Well, maybe calling it a new adventure is a bit much.  It’s more a key milestone along the way of the same adventure we’ve been on for a couple of years now.  We’ve done up a website, advertising our short term rental properties.

There are a few reasons why we decided to go ahead with a website.  Firstly, any advertising is good advertising.  A presence on the internet is a good way to get the word out about what we do, and how we do it.   Secondly is the ability to put up any amount of detail.  As the properties include everything, this means it can all be listed out.  Finally is the ability to put up as many pictures as we like.  As our properties are really nice, the more photos the better.

So yes, we have a website.  In order to remain anonymous, I’m not going to link to it here, but it is out there on the interwebs, as they say, and it’s becoming a wholly diverting interest.  Every day I come home and check the statistics as to who has visited it, and we’re slowly starting to get enquiries through.  It’s all very exciting.

Yes, I’ve been MIA again. There was a good reason – SO and I were in Victoria.  We spent three days in Ballarat, and three in Melbourne. 

We were in Ballarat to catch up with my lovely friend M, the single mum of three kids under five.  (Just pause and think about that for a moment.)  She recently turned 30 and had a bash to celebrate.  We normally wouldn’t travel for something like that, but with the divorce over the last year or so, she’s had a hell of a time and we wanted to see her.  Anyhow, it was wonderful catching up with her and the offspring, all of whom are completely adorable.  She was so happy that we came over, too.  She told me that after she dropped us off at the train station to go to Melbourne, she had what she called ‘a sook’.  Poor darling, it would be so good if she were closer to us, but Ballarat is where her family is, and they help her out with the kids more than we would.

So yes, after Ballarat we went on to Melbourne.  While we were knackered after running around with M and the kids for three solid days, we rallied and managed to see a few things.  We did a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), one of the most historical sporting grounds in Australia, which was interesting.  We also managed to get in to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Salvador Dali exhibition, Liquid Desire.  That was fascinating - we spent over two hours in it.  SO was very sweet and bought me the book that was produced for the exhibition, which is absolutely gorgeous.  We had lunch in the NGV cafe afterwards, exhausted but with our minds full of what we’d just seen.

We managed to get around Melbourne okay, considering neither of us had never been there before.  It took probably about a day and a half, then the whole tram system seemed to click in my brain.  After that we were fine.  We managed to get out to Bridge Road, the factory outlet section of town, and did a bit of shopping, primarily for SO.  I did pick up some gorgeous eclectic stuff for myself, though, which was great.  We also had a wander along Chapel St, the couture part of Melbourne, when we caught up with my friend K for dinner one night.  All I can say is SO is very lucky there wasn’t late night trading that night.

Apart from a delayed flight (only for two hours) the trip home was uneventful.  We got in around 10pm, which for us was around midnight, as we’d acclimatised to Victorian time by that stage.  I got a phone call the next day very early, asking about one of our units which was advertised - was it still available?  Why yes, it was.  The lease ended while we were away, so I got myself organised and went down there to turn it over ready to rent out again.

Well, what a mess.  It took me about eight hours to get the whole place clean again.  Marks on every wall, spills on carpets, dirty dishes, filthy oven, fridge and microwave…. and don’t even ask about the bathroom.  I’ve never scrubbed dried spew off a toilet bowl that wasn’t mine before.  Still, the good news is it came up fine, and it’ll be rented from tomorrow, so that’s great news for us.  My back, knees and shoulders are all sore, but it was a worthwhile effort.  And after all, that’s what the bond is for.

Life has certainly settled down a bit. Not having renovations to do leaves both of us with a lot of ’spare’ time.  I say ’spare’ because in reality it’s taken up with lots of things – like going through our house, deciding what to keep and what to move on.  We have a kerbside collection for household goods in a couple of weeks, so we can get rid of lots of stuff that way, like the oven we’ve had to replace. 

It’s been on the blink for a couple of months – everything lights up but it doesn’t heat.  According to my mother, it was the heating element that had packed it in.  So SO had a look at it over the weekend.  Not only had the element gone, but the fan wasn’t working.  As a result, and given the age of the oven (around 14 years old), I made an executive decision that it wasn’t worth fixing.  So I started pricing replacements.  Amazingly, they ranged from $950 to the one we decided on – $569.  I couldn’t believe the variation in prices.  We went for the $569 version.  I’m not interested in cooking, SO isn’t either, and paying an extra $400 for an oven that’s still very basic seems like a waste.  Hopefully we’ll be picking it up either tomorrow or Thursday.  I’m excited, primarily because I’m looking forward to having the gaping hole in the kitchen filled up.

