It's the last day of Summer. So much has happened but it still seems like it has flown by. It also means that there is just four weeks left of daylight savings and I've managed to get out motocamping zero times. Not being daylight savings was my biggest excuse for not starting Motocamp360 and now it's almost at the end of it and I've not gone out once. The weather should stay warm for a whilst longer as it has been quite a long and hot summer, it won't really start cooling down until mid to late April. The next few months will probably be tied up in doing work at the new house on the weekends as there is quite a list of things that we'd like to do. I don't know if I'll start writing that list just yet as once we're actually living in the house our priorities may change.
I will make an effort to get out motocamping at least once before winter really sets in, I'm sure that I'll need a break and I may try and see if I can get a mate to come along too.
Autumn is a great time in Canberra but it is even better riding down the coast, the days are still warm and the water stays warm up until around Easter before the currents change, so it's great to get in for a swim if you can.
I'm not sure where I'd like to go this time but I'm thinking that a state park could be nice somewhere a little further south than I usually go, I may even go up through the mountains to the south and then down to the coast that way. I've never ridden that way and have only gone that way by car a couple of times.
The rear tyre on my bike will need replacing in the next few months and I intend on putting on a 50/50 if I can so I can tackle some more adventurous roads and really enjoy getting off the main roads. That will set me up nicely to head out on some motorcycle adventure training when the weather starts to warm up after Winter.
Bomber
Get out there.
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Self inflicted
Today I started working on fixing up the wall in the lounge room. A few years back I mounted our TV on the wall and I think I did a pretty good gob of it too. Unfortunately I didn't really think about what I would have to do if I ever wanted to remove the TV from the wall. I had run speaker wire through the walls and some HDMI cables, optical audio cables and a few other things too. Now I have to remove all of them and patch the walls up. It's not too hard to do, it'd just a little time consuming. First remove everything, then put a backing plate behind the bigger holes. Wait for the glue to try on backing plate, attach the plug to the backing plate. Wait for the glue to dry. Bog all the joins. Wait for the bog to dry, sand the joins and bog again as you always stuff something up. Wait for the bog to dry. Undercoat. Wait for the undercoat to dry. Top coat. Wait for the top coat to dry. 2nd top coat. Wait for it to dry. Possibly do a third coat if needed. Wait for that to dry.
Then after all that sit back and hope that when the paint dries that it blends in with the existing paint, otherwise you have to paint the whole wall.
All of this work just because I thought it would be cool to have the TV mounted on the wall and not see any cables. And it was cool, so cool that I'll probably do it again at the new house. This time though I might use in wall speakers so that if we ever do decide to move out then I'll leave the speakers behind. I'll also use a different wall mount as I used a super slimline one and whilst it was really slim and the TV was right up against the wall, it made it really difficult to plug any cables in to the back of the TV.
I may even upgrade the receiver as the TV is 4K capable but the receiver isn't, so we don't get any real benefit from having a 4K TV.
At the new house the lounge room wall where the TV will be mounted backs on to the garage. It will be easier to do a better installation as I can open the wall in the garage if I have to so I can run some conduit through the wall properly, this means we can swap out cables easily if we want to add something, or upgrade.
Bomber
I think I'm going to be broke for quite some time
Then after all that sit back and hope that when the paint dries that it blends in with the existing paint, otherwise you have to paint the whole wall.
All of this work just because I thought it would be cool to have the TV mounted on the wall and not see any cables. And it was cool, so cool that I'll probably do it again at the new house. This time though I might use in wall speakers so that if we ever do decide to move out then I'll leave the speakers behind. I'll also use a different wall mount as I used a super slimline one and whilst it was really slim and the TV was right up against the wall, it made it really difficult to plug any cables in to the back of the TV.
I may even upgrade the receiver as the TV is 4K capable but the receiver isn't, so we don't get any real benefit from having a 4K TV.
At the new house the lounge room wall where the TV will be mounted backs on to the garage. It will be easier to do a better installation as I can open the wall in the garage if I have to so I can run some conduit through the wall properly, this means we can swap out cables easily if we want to add something, or upgrade.
Bomber
I think I'm going to be broke for quite some time
Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Paying for it
On the weekend we went shopping for new furniture for the new house. The lounge that the kids use in the Sunroom was already on it's way out and wouldn't have worked in the new house at all. The lounge we currently have in our lounge room would probably look too big and bulky in the new lounge room, it's starting to lose some of it's comfort as the cushions are getting too soft and in places you can feel the timber frame through them. We also wanted a larger dinner table as we only had a small round table with four chairs and the new house has a largish dining area. We've never been able to really have anyone over for dinner or anything with the small round table but we couldn't really fit anything bigger in our current house. We also wanted some stools for the kitchen counter at the new house.
All up we ended up putting close to $8,000 on our credit card, thankfully half of that is on 50 months interest free and the other half is on 36 months interest free, but that still means that we'll be paying close to $200 a month for the next three years to pay it off and then $80 a month for a further two years.
We've already ordered some new blinds for the new house as well as a new washing machine. My wife has already got people lined up to buy our old lounge and our old washing machine so that's good, it will help pay for some of the new stuff. There is still more that I can see that we're going to want and we haven't even started talking about how much it could cost to landscape the front and backyards and that's just with me doing the work myself.
Hopefully I can make some extra money from some overtime in the next couple of years to help pay the credit card off sooner as I'd like to send my son to the local private school for your 7 onwards. He's currently in year 4 so we have a couple of years, but it will cost close to $10,000 per year to send him to the school and my daughter would be going there too for a couple of years at the same time as my son so up to $20,000 per year we need to be finding somehow.
I think we'll be able to do it but it will mean a few changes in the way we do things. There will no doubt be less take away meals and less eating at the cafe for me. I also want to get back into brewing my own beer, as that will save a fair bit of money and it is fun experimenting with flavours and alcohol content. I can see how brewing my beers could become interesting content for this blog from time to time so there will be more on this at a later date.
Bomber
Time to make sandwiches again.
All up we ended up putting close to $8,000 on our credit card, thankfully half of that is on 50 months interest free and the other half is on 36 months interest free, but that still means that we'll be paying close to $200 a month for the next three years to pay it off and then $80 a month for a further two years.
We've already ordered some new blinds for the new house as well as a new washing machine. My wife has already got people lined up to buy our old lounge and our old washing machine so that's good, it will help pay for some of the new stuff. There is still more that I can see that we're going to want and we haven't even started talking about how much it could cost to landscape the front and backyards and that's just with me doing the work myself.
