Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I'm feeling crafty but I've already packed my crafty stuff lol

Today, I am kinda over the whole moving house thing.  The house looks neat and tidy and pretty clean.  It has had its photo shoot and will go online tomorrow.  I have spent the last couple of hours browsing through blogs and have thoroughly enjoyed looking at everyone's crafting and even gardening and cooking achievements.

It has made me really want to do some craft.  I have no idea what but I just feel like achieving something, anything that is remotely craft like.  I want to plant vegetables.  I want to bake beautiful things.  Baking I could do, well I could if I had less than an hour till I need to get the kids from school lol.  As for the gardening, there is no point when we are moving in 4 weeks and as for craft well like the title says, I have already packed my craft things.  They are currently in boxes which are on pallets at Hubby's work, waiting to head to Melbourne.  I hope hubby realises that if we are going to have to rent for a few months (which chances are, we will), then I don't intend on doing much of anything except crafty things.  If I don't have a house of my own to make into our home then I will have to just chill out and concentrate on some crafty encounters instead!

In the meantime, its back to having a nosey at everyone's amazing crafting........

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

We can get away with it,,,,,YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

Well finally after what seems like years but has in fact, only been a few days, we got our council searches back.  It seems our extension was council approved as a shed/rumpus room and due to a small loophole in council laws which our real estate agent intends to use at our advantage, we can list as a 5 bedroom house. 

Relief doesn't come close to what I am feeling right now I tell you lol.  It doesn't get rid of all the stress but I tell you, it is a huge weight lifted.  We still have our "alcove" area which joins the house to the extension which isn't "legal" but it has been here since before we were and honestly, unless a council inspector walks through the house they will never know.  It is basically an area that has been filled in in the 3 metre gap between the original house and the extension.  It is completely under the verandah/carport.  It is a little lower than legal height due to them laying extra cement to raise the floor up to the same height as the house and they put a sliding door in on one side leading out to the verandah and a fake wall and door on the other which goes out to the carport.  It isn't perfect as such but it has been here for more than 11 years and other than a little mould problem on the roof due to it being directly under the verandah and receving moisture build up as you would expect and a slight leaking problem on the normal door side it has been fine.  If people want to make it "legal" well they could just take the two sides and the "roof" off and you will have your open carport/verandah area back to its original state.  For us though, this little area houses the kid's computer which they use for their games and our extra fridge and our chest freezer.

I actually asked hubby last night if he was at all worried about our lack of accommodation in Melbourne.  He finally admitted that he is starting to get a little worried,,,,,finally!  4 weeks from now we will either be in Melbourne or will be driving there at the very least.  Our house is getting photographed tomorrow and will be online on Thursday.  I was researching rental properties in Melbourne in the areas of Cranbourne, Frankston and Pakenham (these are our three areas that we have been researching) and there is a distinct lack of rental properties which accept pets.  I am beginning to get very worried.  Naturally I would rather not rent, I would rather find a property we can move into which will be our "forever" or at least long term home, but we can't do that until we have  a buyer lined up for this one.  I have my fingers crossed that we will have a miracle happen and we may get lucky and have someone who falls in love with it this weekend that is also cashed up and doesn't need to wait for finance or a home sale and we can then move on with our lives and find a place to live lol,,,,,,miracles do happen right???????

I quite liked a house we saw online recently.  According to the little floorplan picture it had alot and I mean ALOT of concrete in the back yard.  I rang the real estate guy and asked if he had any more photos.  He sent us the rest of the pics he had and I just about cried.  The house was wall to wall concrete in the back yard.  I want grass for the dogs and room for my fruit trees to spread their little roots in some soil.  The real estate guy said "well you can just pull the concret up and change it to garden".......seriously,,,,,,he made it sound like it was just a matter of lifting a couple of pavers!!

The search continues........if anyone knows of someone who has an empty rental that they want lived in for 6 months or so at reasonable rates that would happily accept a large family with 2 dogs and 3 cats, let me know lol!

Friday, June 22, 2012

We really need a little luck for a change!

After our weeks of hard work, our house is looking pretty good I believe.  It is probably the cleanest and tidiest it has been in the last 6 years lol and all the rooms have a "finished" look to them at long last.  I'd be happy to live here lol.

Yesterday we had our real estate guy come to do an appraisal for us.  He said before he did the photos he would like us to tidy our front garden and do something with the back........easier said than done in constant rain.  The back yard looks like an absolute mud pit and the front,, well that just needs a bit of a tidy, it doesn't look too bad.  We had planned to wipper snip the front yesterday morning but the weather had other ideas so for now the gardens look pretty crappy.  This real estate guy is the same one that sold hubby's  house for him 5 years ago and 4 years before that he sold my old house.  He is a lovely guy and tells it like it is, I like that about him.

