BIG SHIT AND LITTLE SHIT

Our homes are full of it.

There's all the big shit:  furniture, appliances, Outdoor settings, pots, exercise equipment and so on.

Then there's all the little shit:  kitchenware, bathroom stuff, linen, bedding, coffee tables, nick nacks, paintings and so on.

And well... when it comes to moving, you start to realise what you really NEED, and what you really WANT.

Now that most of the little shit is out of our home, it feels cold and alien.  Soulless, with no colour or character.

I miss our nick nacks, cushions, throws and paintings. They are what make a house a home.   

There's only 5 weeks to go till we move, then I can get all of our stuff out of storage, and make our new house a home.  I can't wait!

Storage.  *sigh*   Lacy and I are taking even more over to Tamahere today.  I will take some photos of the storage facility for ya... cos I don't have anything else to show you right now.

Once we have done that, I'm going to make a few more Santa Wine Bottle Hats.  I only have a few left after the market the other day, they sold really well! 

And yep, I fished some fabric out of those boxes that Bex and I packed up the other day! Should have known better than to pack it all up.  

So now ... I'm off to make my breakfast.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

WHY have I packed and stored so much stuff 'early'?

I'm not a 'leave it to the last minute' sorta person.

The more I can get done NOW, rather than leave it to the last minute, when everything is so hectic, is better for me.

I won't get stressed out in the last week, cos I know that so much is already done, and is out of here.  

I will have been able to clean cupboards, wardrobes and rooms well in advance of the last few days.  

So ... while it seems crazy to be doing it all weeks in advance, what else would I be doing?
Just sitting here waiting to do it all in a rush days before we move?  I think not.

Lacy should be out here soon... then we can get on with packing the car for the first trip of the day.

12.29 pm:  And Lacy and I have done two loads, and after a little break we will be doing the third and final one for the day.

 ABOVE:  We sure can get quite a bit into Stew's car.  And on Lacy's lap.  *smiles*
She's a twat... expecting a ride on the trolley, then using it like a skateboard too. 

ABOVE: This is Storage King, Hamilton South.  It's out by Hamilton Airport.

ABOVE: This is Josh, he runs the facility.  I took him lunch and donuts today, cos he's just the most helpful guy.

Right... better get on with the last load.

2.07 pm:  And Lacy and I are done for the day.  We loaded up my car and her's and took our final two loads over to Storage.

 ABOVE:  me taking yet another break... on bags of blankets.

ABOVE:  We managed to fill 1/3rd of the floor space in the 2nd unit.  In a couple of weekend's time we are getting the free truck and bringing over the last of the stuff we are storing.
Man it feels so good getting all this stuff out of the house!

I can move in the garage again, and I can also now clean more rooms.

But for RIGHT NOW... I'm gunna have a nana nap.  Because I'm ????????.  Yeah.  You know the word.

Well I'm very happy with how much we got done today.  After my nap I did more organising of what was left in the garage, getting my head around what needs to be done next.

I cooked Chicken Rice Risotto for dinner, it was really yum. Sadly, Brylee doesn't like it at all... so she had to get her own dinner.  Can't please everyone eh.

DRAWING A BLANK

So, today I am drawing a blank for blog fodder.

Yesterday was the same really.

KATE, you asked about a runner ... is THIS THE ONE you were talking about?....

ABOVE: This is the only other one in front of the fire place that has red in it!  It's $50.

I'm gunna stay in bed as long as I can today... and try to get over the tiredness from hell.

Then I'm going into Hamilton to get more friggin boxes, like I should have done yesterday.

Except yesterday my brain wasn't working properly.  I've been making some really dumb mistakes lately... I know it's just from being over tired though.  Nothing to worry about OK.

Oh and yeah, before that I must fill in a hole Coco dug under the side gate yesterday, and make it 'Coco Proof' again.  

She actually dug it so well she got out yesterday afternoon.  Luckily I was in the lounge and saw her before she took off down the road.