Hopefully I can make some extra money from some overtime in the next couple of years to help pay the credit card off sooner as I'd like to send my son to the local private school for your 7 onwards. He's currently in year 4 so we have a couple of years, but it will cost close to $10,000 per year to send him to the school and my daughter would be going there too for a couple of years at the same time as my son so up to $20,000 per year we need to be finding somehow.
I think we'll be able to do it but it will mean a few changes in the way we do things. There will no doubt be less take away meals and less eating at the cafe for me. I also want to get back into brewing my own beer, as that will save a fair bit of money and it is fun experimenting with flavours and alcohol content. I can see how brewing my beers could become interesting content for this blog from time to time so there will be more on this at a later date.
Bomber
Time to make sandwiches again.
Monday, 25 February 2019
Labels
For about a week now, I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do about this blog whilst I'm on holidays for a week. I think it will be the first time that I've been away for that long since I started writing daily posts. I've been wondering if I'll remember to post each day using my phone or if I should prepare some posts in advance just in case.
What I've decided on is hopefully something that is interesting to read and also something that shows just how much has changed and what hasn't changed since I started writing.
Each post that I've done so far has what blogger calls "labels" which most other sites would call "tags". These "labels" provide an idea of what the blog is about and you can also search by them, so if you're reading this blog and want to only read about things related to motocamping, then you can search on that tag and you'll see every post where I've included that label. I'm not sure if they work quite the same way as #hashtags in that other bloggers could use the same label so you can read about similar topics by different people.
Anyway, what I'm going to try to do is prepare some posts in advance and go through the most popular or regularly used "labels" from my blog and see if I can dedicate a post to just that topic. It may be what I'm currently doing about a topic, or what I think about something, or just a recap on how that "label" came into existence.
Labels that I've created so far are:
What I've decided on is hopefully something that is interesting to read and also something that shows just how much has changed and what hasn't changed since I started writing.
Each post that I've done so far has what blogger calls "labels" which most other sites would call "tags". These "labels" provide an idea of what the blog is about and you can also search by them, so if you're reading this blog and want to only read about things related to motocamping, then you can search on that tag and you'll see every post where I've included that label. I'm not sure if they work quite the same way as #hashtags in that other bloggers could use the same label so you can read about similar topics by different people.
Anyway, what I'm going to try to do is prepare some posts in advance and go through the most popular or regularly used "labels" from my blog and see if I can dedicate a post to just that topic. It may be what I'm currently doing about a topic, or what I think about something, or just a recap on how that "label" came into existence.
Labels that I've created so far are:
- 360 Cameras
- audio
- being lazy
- Building
- camping
- changing jobs
- cruising
- diet
- DIY
- drones
- exercise
- Flight Simulators
- gaming
- habits
- healthy living
- holidays
- House Hunting
- making money
- motocamping
- motorcycle
- motovlog
- Moving House
- Music
- rants
- Renovations
- self improvement
- setting goals
- social media
- the snip
- vertigo
- video editing
- weighing in
I won't be going over all of them, I'll choose the six or seven that I think I can expand on and write about them. There are ones that I probably don't need to write about, like "weighing in" and others that already have a post basically dedicated to them like "flight simulators"
Bomber
is that another list?
Sunday, 24 February 2019
Weighing In
I feel like I had a fairly active week at work, my fitbit band came unglued on Wednesday night so I went all Thursday and Friday without it on. Thursday was probably my least active day as I spent most of the day at work at the computer. On the plus side, I think I managed to sort out and consolidate my superannuation so it was a productive day (for me at least, maybe not so much for work). Friday I usually get a few more steps in as we walk up to the local bakery for lunch. At the end of the day, the fitbit isn't what is making me lose weight or exercise, so it really shouldn't matter if I'm wearing it or not.
Now that the weather is starting to cool down a little I'm feeling like heading out for walks again after work so I may just start doing that sooner than I expected. I'll hopefully sort out the garage tomorrow so I can actually get to the weights bench without tripping over all the clutter. Who knows, I may just start getting back in shape before I head off on holidays, which is probably a good thing if I can lose a couple of kgs as I will no doubt put on a couple while we're away.
I'm a little scared that the vertigo may come back if I start getting back into everything but I need to try. If the vertigo does come back at least I'll have something that I can go to the doctor with and say that the vertigo went away when I stopped exercising and then came back when I started again.
Weight:110kg
Steps for the week: 42,032 (15-18k more most likely)
Average daily calorie burn: 3,747
Bomber
Moving house counts as exercise right?
Now that the weather is starting to cool down a little I'm feeling like heading out for walks again after work so I may just start doing that sooner than I expected. I'll hopefully sort out the garage tomorrow so I can actually get to the weights bench without tripping over all the clutter. Who knows, I may just start getting back in shape before I head off on holidays, which is probably a good thing if I can lose a couple of kgs as I will no doubt put on a couple while we're away.
I'm a little scared that the vertigo may come back if I start getting back into everything but I need to try. If the vertigo does come back at least I'll have something that I can go to the doctor with and say that the vertigo went away when I stopped exercising and then came back when I started again.
Weight:110kg
Steps for the week: 42,032 (15-18k more most likely)
Average daily calorie burn: 3,747
Bomber
Moving house counts as exercise right?
Saturday, 23 February 2019
It's coming up fast
Two weeks today we fly off to the Gold Coast for 7 nights in a luxury house on a canal. I think the break will be good, but when we booked it we had no idea that we were even going to be looking at moving house at any time soon, let alone try and move house the week after we get back from holidays. We plan to take the kids to Movie World and possibly some of the other theme parks if time, budget and the weather permits. Thankfully it won't be school holidays so it shouldn't be too busy and the weather will still be nice to use the pool at the house and enjoy going to the beach or just walking along such an iconic piece of Australian coast.Unfortunately there is currently a cyclone bearing down on Queensland which will make this weekend a little precarious for some areas but hopefully the weather will be back to normal and everything will be running as planned by the time we get there. Fingers crossed for those that live up there that they get through everything OK and that it doesn't turn into a massive disaster.
We still have a lot of packing to do before we go on holidays but we're starting to get things sorted out. We got a couple of trash packs delivered yesterday as we realised that we were hanging on to things that we weren't ever going to use and wouldn't really be worth anything to anyone. Old worn out bed sheets, or sheets that don't fit the bed we currently have. I have habit of keeping the box that things came in "just in case" I need to return it for warranty repairs or anything, the trouble is I was keeping boxes for things that we'd already replaced or are so far out of warranty that we wouldn't bother trying to get it repaired. I'm trying to pack a box every night at the moment, eventually I'll get down to the things that we can't really pack until a day or two before we move.
