Selling a House is Not Fun

I bet you thought it was.  It really isn't.

It's taken over our entire lives.  All I think about is keeping the house tidy and how very very annoying daily  pregnancy-induced heartburn is.  I've learned some things so far, so thought I'd share...

Our house is super dusty, and as a result the shiny black glass entertainment unit was not a smart purchase.  Also, anti-dust surface cleaners are just spray bottles full of lies.  Dusty dusty lies.

Cats are horrible animals and will do anything they can to mess up your pristine house.  They were also not a smart purchase.  Special Cat managed to get his very own photo on our house listing, while Zari vomited all over the cat room floor the very morning the photographer was coming to take said photos.  I swear they're leaving cat hair clumps all over the place just to annoy me - usually within an hour of me vacuuming.  The cats now spend their nights locked in the bathroom so any further furball incidents are easily cleaned up.

Toddlers love gardening.  And by gardening I mean throwing bark around the courtyard, eating dirt, putting the weeds back into the garden and trying to destroy the actual plants.  Oh, they also enjoy digging paving sand (that you just spent hours re-doing) out from between the pavers.

Inside the house, toddlers continue to be great helpers.  Cupboards and bookshelves are emptied daily, just to make sure there's no dust lurking anywhere.  Alex seems to have some kind of sixth sense about when I've just polished the front of the dishwasher too - she'll zoom straight over there and check for handprints all over the front.  I always seem to miss them!  Similarly, she'll check the edges of our (glass) desktops for tiny finger prints..

Cats are (despite appearances) quite smart, so they get a second paragraph.  When there's an open home or viewing we have to hunt down the cats (who now realise exactly what is going on and have become very good at slithering out of our grip - even Basil!  ...Though he probably oozes more than slithers) and bundle them into the carrier.  Then we pack up the litter trays and various cat beds so as to not appear entirely crazy-cat-people to potential buyers, thus ending up with a car load of excess cat and baby clutter, valuables, two Very Sad Cats and a usually pretty cheerful baby.  

So there you go.  Just in case you have pets and a toddler and are thinking about selling your house, my recommendation is not to.  Cleaning and tidying gets undone almost as quickly as you do it.  And then once you've spent hours cleaning and re-cleaning the place for a 20 minute viewing, the buyer decides that since there's no second bathroom downstairs the house just isn't right for them.  How many 1970s townhouses have two bathrooms???  

*cough*

Anyway.  Tenders closed today and I was hopeful that someone had decided they loved the place so much we'd get some kind of crazy awesome offer.  We did not, so off to PBN we go...

Perhaps I could take away a silver lining here?  By the time we do sell I'll be so very used to keeping the house spotless that I'll just carry on being an awesome domestic goddess even after Baby 2.0 arrives.  

New Deck is Finished

Well, it was finished about a month ago but I'm slack (or sleep deprived...damn you tiny baby teeth).  As promised, here are some photos of the process and the finished product.  The only thing that would make it better is if we could find some outdoor furniture that won't blow away, isn't ugly, isn't uncomfortable (I'm looking at you wooden chairs), doesn't have a wafer-thin glass table top and doesn't cost a small fortune.  I'm not fussy, really!

Here's my post before we started, just in case you wish to admire the awesome rottenness of the original deck one more time.

Once the uprights were concreted into place, the builder knocked some of the original deck off.  He only really had to threaten the handrail with the hammer and it was more than willing to fall down.  When finished, he walked inside, shook his head and said "amazing...." - and I don't think he meant it in a good way.  

The builders were well supervised throughout the process.  At one point they were wiggling their tape measure back and forth so Zari could attack it through the glass.

Once concrete was set, they knocked off the rest of the deck.  At this point they confirmed that the water issues we'd been having in our bedrooms downstairs were due to water getting in via the rotten joists.  That's all sealed up and has brand new weatherboards over it now, huzzah!

Then we got some framing...

And some decking.  Cats of course felt it best to sit as far out on the individual planks as they could.

Old deck!

New deck!

Zari for scale next to middle upright.

The tiny human and the not-so-tiny cats all approve of the new play area.

And then Basil figured out that he could do this.  I've seen him almost fall off twice, but it is quite hilarious watching him run along the rail after the birds in the tree.  I'm sure it's just bad luck and not his complete failure at stealthiness that's kept him from catching any.  Dork.

And one more before/after shot, because I can.

What a year to drop to one income - we've spent about $28k on the house this year.  BUT with the new deck and new windows the house is weathertight at last!  It's almost like we can finally sit back and enjoy the summer.  At home.  Because we're too poor to go anywhere.  :(

Goodbye Rotten Deck!

We managed to get the price of the house lowered because this deck was in such a shocking state when we bought the place.  Three years ago.  

Then one of Nev's friends decided to marry an Irish girl (in the South of France) so how could we NOT put the deck replacement plans on hold to go on holiday to their wedding?

Seriously.

