Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Goodbye house, maybe...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A little greener living
So by living here in OZ, we've managed a greener lifestyle. I thought I'd share some of it with you all.
Our house:
No heating or air conditioning. It's all done with the windows and shades. Being up on the hill, we get plenty of wind and breeze so we just open the windows and it's cooler. Close them, and it's warmer. So far it has worked.
We have solar panels on the roof that run the hot water tank. There are laws in place that are requiring all Aussies to have either solar panels or gas for their hot water heaters by the year 2012. No electric hot water heaters are allowed after that. (the government has lots of programs to help home owners switch over to this). All newer homes (4 years or younger) have the solar panels and the rain tanks as it is required by law.
We hang almost all of our clothes out to dry. With lower humidity than Maryland and lots of sun and breeze, they actually dry quickly and really well.
We have two giant rain water tanks outside and toilets and outdoor faucets run off the rainwater. Once the tanks are dry, then we'd run off city water for everything. The cold water on the washing machine also runs off the rain tanks. Awesome! There is another law that requires all homes to use rainwater for outdoor watering at a minimum. It's harder to convert an older home to a rain water system since there is a lot of separate plumbing involved. All public toilets at parks, playgrounds, etc are required to run from a rain water system.
Our bills:
Here in OZ, we get billed quarterly rather than monthly. This means less paper being mailed, less fuel used by people to read the meters and less fuel used by postal carriers to deliver bills. Also, post only comes Monday through Friday and comes by motor bike. If you have a package that's too big for the motorbike, then you have to go to post office to pick it up.
Shopping:
While reusable bags are being used in the States, they are much more in use here. Most stores will not give you a plastic bag unless you have over 5 small items. Large items are never bagged and many many stores charge for any plastic bags. Every parking lot of every shopping place has a "don't forget your bags" sign in it. If you forget your bags, you get these looks from cashiers as if you have committed a great sin. No one wants that shame! I think every lady I know carries some kind of reusable bag in her purse to pull out if the shopping mood strikes. Love it!
Also, packaging- all Aussie stuff is packaged in stuff that makes less waste. Spices and baking products are all packed in baggies. You buy plastic containers for pantry and fridge and just refill them. Products that are made in Australia are much less expensive than those made anywhere else. Fruits and veggies at the store are about 99% Australian grown. Garlic is from Mexico for some reason though.
All foods here also have less preservatives. Better for us, but things do go bad faster so we have to watch how much we buy. The first couple of weeks here had a fair bit of wasted food that we let go bad. We adjusted and I know how much to buy at a time so we waste less.
Lots of people compost here, but we haven't yet. Our house backs to bush land so we have to be a little careful. If we start throwing out fruit and veg scrap, we'll attract mice and flies into the yard. With the mice comes snakes. With the flies come more spiders. We don't really want the snakes and spiders so we've decided not to compost so far.
The recylcing program here is good, but not as good as Anne Arundel County though. We have to wash our containers and they don't recycle pizza boxes for some reason.
We can also walk to the shops and to school. To be honest, we don't walk to the shops much because I have no way of getting everything back home again. We do walk down to the shops for dinner when we go out though. We went out last night and walked the 30 minutes to dinner, ate, drank and were merry...then walked 30 minutes home and put little ones to bed. I do walk to school a few times each week pick the boys up from school. It really irritated me that we weren't allowed to walk in Pasadena as we were across the street. So instead we walk the 2 km one way to school. Going there is easier as it is down hill, coming home is all uphill.
Electricity is much more expensive here, but it is split up by the hours it is used. Peak hours are the most expensive, between 2pm and 8pm on weekdays. Electricity cost $.35 per kw/h during peak hours. Shoulder hours are 7am-2pm and 8pm-11pm weekdays and 7am-11pm weekends. Rates then are $.21 per kw/h. Off peak is all the rest and is about $.15 per kw/h. In the States we paid about $.115 all the time. By knowing it is more expensive during peak hours, we delay our dish washer and dryer, etc until shoulder or off peak hours. It is better that way for the environment as well.
Our house:
No heating or air conditioning. It's all done with the windows and shades. Being up on the hill, we get plenty of wind and breeze so we just open the windows and it's cooler. Close them, and it's warmer. So far it has worked.
We have solar panels on the roof that run the hot water tank. There are laws in place that are requiring all Aussies to have either solar panels or gas for their hot water heaters by the year 2012. No electric hot water heaters are allowed after that. (the government has lots of programs to help home owners switch over to this). All newer homes (4 years or younger) have the solar panels and the rain tanks as it is required by law.
