PROGRESS!

Because the Teenager is not home right now, I was able to get into that bedroom and get it ready for when we put the house on the market.

It went from this:

to this:

ABOVE:  I'm so happy with it.  Now I just have to paint that wall by the bed and this will be another room DONE!
Best thing ever?  I already had all the bed linen for this room.  The duvet cover and cushions were on my bed not that long ago.  And the end blanket is one I have for when the kids come to sleep over.

Today I will be finishing off the vacuming, getting all the sanding dust up.  Then I need to do a damp wipe over of all the walls to be painted.

That will probably take me most of the morning.

I will pop down to Mitre 10 to get some more paint too.  The sewing room has a 'feature' wall of a shade of teal/green, so I need to get more of it to paint that entire wall.

I had thought to put a nice wallpaper up there, but OMG the price of wallpaper now is crazy!  So, getting paint instead.

I am so happy with how much I've managed to get done so far!  I'm not going nuts, I'm pacing myself, so don't worry!
Yes, I do get a bit tired... and moan about it sometimes!  But I'm fine I promise.  Thanks to those who have expressed concern that I'm over doing it.

ONWARD...

Well I put off the painting for as long as I could... cos I friggin HATE painting.  I went to Mitre 10 and got more paint, a shower caddy thingee, vacum bags and then came home.

And did  the bloody painting.  I'm happy to say I've done my room, Brylee's room, Griffin's room and the section of hallway that needed painting.

 ABOVE:  I think this section of hallway needs another coat... dammit.

ABOVE:  THIS is what I'm going to tackle this afternoon.  What fun.  NOT.

I hope I've managed to get a paint that will cover it nicely... same colour, almost.  I think what I've bought is slightly prettier.  Probably going to take 2 coats as well.  *sigh*

But for now, I'm taking a break for lunch.

3.15 pm:  And I've just finished putting the cream paint on two entire walls in the sewing room.  Later on, after I've had another break, I will be doing the teal wall.  I'm looking forward to that one.

4.33 pm:  bloody well done...

ABOVE:  And I'm never putting padded boards on a sewing room wall again.  EVER.

OOooo...that was weird!  I scratched my neck with my left hand and it cramped up... my forearm, wrist and thumb!  I've never had a cramp there before.  Random.  And yeah, ya needed to know... cos I'm just sitting here doing nothin'.

8.35 pm:  Dinner is over, the sewing room has been put back together (will show you tomorrow), and I'm so tired I feel ready for bed!  
Might just be an early night for me.

ANOTHER AUCTION SIT IN TODAY

First up for today, I will be doing some sanding.
Most areas I've put polyfilla on are set and ready.

This is the single biggest job left to do inside really... WELL THAT AND PAINTING, so I'm excited to get on with it.

At lunch time I will be in Hamilton, sitting in on another auction.  I'm starting to think houses are not over priced in Hamilton any more, which is great for us.

Prices here in Cambridge are really good... I can't wait to get appraisals for this place!  We will NOT be going to Auction with it though... it will be either a fixed price or 'By Negotiation'.

Feeling a little bit excited by this now.

Right, I shall go and make a start on that sanding I think... after porridge.  *smiles*

ONWARD...

LYNDA:  I appreciate any and all suggestions, thanks.
In relation to the lounge 'fake fireplace', if you look in this photo, you will see...

 ABOVE:  .... that there is a wall mounted TV in the corner of the room.  It works there, and I am sure potential buyers will see that the fake fireplace demonstrates, very nicely, how it would look if they were to put a gas flame fireplace in there.  That is what I would have done eventually too... had we stayed here.

ABOVE:  Most families only have one large TV cabinet (like above), and there is obviously plenty of room in the family room for one.

So, the fake fireplace is staying.  I think it is gorgeous, and to take it down would leave a glaring blank wall.

5.15 pm:  Well hi!  lol
I got all the sanding done, and then went into Hamilton.  The Auction, well interesting again.
6 lots up for sale and only 2 sold.  The other 4 all got passed in without  anyone bidding on them at all!

There was a house from here in Cambridge that was on the list, looked like our house actually, but was a 4 bedroom home with a two bedroom unit attached.  It had 2 bidders and it went for over a million dollars!!!  Makes me think our's is going to go for a bit more than we anticipate.

