Our New House

After months and months of trawling around the North of Sydney trying to find a suitable house to move to, we have finally found one.

It is more then I can imagine. Yes, it doesn't look great from the outside but nothing a quick mow won't fix. This place is divine inside. Not only is it a house with a big backyard, it has 4 bedrooms. Yes, you heard right, 4 bedrooms! And it has 2 living areas. I can't believe it.

Oliver and I will be able to have a decent game of hide and seek in this house.

For those of you who remember, we moved 2 days before Oliver's due date. This time we will be moving 3 days after the baby's due date, so we were destined to get this place. I could feel it in my blood.

So, wish us luck.

Break In

My sisters are in Hawaii at the moment. Mum is looking after the house and the pets. All was going well until yesterday. Mum decided to have some R&R to escape and go to the movies. She came home just after lunch to find the house had been broken into. They took the car, the TV, laptop, loads of jewellery and many more things that Mum and I don't recognise as missing. I am sure when my sisters return that they will notice more things.

How brave are these people to break into someone's house in broad daylight and run the risk of being caught. Brave. Stupid. Desperate. I don't know but all I know is that it isn't the first home to be broken into and it won't be the last.

Poor Mum was shaken. I hate to leave her alone in the house so have asked my Aunty to stay with her. That's the worst thing. Staying there at night knowing someone has been in the house but thankfully, it wasn't when anyone was there.

And the scary thing is, it takes something like this to make you more aware and less blaze about security. Bloody criminals.

Oliver's Room

Here is Oliver's big boys bedroom in Australia. I am not entirely happy with it and keep changing it but this is as good as it will get for a while. A few things came from his bedroom in England and some are new pieces. If you see any nice wall art that might suit his room, please let me know.

PS Does anyone know what the hell I have done with my layout and how I can fix it?

Tennants, who needs em

Most of you know we didn't sell our place in the UK as the property market has gone down so much. We decided to rent the property out for 6 months and hope that property might start to rise. Well, I wanted to sell it and still wish we had.

Over the weekend, I received an alarming email from our old next door neighbours informing me of an incident that had occurred in our home. I also had a facebook message from my friend who lives a couple of doors up from where we lived and a text message from a friend who drove passed.

It was alarming enough that the police were involved, had to break the door in to get inside and then inform our estate agent. I was quickly on the phone to our managing agents insisting they get their butts around there quick smart to inspect the property and insure there was no structural damage.

Apparently the renters had a fight. He broke all his girlfriends personal possessions and then threw them all out onto the street along with all her clothes and other belongings. The main road in to town. Can you believe it? What people have we got living in our house? He has his own professional business and I thought they would be reliable tennants.

Thank god there was no damage to the house. He promises to still pay the rent (now on his own) and says it will never happen again. He wrote the neighbours an apology letter and also the estate agent. I just hope it never happens again otherwise I will be insisting we sell it. Pronto.

Talk about airing their dirty laundry. Quite literally.

Kitchen Make Over Complete

We started this kitchen project back in July. 4 months later and it is finally finished. Thank god as we have the estate agents coming this week to value the property. I am not feeling optimistic about it with prices dropping around £20,000 in the last 12 months. I suppose I could wish upon a star. We have done a hell of a lot of work to this place to get it as tip top as our budget allows. I can honestly say that the kitchen is my favourite room.

So, here is the before shot. YUCK, YUCKO, YUCKY.

We have a Victorian property, built circa late 1890's / early 1900's so there is a lot of character in the place which I normally love. However, chimney breats. Every room in our house has one and they can be so frustrating to design around them. The only major problem was in the kitchen and to remove the chimney breast would have been in excess of £500 so we decided to just work with it. This is the wall with the wretched thing.

The cupboards jut out a bit from the wall where the chimney is. We decided not to have any wall units on it as they would have been too narrow and I think it would have closed the room in.

We moved the external door. It used to be where Oliver is standing but we decided to have it at the end of the house (where the main bathroom used to be). It is a south facing garden (like the north facing garden in the northern hemisphere) so has so much light, it was definitely the right thing to do. I love the deep pan drawers that Oliver is getting into here.

The main bathroom is now upstairs (albeit small) so this room is now a utility room / laundry, with a shower in it. On the other side is a cloak room (toilet and sink). It is so nice to havea proper shower. After living in England for almost 6 years, I am so used to having one just over the bath.

This view is from the external door. I am loving my glass splashback. So so easy to clean. We had a bit of an ordeal choosing floor tiles and then more of a drama getting them laid. What should have taken 2 days, took about 4 weeks. Stupid trades people.


And this is with the door closed for privacy when showering. We still need to get some blinds made for the doors.

While I am in the kitchen, I will show a few items that we will be travelling back to Australia with us. We should get away with just one box for the kitchen. This little picture was bought while we were on holiday in St Emilion, France. I remember that holiday so well, it was the first time my parents and my sister came to visit.

This other picture was bought while we were on holiday in Tuscany, Italy at a little hill top village called San Gimignano. I remember going back and forth to the shop trying to decide if I should buy it. I think my sister and hubby were relieved when I finally made a decision. It is actually a tile and weighs a tonne.

This dinner set is another thing we will be taking back. It is royal worcester, birth place of hubby. We used to make a trek to this store every time we were back there and just happened to stumble across a pretty good deal. Each item was only £1 so we bought a whole dinner set for about £40. Usually, each item would be almost £15 each. It is quite a delicate and dainty set, not something I normally would choose but for that price, I couldn't argue or be choosy.
This Wednesday is a big day. Estate agents coming to value property and hubby has his medical and x ray for his visa application, so keep your fingers, arms and toes crossed.