Lots of love from Os, Lil & me
Sunday 30 September 2012
Happy Birthday, Damien!
Happy Birthday, Damien! Hope you enjoy your long weekend! (plenty of time to put together the Lego! :)
Friday 14 September 2012
Home maintenance
Decided to use the Family Bandwagon to fill everyone in on some house maintenance plans. I hadn't checked it for ages. Thank you for the birthday wishes Dayna and Bruce.
I've booked to get my roof cleaned and the tiles rebedded and pointed. Also decided to get new guttering. Probably not much dearer than getting someone to paint the old one and that had some suspicious bumps (maybe rust). I will need to paint the fascia boards after the old guttering is removed and before the new lot is fitted. Working bee, you boys are lucky you are both so far away. That will be a benefit my way when Damien, Cheryl, Oscar and Lily move back. Extra help for my projects. I'm looking forward to having you closer. Trip to Canberra instead of Adelaide. That is going to depend on the roof man but if he is finished, I'm thinking the week after Glenn's birthday and maybe flying at least one way.
Next project was to replace the patio blinds which have disintegrated with time and weather. One option was to go back to Kmart for three new ones. I just got a quote from Hi Light blinds for them to do the job. They would need to put in a post since they will only span 4.2m. These blinds would be much stronger and fitted so they didn't flap around. However the quote is $3700 against about $250 for the KMart version on sale. Even at $500 and paying Pete to fit them, I don't think I can justify the extra. The KMart ones lasted about five years.I'd been prepared for a couple of thousand dollars. Next time I head to Kangaroo Flat I'll price them and maybe the Spotlight version too.
Looking forward to a post from Glenn and Dee on how they have settled. Damien, have you asked what it cost Glenn and Dee to move their treasures to Canberra. Maybe the very expensive won't seem so bad. Not sure that saving a few boxes worth of stuff will bring the price down much.
Love to all
Mum
I've booked to get my roof cleaned and the tiles rebedded and pointed. Also decided to get new guttering. Probably not much dearer than getting someone to paint the old one and that had some suspicious bumps (maybe rust). I will need to paint the fascia boards after the old guttering is removed and before the new lot is fitted. Working bee, you boys are lucky you are both so far away. That will be a benefit my way when Damien, Cheryl, Oscar and Lily move back. Extra help for my projects. I'm looking forward to having you closer. Trip to Canberra instead of Adelaide. That is going to depend on the roof man but if he is finished, I'm thinking the week after Glenn's birthday and maybe flying at least one way.
Next project was to replace the patio blinds which have disintegrated with time and weather. One option was to go back to Kmart for three new ones. I just got a quote from Hi Light blinds for them to do the job. They would need to put in a post since they will only span 4.2m. These blinds would be much stronger and fitted so they didn't flap around. However the quote is $3700 against about $250 for the KMart version on sale. Even at $500 and paying Pete to fit them, I don't think I can justify the extra. The KMart ones lasted about five years.I'd been prepared for a couple of thousand dollars. Next time I head to Kangaroo Flat I'll price them and maybe the Spotlight version too.
Looking forward to a post from Glenn and Dee on how they have settled. Damien, have you asked what it cost Glenn and Dee to move their treasures to Canberra. Maybe the very expensive won't seem so bad. Not sure that saving a few boxes worth of stuff will bring the price down much.
Love to all
Mum
Friday 7 September 2012
Moving Plans
So by now you've all heard that Cheryl and I are moving back to Bendigo. Our reasons for this are pretty simple - here in Adelaide we have each other for support, and while we're both awesome people and very helpful, it would be nice to have family around when we need them. Also as the kids get older we'd like them to have their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents nearby. The possibility of babysitting certainly doesn't make the idea any less appealing too ;)
As such, there are some pretty major changes to be made, and I thought I'd update you all on where we were at with them.
For my work, I'll be moving over to contract at GDD, which means I need to get an ABN, set up a home office and start learning words like BAS and GST (okay, they're both acronyms, but you get the idea). I've bought a MacBook Pro which is now my main computer for work, so when we do move I'll be well and truly adjusted to using it. I'm also planning on getting a widescreen monitor, an external hard drive to store work on, and a printer. I think that'll do me. I do like the idea that the "office" is pretty portable - if I want to I could always go outside or to a park for a few hours to work. We met with an accountant last night, and he'll be helping me out and handling the tax side of things for me.
Cheryl is going to quit her job, and see what pans out in Bendigo. Right now what with the cost of parking, petrol, child care and the like we're actually losing money with Cheryl back at work.. Originally the plan was once Lily stopped breastfeeding Chez could get more hours, but now she thinks she'll just finish up around November and be done with it.
