OFF TO LOOK AT HOUSES

Making it short and sweet today.

We will be going out at midday to look at a couple of houses in Hamilton.

Then home for an FBG walk and meet up.

That's it for now!

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

12.17 pm... we park outside the first  house...waiting for it to 'open' at 12.30. And this old lady from across the road comes over and says "Are you going now, can I come with you. You've got room in the back, I'll get in there" and she starts to open the back door of our car! Stew stops her and tells her "No, we are here to look at that house" ... so she wanders back to her house muttering "Ok I'll  just go home then!"

Too funny! Almost had a new Grandma. 

2.00 pm: I'm now in an utter foul mood. Went to that first house (ABOVE), loved it. Would have put a conditional offer in on it... subject to selling ours of course. Talked to the Agent and she told us there were already TWO FUCKING CONDITIONAL OFFERS on it!!!


OMG I wanted to rip her head off and shove it up her arse! She could have told me that last night or last week when I talked to her about it. OMG... so mad right now.


Totally wasted our time, the dumb arse bitch.

ABOVE: 2nd house... much older, smelt old and mouldy too. Was OK though, shall keep my eye on it. It's going to Auction in just over 3 weeks. We are not in a position to bid or put in a pre-auction offer. Which sucks, it limits what we can do.

***  got a thumping headache now... but I'm still doing the FBG event this afternoon, just not walking ***

*** I'm off to take a pill or two.  Shame there's no pills for bad moods! ***

Well that was an excellent idea... being with my FBG girlfriends really cheered me up.   Brylee joined us too, but left early to be home when our cousin arrived.  Danielle and Brylee are having a sleep over, which means gorging on chips/dips/lollies and fizzy while watching TV.

I'm sure they will have fun.

Tonight I'm just watching TV, and Stew is watching sport in the lounge.  It's so quiet!  BLISS.

YEAH YEAH.... RELAXING TODAY

Today, for the first time in 6 weeks, I can actually RELAX and do nothing if I wish!

OMG... how amazing is that going to feel?

I'm going to sleep in... well lie in I mean.  When I'm sick of that, I will get up and ...

SEW?  Visit a girlfriend?  Go for a walk (yeah, nah ... too tired)... but the gist is... I can do whatever I want.

The pressure is now off.  Yes, there's a few small jobs still needing doing, but there's no rush to get them done.

We've got 4 houses to look at this weekend, two on each day.  I feel like three of them could be definite possibilities.  Exciting.

ABOVE:  But... to be  honest, this is the house I'm looking for!  lol

ABOVE: Little collage from yesterday.
Bloody shopping, Pak 'n Save: most hated place on my list, and the girls snuggled up on my lap last night.

Right, I am gunna roll over and watch something on me phone before thinking about getting up and doing... well... whatever!

ONWARD...

12.05:  Well, I tried to do nothing, I really did.
But after lying in bed till 8 I got up and thought about what to do.
And I did try just sitting and relaxing, but I'm just not wired that way... well not till after dinner that is.  *smiles*

So I decided to take down the shade sail out the front of the house.

ABOVE:  Before I took it down... photo taken sometime last year.

 ABOVE:  Now, without shade sail.  Much tidier for marketing.  The shade sail had sagged and it was greenish in places from mould build up... kinda ikky.  Much happier with how it looks without it.

And now... I'm gunna have some lunch and think about dinner too.  We have the first Real Estate Agent coming back tonight with her proposal and appraisal.  Yikes!  I hope it's good.

Today is dragging!  Seriously.  I am not making dinner till after the Estate Agent has been, so I'm literally twiddling me thumbs.

Ummm, actually no.  I've done a little bit of work in the sewing room.

ABOVE:  A layout for my 2nd 'Holiday Time' Table Runner.  No stitching done yet... still got heaps to do ... but it's a start.  And the first thing I've done in bloody forever.

Funky little Mini eh?  *smiles*

End of the day, the Estate Agent came, yakked and went.  It wasn't quite as good as we hoped, but still doable. Won't clear our mortgage ... but will certainly bring it down somewhat.

Now we wait to see what our next agent comes up with.

That's not till Monday night.

