What a Week

This week feels like it's lasted about a month!
Project "gut-the-bathroom-and-replace-everything" was scheduled for one week. Monday to Friday. It's now Sunday and not looking like finishing any day soon.

Monday: I had to work so I left my girl and her da at home to start work. She'd started the demo over the weekend so I figured they'd do full demo Monday and start putting everything back starting Tuesday. Imagine my surprise when I get home and they are only halfway through demo!

Tuesday: Shopping day. Had to pick up the vanity and tiles, having bought the new frameless showerscreen on Sunday (which was a drama in and of itself). Measure everything up and realise the frameless shower screen wont fit our space. So we look at all other options. Nope, none of them will fit. Looks like FIL will be cutting a big-ass channel in the brick wall and recessing it in. Seems to be problem solvered.

Wednesday: Can't believe it, they are still doing demo. OMFG.

Thursday: They did start the tiling, but didn't get too far. More tiling. More tiling, more tiling. Still only halfway finished!

Friday: More tiling. Am concerned about said shower screen but am reassured it will be FINE.

Saturday: Supposed to be finished, or at least putting back in fixtures and fittings. Nope. Lou grouts the tiles in the evening, and for some ridiculous reason we decide that a 37C (very hot) day was a good time to put up a tool shed.

Tool shed is too small.

Tool shed instructions are written by an indonesian person with limited grasp of English language.

Tool shed nearly sends both of us over the edge.

Tool shed completed but a little dodgy. Both hot and pissed off at each other.

Sunday: FIL is back to install all the fixtures. HA! yeah right. A little more tiling is completed, and the shower screen debacle begins. Guess what? It doesnt fit. They are currently down there swearing at it and attacking the wall with diamond blades, circular saws and chisels. It is not going well. Oh and it's also 42C (which I believe is somewhere around 114F?) This is not looking too good. Dammit I really need to be able to shower tonight!!!

bathroom before shots: stay tuned for the afters......if we ever finish...

Construction/Destruction

Oh my word I tell you, I am getting a bit sick of this construction/renovation bizzo.

I know it's what we have to do in order to get where we want in life (retired by 40). But come on. We need a break. But see every time I say that to myself I am forced to remember we've been taking LOTS of breaks. Hence why what was supposed to be a 2 month renovation on a little cottage has dragged out to 6 months and counting. Poor form. And we are going to use it as a long term rental so it's not like we are getting the money for those extra mortgage payments back any time soon!

Cartoon by Michael Mucci

We have kicked it into hyperdrive now though, and I have even managed to convince my Lou to take a whole week off to completely gut and redo our bathroom in our current home - and another two weeks in February! Lucky for me her boss has just about pushed her over the edge recently so she was happy to take time off :) Destruction started yesterday and Construction is due to start tomorrow. Happy days!

So if you'll excuse me, now I need to go and have a bath in brick dust. That's right, I'm so badass I bathe amongst tile shards and other construction debris ;)

what's the lesson here?

Okay universe...what are you trying to teach me this morning?

A little background - Rocket's school used to be at the end of our street. Then we moved (twice) and got further and further away. Now it's a ten minute drive. We kept him there though, because we plan on moving back there soon. So during summer break (right now) he goes to Vacation Care there. We had a program with all the days he was booked in highlighted and the full details of what they were doing that day.

About two weeks ago...it disappeared. Methinks my boy threw it out when he was cleaning up the recycling. We got the workers there to write down the days he was booked in on a piece of paper. Sounds fine, right?

I checked this morning and all it said was "Fun Day". As there was an excursion yesterday, and one tomorrow, I thought "Oh there's no way they'll go on an excursion today...I can drop him off at the school a bit late today". I was having a high level frustration day, the smallest things were driving me crazy.

When we got there...tumbleweeds. Noone around anywhere. And of course no sign on the door saying where they were, no program in the window, no phone number to call. What to do? I tried not to let the frustration take hold...

So we started brainstorming where they could be. The only thing I could think of was the waterslide and amusements on the foreshore. Went down there...there were about 200 Vacation Care kids there...but none of ours. I couldn't help it, I started getting mad.

Drove back to the school to drive around and see if they were anywhere to be seen. Tried calling the mobile number for Vac Care that was in my phone from years ago. It rang out. Drove around and it finally peaked. I yelled. Screamed. "Where are they??" Not yelling at my kids but I feel terrible, I was doing so well on the no yelling thing until now...

Finally got through on the mobile. Not the person working today but at least she could tell me where they were.

Do you want to know where they were?

At the school next door to my house. I am not joking. It is 30 feet from my front door.

