miscellaneous

A photo of last week’s garden edging efforts:

Not bad, hey?  I’m really happy with it.  Even though it’s only concrete, it does look like limestone.  I’ll be even happier when it’s finished.  Hopefully this weekend.

SO and I are very involved in real estate at the moment.  At home, we’re finishing off the garden edging.  We’re going to start work on a reno of one of our units at the end of next week.  (This still doesn’t seem real.)  And, effective as of yesterday, we’re looking at buying a third investment property.

I’d picked out a suburb which I wanted to target for our next property, and was casually browsing units on the market, when I came upon a perfect candidate for our next investment.  It’s a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom unit, in dire need of some renovations, in an older block which is otherwise well-kept.  We drove past it yesterday, and SO was very keen.  As a result, we have a viewing tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.  The way things are going, we’ll be putting in an offer tomorrow afternoon at 4:15pm. 

Things seem to have happened very quickly.

The main issue for us will be equity.  Originally, we were looking at buying a third property after we finished our upcoming reno.  This would definitely give us enough equity to buy another place.  However, we’ll really be skating on thin ice if we put in for a loan application now.

The potential property has everything I was looking for.  It’s going to increase by about $60,000 following an extensive makeover.  It’s a 2×1 and is close to town, which means that we can live in it ourselves for a year or two, and rent out our house, which is a 4×2 in a nice suburb.  The resulting rental income will more than cover our additional mortgage payments.  In fact, we’ll have more money if we do that, then we currently do.  The only issue is equity.  Well, I guess we’ll see.

gardening weekend: update

Whew.  I’m worn out.  I didn’t actually garden, but spent all weekend in the kitchen, preparing food to keep the hungry masses from turning feral, and losing focus on the job at hand.  Fortunately, my cunning plan worked – about half the garden edging is done.  Woohoo!  I’m getting excited about it now.  I’ll be even more excited when the job’s finished, which will be next weekend.  I sense more cooking in my future.

And we had an unexpected bonus.  After the boys had knocked off for the day, we started talking about our imminent reno job on our (currently revolting) unit.  Our friend Dave, who can do anything, then volunteered to make our kitchen for us.  This will save us in the realm of $4,000.  We were speechless.  That is, we were speechless once the ecstatic cries of ‘Yes! Yes! Oh God, yes!’ had died down. 

We did some planning re: timelines.  Basically, we need to finish off the garden edging next weekend, then start assembling the kitchen for the reno.  Dave assured us that we can assemble it in bits here, then transport it to the unit and put it together on-site.  What this means is that in the coming week, we need to buy an oven, a grill, a rangehood, a front loading washing machine, and God only knows what else.  I also need to pick out doors for the kitchen cupboards, as the carcass has to be built around them.

I’m excited and nervous about this.  It’s all happening so quickly, it doesn’t seem quite real.

spending: update

Well, I had a good time today.  I got some white wall tiles for $10 per square metre, so I was pretty happy with that.  Plus, a nice old guy (probably in his mid-sixties, or thereabouts) gave me a hand to put them in the car.  Lifting the first box, I realised how lucky I was to have a Good Samaritan help me – the bloody things weigh a ton! 

However, we managed to get them all in the car, strategically placed around the airconditioning unit I’d picked up yesterday and forgotten to remove from the car.  Whoops.  I drove home very cautiously – the thought of a 20kg box of tiles hitting me in the back of the head if I stopped suddenly wasn’t a pleasant one.

When I got home I was knackered, so I fell into bed.  While it’s gotten worse since my depression hit, I’ve always loved sleeping.  I consider it a hobby.  Weekends are the best, as I actually can get a nanny nap.  Occasionally I also crash after work for a couple of hours, wake up, make dinner and go back to bed.  (By ‘occasionally’ I mean ‘at least once a fortnight’.)  So this wasn’t out of character or anything.

However SO woke me after about an hour or so, needing some input with respect to the trenches he was digging for the garden edging.  I gave him some feedback and we chatted for a while.  At one point he looked at me, and said, ‘Wow, you look exhausted!’.  I was like, ‘Well, I have just woken up… you know, I kind of feel like you do first thing in the morning’ and he was like, ‘Oh’ in a disappointed tone.  I’m sorry, but I can only wake up so quickly, especially when discussing trenches.

He’s still out there, with his dad.  Turns out we also need a tree or two removed.  I think it’s going to be a long weekend for him in more ways than one.

spending $$$

I’m heading off to an auction shortly.  I enjoy going to them, but I get nervous beforehand (and during, actually).  There’s a lot of adrenalin involved when you’re bidding for something.  Plus, there’s the ever-present fear of getting completely carried away and paying more for something than originally intended, just so you can be the successful bidder.  Today I’m hoping to pick up a couple of things – wall tiles, and a couple of mixer taps, both for the upcoming reno.  With any luck, I’ll come home with something to show for three hours of sweating in a warehouse while other people bid on multiple porcelain basins.  Not that I’m in any position to judge.

I’ve already done the food shopping, so I can go in with an undistracted mind.  I’ve had breakfast, so I shouldn’t get low blood sugar and make a foolish mistake (like bidding on multiple porcelain basins, for example).  All I need now is a coffee.

Does anyone know how to stop your hands shaking in fear?