Not on my own!

No siree- not on my own!
Today I fetched the birds. Kate helped me bring them here. They were looking a little worse for wear. An early moult.
So they have moved over and now I am not going to be on my own for New Year's Eve.

Snowy and Pyro

Birds installed at the back door

And I have my Mark to talk to on line :)

A home is built

We have had our first Christmas here.
The kids were staying at their father's place so Christmas morning I got up and started cooking. At about 9.30 I called them and they were all still asleep!
The plan was made to have them come over at midday, then do the presents and follow with Christmas lunch.

Bill and Kate

Kate, Erin and Rusty and Stop-it and Tidy Up

Presents

 And that is exactly how it went.
Andrew and I had pooled resources for the kids Christmas. The presents were from both of us, as was the lunch. I think the kids benefited from this as I swear it was the biggest Christmas ever.

More food than could possibly be eaten.

The kids went home with their dad- and I was alone again.

Beautiful things

I have been spoiled. One simple gift and one spectacular and both make my heart happy.

Adrienne, Sylvia and Maree came and stitched on Friday night. My first (and only) visitors in a month. Adrienne brought flowers and I adore getting flowers. It takes some of the hardness out of all the new stuff.

And the completely overwhelming gift. Helen gave me a quilt!

 A while back Helen had this quilt for sale and I drooled seriously over it. I wanted it so much but I couldn't justify paying the small amount Helen was asking for it when I have so many quilts already. Helen aka Helen Godden aka Helen Goddess, world-famous-international-prize-winning-Helen seriously under prices her quilts.
But like I said, I couldn't imagine trying to justify it once I got home.

Well here we are, some time in the future and Helen remembered! She presented me with the quilt at a pre-Christmas nibbles at Joan's.
Helen pointed out the parallel story of the dragonfly emerging and my new life.
And I am utterly thrilled to pieces to have it hanging in my home.
 

It's perfect

I am framing again

For Christmas this time!

I have a bunch of paintings and I am trying to pick matboards and frames on line. A bit tricky. I am hoping they arrive today!

Gardening in red

So here is where it all has to begin. I have to retain this low wall of nasty, rocky, red dirt. I also have to figure how to get the water to stop pooling here against the house. This is slowing me down. The figuring that is.

Initially I was very much in a do-it-yourself frame of mind.

....Until I saw my neighbour, two doors down, spend all day standing on a machine to dig his holes. If the machine takes a whole day, how am I going to do it with muscles alone?

Then I saw two bronzed and muscled men working an auger between them to dig holes for a fence. If it takes two of them, I don't stand a chance with this horrible 'soil'.
I measured it out today to get an idea what I will need to be shopping for, supply-wise, if I can resolve the hole-digging part of the puzzle. It is 7m north to south and as many at a right angle, east to west.

 But here is the fun part. Look at the magnetic end to the tape measure...it has picked up our native micro rocks full of iron! how magic! That's why our dirt is red, you know.

 Here is the garage. In the world of recent movers, this is a minor miracle. Mostly people move in and then after some months, they can get their car into the garage after all the boxes have been unpacked and stored. Yet here is my car, parked and at ease while the other half of the garage has become my work space to strip back a desk I am preparing for Erin.

 The desk is another of my 2nd hand bargains. $20 plus some elbow grease and paint stripper.:)
Keeps me out of mischief and fills that spot in my soul that is forever needing to be making something :)

New House New Life style

So here we are! The 4th weekend in the house. I meant to give myself the day off as I have been feeling absolutely pooped, but when  you have a lovely bright clean house, it is hard not to want perfection so I have been fighting chaos that kids bring to a home.

Note: Washing machine bought on all classifieds. Very pleased with that purchase!

Three loads of washing have been done and I have figured out how to get my clothes line to stay up. Up until now I have done small loads and hung them on the rails over the machine and bench. I love that. No extra floor space taken up with clothes horses. Handy to the machine so no double handling.
But today- with linen and so on- and a gorgeous sun filled sky, it was time to hang things outside.

I have stripped the sheets on my bed. Now that I am no longer crammed in the study, I am very much enjoying clean, white space! On the wall you can see one of the framed painting I bought on eBay from China. I have more to frame yet but the money situation here is frightening me.

My computer space looks exactly as ugly and cramped as ever!

