Thursday, June 3, 2010

It's been a long time!

Wow, I just looked at the date of my last post...October 2009! It has been a while!
Life in the hills has been chugging on as normal since then. Normal for us is lots of stressful times but lots of fun times as well. We've had Christmas, birthdays and holidays. I've started working again (2 days a week). Darren has had to be a bit more of a Mr Mum which he hasn't really enjoyed (with the stress of all the work still to do on the house!). We have gone through a time of real uncertainty and instability as we have tried to balance finishing the house with earning enough money for our ever increasing mortgage. We have finally made the decision we need to sell up. This house has just cost way too much, way more than we ever estimated. We cannot afford to keep it. It seems like this would be very sad for us but really, we are "over it"! We need to move on to the next stage of our life. We need a home that is complete that we can pour ourselves into, put all our things away and know they can stay there forever. We need less stress. We need less pressure especially financially. We are actually looking forward to the journey ahead.
We have just borrowed a last amount of money and have determined to have the house on the market by the end of June. Darren is working full time on it and we've got some other tradesmen in to help. We have got enough money to get everything we need to finish the job and live in the meantime.
Things left to do are; upstairs bathrooms finished, second staircase and stairs down to garage, lots of painting inside and out, carpet in guest room and "green" loungeroom and the rumpus room floor. As we speak, the back deck is being done and it is going to be beautiful! We really wanted a great outdoor entertaining space that would give the extra "Wow factor"! We also need to landscape and plant and mulch some garden beds.
Please don't be sad for us! We have learnt so much and we have created a beautiful home! We hope to get a good price for it which will enable us to buy something more normal and live comfortably. We've also thought a lot about what we'd like in our next house, the things we want that we don't have here (like more flat land to kick a footy and ride bikes) and the things here that we don't really need.
That all said, here are some new photos.
The second staircase coming down into the entrance hall has begun to take shape. The lower half will be made out of the blackwood timber cut down on the block.
Our new back deck!

The undercover BBQ part.
The view from the dining room.
My fabulous laundry!
The beautiful entrance hall. I love the wallpaper.

Our ensuite, we used the same wallpaper on a small wall between the bathroom and the walk-in robes. I love the shower, it is so luxurious.
Our bedroom.
Slab in lower garage.
Slab in upper garage.


3 comments:

Codenix said...

We'll miss you neighbour! I can't imagine pouring so much of yourself into something and having to make that decision - I know you said not to feel sad for you, but it's hard not to!

I hope you meet your target of June's end to get finished, and that you can reap the rewards for all your hard work.

Lucas.

Jodie said...

Thanks Lucas, we won't go far away, definitely want to stay in the hills, hopefully in Sassy. We love it here.

Rita said...

You are so smart to think this way. I watch many of my American friends lose their health and eventually their home because of a determination to have what they want rather than what they need. It concerns me for them. I wish you the best in the days ahead.