We hang almost all of our clothes out to dry. With lower humidity than Maryland and lots of sun and breeze, they actually dry quickly and really well.
We have two giant rain water tanks outside and toilets and outdoor faucets run off the rainwater. Once the tanks are dry, then we'd run off city water for everything. The cold water on the washing machine also runs off the rain tanks. Awesome! There is another law that requires all homes to use rainwater for outdoor watering at a minimum. It's harder to convert an older home to a rain water system since there is a lot of separate plumbing involved. All public toilets at parks, playgrounds, etc are required to run from a rain water system.
Our bills:
Here in OZ, we get billed quarterly rather than monthly. This means less paper being mailed, less fuel used by people to read the meters and less fuel used by postal carriers to deliver bills. Also, post only comes Monday through Friday and comes by motor bike. If you have a package that's too big for the motorbike, then you have to go to post office to pick it up.
Shopping:
While reusable bags are being used in the States, they are much more in use here. Most stores will not give you a plastic bag unless you have over 5 small items. Large items are never bagged and many many stores charge for any plastic bags. Every parking lot of every shopping place has a "don't forget your bags" sign in it. If you forget your bags, you get these looks from cashiers as if you have committed a great sin. No one wants that shame! I think every lady I know carries some kind of reusable bag in her purse to pull out if the shopping mood strikes. Love it!
Also, packaging- all Aussie stuff is packaged in stuff that makes less waste. Spices and baking products are all packed in baggies. You buy plastic containers for pantry and fridge and just refill them. Products that are made in Australia are much less expensive than those made anywhere else. Fruits and veggies at the store are about 99% Australian grown. Garlic is from Mexico for some reason though.
All foods here also have less preservatives. Better for us, but things do go bad faster so we have to watch how much we buy. The first couple of weeks here had a fair bit of wasted food that we let go bad. We adjusted and I know how much to buy at a time so we waste less.
Lots of people compost here, but we haven't yet. Our house backs to bush land so we have to be a little careful. If we start throwing out fruit and veg scrap, we'll attract mice and flies into the yard. With the mice comes snakes. With the flies come more spiders. We don't really want the snakes and spiders so we've decided not to compost so far.
The recylcing program here is good, but not as good as Anne Arundel County though. We have to wash our containers and they don't recycle pizza boxes for some reason.
We can also walk to the shops and to school. To be honest, we don't walk to the shops much because I have no way of getting everything back home again. We do walk down to the shops for dinner when we go out though. We went out last night and walked the 30 minutes to dinner, ate, drank and were merry...then walked 30 minutes home and put little ones to bed. I do walk to school a few times each week pick the boys up from school. It really irritated me that we weren't allowed to walk in Pasadena as we were across the street. So instead we walk the 2 km one way to school. Going there is easier as it is down hill, coming home is all uphill.
Electricity is much more expensive here, but it is split up by the hours it is used. Peak hours are the most expensive, between 2pm and 8pm on weekdays. Electricity cost $.35 per kw/h during peak hours. Shoulder hours are 7am-2pm and 8pm-11pm weekdays and 7am-11pm weekends. Rates then are $.21 per kw/h. Off peak is all the rest and is about $.15 per kw/h. In the States we paid about $.115 all the time. By knowing it is more expensive during peak hours, we delay our dish washer and dryer, etc until shoulder or off peak hours. It is better that way for the environment as well.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Some catching up
So, I need to do some catching up. Here we go!
Tom's birthday was a fun little time with the fam. Tom requested that his cake be pink inside and that he have toys on top of it. When asked about what toys, he replied "surprise me." Okay, so I made my very first ever red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and put some LEGO cars on top of it. It was incredibly good and (once the toys were off) looked great.
I somehow managed to never get an picture showing the inside, but it was quite reddish pink. The recipe for the cake called for 1.5-4.5 tablespoons of red food coloring. Since we were going for more of a pink than a red, I did 2 tablespoons. It was plenty red. I couldn't even imagine 4.5 tablespoons going into a cake. That's a lot of color!
The tilers showed up on Wednesday and did some work on the house and another guy showed up on Friday to put some more waterproofing on. We are expecting rain on Tuesday so I don't know when the tilers will show up to actually put the tile on. I can't wait until it's done!