Yesterday afternoon we heard from our solicitor that we'd finally exchanged contracts for the house that we are buying so we are now locked in. If we pull out now it will cost us a small fortune as we'll lose our deposit and also if we then can't move out of our current house it will cost us another small fortune in penalties that we'll have to pay to the couple that are purchasing our house.
Bomber
so many boxes that still need packing
Friday, 22 February 2019
Back to the list
Well it's a week and a day since the last time I went through the list. This time I've dropped out those things that I decided last week that I wasn't going to do and modified a couple of the tasks to reflect what I'm actually now going to do and not what I thought I was going to have to do to sell the house.
Bomber
I do like a good list
- Clean the laundry - we need to clean everything on moving day but I want to at least make a start on this before then if I can to make it easier on the day.
- replace the shower screen in the bathroom - completed
- fertilise the front lawn and keep it watered - I sprayed weed and feed on the rear yard the other day and have decided that the front just needs to be mowed a couple of times.
- clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors - apart from giving the bathroom a good clean, I want to do the sunroom walls with sugar soap, everything else will just need a quick clean once we've got everything out.
- clean the blinds - I'll give them a quick vacuum if I get time
- clean all the aircon ducts - maybe
- clean the fly screens - I'll give the worst ones a go
- clean the deck - still needs to be done, but again if I run out of time it may get missed.
- sort out the garage - I can give the cars a clean and check over the motorbike before packing what I can and organising the rest so it is ready to move.
Bomber
I do like a good list
Thursday, 21 February 2019
A little bit of everything
A company that I deal with a fair bit at work is currently hiring and with the way things have been recently I've been considering asking them what the salary is. I don't want to change jobs just yet as I really want to make it earning Long Service Leave. Hopefully I can stick with it for a couple more years as I don't want to get this close to finally staying somewhere long enough to get 3 months paid leave and then start again somewhere else essentially from scratch. I think that the company that is advertising for people would be pretty good to work for and there would be some great challenges but I guess the fear of the unknown and missing out on LSL will keep me where I am for a little longer.
My Instagram account is still attracting new followers, man I wish I could monetise that, I've done nothing and it's grown bigger that I ever could have imagined in such a short time. I went for a bit of a longer ride on the way home from work today and wished that I had the camera with me, the weather was nice and there were some great photo opportunities. Like I mentioned previously, I think that just using Instagram for a while could be a great way to build a following and let me try a few different things out with the camera. I can always shoot some video too to keep as B roll or to maybe mash into a video if it turns out ok. I still don't want to publish non-motocamp videos on the motocamp360 YouTube channel but I guess that there is nothing stopping me from creating a second channel for other content if I find that's what I end up doing more of and if I enjoy it.
Bomber
getting the motocamping itch again
My Instagram account is still attracting new followers, man I wish I could monetise that, I've done nothing and it's grown bigger that I ever could have imagined in such a short time. I went for a bit of a longer ride on the way home from work today and wished that I had the camera with me, the weather was nice and there were some great photo opportunities. Like I mentioned previously, I think that just using Instagram for a while could be a great way to build a following and let me try a few different things out with the camera. I can always shoot some video too to keep as B roll or to maybe mash into a video if it turns out ok. I still don't want to publish non-motocamp videos on the motocamp360 YouTube channel but I guess that there is nothing stopping me from creating a second channel for other content if I find that's what I end up doing more of and if I enjoy it.
Bomber
getting the motocamping itch again
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Why is it so hard?
In this day and age of automation and the internet you'd think it would easier to be more productive and that customer service would be able to be improved to new levels. I've posted previously about how about six months ago we changed banks and that Lendi completely screwed everything up and we ended up with the wrong homeloan which then took them two months to sort out, all whilst trying to blame someone else. No one ever stepped up and said, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. Everyone was more like, I didn't do that. Even in the end when they eventually got things sorted, no one apologised and they wanted us to sign a non-disclosure agreement so we wouldn't tell anyone about how bad they stuffed up. When we sent back the paperwork to get compensated for the money they had cost us, we crossed out the bit about the non-disclosure. They didn't like that and said that they couldn't accept it, to which we replied, if you want us to me quiet, you can pay extra for that. They weren't willing to pay us more, so they sent out more paperwork where there was no non-disclosure clause and to this day I'll tell anyone who will listen to NEVER EVER use Lendi.
Well last week, my wife tried to organise to get the the power and gas connection sorted for the new house. What happend was that she got a message stating that they were getting started on transferring everything over to the new house ASAP. When My wife tried to speak to someone to advise that we still needed the power and gas on at our current house and that we were moving in on 18 March, it confused them and they couldn't even find the ticket even though my wife gave them the reference number. It took another phone call today to sort it out and we think that now we should be ok.
I then tried to call our phone and internet service provider to arrange the transfer to the new house. Well, apparently they are too busy at the moment and wouldn't even put my call on hold, they just had a recorded message stating that they were very busy and to call back another time or to send them an email. I then tried to use their website to organise the transfer, I put in my current address and the new address, selected the right type of plan, confirmed that fibre to the home was available. Then, just before I hit confirm, I realised that at no stage did I put in the date I was moving. The form stated that once I hit confirm that the process for the move would begin and to make sure that everything was correct as I could be charged extra for any changes from then on. So now I have to send someone an email to try and organise the transfer as I'm not confident that I won't lose the phone or internet at our current house before we're done with it.
It's not like we can't live with the internet, but if you could see what my son is like when the internet is offline, you'd understand why I am hesitant to turn it off too early.
Bomber
it's not called shareholder service, but it certainly feels that way in this day and age. It's CUSTOMER service. Oh and NEVER EVER even think of using Lendi.
Well last week, my wife tried to organise to get the the power and gas connection sorted for the new house. What happend was that she got a message stating that they were getting started on transferring everything over to the new house ASAP. When My wife tried to speak to someone to advise that we still needed the power and gas on at our current house and that we were moving in on 18 March, it confused them and they couldn't even find the ticket even though my wife gave them the reference number. It took another phone call today to sort it out and we think that now we should be ok.
I then tried to call our phone and internet service provider to arrange the transfer to the new house. Well, apparently they are too busy at the moment and wouldn't even put my call on hold, they just had a recorded message stating that they were very busy and to call back another time or to send them an email. I then tried to use their website to organise the transfer, I put in my current address and the new address, selected the right type of plan, confirmed that fibre to the home was available. Then, just before I hit confirm, I realised that at no stage did I put in the date I was moving. The form stated that once I hit confirm that the process for the move would begin and to make sure that everything was correct as I could be charged extra for any changes from then on. So now I have to send someone an email to try and organise the transfer as I'm not confident that I won't lose the phone or internet at our current house before we're done with it.