Sadly the tell it like it is has given us some bad news too.  You see, our house is a basic 3 bedroom house which has had an extension built on.  The extension contains 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a large family room.  So our house is basically a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom, kitchen/dine, lounge, family room house.  The problem may lie in the way the extension was council approved.  Apparently it was approved as a rumpus room, not as the bedrooms and bathrooms,,,,currently we are getting council searches done to have this confirmed.  We have basically been told that because of this we really only have two options.  We either have to get it approved by the council which will involve building inspections etc which we have been told can get very expensive (and we don't have the money to spare right now) or we can sell it as it is , confessing and being up front with prospective buyers,,,but of course will people want to buy it????  Also instead of advertising it as a 5 bedroom it will only be listed as a 3 bedroom with teenagers retreat or something along those lines.  The 5 bedrooms were our main selling point as it made it stand out from the crowd as there aren't any other 5 bedroom houses and very few 4 even in our suburb which are up for sale, and with the current market for housing I think you need to flaunt every possible advantage you have in your house!

I have such a sinking feeling.  We have only 4.5 weeks left until we need to be in Melbourne now and still have no idea where we will be living and our house still sits not on the market.  My stress levels are through the roof at the moment.  Hubby is considering maybe renting this house out instead,,,I'm not sure what the "legality" of our 5 bedrooms would be for a rental property.  Aaaagghhhhh would someone cut us a little luck,,,, just a little bit,,,,,pleeeeaaassseeeeee?????

On a happier note, my Mr11 turned 12 yesterday.  This boy has a heart of gold, but of course as is so common lol, he can drive me to distraction at times.  His mouth tends to run away with him and I am sure gets him in trouble at least half a dozen times a day when it comes to his younger brother,,,shheeeessh those two can drive me nuts!  But yesterday he turned 12 and I am so proud of him.  He has plenty of tough times when it comes to schooling, he struggles with his reading and spelling but he tries really hard.  He is so full of empathy for others and so often puts others before his own wants/needs.  But looking at him always reminds me of when he was about 20 months old and would see something that looked slimy or gooey and he would say "thats disgusting".  It was his favourite phrase lol.  He didn't have a huge vocabulary but that phrase was clear as a bell and said in context for anything that looked even slightly icky lol.  He is my boy that seems to have copped the lot when it comes to minor health issues.  He has suffered with over production of wax in his ears and since the age of 4 he has been to have his ears vacuumed/syringed out every 4 or so months (thankfully this is finally easiing up!), he suffers with dermatitis, he needs braces on his teeth (the only one of my four boys to not have straight teeth), he has had problems with bedwetting, he has been seeing a behavioural optometrist for problems with visual tracking,,,,this poor kid seems to have copped the lot.  Add to that his problems at school and he has probably had to deal with more annoying issues than most.  But although his confidence has suffered a little, he has remained pretty upbeat most of the time.  I am so proud of my boy, I love you Matey, my little (or not so little now) Smiley!!


Friday, June 15, 2012

The Limbo Land of an Interstate Move

Well here we are,,,,,6 weeks and 5 days until Hubby's new job begins.  Our house still isn't on the market yet,,,,,we are aiming for next week.  Most people, I am sure, could probably have their house on the market within a week if they had to.  Not us.  We had so many little projects that we had just started and therefore have to finish or bigger projects that we have had to totally give up on and try and fix the mess that the said project created that our house still isn't up to scratch.  I know that when we put it up for sale, I still won't be happy with it but we have no choice.  We can't buy a new house until this one sells,,,,,at this point we have no idea where we will be living,,,,aagghhhhhhh!!!!!

The kitchen tiling still needs to be grouted.  It is such a huge improvement in the kitchen, but the grouting must be done this weekend!

We have decided to leave our bedroom and Mr10's room as is.  The paint jobs aren't too bad and we just don't have time to move all the furniture and get it done.  Mr10's room still has some murals which I had originally drawn on the walls ready to paint for when Mr12 with Autism was going to have that room.  The black outlines will just have to stay and hopefully anyone looking at it will actually like the idea of maybe putting a baby or young child in there.......after all, we do have Wags thte Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Bert and Ernie and last but not least Big Bird which goes floor to ceiling!  Big Bird is the only one that has been painted in, all the rest are just black texta outlines.  Mr10 has had posters up over most of them.  This weekend the posters will be coming down.

We have nearly finished painting the family room, we only have about 2 metres left to do.  I have 2 door frames which need a second coat too.  I have 6 doors which I am meant to get painted, but whether or not that will happen, I'm not sure.....maybe we will put it on the market and they can be done after????

The front garden isn't too bad, provided we keep it all trimmed,,,,it is far from perfect but it will do.  The back garden on the other hand is pretty horrendous.  We pulled down our huge trampoline, so now it looks heaps bigger but we also had to pull out our unruly veggie garden (by veggie garden I mean a couple of pumpkin plants and nasturtiums which had completely taken over! lol)  My fruit trees are lined up in their pots waiting for their big move.  We have a couple of old tables which need to be dismantled and dumped (I had used these for my seedlings but they are really crappy and old and need to be sent to dump land, they really aren't good for anything else any more.