My car is finally getting fixed! It's been just about a month from my little mishap and we finally dropped it off this morning to be repaired. It is in the shop for the next few days. My insurance policy has rental car coverage so I have a free car during this repair. And I must say, we get what we pay for. I am driving a tiny little 4 door hatch back car. It has power windows in the front, but crank windows in the back. It also has ZERO cupholders. Imagine my surprise when I sat down in the car with my cup of coffee and found no place to put it. Oh, did I mention that it too is a manual. There was no way to drive and drink my coffee since I had no cup holder. I had to sit in the parking lot and people watch while drinking my cuppa. I didn't even have anything to read. (Okay, so I mentioned to Jay that they was no cupholders and he went in search of them. He couldn't find them, until he looked in the manual and there are two cupholders in the front. Little hidden ones that you have to press to pop out. I looked in the center consol for them, but they weren't there. There is one, under the heat vent, on each side of the car. Tricky little devils.) We did okay getting the boys home from school today since Sam wasn't there, but I have no idea how we are going to fit all those kids in the car. There's an airbag up front so we aren't supposed to put Joe up there. I don't think they will fit three across in the back. It just means we won't be going any where extra and we'll be walking to school as much as we can. Though with rain tomorrow, we'll have to drive a bit.
I am really really bad about putting clothes in the washer and not checking pockets, etc. I just tend to dump the whole basket in. Well, that went a little wrong twice this weekend for me. I found a huge bug that had been through the washer and died when I was hanging clothes on the line. I posted a picture on Facebook of that if you want to see it. And, I put a pull-up through the wash. Diapers don't do well being that wet so it exploded and was a horrible mess. Sam typically gets dressed on his own in the morning and puts his pull-up in the trash, but I guess he forgot this one. I had to clean out the inside of the machine and then rewash the clothes. All this comes about a week after I washed some toy of the boys and it got stuck on the inside of the dryer and caused a problem. I really just need to check pockets.
We had a couple of trips to the doctor's last week and spent a total of $370 between two kids and two days. Each visit is $70 (3 visits), plus x-rays at $130 and medicine at $30. We'll get some of it back from insurance, but not all of it. We went because Joe had a hurt ankle and Tom had pink eye. I had decided to do a little shopping in Newcastle on last Thursday. It takes an hour to get down there and I was only there about 5 minutes when the school called. I then had to drive all the way back to get Tom. Tom's eye was all red and he didn't want to leave school. I walked in the office door and he asked if he could go back to class. When I said no, he started to cry. Poor kid.
Sam has been doing pretty well at his school, though he has been bitten twice, each time by a different kid. Both times have been because Sam is not sharing toys well. Sam was a bitter himself when he was younger, but he only bit Tom and me, never anyone else. We are going to visit a different sort of pre-school this week. It didn't have any openings for this year, but loads of openings for next year. The school is only open during school hours and is loads cheaper. It is only $25 a day versus the $68 that we pay now. We do have to supply their food, but I don't mind that. One of my new friends here has her daughter in it right now and another friend had her daughter in it last year. Both highly recommend it. It's about 10 minutes away from the big kids school so not too bad. Hopefully, we will like it and we'll get a spot.
Okay, that's all for now.
Tom's birthday was a fun little time with the fam. Tom requested that his cake be pink inside and that he have toys on top of it. When asked about what toys, he replied "surprise me." Okay, so I made my very first ever red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and put some LEGO cars on top of it. It was incredibly good and (once the toys were off) looked great.
The tilers showed up on Wednesday and did some work on the house and another guy showed up on Friday to put some more waterproofing on. We are expecting rain on Tuesday so I don't know when the tilers will show up to actually put the tile on. I can't wait until it's done!
My car is finally getting fixed! It's been just about a month from my little mishap and we finally dropped it off this morning to be repaired. It is in the shop for the next few days. My insurance policy has rental car coverage so I have a free car during this repair. And I must say, we get what we pay for. I am driving a tiny little 4 door hatch back car. It has power windows in the front, but crank windows in the back. It also has ZERO cupholders. Imagine my surprise when I sat down in the car with my cup of coffee and found no place to put it. Oh, did I mention that it too is a manual. There was no way to drive and drink my coffee since I had no cup holder. I had to sit in the parking lot and people watch while drinking my cuppa. I didn't even have anything to read. (Okay, so I mentioned to Jay that they was no cupholders and he went in search of them. He couldn't find them, until he looked in the manual and there are two cupholders in the front. Little hidden ones that you have to press to pop out. I looked in the center consol for them, but they weren't there. There is one, under the heat vent, on each side of the car. Tricky little devils.) We did okay getting the boys home from school today since Sam wasn't there, but I have no idea how we are going to fit all those kids in the car. There's an airbag up front so we aren't supposed to put Joe up there. I don't think they will fit three across in the back. It just means we won't be going any where extra and we'll be walking to school as much as we can. Though with rain tomorrow, we'll have to drive a bit.