She seems hell bent on escaping lately!  Grrrr.

Right, I'm rolling over and going back to sleep.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

OK.. Kate.  I suggest you come  down to the November Cambridge Trash and Treasure Market to actually  LOOK at my runners!  Nov 10th, 8-1.

Moving on.. I've been out to Tamahere and paid for our 2nd unit and booked their moving truck for putting stuff into unit #2, and then getting it all out again on Dec 7th and 8th.  
Another duck firmly in the row.

Then I went into Hamilton and got more boxes from Allied Pickfords.  Then came home.

Lunch shortly, then back into packing stuff into boxes.  
Lacy is heading out soon to give me a hand again.

Brylee just said... "You should put a fun fact on your blog every day".

So today's fun fact is:  Lacy had no idea where silk came from.  NONE WHAT SO EVER.  

So. We've done some more packing.  And we are now taking a break.  Cos I'm friggin old.
And tired.

Tomorrow Lacy and I are taking shit out to the new storage unit.  So hopefully when we want to take the rest out,  Stew and I won't have as much to do.

Well it's the end of the day.  We had KFC for dinner, which was lovely.

Then I packed up some linen into black sacks... which will be taken, along with everything else we can fit in Stew's car, to the storage unit tomorrow.  I anticipate Lacy and I doing 2-3 trips to Tamahere tomorrow. 

Catch ya tomorrow.  Mum, I hope you have a good evening... no more getting up close and friendly with rubbish bins! *smiles*

STARTING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL

I reckon by the end of today I will have made sense of this house.

I plan on getting all areas sorted out.  There will be  'stay for the moving company to take piles' and 'stuff we have to put into storage piles'.  

 ABOVE:  All my market stock.  Sadly depleted.  I'm going to iron it all today then put it aside for the November Market, then it will go into Storage till after Christmas.

I have an FBG friend coming over this afternoon to look at the runners.  She wants some for gifts.

So, I won't get to put this lot away till after she's been.

 ABOVE:  Now that I've painted the lounge walls, I can put at one end all the things we need to keep out and take with us over the 'moving week'.  

Dog stuff will be going with the dogs to Auckland at the end of November.  But still has to be put aside.

There is just so much to remember to do!
Lucky I'm a super organised sorta person eh?  *smiles*

ABOVE:  This is a panorama photo of the garage!  It's chaos.  Probably 50% of this stuff is going into storage at Tamahere.  We will be taking it there in the next week or two.

First up for today though... Hamilton for a small grocery grab.  While I'm deliberately running down the food stocks, we still need to buy stuff like fresh meat/veges/spaghetti... cos without spaghetti Brylee would expire I'm sure.

So... once I've had me porridge, I'll be off to do that, then move on with getting this house into some sort of order, cos right now it's a mess.

AND.  IT'S.  DOING.  ME.  HEAD.  IN.

ONWARD...

12 noon... and let's cancel today eh?  It's far too boring.  

Been into Hamilton.  Done what I needed to do.  Home again.
Having lunch shortly.

Then on to sorting shit out.  

Go away and come back tomorrow.  Who knows.. I might be more interesting?

 ABOVE:  I picked up a large sheet of melamine shelving today.  You don't realise how often you look in your side mirrors, till ya can't.  It was like driving blind!
I had no view down the left side of me car at all.  It was awful.

ABOVE:  This is what I wanted the board for.  Now peeps can see the smaller runners much better.

There is elastic strung around the board, and the runners are clipped onto the elastic with plastic clips.  

ABOVE:  I've laid out the remaining runners in the lounge for my FBG friend to peruse.  Fingers crossed she finds something she likes?

I'll let ya know.

Well my friend bought quite a bit!  So if I add what she spent to my total from yesterday, I did EXTREMELY well this week!  

I have Cards tonight.  I am so tired I don't even know if I want to go.  I'll wait and see how I feel in an hour or so I think. 

ABOVE:  For Kate:  # 1 is $40.  #2 is $50.  If you want a close up I will do that tomorrow... right now I'm doing dinner then probably going out.