Now ... time to head off to bed I think.  I've had a nasty headache all day.

SHALL I?

Meh... I'm heading into Hamilton this morning to do the grocery shopping.

I always put it off till we start running out of stuff... usually important stuff like loo paper.  So... that's what I'm doing first thing today.

It will help kill time till the 2nd real estate agent comes around at 2 pm.  
I don't have much to do to get the house ready, should only take about half an hour max.

ABOVE:  I saw this somewhere ages ago and saved it... it's perfectly applicable now though!  6 weeks of muttering... lol!

ABOVE:  ditto this one... saved it eons ago... love it!  I knew there was a good reason to have naps.
Clearly I've got nothing better to yabber on  about... so I'm gunna bugger off and have me porridge before going into Hamilton.

ONWARD...

Shit... just remembered I have to drop the dogs off at the groomers first thing this morning too!  Phew... lucky I remembered.

3.46 pm:  Busy day!   Dogs got dropped off at the groomers on time, then I went and did the grocery grab.
Home, unloaded the groceries, put them all away then went and picked up the dogs.

Next thing, run around and turn on all the lights, make sure everything was perfect for the viewing by the next estate agent.

I liked him.  He spent about an hour here!  He was VERY impressed with everything, he said NOTHING needed to be changed inside, his only recommendation was we take down the shade sale out the front of the house.

That will be done this weekend.

By Monday night we shall have both Agents appraisals/proposals.

Then we make a decision and .... probably list this house sooner rather than later.

I'm trying not to fall asleep right now!  It's been a tiring few weeks and I simply can't relax and get a decent night's sleep.  I'm averaging about 5 hours a night.  No wonder I'm tired all the time.

10.13 pm:  and I've had a really nice, quiet, relaxing evening.  Just what I needed.
Signing off now... Coronation Street is on!

ESTATE AGENTS

Today I have the first group of Estate Agents coming through to check out the house.  'A' will be giving us the appraisal, but she is bringing her fellow agents along with her.  It's called a 'Caravan'... god knows why?

I expect them at 11 am ... so I've got plenty of time to get the beds made, rooms just 'so' and put the dogs in their crates and in the car.

Otherwise they will go nuts and bark the house down.  

ABOVE:  I'm happy with how the front of the house is presenting now.
Do you remember when we first bought this house?  It  had NOTHING in those gardens.  

We still have to do the waterblasting of the concrete and a few other bits 'n' bobs around the place, but basically it's ready.

Just as well ... cos I really am exhausted now.

Tomorrow I have another Estate Agent coming through, then I can actually RELAX... and find our new home.

Back to today... I better get a move on and make sure everything is spot on.

ONWARD...

11.33 am:    And the estate agents from Cambridge Real Estate have been and gone.  Man they don't stay long... like... swoop in, swoop out.

ABOVE:  Was given this package... love the chocolate!  Nice touch.

Should see Alison on Friday night with her proposal/appraisal.

I'm now going to take myself out for a treat.  I think I deserve it.  Might be some fabric... and a nice lunch.

3.33 pm:  And I did indeed have a nice lunch.  With Lacy.  Then, instead of buying some fabric... I decided to get something I have been needing for quite a while now:

ABOVE:  My headphones, the ones I use ALL. THE. TIME on the computer are buggered.  Held together with Blu Tack no less!  And they are corded, so I'm literally 'attached' to the computer while using them.  Most annoying.
So, I went to Harvey Norman's and bought some Bluetooth ones.  NO CORDS.  NO BLU TACK.  

Now I just have to wait for Griffin to come and connect them up for me, cos I'm a bit daft when it comes to that sorta thing.

Oh well... looks like I might have to try and sort the headphones out myself.  *sigh*

Dinner tonight was humble sausages and veges.
With gravy... which made it yummy.

Cold tonight!  Got a jacket on and me blankie.  I could turn on the heat pump, but then I get too hot!  Can't win.

Staying up to watch Coronation Street... it's on so late nowdays!   Then bed.  Got another estate agent coming tomorrow afternoon.  Won't be much to do to get the house ready thankfully.

Time to sign off... catch ya tomorrow.