I am really really bad about putting clothes in the washer and not checking pockets, etc. I just tend to dump the whole basket in. Well, that went a little wrong twice this weekend for me. I found a huge bug that had been through the washer and died when I was hanging clothes on the line. I posted a picture on Facebook of that if you want to see it. And, I put a pull-up through the wash. Diapers don't do well being that wet so it exploded and was a horrible mess. Sam typically gets dressed on his own in the morning and puts his pull-up in the trash, but I guess he forgot this one. I had to clean out the inside of the machine and then rewash the clothes. All this comes about a week after I washed some toy of the boys and it got stuck on the inside of the dryer and caused a problem. I really just need to check pockets.
We had a couple of trips to the doctor's last week and spent a total of $370 between two kids and two days. Each visit is $70 (3 visits), plus x-rays at $130 and medicine at $30. We'll get some of it back from insurance, but not all of it. We went because Joe had a hurt ankle and Tom had pink eye. I had decided to do a little shopping in Newcastle on last Thursday. It takes an hour to get down there and I was only there about 5 minutes when the school called. I then had to drive all the way back to get Tom. Tom's eye was all red and he didn't want to leave school. I walked in the office door and he asked if he could go back to class. When I said no, he started to cry. Poor kid.
Sam has been doing pretty well at his school, though he has been bitten twice, each time by a different kid. Both times have been because Sam is not sharing toys well. Sam was a bitter himself when he was younger, but he only bit Tom and me, never anyone else. We are going to visit a different sort of pre-school this week. It didn't have any openings for this year, but loads of openings for next year. The school is only open during school hours and is loads cheaper. It is only $25 a day versus the $68 that we pay now. We do have to supply their food, but I don't mind that. One of my new friends here has her daughter in it right now and another friend had her daughter in it last year. Both highly recommend it. It's about 10 minutes away from the big kids school so not too bad. Hopefully, we will like it and we'll get a spot.
Okay, that's all for now.
Monday, August 30, 2010
House work
Okay, so before we rented the house, we knew there was going to be a bit of work done on the front of the house. There were a few loose tiles that were falling off and needed to be replaced. I spoke once to the company in charge of the repairs and he promised to come to the house the following week. Well, two weeks went by and 2 workers showed up at my house to start work. 8am in the morning and no warning. They removed the remaining tiles on the front of the house and then jackhammered the tiles off the deck. It took them 2 days to finish. One worker, Eric, said that the job would take 2 weeks in full and that the waterproofers would come by the next day. Well, a full week went by before I came home to find two strange men on my deck. Since there are no stairs or anything, they'd just put a ladder up against the house and climbed up to work. They finished the first coat and promised to be back the next day and could I please be home? Sure, I can be home. Later that night, I got a call from a plumber who is going to come measure the vanity in the bathroom in order to replace it. It has a tiny, 1/4 inch chip on one corner. Would I be home tomorrow for him to come measure for it. Yeah, I'll be here cause I'll be waiting on the waterproofers.
I dropped the kids quickly at school the next morning and then raced back home to wait. The plumber came and measured the vanity, but the waterproofers never showed up. Over a week went by and I talked to our rental agency about the deck. She called the owners who called the builders. I was just trying to find out when stuff was going to get done. We have a great deck, but we can't use it. I finally got to talk to the builder guy. He said that the waterproofers did come back the next day and finish. I assured him that I was home all day and didn't seem them. He didn't believe me. Whatever. I asked when everything was going to get done, but he didn't really have an answer. He had scheduled a tiler to come do the tiles, but the tiler had a skateboarding accident and broke his ankle. He is off for 4 weeks. The builder is trying to find someone else, but this is a busy season for workers. The builder said he may have someone here on Thursday and promised that he would do better about letting me know what was going on. Of course, that fell through as later in the day, I got a call from a glass company wanting to come measure the front door for a screen door. They are coming on Wednesday. I can't wait until all this work is done.
I dropped the kids quickly at school the next morning and then raced back home to wait. The plumber came and measured the vanity, but the waterproofers never showed up. Over a week went by and I talked to our rental agency about the deck. She called the owners who called the builders. I was just trying to find out when stuff was going to get done. We have a great deck, but we can't use it. I finally got to talk to the builder guy. He said that the waterproofers did come back the next day and finish. I assured him that I was home all day and didn't seem them. He didn't believe me. Whatever. I asked when everything was going to get done, but he didn't really have an answer. He had scheduled a tiler to come do the tiles, but the tiler had a skateboarding accident and broke his ankle. He is off for 4 weeks. The builder is trying to find someone else, but this is a busy season for workers. The builder said he may have someone here on Thursday and promised that he would do better about letting me know what was going on. Of course, that fell through as later in the day, I got a call from a glass company wanting to come measure the front door for a screen door. They are coming on Wednesday. I can't wait until all this work is done.
