Three weeks in

It's been three weeks since we moved in and, well, nothing much has happened house wise. Work has been busy and- I guess it's just nice to be in the house, starting to make it feel like home before we make any changes.

We started looking for paint test pots a few weeks back, since I had a very specific colour in my head of what I wanted for the main living area/dining/kitchen. It's still an off-white colour, but more rosier than the one we have now which is a bit grey/beige-y and just looks a bit dirty. I have plans for a red/maroon splashback in the kitchen and new curtains and whatnot, which will eventually happen.

Paint plans were put on hold when we adopted two rescue budgies, who had to be put in quarantine before being introduced to the six we already had. Since it's a small house, we have the main cage with the six in it in the living room, and the cage that held the two new ones in the farthest bedroom, to minimise any issues. Since budgies are really sensitive to paint fumes, we had to change our painting plans until we could keep them all in together, which would be end of April/May. And since that's unfortunately winter here and I don't fancy having the windows wide open when it's freezing cold, we've decided to postpone painting until the spring.

Sadly, one of our rescue budgies recently died, which was incredibly sad, but we're pleased she had a few days of happiness with us at least. And she encouraged our first spot of gardening- we buried her in the garden with some tulip bulbs above her in remembrance.

Today, spurred on by the fact that we have two uncovered windows in the kitchen/dining/living area (I have no idea what to call it- main room?) where the budgies are and they had been used to flying free every day at the old place, we finally went and bought some blinds. We got them at a great sale price too, which is fantastic as they're not exactly what I want for the long term, but for $40 for two we couldn't really go wrong!

That meant today I went out and bought a cordless power drill so that I could fit the blinds in place. I haven't used one since I was a teenager, so it was a hell of a shock to start with and took some getting used to. A lot of swearing, sore muscles from holding up the heavy drill, and one big row later, and the blinds are up and looking better than I expected.

So that's one task out of a long list done! And the budgies, who are currently soaring around my head when they're not perched on the curtain rail, nibbling at the curtain hooks (I don't know why but they love to do it!) are very, very happy!

A mix of emotions

Today was settlement day. I didn't expect to sleep last night, but I slept soundly. I didn't expect to hear anything until lunchtime, but I got the call from my lawyer at 10!

I wandered up, all of it feeling surreal, and picked up the key from the lawyer, and also the bottle of wine they gave me, and wandered back, not too sure what to do with myself.

My poor roommate was unwell and headed home and since I'd planned to leave early I picked her up, and we stopped briefly at the house.

And I was devastated.

It was filthy. I don't know when the previous owners moved out, but they should really be ashamed of themselves. There was dirt everywhere, more cobwebs and spiders than I could count, and they certainly hadn't taken care when they'd moved- there were marks and scrapes all over the walls.

I have to admit, I cried. This was not the amazing home I had in my head.

Before I could get more upset, I measured up the space for the fridge and left. We stopped to knock on the door of one neighbour, who has a right of way on our drive to get to their house, to warn them that we'd be moving in tomorrow and there'd be a big van. I offered them use of the carport for the day (which is on the road) and there was an awkward moment when we were asked if we intended to use the carport most of the time, as they'd started parking there since the previous owners of our house always parked on the drive. They didn't seem happy when I made it clear I'd be using my carport, thank you very much! So we're off to a good start there.

My poor roommate went to bed and slept for a few hours while I went whiteware shopping, which was a breeze, and I felt tonnes better.

But then we had to go back, and I was dreading it. I left my roommate, who was feeling better, at the house to clean as I went back and forth between the houses with boxes and bags of belongings. I struggled a lot with the drive, and ended up scraping my car on a low lying metal spike I hadn't spotted, so I was incredibly gutted, and had a good cry again.

But, as the boxes started to pile up, it started feeling more like our place. And I started to feel like once the furniture was in, it'd seem even more like home. And smelling clean was a huge help.

Now we're back to our half emptied rented house, with our pet budgies and our sofas and TV, we're exhausted, and I can't wait until tomorrow to get our stuff in and really start living in it.