9.30 pm:  Home from card night.  Which was, as usual, very enjoyable.   I'm now ready for bed.  Early for me, but I know I need more sleep.
Hard to switch off the brain lately.

ST ANDREW'S CRAFT FAIR

Labour Day Holiday.  And we are heading off this morning for the craft fair.

The 'big' bi-annual fair held here in Cambridge.

The weather forecast is: CLOUDY with light Drizzle in the morning, turning to rain around midday.

I've not looked out the window yet to see what it's like.

If it's heavy drizzle, I'm staying home.
It it's light or non-existent, we shall head out at 7 am.

The worst that can happen is some stuff might get a bit damp and we will have to dry it once we get home.

If it turns to utter shit, we will pack up early.

ABOVE:  Last night Bex helped me pack up what was left in the sewing room.  It only took us about an hour, you get stuff done twice as fast with help. *smiles*

I'd been putting it off for ages, JUST IN CASE I wanted to do more sewing before we move.

But I know I won't.  I've got more than enough to keep me busy for the next few weeks.

So... I'm off to start the day.  Wish us luck.  
I will be back in a couple of hours to let ya know if we went to market.... or not.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: All set up... time for breakfast. How about a pie! 

Weather is holding... for now.

2.39 pm:  And WOW were we so lucky!  The rain held off until we were packing up, and it only really started to spit a bit.  

As for the market itself.  It was slower than last year attendance wise, but steady.
I made sales across the entire range, I even sold a cot quilt.

Profits?  Up on last year!  I didn't expect that as it was fairly slow all day.  So in all... I'm happy.

Best thing?   Stew stayed with me the entire time, so I had company, and someone to watch the 'shop' when I needed a bathroom break.

We have just finished unpacking and it's time to relax for a while.  Next market will be the Cambridge Trash and Treasure Market on the 10th of November.

After that I will take a break and miss the December Market.... we will be in the thick of unpacking into our new home in Hamilton then.

Sorry I forgot to mention how Bex did.  She had a good day too ... not quite as much as last year for her, but she still made a decent amount.

I have just had a nap, woke up feeling like shit.

We didn't get a good sleep last night, thanks to the dogs going berserk at 1 am ... there was another dog on our property.  Hence barking... LOTS AND LOTS of barking.  For about an hour and a half.

I had to put the bark collars back on the dogs to shut them up.  And even then Marley still barked for ages. 

So as you can imagine, we are very tired. 

Happy and relieved to say my Mum had surgery today and came through it like a trooper.  Onward and upward for her.

End of the day... winding up and heading off to bed.  And god help the dogs if they bark tonight.  We need sleep.

HOUSE NAME

I was just sitting still the other day, thinking about the new house... like ya do.  And I thought about naming it, like I named this home.

Hmmm.... it took me all of 30 seconds to come up with the name.

Now I just have to make it... then show you.  Cos NAH, I'm not gunna tell you what it is.

And you will never guess either.  Cos it's not something so obvious as 'The Harvey House' or 'Harvey Haven'... nope.  It's gunna be a bit different.  Cos that's what I'm like.

Yesterday I went to Spotlight and bought the wooden letters.  And sometime in the coming week or so I will be painting them and arranging them on a back board.

Back to today.  I shall be painting walls.  I am going to start at one end of the house and just keep going till it's done.  With any luck I will get it all done today.

Then tonight Stew and I will pack the cars up ready for the big market tomorrow.  Fingers firmly crossed that the weather does not do as forecast, and pour down with rain tomorrow.

Bex is due here this afternoon.  She's got a stall at the market too, selling crocheted soft toys.

We will both be gutted if we have to cancel due to shitty weather.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: I felt sorry for ya... so here's a sneak peek at the house name.  Good luck trying to work it out... I doubt even Sharon can work it out this time.  She got the last one btw.

WET PAINT... is starting to be everywhere!  I've made a start and it's going well.