Friday, July 23, 2010
A little of everything
So, we still don't have internet at the house. Jay's coworker Dave loaned us his internet for the weekend as he goes home and doesn't need it then. Finally, it's been almost a week with no internet for me so I got lots to update. We also don't have a phone yet either.
Okay, so we've moved into our house. We have furniture in most of the rooms with the last couple of rooms being furnished soon. We get our other couch on Thursday and the guest bed has been ordered.
Joe lost his first tooth on Tuesday! Finally!!! It is considered late at 7 1/2 years old. He turned 7 1/2 late last month so we were happy he finally lost it. The tooth fairy gave him 50 cents for it. He was thrilled!
He's got another loose one so we'll see how long it takes to come out.
We played at an indoor playground at McDonald's and now Sam has some sort of creeping crud. His eyes are yucky and his nose is running. Yuck.
We visited the Tomaree Education Center on Wednesday. This is the local school for us. It is a large campus with many many buildings. It houses both the primary and high schools. The primary and high school are separated by an "out of bounds" area. Students are only allowed into the OOB area if with a teacher. In the primary school, each little building houses 4-6 classrooms. There are two classrooms per grade. We had an interview and tour with the principal after she signed our paperwork. We got to meet one of the two second grade teachers. Tom seems very excited about going to school, while Joe seems hesitant. We are eagerly awaiting permission to enroll for school. The principal has already said that we don't have not "apply" to the school. We will just bring our application on the same day that the boys will start. Hopefully, that will be soon. We will be working on finding a school for Sam next week.
We decided to get cable tv. This is the first time that we've had cable tv since college (9 years ago!). It just got installed today. Of course, we don't have the couch for the room with the tv so the boys just sat on the floor for Playhouse Disney. They didn't seem to mind.
We got my new car last weekend and I've spent the week relearning how to drive a manual transmission. I've driven one for years between both my previous cars and Jay's cars, but this is the first time I've had to shift with my left hand. The pattern for shifting is still the same, but just with a different hand. It took some getting used to, but I am doing just fine now. I really like my car and would recommend it to anyone. It is not a big SUV, but a sporty wagon thing instead. It's a Kia Rondo. It seats 7 people and has pretty good gas consumption. I'm pretty happy with it so far, though I do miss the room of my Pathfinder.
One of the first things that I purchased this week was a blender. I've been wanting a margarita. Of course, they do not sell any sort of frozen limeade here in Australia. I purchased some mix and used that, but I will have to come up with some sort of recipe that is closer to the limeade one.
They also don't seem to sell black beans here, or at least I haven't found any. It's tricky to make chicken and black bean enchilidas with no black beans. Just chicken by itself wasn't the same.
That's all I can think to update right now. I'm sure I'm forgetting something though.
Okay, so we've moved into our house. We have furniture in most of the rooms with the last couple of rooms being furnished soon. We get our other couch on Thursday and the guest bed has been ordered.
Joe lost his first tooth on Tuesday! Finally!!! It is considered late at 7 1/2 years old. He turned 7 1/2 late last month so we were happy he finally lost it. The tooth fairy gave him 50 cents for it. He was thrilled!
We played at an indoor playground at McDonald's and now Sam has some sort of creeping crud. His eyes are yucky and his nose is running. Yuck.
We visited the Tomaree Education Center on Wednesday. This is the local school for us. It is a large campus with many many buildings. It houses both the primary and high schools. The primary and high school are separated by an "out of bounds" area. Students are only allowed into the OOB area if with a teacher. In the primary school, each little building houses 4-6 classrooms. There are two classrooms per grade. We had an interview and tour with the principal after she signed our paperwork. We got to meet one of the two second grade teachers. Tom seems very excited about going to school, while Joe seems hesitant. We are eagerly awaiting permission to enroll for school. The principal has already said that we don't have not "apply" to the school. We will just bring our application on the same day that the boys will start. Hopefully, that will be soon. We will be working on finding a school for Sam next week.
We decided to get cable tv. This is the first time that we've had cable tv since college (9 years ago!). It just got installed today. Of course, we don't have the couch for the room with the tv so the boys just sat on the floor for Playhouse Disney. They didn't seem to mind.