So anyway, when I got home I was bloody tired so I had a nap.  And that's me for now.

Gotta make dinner, then vacum all the dust up!  

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE...

Well... it's another day... 

 ABOVE:  I listed our lovely little dog kennel for sale on Trade Me last night.  No point taking it with us, the girls NEVER use it.  
Hopefully it sells so we don't have to lug it to Hamilton with us.

 ABOVE:   It wasn't that long ago I planted these two Boronias and one lavender.  I think I will dig up the Boronias and put them in pots.  They are smelling DIVINE!

Actually, I better get into the garden soon and put into pots anything I want to take with us!  Maybe that's something Stew and I can do this weekend?

Bet he's gunna love that.  He dislikes gardening as much as I do... we hope to get a property with a much smaller garden and lawn to tend when we move.

ABOVE:  These succulents were just tiny little cuttings three years ago.  I better take more cuttings ... they clearly don't mind the Waikato.

ABOVE:  Yesterday's washing.  Bet that is the very last time I have THAT MANY cleaning cloths to wash and dry in one go!  Why so many do you ask?  

Because I use different cloths for different jobs (homes), and different cloths for different parts of a home... some for kitchens, some for bathrooms, some for windows.... etc etc.

Yaaa, just back to doing my own now.  Think I might have too many cloths now.  Hmmm.  *lol*

If I'm feeling up to it, I might go on an FBG walk later on this morning.  I'm NOT really a morning person, so we will see.

Apart from that, it's on with the jobs around here.  Pretty boring for all of you... so bugger off and find something more interesting to read! *smiles*

ONWARD...

11.34 am:  And I've been on the go all morning.

My feet started twitching at 6.45, but I managed to stay in bed till around 8!

Then I got up and started packing up and tidying up the TEENAGER'S room.  Quite a job.

Then I started getting a dead arm from unscrewing all the shelves we'd put in the wardrobe, so with our son Steve's help (over the phone), I went down to Mitre 10 and got this:

ABOVE:  Isn't it PRETTY?  I also got a drill bit kit, with every bit known to man inside!  Just gotta work out how to use it now. If I have any trouble, Steve is just a phone call away. *smiles*

***  O M G  I have the worst case of diarrhea right now!  Stress I am picking. Not fun when I'm so busy.  Grrrr.  ***

I'm at the vacum and clean phase in Teenager's room!  Everything is in boxes in the wardrobe.  The bed is stripped.  Polyfilla is in the holes.  And I'm now taking a break.

There is no point cleaning till I've done the sanding, which won't be till at least tomorrow.

Well... I forgot it was Card Night, so I went after Stew got home.

It was a nice evening and I came home with the Loser's Trophy.  

Now... I will be heading off to bed early, I'm knackered.

FIRST NEW WEEK

Well, today marks the first day of a new week... and the first week in a while that I don't have work commitments.

It feels wonderful.

But I'm replacing 'work' with ... WORK here at home.  Crickey, there's still so much to do.

I really don't know where to start next.  Kids rooms, garage, walls?

Perhaps I will go from room to room and put polyfilla in all the little holes and imperfections, then sand them in a few days.

That way I can do the painting and touch ups in one foul swoop.  

God I hate painting!    It's a right fag.

But it needs to be done, so I will do it.  

While the polyfilla is drying, there will be plenty of other things to get on with.

ABOVE:  In case you didn't see it yesterday, we got the lounge sorted out, and we re-hung the original curtains.   I'm actually happy with how they look!
They are still horrendous, but they work in the room.

I am gutted that we will most likely have to leave the barn door behind when we move.  GUTTED, cos it is the one and only that our son Steve has made, and I just  ♥love♥  it.

ABOVE:  A few photos from yesterday when Steve, Bex and the little kids visited.
Just a fleeting visit ... got a couple of things sorted out then they were off home again.

I will be going up in about three weeks for a couple of days.  Now that I'm not working outside the home, I can pop up there again.

Now though, it's porridge in bed time.  Then off to slap on polyfilla everywhere.

ONWARD...

11 am:  and for the briefest of moments, our lounge looked beautiful.  And now?

 ABOVE:  Yep, I've dragged 90% of the sewing room stuff into it, so I can prep the walls for painting.  It's another room that will need most of it's walls painted.
Oh friggin ya.