And here is the family room looking through to the lounge. Keeping the kitchen bench clear of clutter is a full time job. The only time it is clear is when I am standing, vigilant in the kitchen to shift cups as the kids put them down. (Though in this photo, I confess it is one of mine!)

I have installed:

• A wireless printer so the kids can print without having to have a wired up network. That was the bane of all out lives in the old house.
• Bill helped (read 'saved the day') install the wireless Internet. I think the fibre to house here has been strategically nobbled to urge me up to a faster speed. At present it is no faster than the old copper back in Amaroo.
• Children
• A Christmas tree of a very sparse branches. I need Sylvia to make it look cute.

The Christmas Tree

I hoped this weekend to go and fetch the real birds and pop them onto the veranda here. The problem is though, that we don't have complete fences and it is very exposed. Yesterday the kids watched as two fellows walked up to the house and started measuring the veranda!? What the?

Coffee table bargain: $20 today at a garage sale

 The lounge room is the same: light filled.

Kate's domain

Last night I bought and built bedside shelves for Erin and Kate

Erin installed in her room

A New Favourite Song

So I have a new favourite song for the new house!

Thunderstorm

Tonight we had our first thunderstorm.
John and I were the only ones here. The girls went back to Amaroo. They missed a beauty! I know that the storm was extensive and they would have seen and heard plenty from Amaroo. From my garage however, John and I could watch out over to Black Mountain until it vanished behind the rain.
We could see the storm clouds swell and wash over and the lightening thick and bright enough to leave after images on my eyes!

I turned TV and computer off to avoid having them shorted out and spent the duller part of the storm unpacking clothes and my quilting paperwork. Once again, things are looking just so!

Tired as a toilet

I am pooped
Tired
I have slept from evening to morning twice now without waking. That is a record almost.
I am having a night off. No unpacking, though I did wash dishes and wipe the bench until it was perfect. That's no small undertaking!

Nearly everything in the house that needed to  be hung, has been hung thanks to Dad and Mum coming to visit for the weekend.

I let them have a break on Sunday morning and took them to Costco. While Dad is not exactly a shopper, he does love a bargain so I think he quite enjoyed the trip:)

Well there are paintings hung up around the house. I have never had the opportunity to indulge myself in buying art up until now, and I am really pleased with the outcome.

I have it in mind that I could set up a market stall selling framed paintings.

Anyhow, it is time for me to head bed-ward
Hooroo

Almost finished inside

The beds are made and curtains hung

Dear Dad; the hanger of curtains and pictures

The kitchen went through phases of clean and messy and clean again. Here's mum!

House warming present from Aunty Jane on the coffee table; Lovely

and while all this house building was going on...

I helped Hobbysew out with a spot of hand sewing.
This link will take you to there Quilt Aid page. I stitched the block with the hex blocks on it. The finishing design was based on an idea of mine but simplified by Najelle and Terrie who put ric-rac on instead of all the scallops I had planned for some poor sucker to sew!!
http://www.hobbysew.com/finishing-p-1383.html

Do you like?

What to do when it is late..

Build a kit bed:

Start with 3 large cardboard cartons. Fetch scissors, coffee, drill and then hammer in separate trips, in that order as requirements make themselves known.

Build enough bed for coffee to have cooled enough to be swallowed in three gulps. Offer yourself some words of encouragement and praise and continue.

Examine wounds accidentally incurred on scissors that are laying where least expected. Suck if necessary.

Once assembled, make the bed and congratulate yourself for genius and other attributes. Gather tools out of shot, ready for for the second bed - probably a  great Friday night activity!

 These are the beds I bought from Milan Direct. One on Ebay and the other direct. They were quite simple to assemble though it did mean I had to drill 4 screws in. (Apart from all the pre-drilled things I screwed in) Quite a handsome bed and not too overwhelmingly large in a small Canberra bedroom.

Day 4 in the house

It is day 4. Nothing much has really changed except that things are a little cleaner. A few more things have been moved around.
There are groceries in the cupboards.
I am in love with this house.
I love it being neat.
The kids have no junk here yet so all I have to pick up are tissues and glasses.
It's bliss.
The family room above looks much as it did on move-in day. But it feels peaceful. The whole house does. I do.
There is still no carpet in one of the bedrooms as they ran out. The hall still isn't finished being boarded. the ran out of those too. And the layerer has blocked off the access to taps and drains for the dishwasher. But I am still feeling peaceful.

The concretor has come and done his job.