It's not like we can't live with the internet, but if you could see what my son is like when the internet is offline, you'd understand why I am hesitant to turn it off too early.
Bomber
it's not called shareholder service, but it certainly feels that way in this day and age. It's CUSTOMER service. Oh and NEVER EVER even think of using Lendi.
Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Location, location, location.
I've been making a little bit of an effort to make sure that I'm not eating too much junk and that I am doing plenty of walking at work. I'm happy that my weight gain appears to have stalled, it gives me hope for losing weight if I put some extra effort in once we've moved house.
I can't remember if I've mentioned it already and I'm not about to go trawling back through my previous posts to find out, but the new house is only about four houses from roughly 65 hectares of parks, sporting ovals and playgrounds, with bike/pedestrian paths throughout. I'm really looking forward to getting out and exploring the new neighbourhood, now I'm feeling a little deja vu so I guess I'm repeating myself, sorry.
One thing that I really want to try and get in the habit of is walking or riding up to the local shops with the kids to show them how close it is and so that they know the best way to go that is safe for them. I used to love riding my bike to the shops when I was a kid, it was footpath the whole way and only one road to cross. I remember that it started off seeming like it was such a long way away and then as I got older it was like it became closer and closer.
From what it looks like, to get to the local shops that are already open, it will be a couple of streets to cross but they should all be fairly quiet suburban streets and one slightly busier road that from memory has a medium strip which should make crossing safer. Once the whole township has been built, we'll have access to another set of local shops which would only be a few hundred meters further away, but in the opposite direction. The advantage that these shops will have will be that there will be only one small suburban road to cross. We should also be within easy walking distance of the proper town centre where they are hoping to have a major supermarket as well as smaller retailers, cafes, restaurants and hopefully a pub.
All of that means that I should be enticed to get out walking a little more and I can really start to get back on the exercise wagon.
Bomber
sorry for talking so much about moving.
I can't remember if I've mentioned it already and I'm not about to go trawling back through my previous posts to find out, but the new house is only about four houses from roughly 65 hectares of parks, sporting ovals and playgrounds, with bike/pedestrian paths throughout. I'm really looking forward to getting out and exploring the new neighbourhood, now I'm feeling a little deja vu so I guess I'm repeating myself, sorry.
One thing that I really want to try and get in the habit of is walking or riding up to the local shops with the kids to show them how close it is and so that they know the best way to go that is safe for them. I used to love riding my bike to the shops when I was a kid, it was footpath the whole way and only one road to cross. I remember that it started off seeming like it was such a long way away and then as I got older it was like it became closer and closer.
From what it looks like, to get to the local shops that are already open, it will be a couple of streets to cross but they should all be fairly quiet suburban streets and one slightly busier road that from memory has a medium strip which should make crossing safer. Once the whole township has been built, we'll have access to another set of local shops which would only be a few hundred meters further away, but in the opposite direction. The advantage that these shops will have will be that there will be only one small suburban road to cross. We should also be within easy walking distance of the proper town centre where they are hoping to have a major supermarket as well as smaller retailers, cafes, restaurants and hopefully a pub.
All of that means that I should be enticed to get out walking a little more and I can really start to get back on the exercise wagon.
Bomber
sorry for talking so much about moving.
Monday, 18 February 2019
No Regrets
The whole, unless someone dies thing is always a little odd, like what are the chances of that actually happening. However, on the weekend, we heard that one of the people who works at our solicitors office slipped in the bath and hit their head and died. Just like that, just on this last weekend. Crazy.
It would be so traumatising for the family and friends, no way to prepare for it, no way of knowing, just gone. If someone in my family just died unexpectedly it would turn everything upside down, even more so if it was someone like my wife. I can't imagine something like that happening, but it just goes to show that it can happen and you just don't know when your time is up.
I think it is a reminder that you shouldn't be putting off anything that you want to do until a later date when there isn't a real reason why you shouldn't be doing it now. Want to travel the world, then find a way to do it and just do it. Want to lose weight... umm yeah. Want to start a YouTube channel about motocamping... umm, also yeah.
Bomber
live with no regrets.
Sunday, 17 February 2019
Weighing In
I can't believe that it is Sunday again already. The weeks are still flying by and I've actually been busy doing things on the weekends to try and make the weeks seem to go a little slower. I hope our week on the Gold Coast doesn't go by too fast and that I actually get a chance to relax and unwind a little.
I've been pretty busy at work so my steps are going OK but I know that I should be doing more. Again I haven't done any weights all week but I'm hoping all that will change once we've moved house and things are back to normal. I don't feel like I'm being lazy but I do still want to lose more weight and that's not going to happen if I don't actually make an effort to do things that will make me lose the weight.
I am looking forward to moving into the new house and going for walks or rides around the new neighbourhood with the kids. It will be nice to be in a new neighbourhood where all the footpaths are nice and wide and there is dedicated parkland with more footpaths and ovals at the end of our street. There is something like 46 hectares of space in the main area which is at the end of our new street and hopefully it will be maintained nicely and not get too out of hand. The local council are actually pretty good at looking after the parks, ovals and playgrounds around our current home so I'm hoping that they'll be the same out at Googong considering it is the same council.
Weight: 110 KG
Steps for the week: 49,858 (I forgot to wear the fit on Monday)
Average daily calorie burn: 3,662
Bomber
3 weeks until holidays 😄
I've been pretty busy at work so my steps are going OK but I know that I should be doing more. Again I haven't done any weights all week but I'm hoping all that will change once we've moved house and things are back to normal. I don't feel like I'm being lazy but I do still want to lose more weight and that's not going to happen if I don't actually make an effort to do things that will make me lose the weight.
I am looking forward to moving into the new house and going for walks or rides around the new neighbourhood with the kids. It will be nice to be in a new neighbourhood where all the footpaths are nice and wide and there is dedicated parkland with more footpaths and ovals at the end of our street. There is something like 46 hectares of space in the main area which is at the end of our new street and hopefully it will be maintained nicely and not get too out of hand. The local council are actually pretty good at looking after the parks, ovals and playgrounds around our current home so I'm hoping that they'll be the same out at Googong considering it is the same council.
