The house

I have added this picture so people have an idea of what I am talking about, no interior pics so far....

The new house

We are slowly getting settled in, I am loving not using the car everyday to take the girls to kindy or school, its nice to just put O in the Mountain buggy and walk them down to school or kindy.

I have put drapes up in most of the rooms, just ours and the kitchen left to sort out. I havent got a sewing machine at the moment so I arent able to make the blinds yet.

We managed to get our room painted though before we shifted our furniture into it so its looking nice and fresh. The living room is still a work in progress but it will be done hopefully over the next few weeks.

I am slowly catching up on the washing etc that needs done, and we have had a few frosty days in a row which has been great for drying clothes outside.

We have gotten rid of all our old crockery and cups etc which has been great, its nice to be using the new dinnersets that we got.

I am now on the lookout for a smaller microwave as ours takes up half of our benchtop which isnt good. I will keep looking on Trademe and see what I can find, I am also looking for a gate to go across the driveway so that we can keep Mr O in the backyard.

We are enjoying living here its a nice quite street which is a change after being by a swimming pool and sports grounds,

D

absolutely knackered... in a good way

We have spent most of the weekend doing redecorating at the new place, we have stripped the wallpaper in the living room, plastered any holes etc, sized the walls, and done a coat of paint on the ceiling, one more coat to go and we can hang wallpaper.

I had a sleep in this morning, my hips are killing me from all the up and down steps etc. I am going to take some panadol though and get back into it once I have had my cuppa.

its quite exciting having our own home, I cooked our first meal there last night which was cool. We have taken O's portacot over so hes been able to sleep while we work which has been really good. We have got to take a light fitting out today, its two 6 ft fluorescent tubes in the middle of the living room ceiling, great light but crap in every other way. D

we now own our own home.....

well us and TSB Bank, but its a great feeling, got the keys this morning, K got to walk home from school for the first time ever which was cool. We have stripped one wall of wallpaper already, and have a big weekend planned doing stuff over there. We really want to get the ceilings painted as the previous owners were smokers so things are yellowed with it. We had yellow tobacco stained water running down the walls while we stripped the paper this evening, was so gross.

The girls are going away with their Uncle and Grosspapa to National park and will see some of their cousins which will be great for them. So we only have the wee fella to look after which will be neat.

D

Stuff

I have slightly gotten over my CMH visit, but still am fuming a bit about it. I am seeing my Midwife today so hoping to talk to her about what other services might be available for us. It will be good to see her as I will get to hear baby's heartbeat. I am 14 weeks now, so 2nd trimester which is really good. I also have to get a physio referal from her as my hips are getting worse, have started wearing stretchy bandage to help them.

In other events, we get the keys to our house on Friday which is really exciting. We have worked out pretty much which colours we are going to paint, and we are going to do some areas of magnetic paint on the kids walls too....

D

very scared

I have my appointment with CMH tomorrow, I am freaking out, I have had two bad experiences with them now so am feeling very wary of it all.

I am also scared of shifting, I shouldnt be but am freaking out about it, I havent started packing, I just dont even know where to start with it.. at least my clean washing pile is now all folded and put away, but thats not getting everything packed.

I am struggling with it all, part of me really wants to move, yet I am scared of the unknown, scared of making new neighbours etc.... just plain scared really.

Part of the shifting process has meant we have decided to get some new things.....

We bought new dinnersets today, we havent had a new one for ages and our plates and cups are looking terrible, so we decided to get a new one. Mitre 10 had a special on a nice plain white Maxwell and williams one, it was 2 sets for $79... so we bought two lots of two, so we can feed up to 16 people now, yay.

update

I am feeling better which is really good.. not 100% but around 90% which is fine by me, we had a final inspection of the house today and we are getting quite excited about it. We got a guy to quote how much to put the heatpump in that we want, and we also looked at paint colours for the interior.

We both walked to school to pick K and L up, was really nice just looking at our new street with the autumn leaves on the ground and the nice birch tree along the street. We get the keys sometime next Friday, so are thinking we would like to paint the ceilings and strip wallpaper etc over Queens Birthday weekend and then move in over the weekend of the 6th of June.

