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Smile for you close up!

Wow… This was meant to publish last week (Thu 25 July), but it seems all the other changes, I failed to get it to publish! Thanks to everything else going on in my life, I’ve not been meticulously planning content, and preparing photos.  That’s not to say photos haven’t been taken of my new place though 😀

Moving plans

Here’s how things are tracking

  • My place has had it’s professional photos taken (so it’s even more perfect that how you usually see it… No tea towels!  No hand towels! No soap by the sink!)
Kitchen
Kitchen
Living room
Living room
  • The ad will go up today last Thursday (so excited to see it!)
  • My open time is booked in (10am last Saturday)
Bathroom (evidently not cleaned :s)
Bathroom (evidently not cleaned :s)
  • I’ll pick up the spare keys from my parents Wednesday afternoon (as I’m out that way for a meeting today) & drop them to the agent
  • My friends are hiring a van (in the GoGet car share system here in Sydney) and will help the BF and I move his few possessions (this past Saturday!)
Dining area
Dining area
  • My strata manager has approved us to store the BF’s stuff in the ‘games’ room in my building (essentially a storage place/meeting room) for the week between him moving in, and us getting keys for our new place
  • I’ve done my change of address almost everywhere I can think of, the majority were online, so super quick and easy
Bedroom, missing on bedside box from Ikea
Bedroom, missing on bedside box from Ikea

I was getting all frazzled about the ‘hurry hurry wait’ situation, but I’ve now resolved I will commence next Saturday – in the afternoon, after the showing.  With that decision, I’m much calmer.  I think I can realistically get everything packed in 1.5 days, with moving on Monday. Of course, if my place hasn’t yet got a lease, I’ll move ‘half’ my stuff – the stuff I can take away from my apartment, but still give people an idea of space and furniture options.  Mostly everything in the cupboard and occasional storage like side tables and ottomans. Naturally, I have a prioritised list of what to move: from move now, to move last.

Career

In non moving news, I’ve also been told I start my new role on Monday today.  Just what a girl needs :p I’ll be working under (another) new boss.  Everything’s in flux in my office’s management, and I’ve liked my temporary new boss.  The new new boss, well, I’m not sure we gel just yet.  But it’s a learning experience.  I’ll certainly have a much larger amount of work to output (many more smaller jobs, whereas now I have a few large jobs… When I say ‘few’ I mean about 25, of which 5-10 are active at any one time ;))

Along with a new type of work, and output, I will also oversee the work of one person in my office, and a collection of people in another office.  The other office people won’t be working on my portfolio full time, but will help out to raise output.

Needless to say, I’ll have a few plates in the air in the next this week, between starting a new role, having my house open for inspection, and hopefully getting it leased, and packing and moving from my place to our new place.

I’ve always said I’d rather be busy than bored though!

View from the entryway
View from the entryway

Oh I am SO excited to have had my place photographed by a pro, if you couldn’t tell! And here I was thinking (and hoping) I was modest… I’m not, I love my baby(house).

Maybe tomorrow I can share the ‘disaster’ photos of how it looks after absorbing some of the BF’s stuff.  It really isn’t that much of a disaster!

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A new home!

Today’s going to be a bit scattered – which is a bit how I feel!

Firstly, we’ve been accepted to rent “home 2” listed as the evening showing in my recent post! This was the BF’s preferred place. When I initially sent the ad to him he said was too pricey, so I worked on not getting my hopes up.  But it is spacious enough, that I can see us being happy there for a long time.  And it’s a great area, in a small building close to shops.  I’ll just need to enjoy the extra blocks to the train station – but seeing I won’t be catching the train to see the BF, it shouldn’t affect me much! 😀 We looked it again on Saturday, and arranged all our paperwork ready to ‘apply’ on Saturday after the showing.  By about 10am on Monday we were told we’d been successful!!! (who wouldn’t want us, really?)

Wooden floors in living room
Wooden floors, and a balcony that might get enough sun I can grow herbs!

I am excited, but a little annoyed, as we can’t move in this Saturday.  This Saturday is the day the BF is moving his minimal furniture out (a sofa, a bed and mattress, a desk and a coffee table) of his rental.  I have measured up my place, and we’ll just store everything temporarily for a week, until we get the keys.

