Today was a pretty busy day at work. I managed to get in 10K steps by lunchtime and was at 14K steps by the time I got home from work. It's still really hot so I haven't been going for walks or using the weights in the garage. I know I'm starting to sound a bit like a broken record when it comes to exercising but I do intend to get back into it and have a real go at doing more, it is just too hot and by the time it cools down a little after dinner I've usually had a beer or two and couldn't be bothered. I don't feel too bad as I know that getting over 10K was the goal. I almost feel like I should give a certain type of day a number, like today was a number 5 and you'll know basically what I'm talking about.
I intend on cutting out beer during the week once the weather cools down a little, we'll also have to be tightening our belts a little once we move house as our mortgage will be quite a bit more so the repayments will be higher. I don't think we're going to be over committing ourselves, but there will definitely be less take-away than we've been having over the last couple of months.
This weekend I plan on doing more cleaning up, hopefully I can clean the deck and some of the walls around the house. I still need to finish painting the doors but at least since we've already got an offer on the place I don't have to do as much as I thought I was going to have to do. We've prepared basically all our documents and will be giving them to the solicitors tomorrow. That means we should be exchanging contracts pretty soon. Once that happens we try to lock in a day for settlement to occur so we'll know exactly when we need to be out of our current house. The goal is to get wherever we purchase to settle on the same day so it is seamless and also try to get vacant possession of the house a day or two before settlement if possible so we can start moving things in. If we can't get in a day or two early it's going to be a pretty busy day as we'll be moving out on settlement day and luckily the people who are buying are currently renting so they won't be trying to move in while we're moving out but I can't imagine that they'll want to be renting and paying a mortgage for too long.
Tomorrow we look at a house that I'm very interested in and I hope that it lives up to expectations as I really like the location and if it isn't that house, then there currently isn't anything on the market that I'm really interested in. I don't want to just choose something as it's all there is currently available when we still have a bit of time before we need to commit.
Bomber
things are happening - fast.
Thursday, 31 January 2019
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
It's all a bit of a blur
So far this week I haven't managed to get our for any additional exercise, but I have cracked the 10K step yesterday and today. I've also started drinking more water. Today at work I did a fair bit of physical activity so hopefully I'll at least stop the weight gain.
We took the kids to look at a potential house this afternoon, it was the larger of the two that we are looking at this week, I'm still not convinced but I do think that it will probably be the better house but in a not so good location. I'm currently pinning all my hopes on the slightly smaller house in the better location, we get to see inside that one on Friday afternoon.
The one we looked at today had a few quirks that seemed really odd for a new house. The NBN fibre to the home internet connect terminates in the linen cupboard. There is a power point in there to power the supplied router as well as an available outlet for your own router. I can't remember exactly how it works but you connect your router to theirs, your router handles all the authenitcation and what not, their router is designed to handle multiple separate connections and also the house phone. The thing is that there is no other data points anywhere in the house, so if you want a traditional home phone with a cord, it has to go in the linen cupboard. If you have a cordless phone, it's not so bad, but again the base station has to go in the linen cupboard with means you need a double adapter or power board to power it as there is only the two power outlets in the linen cupboard.
Another house we looked at but ruled out had the NBN connection in the garage and had a patching plate with 5 outlets. This means you could run the phone to any of the 5 outlets in the house and your standard home router has four ports so you could patch them through to the outlets that were behind the TV locations. That makes much more sense. I'm not sure where all 5 ports were running to, there was one in the bedroom next to where your bedside would go so I assume that would be where you'd put your phones base station. There were one each behind the TV locations. I didn't see where the last one went but there wasn't one where they had set up the desk which seemed a little odd. Anyway, I'm probably getting a little hung up on the data points, but I'm not a huge fan of WiFi for desktop PCs, TVs and gaming consoles, I would much rather have a physical network connection for them.
Bomber
fingers crossed for Friday
We took the kids to look at a potential house this afternoon, it was the larger of the two that we are looking at this week, I'm still not convinced but I do think that it will probably be the better house but in a not so good location. I'm currently pinning all my hopes on the slightly smaller house in the better location, we get to see inside that one on Friday afternoon.
The one we looked at today had a few quirks that seemed really odd for a new house. The NBN fibre to the home internet connect terminates in the linen cupboard. There is a power point in there to power the supplied router as well as an available outlet for your own router. I can't remember exactly how it works but you connect your router to theirs, your router handles all the authenitcation and what not, their router is designed to handle multiple separate connections and also the house phone. The thing is that there is no other data points anywhere in the house, so if you want a traditional home phone with a cord, it has to go in the linen cupboard. If you have a cordless phone, it's not so bad, but again the base station has to go in the linen cupboard with means you need a double adapter or power board to power it as there is only the two power outlets in the linen cupboard.
Another house we looked at but ruled out had the NBN connection in the garage and had a patching plate with 5 outlets. This means you could run the phone to any of the 5 outlets in the house and your standard home router has four ports so you could patch them through to the outlets that were behind the TV locations. That makes much more sense. I'm not sure where all 5 ports were running to, there was one in the bedroom next to where your bedside would go so I assume that would be where you'd put your phones base station. There were one each behind the TV locations. I didn't see where the last one went but there wasn't one where they had set up the desk which seemed a little odd. Anyway, I'm probably getting a little hung up on the data points, but I'm not a huge fan of WiFi for desktop PCs, TVs and gaming consoles, I would much rather have a physical network connection for them.
Bomber
fingers crossed for Friday
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
...and the winner is
It looks like that if we want to build it will be close to 12 months from when we start to when we'll finish. All the paperwork required to get to the "6 month build time" is what will slow us down. We spoke to a lot of the builders at Googong, well I guess their office/sales people, not the builders themselves to see if they had any houses that they were selling or were nearing completion with an aim to sell.
We now have a short list of currently two houses that we want to look closer at. One of them we've already seen, but it was the first house we looked at and we didn't know if we were going to be selling or not at that stage. The other one we've only seen the floor plans and the outside of but so far it is my preferred one. It is on a smaller block than the other and I'm not sure what is included, it does look a little smaller in some ways, it is just the location of it that really appeals to me. The smaller house hasn't even been listed on any real estate sites yet so we should be the first people to look at it and possibly the first to have a chance to put an offer in.
We're going to try and look at both of them next week, hopefully back to back so we can really get a good feel for both of them without any time in between. The larger one is on a fairly long street that could end up being quite busy and the houses behind it are yet to be built so could end up with a mcmansion looking down into the yard which would be upsetting. The other downside to the larger one is that there is no foot path on the same side of the street and you have to cross over one if not two streets to get to any sort of open space for the kids to ride their bikes or scooters or even throw a frisbee or something.
The smaller house has the footpath out the front and is only five or six houses from a large open space and there are no streets to cross. I want my kids to have space to play and not have to worry about them crossing roads or anything. The house I grew up in backed onto a large greenway and had a footpath that ran all the way from our house to the primary school without having to cross any roads. By the time I was in third grade I was riding or walking to school everyday by myself. My kids won't be able to walk or ride to school, but at least they'd be able to go for a ride after school if they wanted. There would also be plenty of space for me to go for walks after work that would be more enjoyable than just walking the streets.
I think I said that I never wanted to move out to Googong, or at least that I was reluctant, now I'm definitely warming to the idea and that has surprised me.
Bomber
buying, not building
We now have a short list of currently two houses that we want to look closer at. One of them we've already seen, but it was the first house we looked at and we didn't know if we were going to be selling or not at that stage. The other one we've only seen the floor plans and the outside of but so far it is my preferred one. It is on a smaller block than the other and I'm not sure what is included, it does look a little smaller in some ways, it is just the location of it that really appeals to me. The smaller house hasn't even been listed on any real estate sites yet so we should be the first people to look at it and possibly the first to have a chance to put an offer in.
We're going to try and look at both of them next week, hopefully back to back so we can really get a good feel for both of them without any time in between. The larger one is on a fairly long street that could end up being quite busy and the houses behind it are yet to be built so could end up with a mcmansion looking down into the yard which would be upsetting. The other downside to the larger one is that there is no foot path on the same side of the street and you have to cross over one if not two streets to get to any sort of open space for the kids to ride their bikes or scooters or even throw a frisbee or something.
The smaller house has the footpath out the front and is only five or six houses from a large open space and there are no streets to cross. I want my kids to have space to play and not have to worry about them crossing roads or anything. The house I grew up in backed onto a large greenway and had a footpath that ran all the way from our house to the primary school without having to cross any roads. By the time I was in third grade I was riding or walking to school everyday by myself. My kids won't be able to walk or ride to school, but at least they'd be able to go for a ride after school if they wanted. There would also be plenty of space for me to go for walks after work that would be more enjoyable than just walking the streets.
I think I said that I never wanted to move out to Googong, or at least that I was reluctant, now I'm definitely warming to the idea and that has surprised me.
