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 ;)

Why Suzy is in too much debt. And isn't blogging.

Argh I feel like I don't have time for any of the things that I enjoy at the moment! Blogging has taken a very definite backseat for now.

Did you know that Go.og.le Re.ad.er stops counting at 1000+ new posts?
I logged in and felt like it was mocking me. "You have ... you know what, you have too many damn posts to read. You are never going to catch up. So I am not even going to bother counting them. Let's just say you have TOO MANY NEW POSTS"

I'm at a crossroads at the moment, trying to balance work/life/kids/play/me time (HA!) and trying to work out how to fit everything in. I was almost at the point of leaving my job (I lay in bed this morning composing my letter of resignation actually!) but I just don't think I can give up the steady income right now.

It probably doesn't help our financial situation that I went and bought another house on Saturday! I could NOT resist it was in a great little spot and it is a little 2 bedroom cottage, last decorated circa 1950 and it is CUTE! I just love it. Plan on doing a few small improvements then renting it out (hopefully to friends who are looking in the area).

Unfortunately though, that, coupled with paying for another round of IVF, means that pretty much every cent we made off the sale of our last property, is GONE :(

We had planned on using that money to pay off a large portion of our debts...but instead it's all gone *POOF* within days of receiving it! Unfortunately too, because our car was written off, we still have to buy a car. My in-laws have lent us the money to do so, but it means that we do actually have to pay it off by the end of the year.

With all the debts we have, even with the great profit we are likely to make on our second renovation house which is about to hit the market...we are only going to have about half what I expected to put towards the renovations on our CURRENT house!

Boo hoo woe is me. Anyone who thinks they can make an easy million off property is dreaming. I actually thought we would be further ahead by now. But we are getting there. It's just taking WAAAY longer than I expected....

But I am blessed. We were lucky enough to have parents who loaned us all the money for our first house and we've built it from there. We are fortunate to be in the situation we are in, but we have worked very, very hard and done without a lot to be in this position. I can't wait to see how it all plays out - my friends joke and call me a mini mogul..that would be nice, to have an empire, wouldn't it? We'll see...

Suzy Home-renovator

I've been reading back through past blogs (both this one and old blogs) trying to recapture how I felt and what I used to write about (what? not everything is babyloss/IF related? you're KIDDING me?? What else would I write about?) I am not quite there yet but am going to try to post daily about something other than IVF because hey, boring.


Good news this week in our corner of the world is the final sale of one of our reno properties :) BIG yay for that. It is a big load off my mind and while we didn't get the best best best price for it, we did get $40k more than the bank valuation, and cleared enough to pay out all our debts. So YAY for that! Now if we can get reno house #2 sold (has to hit the market first) then we will really be laughing all the way to the bank and be able to jump right into renovating #3 where we are currently living...

I have to say I am very proud of us. If you had seen this place before we go to it...it was ugly. And it smelt funky. And had holes in doors etc. Just a mess. Now look at it!!









It really makes me realise that we can do this. We are so capable, and I think we are getting really close to the point where we can throw in the towel at our annoyingly mundane jobs and take on renovations as a full time job :)


And finally, because I just. can't. not. talk. IVF....good news/bad news on that front...good news is we got nearly $6k back from our last cycle which means we can definitely go ahead again! Bad news is that I'm STILL not at zero which means waiting...and waiting...and blood tests...and more waiting...to see when we can go ahead again. The longer we wait, the bigger the age gap will be and that is bugging the crap out of me because that is the main reason we decided to do this - to have kids close together. Already we are 6 months past where we wanted to be...and every week that goes by I mourn the idea of having children who are really close together. Hercules would have been born at the perfect time.

Are the paint fumes to blame?

There is nothing worse than painting in extreme heat. Actually there is nothing more worse than painting in extreme heat, and realising that those drips you feel running down your shin are not, as you thought, beads of sweat*, but rather enamel paint dripping off the paint tray you didn't realise you were holding on an angle.

There is, however, no explaining why I stood there and watched it pool in my good trainers (why I wore them to paint I'm not sure) rather than (a) straighten up the paint tray, or (b) run to the sink and clean them off.

Yes I was that tired.

And that braindead after painting approximately eleventy million** door and windowframes that nothing made much sense anymore. Although that could have been the paint fumes...



* my mother, reading over my shoulder, comments "Suzy, women do not sweat. Horses sweat. Women perspire." No mother, I was sweating. Ugly, not at all ladylike, beads of sweat were running out of every pore. Which, by the way, ew.

** please note number may not actually exist

If this weather doesn't break soon, I might.

Ugh. If this weather doesn't break soon, I might.
110F/43C for 3 days running.
And the week before was only a few degrees cooler.
I think I can feel a breeze rolling in off the water and it's rumoured to break later tonight - here's hoping. My poor lil fella is 10 months old and just not liking the heat. He is drenched in sweat for most of the day and playing in the shower any chance he gets.

The only thing worse than 110F heat, is having to renovate in 110F heat. That's right, given that we are now on a deadline for project house #2 to be on the market by February, every spare minute has been spent around there fixing kitchen cupboards, creating wardrobe doors, hanging bathroom doors, and painting every single door and window frame in the place. I honestly can't believe we spent two full days (8hrs+) working in this weather. But hey, it has to be done. The sooner the better.

And it will be fabulous when it's done. I hope it is fabulous when it's done. I mean - this is what we were working with:
So pretty much anything we do will look a hundred times better!

Best be off - another long day of painting door frames awaits me tomorrow...