10.30

Well!! This has been a week of eventful mornings! I feel like a lot has been achieved every day this week, and very oddly, everything seems to have been achieved at 10.30am!!
Wednesday, 10.30: Carpets cleaned
Thursday, 10.30: Couches delivered
Friday, 10.30: Uni group assignment work (this will be an achievement when it's done!!)
Saturday, 10.30: Gift registry at Myer (yes, we get to use those fun little scan-ny devices! Yippee!)

Who knows what Sunday, 10.30 will bring???
(on a sidenote, why is it so hard to find a picture of a clock displaying "10.30"??? I wanted a cute little picture to go alongside my post, but alas!!)

Cleaning Cupboard!!

I spent a good part of this weekend working on the house with Mr Chris and various other helpers: Dad, Mum, Steph, James, and Chris's housemate Jayne even came to help us out!! Whew! We have barely a thing to show for it, although we can now say with confidence that we can finally meet the standards for Contents insurance! Yay!
There are so many things up in the air - shelves need contacting, holes need filling, walls need sanding & sugar-soaping (and obviously painting). The house looks like one huge tradies' camp-site! (See Figure A below for an example...)


One thing that is completely done though? My lovely laundry cleaning cupboard!!



And this here makes me alllll giddy:

That, lovely blog-reader/s, is my Mum sitting on the world's SWEETEST Day-Bed at IKEA!! I soooo badly want this... but maybe in a couple of pay checks' time perhaps?

In other news my parents are away in Mandurah for the next few days, so it's 3 girls and a dog fending for themselves this week! Should be some fun times ahead...

12 Weeks...

In 12 weeks our lives will be changing so very much!!! *clap clap*

Home Owners!!!

Chris and I are home owners!! Yep it's been about 22 hours since the keys were handed over (but who's checking, really?) and we're celebrating tonight with a big family dinner at the new house. A big family dinner of... pizza. Yum!
So as a pre-home-owner, I started going a bit nuts over furniture. Look at what I bought...

Window seat! I picked this up at Thingz House and it looks boring as all get-out in the picture, I'll give it that. But in real life it's very beautiful, and a little vintagey... perfectly designed for lazy afternoons, sitting by the window with a good book. My heart leaps at the idea of this... mostly because in 12 weeks, I'll actually be able to do this, just sit in my house, potter around, make things look nice, read all day. (What? You're not going to work in the weeks after your wedding? More on that further down the page...)

Mmmmm... Couches. Soft, squidgy, wonderful couches! This is a picture of the display model at Harvey Norman - our actual couches will look like this, but in a lovely chocolate brown colour, named "Raisin". (Ugly name to call a colour, but whatever...) These couches are like heaven to sit on, and as soon as we have contents insurance, we'll be able to order these babies in. Yay! So happy. I look forward to sitting in them often.

Unfortunately I can't put in any more pictures, but I'll girly-squeal about our bedroom set for a little while. We've got a beautiful bed on layby, with a matching chest of drawers and 2 bedside tables. Oh my. They're so beautiful. I love love love them! Now all we need is a matress... and another $1,900... and they'll be making for a wonderful night's sleep. Oh yes.

Now, here I'm going to yelp and carry on about how very much I'm looking forward to December!! So I get married December 6, and I'm taking the couple of days before that off from work, for last minute preparations and stuff. So, my leave starts Thursday the 4th. We'll be on our honeymoon until a weekend a couple of weeks later - so I'll be back at work Monday 22nd December, just in time to work 3 days and then go on Christmas leave. We're closing up the office the whole week after Christmas, so I don't go back to work until Monday, January 5. Um, yay?!?!?! That means I only work 6 days in December. Which is why I'll be reading books by windows and such....

Believe it or not...

... I am still crafting!!!
I've just been so caught up with all the house stuff at the moment, but the lovely Miss Kirstin kicked me up the bum and got me crafting again yesterday. Yay!!!
I'm trying to see if I can get enough gear together for Made On The Left - a craft stall coming up in Mid-November. So I went a bit nuts and cut out 14 patterns yesterday - I picked 7 designs, and did them in 2s. My craft table's looking a bit like Noah's Ark!!

