It’s SO’s birthday today – he turned 35. It seems like just a couple of months ago that he was having a crisis over turning 30, and now here we are.  Middleaged, but happy

I got him some transition lens sunglasses for his mountain bike riding, three shirts for work, some pyjama pants, and some socks.  Not very exciting, but he loved them, especially the sunnies and the work shirts.  We had a very lazy morning, and then were taken out to lunch by SO’s dad and stepmum, which was lovely.  Of course it was a long slow three-course meal, so by the time we got home it was nearly 5pm.

We were at Mum’s place on Friday night, celebrating SO’s birthday with my side of the family.  After dinner, Mum and J informed us that they’re getting married!!  My brother A and I then made lots of jokes about how relieved we were that Mum would now be J’s problem.  (Actually, I don’t think we were joking.)  So that was lovely.  They’ll have a little celebration lunch in a couple of weeks’ time, with us and J’s kids (and their kids) so just the immediate family.  I volunteered to bring a garden salad and potato dish, which made Mum happy as she knows how much I hate cooking.

And what of the reno, I hear you ask?  Well, after much to-ing and fro-ing, it’s finished.  We had a couple of last minute disasters - the couch we bought didn’t fit into the unit, through either door, or the window, so we needed to buy new couches on a Sunday.  $1300 later, it was done.  Also, one of the beds was missing a bit, so on Monday morning of last week we bought another bed frame.  So it didn’t go quite as smoothly as it could have, but all in all we are SO glad it’s finished, and how it’s turned out.

So, some photos.  Here’s one of the toilet beforehand.  Notice the substantial plaster cracking around the hot water system.

And a close up of the original basin and cabinet.  Observe the condition of the shelving above the cabinet – mmmmm, nice.

The toilet afterwards:

And the cabinet area after:

Not bad, huh?  We’re pretty happy with the outcome.  The rest of the unit looks equally good, but I’m not going to put a huge amount of photos up as they can take far to long to load.

Yes, so it’s been a busy but happy couple of weeks.  I’m now going to fall into bed and catch up on some of the sleep I’ve been sorely missing.

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.

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.

As per usual, it’s been a busy week.  I’ve managed to catch the first flu bug of the season, according to my doctor.  It’s a bit different to the usual flu – it basically inflames the eustachian tube in the ear, causing it to hurt.  Plus there’s the usual aches and pains, tiredness, swollen glands, etc.  I must confess it’s pretty manageable as a bug, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

That said, I wasn’t delighted that I was sick again.  SO and I had the following exchange on the way to work:

SO:  What’s wrong baby?

Me:  Ugh, I’m sick again!!  I feel like I’m sick all the time.

SO (patting my knee consolingly):  That’s because you are, baby.

It wasn’t funny at the time, but I can see the humour in it now.

The renos are going reasonably well.  The bathroom tiling is finished, and it looks good.  We’re both happy with it, although it’s taken longer than we’d been told.  But as I said to SO, you have to expect both time and money blowouts with renos, and three extra days isn’t a huge amount in the scheme of things.  Next we need to get the cabinetmaker in to measure up for the bathroom cabinet.  I personally can’t wait until there’s a toilet in there again, it makes spending all day there so much easier.

It’s SO’s dad’s birthday tomorrow.  We’re having him and SO’s stepmum over for a cooked breakfast.  I’ve also taken it upon myself to make his favourite thing, date loaf.  I haven’t made it in ages (probably years) but I suddenly remembered today how much he liked it, so I thought I’d make it for him.  He’s done a huge amount for us with renovating both the current and previous projects, and he hasn’t been very well lately.  It seems his chronic fatigue has come back with a vengeance, poor thing.  That said, he’s still doing a lot of stuff to help us out, which we appreciate even while it makes us feel guilty.  So yes, tomorrow we’ll be having bacon, eggs, lightly fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, then french toast and pikelets for ‘dessert’.  It’ll be the works, and no one will need lunch.

I’m tired.  Very, very tired.  We’ve been flat out with the reno, which is going well.  I’ve been spending every day up a ladder, painstakingly plastering up the settlement cracks.  This is physically tiring, particularly for ‘Ms Desk Job’ here.  At the end of the day, when I start to get so tired I wobble on the ladder, I come down and pick another section of kitchen to disinfect.  Last night, I put in all the new kitchen handles; tonight, it was cleaning our ‘new’ (really, second hand, bought on eBay) fridge.

We go to Bunnings to get different bits and pieces, then head home and have dinner.  We talk about what else needs to be done, what order to do it in, and discussing different options we need to make decisions on.  Not long after that, we hit the sack.  I’d be tired if this was all there was to it; but it’s not. 

I’ve been waking up every night at around 3am, my brain racing and full of stuff that I need to remember.  I’ve tried going back to sleep but it hasn’t been working, so I’ve been getting up and surfing the net for a couple hours, just enough to switch off mentally and go back to bed, to get another couple of hours’ sleep.