Bomber
buying, not building
Monday, 28 January 2019
Buying or Building?
After a bit of discussion, my wife and I are now going to talk to some builders about possibly building a new home out at Googong. This has mainly come about as we can't find anything currently for sale that we can agree on, we also think that it may actually be cheaper to build what we want then to buy something. Like most thoughts we've had recently, that will probably be wrong but we have to get all the information first.
We have a very slim window in which to find a block and engage a builder otherwise we'll be without a home for a considerable length of time. We're expecting that settlement on our current house will occur in just under four months. Construction could take up to 9 months so that would leave us living with my Dad for the gap in the middle. We'd also have to put most of our belongings in storage which could be quite expensive. The benefits of building at that we'll get exactly what we want and we'll be saving money by staying with Dad so we could possibly afford to have a few nicer things in the house.
The down side of building is that we'd be living with Dad for six months and that would be a bit of an ask for my wife. We'd need to work a few things out if we were going to do that to ensure that we had some space for the kids and us that wasn't getting in my Dad's way.
We're meeting with a builder tomorrow so should have more of an idea of what we could be in for after that. One of the advantages of looking at a few of the houses available at the moment is that we've got a bit of a list of things that we are looking for and getting them added in during the build would be easier and most likely cheaper than getting them added in a later date.
Bomber
ever feel like life is moving faster than you?
We have a very slim window in which to find a block and engage a builder otherwise we'll be without a home for a considerable length of time. We're expecting that settlement on our current house will occur in just under four months. Construction could take up to 9 months so that would leave us living with my Dad for the gap in the middle. We'd also have to put most of our belongings in storage which could be quite expensive. The benefits of building at that we'll get exactly what we want and we'll be saving money by staying with Dad so we could possibly afford to have a few nicer things in the house.
The down side of building is that we'd be living with Dad for six months and that would be a bit of an ask for my wife. We'd need to work a few things out if we were going to do that to ensure that we had some space for the kids and us that wasn't getting in my Dad's way.
We're meeting with a builder tomorrow so should have more of an idea of what we could be in for after that. One of the advantages of looking at a few of the houses available at the moment is that we've got a bit of a list of things that we are looking for and getting them added in during the build would be easier and most likely cheaper than getting them added in a later date.
Bomber
ever feel like life is moving faster than you?
Sunday, 27 January 2019
Weighing In
Well with holidays over until my next break in March, the house basically sold and if it falls through then at least some of the work is done to prepare it to go on the market and the new year well and truly under way, I guess I should start looking at doing some exercise again.
It is still really hot, I don't remember ever having so many hot days in row, summer always had a week or two of really high temps but it seems like we've had more than usual this year. Adelaide had the hottest day ever recorded for an Australian capital city the other day and there is no real sign of it letting up. It looks like they are predicting it to cool down a little by the end of next week, friday is meant to be 29°C which will be a welcome change from the mid 30s we'll be experiencing all week.
I'm going to have to try and do something to get me exercising again, I'm rapidly gaining weight and really need to get a hold of the situation. I've also stopped drinking water for some reason. I realised this morning, that despite all the heat I don't know when I last had just water. It must be almost a week or possibly longer, I didn't have any while we were camping, I just had fizzy drink and some cans of bourbon and coke, this week I've had a coffee each morning then a couple of beers each night. I don't really know how I'm surviving on just beer and sugary water, I guess that explains the weight gain a little.
Weight: 111KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
Bomber
At least my pants are staying up again....
It is still really hot, I don't remember ever having so many hot days in row, summer always had a week or two of really high temps but it seems like we've had more than usual this year. Adelaide had the hottest day ever recorded for an Australian capital city the other day and there is no real sign of it letting up. It looks like they are predicting it to cool down a little by the end of next week, friday is meant to be 29°C which will be a welcome change from the mid 30s we'll be experiencing all week.
I'm going to have to try and do something to get me exercising again, I'm rapidly gaining weight and really need to get a hold of the situation. I've also stopped drinking water for some reason. I realised this morning, that despite all the heat I don't know when I last had just water. It must be almost a week or possibly longer, I didn't have any while we were camping, I just had fizzy drink and some cans of bourbon and coke, this week I've had a coffee each morning then a couple of beers each night. I don't really know how I'm surviving on just beer and sugary water, I guess that explains the weight gain a little.
Weight: 111KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
Bomber
At least my pants are staying up again....
Saturday, 26 January 2019
Happy Australia Day
In the history of the Human Race there has been numerous cases where a country has been invaded and right or wrong it has happened and you can't just dwell on the past, we need to move forward and do more to bridge any gaps in education and the standard of living that exists between the average Aboriginal family and anyone else living in Australia.
Even more recently with the stolen generation, I believe that the government at the time had the best intentions, it was those that were racist that twisted the policy and stole all those children. The government should have done more to stop it but it would be hard to know just what was going on in each little town across the country. It's not like today where every other car has a dashcam and every person has a phone with a camera in their pockets.
I'm proud to be an Australian and even though I don't think I can trace my bloodlines back to convicts my Dad's side of the family has been here a while and has helped shape what we've become.
I personally think that we need to become a republic and ditch the union jack from our flag. We could possible adopt the flag of the Aborigines or come up with something that reflects this great land. I think most Australians don't really care about the Royal Family that much, they don't really do much for us and yet we still carry their flag on ours. I think by becoming a republic we could acknowledge the aboriginals more and also move on from any of the hurt that some still carry.
When you see what is happening all around the world, I'm glad that I live in Australia and think that we truly live in the best country on earth.
Bomber
Aussie aussie aussie, oi oi oi!
Friday, 25 January 2019
Unexpected
As planned, today I painted the ceiling in the kitchen, I was going to do more painting but my wife rang and advised that someone had made an offer on the house. Someone who is a friend of a friend heard that we were looking to sell and when I was camping with the kids down the coast, they came and took a look at the house and my wife showed them through. After a little back and forth on the price we agreed on one and I just have to do a little tidying up and we're done. They were nice enough to allow us a long settlement so we have a chance to find the right house for us to move in to.
I finished painting the ceiling in the kitchen and over the weekend I'll tidy up a few other things but then we basically just need to clean everything really well and start packing.
Now that we know how much we'll be selling for, we can run the numbers and find out just how much of a budget we have to buy with, hopefully something we like will come along shortly and we'll be able to make an offer on it.
By selling before we've engaged an agent means that we have saved roughly $3,000 on advertising costs as well as the agents commission for when we do sell, that means we've saved somewhere around $15,000. If you add that $15K onto the offer that we've accepted, it is probably more than the house would have actually sold for at auction or what an agent would have got for us and we've had no open houses or any other things to worry about.
There is a slightly older house in Canberra that looks quite nice and has been recently renovated, I've asked my wife if we can at least go and have a look at it. I think that it will be just too far from my wife's work and the kids school but as it is on a block about twice the size of anything we can afford nearby and it has a pool I think we have to take a look. More than anything, we need to see just what our budget can get us and not just look at Googong because everything is new and shiny.
Bomber
I can't believe how easy that was.
I finished painting the ceiling in the kitchen and over the weekend I'll tidy up a few other things but then we basically just need to clean everything really well and start packing.
Now that we know how much we'll be selling for, we can run the numbers and find out just how much of a budget we have to buy with, hopefully something we like will come along shortly and we'll be able to make an offer on it.
By selling before we've engaged an agent means that we have saved roughly $3,000 on advertising costs as well as the agents commission for when we do sell, that means we've saved somewhere around $15,000. If you add that $15K onto the offer that we've accepted, it is probably more than the house would have actually sold for at auction or what an agent would have got for us and we've had no open houses or any other things to worry about.
There is a slightly older house in Canberra that looks quite nice and has been recently renovated, I've asked my wife if we can at least go and have a look at it. I think that it will be just too far from my wife's work and the kids school but as it is on a block about twice the size of anything we can afford nearby and it has a pool I think we have to take a look. More than anything, we need to see just what our budget can get us and not just look at Googong because everything is new and shiny.
Bomber
I can't believe how easy that was.
Thursday, 24 January 2019
Getting Things Done
Today was a busy little day but I still don't think that I did enough. I think I need to try and get out of bed a little earliers tomorrow so I can get more done. I don't have as much running around to do tomorrow so that should help as well.
I dropped my wife off at work at 9:10am and then we headed off to the hardware store to buy some paint and a couple of other things. We came back home and I put a load of washing in the machine and started trying to fix up the doors and some of the trim around the house. Then, we had to visit the chiropractor for a follow up appointment, he cracked my back and neck again but it wasn't as much of a crack as last time and he seems to think that I'm all fixed and don't need a follow up appointment. We then headed off to the grocery store to get some supplies for today and tomorrow and went home to have lunch.
After lunch I put another load of washing on and then touched up some of the bog that I'd put on earlier and started fixing up the kitchen walls that were a little damaged when the stone bench-tops were installed last year.