Weight: 110 KG
Steps for the week: 49,858 (I forgot to wear the fit on Monday)
Average daily calorie burn: 3,662
Bomber
3 weeks until holidays 😄
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Getting to the end
Tomorrow is to be a day of action. I want to finish all the touch ups that I said I was going to do and throw out some of the rubbish that I've been hoarding. I also want to sort out the home brew bottles that I have in the garage and hopefully pack a box or two of things that I won't need between now and when we move in. Really if I don't need it in the next month, I probably don't need it at all so I'm going to try and be a little ruthless with my sorting and tidying. The more I throw out the less we have to move and the less it will cost to move as it won't take the removalists as long.
The matt for the kids trampoline was beginning to tear at the side and a couple of springs has come loose, so we were planning on purchasing a new matt and some new springs when we moved, however, last weekend the a large section of springs all tore out so the trampoline is now out of bounds so I may start taking that apart tomorrow too. We will order a new matt and new springs and have them ready for when we move into the new place. This will be the first time that we've replaced the matt itself, we've replaced the pads and the netting twice already. They just get destroyed by the sun, I don't if it's the same in the northern hemisphere, but the sun destroys things pretty fast and when we combine hot summers with frosts in winter, anything left outside for any length of time will deteriorate in a couple of years if it's not made from the right stuff.
I also need to pull apart the swing set in the backyard. When I've taken it apart I may throw out the chains and seats and replace them with new ones too as they are starting to get pretty old. The frame itself is holding up pretty well. I don't really know how much longer the kids will be wanting to use them for but as long as it's not too expensive to fix them up then I will. I can always sell the swing set at a later date.
Bomber
it's all a little bitter sweet to be honest
The matt for the kids trampoline was beginning to tear at the side and a couple of springs has come loose, so we were planning on purchasing a new matt and some new springs when we moved, however, last weekend the a large section of springs all tore out so the trampoline is now out of bounds so I may start taking that apart tomorrow too. We will order a new matt and new springs and have them ready for when we move into the new place. This will be the first time that we've replaced the matt itself, we've replaced the pads and the netting twice already. They just get destroyed by the sun, I don't if it's the same in the northern hemisphere, but the sun destroys things pretty fast and when we combine hot summers with frosts in winter, anything left outside for any length of time will deteriorate in a couple of years if it's not made from the right stuff.
I also need to pull apart the swing set in the backyard. When I've taken it apart I may throw out the chains and seats and replace them with new ones too as they are starting to get pretty old. The frame itself is holding up pretty well. I don't really know how much longer the kids will be wanting to use them for but as long as it's not too expensive to fix them up then I will. I can always sell the swing set at a later date.
Bomber
it's all a little bitter sweet to be honest
Friday, 15 February 2019
On our marks
...and we're set to exchange.
There should not be any holds up now for the people who are purchasing our house to instruct their solicitor to exchange contracts with us. Once they have exchanged with us, we need to exchange with the person we are buying from. Then we can lock in a settlement day. The new shower-screen was installed and the reseal mob came and looked at the shower and said that it just needed a simple reseal and it shouldn't take too long or cost a lot of money. We showed the new owners through everything and how everything works, they were a nice couple and I'm happy that they are going to be enjoying the house for years to come and raising their two little kids. My wife will probably still see them a little as their kids will be going to the same school as ours.
I'll still do a few things around the house to tidy up and patch and paint a little but all the pressure is now off and once we've exchanged we'll start packing. It's only a few weeks until we head off to the Gold Coast and hopefully by then we'll have everything done and be all set to move. Once that's done I'll stop talking about moving house so much and will be back to trying to exercise more and organise some motocamping trips.
It's funny, when I'm writing a post all the labels or tags that I've used previously are available on the side of the screen and just reading through me makes me realise all the directions this blog has gone over the past few months. The things I used to talk about a fair bit and some others that were all about setting up motocamp360. Facebook keeps reminding me to post on the motocamp360 page but I don't have anything to post and I don't want to put up anything if I don't have anything even close to being planned.
Ah well, some form of normality will return in the near future and then we'll see if I even have anything to write about.
Bomber
Fingers crossed everything exchanges next week
There should not be any holds up now for the people who are purchasing our house to instruct their solicitor to exchange contracts with us. Once they have exchanged with us, we need to exchange with the person we are buying from. Then we can lock in a settlement day. The new shower-screen was installed and the reseal mob came and looked at the shower and said that it just needed a simple reseal and it shouldn't take too long or cost a lot of money. We showed the new owners through everything and how everything works, they were a nice couple and I'm happy that they are going to be enjoying the house for years to come and raising their two little kids. My wife will probably still see them a little as their kids will be going to the same school as ours.
I'll still do a few things around the house to tidy up and patch and paint a little but all the pressure is now off and once we've exchanged we'll start packing. It's only a few weeks until we head off to the Gold Coast and hopefully by then we'll have everything done and be all set to move. Once that's done I'll stop talking about moving house so much and will be back to trying to exercise more and organise some motocamping trips.
It's funny, when I'm writing a post all the labels or tags that I've used previously are available on the side of the screen and just reading through me makes me realise all the directions this blog has gone over the past few months. The things I used to talk about a fair bit and some others that were all about setting up motocamp360. Facebook keeps reminding me to post on the motocamp360 page but I don't have anything to post and I don't want to put up anything if I don't have anything even close to being planned.
Ah well, some form of normality will return in the near future and then we'll see if I even have anything to write about.
Bomber
Fingers crossed everything exchanges next week
Thursday, 14 February 2019
Checking the list
Back on 22 January, I wrote a list of things that needed to be done around the house prior to listing. The aim was to have all of these things done before 18 February as that's when the photos were meant to be taken for the online advertising. Auction was going to be held on around 20 March which is now around the time that we'll actually be moving in to our new place.
Since we got an offer before we even listed the place, the pressure has been a little less to get things ready as they made their offer on the house as is, apart from a couple of things that we said we'd do. That being said, the list is still looking pretty good and we should be able to check off a few more this coming weekend.
Bomber
setting goals and achieving them
Since we got an offer before we even listed the place, the pressure has been a little less to get things ready as they made their offer on the house as is, apart from a couple of things that we said we'd do. That being said, the list is still looking pretty good and we should be able to check off a few more this coming weekend.
- paint the laundry - no longer doing, we'll just give it a good clean when we move everything out.