We’ve also been going through a process of rationalisation of our clothing.  We have an absolute heap of stuff we don’t wear any more, and most of it is in fantastic condition.  In the past, I’ve sold this stuff on eBay.  However I’m moving away from doing that now, for a few different reasons.  Firstly, money isn’t as tight as it used to be.  While any additional cash is nice, we don’t need it.The second reason is that the economy isn’t the best, and I’m sure that there are people who would appreciate the chance to buy gently used clothes that are suitable for interviews, etc.  So we’ve been doing some culling.  As a result, today I dropped off seven (yes, seven) bags of work clothes, and assorted other stuff – things like material for sewing I’ll never use, curtains still in the packet (I’d lost the receipt to return them), that kind of thing – to our local Goodwill bins.  (SO and I refer to this as ’stuff for Will’, ie. Goodwill.)

In investment-related news, we are signing up a new tenant tomorrow night for the latest (now finished) reno.  I’m looking forward to getting rent in for it, I have to admit.  Nothing like being able to pay the mortgage to sleep well. 

Speaking of which, apparently I’ve started humming in my sleep.  SO actually woke me up last night because I was making so much noise.  <blush>  I asked what it sounded like, and it’s definitely a very deep, loud humming sound.  How completely bizarre.  I know I occasionally talk in my sleep when I’m stressed, but humming?!  SO was really grumpy about it too, he doesn’t like being woken up by someone else making noise when they’re sleeping   It seems I’ve been doing it for a little while, about once a week or so.  Weird.

This has been a completely scattered entry, please excuse it.  I think I’ve just gotten out of the habit of regularly blogging as stuff happens, so I end up with lots of little things that are unrelated to ‘get out’.  I’ll have to try to write here more regularly, especially now we have more available time.

Reno #4 is coming to an end.  There are a couple of things that need to happen – namely, doing the bathroom plumbing, and fitting and painting the bathroom door – but otherwise, it’s all coming together.  I spent Saturday cleaning out the oven and stove top, and Sunday cleaning the rangehood and fridge, so the main cleaning-type activities have been done.  This coming weekend we’ll do some final stuff like putting up the window treatments, and on Monday we have organised to get the laminate flooring laid.  Tuesday we’ll have off work, to transport all the furniture and get the unit ready and set up for Wednesday, when the quantity surveyor will come through.

So yes, it’s all happening here….. I’ve already advertised the unit on some websites, sans pictures unfortunately.  If we’re incredibly lucky, we’ll have tenants in and paying rent by next weekend.  Whew.

I served a notice of non-payment of rent on two of our tenants today.  They’re a couple who live in one of our units – the fully reno’d one that took us eight months or so last year to get finished.  They have a history of paying late.  They’re supposed to have the rent in the account on Saturday.  Well, they were good to start with, then they slowly started paying later.  And later.  And the original phone calls we got apologising changed into text messages ‘letting us know’ and then, nothing.  I don’t like calling or texting tenants to ask when the rent will be paid.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s their responsibility to remember.  Surely it’s not that hard to forget to pay for your shelter, whether it’s rent or mortgage payments?

Anyhow, they paid a week late the week before last, and I said to the girl that we would charge a late fee next time.  I served them with the notice this afternoon, after work.  They’re five days overdue.  I wasn’t sure about the reception I’d get, so I actually used a digital voice recorder from work to tape the coversation, just in case it gets nasty down the track.  It was a short but courteous interaction, so hopefully they’ll get the hint and start paying on time without me needed to hound them about it. 

One of the things I did include was a service charge of an additional $50 on top of their overdue rent.  This is specified in their lease, should they break the Residential Tenancies’ Act or their lease, and a notice be served as a result.  Finally I thought, no, it’s in the lease for a reason, and we’ve let it go before – it’s not like it’s the first time they’ve been late.  So I included it with the notice, and mentioned it to the girl when I served the notice.  (‘Serving the notice’ sounds formal, but all it means it that I handed it to a relevant person as defined under the Act.)  She seemed a bit surprised, but I did kind of appear from nowhere with the paperwork, so that’s to be expected.  (I didn’t want to call in case they pretended to be out when I got there, which would prevent me serving her with the notice.)

Yes, so that is one to keep an eye on.  I’m so hoping they get the hint and just pay their bloody rent on time from now on.  Watch this space.

As per usual, it’s been a busy week and I’ve been slack with blogging.  However I’m sitting in front of the idiot box, full of food and coffee, and I have the time to assemble my thoughts into something resembling coherence.

Reno #4 is progressing nicely.  We have undercoated all but the walls of the living area, which we’ll do tomorrow.  SO and his dad have also painted all the ceilings bar the living area, so we can also start painting the two bedrooms’ walls and also the bathroom’s walls.  Really, the only major task to do after that is get the flooring installed, and move in furniture.  We’re currently discussing our approach to flooring.  I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about laminate flooring, so I’m hoping SO will give it the go-ahead.  Our other units have used carpet and vinyl (lino) flooring.  However, I’m not overly happy with how the lino flooring is going.  The end bits tend to get grotty looking fairly quickly, and we don’t want to have to replace it every other year, it’d be a hassle.  So yes, I’m hoping SO will go for the laminate flooring.  Best price we’ve been able to get, fully laid, is $39 per square metre.  As we’d only need about 45m maximum, that’s not out of our price range either.