Once that was done it was time to go and collect my wife from work. We headed straight out to the new estate at Googong and looked through three different houses that are currently for sale. The first two houses were brand new and the builder was selling them, the third was probably a year or two old and the owners were supposedly moving to a new house in Googong. After the first house I was a little disappointed, it didn't really grab me but it was nice, I walked out of there thinking that I'd probably prefer to live somewhere else. The next house probably had a better floorplan, but the house faced west and the master bedroom and loungeroom were already starting to cook and it was only early afternoon, there was no way that the aircon was going to keep up in those spaces and all the windows were only single glazed where the first house we looked at was all double glazed.
The third house was a beautiful house, it was big but it didn't have all the features that we wanted and I don't know what the block size was, but it had basically no yard. There was no way that I would enjoy sitting outside with a beer, there was no chance I'd be able to have a firepit and it was a corner block so you really felt closed in by the roads on two sides.
The pick of the bunch was the first one and I when we were pulling out of the driveway of that one I was saying to myself that I didn't want it so I don't think it is an option either.
We're not really in a position to be making an offer at this stage anyway, so I'm not sure why my wife really wanted to go out and look at them. Unfortunately, I don't think that she can see how much work needs to be done around the house before we sell. At the very least we should have a building report done and ready to go as well as the painting and repairs. We can then go and get pre-approval from somewhere so we'll actually know our budget if we do end up finding somewhere amazing and wanting to buy it before we've sold our current house.
Bomber
Tomorrow the painting begins
I dropped my wife off at work at 9:10am and then we headed off to the hardware store to buy some paint and a couple of other things. We came back home and I put a load of washing in the machine and started trying to fix up the doors and some of the trim around the house. Then, we had to visit the chiropractor for a follow up appointment, he cracked my back and neck again but it wasn't as much of a crack as last time and he seems to think that I'm all fixed and don't need a follow up appointment. We then headed off to the grocery store to get some supplies for today and tomorrow and went home to have lunch.
After lunch I put another load of washing on and then touched up some of the bog that I'd put on earlier and started fixing up the kitchen walls that were a little damaged when the stone bench-tops were installed last year.
Once that was done it was time to go and collect my wife from work. We headed straight out to the new estate at Googong and looked through three different houses that are currently for sale. The first two houses were brand new and the builder was selling them, the third was probably a year or two old and the owners were supposedly moving to a new house in Googong. After the first house I was a little disappointed, it didn't really grab me but it was nice, I walked out of there thinking that I'd probably prefer to live somewhere else. The next house probably had a better floorplan, but the house faced west and the master bedroom and loungeroom were already starting to cook and it was only early afternoon, there was no way that the aircon was going to keep up in those spaces and all the windows were only single glazed where the first house we looked at was all double glazed.
The third house was a beautiful house, it was big but it didn't have all the features that we wanted and I don't know what the block size was, but it had basically no yard. There was no way that I would enjoy sitting outside with a beer, there was no chance I'd be able to have a firepit and it was a corner block so you really felt closed in by the roads on two sides.
The pick of the bunch was the first one and I when we were pulling out of the driveway of that one I was saying to myself that I didn't want it so I don't think it is an option either.
We're not really in a position to be making an offer at this stage anyway, so I'm not sure why my wife really wanted to go out and look at them. Unfortunately, I don't think that she can see how much work needs to be done around the house before we sell. At the very least we should have a building report done and ready to go as well as the painting and repairs. We can then go and get pre-approval from somewhere so we'll actually know our budget if we do end up finding somewhere amazing and wanting to buy it before we've sold our current house.
Bomber
Tomorrow the painting begins
Wednesday, 23 January 2019
Taking the Kids Camping
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| Racecourse Beach Tourist Park |
The kids wore themselves out playing at the beach in the morning and then swimming at the pool in the afternoon and I got to spend some time doing nothing except playing with the kids and just kicking back and keeping an eye on them. We had fish and chips for lunch and sausage sandwiches for dinner on both days, couldn't have been easier.
There was a little storm last night but it didn't come along until we were already getting ready for bed so we just hurried ourselves along and got to bed before the rain hit. It was awesome lying in the tent and seeing the lightning flash around and then hearing the thunder, it scared my kids a little. My daughter is always a little scared by thunder or any loud noise really and my son didn't think that the tent was waterproof for some reason, he was also worried about a tsunami coming and taking us out in our sleep. I had to keep telling him that it wasn't going to happen that it was just a storm and that we don't really get earthquakes or tsunamis in Australia and especially not where we were.
I forgot to take the 360° camera and to be honest, I'm glad. I only took a few photos on my phone for my wife and I if I had the 360° camera I would have felt like that I had to try and use it or something.
I've got a follow up appointment at the chiropractor tomorrow, but I'm not sure if he's going to give me another adjustment or just see how I'm getting on. My back has been a lot better, I thought it might get worse after the last couple of nights sleeping on a firm camping matt, but it feels a lot better than it has in a long while.
After that, my wife has lined up some houses for us to look at. I'm getting the impression that my wife would prefer to buy something before we've sold our current house, I don't think that is a very good idea so we'll see how we get on.
Bomber
I'm feeling relaxed now
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Things to do
When I get back from camping tomorrow, I have to start prioritising the list of things to do and actually start getting some of them done. My sons room, the hallway and lounge room don't need any attention besides a clean, I've got some sugar soap in the cupboard so I'll wipe everything down. I know what colour my daughters bedroom and the sunroom are and I'll probably have to buy a couple of small tins of each to tidy those rooms up a little. I think I still have some left over paint for the master bedroom but it I don't I'll need to buy some more of that too, drama is that I don't know what the colour is called, maybe something like fragrant bloom or blossom. I've confirmed that the paint colour in the kitchen is Antique White USA, but I still need to figure out what colour the trim and doors are in the house as I don't want to have to repaint everything just to get it to match. I was toying with the idea of just leaving them but I don't think I can, the doors in particular need some attention.
I've tried to sort out the list to give me some idea of where to start, you know what I'm like with lists and setting goals and the like so writing it all down here is as good a place as anywhere else.
writing a list and checking it twice isn't all reindeers and bells...
I've tried to sort out the list to give me some idea of where to start, you know what I'm like with lists and setting goals and the like so writing it all down here is as good a place as anywhere else.
- paint the laundry
- replace the shower screen in the bathroom
- paint the ceiling in the kitchen
- fix the tiles in the toilet
- fix the wall in our daughters bedroom and repaint it
- fix the paint in the master bedroom
- fix the paint in the sunroom
- organise a pest inspection
- tidy the backyard and weed it
- fertilise the front lawn and keep it watered
- trim the tree out the front
- clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors
- clean all the grout in the bathroom
- clean all the windows, inside and out
- clean the blinds
- clean all the aircon ducts
- clean the fly screens
- clean the deck
- possibly oil the deck
- possibly paint the exterior of the sunroom
- figure out where I'm going to move the fishtank too as the agent doesn't want it where it is during the open houses.
- declutter and depersonalise the house a little
- start sorting out the garage a little
writing a list and checking it twice isn't all reindeers and bells...
Monday, 21 January 2019
The Hunt Begins
Yesterday afternoon we took the kids out to visit all the display homes at the new estate closest to where we currently live. It's only about 10 minutes from where we live, so it's not really that far away, but growing up in Canberra, everything was only 15 minutes away so we're not used to travelling far to do anything at all.I think to get what we want, we'll have to borrow more than we want to. There are some options that we can afford but after seeing what is out there for just a little more, I think that we're probably going to stretch ourselves a little.
My wife and I are both pretty much home bodies so buying a house that we intend to live in for the rest of our lives that is everything we could ever want probably isn't too much of a bad thing. The display homes are of course fully optioned and on larger than average blocks, just to make things look better than they's be for probably everyone living out there.
We are going to have to be quite careful about the house we choose as quite a few of the houses are over looked by their neighbours, so there would be no feeling of privacy at all.
The biggest problem with the new estate is that their is currently only one road that everyone has to use to get in and out. At the end of that road, you can turn left and head out further into the country side, or turn right to head towards Canberra and where everybody works.
We haven't ruled out other areas, but I do think that we'll end up out there somewhere.
Bomber
I think I like new houses
Sunday, 20 January 2019
Weighing In
Yesterday was six months from when I started this blog and. As much as I wanted this blog to be more about my adventures in setting up the Motocamp360 business, it really turned into more of a diet, exercise and weight loss blog; And more recently one about moving house.
On 11 June 2018 I decided to have a fire in the backyard and burn all my old tax records related to my old business ventures. It was at that time that I decided that I was going to start this blog and do the whole Motocamp360 business. I'd been thinking about doing something like this for quite some time and finally decided that it was time to stop wondering and start doing.