I’m also itching to pack up my house, but first I need to get it rented out! I have engaged an agent.  Did you know, they ask you on the rental agreement to disclose if there’s been a violent crime on the premises in the last five years.  I never saw that clause anywhere when I bought – so you renters, you get all the dirt!  In order to make this work, I’m getting my place photographed tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.  Then the first showing should be this Saturday (hopefully early, so we won’t be waiting around to move the BF’s furniture in), and fingers crossed someone loves it! But I think it’s likely to be on the market/vacant for about three weeks.

I’ll be sure to share my own photos of the new place once we have moved in.  I’m a little conscious of over-sharing on the internet, so I won’t link to the listing, just to stay safe.  But you can have some of the sales photos:

New white kitchen open shleving
Fully stocked kitchen (during the sale campaign, we saw it empty)

Now to the scattery parts…

I found out a school friend had a heart attack and died.  Such sad news at 28.  She was married, and had twin sisters two years below her at school (which might seem like it might identify her, but my year in boarding school had MULTIPLE sisters in my year, with twins two years below – freaky huh?).  She was married, and I feel so deeply for her husband, but so pleased she’d found someone to share her (much too short) life with.  I spoke to a few girls from school last night, and then received a text from the boarding mistress (the Head of Boarding in modern terminology) this morning, so it’s nice to feel this community rally, even if it was 11 years ago since we all lived cheek and jowl.  I’m yet to know what the arrangements are, and how they might fit with everything else at the moment.

And back to the house… I need to do a budget!  Budgets aren’t something I don’t live by, instead I have a loose system that works, as I’ve explained here.  I budget my savings, and my ‘weekly allowance’ and everything else is fluid – I can steal to get a greater weekly allowance, or I can bump up a savings account as it suits.  But at the moment I’m having that moment of ‘ekk what have I done’ (not assisted by seeing the balance of my $26k by 22 Dec dip, as I track every week).

Lastly, I thought, me, the master list maker, would be immune to the stress of moving. Nope.  I’m busy thinking ‘can’t I just pack up and move, and everything nicely sync up to one day’. Sadly, not to be! So I’m going to sit back and pack once my place is leased.  At least until we get keys for the new house, and then boxed stuff can go straight there…

And at some stage, I’ve got to measure up for a fridge at the new place, as my existing one fits so snugly, I expect most renters will like my offer to leave it there.

Any tips to make this moving house business easier?  Less stressful?

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I interrupt regular broadcasting…

… to bring you breaking news!

I’ll soon have one more person living in my place 😀

The BF’s lease is up in two short weeks (sort of caught him by surprise), so he plans to move to my place to buy us some time while we hunt for the ideal rental.  We both think it’d be best to have ‘our’ place, rather than ‘my’ place, cause let’s face it, I know I can be a little particular!  There’s so much to organise, in the next two weeks, and then looking forward from there, I thought I’d share my list with y’all

The next two weeks

  1. Get spare cardboard boxes from work/fruit & vege shop for the BF to pack
  2. Make space in my wardrobe for his clothing
  3. List all BF’s bigger ‘stuff’ (furniture etc) with measurements
  4. Make space in my house for his furniture (and a plan for what’ll be at mine in the short-term)
  5. Speak to my parents about temporarily storing some of the BF’s furniture
  6. Go to open for inspections – see the places, but review the leasing agents…
  7. Make inquiries with agents about renting my place, and the likely rent
  8. Make a budget – rent I’ll receive, bills for my house, bills for a new place, rent I can pay out, savings goals
  9. Work out suitable rent/cost sharing between me and BF in the interim period Half of what my neighbours pay
  10. Speak to my cousin about borrowing his trailer for move day 1 Find a car with a toe bar first!
  11. Collect details on utilities etc for BF to cancel/change his address
  12. Book cleaner to do ‘final clean’ at BF’s place (then I’ll likely want to stay there!) Saturday/move out day
  13. Book in accountant (for tax) and discuss best $ options with house/loan etc
  14. Bore readers with inventory posts 🙂
  15. Share my new rental ‘wish list’ with readers, and my ‘what I (inadvertently) love about my current place’

After finding a new place

  1. Procure even more boxes
  2. Start packing up my house
  3. Patch holes and paint (ie Lack hanging shelves, maybe hanging birdcages?)
  4. Switch-a-roo washing machines (? Leave bf’s at my place, and take mine to new place, perhaps)
  5. Set up new utilities
  6. Advise all of change of address (yikes, but I’m good at it now!)

I’m sure there’s more for this list – so suggest away! And ask questions too, cause that’ll prompt my brain!