11.25 am:  and I'm already exhausted.  I've done the lounge, entrance area and the family room.  Moving on to the hallway soon, just need to take a break.

Meanwhile, Stew's had his breakfast.  He's tired, I get that.  But I still want to kill him.  I know, I'm not nice.

ABOVE: Taking another break. Just washed some of the walls in my bedroom in the vain hope I don't have to paint them. 

Waiting for them to dry.

2.23 pm:  And I'm done.  I'm not painting another bloody thing in this house.  Unless on moving day some twat dings a wall... then I might fix it.
But essentially, it's all done.

Stew has been working for the last couple of hours in the garage, taking apart the shelving.  We will be packing up everything in the garage and taking over half to storage in Tamahere.  The rest the moving company will take.

Yeah... them ducks sure are getting in a row!

ABOVE: So Bex arrived late afternoon... she's ready for market tomorrow.

Like my set up?

I sit and watch TV, and my computer screen, which has the new house's photos on a slide show.  So I can glance up and see a new photo every minute.

Yep, I'm obsessed with the new house.
I have the house plan in front of me too... and a calendar that I cross each day off.

We now have 5 weeks and 3 days till we move.

Stew cooked tonight.  We had crumbed chicken sausages, wedges and a lettuce salad.  It was very yummy.

I'm signing off now... I will need to get to bed fairly early tonight, with any luck we will be off to market first thing in the morning.  Praying it isn't raining.

LEFT WITH A CHICKEN

 ABOVE:  Last night Brylee combed my hair out for me... it was lovely.  It is full of hair product, gotta wash it this morning for sure.
I had company:

ABOVE: One minute I had a dog snuggled up with me, the next thing ... Stew appeared and said "Dinner" ... and BOOM. I'm left with a friggin chicken!

It was just a bit funny.


Today I'm going to finish off the sanding and wiping down all the walls. I hope that by Monday I can get the paint out and go for it.

The bloody walls are doing my head in, I want them done and off my mind.


Stew meanwhile is going to get the lawns mowed. They are knee high! I've never seen them this high in fact. The weather has just been totally off for mowing the last 3-4 weeks.

To think ... he will probably only have to mow these lawns 1-2 more times before we move. After we move his lawn mowing will only take 20 minutes TOPS.


And that's all for now... it's a bit boring not having house hunting to do. That was fun eh?

ONWARD...

12 noon and a great morning so far.
We went and adjusted out accommodation for December.  We are now staying the evenings of the 2nd and 3rd of December here in Cambridge in a motel unit, then on the 4th we shall stay in a motel in Hamilton.

By the evening of the 4th we will have handed over our Cambridge home (all clean and sparkly),  and have the keys to our new home in Hamilton.

I expect we will spend the evening of the 4th at the new house, doing any cleaning that is required, before our household furniture etc is moved in on the morning of the 5th.

I am praying that the current owners leave it nice and clean.  Otherwise, it's going to be a long day, cleaning both houses.

I have just finished all the sanding!!!  Finally.
Now I shall wipe over all the walls and do the painting soon.

Very excited to be on the home straight with that I can tell you.

ABOVE:  My next job.  Sorting through all these books and taking 99% of them to the local Hospice Shop.  I'm sick of trudging them from house to house to house.  If I want a recipe, I can just look it up on the internet.  Who needs books anymore?

Right.  Pit stop over.  Time to get a move on again.

Stew is outside pruning hedges, only one of which we own, but we still have to prune our side of all of them.  And then he will mow the lawns.  

ABOVE:  As I predicted, our neighbour has left his hedge HALF PRUNED for SEVEN WEEKS now.  Luckily it did not affect our house sale at all.

But still... what a fucking arsehole thing to do.  There's been no reason why he couldn't chop the rest down and make it look half decent in the last 7 weeks.

I'm so damn thankful we no longer have to put up with him and his goddam hedge.

This will be the last time Stew ever has to trim our side of it.