The next year we went to Japan.  $800 return!  Japan is awesome.  We didn't need much convincing at that price.  

Come to Japan and get mugged by map-eating deer.

Then there was a tiny human on the way so we had to buy a car big enough to fit a car seat in the back seat.  

But now the day has finally come.  This death trap is being replaced with a deck big enough to actually put a table and chairs on and use (without fear of plummeting to your death) this summer.

That upright looks sound.

Basil can't wait to be closer to the birds in that tree.

Stay tuned.  Right now we just have some giant holes in the ground, but I'm told they are going to "dismantle" the existing deck tomorrow.  I suspect they'll just need to threaten it with a hammer and everything will fall down.

Alex's Extreme Bedroom Makeover: Part Two

Well wasn't that a great suspense-building break between episodes?

Firstly, the overall room shots (you can click on them for bigger versions).  Cue excessive "Oh My Gawsh!!!" comments.

I'm quite chuffed with the colour I chose for the walls, I think the grey works well with the black and white.  And it's nice and subtle and gender neutral and NOT BRIGHT BLUE.

And now if you don't mind, I'll point out some neat bits and pieces that I like.  

Alex's cot is full of handmade goodness - I made the sheets with nifty ribbon and lace edging on the top sheet, Mum and I made her mobile and Nev's Mum knitted the blanket.

It's not pretty, but I love the fact that her wardrobe is in the space under the stairs.  She has floor to ceiling shelves on the left, space for a toy hammock (my old one) and there's still room left over for us to stash computer hardware boxes at the end on the right.

Now that she is in her own room Alex has to share it with her Nana or Gran when they come to stay.  I'm sure that will be lots of fun (for her) when she's a bit older.

There are lots of goodies in these shelves too, including a Miffy money box (from Japan..nearly 12 years ago), the only analogue clock in the house, wooden name letters (Mum and I made these pretty), a hand knitted doll made by her .. uhm.. Nancy, a jewellery box containing a pendant made of Skye marble.

Aunty Christabel got this painting done for Alex while I was still pregnant.  As it's painted onto wood it's quite heavy so we were hesitant to hang it in her room in case an earthquake or something caused it to fall down.  So it is instead hanging in the hallway outside her room.  She likes looking at it when we carry her past.  

And lastly, Mum made (cross-stitched) this quilt for Alex's cot.  It'll be going on there when she's about a year old.  

And that's it.  We're busy concentrating on replacing the deck at the moment, just in time for winter!

Alex's Extreme Bedroom Makeover

Alex's bedroom was the study for the previous owners, and they had a giant notice board covering the northern wall of the room.  It wasn't until we moved in that we realised why:  the wall was bright blue.  Combined with the burgundy curtains and bright yellow plastic light shade it made for a delightful looking room.

The wardrobe door handle had pretty flowers on it.  Blech.  You'll note the very stylish light fitting on this wall too.

Clearly this room was not fit for a baby.  Off with the wallpaper!  Basil helped.

There were three layers of wallpaper.  And three layers of paint.  In amongst the layers we discovered that at one point the opposite walls of the room were bright purple and yellow.  I'm guessing that's when the yellow light shade came into play.

We also discovered that they hadn't put any gib up between the edge of the door frame and the corner of the room, instead opting to just paper over the gap and hope no one would notice.  Uhm.

We got the electrician in to replace the light fittings as well as all the switches and wall sockets downstairs.

And now, in true annoying reality TV style:  Bus driver, MOVE THAT BUS!!!

 /cut to end credits.

The next episode will air in a couple of days.  *cackle*

Weeding

It had been, oh, 18 months since I did anything to the veggie weed patch.  Can you tell?

At some point I subscribed to the NZ Gardener emails (??) and instead of instantly archiving it, I actually read this week's one.  It said that now is the time to sow carrots.  Our last crop of carrots was successful and Alex likes them, so why not try again?  Off to the garden store!  

I was feeling adventurous so I got some other veggie seedlings too.  Why is that adventurous?  Our last lot of seedlings was systematically destroyed by the cats.  Each day a cat would sit on a baby lettuce.  Or fall off the fence while trying to pick a fight with the neighbour cat, land on the tomato plants (containers to the left of the above photo) and break them in half.  They say to grow Basil with tomatoes...not so successful here.

So I'll see how this goes.  Maybe I need to build a netting frame to go over the baby vegetables.  My award winning* vegetable garden was inside one of dad's unused bird aviaries, so it's not such a silly idea.

Oh, and here's the other side of the courtyard.  I have great plans to tidy that up too.   It contains:  

• wheelie bin
• recycling bin
• two petrol cans (empty)
• our BBQ (obscured and currently on its side)
• Naughty Cat Pen (for containing Basils when they keep trying to run away)
• scooter cover (no more scooter)
• bin full of some weeds I quickly pulled out of that garden
• lots of weeds growing up between the pavers.  I hate them so much.

* First at my primary school, and third in the district!  I tell you, I used to be so cool.