After cutting them all out (the easy part!) I set to work... and I can proudly say that 4.5 new toys are designed, put together, and ready for stuffing. Yay!!!

I'm really excited about a new turn that my work's gradually taking. Aside from the usual uber-decoratedness of my work, I've worked some more artistic concepts into a couple of pieces... I'll have to show soon!!

In other news, if there was anyone out there wondering what I would look like in a Gladiator helmet, this is for you...


Yeh. My man likes his women burly!! *snort*

And see that behind me? That's a deflated bouncy castle. Time: midnight. On Friday night, I was trying to help Chris set up some gear for filming (he's in charge of the creative side of the upcoming Gladiators Jump promo).
First we had to pick up the 2,000,000kg inflatable device from the church building, and the weather looked like this:

Yes, that is the carpark, flooded, in the midst of a downpour. Sweet. We had to sit out the rain before we could take the trailer out, so we did. 30 odd minutes later, we took off for our destination (luckily just around the corner!) and I did some manly work, helping Chris move all 2,000,000kg of plastic and rubber out of the trailer and onto a waiting trolley. Then we set it up, I learnt stuff about tying up the random flappy bits at the sides ("as if you're pulling up a pony tail"), and he inflated it! Anyone ever bounced on their own personal bouncy castle at 1 in the morning? I have!!! Wish I'd taken pics, but meh. Needless to say, I felt like the coolest kid in town.
So it was a long night. But the bouncy castle (and Gladiator helmet) made it alllll goooood!!!

Sealbi Lee

Aren't these pictures beautifully haunting??

Now this is a girl who can use her watercolours... So beautiful!!
You can check out her blog here. She doesn't seem to have an Etsy, or I'd link to that too.
Thanks so much to Penguin & Fish for pointing her out!!!

The A-Z Of First Home Ownership

With home ownership at our fingertips, I’ve chosen today as a time of reflection. A fun way to do this is with a A-Z list of the journey. Whew! Without giving anything else away, here it goes…

A – Agents. MAKE SURE you find yourself an agent that you really like. Our agent Brett rocked – he was good fun, and made me look forward to house-hunting a LOT!!

B – Broker. Mortgage broker, that is, and a good one at that. They make finance as easy as possible. Our mortgage broker, Leteisha, is very cool and never made me feel stupid, with all the dumb questions I asked along the way!! She knows stuff.

C – Council rates. Who knew it could be so expensive just to live in a suburb?? Once a year you pay the council a hefty amount, and it covers things like rubbish trucks, vandalism in the community, road works, and other random things that your suburb requires. So I can see the point of them, but they’re going to be a pain!!

D – Documents. For a while there, we were getting 2 – 3 packages of paperwork each week. Our hands grew tired of signing, our eyes grew tired of reading, and our brains grew tired of processing information. Be prepared!!

E – Elderly people. For some reason, some of the best, cheapest houses are over-55 villas. If you’re house-hunting on the internet, before falling in love with anything read up on it in the description, and make sure it’s not an over-55 villa. You’ll save yourself a lot of disappointment! (Unless you’re elderly yourself).

F – Finance approval. You need payslips, group certificates, bank statements and all kinds of other junk to get your finance approved. A huuuuge pain!!!

G – Grants. We qualified easily for the $7,000 First Home-Owners Grant, and after settlement we’re applying for a $2,000 REBA rebate. Any extra money helps, so do your research!

H – House hunting. Look at heaps of houses before you pick one. It’s fun, gives you a great idea of what you can get for your money, and it’s important to see the good, the bad and the ugly. Plus, you want to know that the house you put an offer on is definitely right for you!

I – Inspections. Lots of them. Keystart did a value inspection, someone else did another generic inspection, there was a white-ant inspection, my Dad did an inspection, and last week we did our final inspection. If there’s something wrong with the house, make sure it’s found BEFORE settlement – or it’s your problem to fix, and your bill to foot!!!