We got my new car last weekend and I've spent the week relearning how to drive a manual transmission. I've driven one for years between both my previous cars and Jay's cars, but this is the first time I've had to shift with my left hand. The pattern for shifting is still the same, but just with a different hand. It took some getting used to, but I am doing just fine now. I really like my car and would recommend it to anyone. It is not a big SUV, but a sporty wagon thing instead. It's a Kia Rondo. It seats 7 people and has pretty good gas consumption. I'm pretty happy with it so far, though I do miss the room of my Pathfinder.
One of the first things that I purchased this week was a blender. I've been wanting a margarita. Of course, they do not sell any sort of frozen limeade here in Australia. I purchased some mix and used that, but I will have to come up with some sort of recipe that is closer to the limeade one.
They also don't seem to sell black beans here, or at least I haven't found any. It's tricky to make chicken and black bean enchilidas with no black beans. Just chicken by itself wasn't the same.
That's all I can think to update right now. I'm sure I'm forgetting something though.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Our new house
We arrived at the house around 8 in the morning. We had two deliveries scheduled for Friday and the first was supposed to be there around 9. A landscaping company arrived at the same time to repair some loose blocks on the terrace walls. The owner also showed up to repair a screen door and an electrical switch.
Our first delivery arrived 2 hours late. It was all of our stuff from the States. Our new driveway is fairly steep and the only stopping place at the top is the garage. The poor guys had to haul it way up the driveway and then way up the stairs to the first floor. They were tired after the second trip. The boys were so very excited to see their other toys. They've been playing with the very few things that we have since May 20th when I set them aside for the shipment. That's almost two whole months! It was like Christmas! So much excitement from the kids when I would untape a box labeled "toys."
Our second delivery was to arrive between 11-2. It showed up around 1 and it was our appliances. The delivery man had a broken arm and a 10 year old boy for a helper. As he was bringing the washer in, he said he wasn't sure if he could get the refridgerator up the steps. He brought the dryer in and then said "one more"...then he drove away! He left the fridge in the garage! I understand that he couldn't get it up because of the broken arm. I'm not even upset that he put in the garage, but at least he could have told me he was leaving it there!
We have our furniture delivery this morning. We have to return the rental car today and we need to move all of our stuff out of the hotel. We have to check out tomorrow morning.
Lots to do, but it shouldn't be any problem.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Gearing up to move in
So, we have the keys to our new place! We can't drive straight over there though because the cleaners are still there and the property management hasn't done their inspection yet. Besides, there's nothing to do there anyway.
We spent all day yesterday purchasing furniture. We've been sorta looking for a couple of weeks, so we knew kinda what we wanted. At the first store, we bought 20 items for a total of $8,000. We then drove to the second store for the beds for the boys. They had picked this one type out, but the store didn't have any in stock. It would be over 2 weeks before we could get them. We decided to go look at a couple of other stores. We stopped at a bed store and they had a large selection of single beds under $200. All three boys have really been wanting a metal bed and they got them. They each got to pick their own style of bed and we ended up with 3 completely different beds, two black metal and one silver metal. Another $500 down the tube and we were done for the day. We now have everything for 4 of 5 bedrooms, kitchen, dining, and one living room. We also got a table, chairs and umbrella for the deck. We'll still need to get the guest room furniture (all picked out) and the stuff for the second living area (no clue what to get), but we have a couple of months to get all that. All of our new furniture gets delivered on Saturday morning.
Tomorrow morning (Friday) we have our homegoods shipment from the States arriving, followed by our used appliances in the early afternoon. I promised the boys we could play a great game of hide and seek in the house tomorrow. We won't have any furniture and have lots of rooms so that will be fun.
We spent all day yesterday purchasing furniture. We've been sorta looking for a couple of weeks, so we knew kinda what we wanted. At the first store, we bought 20 items for a total of $8,000. We then drove to the second store for the beds for the boys. They had picked this one type out, but the store didn't have any in stock. It would be over 2 weeks before we could get them. We decided to go look at a couple of other stores. We stopped at a bed store and they had a large selection of single beds under $200. All three boys have really been wanting a metal bed and they got them. They each got to pick their own style of bed and we ended up with 3 completely different beds, two black metal and one silver metal. Another $500 down the tube and we were done for the day. We now have everything for 4 of 5 bedrooms, kitchen, dining, and one living room. We also got a table, chairs and umbrella for the deck. We'll still need to get the guest room furniture (all picked out) and the stuff for the second living area (no clue what to get), but we have a couple of months to get all that. All of our new furniture gets delivered on Saturday morning.