I am on a box hunt tomorrow, will head to supermarkets to see if I can get some apple boxes for packing... I so need to get started on it.

On the tummy front, my waist is now bigger than my bust so definitely got a bump showing, its just the right height that when L runs towards me she nearly hits into it.

D

feeling better today

So I am feeling a bit better, I got the keys for the house for the day so was able to go and have a couple of looks and show some friends it. A friend and I measured all the windows then went out to Spotlight to work out how much it would all cost... we found a specials table with 50% off and thought that was good, well it turned out that it was a $10 table, so I was able to get curtains and drapes and rods for all of the house for $250, some of the drapes we will remake into blinds, and we got some fabric to make two blinds for our bedroom... I am so happy with my purchase, I added up the total of the original prices and it worked out to $1100.

So now we might have some money left to buy some paint and paint before we actually shift in which would make life a lot simipler.

So am feeling good about the house, it was nice to look around it again and start working out where furniture will go etc.

D

back home and happy

I had an awesome time in Chch, was so cool to see my Lil sister graduate and I was so proud of her and her achievements. Was a pretty rushed trip but great to see people etc, even saw a couple of my old lecturers which was cool.

On other very exciting news, we went unconditional on our house on Thursday, we are really stoked and it was stressful getting there, now just to sort everything out and move on the 29th of May.

K informed me yesterday after not seeing me for 4 days that I had a big belly, and shes right, so each tuesday we are going to measure me to see how much bigger I am getting, will be a bit of a giggle and really cool for her to see the differences that occur.

D

off line for the next couple of days

I am off to Christchurch tomorrow morning for my sisters graduation, I have decided not to take my laptop with me. I am having some time out from the net etc.

I am taking the wee fella with me which will be nice, the girls are staying home with Ben.

The house sale goes unconditional on Friday which is very cool. Been very stressful but it should all work out in the end.

D

Sleep

I went to bed at 8:30pm, I was absolutely knackered and really grumpy, so I decided sleep was more important than anything else, I have woken up today feeling a lot better which is good. not quite so worn out feeling which I am liking.

We are still having issues getting a mortgage, the bank that had pre approved us has declined us so we are trying two other banks. its so time consuming, they want copies of everything so I feel like I am running around printing stuff and dropping pages off etc. Its all rather mad in some ways.

I am a bit over it in some ways, the euphoria isnt there about buying a house at the moment, maybe it will feel better once we are sorted $$ wise.

So off to do bank stuff later this morning, and I am going to take the kids for a swim which will be nice for them. D

feeling blah

So although I am excited about going away, I actually feel like crap, I have a chest infection on top of morning sickness which isn't great at all. I am feeling really nervous about getting a mortgage and its all feeling a bit much today.

I have been feeling a bit down lately anyway so its not surprising that I am not feeling great and that its all a bit much. I am going to get dressed and take the kids out for a while, might even go to the park for a change of scenery.

D

good morning

I am still thinking about home births, but thinking that it might not be a possibility due to the severity of my pph with K and that fact I had to go to theatre afterwards. But if its not I will still be investigating the possibility of a water birth, I really want one, I found the pain so much easier to deal with when I was in the bath with O.

In other things happening, we are thinking about heating for our new house... do we go with heat pumps (air conditioning) or something else? I am leaning towards the heat pump option, and possibly something like a pellet fire for winter ambiance. I have to ring banks today to make an appointment to organise a mortgage which is really scary.

We had a nice long weekend, it was very strange though without our K, she should be back tomorrow and I have missed her more than I thought I would. We still had our traditional Easter egg hunt, which was great, but it would have been better with K here. L seems a bit lost with out her big sister here, but shes been taken out with her godparents twice which she really loved. It left us down to just O which was really different too....

first home buyers

yep, we are buying a house, am totally freaked out about it, but so happy, its on the same street as school, only 3 bedrooms, but we can alter the layout at some stage to make four. its simple, plain, modest, and it will be ours, (and the banks).