Otherwise, we still have some furniture items to get.  We need a wardrobe for the second bedroom, a TV unit, and a cupboard for the laundry.  The laundry cupboard is easy; I’ve spied one at Bunnings which is exactly what we’re looking for, shelves on one side, empty space on the other for mops etc.  Perfect, and only about $200.  I’m thinking of getting a TV unit from Crazy Clarks as they sell inexpensive but attractive DIY units for around $90, in the lowline style we prefer.  Other bits we need to pick up include two chests of drawers, which we’ll probably source from Ikea.

Not much has happened apart from the reno.  The only thing of interest is that our oven at home has been broken for three weekends now.  I keep meaning to get someone out to fix it, but it doesn’t seem to be something I remember during normal working hours, so I haven’t actually made contact with an oven repairer as yet.  Whoops.

At this stage, I’m just so glad it’s all coming together.  I can’t wait until the end of the whole process, when I can post before and after photos.  That’s when you really appreciate how much work has gone into the whole thing.

My father in law is very good value. As well as being a lovely guy, he helps us out so much, both around our own house and also with our units.  We couldn’t have done half of what we have if it wasn’t for his help over the last couple of years.

On Tuesday night, before meeting our new tenants, we dropped by the current reno to speak to him.  He’d been there most of the day, painting on undercoat/sealant on the walls and ceiling of the smaller bedroom.  I was having a whinge about how tired I was from the night before (see previous post for boring details), and about how hard it was, and how tired I was, etc etc.  He paused for a moment, painted some more of the cornice, and said: ‘And just think, in ten years’ time, you’ll be told how lucky you are.’

Talk about putting something into perspective.  In ten years’ time, we’ll be financially set up for the rest of our lives.  Minor crap like doing the hard yards sometimes, working all day then painting ’til  midnight at the latest reno, dealing with problem tenants and regular turnovers, that’ll all be in the past.  We’ll be reaping the rewards for all that stuff, and it’ll be in the past, while our lives will be immeasurably financially improved from our hard work we’re putting in now.  Let’s face it, you get very little in this life without doing some hard work at some stage.  We just happen to be at that stage now.  And really, we’re already reaping rewards.  We got a great tax return last year, and we should get another great return this year, so even apart from the capital gains the properties will inevitably produce, the yearly returns are going alright too.  We’re making our own luck.

Next time I’m complaining, I’m going to remind myself that we’re doing okay.

It’s Thursday night already!  Where has the week gone?!

As per usual, it’s been a busy one.  Monday night we had an annual general meeting for one of our groups of units.  It was a good meeting, we got a quorum, and we decided on some capital works projects for the coming financial year.  We have a good group of owners in this block, which is good to see – all very concerned with maintaining the building appropriately.  That went from 6pm to 7:30pm, so it was basically straight after work.

After the meeting, I went to our just-vacated unit and did a clean.  SO refers to these cleans as ‘details’ because that’s really what happens.  I didn’t vacuum or mop the floors, for example – but I did scrub around tap fittings with an old toothbrush, to get rid of built-up scum.  I also made sure that the shower and toilet were spotless, dusted all the surfaces, cleaned marks off walls, wiped the fridge out, those kinds of things.  Poor SO turned up just after 9pm, as he’d been trying to call my mobile and I hadn’t been answering, so he’d panicked.  (I’d left it in the car.  Whoops.)  He then helped out by doing a few things like changing blown light globes, cleaning windows, cleaning dead bugs out of the light fittings, checked the inventory list against what was actually there, etc.  By the time we’d finished up and got home, it was after 10:30am, and we were both knackered.

Tuesday I actually got a phone call from some prospective tenants, so (thanking my lucky stars I’d cleaned the unit!) we met them straight after work.  A travelling Irish couple with a friend, they loved it and wanted to move in immediately, so we agreed to meet at lunchtime the next day and do the paperwork, and they could take the keys and move in after that.  I knew though that there were a few things that still needed to be organised – the unit needed a new mop, and also some new teatowels.  I also wanted to do a welcome basket for them.  All of this required an early-morning dash to the shops on Wednesday, to get everything, then to the unit to put it all in there.  Got to work at 9:15am, organised the paperwork for the new tenants, and met them at noon and signed up the lease documentation.

Wednesday night I had dinner with the girls.  My friend E who recently got married had some news for us – she’s pregnant!!  She and J are over the moon.  It was a honeymoon baby, which they’d hoped for, so that’s lovely.  It was quite funny, out of the five of us at dinner last night, three of us were pregnant – myself and my friend S.  After E told us, I turned to S and asked, ‘So…. got anything you’d like to share with us?!’  She didn’t.