On 19 July 2018 I actually started this blog and started writing down my ideas for the Motocamp360 business. Fast forward to today and basically I have set the business up but I haven't opened the doors yet. Since starting this blog I have posted every day about my journey on bettering myself, well ok, I have missed two days, but I think I can be forgiven for that.
I haven't done any promotion of this blog and I don't intend to, I'd still like to keep it as a personal diary of sorts, even though it is out on the interwebs for everyone to see if they want.
If you didn't notice, I've moved the "Weighing In" posts from Saturday to Sunday as I found that I can set the FitBit app to start the week on a Sunday or a Monday. By moving it to Sunday I can weigh myself myself first thing Sunday morning, then it will make it heaps easier for tracking my weekly activity as I can just take a look at the app and it will tell me how many steps I did in the week as well as the daily average, same for calories
Weight: 110KG
Steps for the week: 56,981
Average daily calorie burn: 3722
On 11 June 2018 I decided to have a fire in the backyard and burn all my old tax records related to my old business ventures. It was at that time that I decided that I was going to start this blog and do the whole Motocamp360 business. I'd been thinking about doing something like this for quite some time and finally decided that it was time to stop wondering and start doing.
On 19 July 2018 I actually started this blog and started writing down my ideas for the Motocamp360 business. Fast forward to today and basically I have set the business up but I haven't opened the doors yet. Since starting this blog I have posted every day about my journey on bettering myself, well ok, I have missed two days, but I think I can be forgiven for that.
I haven't done any promotion of this blog and I don't intend to, I'd still like to keep it as a personal diary of sorts, even though it is out on the interwebs for everyone to see if they want.
If you didn't notice, I've moved the "Weighing In" posts from Saturday to Sunday as I found that I can set the FitBit app to start the week on a Sunday or a Monday. By moving it to Sunday I can weigh myself myself first thing Sunday morning, then it will make it heaps easier for tracking my weekly activity as I can just take a look at the app and it will tell me how many steps I did in the week as well as the daily average, same for calories
Weight: 110KG
Steps for the week: 56,981
Average daily calorie burn: 3722
Saturday, 19 January 2019
I dropped it
Today was a sad day. I ended up having to go in to work in the morning and then rode my bike over to Dad's for lunch, meeting my wife and kids there. On the way home it was pretty hot ~38°C and when I got home and hopped off the bike somehow I'd forgotten to put the side stand down so the bike fell over.
The plastic hand guards did nothing to protect the clutch lever so the end of that broke off. Luckily I have engine guards and a strip of carpet that the bike fell on so the only marks are on the plastic hand guards. I'll replace the clutch lever and will definitely get some proper bark busters to better protect the levers.
This afternoon I took my daughter shopping for some camping equipment as she didn't have a sleeping bag and I needed to get some smaller camp beds since there will be the three of us in the one tent. I think my daughter is looking forward to camping, I'm sure she'll be a little scared going to sleep in the tent for the first time, but hopefully I'll have worn her out enough with running around at the park so she falls asleep without too much trouble.
Bomber
time for some new farkles
The plastic hand guards did nothing to protect the clutch lever so the end of that broke off. Luckily I have engine guards and a strip of carpet that the bike fell on so the only marks are on the plastic hand guards. I'll replace the clutch lever and will definitely get some proper bark busters to better protect the levers.This afternoon I took my daughter shopping for some camping equipment as she didn't have a sleeping bag and I needed to get some smaller camp beds since there will be the three of us in the one tent. I think my daughter is looking forward to camping, I'm sure she'll be a little scared going to sleep in the tent for the first time, but hopefully I'll have worn her out enough with running around at the park so she falls asleep without too much trouble.
Bomber
time for some new farkles
Friday, 18 January 2019
Sweaty and Droopy
Today I had an appointment after work with the doctor who will be performing the snip. It was all really straight forward, I guess he spends a lot of his time talking about the procedure as he does more of them then anyone else in Canberra, something like 90% of them. I don't know why someone would want to specialise in vasectomy as you have to work in mens crotches all day. Today it was almost 40°C when I rode to the appointment and I didn't know that I was going to have to drop my dacks for him to take a look at things. Things were quite sweaty and droopy down there and then having another man take a feel of things, wasn't exactly how I was planning on ending the work week. Anyway, I haven't booked in for the procedure yet, I'll wait until we've moved house before I do that as I don't want to have another thing on my mind at the moment.
We've chosen a real estate agent to sell our property and are hoping to lock in an auction on 23 March. We're already looking at new places and I've come around to the posibility of moving out to a new estate. The lure of a brand new house where nothing will need doing, is just too tempting. I do have a few conditions, the main one being that we have to be in close proximity to a park or open space, something like 4 or 5 houses at the most. I don't want it to be a big drama to take the kids to a park to ride their bikes or scooters around.
I'm looking forward to taking the kids camping next week, the weather is meant to have cooled down a little by then so we shouldn't be burnt to a crisp. I'll hopefully remember to take the 360° camera with me so I can take some photos with the kids at the beach.
Bomber
sorry I'm late, again
We've chosen a real estate agent to sell our property and are hoping to lock in an auction on 23 March. We're already looking at new places and I've come around to the posibility of moving out to a new estate. The lure of a brand new house where nothing will need doing, is just too tempting. I do have a few conditions, the main one being that we have to be in close proximity to a park or open space, something like 4 or 5 houses at the most. I don't want it to be a big drama to take the kids to a park to ride their bikes or scooters around.
I'm looking forward to taking the kids camping next week, the weather is meant to have cooled down a little by then so we shouldn't be burnt to a crisp. I'll hopefully remember to take the 360° camera with me so I can take some photos with the kids at the beach.
Bomber
sorry I'm late, again
Thursday, 17 January 2019
Still Failing
Well, I didn't make it into the garage last night and it won't happen tonight, it's just too hot and I need to spend some time watering the yard to keep things alive and green now that we're definitely selling. I've decided to put all the exercise and losing weight business on hold and concentrate on getting the house ready for sale. Just walking around the house I keep seeing more things that need doing, it looks like the entire sunroom needs attention and possibly a coat of paint.
I think I need to prioritise all the work and then just start ticking things off. I'm going to leave the oil based paints until last, that's things like a few spots on the doors and some of the skirts. I'd really like to try and match the existing off white colour so I don't end up having to paint everything so it matches. What it comes down to is the better result I can get, the more money we should get on auction day. I have 4 weeks from now to prepare everything for photos so I really need to get book in a weekend and get things done. Not this weekend but the next is looking pretty good as it is the Australia Day long weekend and as I'll be back from camping down the coast on Wednesday some time, I can head out and get everything I'll need on Thursday and get started. Most of what I need is just paint and some builders bog. I will also have a look at what I can get for the Karcher to clean the deck and the outside of the windows around the house.
Tomorrow I have an appointment with the doctor who'll be giving me the snip, that's something that I'll have to have done after all the work around the house is complete as I'm not going to lose a weekend due to my privates being uncomfortable and requiring an ice pack to be shoved in my dacks whilst I'm trying to paint.
Bomber
got to get my paint smock on
I think I need to prioritise all the work and then just start ticking things off. I'm going to leave the oil based paints until last, that's things like a few spots on the doors and some of the skirts. I'd really like to try and match the existing off white colour so I don't end up having to paint everything so it matches. What it comes down to is the better result I can get, the more money we should get on auction day. I have 4 weeks from now to prepare everything for photos so I really need to get book in a weekend and get things done. Not this weekend but the next is looking pretty good as it is the Australia Day long weekend and as I'll be back from camping down the coast on Wednesday some time, I can head out and get everything I'll need on Thursday and get started. Most of what I need is just paint and some builders bog. I will also have a look at what I can get for the Karcher to clean the deck and the outside of the windows around the house.
Tomorrow I have an appointment with the doctor who'll be giving me the snip, that's something that I'll have to have done after all the work around the house is complete as I'm not going to lose a weekend due to my privates being uncomfortable and requiring an ice pack to be shoved in my dacks whilst I'm trying to paint.
Bomber
got to get my paint smock on
Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Keeping Busy
Today I managed to get over 10K steps just at work and after dinner I plan to head down to the garage and try and do some weights. It's still going to be pretty hot in the garage but I think I need to start working on my fitness again as I'm already feeling quite exhausted and it's only the second week of the year. At least I have next week off.
With all the work we have to do to prepare for putting the house on the market I don't think I'll have any problems thinking about other things outside of work and trying to get things done on the weekends to keep me occupied. The list of things that we have to do is bound to get longer but currently it is something like
Bomber
I did say that I wanted to be busier on the weekends....