I had a good long talk with my parents too- it's good to hear when your family is proud of you, I think, and that they understand my emotions about it all.

I'm sure there will be times I hate this house. And I'm sure there'll be times I wish I hadn't bought it. But I think, most days of the year, I'll be thinking how proud I am I took the steps to get it, and how proud I'll be once I make it mine!

$$$$$

I just made a bank transfer to pay my lawyers fees, my portion of the rates that the current owner has paid, the rest of the money for my deposit on the house and the kitchen sink. It was a fair amount of money, and it feels really bizarre to be typing in dollar values in the thousands.

I can't help but think how different it must have been before the current technology- going to the bank, getting a big huge cheque written out, carefully delivering it to the lawyer. And that's just the deposit and fees! I'm really, really relieved that on Friday all that's going to happen is a momentary blip as several hundred thousand dollars are deposited into my account, and then immediately taken out again and delivered to where they need to go. If I had to make that transfer myself, I think I'd faint!

All in all, things are going well- I'm home early today to a) carry on packing and b) wait for the rental agent to come to show people around. I guess I'm weird that I like to be here when strangers walk through the place- and yet I found it weird when the owners of the places for sale were around. I guess for me it's that dynamic of renting vs buying. I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to have a landlord anymore- and hopefully never again!

It's both exhilarating and terrifying- I won't be able to call someone if the roof leaks- it's up to me to fix it! But it's going to be great to not have to worry about damaging walls or anything accidentally, or pets making a mess- and I can finally have pets other than our darling budgies. That's exciting! Plus painting the walls will be fun.

I really thought I'd be losing sleep over this Friday- finally getting the keys and getting into my house. My House. It's funny to say out loud. I really can't wait to start posting photos on here and finally making a place mine. I've never had that before- I've lived in rented accomodation or halls of residence since 2002, and before that it was always with my parents, who never even let me paint my walls or have too much free reign with what wallpaper I chose. This place can be 100% me, and I love it!

I was very grown-up this week and bought a washing machine. I didn't mean to- I was planning on waiting until we actually got in the place (since we can live without that and even without a fridge for a few days if needed) but that had a great sale and the washer I saw that looked best (most energy efficient, which is a big deal to me) was out of stock and they were taking orders at the sale price. They said it'd be a week and a half to two weeks for delivery and at that price (almost half off!) I couldn't resist. Now to find a dryer (which unfortunately won't be as energy efficient- all of the good-for-the-earth ones are more than $3000 it seems!) and a fridge- once I figure out how much space I have to work with. Exciting!

T minus 3 days and counting!

T-seven days

1 week to go, and the house is filled with half packed boxes. I'm still sorting out a moving company, I need to transfer money around and double check the insurances are all sorted and a zillion other things.

I'm also starting to wonder how long it'll be until the house feels like it's mine.

And I'm also looking forward to finally getting to take some pictures and posting them!

It's going to be an awfully, awfully long week, I suspect. 

28 days later...

In one month's time, I will be sitting in my new house.

It really hit home for me today. You can tell by my sporadic posting here that, while I know I'm buying a house, and it's super exciting and all, it's not quite real.

Today I woke up and thought- this time next month, I'll be a home owner.

I looked around the house we're renting, and thought about all the things I'd change if it were mine (well, to be honest, I'd knock it down and start again, it's been so neglected in the years before we got here, that there was nothing we could do to rescue it even if we'd wanted or been allowed to!). And I realised that in a month, if I walked down the hallway and thought the skirting boards needed a paint, well, I could do it!

My list of things I need to do to the house, or get for the house, is growing ever longer, but in a good way. The living area and office are beginning to take shape in my mind, and I've started to think what furniture I want in there, what colour schemes.

In one month, expect posting to go from once a month, to several times a week. I've had a long and frank conversation with myself about how my days of lazing on the sofa in front of the TV are over- at the very least, each week I'll be tackling something new at the house- whether it's painting fences or recovering furniture or hanging pictures, I'm going to be busy. And I plan to blog about it every step of the way.

