Renovation Diary Part II

Things have been moving pretty slowly on the renovation side of things.

Last week we sat down and (in true Quentin fashion) made up a spreadsheet listing every single thing to be done and bought for every single room. The purpose was so we can get a good idea how much things are going to cost so we can budget for it. We drew up a plan of the bathroom to decide the best layout, and Q made me draw a 3D model of it. I didn't know how to use the software so it looks like crap, otherwise I would put it on here. But at least now we have a good idea what we're going to do with the room.

Today we went to the Home and Garden show. I'd heard it wasn't that great, and it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I'd like to say we walked away with some great ideas and inspiration, but we didn't. We did, however, join the NZ Wine Society, and will be receiving a case of wine every three months.

Anyway, back to the renovations. This afternoon we started to properly strip some of the wallpaper off in the lounge. It was pretty successful, however it's a very messy business. We managed to get most of one wall done. In some parts the wallpaper was really easy to remove, and in others quite difficult. In some places we were a bit rough and scraped some plaster and some of the outer layer of gib off. But apart from that I think we did a pretty good job of it.

My New Job

I had realised that my working environment was making me miserable. Alot of the time I was in the office alone, and even though my boss was there the rest of the time, he wasn't really the kind of person I could have a conversation with. I was really lonely. So I decided to leave. I felt bad as my boss's house is on the market (they want to move to Tauranga - god only knows why!), which meant he couldn't really hire anyone to replace me. There were a whole bunch of other reasons to leave, and when I realised there were more reasons to leave than to stay, I decided it was time to go.

So, I found myself another job, which I started yesterday (monday). It's at an architectural firm in Hamilton. It's so good not having to drive to Cambridge!!!!!! The directors (yes, there is more than one) are architects rather than architectural designers, so I will learn so much from them. Oh, and the biggest thing - there are 10 other people in the office!!!! Finally someone to talk to!!!

Well that's all the news to report.

Till next time.

Home Improvements

Toni has suggested that I do a "renovation diary", and as I don't really have anything much to write about, I may as well.

We have had three "tasks" we have assigned ourselves to complete in the next few months. The first one was installing a new toilet. The existing one was old and tired, the cistern leaked, and we just didn't like it. So we purchased a toilet, which came highly recommended from Q's work mate (he had just bought and installed it and raved about it). We were told it was a piece of cake to install, so we decided to do it ourselves. I did a bit of research about installing toilets, and realised that the standout of our existing toilet was probably further from the wall than what the new one required. We decided to put the toilet together and just see what happens. As it turns out, there was a 40mm difference. The workmate reckoned we could just fudge it and make it work. We realised it would be too difficult, so decided to get a plumber to move the pipes around. We installed the toilet (and when I say "we" I mean "Q"). It's fantastic, and I realise that I must sound like a loser getting so excited over a toilet, but the old one was just so horrible. So that's one item checked off our list.

Old toilet

New toilet

The second task is to remove the horrible pink wallpaper and wood panelling in the lounge and paint. We are well aware that this will probably not be simple, as the gib under the wall paper might not be good enough to paint over. But we'll have to wait and see till the wallpaper is off, and we might have to spend a bit of money stopping and prepping etc. We plan to have it done by the end of the year so we've got plenty of time to do a good job. Last weekend we bought ourselves a "paper tiger" each, which you roll over the walls and it puts holes in the wallpaper, which means the wallpaper remover solution can seep into the holes and make it easier to get off (hopefully). So we've started doing that, and well it looks pretty bad. But things are going to get worse before they get better, so we just have to deal with it!

Here's a pic of what the wallpaper looks like after being "tigered".

The third item on the list is to pull out all the gardens and demolish garden-related objects so we have a blank canvas. As the weather hasn't been very good, we haven't had much opportunity do do much, but as spring approached hopefully we can get out there and finish it.

Queen's Birthday Weekend

The weekend got off to a good start with my boss giving me a pay rise on Friday - woohoo. Kinda funny coz Toni was telling me that she got a pay rise and I realised that I hadn't had one in a while. She told me to ask for one but I was too chicken. Turned out I didn't need to anyway!

I decided that Q and I should go out for dinner to celebrate and because we never eat out just the two of us. I felt like something casual so we went to the Londoner. Food wasn't too bad but it was nice spending some "quality" time together.

Saturday we were up early to get the groceries and to tidy up a little before our guests (Chris and Ellie) arrived. They arrived mid-morning and we hung around for a bit then decided to head off to The Base. We wandered around there for a few hours, managed to spend a bit of money, had some lunch then went home.

Q and I had planned a fancy meal, so when we got home I proceeded to make dessert. Well what a fiasco. I had picked up a recipe sheet from the supermarket for Chocolate and Scorched Almond Decadence, and mistake #1 was I didn't read the instructions properly and put all the chocolate in the base when I should have saved some of it for the topping, and I neglected to see the bit about adding butter. Anyway Ellie managed to save it and we moved on to the next step. We followed the directions and made this egg and sugar concoction. We then realised that nowhere in the instructions did it say what to do with the egg and sugar mix. So we improvised and mixed it in with the base mixture. The recipe then gave us instructions to make the topping and stated to use the remaining butter, yet nowhere did it say how much of the butter we should have used in the first step so we used the whole lot. So we added a bit of butter and hoped for the best. As it turned out the dish was so incredibly delicious!! But the company that produced the recipe will be getting a very unpleasant letter from me and perhaps a demand for some sort of compensation!