I called 3 people from the Chronicle. Sumo Concretors, D Concreting and one other who shall remain nameless.
Daniel from D Concreting got straight back to me. So I give him 10/10 for prompt service. Unfortunately he got pipped at the post by Matt at Sumo Concreting for price. There wasn't a lot of difference, but at this point I need all the money I can get. I saved about $1.4K by not having it included in the house package.

The nameless concretor did not get back to me in the time frame he said he would. I rang to ask him if he had a quote yet. He called me 'mate' about 4 times and advised that he would get out and look at it in a couple of days 'mate'. It had already been a week. Minutes later I had the quote from Matt so I sent Mr x a txt message:
'Hey mate. I have accepted another blokes quote'

The most annoying thing about the building industry is how they treat women.

Matt however was great. Polite. Prompt. All that I could ask for.

A contrast with my experience with FAW in Mitchell. I spent about 45 minutes standing at their front desk all up. All I wanted was a brochure for a door and to be pointed in the direction of their door handles so I could choose.

And now to see if I can quickly construct two beds!

Monday-exhausted

I kept up with the unloading to a point. But as the bedrooms hadn't been carpeted, a backlog grew.

I unwrapped the new sofas to discover one missing its feet. They are in the mail now.

Today my bedroom has carpet. One of the kids' room doesn't nor is the floor boarding. The fellow under measured. My advantage financially, but inconvenient.

Lounge

Also lounge

Too tired for story telling

Tadah! I have the keys!

This is weekday Bonner! Barely any on-street parking for all the utes!

Looking down the street at 7am Friday (the first day I owned the house)

The neighbours installing a fence so I don't drive off the cliff into their bedroom

The path to the throne!

The hard earned splashback. Shiny! The electric boys added the silver plate. I like it a lot. I would recommend that contractor. Very helpful and polite.

Kate prefers these lights. 

Looking through the front door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/12: It's a month gone now and I have had some sleep and have to write just a couple of words about the weekend of moving.

It was exhausting and I was SO proud of all the work the kids did. Bill and I got the van a little later than I first planned. I can't remember why. I am sure I was busy getting things sorted and last minute things to pick up. I do remember stopping with Bill and the van at Costco as I was hoping to get a desk for Erin. But they didn't have them any more. 

So for the next three days I drove back and forth in the van. I loved the van. It was a load of fun. With me as the drive, Kate as the middle passenger and one other of the four as the third, I drove again and again between houses. Each time I took one end of the load and the one of the kids took the other.

Bill's lovely girlfriend Sarah helped too. I was particularly terrified for Sarah, Bill, the washing machine and the Gyprock when the two of them charged down the stairs with the washing machine. Eeeek. But they got it there and they were not the ones to leave the mark  that is now on the wall there.

I am tremendously proud of them. We shifted the fridge and the dishwasher (which still isn't connected by the way) and all that furniture.

Bill even climbed out of his death bed on Monday to help before i took him to the doctors and had his tonsillitis diagnosed.

The kids were tired and I was exhausted. And I appreciate so much what they did for me.

 

 

And the sun rises

And the sun rises on the first day of home ownership!

At 7am I had an appointment to meet the electrician to drop off the oven and cook top. Well I thought it was an appointment. Turned out I was just to leave it. So single handed (the way it is when you are a sole parent) I got the oven out of the car and into the house. Very conscientious knee bending during lifting took place because this weekend a busted back would be very, very undesirable.

Almost as soon as I had it inside, Corey arrived. I chided him on his timing!

I put my makeup on in my new bathroom and set off to work. Transact were on their way and I had left the house open for them. I made a plan on the way to work. I need a drill to put up my curtain rods and all the associated hardware.

So it was while running through Bunnings that I heard my phone ring. Transact. They can't connect the internet and phone as they can't enter the house without supervision. I call Bill. He can't get there. I get ready to ring work and head back to Bonner. Before I could make it through the check out, Transact rang again to tell me that the power wasn't working so they were off.

Darn! Well we know how much the Net is part of my life so this is a major blow.

But the sun was shining and my plan was to roll with whatever came next. 

By the time I got to work, I was barely any earlier than usual but I did pick up a lovely hot chocolate with soy and bacon and eggs in half a Turkish bun. Delish!

Work was fun. Plenty to do and a good variety. I checked with Matt from Sumo Concreting and he is coming on Monday.

