Uncertainty is just shitty.

A year ago, we had a plan.  We would do up the house, sell it, buy a unit for the kids and move to San Francisco. A pretty simple plan in the grand scheme of things.

So, we did up the house and put it on the market almost 4 months ago.

Once again, we can insert Murphy here.

The real esate market plummeted taking with it the hope of us buying anything decent in the US.

The Australian dollar has plummeted, meaning our money is worth just over half it was in US dollars when we started this plan.

We can’t sell the house, I think a lot has to do with the fact that it is VERY hard to get financing at the moment.

It’s just all fucked up!

So, what do we do?  Do we take it off the market, relax for a while and try again in 6 months?  Or do we take what we can get and run like scared rabbits.

I must admit, it would be nice to have it sold and be completely debt free while still owning property in Sydney, but if we wait until the market improves we could get a lot more money for it.

Tell me what to do!

….that selling your house really sucks?

You make the decision about price and know that they are going to screw you down, so you have have to allow for that in your asking price….. yet how much is too much?  How much can you put on your house without it scaring off buyers?

It’s a fine line, I know that, but everyone wants to get the maximum price for the home they and their family have lived in for the last however many years.

The market is currently diving (Hello Murphy!)  so it may not be easy to sell, however we have had one couple through twice now and they have arranged to come again next Saturday with a builder to do full inspection.  It’s encouraging, but what will they find?

It’s an old house, so there is always something to find and fix, things we don’t notice because we have been here for so long.  I hate to think.  The tension is awful.

Wish us luck!

Do other people’s kids leave home?

Mine have been hanging around for 20 years and more and I’m still waiting for them to break the *choke* dreadful news that they are going to move out.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore my kids. It’s just that they’re messy little bastards and it doesn’t get better with age.

For those following along, you know that we are trying to sell our house. It is on the market now. The photographer came last Monday so we have great photos for the advertising campaign.

I have paid my $40.00 to our local council to get the “149 Planning Certificate”, which sounds terribly official, but all it does is give us permission to sell our house. Great little income rort there Rockdale Council!

The Solicitor is revved up and ready to go.

The Hawaiian and I have the house looking like a dream home…….

Then the kids come home.

Why is it that children/teenagers/young adults always explode all over the house when they get home? Is this only a problem at my place, or is it some sort of epidemic that I can blame some other bastard for? Who did this to my kids? It certainly isn’t MY fault, my kids have been brung up proper like! *smirk*

Ok, so Im a slob too, their father was a slob, and The Hawaiian is one too. It’s a little unfair of me to demand perfection from the kids when I can’t lead by example.

There are so many more important things to do than housework. Like playing on the internet, blogging, chatting, having a mani and a pedi, shoe and bag shopping…. the list goes on and on.

So if you want to buy my house, don’t try and come over to look at it without at least a half day’s notice, preferrably a full day. Best option for us is for you to just buy it from the photos.

Then we can get outta here and leave the damned kids in the empty nest! *evil grin*

Written 17 April, 2007:

The adventure starts here. Right here, right now.

I have avoided starting this blog because, I think, it becomes real once you put it down in text.

I am abandoning my kids and moving to a country on the other side of the world. There. I said it.

My “kids” are all old enough and big enough to look after themselves these days. I rarely see them, though they live at home. However, being so far away from them is going to be extremely hard, if they need me to do the ‘Mummy’ thing. Let’s face it, they don’t need me anymore, it’s me that needs them! All I need to do for them these days is find the tomato sauce thats hiding behind something in the pantry or provide a free taxi service. They wipe their own butts, blow their own noses and can open cans, toast bread and boil eggs. My job is done. They are so good at feeding the pets that they often ALL feed them without consulting the others, which is a pretty happy situation for the four legged fuzzy people who share our home.

I currently live in Sydney Australia with my husband Brad and the abovementioned ‘kids’ who are, as of this date, 19, 20 and 22. Brad and I are moving to San Francisco with friends for what may be our big break.

It will be nothing less than a fabulous opportunity to experience an incredible city. There’s very little to lose, really…. apart from my mind!

So, I’m leaving one spectacular bridge, for another spectacular bridge. It could be a lot worse!

Written 27 April, 2007:

Put simply, our house is currently a dump!

For our move to San Francisco, we have decided to sell this house, which is old, large and requires a lot of maintenance, and buy a smaller, newer one which will be more manageable for the kids while we are away. To do this, we have to make a few improvements to the current house in the hope of achieving a higher price.

Every room needs some attention, though some more than others and we have decided to tackle the task one room at a time. The office is one of the worst, as it has been our hoarding ground for the last ten years. Don’t know where to put the portable airconditioner? Bung it in the Office! Where’s the sock basket? Probably in the Office. (Yes, we have a sock basket, let it go!). This is where we have decided to start.

The last week has been spent emptying out the room, sorting things to go to freecycle, the salvos and the tip and taking said items to their respective new homes.

Tomorrow we finish the desk and shelf dismantling and we start painting! DEAR GOD! I can’t wait to get one room finished and looking fabulous to spur us on to the next, because from where I sit right now, this is one damned awful task and so incredibly daunting. Why am I sitting here instead of getting on with it? Excellent question! I wish I had an excellent answer!

On with it, then!