Oscar and Lily don't work, so it'll be an easy adjustment for them ;) We are planning the move to give Os time to start Kindy, hence end of Jan/early Feb as a moving date. Lisa has given us some great links to look into on that front.
We've decided to keep our house here in Adelaide and rent it out, and then rent a place in Bendigo. Realistically if we can get as much in rent from here as we're paying in Bendigo we'll be in the same situation.. although we will have to account for agent fees and the like as well. In a lightning strike of extreme luck a friend of ours has just bought a house as an investment property. He's in the process of doing it up a bit with help from Cheryl's siblings, and he's happy for us to move in there. It's about 30 seconds walk from Edith and Landon's place.
Cheryl's been contacting a few removalists to get quotes (it's EXPENSIVE) so hopefully we can just pick a date and move all our stuff, and Cheryl's fam can meet the truck at the other end for us.
That leaves us with a fair bit of work to do in the next few months - apart from packing/selling everything we own (the selling is an attempt to bring down that moving cost, which as I said is EXPENSIVE) we've also got a lot of work to do to the house to get it tenant-ready - fix the door, patch up cracks, repaint, replace the dishwasher.. and fork out the $1,800 to fix the electrical box as well. We can't claim those as deductions, apparently, but we can use them to bring down the capital gains tax when we do decide to sell.
I've also got to register for an ABN, get a licence for my swords, and probably a few other bookworky things I've forgotten. Still, The Move continues it's inevitable rumbling approach like the cleaner from the Labyrinth, and each weekend brings it a little closer. At least we look to have locked down the two biggest worries (my work and the house) so that's good.
But yeah, looking at the help provided us by Lisa, Rach, Daz, Edith, Landon, Mum.. I think that pretty much explains why we're making the move. We really appreciate having people we can rely on who can help us out with this big life change.
And the babysitting will be nice too ;)
As such, there are some pretty major changes to be made, and I thought I'd update you all on where we were at with them.
For my work, I'll be moving over to contract at GDD, which means I need to get an ABN, set up a home office and start learning words like BAS and GST (okay, they're both acronyms, but you get the idea). I've bought a MacBook Pro which is now my main computer for work, so when we do move I'll be well and truly adjusted to using it. I'm also planning on getting a widescreen monitor, an external hard drive to store work on, and a printer. I think that'll do me. I do like the idea that the "office" is pretty portable - if I want to I could always go outside or to a park for a few hours to work. We met with an accountant last night, and he'll be helping me out and handling the tax side of things for me.
Cheryl is going to quit her job, and see what pans out in Bendigo. Right now what with the cost of parking, petrol, child care and the like we're actually losing money with Cheryl back at work.. Originally the plan was once Lily stopped breastfeeding Chez could get more hours, but now she thinks she'll just finish up around November and be done with it.
Oscar and Lily don't work, so it'll be an easy adjustment for them ;) We are planning the move to give Os time to start Kindy, hence end of Jan/early Feb as a moving date. Lisa has given us some great links to look into on that front.
We've decided to keep our house here in Adelaide and rent it out, and then rent a place in Bendigo. Realistically if we can get as much in rent from here as we're paying in Bendigo we'll be in the same situation.. although we will have to account for agent fees and the like as well. In a lightning strike of extreme luck a friend of ours has just bought a house as an investment property. He's in the process of doing it up a bit with help from Cheryl's siblings, and he's happy for us to move in there. It's about 30 seconds walk from Edith and Landon's place.
Cheryl's been contacting a few removalists to get quotes (it's EXPENSIVE) so hopefully we can just pick a date and move all our stuff, and Cheryl's fam can meet the truck at the other end for us.
That leaves us with a fair bit of work to do in the next few months - apart from packing/selling everything we own (the selling is an attempt to bring down that moving cost, which as I said is EXPENSIVE) we've also got a lot of work to do to the house to get it tenant-ready - fix the door, patch up cracks, repaint, replace the dishwasher.. and fork out the $1,800 to fix the electrical box as well. We can't claim those as deductions, apparently, but we can use them to bring down the capital gains tax when we do decide to sell.
I've also got to register for an ABN, get a licence for my swords, and probably a few other bookworky things I've forgotten. Still, The Move continues it's inevitable rumbling approach like the cleaner from the Labyrinth, and each weekend brings it a little closer. At least we look to have locked down the two biggest worries (my work and the house) so that's good.
But yeah, looking at the help provided us by Lisa, Rach, Daz, Edith, Landon, Mum.. I think that pretty much explains why we're making the move. We really appreciate having people we can rely on who can help us out with this big life change.
And the babysitting will be nice too ;)
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