ABOVE:  I'm going to take down these shelves next, then start filling in all the little holes on all the walls.  Yeah, better take the cottons off the wall too.

I have decided to totally downsize what I keep in this room in relation to SEWING, and put a single bed in here. That way it will present as a 'bedroom', cos sure as eggs some twats will see all the sewing stuff and go "Oh, not a bedroom then".   Yeah, there's idiots out there for sure.

So, there's some  stuff going on in the background that's bothering me. Can't/won't discuss it on here, except to say TEENAGER.

I've been in tears one minute, and cross the next.  A couple of phone calls today .. one good (thanks OLD MOO) and one that just set me off again.  

So, I  have done NOTHING since lunch time but mope.  Wish my emotions didn't get the better of me so often.

It's nearly time for me to sort out dinner.  We are having Teriyaki Chicken on rice.  Should be lovely.

Dinner was lovely as I expected.  Then we had a visit from TEENAGER, and that went fairly well.
No other news to impart, so will sign off for the day.

OFF WE GO

Morning.

Today we are taking the furniture truck full of our 'de-cluttered stuff' to the Storage facility.

I'm so relieved that it will be out of here, I can crack on with getting the house ready for sale.

I reckon we will have this house ready to 'market' in a month.

So ... in a month we will be seriously looking for a new home!  AS in, finding and buying, conditional on this house selling.

We cannot go and buy right now, or bid at an auction, as we have to be ready to put this house on the market the minute we do actually find a new home and make an offer on it.  And we ain't ready yet.

I am going to another Auction on Wednesday, again just sitting in to see how they are selling.  That house we liked and saw yesterday goes to Auction on Wednesday.   I kinda hope it doesn't sell.

But that's wishful thinking really.  There will be the 'right' house out there when we are ready to buy, I just know it.

And we don't have to hurry and buy in haste this time.  NOT that this home was a mistake at all... we have loved living in this home.

But circumstances change, and we are grabbing the opportunity to get mortgage free, or close to it.

We are expecting visitors around lunch time too... so I hope we get everything done by then.

ONWARD...

Off to the storage place at 9, finished putting all our stuff in by 10.  Home in time to get this lot working:

ABOVE:  Old curtains back up, and the room is de-cluttered.  Except for spot painting and cleaning, this is another room DONE.

Still got the 'worst' areas to tidy, paint and clean.  Kids bedrooms, hallway and garage.

But for now... it's time to have some lunch and spend time with the kids.  They are heading back to Auckland after lunch as they don't want to be on the road later on, as the main road will be closed, with diversions in place for part of this evening.

ABOVE: Having a LARGE tipple (Totara Cafe'), hoping it will help me unwind and relax.  It's been a long day.

DON'T want to go pack another box today.

Dinner is sausages and veges ... then we will just do NOTHING for the rest of the night.

Signing off ... catch ya tomorrow.

LET'S SAY IT AGAIN...

ABOVE:  "Quack quack!"   Ducks in a row... slowly but surely.

After saying I wasn't packing any more boxes after dinner last night... ha ha... I did two more in the sewing room.  Got it sorted...

ABOVE:  It's not totally done yet, but the wardrobe is very neat and tidy, and what's left in here I am still using.  The padded boards will come off that far wall on Sunday (all going well), and all the pictures on the walls will come down too.  

Then it can just stay as the sewing room, I'm not going to put a bed in there and 'stage' it as a bedroom, anyone looking in the room can see it's actually a bedroom, surely?

Now, this morning Stew has to pop into town to pick up his prescription, then we are going to do a few odd jobs around here.

At lunchtime we are going into Hamilton to look at three houses.  We are not in a position to buy yet, but there is no harm in looking at what's out there... and IT'S FUN.

Well, I don't know about fun ... but whatever... we're gunna do it.  *smiles*

ONWARD...

So often when you buy a house, the curtains suck!
So when we moved into this home the curtains in the lounge were HIDEOUS.  Well, I thought so.

So I bought new ones.  Netural ones.  But now that we are leaving, I am going to re-hang the old ones and see how it looks, maybe I can take my fairly new ones with me.  Might save us some money if the new home needs new curtians?

ABOVE: These are the old curtains.  They are in good condition, I just didn't like the colour.  I will press them and re-hang them this afternoon, fingers crossed they don't look too bad and they can stay up.

