I Have Decided

that even though there is so much that still needs to be done around the house, I'm going to take some time off this weekend from moving boxes and unpacking and finding space for stuff that we don't really need but want to keep for whatever reason and spend some time on me.

I am tired.

In fact, I am totally exhausted.

We went to our last Auslan (sign language) lesson last night and I realised that, although we had already signed up before we knew we were selling our home, maybe I should have asked if I could defer until the second semester as I really don't feel like I have been able to give it the attention that it deserved.  I thoroughly enjoyed the course but feel that I am not nearly as fluent as I would like to be.  It all comes down to practice and I haven't done enough of that.

This Saturday afternoon I have booked myself in for a massage and I am hoping that will go a long way towards making me feel better.  I also plan on doing some reading and maybe even some more knitting.  My baby blankets have taken a bit of a back seat lately and this is the time that they are really needed.

The rain is a welcome respite for our gardens.  It's just a pity we haven't been able to get the 4 water tanks connected to collect the water from the roof.

Over the weekend I will take some photos of the new hall table we bought along with the outside lanterns and the Blessing Buddha that I bought who will greet clients when they arrive for their treatment.  He is extremely heavy and I am thankful that A was able to go past and collect it because we tried to bring him home on Tuesday night and, after it took A I don't know how long to get him out of his crate, we found that part of his robe had broken off - so he landed up going back on Wednesday to get one that wasn't broken.  He had him outside the door waiting for final instructions for placement from me when I got home from work.

Have the best Friday and an even better weekend !

TFTD :  Relationships don't create happiness, they reflect it.

Our New Home

OK - all I can do right now is get some (very bad) photos (from my phone) posted - the story will follow but at least you will have some idea of what I am talking about and what our new home looks like (apart from being a mess !!!)
Here goes :

View from the lounge room with A's shed in the middle.

The veggie gardens are in the middle of the pic.  A has

used the whipper snipper around them so that you 

can at least see that they are supposed to be veggie

gardens.  The trailer is A's work trailer which has been

a life saver getting all his 'stuff' moved from storage

back to his shed.

Our property goes to the road at the bottom - it isn't

a very steep slope but it certainly isn't flat either !

More of the view from the uncovered deck.  First project is 

getting a roof on this deck.  The hammock was

part of the cr*p they left behind.  As much as I have always 

wanted a hammock - I'm not sure this is the one for me.

There was a lot of mist around this morning - it was just beautiful.

View from our bedroom

Self explanatory

View of the loo from the passage.

There is no door to the ensuite !!  While we are a pretty

open kind of family, this is just a tad too

open for me - especially when you forget there is no door and 

A brings the Austar techies through the garage and

down the passage into the house !!!

The "much bigger than we had at Wewak extremely 

badly designed" ensuite (which we did know 

when we bought it - one of the priorities on

 the ever growing To Do List)

View from the loo - a long way to stretch if you forget to

close the bedroom door and some stranger, cue Austar 

techies, arrive and walk through from the garage !

Smallest bathroom vanity I've seen in a bathroom

this big !

Entrance to ensuite and WIR - that is the size of the WIR.

All hanging space (too short for maxi dresses) and one shelf

that hanging rail is screwed into.

These are only boxes of books and my chaise lounge

- another long story !

Looking towards what will, eventually, be my reading

nook complete with bin from the bathroom because

K just dumped it there after taking it out to empty it.

We have to get used to a new bin day !!!!!!

The entrance hall complete with TV cabinet (right),

computer cabinet (left), box of swimming towels on

computer cabinet that won't fit in the laundry.  On the floor

next to the computer cabinet is another cabinet that goes

on the wall and a pottery water filter - all of which we

will be advertising to sell when I find my camera and can

take decent photos to load onto ebay or gumtree.

Am considering cutting the TV cabinet down so that the

bottom section can be used in the TV lounge to hold

DVDs and videos (yes, we still own videos and a video

machine !!!)

Dining room complete with two kists and boxes still to

be sorted and packed away

Kitchen with bin and recycle bin in the loungeroom

because there is no room in the kitchen without

having to move them every time you want to open

a cupboard.  They are motion sensor bins and drive me

scatty when I walk past and they keep opening !!!!

As K's boyfriend said on Saturday night when he was there

"I see you are still rocking the double lounge suites" - yes, 

until the roof goes on the deck and the cane lounge suite moves

outside, we will be 'rocking the double lounge suites' 

inside !! 

View from part of the loungeroom out to the small vernadah.

The first door on the left is the laundry door.  The next

little window is the toilet, then the bathroom, then the study.

The orange bit next to the little pub fridge is the dogs' bed. 

On the project list is getting rid of the lattice work - I can't 

stand it !