I'M FEELING REALLY EXCITED

I think after today .... 

I CAN ACTUALLY GET BACK IN THE SEWING ROOM.... AND DO SOME SEWING!!!!

Yep, by the end of today this house will be READY to go to market!

Not that we will be rushing in to do that just yet, we have to find THE HOUSE before we put this one on the market.

But IT WILL BE READY to GO.

I have agents coming in this week to value it, and come up with their proposals/appraisals/costings etc.  All very exciting shit.

But not as exciting as GETTING BACK TO SEWING. 

OMG I've missed that so much.  It's my 'go to' for relaxing and just having fun.

First on my list of To Do's is to make 3 more 'Holiday Time' Table Runners.  Then I will make a few more Wonky House/Tree Runners too.

I feel like they are going to become my STAPLE  sale items.  

So... back to today.

Lacy is coming out to help me wash all the windows, inside and out.
We can also potter around the garden ... I've got three empty pots out the front I want to put some pretty flowers in.  

So a trip down to Mitre 10 is on the cards too.  Oh, I need to buy more of that amazing shower glass cleaner too!  That shit is truly magical.

Right, I'm off to start the day... try and pop in and say friggin 'Hi' today eh?  It's been damn quite around here... 

ONWARD...

First up..  I am planning on taking a walk through video.

DEE: this is the shower cleaner:

ABOVE: It is AMAZING.

12.10 pm:  Lacy has been, washed the windows, helped with some plant potting and now has gone home again.
So appreciated her help today and every other time she's come out.  (((HUGS)))  Lacy.  ♥

I've just had lunch, and after washing a few windows and scrubbing the kitchen sinks, I'm done for now.

I did get a video taken of the house inside:


ABOVE:  Sorry, it's quite long and I didn't bother narrating it.  You just get to hear me breathe, and the camera self focusing every now and then.  Not a good video really, but hey, it's something.

Whoops!  I have changed the setting to PUBLIC... so you should be able to see it now!

6.51 pm:  Just had dinner, chicken rice risotto, with a Teriyaki twist.  Was really yum.

I've cleaned on/off all day.  I've done washing, and generally fluffed around the house.  I'm done for the day... almost.

Time to sign off and relax for a couple of hours.

THAT WAS QUICK

I started hand knitting that 'Loopy Yarn' again last night, so I could have a cute, soft cushion on my bed.

I got it done, it was SO FAST to do, and so easy.

ABOVE:  So cute, and so soft.  
I will be using that yarn again for sure.  

But not right now.  

Every room in this house is de-cluttered and 'staged' now ... so what's left to do is the cleaning.  I am going to start on the vacuming, cleaning doors/door frames, skirting boards, windows/windowsills and bathrooms today.

That is hopefully only going to take me a couple of days.  Lacy is coming out today to give me a hand.

I have Real Estate Agents coming here on Wednesday and Thursday for appraisals.  I'd like to think I can have it ready by then.

THEN I can relax and take a bloody break!  I am feeling rather sore and tired to tell the truth.  My arms and hands are kinda killing me!  

ONWARD...

3.32 pm: WOW did Lacy and I get a lot done today! We scrubbed and vacumed and cleaned till well after lunchtime. Then... well the batteries died.

So stopped for a break... and now I can't stop yawning. So might grab 40 winks.


Lacy gathered up all of the remaining twigs and tree branches and took them off for burning. Our little pyromaniac. She's coming out again tomorrow to help with cleaning windows. Then I reckon most of the house will be DONE.

LOL... '40 winks' became 2 hours!  I knew I was tired but TWO HOURS!  Whoops.
Now I have to think about dinner... I say think cos I really don't wanna cook a damn thing.  *sigh*

So, Stew got home to a dozy wife who had done nothing about dinner at all.  So he had to go and buy KFC burgers and chips.  What a disaster, said no one at all.  lol

Quiet evening spent watching TV and just being  lazy.

OH WOW!

So... I decided quite some time ago to take the photos for our home's marketing myself.

Only I didn't have a wide angle lens, so was going to borrow one.

But then last night, I wanted to take a photo of my bedroom, cos we moved one of the lounge chairs in there, and I was looking at my phone's camera options.