With all the work we have to do to prepare for putting the house on the market I don't think I'll have any problems thinking about other things outside of work and trying to get things done on the weekends to keep me occupied. The list of things that we have to do is bound to get longer but currently it is something like
- paint the laundry
- replace the shower screen in the bathroom
- paint the ceiling in the kitchen
- fix the tiles in the toilet
- fix the doors and paint them
- fertilise the front lawn and keep it watered
- trim the tree out the front
- fix the paint in the master bedroom
- clean all the aircon ducts
- organise a pest inspection
- clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors
- clean all the grout in the bathroom
- clean all the windows, inside and out
- clean the fly screens
- fix the wall in our daughters bedroom and repaint it
- tidy the backyard and weed it
- start sorting out the garage a little
- possibly oil the deck
- possibly paint the exterior of the sunroom
- declutter and depersonalise the house a little
- figure out where I'm going to move the fishtank too as the agent doesn't want it where it is during the open houses.
- keep hold of my sanity
Bomber
I did say that I wanted to be busier on the weekends....
Tuesday, 15 January 2019
So I guess we're moving
Well after doing a fair bit of research into getting en extension, we basically don't have enough money to do and the bank won't lend us enough to get what we want done. That basically leaves us with renovating the bathroom and laundry and then either staying put for a while longer or selling up and moving on, so I guess either way, sooner or later, we'll be moving. What will ultimately be the deciding factor is whether or not we'll then be able to afford the size and type of house that we want.
What we're wanting is a four bedroom house with separate living areas with a bit of space between the two so the kids can have one and my wife and I can have the other. The master needs to have an en-suite as we really need the extra bathroom and as the kids get older that will become more and more apparent. The extra bedroom would be primarily used as a study with space for my wife and I to have a desk each and also a sofa bed so we have somewhere for guests to stay.
I think that if we want to get all of that, then we have to be willing to buy something that needs some work done. Maybe a new kitchen and bathroom and possibly new carpet and a good coat of paint. The yard will probably need a fair bit of work done to it too. The drama is that my wife doesn't want to do any of that, she wants a house that needs nothing done to it. To get that kind of house, we'd need to get something with absolutely no yard. All of this is sounding very familiar so I'm sure that I written all of this before.
Anyway, we're waiting on the report to come back from the Real Estate agent that came this afternoon to look at the house before we make any further decisions but it looks like we won't be renovating, just cleaning up and a lick of paint here and there. We're most likely heading towards going to auction in late March.
Bomber
time to start collecting some large boxes
What we're wanting is a four bedroom house with separate living areas with a bit of space between the two so the kids can have one and my wife and I can have the other. The master needs to have an en-suite as we really need the extra bathroom and as the kids get older that will become more and more apparent. The extra bedroom would be primarily used as a study with space for my wife and I to have a desk each and also a sofa bed so we have somewhere for guests to stay.
I think that if we want to get all of that, then we have to be willing to buy something that needs some work done. Maybe a new kitchen and bathroom and possibly new carpet and a good coat of paint. The yard will probably need a fair bit of work done to it too. The drama is that my wife doesn't want to do any of that, she wants a house that needs nothing done to it. To get that kind of house, we'd need to get something with absolutely no yard. All of this is sounding very familiar so I'm sure that I written all of this before.
Anyway, we're waiting on the report to come back from the Real Estate agent that came this afternoon to look at the house before we make any further decisions but it looks like we won't be renovating, just cleaning up and a lick of paint here and there. We're most likely heading towards going to auction in late March.
Bomber
time to start collecting some large boxes
Monday, 14 January 2019
I forgot
I completely forgot about the blog last night, for whatever reason it didn't even enter my head that I even have a blog and that I didn't have anything set up to post. I think that some of it is because I don't really have a lot to share at the moment. Yesterday was just a day at home, I mowed the lawn and played games with the kids. My daughter likes playing Minecraft so my son and I join her and we just mess around and build a house together. I got home from work today and whilst I was still coming up the back stairs my daughter was asking if we could all play again.
Today after work I went to the chiropractor and he did what they call an adjustment, he went to great lengths to explain why it was an adjustment and that it wasn't just cracking my back, it all has to do with the nervous system and by adjusting the spine you can fix problems with the nervous system.
He did advise that the vertigo that I had experienced could have been due to my neck being quite stiff and he did a few moves and my neck and back both cracked. It will be interesting to see if what he did does actually make a difference. Right now it feels a tiny bit better but some of my muscles feel a little sore. I have to go back in about a week to get another adjustment and see if things have improved.
It's going to be another scorching week before things cool down a little early next week. It's too hot to go for a walk or spend any time in the garage with the weights. Next week it is meant to cool down a little which will be nice as I managed to book a campsite for Monday and Tuesday nights next week and I'm looking forward to taking the kids camping.
Bomber
sorry for missing another day
Today after work I went to the chiropractor and he did what they call an adjustment, he went to great lengths to explain why it was an adjustment and that it wasn't just cracking my back, it all has to do with the nervous system and by adjusting the spine you can fix problems with the nervous system.
He did advise that the vertigo that I had experienced could have been due to my neck being quite stiff and he did a few moves and my neck and back both cracked. It will be interesting to see if what he did does actually make a difference. Right now it feels a tiny bit better but some of my muscles feel a little sore. I have to go back in about a week to get another adjustment and see if things have improved.
It's going to be another scorching week before things cool down a little early next week. It's too hot to go for a walk or spend any time in the garage with the weights. Next week it is meant to cool down a little which will be nice as I managed to book a campsite for Monday and Tuesday nights next week and I'm looking forward to taking the kids camping.
Bomber
sorry for missing another day
Saturday, 12 January 2019
Weighing In
110 kg
46,820 steps for the week
3,456
average daily calorie burn
This week didn't go as I planned, the good news is that there is always next week! I got to 10,000 steps yesterday but that was just at work. I was going to try and use the weight yesterday afternoon but by the time I'd got home I had a beer instead and sat and chat with my wife for a while.
We have a builder coming on Monday to look at options for an extension, we have a real estate agent coming on Tuesday to give us a valuation and his thoughts on if we should update the bathroom and laundry prior to selling or if we won't see a return on the money spent.
It's kind of funny the direction that this blog has taken, it really shows that life can change pretty quickly and that your priorities can shift almost over night. Instead of searching up places to camp and getting ideas on ways to film for the Motocamp360 business, I'm now spending a lot of time looking at house listings and researching different knock-down rebuild options. I'm also trying to figure out the best way to do an extension on the existing house where we won't lose an entire bedroom to a set of stairs. There is so much to consider as we want to make the right decision and also make sure that we don't end up with some absolutley massive martgage. The way it looks at the moment we're basically going to have to double our current repayments no matter what we do and that's going to suck for a number of years until either I start earning more or my wife changes from part time work to full time work.
Bomber
blink and you'll miss it.
46,820 steps for the week
3,456
This week didn't go as I planned, the good news is that there is always next week! I got to 10,000 steps yesterday but that was just at work. I was going to try and use the weight yesterday afternoon but by the time I'd got home I had a beer instead and sat and chat with my wife for a while.
We have a builder coming on Monday to look at options for an extension, we have a real estate agent coming on Tuesday to give us a valuation and his thoughts on if we should update the bathroom and laundry prior to selling or if we won't see a return on the money spent.
It's kind of funny the direction that this blog has taken, it really shows that life can change pretty quickly and that your priorities can shift almost over night. Instead of searching up places to camp and getting ideas on ways to film for the Motocamp360 business, I'm now spending a lot of time looking at house listings and researching different knock-down rebuild options. I'm also trying to figure out the best way to do an extension on the existing house where we won't lose an entire bedroom to a set of stairs. There is so much to consider as we want to make the right decision and also make sure that we don't end up with some absolutley massive martgage. The way it looks at the moment we're basically going to have to double our current repayments no matter what we do and that's going to suck for a number of years until either I start earning more or my wife changes from part time work to full time work.
Bomber
blink and you'll miss it.
Friday, 11 January 2019
The discussion continues
My wife and I have been doing quite a lot of talking in the last couple of days about whether we should extend our existing home, or, move to a bigger place. We haven't ruled out building a place or doing a knock down rebuild but they are less likely to happen than the other two.
I think I've convinced my wife that moving to the new estate on the outskirts of town isn't the best idea but we can still go and look at the display homes to get an ideas for the possible extension and/or renovation of our existing home.
I would really like to stay where we are and either extend or rebuild or a bit of both. The location we are in is within walking distance of the kids school, the centre of town, the river and anything that we could possibly need. The value of our land is just going to go up much faster than basically anywhere else in town as we're not in the Heritage list zone, but still really close to everywhere and our block is still larger than anything that you can buy in any of the new suburbs.
We also have a view and nothing that we've seen so far has much of a view at all, most are built so close that the only thing you'd see is the fence or the side of another house.
I think the knock down rebuild option will prove to be too expensive which then only leaves doing an extension or moving somewhere else. I don't mid moving to somewhere nearby that might need a little work but my wife doesn't want to move to somewhere that needs work, she wants a finished place which is why she likes the new estates.
I don't know if we'll ever agree on what we're going to do, the only thing we agree on at the moment is that we need to do something as the current place is too small.
Bomber
know any good builders?