It would be funny if I wasn't already having such a bad day :)

Achievements

Unbelievably...I feel like we might be starting to actually get somewhere! Today we laid the vinyl flooring and painted the trims in our little rental cottage and I'm hoping we can finish it off tomorrow and have it on the market this week.

I sold 4 large items on eBay today which will clear space in our overflowing garage at home AND brings us $431! The two biggest items are getting picked up tomorrow meaning by tomorrow night hopefully I can have working space in there :)

AND the shed at our little rental cottage has a lot of space that we are going to use as a storage unit until we buy our "forever" house, so my morning chore is to pack as much stuff that we don't need to access right away and move it to the shed.

I can't tell you how good it feels to start seeing it all come together!

AND we found a toddler slippery dip out for hard rubbish (large items that you don't want that you put on the side of the road for council pickup once a month) Manny loves it! We've got all their play equipment (and lots of furniture) from hard rubbish - nothing like the joy of getting something beautiful for free!

So now I should be going to bed in preparation for a big day tomorrow...but I'm going to sit here and think about designs for my newest tattoo instead :)

Oh and I am working on a Christmas entry for y'all too - better late than never, right?

Wordless Wednesday - My Boys

I'm a little behind in posting. Apologies for all the backdated entries!

I was offline (literally) for a while and just haven't found the motivation to post since returning. It's supposed to be good for you...going offline. Having some time in a region where there is NO INTERNET COVERAGE. Not for me. I was feeling quite wrong actually! These here interwebz have been my home for over 9 years now. I started my first website 9 years ago (scary thought) and my first "blog" 7 years ago...so for me, going offline, really offline, is like chopping off a limb!

But I am back now. I have lovely photos of our time away that I can't wait to share with you all, and some stories too, including telling all about our Manny catching his first fish (snapper) at age 20 months!! Stay tuned...

I have so many resolutions flying around in my head, but it is SO EASY to just step right back into that rut and settle down back into old habits. I came across a paper I was meant to file at Motor Reg late last year and I felt the panic attack start. I simply have to clear the slate and get everything up to date so I can start the year right (even though we're already nearly a week in! *breathe* *breathe* *fight the panic!!*)

I had wanted to start the year on a really organised note. I wanted to have everything all sorted in my physical life, so that my head might settle down and I might relax a little. I feel like I've been on hyperdrive for so long now...I need to slow down before I crash. So my one main aim right now is to organise this house from top to bottom. It's proving a lot more challenging than I anticipated.

I have, however, finally listed some of the furniture taking over our house on eBay so hopefully by next week that will be gone. It's hard to fight the urge to light a match in our garage though. It would be so much easier if it were all gone! I'd leave the door open and hope it would all get stolen but knowing our luck, no one would want any of it!!

The no yelling policy is taking some time to get used to but I think it is going to be great. If we can stick to it. So far Rocket has done all the dishes every day and cleaned the top floor a few times so definitely allocating chores instead of yelling is paying off for us!

*sigh* You know if I didn't have to go back to work next week I think I could do a lot better on all of these resolutions...but c'est la vie...bills must be paid and my children insist on eating every single day so what can you do?

Resolutions

1. This year I will complete Project 365, and NaNoWriMo. Hopefully. This has been a resolution for a few years now! I will complete the photobooks I've wanted to do, starting right back with Rocket's baby photos.

2. This year I will watch less television. Maybe.

3. This year I will be a better parent. A more involved parent. I think I was so overwhelmed with our Little last year that I let my Rocket take backseat far too much and his attitude has to be a result of that.
3i. We are becoming a no yell household. No raised voices, no yelling, no screaming. The not listening is still a major problem but we are hoping that with calm, quiet voices explaining why we are upset, and providing immediate punishment will help. We are just yelling all the time and Manny is starting to join in! We need a calmer household all round.
3ii. I will enrol Rocket in some extracurriculars. He used to do so many but we had problems with his attention span so we cut them last year.
3iii. I will make his lunch for him every night even though he insists he can make it himself. Bread and butter is not a sandwich!!
3iv. I'm sure there are many more that I can't think of right now...I WILL try harder :)

4. I will somehow get my Lou to work less. How I will achieve this is still a mystery.

5. I will, I will organise my damn house! This is ridiculous!

6. I will stay on track and finish renovating this house, sell it, and buy our forever house.

7. I will stick to my photography. I've picked it up, and put it down so many times over the last few years. If I stick at it, I know I can be great.

8. I will create a routine for us. So that we all can achieve the things we want to achieve.

9. I will try not to let things overwhelm me and take them a day, and one job at a time.

10. I will be a better blogger. I have wanted to take this blog in new directions all year, but somehow it all ended up back at infertility. My life is about more than that! I also need to really reconnect with all the lovely bloggers I've come to know and love over the years. This is one resolution I believe I can really keep :)