- replace the shower screen in the bathroom - this has been booked in and should happen shortly
- paint the ceiling in the kitchen - done
- fix the tiles in the toilet - done
- fix the wall in our daughters bedroom and repaint it - was not discussed and is not in the conditions so most likely won't be doing this
- fix the paint in the master bedroom - I will do this hopefully this weekend
- fix the paint in the sunroom - just going to sugar soap the walls first, may not end up doing
- organise a pest inspection - done (the purchasers organised it)
- tidy the backyard and weed it - done
- fertilise the front lawn and keep it watered - it's rained a lot recently and this was just to make the photos look good, so nothing else needs to be done except mow it a couple of times between now and moving out
- trim the tree out the front - not needed as it was for the photos
- clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors - we cleaned the hallway and kitchen on the weekend, we'll do some more this weekend
- clean all the grout in the bathroom - the shower is getting resealed so not much for me to do except give it a normal clean
- clean all the windows, inside and out - we'll get the worst of it, but again was mainly for photos and for open houses that we're no longer doing
- clean the blinds - I'll give them a quick vacuum
- clean all the aircon ducts - maybe
- clean the fly screens - I'll give the worst ones a go
- clean the deck - still needs to be done
- possibly oil the deck - not doing
- possibly paint the exterior of the sunroom - not doing
- 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. - not required
- declutter and depersonalise the house a little - not required but we will start packing
- start sorting out the garage a little - still needs doing but just to sort out what I want to move and what I want to throw away.
Bomber
setting goals and achieving them
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Farkles
Yesterday my replacement clutch lever and the new pivot bolts had arrived. After the kids went to bed I headed out to the garage and installed the new lever and replaced the pivot bolts. I can't remember if I'd mentioned it previously or not but I also purchased some Barkbusters to replace the plastic hand guards that were on the bike when I got it. The Barkbusters weren't cheap but they are well made and should prevent me from snapping any more levers if I accidentally drop the bike again. The other advantage that the Barkbusters have is that they will actually protect my hands if I do any off-road or trail riding where I may get bushes or branches knocking into the bars.It was good to have a couple of beers and just play with the bike a little, I needed the mental break from the day I'd had and the results are pleasing too.
I noticed when I was working on the bike that there is a fair bit of oil on the outside of the clutch case. I'm not sure what that is from, initially I thought it was just something that I must have ridden through in the wet, but I'm starting to think that maybe I have a small leak from somewhere. I haven't seen any drops under the bike but there is a fair amount of mess on it now.
On the weekend I hope to give the bike and the car a wash as they are both pretty dirty. Once I've washed the bike I'll have to keep a close eye on it to see if it is leaking or if it was just something that I'd managed to somehow flick up on the bike from the road.
Bomber
...please don't let it be a leak.
Tuesday, 12 February 2019
I think I'm doing too much.
13,000 steps is what I'm currently at for today. I didn't do any thing extra than I needed to today at work, I just did what needed doing and I cracked 10K as I was leaving work. We then had the pre-exchange inspection on the house that we are trying to buy. I thought that we would have already exchanged contracts by now and have a settlement date locked in but we haven't got there yet. The building inspection and pest report showed that we have a little water damage under the house from what is most likely a leaking shower. The people purchasing the house want to get the shower the resealed before settlement so we're trying to get that organised. It's not a big deal, it's just annoying as the company that they want to do the resealing can't even come and quote until Thursday afternoon. They then need to actually give us a formal quote and we need to engage them. I'm expecting it to cost some where up to $1,500 and we're just going to have to suck it up and move on. If it comes in as costing much more than that I think that we'll have to request that we get some more quotes.
On top of all the moving house business, I've been really busy at work and to make matters worse my colleagues are basically doing nothing, they are being the public servants that the newspapers write about. Long lunches, late starts and early finishes, they would not last a week in private industry and unfortunately my supervisor isn't willing to rock the boat and put them under performance management. Basically we're a three man team where if I don't do it, then it won't get done, it sucks.
I've talked about changing jobs previously and if it continues like this for too long, then I'll have no choice but to move on to somewhere else as I can't handle it when I can see that I'm the only one doing anything and the others, who are getting the same salary as me, are getting away with doing next to nothing.
Bomber
I think I need another holiday.
On top of all the moving house business, I've been really busy at work and to make matters worse my colleagues are basically doing nothing, they are being the public servants that the newspapers write about. Long lunches, late starts and early finishes, they would not last a week in private industry and unfortunately my supervisor isn't willing to rock the boat and put them under performance management. Basically we're a three man team where if I don't do it, then it won't get done, it sucks.
I've talked about changing jobs previously and if it continues like this for too long, then I'll have no choice but to move on to somewhere else as I can't handle it when I can see that I'm the only one doing anything and the others, who are getting the same salary as me, are getting away with doing next to nothing.
Bomber
I think I need another holiday.
Monday, 11 February 2019
I'm still attracting more and more Instagram followers, it's really odd. I think I had four more new followers in just the last week. I'm going to have to try and find some time to take some more photos with the bike and the 360° camera. I'm thinking that if I can head out for a couple of hours one weekend and take a bunch of photos I should be able to get at least a few good ones that I can then upload every week or so to try and grow an even bigger following.I kind of like how it is growing all by itself and I haven't done anything to promote it. If I can keep the growth up I'll then have a potential audience to promote my youtube channel to.
I've been thinking a little about the YouTube business and how to approach it and my view of it has changed a little, I think that has to do with how much time I'm thinking about selling and moving houses but I don't really have time at the moment to do any motocamping or invest the time needed to make good videos. I still do want to do it, but it will have to be on the back burner for quite a while still. That's why I like the idea of just doing Instagram for a while, sure it won't bring me in any additional income, but it will get me started with heading out with the camera and engaging with social media.
Bomber
I'm going to be a photo bomber
Weighing In
I had this post all done and must have hit save instead of publish yesterday, sorry.
Man, I am such a broken record, I still haven't done any additional exercise. I have been a little better with my lunches and I've cut down on my beer consumption again, mainly because I ran out of beer, but I didn't go and buy more. I'm really trying to drink more water when I'm at home to keep myself hydrated and I'm trying to go to bed at 9pm again as I'm actually feeling tired at that time and when I do go to bed, I'm sleeping better. I think that the reduced beer and sugar intake helps with me sleep better. Maybe I'm also sleeping better as most of the selling and buying stress has gone away for now as it all seems to be set up and moving right along properly.
The next few weeks before we go to the Gold Coast are going to be pretty busy as we've got to basically pack the entire house before we go away and then when we get back, we have one day to finalise everything before the movers come. My wife has managed to get moving day off work, but I imagine that there will still be a fair bit to do.
At this stage we're thinking of hiring a ute for a couple of days so we can take the pot plants and other things that the movers won't take over to the new house. I guess it all really depends on when the current owner allows us access before settlement and if they do, how much rent they want.