J – Junk. Don’t bring all your junk with you when you move. Moving is the very best opportunity to be ruthless. Don’t try and convince yourself that, just because you have to squeeze something into the top of your wardrobe in your current dwellings, you’ll certainly find a good place for it in the new home. You won’t. If it’s squeezed into the top of your wardrobe, you can obviously do without it.

K – Keystart. Their shared-equity scheme is the one and only reason we could afford to buy at all. They own 30% of the house, which means we’re only paying off the mortgage on 70% of it, until we can afford to buy more off them J

L – Look and Listen. Do your research. Check up on how various suburbs have been gaining/decreasing in value. Decide what you need in a house, and what would be nice. Listen to your friends, and their experiences (especially those that are 20+ years older than you!) The more knowledge you gain, the more you’re benefited in the long (and short) run.

M – Money. Don’t ever think that you have more than you do. Based on our earnings, Keystart would have allowed us to purchase a house up to $375,000 in value. The house we purchased, we got for $284,000 and I can tell you that we’re going to be scraping by some months. On top of mortgage payments, there are tons of other costs – insurance, rates, bills, maintenance & improvements to name a few. Then there’s the cost of plain ol’ living. So don’t take out a mortgage that’s going to ruin you!!

N – New. Not only will the house be new for you, but it’s possible you’ll be in a whole new community, with new people. Get involved, embrace it. I can’t wait to find my place in our new little neighbourhood!

O – Offer. Here’s my take on making an offer – you offer 5,000-10,000 less than the owners want. They counter your offer, asking for 5,000-10,000 more. You counter their offer, upping your original offer by about 3,000. They counter yours, lowering theirs about 3,000. This goes on for a while until someone makes that golden offer that everyone’s “happy” with. I’m quite sure that the agent just bounces the buyer and the seller off each other for a while. It’s a tricky game.

P – Parents. They know stuff, so listen to them – whether it’s about rising damp, money, first home ownership tips… they might sound like they’re worrying too much at times, but it’s probably for a good reason!!

Q – Questions. Ask lots and lots of questions. First home ownership is a huge deal – you don’t want to sign up if you’re even remotely uninformed!

R – Rising damp. It’s sneaky, and if it wasn’t for my Dad’s cleverness we could well have signed up for a place without a care in the world. Rising damp occurs when water gets into the walls. Tell-tale signs are bubbling paint, rusty doorframes and cracks. It looks like a small, easy-to-fix thing. $10,000 later, you might reconsider. Watch out. Dad picked up on it in one house I was keen on, and that ended that!!

S – Settlement Agent. They’re expensive but essential, unfortunately. They make the purchase legal, and they do all the hard work with rates enquiries and stuff. Our settlement agent is pretty good, but I wish I’d know our friend Mike does settlements, before I signed up for this agent!!

T – Time. It can take a while. We found our place at the end of June, made our offer in early July. With inspections, negotiations and finance approval to sort out, we just had to sit and wait. Finally, we get the keys this Wednesday, September 10. Patience is a virtue. You will most likely learn all about it when going for your first home!

U – Ugliness. Sometimes you have to accept ugliness in your first home. Like floral carpets, or bright green bench tops. Suck it up. If the house is fine other than the daggy, peeling wall paper, you’ve got yourself a great deal! You can always change the way it looks, so focus on functionality.

V – Vendors. They are the ones selling their house to you. You learn their names, you inherit the bits of junk they don’t want to take with them – yet you never actually meet face-to-face. Weird.

W – Walls. They’re more expensive to paint than I realized. That’s pretty much it.

X – Xcitement (sorry, X is such a pathetic letter to start a word with!) These are exciting times – once you can see over the pile of paperwork, once those keys are in your hand, things will start to get freakin’ exciting!!!! Enjoy yourself, and don’t lose sight of the fact that this is your VERY FIRST HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y – Yonder. You’re going to live yonder if you’re anything like us and can’t afford to live where you grew up. The cheapest houses are typically not where your church, workplace, family & friends are – so be prepared to up your travel costs!!!

Z – Zoo. Do not convert your new home to a zoo, as you need lots of licenses, as well as 20 zillion times more space than your block can offer.