PANORAMA.... hmmmmm... I kinda knew how that worked, but I'd never tried it before.

So I gave it a go.  And OMG!!!!!

Look at this:

 ABOVE:  How AMAZING does that look?  It shows the entire room... and it's not  exaggerated the amount of room in there at all, which can happen with wide angle lenses.

ABOVE:  I went on and took one of the spare bedroom too.  I'm in awe of how Panorama captures the whole room.

So I guess I will be taking lots of panoramic photos over the next few days.  *smiles*

Now, back to today.

We are heading into the garden/yard.

Stew has a huge load to take to the dump.  While he does that, I will potter around in the garden, taking out stuff that does not need to be there.

At lunchtime we will be heading back into Hamilton as there's two more houses we want to look at this weekend.  One is an older, Lockwood home in Hillcrest, and the second one is a much newer home in Western Heights.  

Both look nice.  Will show you later of course.  *smiles*

After that, we will be coming back home to carry on with the gardens/yard.  Lacy is coming out to help as well.

Right now though... it's PORRIDGE TIME.

ONWARD...

Oh whoops!  I didn't realise I'd not updated since this morning.  

I woke at 5 am ... got up and fluffed around doing bits 'n' bobs till Stew got up.

Then we were busy doing stuff... I got the garage totally tidy, got a load ready to take to the Hospice shop and more to take to storage.

Stew did some tidying up outside, took a big load to the dump and got charged a very fair price for once.  

Then we headed into Hamilton to look at two houses.

I WOULD show you them, but every time I try to upload a photo my computer freezes then dies.  So I'll try again later.

First House:  Was the Lockwood.  It looked lovely in the photos, BUT.... it was UP quite a steep shared driveway.... first off putting thing.  Then the street/area it was in.  University housing/flats/grots-ville!  Seriously horrible area.  Could just imagine all the uni kids and their parties every weekend.  NO THANKS.

Second House:  Much nicer area.  Nice house, we could see ourselves living there.  The house itself is quite a bit smaller than ours, and we would have to get rid of quite a bit of furniture to fit in it.  And the section was tiny too.  But we did like it.  It's a firm possibility.

It's now 3.30 pm, Stew is outside mowing the lawns and I'm going to have a nana nap... cos I'm bloody tired.

STUPID COMPUTER!... here's the first house:

ABOVE:  A nice home, not for us.

NAP TIME...   6.15 pm:   didn't have a nap after all.  If I had I would have struggled to get to sleep tonight.  So I finished hand knitting that cushion cover.  


Will show you tomorrow.

Stew is cooking dinner tonight, sausages and stir fried veges.  Smells yum.
Wasn't hungry before, am now.  

I'm freezing ... sitting still does that to ya.  Might have to turn on the heat pump for a while.

Forgot to sign off for the day....went to bed early.

MAD, CRAZY, BUSY DAY

Today and tomorrow are gunna be nuts.

We have so much to get done this weekend!

A big load of rubbish to the dump.

Gardens tidied up, and a lot of my bits 'n' bobs taken out of it.

Clear all the roof guttering, we have grass growing in some places up there!

Take more stuff to the Storage facility.

Tidy the garage.

AND at lunch time today we have four houses lined up to view in Hamilton.

Why so crazy?

Because I have estate agents coming to give me appraisals on this home next week!  Yep... I've set a 4 day deadline on getting everything ready.  WHOOPS.

We won't actually be going 'on the market' next week though.  I'm just getting another duck in the row really.   And there will still be stuff to get done after that... the biggest being getting the carpets cleaned, but it's not carpet cleaning time right now.... that will be the last thing we get done.

Yesterday I took a break from it all... and last night I tried something new.

 ABOVE:  I got a ball of this 'wool' yesterday at Spotlight.  It intrigued me. It's called MODA LOOPY.  You don't have to use knitting needles or crochet hooks to knit it together!  Just ya fingers.  Weird.

ABOVE: I looked at a tutorial on You Tube then gave it a go. It didn't take me long to 'knit' it together... I need one more ball so I can have a piece big enough to make a cover for the little roll cushion on my bed. 