Weight: 110 KG
Steps for the week: 54,580
Average daily calorie burn: 3,901
Bomber
Looking forward to the Gold Coast
Man, I am such a broken record, I still haven't done any additional exercise. I have been a little better with my lunches and I've cut down on my beer consumption again, mainly because I ran out of beer, but I didn't go and buy more. I'm really trying to drink more water when I'm at home to keep myself hydrated and I'm trying to go to bed at 9pm again as I'm actually feeling tired at that time and when I do go to bed, I'm sleeping better. I think that the reduced beer and sugar intake helps with me sleep better. Maybe I'm also sleeping better as most of the selling and buying stress has gone away for now as it all seems to be set up and moving right along properly.
The next few weeks before we go to the Gold Coast are going to be pretty busy as we've got to basically pack the entire house before we go away and then when we get back, we have one day to finalise everything before the movers come. My wife has managed to get moving day off work, but I imagine that there will still be a fair bit to do.
At this stage we're thinking of hiring a ute for a couple of days so we can take the pot plants and other things that the movers won't take over to the new house. I guess it all really depends on when the current owner allows us access before settlement and if they do, how much rent they want.
Weight: 110 KG
Steps for the week: 54,580
Average daily calorie burn: 3,901
Bomber
Looking forward to the Gold Coast
Saturday, 9 February 2019
Let the Packing Begin
Yesterday after work I went out and purchased a stack of moving boxes. There is a company not far away that actually make some of their own boxes in house and their prices were really good. I've only ever moved a small amount when I moved in with my Wife (when we were dating) and then move a slightly larger amount when we moved from our rented townhouse to our current house. That was before we had kids so we have a whole heap more stuff now. I think this will be a good chance for us to clear out a lot of stuff we don't really need but have been hanging on to. I'm pretty sure my wife still has a box of personal memories in her cupboard that she never unpacked 10 years ago when we moved in.
It's tough throwing things out that once were important to you or have sentimental value, but if they stay stuck in the back of a cupboard and you never use them or look at them are they really worth hanging on to? I have some stuff that I have in the back of my cupboard, but not too much. I have my electric guitar from college and my pool cue, the last time I would have actually played the guitar would be nearly 20 years ago and the pool cue somewhere around 10 years ago. I can probably sell both of them and now that I'm writing this I think I'll try and do just that. I have some old mobile DJ gear and a guitar amp in the garage too. Even if I don't get much cash for them, at least they will be getting used and hopefully they will make someone happy.
There are a few things that I wouldn't get rid of, I have a pewter cup that my late Aunt gave me for my 21st birthday that is engraved. It's in a nice wooden box and it just sits at the back of the wardrobe, maybe at the new place I can put a couple of these nicer things that I want to keep on display. I'm not sure what my wife would think of that as she probably thinks it's ugly. I also have my Grandpa's medals that I'd like to get framed or something to put on display somewhere in the house.
Bomber
If I don't post, I may have packed the PC.
It's tough throwing things out that once were important to you or have sentimental value, but if they stay stuck in the back of a cupboard and you never use them or look at them are they really worth hanging on to? I have some stuff that I have in the back of my cupboard, but not too much. I have my electric guitar from college and my pool cue, the last time I would have actually played the guitar would be nearly 20 years ago and the pool cue somewhere around 10 years ago. I can probably sell both of them and now that I'm writing this I think I'll try and do just that. I have some old mobile DJ gear and a guitar amp in the garage too. Even if I don't get much cash for them, at least they will be getting used and hopefully they will make someone happy.
There are a few things that I wouldn't get rid of, I have a pewter cup that my late Aunt gave me for my 21st birthday that is engraved. It's in a nice wooden box and it just sits at the back of the wardrobe, maybe at the new place I can put a couple of these nicer things that I want to keep on display. I'm not sure what my wife would think of that as she probably thinks it's ugly. I also have my Grandpa's medals that I'd like to get framed or something to put on display somewhere in the house.
Bomber
If I don't post, I may have packed the PC.
Friday, 8 February 2019
Planning and/or wanting?
You know how I love getting ahead of myself, right, well I'm already planning the landscaping that I want to do at the new house, as well as the shed I want, the shelving in garage, the tool trolley as I won't have anywhere to keep my tools at the new place, watching YouTube videos on DIY self watering planter boxes, trying to figure out what type of shade cloth I should use and how to attach it, types of pop up sprinklers, types of Japanese maples, native garden or exotic or a bit of both, gym and pool operating hours, location of parks and playgrounds, PV systems, robotic vacuums, outdoor audio systems, blinds, washing machines, trying to figure out from promo photos if the oven is pyrolytic, future sports venues, school fees for the local private school that my children wouldn't even go to for another 2 years at least, there are probably more but that's all I can think of right now. I remember writing lists for motocamping and planning how I wanted the videos to go, I kind of miss those times. I still have it all written down on the PC and stored for looking back on later when I may actually get started but it is just crazy how the want, want, want is still relentless. I wonder if I could ever just be happy with what I've got and not feel like I should be doing something or feel like I would be happier if I just did this or that, or bought this new shiny thing. I'm sure that there is a whole lifetime of study on this exact type of human behaviour and it would be really quite interesting to see if everyone has this desire to some degree or if there are genuinely people who are happy with exactly how things are.
Bomber
That started getting too deep.
Bomber
That started getting too deep.
Thursday, 7 February 2019
Just how fast things have changed
So, I've gone back through the posts from the last month or so to see just how quickly things went from us feeling a little cramped to getting an offer on our house and putting an offer on a new house.
From what I can tell, somewhere around 2 Jan is when things became a little serious, my wife wanted a desk that should could do some studying at and I signed off that day's post with "time for a bigger house".
The two weeks after that we did a lot of looking around and a fair bit of research into extending our current house. We came to the conclusion that we would have to move to get the space we wanted and that doing an extension was probably not affordable for us at the moment.
In the following two weeks we talked to a couple of real estate agents about putting the house on the market and were about to sign one of them up when we received and accepted an offer on our house. In the same period I took the kids camping for a couple of nights and started some of the preparation work needed to sell the house.
A week or so of figuring out if we should or even could build a new home resulted in us realising that we didn't have the time to build so we looked a few properties and talked to everyone we could to see what was currently for sale and what may be coming onto the market shortly. We only ended up with a few candidates and instead of waiting to see if something better came on the market or if we'd have to move in with my Dad for a while, we made an offer on a place.