Finally made it out of work and to the house to discover that the He (the never present carpet lay-er) has finished 2 rooms. Sigh! 

But the power is on. And the instantaneous hot water does get warm after about 7 litres of water has gone down the drain.

OK! No Stress! Rethink. I have two rooms I can set up and that is where the most will be moved to. I have a garage I can fill. I am still going to move furniture this weekend.

I headed home and loaded up with curtain rods, curtains and kitchen gear and Erin. We unloaded. Wandered until it got dim and I tried to guess what light bulbs I needed to get the kitchen lit. Then off we went and fetched Maccas and home.

I am set now for serious business. I need to drag Bill out of bed and get him to drive me to van land and then it is on in earnest!

House Keys!

I have the house keys. I have made the final payment.
It should be yahoo time but my Erin isn't happy and it is hard to rejoice when your kids are grieving. Not hard. Impossible.
The carpet laying and laminate flooring began today. I stopped by the house just after 3pm and the fellow had already left. He has done one and a half rooms.
It would appear to be impossible to imagine moving in now.
I am tired of trying to work things out.
I have the truck booked for Saturday-Sunday-Monday  but the way things are, I probably won't be able to move anything. I am still hopeful but the power doesn't work. The floors can not be covered by Saturday if he does 1.5 rooms a day.
The floor boards do not look like I imagined. The look more yellow. Which is precisely what I wanted to avoid.
I am definitely on a low today.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

The girls are sick. I think Erin is stressed and Kate just can't stand going to school if someone else isn't.
It's crunch time.

If wasn't for the kids, I would be giddy with hope.

Tomorrow is the walk through.
I know already it isn't quite ready so i don't know what will happen.

There are places where the painter hasn't been. Some last minute plumbing that was done and needs touching up with the outdoor paint. Perhaps they thought they were going to do it today, but it has bucketed down here.

The area in front of my bedroom window is currently a small lake.

I really hope it dries up otherwise we are going to be tracking in a lot of mud!
I am still working on the moving in premise.

Wonder if they got the certificates of occupancy and use? of compliance?
Wonder if they have an invoice ready.

Wonder what wheel might come off about now?

I wouldn't mind declaring a sickee for stress too!!

Mounting Excitement

I can smell finishing in the air

(Though I am trying to breath through my mouth as the pollen count at the moment is dreadful!)

I sent Mark P a txt message today:
"The insulation guy has left a number of tiles dislodged or chipped. A heads up so everything will be good on Wednesday"

You know I worry so much about being one of those annoying fussing people that I thought long and hard about how to word it. I didn't want to sound like he doesn't know how to do his job- but I didn't want to miss out on settlement just because Mark doesn't visit my house every time his car point north. (As I do)

Anyhow he replied promptly with a "who are you".

Important tip: sign your txt messages :P

We had a quick flurry of exchanged txts and all is well with the world.

I dropped by on the house on my way home.
I don't really need to say that, do I?

These are the taps that I could see from the window!

yes! Good Taps. Nice and shiny. I am very happy with Solid Constructions

The tiles looked like someone had straightened them all out again and the very broken one was replaced.
It looks tantalisingly close to finished now.

On Sunday i bit the bullet and ordered my letter box on ebay. I have just received an email to say it was posted today. Huzzah!

One new Shiny letter box- due to arrive just on time

At work I have been given some work today so I am altogether a much happier chickie babe today.
My check list:
Gas- booked
Electricity- booked
water- I think so
Communications- waiting on a power point in the transact box. Mark p says that is under control
Van- booked
Menus for takeaway over moving weekend- tick
Insurance on house- waiting on certificates of occupancy.
Curtains that have remained unhemmed here for 10 years - done
Packing- packing? What do you mean?
Packing?
Oh- look over there- Rusty-.........................

A rather frustrating day

My day started at 6am. I had so much to do.
I wanted to arrange the electricity and gas to start this week. When I first arranged the connection I wasn't expecting to move in this week.

I also need a letter box urgently because I have started organising a lot of things and have been using the new address. Like family payments, medicare, private health insurance, car insurance and that kind of boring administrative stuff.

Well my day stalled with the first 'appointment' falling through. And from then on it went to pot!