Tomorrow morning (Friday) we have our homegoods shipment from the States arriving, followed by our used appliances in the early afternoon. I promised the boys we could play a great game of hide and seek in the house tomorrow. We won't have any furniture and have lots of rooms so that will be fun.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Quick house notes
I just wanted to give some quick updates before I head off to bed. It's 10:45 here and typically I have been asleep for a few hours by now. However, the tv was on in our room and some giant singing flower on a commerical woke me up. That, combined with the Bailey's coffeee that I had after dinner, and I am awake.
So, our Australian house hunting seems to be done for now. We did what we typically do and picked the first place that we actually went inside. Of course, we'd be driving around for a few days and had pretty much decided we wanted to be in the area of Corlette. There were actually two houses for rent on the same street, but we could only get in to see one of them. The second isn't available for viewing until after the current renters move out, on July 2nd. We liked the one we did see. It does have a few flaws, but some really nice points too. First, it's the neighbor we want. Second, killer water views man. Third, five bedrooms. The house is set way up on a hill which is how it manages to have a water view. It's a steep driveway, but there is a garage at the top that we can park in. Now, if you walk around to the main door which is actually on the side of the house, you enter on the main level. The main level has two small living areas, a kitchen, a dining area, and half bath and a laundry. Both of the living areas are on either side of the kitchen and open onto the very large balcony. From the main level, you go up about 5 steps and you are on the first level of bedrooms and are at the back of the house. This level has 1 full bath, a very large walk in linen closet and 3 bedrooms. Turn and go up 5 more steps and we're back at the front of the house and the two upstairs bedrooms. The bathroom is shared between the two bedrooms and is a passthrough bath. The orginal idea when designed and built that the smaller bedroom would be a nursery. We'll just use it as a guest room. Now, back on the main level, you can also go down lots and lots of stairs to the ground floor. This has the two car garage and ten tons of storage. Of course, we won't have that much to store since we left it all back in the States. We will be moving there about the 17th of July, which means that we will have to live in this apartment until then. I posted a link on my Facebook page to the house.
Our house in Pasadena: We got an offer yesterday on our house. It was listed at $345,000 based on advice from our realtor. The offer was for $300,000. To us, that's too low. We counter offered and are now just waiting to hear a response. It would be great to sell quickly. The idea of paying rent and mortgage is not going to be great. A huge weight would be gone if we sell our house. I am hoping they accept our counter offer. Please, please, please let them.
So, our Australian house hunting seems to be done for now. We did what we typically do and picked the first place that we actually went inside. Of course, we'd be driving around for a few days and had pretty much decided we wanted to be in the area of Corlette. There were actually two houses for rent on the same street, but we could only get in to see one of them. The second isn't available for viewing until after the current renters move out, on July 2nd. We liked the one we did see. It does have a few flaws, but some really nice points too. First, it's the neighbor we want. Second, killer water views man. Third, five bedrooms. The house is set way up on a hill which is how it manages to have a water view. It's a steep driveway, but there is a garage at the top that we can park in. Now, if you walk around to the main door which is actually on the side of the house, you enter on the main level. The main level has two small living areas, a kitchen, a dining area, and half bath and a laundry. Both of the living areas are on either side of the kitchen and open onto the very large balcony. From the main level, you go up about 5 steps and you are on the first level of bedrooms and are at the back of the house. This level has 1 full bath, a very large walk in linen closet and 3 bedrooms. Turn and go up 5 more steps and we're back at the front of the house and the two upstairs bedrooms. The bathroom is shared between the two bedrooms and is a passthrough bath. The orginal idea when designed and built that the smaller bedroom would be a nursery. We'll just use it as a guest room. Now, back on the main level, you can also go down lots and lots of stairs to the ground floor. This has the two car garage and ten tons of storage. Of course, we won't have that much to store since we left it all back in the States. We will be moving there about the 17th of July, which means that we will have to live in this apartment until then. I posted a link on my Facebook page to the house.
Our house in Pasadena: We got an offer yesterday on our house. It was listed at $345,000 based on advice from our realtor. The offer was for $300,000. To us, that's too low. We counter offered and are now just waiting to hear a response. It would be great to sell quickly. The idea of paying rent and mortgage is not going to be great. A huge weight would be gone if we sell our house. I am hoping they accept our counter offer. Please, please, please let them.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Monday is fast approaching
I can't believe that today is Saturday. Monday will be here way before we are actually ready for it. Our next few days are jammed packed full of things to do and get done before we leave. It's really crazy that we are finally leaving.