This is what I call 'fluffing'... where I go around the house and find small things to do/change/tart up and so on.  *smiles*   I am always doing it. 

It's FUN.

Right, I better get moving...  if I'm not back on here for a while, don't wonder why!  We are busy, busy, busy.
I will show you the houses we are looking at today.... later.

ONWARD...

I got more painting done this morning... then we took a load of stuff to storage.

Home... got changed and have so far looked at two houses.

One looked SO GOOD online, but OMG was so NOT good once we got inside.

Next one is a firm possibility, even though it needs quite a bit of money and time spent on it.

Lunching now, then on to the next two.

Got to a house which was advertised as OPEN at 2 pm. Sat and waited... and waited 
...then rang the Agent.  "Oh sorry... I sold that one yesterday!"

OMG... that just pissed us off...  2nd time that's happened.  So very annoying.

Now we've managed to look at another one (too small) , so on to our last one for today. 

Today's houses:

 ABOVE: This one looked so good online, but so disappointing in reality.  It was horrendous inside.  And it had the most dangerous, steep circular staircase inside!  Took one look around and said NO - very emphatically.

 ABOVE:  Nice house, could have lived in it easily, if it wasn't so incredibly HOT in the bedrooms!  And remember, it's still winter here!  And you were paying for more than you wanted (a spa pool room) and it still needed work done on it.
So, another NO.

 ABOVE: Initially I loved this one, it had heaps of potential.  But... there were just too many con's to consider it seriously.  The neighbours looked truly dodgy, it shared a very pot holed, unkept driveway and it had a lot needing doing to it inside to bring it up to scratch.  Another NO.

ABOVE: This one is a definite possibility.  Even though the inside needs redecorating/painting/upgrading, new kitchen, new ensuite, new deck, garage turned into a room, carport added and probably heaps more!
It appeals... not the prettiest house by any means, but it's not all about looks.  It's in a nice area, backs onto a reserve and although it's close to a main road, you can't hear it too much.

So.  A mixed bag today.  

I've already got two lined up for tomorrow.

For now though... it's 4.45 and Stew and I are buggered.  We are going to relax for a while then do a couple of things inside the house.   Tomorrow we attack the gardens!

Coming home after looking at some of those houses, felt like coming into a castle.  A CLEAN castle.  *smiles*

7.53 pm and I'm ready for bed!  Can hardly stay awake.  So, probably will go to bed soon.  There's another super busy day tomorrow.

ANOTHER ROOM DONE

Last night I put things back in the sewing room... and it's another one I can now tick off the list.

 ABOVE: As I said, I'm keeping the sewing stuff in the room to a bare minimum.  
Everything else I need/use all the time is in the wardrobe... and I'm going to use the kitchen bench as my work bench for now.

ABOVE:  I put this spare bed in the other corner of the room.  I've not got anything to put on that wall... yet.

Today I am going to work on cleaning all the doors and door frames.  Not sure what I'll do after that... but I'm sure I will find something to tackle.

But for now... porridge!

ONWARD...

So... after having me porridge I kinda went back to sleep... until 9.35.  WOW.  Musta been tired.

So, I have spent some time cleaning up painting equipment, just have a couple of little jobs left to go with painting.

Then I went into the sewing room and did this:



ABOVE:  looks ok, I'm happy with it.

2.30 pm:  And I decided to have a good break, so took myself off to Hamilton, had lunch with these two:

ABOVE:  Don't ask my what Kelly was doing.. probably talking.  So, nice lunch, nice company... then I went to Spotlight and got a wee bit of pink fluffy fabric to cover that little cushion on my bed with.

My arms and legs are so sore after yesterday's painting marathon.... I just don't feel like doing a bloody thing.  So I won't.

Weird... I did an update but lost it!  Oh well.   I've been an utter lazy tart this afternoon.  Did a tiny bit of fluffing around, but nothing worth noting.

Got dinner on now, a one pan spag bol.  
After dinner I'm probably gunna do NOTHING again.  *smiles*

I think you can safely say I took today OFF.

12.01 ... and that's a wrap for the day.  Off to bed.  Catch ya tomorrow.... or should I say today?  lol