Anyhow, as a result of all this, I’m just worn out.  Today I got up, had breakfast and a shower, and sat down to wait for SO to be ready to go to the unit.  SO came out of the bathroom and found me sleeping, sitting upright.  This never happens.  He sent me to bed, where I completely crashed for a couple of hours.  When I woke up, I was worn out, but it was manageable.  I then put in a full day at the reno, doing more patching.

However, things are going well.  I’ve managed to shake off a potential cold, which given how tired I’ve been, is nothing short of a miracle.  The reno is going to plan, and everything seems to be working out there.  SO is well, and he’s enjoying the reno work too.  He dug out a wooden cabinet from the bathroom wall today, which he hasn’t done before, and he did a really neat job.  So yes, it is all going well.  I’m just surprised at how tiring it all is.

It’s a funny thing.  You agree to buy a place, thinking all you’ll need to do is throw around some paint, plus maybe some new light fittings.  Then you start looking a bit closer and before you know it, you’ve decided you absolutely MUST completely renovate, a la the Taj Mahal. 

This has happened in our case.  We’d decided we would replace the toilet and the bathroom cabinet.  Then we got a quote for getting the tiles resurfaced.  When SO saw the quote, he hit the roof.  As he pointed out, we could get the bathroom retiled for not much more.  So, that’s what we’re doing.  The whole bathroom is going to  be redone – new fixtures and fittings, new loo, cabinet, shower screen, hot water system, you name it, it’ll be replaced.  The whole damn lot.

Tentative costings show it’ll probably cost us in the realm of $6K, which is obviously about $5,500 more than we’d originally planned on spending.  However, as SO says, we’ll be able to depreciate it for tax purposes, so that will be a bonus.  Plus it will look nice, which will mean we can charge decent rent for it.

Anyhow, at this point in time, SO has removed all the floor tiles, which is the majority of the hard work we’ll need to do.  We’ll get there tomorrow and get into the wall tiles, which hopefully won’t take too long to remove.  The plumber is coming at 11am to fix a few things and disconnect the hot water system, then it’ll be full steam ahead organising a tiler, cabinetmaker, etc etc.  Fun times.

Heh.  We weren’t exactly planning for this to happen when we bought, that’s for sure.  Oh well, good thing we like a challenge.  I’ll make sure to take lots of photos for a before-and-after post when we’re done.

<grits teeth and closes eyes tightly, trying not to throw a tantrum>

I’m sick.  Again.  It’s not anything major, by any means – just some kind of bug that isn’t really a cold, but isn’t really a flu.  Sore throat, fever, shivering, aches and pains.  And an increase in the general level of grumpiness.  It’s just frustrating.  I’ve had the last two days off work, and I had to go to the shops this morning.  After wandering around confusedly for about half an hour, I felt like the only thing holding me up was the trolley I was gripping.  Now I can see why old folks hang onto them with a death grip.  (Sorry, no pun intended there.)

In other news, the plans for the current reno are moving along.  We’ve decided to get some quotes for getting the bathroom tiles resurfaced.  This will basically give them a new colour (instead of dirty white wall tiles and, you guessed it, apricot floor tiles) and, as a bonus, it will seal any grout cracks.  This is great, as we do have some damage to the wall on the other side of the shower.  It’s also supposed to be a lot cheaper and a lot faster than getting new tiling done.  Sounds good to me.  SO has also agreed with me that we can get a new toilet.  For some reason, he wanted to hang onto the current apricot-coloured one.  I have no idea why, but he’s come around.

We finally settled on our fourth investment property, last Thursday.  Since then, of course, we’ve been flat out assessing the scope of works.  As per usual, they’re somewhat larger than we’d anticipated.  We’ll need to remove and replace the bathroom cabinet, which is badly water damaged inside (the shelving has exploded from water absorption).  This is disappointing as the cabinet otherwise fits the space well, and is reasonably clean and modern.  I’m not sorry that we’ll get a new handbasin though – the current one is apricot.  As is the toilet – cistern, seat, pedestal, the whole lot.  Apricot.  For me, the colour conjures up recollections of polka-dotted ra-ra skirts, teased fringes, and side ponytails.  And I was only in fifth grade at the time.

Work on the unit is progressing well.  I’ve already managed to do most of the patching of walls, prior to the mammoth (and unpleasant) job of sanding back.  SO has installed almost all of the lights.  We’ve taken measurements of windows and doors, so we know exactly what we need to get in terms of dimensions for window treatments and door replacements.  We’ve had two quotes from plumbers, and have organised a cabinet maker to come out and look at the bathroom.  All in all, we’re going okay.  We have next week off from our jobs, so we’ll be able to get into the nitty-gritty then.  For me, this will include lots of painting (particularly cutting-in, my specialty), cleaning the oven, and other tasks such as window cleaning.  SO will be heavily involved in painting (he’s the roller man) and collecting the rest of the furniture for the unit.  We’ll also need to do some fairly simple stuff like organise the carpet to be laid, etc.  So yes, I feel like it’s under control, for once.