Right now I'm in the glorious position of having to keep in mind things like whiteware. Who would have thought I'd get excited about buying a fridge and a washing machine and dryer? And who would have thought there'd be so many options!

Soon I will have to get my head out of my daydreams and my nose out of the home and garden magazines that are forming in stacks around my bedroom, and into the reality of it all. And I can't wait! I know I'm talking into a void right now, but hopefully along the way, some of you will become readers who follow through my progress with me, and help keep me on track when I complain that I'd rather spend the weekend watching trashy TV than sanding table legs!

Here's to the future!

Countdown: Seven weeks, two days

Gosh, it's been awhile!

With the settlement date being so far away, I kept forgetting about the house. Of course, a simple look around our rented accommodation would quickly remind me- a main task for the Christmas break was to pack up anything we wouldn't need for the next two months for an easy moving day and, for the most part, it worked. We now have a room full of boxes (of the organised kind, which is better than how some of the boxes had been previously, containing a mishmash of things from my Big Move two years ago) and overflowing bags of both rubbish and donate-able items. It's felt refreshing to cleanse myself of the clutter.

The other thing that quickly reminds me about the impending settlement date is the stacks and stacks of home and garden magazines I've bought over the past few months. I love them! I love the glossy pages and the great tips and most importantly I love that I can cut them to bits and paste them together to form mood boards for the different rooms in the house.

My favourite so far has been one called 'Your Home and Garden' which is a NZ based magazine (compared to most which are either Australian or British- it's fun to look at the British ones and see how they're recommending snuggling by a fire, when we're having 30 degree heatwaves this time of year!) and is aimed at the average home buyer- no $8000 designer rugs in that magazine!

Not only are the magazines helping me out with colour schemes, but they're also giving me ideas on how much renovations are going to cost- which gives me something to aim for with my savings. I've already mentally moved 'do up bathroom' to the top of my list of Big Things To Change (of which there are currently 5 main headings of varying degrees of difficulty). My Big Things To Change list is mainly things I can't do on my own, so I feel pretty good about there only being enough to count on one hand!

Still, nothing can be done about those things yet, so I'm turning my attention to paint charts and picking out whiteware for now.

In less colourful news, I had my umpteenth meeting with the bank today, this time to talk about insurances (not as horrendous as I'd imagined) and interest rates (not as low as I'd like, but then again it'd be impossible to be as low as I'd wish for!). Fantastically, though, I realised that by paying to the mortgage the amount I currently pay in rent, I'll be paying the whole thing off eight years early (and of course saving an absolute tonne in interest)! So that was very exciting. Of course, then it brought to mind just how old I'll be in twenty two years time (fifty two! I can't imagine myself as being fifty-two! I can barely imagine myself as being thirty and I'm halfway done with that age!) but, my like Scarlet O'Hara, I have determined not to think about that today! 

I bought a house!

This week has been pretty hectic- I've been away for a work conference at a hotel which had the world's slowest internet- so I haven't had a chance to update about the house.

Last weekend, having received all of the reports and whatnot by that point, I made the decision that I was happy with the reports and that I wanted to go unconditional. I spoke to my lawyer on Monday, and they informed the vendor's lawyer I was confirming the agreement. On Tuesday the estate agent contacted me and gave me the payment instructions for the deposit. And I paid it and- well. That was that!

There's still the three months of waiting until the settlement date, but essentially, the house is mine!

There were two minor things that my lawyer asked the vendor to fix, and they said they would (very minor, and if the settlement date was this side of the new year I wouldn't have mentioned it, but they're of the 'could get worse with time' type). So nothing much to worry about really!

I'm very excited by the whole thing- I had my first really gleeful moment on Tuesday when I realised it was all a done deal. Since then I've been too busy to really think about it, but I'm now in the daydreaming stage, where I'm planning where the furniture will go, and what colour to paint the walls.

I plan to make some mood boards, which I'll share here if I come up with anything good. I'm also working on some art work for the house, since I can't wait to finally be able to hang pictures as and when I want to, wherever I like.