Our house is about to go up for sale. For those who have been keeping up with the program, we have done a lot of work on it over the last 12 months.

It’s such a relief to have all the work done and to have everything back in its place again.

These pictures show the fruit of our labours.

Feel free to ooooooh, and ahhhhhh in utter amazement at the beauty of our home. Heheh

Also feel free to bite me if you dont like it!

Oh, and the photos are all sucky and stuff because I took them with my phone. I keep forgetting to charge the battery for my digital *sigh*

OK, they are two cute boys I roped in from the street. OK, OK, they are my son and his mate (the one who wrote of his car by driving it into a roof – its possible, trust me!)

So, these two have been working on the room all afternoon, beers in hand, and a few games of World of Warcraft to fill in the drying time. We should have the room done tonight, with just the trim left for me to finish over the next couple of days.

I cant wait to get it set up as an office for 4fthawaiian so he can be happier at work. At the moment he is stuck in the bedroom all day and night. Not good for the morale.

The colour you see around the edges is a deep slate blue, this is currently being filled in . We did another room the same colour, and it looks amazing.

Hopefully, the house will be on the market next week! WOO HOO!

Oh, please note the fabulous yellow scaffold in the background. We were going to hire scaffolding when we started painting as the ceilings are so high, however decided to buy one as we needed it for such a long time. It’s been the best investment we ever made! TIP: if you are doing a lot of renovations, invest in a scaffold!

LIVE UPDATE! 10:00pm

1st coat is on and waiting to dry, so more World of Warcraft and more beer!

It sucks…. exercise is the only thing higher than renovations on my list of suckage.  Did I mention that I hate renovationg?

We are at the stage where only one room needs major work.  Funny, its the worst room in the house.  We wisely left this room until last so that when we are completely exhausted and TOTALLY over working, we get to tackle the hardest room of all.  Clever, huh?

Yesterday a few amazing friends came over and helped us get a lot of the hard yakka done.  The room only needs painting now.  Thanks guys, we couldn’t have become motivated without you!

So, why am I sitting on the bed this afternoon blogging, tweeting and watching episodes of our favourite shows that we’ve missed in the last month?

Because I couldn’t be stuffed!

Half an hour more… just half an hour more and I will get back into doing what needs to be done.  No really.  REALLY!  I promise!

I have a new laundry and I’m totally in love. *happy sigh*

I have NEVER had a nice laundry. I’ve never had a bench in my laundry. The laundry was always the ‘tacked on’ thing in every house I have owned/rented/squatted in. Even the house I grew up in had a shonky laundry. I have never had high expectations for this room.

That was until Sunday night.

It was like a bright light had filled the room and angels sang Hallelujah….. good GOD! Laundries do not have to be cesspits!

On Saturday, we decided that we were going to DO the laundry. We had been mulling over this for a while, and I had already measured, chosen and purchased the bench system I wanted. It had been sitting in flat packs in the back of our wagon for around three months. All we had to do was get into it.

Saturday we pulled all the crappy little hooks, gadgets and weird shit that had gathered there over the years, off the walls. We filled the holes, cleaned the walls and ceiling and waited overnight for the spakfilla to dry. The Hawaiian also got busy with the silicone and prettied up the edges of the sink, around the tiles etc.

Sunday – Paint paint paint – two coats done in around two hours. It was a hot day!

Now comes the tricky fun part. The dreaded flat packs! Legs, countertops, rails, brackets….. shit, no toggles for the gyprock walls, and its Easter Sunday. My boss came to the rescue, so we visit him, in paint covered clothes, to pick them up. “Come right over” he’d said. He neglected to let me know that his entire extended family were there! He will pay…… he WILL pay!! *sigh* At least my t-shirt, thongs and bag matched!

Toggles in hand we were able to complete the job. My skills with a tape measure came in handy. The benches fitted without a millimetre to spare!

Sunday night was the turning point after a lot of effort over the last 12 months to get this house renovated. We have done a massive amount of work, and every room still has one or two small things that need to be completed before we can put the house back together the way we want it. We needed to get something done and have a room finished. Our sanity depended on it. The laundry is THAT room, and we are OH SO proud of it

Pity the rest of the house is a dump! Heh!

We have a few *choke* things to do this weekend, and it’s not good news. We are renovating our house and I would like to get most of it finished this weekend.

So….

Tonight we veg, drink and eat crap food, tomorrow we empty the laundry. UGH! This is not going to be pretty. The washing machine is now 5 years old and I have NEVER cleaned under it. Let’s face it, who the fuck cleans UNDER their washing machine? I can barely open the linen cupboard door, let alone find enough space to manoeuvre the washing machine out of it’s cosy little nest. So that is something special to look forward to tomorrow morning. I may put a few things I find under there on ebay, so keep an eye out!

Isn’t it amazing how things get so much worse by just thinking about them? That laundry has gone from a small job I could do by myself in a day (huh!) to a gargantuan effort involving two adults, a scaffold and possibly a forklift. Not sure about the forklift, it depends on how the auction goes and if I can find some suitable shoes to match.

If that gets finished this weekend, we move into darker, more evil territory. The master bedroom. The master bedroom is so bloody awful, I can’t describe it. Just let’s suffice to say that it needs serious work (although it already has a bea-u-ti-ful brand new paint job).

Have a great Easter weekend!