Stew is 6 foot 2 inches tall, to give you some idea of just how high that hedge is!  

The chopped down half has grown heaps in 7 weeks, so it's not looking too bad now. 
I bet the neighbour comes out in the next few weeks and butchers it again.  NOT. MY. PROBLEM. ... anymore.

In our new home, there's no hedges, just wooden fences.  Yaaa for that.

 ABOVE:  Our Kowhai tree finally has lots of flowers.  We have nursed this tree along for 3.5 years and now we are leaving it.  
I'm gunna get a new one for our new home.

ABOVE:  And the thistles I've grown from seeds are growing well too.  The middle one is starting to turn purple.  I am going to try and put one in a pot and take it with me.

Right, enough about gardens.
I had some lunch, then helped Stew in the gardens for a little while.
Then I came inside and started vacuming.

Cos the entire house has to be vacumed before I paint.

And I'm vacuming... and my phone rings.  It's Lacy... I can tell from the ring tone.

So I grab the phone, press answer and say "YES, YOU CAN COME OUT AND DO THE VACUMING"... and then I hang up.

5 seconds later... I get a text from Lacy.  She's on her way out to do the vacuming.   EXCELLENT.

NA NA NAH NAH.

Watching the rugby on TV... Stew is looking really, really stressed and cross!  Looking like England might beat our All Blacks.  SHOCK HORROR!

Like I care?  Nah.

I got the first coat of paint on my patches.  Tomorrow I will get it finished.  Whoop whoop.

Winding down for the evening.  I will be heading off to bed soon.  Tired, even though I had a little nana nap this afternoon.

TGIF?

So... it's Friday.


Makes not an ounce of difference to me obviously. Except I get to have Stewy home for a couple of days.


OMG the weather is doing my head in, rain, rain and more damn rain. And worse, the weather forecast is for rain on Monday. That's the day I have the big Church Craft Fair on just down the road.

I've been looking forward to it for months. Of course, if it rains, I'm not going.


It's just not worth getting all my patchwork products wet. Fingers crossed the forecast is wrong. It does happen. *smiles*

ABOVE: Two of the full walls I need to paint. On the left is the entrance way wall. We only made four of those picture hook holes, the rest were already there. On the right is the wall in the lounge where I had all my little hearts. Clearly I need to paint them eh?


I know I'm doing a bit much, but I really want the new owners to walk in and be happy with the house. They paid a huge amount of money for it... so deserve it to be looking as good as I can get it.


I remember talking to some neighbours of ours recently, and she said when they bought their house (behind us) she had to paint all the walls because of how disgusting they were. No way am I having anyone say that about our house.


I'm feeling very frustrated. I've not heard back from the moving company who came out and did an appraisal for our move. She said I'd have their quote on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Grrrrr. Must try and remember ... there may be a very good reason. She could be sick right?


I'm a very impatient person. Not good for the blood pressure for sure.

ABOVE: Question. Who's used these hooks before? Are they any good? Do they hold up heavy paintings/mirrors etc?


I'm thinking of using them in our new home, instead of banging nails and traditional hooks in the walls.


Having to repair all the walls in this home has really put me off using the 'traditional' ones again.


I'm gunna go now, get me porridge, sit in bed and contemplate sanding those friggin walls.




Oh ya.


ONWARD...


Well, it's nearly lunchtime. And I've managed to get quite a bit done with the sanding. I'm now taking a break and will be heading into Hamilton to pick up boxes.


I have heard back from the moving company that came out on Wednesday and...


Their quote is EIGHT AND A HALF THOUSAND DOLLARS LESS than the first quote we got !!!


I of course accepted that quote right there and then.


Can you believe the difference??? From $13,500 down to $5,100 ! That $8,500 is going to mean we can do so much more to our new home.

5.34 pm:  And I'm home from Hamilton.  Been home about an hour in fact.
I signed the contract and fixed the dates for our move, and they gave me some boxes.  I can get more if I need them too.