Been fluffing around the house doing odd jobs this morning.  Soon we will be heading into Hamilton to look at those houses.  Wanna see them?

Sorry... it's late and I've been really, really busy!

We ended up only seeing two houses, as one was cancelled but not advertised as cancelled, so we wasted time sitting outside it for a while. Grrr.

I am going to get photos up soon... but right now I'm exhausted and have a friend coming over in a mo ... so it will have to be later.

 ABOVE:  The first house we wanted to look at.  Wasn't open, so will try again next weekend.  Trick photography... the driveway was VERY short and steep!  Above is THEIR PHOTO...

ABOVE: And this is the photo I took. As you can see, a very steep, short driveway!

 ABOVE:  Second house we looked at.  It's dated, but we really liked it.  It had a huge garage which would be awesome for our gym equipment and one car.  It goes to auction on Wednesday, so we will most likely miss out on this one.

ABOVE: The third one for today. OH MY GOD, the photos made it look quite nice.  But :
1.  It was in the most GROTTY street ever!
2. Two doors down there was an old fulla who was obviously a HOARDER!  His property was disgusting.
3. Lovely lake aspect, but only if you like quacking DUCKS, morning, noon and night.
4. Mosquitoes.  Yeah, nah.
5. The house itself was far, far too small.
6. It wasn't made with good materials, and it was tired.

So, an interesting afternoon.

On our way home we picked up the moving truck from the Storage facility.

And we packed it to the gunnels!

ABOVE: That took us a couple of hours.  We shall take it to the Storage facility tomorrow morning.

And that is me for the day.  Gotta think about dinner now.
And then time to just watch some TV and relax.

YEAH... YEAH.... BRING IT ON

I know I didn't 'work' for long, but man am I happy to be finishing it all today.

That cleaning gig was a good earner of course, but just too hard on my back.  

So, by 1 pm today I will be packing my car up and coming home from my last job.

Then I can concentrate all my time and energy on preparing this house for sale, and finding a new home. 

That's a bit exciting, a bit scary, and it's going to be exhausting!  In fact, I'm already tired, so I'm pacing myself.  Not trying to do as much in a day as I would like, just plodding along.

There's a good chance I can move on to cleaning/painting teenager's room soon, I will be finished in Brylee's room in the next few days.  So, his is the next room to tackle.

That's gunna be fun.... NOT.

Right... not much else to yabber on about right now, so I will go.  Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

9.30 am:  So far this morning I've packed two more boxes from the sewing room and tidied up/rearranged a few things out the front of the house.

ABOVE:  less cluttered.  We need to waterblast the  area in front of the door ... it's looking disgusting again.
Overall, I'm happy with how it will present to prospective buyers when the time comes.  I will put some pretty flowers in the pots along the very front of the house too.

Now... I am going to sit and relax for 20 minutes before heading off to do that last house clean.

It's 1.09 pm and I'm home from my final job.
I got there and the owner of the home was still there, and she was saying how sad she was that I was leaving, bla bla bla.

I felt really guilty for leaving!  Anyway, I get started on the clean... bearing in mind it's a solid 3 hours cleaning in this home.

And I start thinking... I COULD keep this one job, she's not replaced me yet.  But I hold my tongue... cos well... I wasn't sure if I did want to keep it on.

After 3 hours of cleaning... NAH!   I walked away knowing I'd done an excellent job, and I didn't want to ever do it again.  *smiles*

IF I ever start saying I want to go back to cleaning... someone REMIND me that it's damn back breaking work would ya please???

Now, I'm going down town to post a table runner to a long time blog friend in America.
I think I'll get something nice for me lunch too.  Back soon.

Well... it's like a couple of hours later!  I ended up meeting up with a couple of girlfriends and having lunch with them at a coffee shop.   It was nice to spend time with friends.

And... it's been a quiet afternoon.  I cooked chicken hamburgers for dinner, they were great.

Now... a quiet evening in front of the TV.  I could pack a few more boxes, but really, I think there will be too many for the storage room I've hired if I do many more!

We won't know till we start putting stuff in it on Sunday I suppose.  

Time to go... catch ya tomorrow.

2ND TO LAST...

This morning I have my 2nd to last private house clean to do.