I think I've convinced my wife that moving to the new estate on the outskirts of town isn't the best idea but we can still go and look at the display homes to get an ideas for the possible extension and/or renovation of our existing home.
I would really like to stay where we are and either extend or rebuild or a bit of both. The location we are in is within walking distance of the kids school, the centre of town, the river and anything that we could possibly need. The value of our land is just going to go up much faster than basically anywhere else in town as we're not in the Heritage list zone, but still really close to everywhere and our block is still larger than anything that you can buy in any of the new suburbs.
We also have a view and nothing that we've seen so far has much of a view at all, most are built so close that the only thing you'd see is the fence or the side of another house.
I think the knock down rebuild option will prove to be too expensive which then only leaves doing an extension or moving somewhere else. I don't mid moving to somewhere nearby that might need a little work but my wife doesn't want to move to somewhere that needs work, she wants a finished place which is why she likes the new estates.
I don't know if we'll ever agree on what we're going to do, the only thing we agree on at the moment is that we need to do something as the current place is too small.
Bomber
know any good builders?
Thursday, 10 January 2019
The Snip
I've come to that stage in my life where it's pretty clear that my wife and I aren't going to be having any more kids. My wife went to the doctors the other day to get her prescription for the pill renewed and they suggested to her that I should get a vasectomy. Just thinking about it makes me cringe, but I know that it is something that I should do and it really makes a lot of sense for many reasons including the ongoing health of my wife.
I'd be uncomfortable no matter if it was a male or female doctor, I just don't like the idea of stripping off in front of anyone and then letting them cut me down there. After it's all done you have to go back and give them a sample three months later to make sure that it has worked. I don't even like the thought of giving them a sample, maybe if my wife helped with that part it would be ok, but it just seems wrong somehow.
Anyway, after my wife told me about it, I think she gathered that I might need some prodding to get it actually done so she has gone ahead and already made an appointment for me to see someone next week. The only good thing is that this Dr does hundreds of vasectomy each year, so he should know what he is doing and has probably dealt with other blokes who were a little uncomfortable with the idea of it all.
It's not like I want to have more children, or that even if something happened to my wife and I re-married, I'd still not be wanting more children. I don't want to be old enough to be my own child's grandfather and I would want to still be alive to see them grow into adults and have children of their own.
I think I'm just afraid that something might happen down there that might make things stop working the way they should and that wouldn't be good at all.
Bomber
still cringing at the thought.
I'd be uncomfortable no matter if it was a male or female doctor, I just don't like the idea of stripping off in front of anyone and then letting them cut me down there. After it's all done you have to go back and give them a sample three months later to make sure that it has worked. I don't even like the thought of giving them a sample, maybe if my wife helped with that part it would be ok, but it just seems wrong somehow.
Anyway, after my wife told me about it, I think she gathered that I might need some prodding to get it actually done so she has gone ahead and already made an appointment for me to see someone next week. The only good thing is that this Dr does hundreds of vasectomy each year, so he should know what he is doing and has probably dealt with other blokes who were a little uncomfortable with the idea of it all.
It's not like I want to have more children, or that even if something happened to my wife and I re-married, I'd still not be wanting more children. I don't want to be old enough to be my own child's grandfather and I would want to still be alive to see them grow into adults and have children of their own.
I think I'm just afraid that something might happen down there that might make things stop working the way they should and that wouldn't be good at all.
Bomber
still cringing at the thought.
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Getting back in the swing of it
I'm definitely not back in the swing of things. Tonight I'm late with my post, I haven't hit my steps once this week, my lunch on Tuesday was a burger, chips and onion rings AND I haven't used the weights in the garage once this year. Now that I think about it, I may go and give them a go once I've written this post. I need to start doing things better again. The only thing that I think I can say is a success is that I don't seem to have any form of vertigo any more.
It's been a little cooler the last couple of days but the weather hasn't been all the nice to be outside in, if it's not stupid hot, it's raining or blowing a gale or both. This morning we had fog, it's the middle of summer and there was a thick fog on the way to work, the temp got to 31°C today, just crazy weather. At least the rain has been good for the garden although the grass is getting long and it's really too hot to mow when I get home from work. I'm going to have to try and get up early on the weekend and mow it if it's not raining.
Work is already getting busy and it is only going to get busier from the looks of things, I think it's going to be a fairly hectic year. After taking a week off, the one after next, I've also got some time off booked for March when we're heading up to the Gold Coast with the in-laws to stay at a house for a week and take the kids to the theme parks. My wife has a lot of family up that way so we're going to try and catch up with as many of them as we can.
We've booked a large house on one of the canals and the house has a pool so that should be a chance to relax. After that I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to have another break. I'm still really keen to go on a cruise....
Bomber
not quite back in the swing of it just yet.
It's been a little cooler the last couple of days but the weather hasn't been all the nice to be outside in, if it's not stupid hot, it's raining or blowing a gale or both. This morning we had fog, it's the middle of summer and there was a thick fog on the way to work, the temp got to 31°C today, just crazy weather. At least the rain has been good for the garden although the grass is getting long and it's really too hot to mow when I get home from work. I'm going to have to try and get up early on the weekend and mow it if it's not raining.
Work is already getting busy and it is only going to get busier from the looks of things, I think it's going to be a fairly hectic year. After taking a week off, the one after next, I've also got some time off booked for March when we're heading up to the Gold Coast with the in-laws to stay at a house for a week and take the kids to the theme parks. My wife has a lot of family up that way so we're going to try and catch up with as many of them as we can.
We've booked a large house on one of the canals and the house has a pool so that should be a chance to relax. After that I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to have another break. I'm still really keen to go on a cruise....
Bomber
not quite back in the swing of it just yet.
Tuesday, 8 January 2019
Waking up with a Bang!
At about 2am last night, there was the loudest crack of thunder I think I have ever heard, it woke both my wife and I and if the kids weren't away with Nanny and Poppy then I'm sure we would have had one if not both of them in tears and possibly in bed with us. It took a while for us both to get back to sleep, that coupled with me going to bed quite late last night means that I'm pretty tired today. I had two coffees in the morning at work and I don't think either of them helped wake me up any and at lunch I had a glass of coke too.
I ended up knocking off work a little early today so we could go out and check out some of the display homes in a nearby estate, unfortunately we forgot to check that they were open before we headed out and it turned out that most of them weren't meant to be reopening for the year until next week. One of the homes was meant to be open but when we got to them they were closed up too. We drove around a little and looked at some of the other houses that were for sale and got a feel for the place a little more. They have some great open spaces and play grounds, dedicated dog parks and the like but I'm still not convinced. The houses are built almost on top of each other and one of the things I really enjoy doing is sitting outside on our deck and enjoying our garden, or in the colder months, sitting around the fire pit. I don't think we could even have a fire pit in the new places as there wouldn't be room and sitting outside staring at the neighbours walls or the high fence doesn't really appeal to me either.
I'm really starting to think that we should look closer at doing an extension to our existing home and making it what we want or at least trying to get the best out of what we have.
I've got to freshen my skills up on the 3D drawing and do some ideas up for the wife so she can see if she likes what I'm proposing. The only issue with doing an extension will be if the council don't agree to our plans.
Bomber
time to learn Sketchup again
I ended up knocking off work a little early today so we could go out and check out some of the display homes in a nearby estate, unfortunately we forgot to check that they were open before we headed out and it turned out that most of them weren't meant to be reopening for the year until next week. One of the homes was meant to be open but when we got to them they were closed up too. We drove around a little and looked at some of the other houses that were for sale and got a feel for the place a little more. They have some great open spaces and play grounds, dedicated dog parks and the like but I'm still not convinced. The houses are built almost on top of each other and one of the things I really enjoy doing is sitting outside on our deck and enjoying our garden, or in the colder months, sitting around the fire pit. I don't think we could even have a fire pit in the new places as there wouldn't be room and sitting outside staring at the neighbours walls or the high fence doesn't really appeal to me either.
I'm really starting to think that we should look closer at doing an extension to our existing home and making it what we want or at least trying to get the best out of what we have.
I've got to freshen my skills up on the 3D drawing and do some ideas up for the wife so she can see if she likes what I'm proposing. The only issue with doing an extension will be if the council don't agree to our plans.
Bomber
time to learn Sketchup again
Monday, 7 January 2019
Love it or, List it
My wife is now on team list it, so I think it's a forgone conclusion that we're going to be selling our house some time in the near future. The big difference between what my wife wants in a new house and what I want is that I'm happy to buy somewhere a little cheaper that has potential that we can renovate and make ours. My wife doesn't want that and is now talking about building a place on a block of land in a new estate. I'm open to that idea but still have my reservations about it as the new block sizes are really quite small, around 450sqm, where our current block is 600sqm, but we want a bigger house so we'd have basically no yard space.We went for a quick drive around one of the new estates this afternoon after work and my wife really quite liked it. The houses were all quite large and many looked like they had no backyard at all. I think that is the only real argument for building on a new block, we could make sure that we had a design that works for us and keeps as much yard space and distance from the neighbours as possible.