It appears that this was the only photo I took of it. Think by the time we got round to eating it I was too drunk to care. And yeah, it's pretty much all chocolate.

Now moving on to Q's main - beef fillet with creamed spinach and truffle french fries (minus the truffle oil). The meal was sooooo damned good! I am so proud of my little Quentin. Turns out he has bit of a passion for cooking. Who would've thought!

On Sunday we headed off to the Hamilton Gardens. I haven't been there in many years. The highlight of the trip was seeing this group of people dressed up in helmets with homemade shields and weapons. We saw them hanging out in the carpark so we hung around waiting to see what they were doing. They walked, sorry marched, over to a field where some people who were dressed differently went to the top of the hill while the rest of them remained at the bottom. Then the guys at the bottom "attacked" the guys at the top and had bit of a battle. We were sitting there watching this just pissing ourselves laughing! What friggin weirdos!!!!! I'll get some photos from Ellie to put on here. It was VERY entertaining! From there we went into town, had bit of a look round then went home.

Today hasn't been very productive. I finally managed to get the firewood out of the rain and into a little shed thing. And thats about it.

I'm running out of title names...

How many different ways can you say "update"?

Last Friday night Hayley came over for dinner to have one final catch-up before she and Niki leave for their OE, and to check out our house. We had takeaway from Masala Club - I know I've said it before but their butter chicken is soooooo gooooood! We had a great time just sitting round the table talking, and did quite a bit of reminscing about the old days. It was a bit sad saying goodbye - I don't know when I'll see you again Hayley! I'll miss you!

Early Saturday morning (last Saturday) my dad came over and we went to my uncles farm to get some firewood. Dad and another uncle chopped the tree trunks into managable pieces and we all took turns at choppin them up. Sounds more impressive that it actually was. Dad had built a woodchopper with a hydraulic ram so all we had to do was put the wood underneath it and pull the lever. That's not to say it was easy work - there was still a lot of lifting and carrying to do. We had a good system going and filled three big trailers and a ute in a few hours. We unloaded our trailer in the driveway and it hasn't moved since. We really should get round to putting it away. Hopefully with this weekend being a long one we should get lots done around the house.

This past Saturday night 69 came over to have dinner and watch movies. We had home made pizza - very yum, and saw Children of Men and The Departed. Children of Men was alright - what made the film was Clive Owen (I think he's a dish). The Departed was WAY too long and kinda boring.

Well I had best get back to work.

The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. Q and I have been sick for what feels like forever, so the unpacking took longer than anticipated. Everything in the house is all organised, now we just have to organise the garage where we'd put all the crap that we don't use but don't want to throw away. Plus the old owner left cupboards, drawers, a chest, chairs and other rubbish which we need to get rid of - I think a trip to the very exciting dump is in order.

It was Cam's birthday a couple of weeks ago. Friday night was dinner at Le Dome. I felt horrible and could hardly speak but I dragged my sorry arse along. The food was great, as was the company but we called it a night early so I could go to bed. The birthday celebrations continued on Saturday, but I wasn't well enough to go.

On Friday night Q and I went to the Tonic7 Expo. It was a special evening for VIP's, and we had a great time. It was an urban lifestyle expo showcasing "sophisticated" products, like kitchens, bathrooms, European cars, spa pools (the really flash kind with speakers and other cool stuff) and lots more. It was nice to dream.... We were given name tags to wear - mine said "Kim Weber". Well that felt really weird!

We decided to get out some movies on Saturday - You, Me and Dupree, and Saw III. You, Me and Dupree was lame, and Saw III almost made me throw up it was that disgusting, but I liked it all the same.

Till next time.

The Big Move

Well we're all moved in to our new house. Things are great, although the place is a bomb site and I can't wait to have everything unpacked. We're both forever walking around going "do you know where such and such is?" and the answer is always "no".

Our moving crew consisted of me and Q, Q's dad, Chris, Ben, Anton, Ellie, and Hal. Q's mum and sister turned up later to help and feed us. Q's dad, Chris, Ben, Anton, and Ellie stayed Friday night and we were up early Saturday morning to have a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. Then we picked the truck up at 9am and began loading it up. We moved everything in two trips and everything was unloaded by 1pm - not bad going! We saw the kitties again, but unfortunately one was very sick so we got the SPCA to come over and take them away. They could only catch the sick one but we've been given a trap to catch the others. While all that was going on the previous owner showed up to fix the fence and mow the lawns which he was going to do before we moved in. It was nice to meet him and he was lovely enough to give us a bottle of wine. By mid afternoon Q and I were all alone so we went to pick up Quilla and Katie and bring them back and begin the mammoth task of unpacking. Needless to say we were both stuffed so we didn't get much done. I had a killer headache, but do you think I could find the panadol anywhere? No! So we were in bed by 9 and hoped to get a good nights sleep. But that was not to happen. We'd put the mattress on the bed upside down (we thought both sides were the same, obviously not) and it just wasn't comfortable. So we tossed and turned all night and were tired for Sunday. We spent a couple of hours Sunday morning cleaning our old place, then headed off to Bunnings to buy a shower caddy. We couldn't find one suitable, but we did almost purchase a new toilet (they're so cheap!). But we couldn't be arsed so we went home and tried to do more unpacking. Hopefully we'll get everything organised soon so we can have a housewarming party!

