as flour and baking pans and my food processor) and we’ve talked to the boys about paint colours (cause one of the bedrooms is currently bright pink)!

The upshot then is that I won’t have a big asset anymore (I also won’t have a big debt – or in fact any debt) and I won’t be ‘trapped’ in this house without any options to move.  I will also have a lump sum of money to deal with. Current thought is to invest it and sit on it for 3 months while I think about it.  Leaning toward buying something I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember – a caravan!  Kids would love that too and would give us the opportunity to take off for short breaks or even just in school holidays.  Yes it’s a risk but life is a risk…..and if a man is willing to clear out his cupboard of computer bits so that you can have somewhere to store your (downsized) scrapbooking collection…..well sounds like love to me!

 

best get back to the bloody essay – its only 800 words at present and needs to be 2000 by midnight Sunday

some progress…

The estate agent I spoke to is good!  I met her when I went to an open house a while ago and she has rung me a couple of times to see if I’m ready to let her come look at the house (Ok I might have mentioned it wasn’t in a fit state for me to let her in). I keep putting her off.. The other day she rang and talked timeframes. We want to be in our new home for Xmas – thats the aim. But close to Xmas would be good as it means minimal disruptions (and me not having to drive from from new house to 2 old schools til end of term).  So she says hmm and looks at her calendar and tells me that she is coming at 11am on 13th July and no excuses will be accepted!  Ok some people might think that sounds pushy but I laughed – it is most probably exactly what I needed….well that and Lee coming over here more often perhaps.  The kitchen was in a dreadful state but is now heaps better and I can see most of the loungeroom floor, I even got around to hanging the new curtains I bought about a year ago in the loungeroom!  Best of all when HE told Brett and Corey that they had to clean up their room they actually did it (mutter, mumble, grumble why wouldn’t they do it for me?????).  Owen now has a working power point and blinds on his windows.  This weeks mission is to finish the kitchen and get moving on the laundry.  I will reclaim this house by the 13th July deadline…..meanwhile I will keep up at uni too.

life is good 🙂

Jude

A time for change

It has been no secret that I have been struggling with depression for some time. For me one of the major issues is that I have been unable to keep up the house in a respectable state. The problem then is that I can’t have anyone over and neither can the kids and home ceases to be a place of peace and refuge when the clutter takes over.  I have been making gains with the whole depression thing. Most days I am able to make decisions like what to cook for dinner, most days I’m able to get myself out of bed without a major struggle….but still the house has made little or no progress and I am putting my foot down and deciding that it is time for a change.  I have made a decision to clean up before but sadly it always falls over after an hour or a day or two…this time I want to make sure that it doesn’t fall over.

It took a while for the house to get into it’s present state so there isn’t going to be an instant solution – it will take time.  I figured that what I really needed was a PLAN of ACTION.  So I bought a ‘to do list’ notebook (bargain $2 from woolies) and I made a list of all the things that need to be done – breaking them up into small tasks rather than ‘clean the loungeroom’ type tasks. I made a list of jobs for me and a list of jobs for the kids for each room in the house.  So over the next two weeks we are going to leave the bedrooms & playroom and we are going to focus on getting the rest of the house into a fit state.  I keep putting it off because it is too hard. But at the end of my list writing I have 1-3 jobs a day for me and the same for the kids.  So really it isn’t going to be as hard as I had thought. At the end of these two weeks the main living spaces should be tidy (not spotless perhaps but tidy) and then I’ll make a plan for the bedrooms and the playroom – whilst maintaining the living spaces!

So now I just need to stick to the plan! Putting it here is a step further in my commitment. I am making a public promise to myself to get my house in order because I think I need to!  Will try to post here more often too!

wish me luck

Jude

New kitchen

well it went in faster than anticipated. No rangehood as yet as I want it vented properly.

Plumber, sparky and tiler all came in….at one stage I had all three of them in my kitchen at once!

Still look at this…..one new kitchen (ok a little bit of plaster repair, paint and a rangehood still to go in and floors to be sanded and polished too)

so what do you think? can I cross it off my list or do I have to have rangehood, floors and paint done first?

click the pictures to enlarge! lovin’ it!

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).