Our house is finally on the market. Our realtor will add more pictures and more information to the listing, but at least it's on the market. Seeing it listed this morning really sent a jolt through me. This is real.
We've had several minor little irritations lately with our travel planes. Poor Jay has to spend a lot of time trying to get them all straightened out. Little things like finding out our airplane seats are all spread out. There's no way that my 3-year-old is going to sit by himself. We got them all fixed, only to find out that hotel room the first night we are in Australia only had a single king bed. That's really not going to work for 5 people. We had to switch hotels in order to find something bigger. We had reserved an apartment in Nelson Bay for a couple of weeks, but then had to switch because of some other problem. No big deal because the second place is a lot less expensive. We're handling everything in stride. No big deal.
Our house is finally on the market. Our realtor will add more pictures and more information to the listing, but at least it's on the market. Seeing it listed this morning really sent a jolt through me. This is real.
We've had several minor little irritations lately with our travel planes. Poor Jay has to spend a lot of time trying to get them all straightened out. Little things like finding out our airplane seats are all spread out. There's no way that my 3-year-old is going to sit by himself. We got them all fixed, only to find out that hotel room the first night we are in Australia only had a single king bed. That's really not going to work for 5 people. We had to switch hotels in order to find something bigger. We had reserved an apartment in Nelson Bay for a couple of weeks, but then had to switch because of some other problem. No big deal because the second place is a lot less expensive. We're handling everything in stride. No big deal.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Hotel living, part 2
Goodness, I can't wait to get out of this hotel. We are so sleep deprived! Our room is right next to the sport court, which is supposed to close at 9 pm. However, people are still playing basketball much later. Of course, we can hear them playing basketball so the boys struggle with going to sleep.
Then, poor Tom is too tired to wake up and has wet the bed the last 4 nights. He wakes up wet around 4:30 in the morning and wakes me up as well. We don't have any extra sheets to put on the bed or anything so we have to try to work something out for him to go back to sleep. He wouldn't this morning and just spent the next 2 hours complaining. He woke Sam up around 6:30, just before falling back to sleep himself. I didn't get any sleep after 4:20 this morning.
Not that I am sleeping well anyway. I have never been a big fan of having a tv in the bedroom. While it is simple for Jay to fall asleep with the tv on, I cannot. I tend to actually watch whatever is on and have a hard time ignoring it. Also, the temperature swings too much. Either we are freezing or roasting. When the air is on, we freeze. But if the air is not running, we start to roast. For some reason, the thermostat has a wide swing to it. If we have it set for 72, it won't kick on until it is about 76 in here. Then it runs until it is 70. No happy medium.
I don't really mean to be complaining so much. It is hunger and sleep deprivation. Tom fell back to sleep at 6:30 and it now 8:45. We are still waiting for him to wake up so we can eat breakfast.
On a really good note, the house is pretty much cleaned up and ready to go. The movers accidentally packed the rug runners that were supposed to go on the stairs so we have to buy some more. But, floors are repaired and wall dings repainted. We just need to clean up the yard a little and we will be ready to go.
Then, poor Tom is too tired to wake up and has wet the bed the last 4 nights. He wakes up wet around 4:30 in the morning and wakes me up as well. We don't have any extra sheets to put on the bed or anything so we have to try to work something out for him to go back to sleep. He wouldn't this morning and just spent the next 2 hours complaining. He woke Sam up around 6:30, just before falling back to sleep himself. I didn't get any sleep after 4:20 this morning.
Not that I am sleeping well anyway. I have never been a big fan of having a tv in the bedroom. While it is simple for Jay to fall asleep with the tv on, I cannot. I tend to actually watch whatever is on and have a hard time ignoring it. Also, the temperature swings too much. Either we are freezing or roasting. When the air is on, we freeze. But if the air is not running, we start to roast. For some reason, the thermostat has a wide swing to it. If we have it set for 72, it won't kick on until it is about 76 in here. Then it runs until it is 70. No happy medium.
I don't really mean to be complaining so much. It is hunger and sleep deprivation. Tom fell back to sleep at 6:30 and it now 8:45. We are still waiting for him to wake up so we can eat breakfast.
On a really good note, the house is pretty much cleaned up and ready to go. The movers accidentally packed the rug runners that were supposed to go on the stairs so we have to buy some more. But, floors are repaired and wall dings repainted. We just need to clean up the yard a little and we will be ready to go.
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