I did my usual run to drop Kate off and while she was at her lesson, I went to the sand and gravel yards in Mitchell. I have this plan to retain to the bits of bank (one at the front of the house and the other beside the deck) with informal boulders that I will plant things amongst. So I wanted to know the price of boulders.
Question: I need a few rocks to retains a small space, how much would they cost?
Answer: $110 a tonne.
Question: But how much would a rock "this" big weigh? (imagine arm waving). Apparently someone could weigh one for me.

Unfortunately, I guess because I am a girl and sand and gravel places are boy land, I was invisible. So I couldn't get anyone to weigh anything.
I left.

I visited my house with Kate and there was a man scampering around on the roof. He was putting in the insulation - R4. He was throwing broken tiles off the roof and I could see still more that he hadn't replaced. Ok, so this annoyed me a lot! There is a small stack of spares in case of breakage and I didn't wasn't terrifically pleased to see them being used up at such speed. I pointed out another broken one that he hadn't removed yet. He didn't acknowledge my pointing and speaking of the broken tile. I hope it is fixed when I go back.

Then began the carpet fiasco. Three weeks ago I sent an email to the carpet company to arrange laying. I didn't get a reply.

Then I rang the store. No sign of my order. What was my order number?
I don't know because I paid over the phone and wasn't given one.

After some time the order was found and I ended up speaking to another fellow.
He was cool and happily booked me in for next Thursday. So i have made all my plans based on that.

Today I returned a missed call from the sales man. No answer.

Then I rang the store. No sign of my order. What was my order number?
I don't know because I paid over the phone and wasn't given one.
(do you see a pattern?)

She had no idea why some one was trying to contact me and no sign of a booking.
I rang the main store number which had been given to me to  make the booking earlier that week. I asked if the booking I had made was recorded there. No, it wasn't.
So I lost my temper a little.
The fellow remained calm (kudos to him!) and made the booking (again). Then the girl from the original store rang back and told me there was a booking. (Well, yes, I know!)
Then the original salesman rang to say that there isn't enough carpet and the flooring layer is unable to lay.
He was at home and hadn't had conversations with either store so really- I have no idea what is going on.

It's the weak link you see.
Carpets have to go in before moving. I have arranged everything in order based on carpets. I have booked a van for the weekend, beginning Friday. I have take Friday off work to begin the move. I have the cement layer coming the next day.
blah blah blah

After having pretty much an easy ride through the building process I shouldn't complain but my head is bursting with all the things I am trying to manage.
Thank heavens I am not still trying to manage Hobbysew too!

So nearly finished!

Today the garage door was shut. So were the doors in my bedroom, so I couldn't spy through the windows to see if the taps had been looked into.
Let me take you on a tour through my ponderings...

The front: nothing amazing but will be calm with some green things planted in front.

I wish they would build the retaining wall where that hazard mesh is. I am more worried about my drive way falling in than  anyone person. Unless Pip visits...a Schiffmann and danger are magnetically attracted!

New front light- well what isn't new?

The light has a sensor. That way if the boogie man comes, it will flicker on and scare the gazockies out of me. I plan to fill the front yard with stony gravel so that it will crunch. If I hear crunch and see light..well I'm not sure what I will do. I hadn't got that far with my cunning plan. I will have to prepare a 'what next' plan.

Here is the backyard. it looks a bit bigger in real life. And is a nice break from being too close to neighbours without leaving me with acres of garden to maintain. If some one was keen on vegies, this would be a good place for them. I am not keen on vegies.

See water tank on right hand side. I can now water in summer if the tank has water in it.

This is looking towards the road on the northern 'sunny' side.

The builder has sculptured the yard a little. You can see a bit of a ledge has been built out from the corner of the veranda. I will need some big rocks or a few bessa bricks of something.

Today I rang the 3rd fellow who I contacted asking for a quote for cementing the veranda. The first guy had ended up with a quote just over $2K. The second $1.6K.

The 3rd promised to have it in my mailbox by Wednesday. As today is Thursday I rang him for the quote. He told me he didn't have time yet 'mate'. And that he would probably go out tomorrow and leave the quote in 'your letter box mate'. I said there wasn't a letterbox. He treated me like I was being a smart arse and snarled 'then what do you put your mail in'. I reminded him again that it was a brand new house and there was no mail box yet. He said he would phone me.
...

I have rung my no.2 quote and sent my 'mate' a thanks but no thanks message.

 He clearly wished I had a husband to be his mate. I gather getting cementing quotes is not a girls job!

There is very little left to do. A big clean up and install the last few appliances when i am ready to move in. But very little else!