Then I went and had a very late lunch, which seems to be the norm for  me now.  After that I got an enlargement of the floor plan for the new house (I got it from the council plans), so I can sit and work out where things will go now.

OH YES! I got a phone call from Stew just after I got home... he said a neighbour had rung him to say our dogs were out and running off up the road!


OMG... I grabbed Brylee and we both ran out of the house ... and luckily we could still see the dogs up the road and got them back pretty quick.

Though Coco was an utter tart and would NOT come when I called her, so Brylee had to run up the road and chase her down.


She was certainly not coming back to me. I could have throttled her, but instead I locked her in the garage for half an hour.


How did they get out? SOMEONE had opened their side gate and not pushed the bolt across, so they only had to press on it to get it to open. I've now put a padlock on it so that never happens again.


Hmmmm... actually that might have been me. I had to open it on Wednesday to let the moving company lady down that side of the house. WHOOPS! Lucky the dogs didn't realise it wasn't latched till now eh? *sigh*


Dinner tonight was beef schnitzel... and veges.  I actually fan baked the schnitzel in the oven and it came out perfect.  So much better than pan frying and having the crumb coating come off and stick to the pan.  I'll be doing it that way from now on that's for sure.

Time to wind down for the day, watch Coronation Street then off to bed.  Plenty to do tomorrow... more sanding. 

NO SLEEP IN TODAY

I am thoroughly enjoying being able to sleep in now days.

Can't today though, got to take the dogs to the groomers.

She's moved, so I will have to leave a bit earlier so I can find her house.  But all good really.

When we move I will be using the same groomer too... give me a chance to come out here and hang with a girlfriend or two while they are being groomed.

Lucky for me, when Lacy was out here yesterday she pre-groomed the girls for me.  She did their ears and tails... I used to do them every Friday night, but OMG I simply forget to do it now.

Far too much on my mind really.  

I can't wait till all this moving stuff is behind us and we can settle down again.

As I said to me Mum last night, Christmas is not going to happen this year!  We will have only been in the new house two weeks, we probably won't have even found the Christmas Decorations, let alone have time to put them up.

Though in saying that, it would be kinda lovely to have the tree up for our first Christmas in the new house eh?  Oh well... we will just have to wait and see how we go.

Today... we should hear back from the lady who came out yesterday.  Fingers crossed she comes back with a really good quote!  And if she does, I will accept it, and jump in me car and go get some more boxes.

For free from her company.  

Then I can finish packing all the stuff I have to pack, ready to put into storage. 

Until I hear from her, I will be sanding the walls I put polyfilla on yesterday.  Then I can paint them, and cross that off me 'To Do' list.

Right, I better stop yakking now and get a move on... got to have me breakfast then get the dogs to the groomer.  dumm dee dooo... 

ONWARD...

11.08 am:  And I've found heaps more places that need polyfilla... so am still getting the walls ready for painting.

And as I don't want to be priming before painting, I'm trying to find a Valspar paint that matches what's on the walls already.  I'm about to go down to Mitre 10 to get some test pots (if they have them).  Gunna ring first I think, save myself a trip if they don't have test pots.

And OH YEAH... bit bloody quiet on here isn't it?
Pfffff.  

Photos of groomed dogs?  Yeah nah.  They walked into a muddy puddle on the way back to the car!  Little bitches thought they were so clever... laughs on them, cos now they are locked in the garage.  At least their coats are nice and short, they should dry out quickly.

I went down and got three test post for the walls that need complete coverage.  I hope one of them is a really good match to what's already on the walls.  Something tells me I'm worrying too much, and DOING TOO MUCH.  You expect marks on walls and picture hook holes right?

So.. NONE of the test paints were a match.  Back to square one, might just have to buy more of the original paint.

I've now got all the walls prepared for sanding and painting.  Wow, there were more areas needing poly filla than I thought, once I had removed  EVERYTHING off the walls.  Bloody nightmare really.

Time to wind down for the evening.   Catch ya tomorrow.