I also want to look further in to renovating or extending our existing home. If we are willing to sell the house and move on to somewhere new, then we must be willing to knock down the deck that we built and extend the house, or even do a complete knock down rebuild of the whole home. If we moved, we'd have a new place and a bigger mortgage, the same could be true for a knock down rebuild or a major extension.
We do like the location we're in as it is close to everything and we've already promised my son that if we did move that he wouldn't have to change schools, so we won't want to move too far from where we currently are.
Bomber
things are escalating quickly
Sunday, 6 January 2019
Last Day of Holidays
Well today is my last day off, but in two weeks I've got another week off. The kids are still on School Holidays so we've sent them down to my wife's parents for a week down the coast. The kids will enjoy it as Nanny and Poppy spoil them and take them to the beach and other places to have fun and run around. Nanny and Poppy don't care if they get up really early in the morning or stay up later at night, they just enjoy after them for a while. I think that by the end of the week, they will be ready to hand them back though as the kids do wear them out.
After the week down the coast my wife is taking a week off to look after the kids and the week after that is when I'm looking after them. I've told the kids that I'm going to take them camping and a mate of mine is going to come along with his son too. I still need to book a site somewhere though. I looked online a week or two ago and most camp grounds had restrictions stating that the minimum booking was four or five nights. As my daughter has never been camping before, I don't really want to be away for that long. Also four nights is getting a bit much for me too, especially with the kids to look after full tim. We're hoping to go for two nights as that's just about right with the kids.
For a two night trip, you show up after lunch on the first day and set up camp, then you can go to the pool before getting ready for dinner. After dinner you can take the kids to the park and then have some hot chocolate before bed.
The next day we usually have bacon and egg rolls for breakfast before heading off and spending the morning at the beach. Come back and wash off the sand for lunch and then head to the park for a while before going back to the pool before dinner. There isn't much to do as an adult except take it easy and keep an eye on the kids. The morning of the last day we just have breakfast and then start tidying everything up and packing it away. Depending on the weather and how the kids and I are holding up, we may go to the pool again before heading home.
Bomber
not looking forward to work, that's for sure.
After the week down the coast my wife is taking a week off to look after the kids and the week after that is when I'm looking after them. I've told the kids that I'm going to take them camping and a mate of mine is going to come along with his son too. I still need to book a site somewhere though. I looked online a week or two ago and most camp grounds had restrictions stating that the minimum booking was four or five nights. As my daughter has never been camping before, I don't really want to be away for that long. Also four nights is getting a bit much for me too, especially with the kids to look after full tim. We're hoping to go for two nights as that's just about right with the kids.
For a two night trip, you show up after lunch on the first day and set up camp, then you can go to the pool before getting ready for dinner. After dinner you can take the kids to the park and then have some hot chocolate before bed.
The next day we usually have bacon and egg rolls for breakfast before heading off and spending the morning at the beach. Come back and wash off the sand for lunch and then head to the park for a while before going back to the pool before dinner. There isn't much to do as an adult except take it easy and keep an eye on the kids. The morning of the last day we just have breakfast and then start tidying everything up and packing it away. Depending on the weather and how the kids and I are holding up, we may go to the pool again before heading home.
Bomber
not looking forward to work, that's for sure.
Saturday, 5 January 2019
Weighing In
109 kg
13,498 steps for the week
2,600 average daily calorie burn
This week was the worst, it was so hot but I didn't really do anything at all. I've put on weight and it's no surprise at all. I didn't have my fitbit on at all on Tuesday, I put it on charge on Monday night and didn't put it back on until Wednesday morning, but that wouldn't have helped at all.
All day Tuesday and most of Wednesday I was feeling unwell, my back was aching and I had an upset stomach, I'm not sure if they were related or not but that combined with how hot it has been has meant that I walked at all this week. I basically stayed home and played games on the PC. Not a great start to my New Years resolution of getting out walking and exercising more. On Monday I go back to work for a couple of weeks, at least it feels like I've had a bit of a break and I'm feeling more rested. I haven't been worrying about work and if anything, I'm looking forward to get back into it and finishing off some large bodies of work that I started several years ago. It will kind of be sad to finally finish the work but also somewhat rewarding. Once it's all wrapped up, that's when I'll start thinking about what's next as far as work's concerned.
I realised this week that I could go back through the Fitbit app and track all my steps, calories and weight so I've updated the graph, it shows where I actually came from weight wise so hopefully it helps to motivate me to keep trying. I can see a slight correlation between weight and the calories and steps. It shows that if I really put in the effort, then I do get results.
Bomber
It's raining right now so hopefully things will stay cool for a little while.
13,498 steps for the week
2,600 average daily calorie burn
This week was the worst, it was so hot but I didn't really do anything at all. I've put on weight and it's no surprise at all. I didn't have my fitbit on at all on Tuesday, I put it on charge on Monday night and didn't put it back on until Wednesday morning, but that wouldn't have helped at all.
All day Tuesday and most of Wednesday I was feeling unwell, my back was aching and I had an upset stomach, I'm not sure if they were related or not but that combined with how hot it has been has meant that I walked at all this week. I basically stayed home and played games on the PC. Not a great start to my New Years resolution of getting out walking and exercising more. On Monday I go back to work for a couple of weeks, at least it feels like I've had a bit of a break and I'm feeling more rested. I haven't been worrying about work and if anything, I'm looking forward to get back into it and finishing off some large bodies of work that I started several years ago. It will kind of be sad to finally finish the work but also somewhat rewarding. Once it's all wrapped up, that's when I'll start thinking about what's next as far as work's concerned.
I realised this week that I could go back through the Fitbit app and track all my steps, calories and weight so I've updated the graph, it shows where I actually came from weight wise so hopefully it helps to motivate me to keep trying. I can see a slight correlation between weight and the calories and steps. It shows that if I really put in the effort, then I do get results.
Bomber
It's raining right now so hopefully things will stay cool for a little while.
Friday, 4 January 2019
Heatwave
Man it is hot. There is no way that I would want to be out trying to camp in this weather. Being in all my bike gear and trying to film in this weather would be unbearable, I'd probably end up dehydrated or get heat stroke or both. It's not like I was planning on heading out but, man, it's hot.Yesterday was 34°C, today 37°C and tomorrow is predicted to be 36°C. Sunday it is meant to cool down and be back in the mid to high 20's, which is just about where I like it.
I can see why some of the American motovloggers/motocampers mainly shoot during the colder months. From the lessons I learned in September when Motocamping and trying to film it that I needed to try and head out during daylight savings. I have a feeling that I'm going to end up riding up into the mountains a lot if I want to film during the summer. That or I'm going to have to get a better sleeping bag for colder weather and do more winter camping. I've always thought that camping in the snow would be really fun, I know it would be a challenge but just waking up with snow all around would be awesome. One of the biggest issues that we have in all of our National Parks is that you can't collect firewood within them, not that's really an issue and I completely understand what they are trying to protect, it just means that I'd have to carry in any firewood that I wanted on my motorcycle, that would be a little awkward and possibly dangerous with the amount of stuff I'd then be loading onto the bike.
I really shouldn't be making excuses not to go motocamping, I really should just start making some firm plans and then head out and do it....
Bomber
Did I say it's hot?
Thursday, 3 January 2019
Up Sizing
As I alluded to in yesterday's post, we're rapidly running out of space in our current house unless we come up with some more clever storage ideas or put an extension on we're not sure if we can really stay in our current house forever. My wife and I have been talking about buying a new house for several months but not really very seriously, recently we started to get a bit more serious. We have decided that we'll renovate the laundry and the bathroom as they are the two rooms we haven't done anything to yet. We've already met with one builder who our friends recommended and we're waiting to hear back from him on ideas and prices. We're starting with just doing the laundry as it is currently a really bad design and the space could be used much better. We're kind of doing our own "love it, or list it". Once we've done the renovations to the laundry and the bathroom we'll give the whole house a quick do over, repaint some rooms, tidy up a few other small things and then we'll get the house valued.
At around the same time we'll also start getting some prices on doing an extension to the house to add a new master bedroom with en-suite as well as some extra space for a study or some sort, be it a small parents retreat or another bedroom we don't really know at this stage.
Once we have the full picture we'll then decide on whether we want to do the extension or if we'll put the house on the market and start looking for somewhere bigger. We both think that we'd like to put on a second storey on our house but that can be pretty expensive, so I do think that we'll end up better off moving. The issue I have with moving is that to get somewhere big enough we'd have to spend a lot more than I'd like to get somewhere that didn't need much or any work, or we'd be kind of starting over by buying somewhere that needed the kitchen and bathrooms re-done.
