Friday :: Things I Know...

I mentioned in my most recent post that Boofy and I are thinking of selling our house and buying another one. The property market is extremely bad here at the moment, so selling will be hard (since we bought in a better market and made a lot of improvements, so we won't get the price we feel it deserves). But its also true that you buy in the same market you sell in - so there is an opportunity to buy something that suits us better into the future, and be able to reduce our mortgage (which is always nice!)


In any case, I thought I would link up today to the Yay For Home  Friday segment, 'Things I Know'  to tell you all about the things I know about our current dilemma on whether or not to sell up and buy somewhere else….

So today I know that:

:: The next house will have to be very special indeed in order for me to be able to drag my husband (kicking and screaming) from this house.... he loves it more than life itself!

:: I will miss our swimming pool - a salt water pool with palms around it is as close to a maintenance free pool as you can get!

:: The next house needs to have some of the hard work (eg: kitchen, bathrooms) pretty well done - we are not ready for another major overhaul yet!

:: I am a gypsy at heart and it is incredibly hard for me to stay in one place for too long… so I am way more excited about this prospect than Boofy!

:: If I convince Boofy to move, I need to be happy about putting my gypsy leanings aside and stay in the next house for at least 5 years

:: It would be wonderful to start decorating all over again in a new place (the fun!)

:: We will never get as good a kitchen as the one we have put in this house (you can see the whole kitchen makeover here and here) since we designed it to be exactly what we wanted

:: If we move I will miss our current house MUCH more than I am probably admitting to myself….

:: If money were no object (or a certain amount anyway), I could definitely cast aside my gypsy urges, extend up on our current house and be happy there for the next 10 years (oh, if only!)

:: This post is all over the place (a reflection of my current state of mind!)

So there you go…. I am still no closer to deciding which way we should go. Boofy is firmly in the 'please can we stay put and enjoy the fruits of our labour' corner. I was firmly in the 'use the current downturn to buy something that suits us better long term and reduce our mortgage to boot' corner, but now I'm wavering…. What if we don't like the new place as much as we thought? What if the neighbours are total nightmares? What if we just plain regret letting go of our little slice of paradise? It's not easy to categorically reassure Boofy (or myself) that we're going to love the new place as much as this one. Boofy is also now well aware that I am flip flopping and is preying on my vulnerable state to try to sway me his way! (Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Boofy!)

Anyways, I think I'll use this weekend to get stuck into Photoshop Elements for Dummies and doctor up a pic of our current house with a big old parent's retreat on top of it… then make myself a dream board and slap that pic firmly in the centre! What is it Oprah says? Where focus goes, energy flows…. Who knows what sort of magic I could weave? ;)

I'll keep you posted!

Bye for now :)


http://yayforhome.blogspot.com/2011/10/things-i-know-roar-n-snore-edition.html



How Krispy got her groove back....

I know my posts have been few and far between lately, friends. Please be patient with me - I have been really ill for the last 3 months or so, with little energy or enthusiasm for normal life, let alone blogging. But I'm on the up now and getting my groove back, so slowly you will see the frequency of posts increase :)


I am conscious that there are just 82 sleeps until Christmas Day! Actually that doesn't sound that close does it… kind of like when Dr Evil demands one million dollars in the Austin Powers movie…


One Million Dollars

OK lets start again…. What if I told you there were less than 12 weeks until Christmas! Aha… much closer now, yes? This is slightly accelerated for me too because we are heading to Melbourne early December for my step brother's wedding, so we'll be having an early Christmas down there with that whole side of the family. With that in mind, I really need to get my butt into gear!

You might recall that back in July I made myself a list (which I only managed to partially complete!) called Thirty Things in Thirty Days… Well, I'm at it again! After the momentum of Alex's Baptism and party were over, I sort of fell in a heap, and that's where I've stayed in recent months.  But now its on like Donkey Kong!

So here it is… the new and improved thirty things in thirty days list for October (I'm aware that we have 31 days in October - but I need to get a rest in somewhere.. And we're already 4 days in!)

1. Sleep in past 8am (I can't believe I need to write this on a list, but others with young kids will understand it’s a rarity!)

2. Go see the bank manager about what would be involved (financially) in selling our current home and buying another one, to see if its viable

3. Make a decision about whether to sell now or hang on to this house for the duration of the down turn and ride it out (and then move forward with whatever we decide and not look back!)

4. Cull Alex's toys (even more overdue now than it was on the last list!)

5. Have a movie night at home with my 2 favourite boys

6. Bake some muffins with Alex to take to Church - he enjoys telling people he made them :)

7. Read another book

8. Put on a BBQ brekky for our friends Julie & Tony and their kids

9. Go op-shopping again in my local area (since I had so much fun last time) but this time with only $10

10. Revamp an op shop find

11. Tart up my desk at work (still haven't done this!)

12. Look after Julie & Tony's kids for a day so they can have some kid-free time

13. Try another project I've seen on Pinterest (again, I had so much fun with that last time)

14. Redecorate the area where my random cupboards (still) are

15. Go out for dinner as a family

16. Hang painting in the laundry

17. Bake some savoury muffins to take in for my work mates

18. Make a list of people to buy for (Christmas)

19. Make a list of presents to buy for those people

20. Start buying Christmas presents

21. Attend a house auction (whether or not we decide to move on - just because we've never done it before)

22. Settle on a theme for Alex's new big boy room (so I can ask Santa to bring some of the items to move it from my mind to reality!)

23. Fill out the enrolment forms for Alex's prep year

24-30. Complete 7 new sewing projects (don't have to be unique, just not previously started - and none for myself)

I know you're saying 'what the'? '7 sewing projects'? There are two reasons for this range…

Firstly, I found that when I got into my list last time I got really excited about the sewing I was doing and completed lots of projects, but other things fell by the wayside. So in order for my October list to be more achievable, I'm trying to give myself as much opportunity as possible to actually enjoy the things I'm crossing off.

Secondly, I am really trying to make as many Christmas presents as possible (many of which will be sewing projects) so this will allow me to kind of kill two (or three) birds with one stone by crossing things off my list, enjoying it as I go and getting prepared for Christmas.

So there you have it folks - my brand new list!

Who's joining me in getting some stuff done? I look forward to seeing your lists.

Bye for now :)