The Latest

Hello all.

Only five days to go till we take possession!! Things have been moving along nicely. We went to the bank this morning to sort out bank accounts and life insurance - how depressing! We then went round to the new place with the Rug Doctor to clean the carpet in the lounge etc. I met the neighbour across the road, she seems very nice and said that it was nice having young couples moving into the neighbourhood. I opened the back door and saw this little furry thing hiding behind a plant - it was the tiniest cutest kitten! But it ran away from me. Then as we were leaving I went out the back again and saw it standing by the hatch to get under the house. It saw me and ran off but I heard others running off too. So I think we have a litter of stray kittens under the house. They are really small and fluffy! So if anyone wants a kitten let me know...

Here are some photos of the house:

This is the front of the house

This is the entry

This is the lounge (the pink wallpaper is a personal favourite)

The kitchen (as you can see it needs a bit of a makeover)

The hallway

Well that's it. Needs some "modernising" but it's ours and we love it. Now I must go and do some more packing! I'm so excited!!!

I'm Suprised Too

Yet another entry - I must be sick.

Thursday was Q's 25th birthday, so as the trend now is to spread your birthday out to last as long as possible Q decided to make his birthday three days long. Tuesday Team Daweb (pronounced Doorweb), Jacki and Jo went to the movies and saw Wild Hogs. It was a very funny movie! Wednesday we all (us two, Jacki, Jo, Rach, Cam) went to En Q for dinner. I've been a few times before and it never disappoints. It's more classy than other restaurants I've been to, and in fact it's the only one I've been to where they put the bottle of wine in an ice bucket. The meal was fantastic, and seeing as we didn't have to pay it was even better! Thursday was Q's actual birthday, and to celebrate he cooked dinner. To be fair I offered that we cook it together but seeing as he needed to start cooking at about 3 I couldn't really help. So I went to The Cheesecake Shop and bought him a Blackforest Torte - they are soooooo goooooooood!

Easter weeked was spent packing and cleaning. We packed up the spare room which is now the 'holding room', where we've put all the boxes that we've packed. Almost packed everything we can live without for the next one and a bit weeks, and I spent a couple of days cleaning walls and ceilings. Still got quite a bit to do, so will do a little bit each night. We plan to visit the house this weekend - want to clean the carpet in the lounge and clean it to my standard, and check everything is as it should be. So we will hopefully take some photos.

Thats all for now.

Hello Mortgage

As promised, here is the update with the big news. Most of you already know, but Q and I have bought our first house. After scouring the realestate websites for months we finally went 'house hunting' two weekends ago. We looked at maybe two on the Saturday and three or four on the Sunday. The first house we saw on Sunday was perfect (well as close to perfect that our budget would allow). So on Sunday night we made an offer. The whole time the realestate agent was there I was freaking out, with all the paper work and legal clauses blah blah blah. As I have never bought a house before I had no idea what was going on. After spending Monday in negotiations with the vendor, we finally met half-way and signed the deal. I had always thought that the house buying process was a long one - oh-but-no. We had until today (28th) to satisfy all the conditions of the sale, which meant getting a valuation, building inspection, and LIM. We couldn't get a valuer or inspector until Friday, so we were quickly running out of time. We had some drama's with the wanker valuer who "double booked" and didn't let us know, but we managed to find another guy who came over straight away. So then we were just waiting on the LIM, which we got yesterday. So, with everything looking good, and with the help of Jacki (thanks so much!), we went unconditional today. We take possession on 20 April, which gives us three weeks to pack and clean. So now we're homeowners with a large mortgage we're going to have to be very responsible with our money! We haven't taken any photos yet but I can assure you we will, and will post them on here. In the interim here is a photo from the realestate website.

So I'm not going to give an update on everything I've done since August last year, but there is one other event I wish to talk about. Q's older brother Jacob married my friend Teresa on 10 March. The wedding and reception were held at Ambience Gardens in Tauranga. It was a beautiful ceremony, although I managed to control the tears! Congratulations Jacob and Teresa! We stayed with Q's younger brother Chris and his girlfriend Ellie. Ellie had made hair appointments for us at 11.45am, and we were told it would only take 30mins, which is all we had time for. But of course it actually took 1 hour, with me being stuck with a "learner" who very rudely told me that we should have come in earlier! Well we damn well would of but they were booked solid! So we had to sprint back to their place to make it to the wedding by 2. Luckily we made it in time! I had such a great time, and Teresa looked beautiful!

Well thats all for now folks. Will put some photos of our house on as soon as we get some.

Watch This Space...

Big update coming soon - featuring (hopefully) some big and exciting news (well, for me anyway!).