The TV lounge with the yellowwood coffee table I brought home

from work (where we had been storing it) yesterday.  It won't

be staying there.  Am considering putting the kist my grandfather

made in so that whoever is unlucky enough to sit in the middle

of the couch will have somewhere to put their feet !!!!

And so now you have some photos from some of the rooms in our home.  The study and spare room are still full of boxes although I did start to make some headway in the study over the weekend before other things became more important !!!  My therapy room was all done and looking amazing and then K got her new bed and so her old headboard and foot of the bed and mattress are now in there along with the new pillows I bought - some of which she snaffled for her new doona set - only to give back two nights later saying she didn't need 4 pillows (I think she realised it's more of a pain picking them up and arranging them every morning and that 2 would be sufficient !!!).  The passage has the frame of her bed in it.  The laundry is full of boxes as there is no storage space other than a wee cupboard and two little shelves.

But, other than the above, (OK and lots of other issues not covered in this post) we are in and loving it.  The dogs are ecstatic with the extra space - even though I never imagined Rosie would even worry about the extra space.  I have never seen her run so much or drink as much water as she has in the past 10 days - it's just beautiful.  She has also pulled her Houdini tricks and got out (and led Alfie astray) on more than one occasion.  The fence has been fixed and, as long as we remember to close the gates (A left one down the side of the house open on Saturday after they brought the BBQs and outdoor furniture back from storage), they seem pretty happy to stay in the yard.  When we got home from one of a few trips to IKEA on Friday night at about 10.45pm, I saw that the skin above her nose was torn and bleeding quite badly, and we realised that she had obviously been 'fighting' with the fence trying to find where she had escaped previously.  We cleaned her nose up and since then she hasn't tried again, so that is a good thing.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will get to post more photos and show the progress we are making (or not !!!) - on Saturday afternoon, after K and I got home from shopping and looking and trying to find all sorts of things, I was using the blower on the driveway to get rid of all the little bloody stones that are so sore on my feet if I walk outside without shoes on, and I started to pull weeds from the 'bed' (for want of a better word) alongside the driveway - 1/2 a wheelie bin of weeds later, I thought A would be thrilled when he got home and saw what I had done - he didn't notice much difference even after I showed him all the weeds in the bin !!!!

Have the best day and I hope to be able to pop by and catch up on some blog reading soon.

TFTD : It doesn't really matter if your glass is half empty or half full.  Be thankful that you have a glass and that there's something in it.

This is so appropriate for me at the moment - 

I hope it resonates for you too.

What Do I Know This Week ?

First up, I know that this is the 1st March and this year is flying by faster than you can say Jack Flash !!

I know that I am sick of packing and having my house look like a tornado has passed through it.

I know that I am sick of having a second lounge that is full of packed boxes and empty boxes with bubblewrap coming out of them.

I know I am sick of having packing tape lying on the diningroom table where I am doing the packing.

I know I am sick of having a back that aches.

I know that I can't wait to move on 14th March BUT I also know that we got a phone call at about 5.30pm yesterday asking us if we would extent settlement date by a week as the seller won't be able to finish everything that needs to be done by the 14th.  Really ????  He has known he is selling his house since whenever he put it on the  market.  He has known he has a buyer for his house since we signed a contract on 23rd December.  He has known we were going to be moving in on 14th March since we signed a contract on our house on 6th February.  He has known since 24th January the issues that were picked up in the building inspection that needed to be rectified.  Now, two weeks before we are due to move in he says he needs more time.  And, in order for him to stay there another week, we have to move our furniture into storage, stay in a motel for a week and then move our furniture out of storage - sorry mate, I don't think so.  We are still waiting to hear what it is that he hasn't done that he needs another week to finish, so I am figuring that it probably isn't that much and he is just looking for more time because it's easier to procrastinate over doing something than actually doing it.

I know that we have driven past the house on numerous occasions since we signed the contract looking to see whether he has made a start on what needs to be done outside and, up until earlier this week, no start had been made.

I know that I am happy that all the loan documents have been signed and are being processed by the bank.

I know that, while I said I was going to die in this house, that has changed and, given the size of the house and property we are moving to, I have to think that there will come a point in time when we will downsize to something smaller - I sure hope that will be our last move - I'm not cut out for all of this.

I know that Optus don't offer a service to our new address and I know that I have handed the whole telephone change-over to A to deal with - it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond my capability !!

I know that I managed to get our electricity changed over.

I know that I am more than a little annoyed that we lose our 44c government subsidy on the electricity buy back - and, not only do we lose the 44c that we currently get, but when we move and it changes to 8c, we lose that from 1 July meaning that there really is very little financial incentive for anyone to install solar.

I know that I am a day late linking this in with Miss Cinders at The Miss Cinders but, better late than never !!

Have the best weekend !

Do you have any packing tips I could use ?

What do you know this week ?

TFTD : When nothing goes right .............................. go left