My wife moved around a fair bit when she was growing up and I think that the house we're currently in is the one that she has spent the longest in for her whole life, whereas I grew up in the same house as my parents never moved once I was born and my Dad is still in the same house now.
The more I think about it, the more I think I like the idea of moving somewhere that might need a little work. I really enjoyed designing the deck at our current house. I used google sketch-up for that too and my wife and I designed the backyard landscaping too. I think some of the emotional attachment that I have to the house is from all the work that we did, but I guess if we went somewhere else, there would be new projects for us to tackle.
Bomber
I think I'm on team list it
At around the same time we'll also start getting some prices on doing an extension to the house to add a new master bedroom with en-suite as well as some extra space for a study or some sort, be it a small parents retreat or another bedroom we don't really know at this stage.
Once we have the full picture we'll then decide on whether we want to do the extension or if we'll put the house on the market and start looking for somewhere bigger. We both think that we'd like to put on a second storey on our house but that can be pretty expensive, so I do think that we'll end up better off moving. The issue I have with moving is that to get somewhere big enough we'd have to spend a lot more than I'd like to get somewhere that didn't need much or any work, or we'd be kind of starting over by buying somewhere that needed the kitchen and bathrooms re-done.
My wife moved around a fair bit when she was growing up and I think that the house we're currently in is the one that she has spent the longest in for her whole life, whereas I grew up in the same house as my parents never moved once I was born and my Dad is still in the same house now.
The more I think about it, the more I think I like the idea of moving somewhere that might need a little work. I really enjoyed designing the deck at our current house. I used google sketch-up for that too and my wife and I designed the backyard landscaping too. I think some of the emotional attachment that I have to the house is from all the work that we did, but I guess if we went somewhere else, there would be new projects for us to tackle.
Bomber
I think I'm on team list it
Wednesday, 2 January 2019
Creating Space
My wife is looking at doing some further education this year, something that her work is going to be paying for. It's something that I've always thought that she would find beneficial so I'm glad that she is looking into it.
The unfortunate thing is that our house is really quite small and my wife has said that she wants a desk and a new PC for her to use. The issue is that we don't really have anywhere to another desk and chair. The kids have the sunroom where their PC is and a TV with the Xbox. My computer is in our bedroom and my wife has space for her laptop in the bedroom too but now she wants a full PC and her own space. I completely understand that and I want to come up with a solution for her, but I'm struggling to figure out a way that won't look awful or be in the way all time.
Before my daughter was born, we used her bedroom as a home office and we both had our own desks and PCs. When we realised that we'd have to move the PCs to somewhere else in the house we started looking at options and we couldn't really find anything that suited our needs. I ended up making a desk myself in our garage. It was to be a "hidden" desk so that our bedroom didn't end up looking too cluttered.
I'd never built anything like a desk before but I figured that it couldn't be too hard. I drew everything up in Google Sketch-up first so I got all the measurements basically right. Then we went down to the hardware store and bought all the bits I would need. It took several weekends to put it all together but I'm pretty pleased with the results and I've been using it for the last seven or so years.
The issues with the "hidden" desk are that there is nowhere to put the chair when the desk isn't in use so it clutters up the bedroom a little and although I got to have a desk, my wife lost hers, she just has a small space to use her laptop. It's not big enough for her to actually use as a desk for any sort of studying.
Now my wife is back at work, it will be very hard for us to share a desk at home as we'll both want to use it at the same time so it looks like we have to start the process again of figuring out where we are going to put another desk and PC. We spent a fair bit of time searching online yesterday and today and we couldn't really find something that would do what we need. I'm starting to think that to get what we need we'll have to get something custom made and this time I think it would be a bit beyond my skills. There isn't really any other space in our house where we could put something like another desk and chair without making other compromises that I'm not sure either of us really want to make. So far the best we've come up with is two smaller desks to replace the one that I built. The issue with that is that everything would be on display all the time and it won't look very tidy when not in use.
Bomber
time for a bigger house
The unfortunate thing is that our house is really quite small and my wife has said that she wants a desk and a new PC for her to use. The issue is that we don't really have anywhere to another desk and chair. The kids have the sunroom where their PC is and a TV with the Xbox. My computer is in our bedroom and my wife has space for her laptop in the bedroom too but now she wants a full PC and her own space. I completely understand that and I want to come up with a solution for her, but I'm struggling to figure out a way that won't look awful or be in the way all time.
Before my daughter was born, we used her bedroom as a home office and we both had our own desks and PCs. When we realised that we'd have to move the PCs to somewhere else in the house we started looking at options and we couldn't really find anything that suited our needs. I ended up making a desk myself in our garage. It was to be a "hidden" desk so that our bedroom didn't end up looking too cluttered.
I'd never built anything like a desk before but I figured that it couldn't be too hard. I drew everything up in Google Sketch-up first so I got all the measurements basically right. Then we went down to the hardware store and bought all the bits I would need. It took several weekends to put it all together but I'm pretty pleased with the results and I've been using it for the last seven or so years.
The issues with the "hidden" desk are that there is nowhere to put the chair when the desk isn't in use so it clutters up the bedroom a little and although I got to have a desk, my wife lost hers, she just has a small space to use her laptop. It's not big enough for her to actually use as a desk for any sort of studying.Now my wife is back at work, it will be very hard for us to share a desk at home as we'll both want to use it at the same time so it looks like we have to start the process again of figuring out where we are going to put another desk and PC. We spent a fair bit of time searching online yesterday and today and we couldn't really find something that would do what we need. I'm starting to think that to get what we need we'll have to get something custom made and this time I think it would be a bit beyond my skills. There isn't really any other space in our house where we could put something like another desk and chair without making other compromises that I'm not sure either of us really want to make. So far the best we've come up with is two smaller desks to replace the one that I built. The issue with that is that everything would be on display all the time and it won't look very tidy when not in use.
Bomber
time for a bigger house
Tuesday, 1 January 2019
Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2019 is going to be the year I start the Motocamp360 business properly, lose weight, earn more money and get fit. Those are my new years resolutions and they are going to help occupy my weekends and spare time I may have in the evenings. I'm going to spend less time thinking about my actual job and more time thinking about my hobbies and getting them established and part of the everyday routine for me.
The losing weight by Christmas goal has been reset and it will be weigh 90kg by next Christmas, it is a much more realistic time frame and if I do manage to get there sooner then that's fine with me too!
Starting today I'm back trying to exercise, I don't think that I'll get 10,000 steps up each day until I go back to work, but I'm going to try and go for a walk every day and also try to use the weights at least twice a week. Chocolate is again off the menu and so are all the other junk foods and sweets that I have a habit of snacking on. I'm not going to start the food diary up again and I'll probably be having a few more beers than normal but I'm ok with that for now.
Once work starts again I'll be pushing for 70,000 steps each week and still trying to use the weights a couple of times each week. I'm going to change the goal of 70,000 steps each week slightly, it will now be an average of 10,000 steps each day. I don't see this as any real change to the goal but it will make tracking it much easier as the FitBit App can tell me my daily averages for a week or month or year.
I'm going to start researching adventure motorcycle training but I'm not going to book anything in until I've replaced the rear tyre on the bike. It will need doing sometime this year from the looks of it and the current tyre isn't very good for any type of off-road riding if there is any mud or if the surface is too loose.
The Motocamp trip to Bourke won't happen until I've done a few more local trips so I am better prepared for a multi-day trip.
Bomber
Let the adventures begin
2019 is going to be the year I start the Motocamp360 business properly, lose weight, earn more money and get fit. Those are my new years resolutions and they are going to help occupy my weekends and spare time I may have in the evenings. I'm going to spend less time thinking about my actual job and more time thinking about my hobbies and getting them established and part of the everyday routine for me.
The losing weight by Christmas goal has been reset and it will be weigh 90kg by next Christmas, it is a much more realistic time frame and if I do manage to get there sooner then that's fine with me too!
Starting today I'm back trying to exercise, I don't think that I'll get 10,000 steps up each day until I go back to work, but I'm going to try and go for a walk every day and also try to use the weights at least twice a week. Chocolate is again off the menu and so are all the other junk foods and sweets that I have a habit of snacking on. I'm not going to start the food diary up again and I'll probably be having a few more beers than normal but I'm ok with that for now.
Once work starts again I'll be pushing for 70,000 steps each week and still trying to use the weights a couple of times each week. I'm going to change the goal of 70,000 steps each week slightly, it will now be an average of 10,000 steps each day. I don't see this as any real change to the goal but it will make tracking it much easier as the FitBit App can tell me my daily averages for a week or month or year.
I'm going to start researching adventure motorcycle training but I'm not going to book anything in until I've replaced the rear tyre on the bike. It will need doing sometime this year from the looks of it and the current tyre isn't very good for any type of off-road riding if there is any mud or if the surface is too loose.
The Motocamp trip to Bourke won't happen until I've done a few more local trips so I am better prepared for a multi-day trip.
Bomber
Let the adventures begin
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