I'm sure going to enjoy getting them done and dusted!

Once I've done today's house, I will be coming home to do some paint prep.  There's several places in the hallway that I need to sand, then I can wizz around and do all the touch ups that are necessary.

I am really happy with how the house is coming along... it's been a lot of work though.

My plan is to get everything out of the house that we don't need right now, then paint where needed, then CLEAN.

Walls, skirting boards, doors etc.  There's so many grubby marks!  And once it's warmed up a bit, I am going to hire a 'Rug Doctor' and clean the carpet.

Only then will I be going out to find 'the new house' for real, then putting this one on the market.

DUCKS IN A ROW.... I keep saying that eh?  lol

Right, I'm off to get me porridge. I'm thoroughly enjoying me porridge every morning!  Never thought I would ever enjoy eating breakfast that's for sure.

ONWARD...

Why today of all days does the dog at the house I clean decide to run away???

I let her out to go pee when I arrive and she always comes back inside pretty quick.

But not today. I get a knock on the door from a neighbor, telling me she saw the dog up the road!

FUCK...I jump in my car and go hunting for her....and thank god... there she is sniffing rubbish bags... I  get outta the car and call her and she came to me right away.  Get her in me car and back to the house we go!  Can you imagine how I would have felt if she got lost or run over on my last day?   Yeah... not a nice thought at all.

So ... that job is done. Finished there.

Home.
Lunch. Washing away,
 Odd jobs now. 

And the power is off for the next 2-3 hours... so I can't  even put washing on or vacuum... so maybe I'll pack a couple more boxes. *smiles*

Soooo... I ended up going to Hamilton for the groceries.  Yeah  *sigh*, I decided it could be done now rather than take up precious weekend time.

And now I can't be arsed cooking much... but I do have some marinated lamb out, so will cook that up with some veges soon I suppose.

***  SIGH ***  I put the lamb in the fridge as there was only Stew and I for dinner.  We had some sausages and stir fry veges.

And now I'm watching MasterChef and Stew's in the lounge watching rugby.  

It's the end of a long day, so catch ya tomorrow.

EVERYWHERE I TURN

I'm going nuts!

Everywhere I turn I run into boxes and clutter.

And I hate a mess... so this is very hard to live with.  It really isn't that long ago that we did all this when we moved from Auckland!

*sigh*

I hope this process does not take as long as that did!  Nah, surely not?  We should have absolutely no trouble selling this house. 

 ABOVE: This is what the house looks like.  Yep... everywhere.
It's doing my head in, so the sooner I can get a storage unit the better.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I've found somewhere very reasonably priced eh?
So, hopefully I will get that sorted out soon.

ABOVE:  Yeah, I changed my mind about the blue vase in the middle of the table and went with my candle holder instead.  So pretty.

Today?

I've got an FBG walk on first thing.  Then I'm going into Hamilton to attend a couple of auctions.

NOT BUYING YET.... just checking out the prices, what the atmosphere is like.  I want to see if it's still crazy or has settled down a bit.

Three years ago the prices were just ridiculous, and at auction you really didn't stand a chance of winning against the big property developers and really rich Aucklanders (we weren't !).

So, it should be interesting to see if anything has changed.

And on that note, I'm off to get me porridge and then start my day.

ONWARD...

2 pm:  Well an interesting day so far I must say.
The house auctions I sat in on were SLOW... to the point where 2 of the 4 listed got passed in, and one went to negotiations. Only ONE sold at Auction!

So that's good to know... it's NOT crazy out there.

Next I went to the storage facility I am going to use and paid for our first month, which starts on Sunday.  AND he has given us the use of a small furniture truck on Saturday and Sunday for FREE!

Impressed.

And it means I will have room to move in the house again come Monday/Tuesday next week.  So cool.

ABOVE:  while I was in Hamilton, Lacy came out and chopped up more wood ... and took it back to her's to burn.  Thanks Lacy.  *smiles*

And now?  Gunna get some meat out for dinner then have a break.

ABOVE:  Thanks ma.  ha ha ha!

Right, it's 9.20 pm and I'm ready for bed! So tired.  Dinner tonight was lamb neck chops and veges.  Very yum.
Been watching TV, checking out stuff on the computer bla bla bla.  
Time to sign off for the day.