Dinner consisted primarily of discussing baby-related stuff, from home births (which E is going to try) through to the smacking/non smacking debate.  It was interesting, but I’m not sure how long my interest will be sustained…. after all, I’m not really clucky about (or even interested in) kids.  Still, I’m so happy for my friends.  I hope it goes well for all of them, especially after M and L’s experiences last year.  And I know I’ll be a great aunty.

So yes, a very busy week.  I woke up today and really felt bone tired.  As a result, I only worked a short day – I left work at 12:30pm, went home and slept.  Still tired now, but better, and I’ll be even better tomorrow, I hope, after a good night’s sleep.  SO said again that he thinks my tiredness is a result of depression and anxiety, which could well be the case.  I was hoping my recent blood tests would throw up something that a tablet could easily fix, like a thyroid problem, but alas they all came back fine.  So it’s back to the psychosomatic theory.

The weekend looks like being another busy one.  We’re up to painting (yay!!!) and the bathroom cabinet will be installed tomorrow (double yay!!!!!) so it’s finally tangibly progressing.  Saturday night Mum and J have asked us over to dinner, so that should be fun, playing with the dogs.  I love animals and it’s the one sadness of my life, that we can’t have any as SO is so allergic.  But I do get my pet fix when I see Mum.

Sunday looks like more reno stuff, namely painting.  So exciting, it’s finally moving along!  I can’t wait ’til it’s finished.  I’ll make sure to post some before and after photos, to show the scope of works.

Wow, it feels like longer than a week since I last wrote here.  I must admit, nothing spectacularly interesting has been going on.  We spent every evening except Friday at the reno after work, sanding and patching, sanding and patching.  I think we may FINALLY be coming to the end of it.  I’d forgotten how slow and monotonous this part of doing a reno is.  Still, in a few days’ time we’ll hopefully be painting, which will speed things right up.

We had tenants move out today, and this is a first for us – we don’t have new ones lined up to take their place.  I’m not too concerned, at this point.  But what do we do if in a month it’s still empty?  I don’t want to drop the rental rate, as it doesn’t cover the mortgage as it is, and will mean more money out of our own pockets to meet the repayments.  Sigh…. I guess I’ll worry about it in a month’s time, if it’s still an issue then.

I”m still sleeping really badly.  It’s been weeks now that I’ve woken up every night for a couple of hours or so.  I know it’s because there’s lots happening, but it gives me the whoops.  And SO gets really grumpy about it too.  I was up for three hours last night, and finally got tired (and relaxed) enough to go back to bed.  So I crept in and very quietly slid into bed.  Well, SO began an inquisition.  ‘Where have you been??’  ‘Awake, on the net.’

‘Why??’  ’Couldn’t sleep.’ 

He grunted.  ‘I don’t like you doing that [getting up out of bed to surf, I think he meant.]‘

At this point, I grunted back (something I never do) and rolled away from him.  It’s bad enough to have early morning wakefulness, but even worse when your normally sweet, understanding husband gives you a hard time about it.  I felt like saying, ‘What the fuck do you think I can do about it?!’ but wasn’t prepared to start World War III at 4am.   Grrrr.  Maybe I should’ve.

Still, he was his usual sweet self in the morning, and he even was fine with me going home and having a nap after only spending three hours at the reno today, so I’ve forgiven him.  This time.

Today was a good day.  The weather was beautiful, and SO and I had a lovely snuggle and sleep in this morning.  We so rarely do that, and it’s so nice when we do.  Normally as soon as I’m awake, I’m out of bed doing stuff, but not today.  It was great.

Then we got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then got ready and went to the unit.  I spent all day (about six hours) in the bathroom.  While the tiling’s finished, the walls and ceiling needed a fair bit of remedial patching, which took a while.  I had an extra special bonus when I was patching the ceiling – a huge chunk of plaster dropped off and nearly got my eye.  Fortunately I saw it coming and took evasive action.

SO spent the day sanding the two bedrooms which I’d patched a week or so ago.  He hates doing it, and I do some of it, but I’m just not physically strong enough to keep holding the sander for any length of time.   He did a fair bit, I think he’s finished the main bedroom.  We agreed tonight that all the walls and ceilings are going to need a coat of sealer prior to actually painting them the colours we’ve chose.  They’re in such poor condition, we can’t bring ourselves to just paint straight onto them without some preemptive action being taken first.

We’re probably going to go back tomorrow night after work to do some more.  Ideally I’d like to get the bathroom all ready for painting in a couple of days’ time, but that will take some serious work at night time, which is hard on the eyes (and the body).  However, we’re getting there, slowly but surely.