I am so happy, its taken a few months, but we found the house last week, put an offer in straight away, and today we got it, we still need to do the finance etc, but its going to be ours.....

sorry for the ramblely nature of this post, but i am just buzzing, like a kid in a candy shop

waiting, waiting, waiting

still waiting, cos the house we put an offer in on is an estate, it has to go through lawyers etc, which seems to be a very time consuming process... the waiting is driving me even battier than usual. Even the real estate agent is frustrated at not being able to negotiate easily.

So we wait, and think about paint colours and furnishings etc... and a growing baby bump... lol... i think I look pregnant now, probably don't really but when you are looking down the image is more distorted than when you are looking at something face on.

K wants a boy because we only have 2 boys in the family, L wants a girl because shes never had a girl baby to play with. its quite cool how each has justified her position on it.

The morning sickness is ok, but seems to be more of an evening sickness thing this time, generally around 5pm onwards... at least I aren't throwing up though so there are some small mercies in that.

Anyway, daylight saving has ended and with that my body clock is rather confused so I think I will go have a nice milo and head to bed.

D

firstly the good news

If any of you are my facebook friends you may have already guessed whats going on for us at the moment.

I am pregnant, a bit of a surprise and all, I went through all the blood tests, and had a scan last week to check that everything is where it should be, I am around 6-7 weeks and due in November.

I have got a lovely midwife to look after us, and now have got used to the idea. I wasn't totally happy at first because it was totally unexpected but now I am used to the idea and even beginning to think that it will all turn out ok. I am quite nauseous and have thrown up a bit today which isn't fun but that was because I had a tooth out today and the chemicals etc have made me feel really gross.

We have also put an offer in on a house which is exciting too, so things feel like they are moving up in a good way. D

back again

I have had a bit of a break due to Mum and Dad being here, its been good for me to take that sort of break from the internet.

We had an awesome time with them here. The girls loved it and wanted to go home with them.

We are still househunting, and are trying to sort out the mountains of excess stuff we currently have in our place.

I am hoping to get some done today, yay

D

sorry, have been really busy

We have got my parents staying till Friday morning which is really nice, so I have barely been near the computer much less had time to blog about anything that is happening in our lives at the moment. We have had a nice weekend, out for a BBQ on Sat. night, then we went to Masterton yesterday to get some things and look at car parts. 7 seater cars make such a difference to these sort of outings.

I have had the girls home today, we decided that they could have a couple of days off school and kindy while their grandparents were visiting, they are both loving it and told Mum this morning that they should live in Palmy, not Oamaru.

Its a cool idea but not going to happen at the moment, its more likely that we would move back to the south island at some stage.

We are still house hunting, we looked at an Art Deco one today which I quite liked. Ben is unsure though, but it was big enough for us all which had advantages. And it was three blocks from school and kindy which would be great.

D

fed up...................

I cannot explain it but I am so fed up with everything today. It's just little things hack me off and i just want to scream and yell. thought I do not because that's not something that I do very often.

I am getting annoyed with house hunting, I am feeling like its all my job to do and that is frustrating me a lot. I am also frustrated with the $$$ aspects of it all. The mortgage broker is helpful though, so sometime this weekend we should know where we are at borrowing wise.

I am also frustrated about loss stuff.... I am not coping very well with it today which is not nice, I just feel sad that we have gone through this. I am unhappy that I feel like I am getting better about it and then I feel like I regress back to where I was a couple of weeks ago. I am just sad about it all.

So I am feeling a bit Blah today, and just cant be bothered at all. D

Going natural

Next time I am due for a hair colour I am going to get it coloured the same as the roots. I have made this decision because 1. i want to know what my natural colour is 2. we wont be able to afford for me to stay blonde when we own a house and 3. after cutting my hair short I now want to grow it long, but its easier if i arent dying it.

So I havent had my hair my natural colour since we got married in 1998, this is going to be quite a test for me, as if i am unhappy the first thing i change is my haircut or colour. But I am committed to us owning our own home so somethings just have to give, and flashy hairstyles arent necessary and i will still look nice, its not like i am trying to cover up grey hair either so i am going to experiment.

For one year from date of next year colour I will not colour my hair at all.