Sunday, October 24, 2010

Moving In: The First Few Weeks

Well, three weeks after getting the keys, Steve and I have painted walls, had the floors done, moved in and had a house warming party. It is a crazy crazy world.

This is the kitchen after the floors were done, but before anything went back in.

Thanks to the awesome sauce help of Melissa, Ron, Wade, Jenn, Allie and Andy on moving day, everything got here and nothing broke. Allie came by around 9 to help me clean stuff while everyone else met Steve at Victor street to load up the ute. There was a lot of cleaning to do. The boys and Melissa got here around 11 with a truck load of stuff to be unpacked which happened fairly fast. They then went for the second load of stuff while Melissa, Allie and I unpacked the kitchen and the linen cupboard.


This is everyone in the kitchen once the boys had bought the fridge in!


When the boys returned with the second load of stuff around 1, Jenn had turned up with some awesome pasta for us for lunch. So good!! Andy turned up about half way through. The boys then set about unpacking the ute while Jenn did an awsome job of hanging up Steve's work clothes and my dresses, and Melissa when crazy with the Mr Sheene. :D So good.


Putting things away in the bookshelf.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted. Everyone headed off about 4 ish and this is what the living room looked a bit like:

Steve was outrageously sunburnt from standing on the back of the ute and was asleep. I also had a sleep once everyone had gone. It was an exhausting day. The best thing about the double bed we have is it's lack of need for screws/screwdrivers to be put together. It all just clips in. So good. Our room with the bed set up and everything lying around on the floor:

On Sunday night, Steve decided it was time for internet. We pulled the phone off the wall and were met with this site:



Yep, under that strange "Main/alternate" switch was a bodgy wire-ing job. Adding to the dodgy cut wire that was taped back together along the bottom of the floor. There was even a wire there that ran from the phone to under the house that was completely disconnected - it was cut at both ends. It's a crazy world. Our internet is a bit slow (thanks to our wire-ing) but it works (hooray!)

We ended up taking Monday off work to rest (I had a pupil free day). I got up early anyway (our new house is very light and i'm not sure we had curtains up at that stage) and did some organising and putting away. Steve got up around 10 and we continued to do little things. We ended up going for an obscenely long drive to bunnings and a second hand furniture place to get a filing cabinet and a few other things, but overall it was a productive day. :)

Our Housewarming party was pretty fun. :D Mum and Dad bought some juice and bread rolls for us (mum also went crazy and bought spinich pie and a zuccini slice over :P) and My work friends did muffins (yay!) while Sarah and her Steve bought some banana bread. I did a huge platter of fruit and we had bacon and eggs as well. It was a hot sunny morning, so we had the tarps over the clothes line and strung up from the side of the house (the bars on the windows are good for something!) It was a really enjoyable day. i was running around like crazy, Mum had taken over the kitchen, but on the whole, really fun. :D


Aroha and Cooper came along later in the day (their car did not start). It was really good to see them. Cooper is doing well. Praying for Aroha as she spends the 2 weeks alone without John.

It's exciting to have a house, though it really snowballs. Not only does moving in take way more than a day (so many things to still unpack) but also, you are forever noticing things that need to be done. The trims need to be done, the window sills. What will you do about the bars? The lawn needs mowing, the weeds need.... weeding. It's a very long and time consuming process to own a house. I suppose that's what I have to remember - it's a process. We'll have everything looking shiny in 30 years or so. For now, it is what it is: Our Home.

This is one of the spare rooms. It has a purple tinge thanks to the strip of material acting as a curtain. Cheala and Daniel were generous in giving us their wedding table cloths which are acting as curtains in all the other rooms of the house. :) yay!

Monday, October 11, 2010

House Ownership


AHH!!! Steve and I own a house!! So grown up and scary!!

For those faithful many following the progress of our said house here is a bit of an update on what's going on. :)

When we got the keys on Monday, we went in and put some test paint up on the walls to decide what colour. The house had a different colour wall for almost every wall (green, pink, yellow, different type of green, white and undercoat) and we were going to change that! We started painting on Tuesday night with Melissa and Ron (such helpful painter-savy friends) and started transforming our house. Here are some fun before shots.


Living Room Before



Dining Room Before



After painting madly for 4 days (JonK and Wade giving us a massive hand on Wednesday (and being rewarded with some not so awesome Sausage Fried Rice)) we began to rip up the carpet squares and the lino underneath the carpet squares. Yucky yucky yucky-ness, but underneath - some beautiful wonderful floorboards!! :D yay!



Do you like our wonderful purple feature wall? Steve wants one in every room... I want a boredom drawing on the living room wall...

Our floor boards are amazing. The floor guys came by today and sanded and gave it two coats of polish. So pretty. :)



We haven't gone in yet really. The floors were dry, but with all of the rain, they were also a bit sticky in parts. The varnish smell was also quiet overwhelming. Hopefully it will stop raining soon enough to have the windows open to get some air happening. On the whole, house having is pretty scary and all, but also fun. :) new life experiences for us! yay!

P.S. My rose bush is thriving! It's grown up so big and has put out 2 flowers! yay! :D