Last weekend we used the amazing word "FREE" in the front yard to get rid of our old bird cage, some wooden benches, a kids play set and an old door.  I sure will miss living on this road where the word free can get rid of just about anything lol.

Meanwhile, I am packing bits and pieces up, you know the stuff that we kinda never really use much but it just sits there for that "once in a blue moon" occasion lol.  I have boxes sitting in the family room, waiting for hubby to take them to work and stick them on a pallet for their journey to Melbourne.  I am trying to make sure that I don't actually pack anything we will need but I am sure there has been some stuff packed that the kids will miss long before they make an appearance in our lives again.  The pallets of our boxes will be sent to the big warehouse at Hubby's work place in Melbourne.  He will then bring home a few boxes at at time.  My plan is to have a shed of some type and anything that remains boxed after 6 months will be either op shopped or ebayed,,,,,,,I could be Ebaying for the rest of my life lol....who knew we could fill so many darn boxes!!!!

Meanwhile life events carry on.....
Tonight we celebrate Mr11 with Autism's 12th birthday.  He actually turned 12 on Sunday but he has been with his Mum so this is our night to celebrate.

Next Thursday My Mr11 turns 12 so we will have yet another celebration.

Last night Mr17 told me that he was finally officially "dating".  He has been out a few times on some group dates with a girl who lives about 20 minutes from here.  We haven't met her yet but he tells us she is really nice.  She will be his date for his Year 12 Graduation next month.  He also said that she doesn't want him to go to Melbourne and her mother has offered him a room at their house (she is an only child so there is a spare bedroom),,,,I am trying to be happy for him with his first girlfriend but this timing is sooooooo bad!!  I can sense alot of stress ahead with this if it does work out for him!

School reports came out yesterday for my youngest two.  They did pretty well, much better than last year for Mr11 and I just hope that we don't have another setback with the start of new schools in a few weeks!

I have waffled on way too long,,,,still with no photos to ease the boredom of never ending words lol.  I do promise that there will be photos in this blog's future,,,,,eventually!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

I tried to prove I have a life other than dwelling on moving lol.....

My iphone won't connect to my computer so I can retrieve some photos of my accomplishments for the week.  I wanted to share my packed boxes, my hubby's tiling efforts and my almost painted hallway.

This past week or so has seen hubby tile the entire kitchen, only the grouting remains (I am very proud of his efforts, there are a few little bits that aren't quite right but we are truly beyond caring lol, overall it is great I think).  I have painted the front lounge room, Mr15's room and have just about finished the hallway.

This weekend is a long weekend here and we plan to get stuck into the garden.  We will have  a trailer load of green waste to get rid of and probably another trailer load of general crap that needs to disappear before we place the house on the market.

We are hoping to have the place listed for sale within the next 2 weeks.

At this point we have absolutely no idea where we will be living once we leave for Melbourne.  We really need to get this place put up for sale before we can go and actually commit to anything.  To be honest the whole house thing is really getting to me.  We have only 6 weeks to sell and find somewhere to live.  We considered renting for a while but with 2 dogs, 3 cats and 2 rats to also accommodate that is proving to be a little tricky.  I am hoping this all falls into place for us, if not, I'm not sure what will happen.

In some ways though I am starting to get a little bit excited about our move.  I see many hurdles regarding kids and exes and stuff like that but I can envision life for us and I think it will be okay.  There will be so many new things to explore over there.  Life here in Adelaide is good but the kids are constantly wanting new things to explore and it is getting harder to find little pockets of the city and surrounds that we haven't already seen.  So in that regard, Melbourne offers us alot.

I am looking forward to exploring new op shops and continuing with my online selling, maybe if we have the room, trying my hand at refinishing furniture and selling that.


I also wanted to share pics of my birthday cake that my hubby made for me last week,,,,can't get those pics either grrrrrr,,,,will get hubby to weave some magic and hopefully solve the problem later lol.  I was very excited to get a new cookbook for my birthday though,,,,,,,Pioneer Woman Cooks - Food from my Frontier,,,,,yay have been wanting this one!  I have told the kids that we will be trying out some new recipes in the school holidays!

On the diet front, hubby has now lost just over 10kgs and I have lost just over 8kgs.  People are constantly commenting on his weight loss, whereas me,,,,,,no one has noticed :(  Hubby says he can see it and I know I do fit back into a few tops and my jeans are fitting better but no one has noticed, not even the kids.  Today Mr10 asked if I had lost any weight.  He said "he is looking skinny,, have you lost any weight mum?" Sheesh,,,,,,,,better keep up with the rabbit food lol.