02 Jan - Think about moving
07 Jan - loving it, or listing it?
15 Jan - listing it
21 Jan - house hunting begins
25 Jan - accepted an offer for our house
02 Feb - put an offer in on a new house
03 Feb - our offer accepted
Basically one month from just talking about moving to putting an offer in on a new place with only contract exchange and settlement left to organise. Good price for our old house, reasonable price for our new house. How crazy is that. If anyone had told me on New Years day that we'd be moving into a new house in March I would have laughed at them. You often hear of people who can't find what they want and have been looking for months, or can't sell their house for whatever reason and end up with two mortgages with both houses about to be foreclosed. Sure, nothing is guaranteed at the moment and things could still go wrong, but it's almost like it's meant to be and everything is working together to make sure this all happens.
I never win at raffles, I can't think of the last time that I won anything or had what others would call a run of good luck. I just have the most unbelievable selling and buying and moving experience I think that anyone could ask for.
Bomber
I'm not going to complain about not winning the lottery anymore
From what I can tell, somewhere around 2 Jan is when things became a little serious, my wife wanted a desk that should could do some studying at and I signed off that day's post with "time for a bigger house".
The two weeks after that we did a lot of looking around and a fair bit of research into extending our current house. We came to the conclusion that we would have to move to get the space we wanted and that doing an extension was probably not affordable for us at the moment.
In the following two weeks we talked to a couple of real estate agents about putting the house on the market and were about to sign one of them up when we received and accepted an offer on our house. In the same period I took the kids camping for a couple of nights and started some of the preparation work needed to sell the house.
A week or so of figuring out if we should or even could build a new home resulted in us realising that we didn't have the time to build so we looked a few properties and talked to everyone we could to see what was currently for sale and what may be coming onto the market shortly. We only ended up with a few candidates and instead of waiting to see if something better came on the market or if we'd have to move in with my Dad for a while, we made an offer on a place.
02 Jan - Think about moving
07 Jan - loving it, or listing it?
15 Jan - listing it
21 Jan - house hunting begins
25 Jan - accepted an offer for our house
02 Feb - put an offer in on a new house
03 Feb - our offer accepted
Basically one month from just talking about moving to putting an offer in on a new place with only contract exchange and settlement left to organise. Good price for our old house, reasonable price for our new house. How crazy is that. If anyone had told me on New Years day that we'd be moving into a new house in March I would have laughed at them. You often hear of people who can't find what they want and have been looking for months, or can't sell their house for whatever reason and end up with two mortgages with both houses about to be foreclosed. Sure, nothing is guaranteed at the moment and things could still go wrong, but it's almost like it's meant to be and everything is working together to make sure this all happens.
I never win at raffles, I can't think of the last time that I won anything or had what others would call a run of good luck. I just have the most unbelievable selling and buying and moving experience I think that anyone could ask for.
Bomber
I'm not going to complain about not winning the lottery anymore
Wednesday, 6 February 2019
Change of Focus
I'm wondering if I need to change my focus for the Motocamp360 business, at least just for a while so I can get everything else sorted. I say it like there is a Motocamp360 business, what I should say is that instead of building it up straight from YouTube videos of going motocamping, perhaps I should just start with some more 360° photography on Instagram. The reason why I'm thinking this is because the intro vids and stuff on YouTube didn't really do anything and I wasn't expecting them to, but what has happened just recently is that I've gained a number of followers on Instagram and I haven't posted anything on there in ages. I currently have 13 followers and only four pictures have been uploaded, only two of them are 360° photos. Most of the followers have come on-board in the last couple of weeks and from the names of them, they are other 360° camera enthusiasts.
Taking some more 360° photos that are motorcycle related could be a good way to start a following that I could hopefully convert into YouTube subscribers. I haven't done anything to promote my Instagram account, I just thought that I should have one to go along with the YouTube and Patreon accounts.
I've also noticed that there are now a few 360° Motovloggers on YouTube so I won't be as unique as I was hoping to be, I guess that's what happens when you drag your heels and don't get things started the way that you'd hoped. The only person to blame it myself and I can make all the excuses I like, but when you get right down to it, I just didn't try hard enough and made too many excuses about it being too cold, or too hot, or not having the time. I'm sure that I could have made the time if I really tried. If I really wanted to I could have almost gone during the work week and just packed up early enough that I could have dropped the kit at home and headed off to work. Yes that would be super keen and I don't plan on doing that anytime soon, but I still could have done it.
Bomber
need to get snapping
Taking some more 360° photos that are motorcycle related could be a good way to start a following that I could hopefully convert into YouTube subscribers. I haven't done anything to promote my Instagram account, I just thought that I should have one to go along with the YouTube and Patreon accounts.
I've also noticed that there are now a few 360° Motovloggers on YouTube so I won't be as unique as I was hoping to be, I guess that's what happens when you drag your heels and don't get things started the way that you'd hoped. The only person to blame it myself and I can make all the excuses I like, but when you get right down to it, I just didn't try hard enough and made too many excuses about it being too cold, or too hot, or not having the time. I'm sure that I could have made the time if I really tried. If I really wanted to I could have almost gone during the work week and just packed up early enough that I could have dropped the kit at home and headed off to work. Yes that would be super keen and I don't plan on doing that anytime soon, but I still could have done it.
Bomber
need to get snapping
Tuesday, 5 February 2019
Moving right along
We had the pest and building inspector this morning and this afternoon we had a valuation done on our house too. These have been organised by the people who are purchasing our property and their solicitor exchanging contracts with us will most likely depend on the results, or at least they won't go through to settlement if there is anything that they don't like the looks of.
It would be interesting to see what they say and we may get a chance to look at them as things progress, I'm most interested in the valuation as it will let us know what the banks think our house is worth and if we will be receiving a fair price for the house.
Everything is moving along nicely but I think it is already getting to my wife, she likes to be super organised well ahead of time, where I'm not getting too excited until we've at least exchanged contracts and have booked in an actual date for settlement to occur.
In my mind, if we're not sure of the settlement date, then there's no point talking to removalists or the utility companies as they will want to know what date we're moving in so they can book everything in at their end. I've asked my wife to tell me what I can do to help, but so far she's not tasked me with anything. I still have some painting and what not to do around the house, so I'm going to busy myself with that over the weekend and hopefully next week we'll have the settlement date so I'll start organising the utilities and internet connection. I'll also book in for Foxtel to come and collect their equipment as we've decided that we're not going to get the same kind of pay TV at the new place. We already have 3 Fetch boxes and I'm going to sign up to get some channels through them, we can then watch them on all three boxes for the one fee. Currently we only have one Foxtel box and I only watch two or three shows on it a week. The Fetch TV has the Discovery Channel and National Geographic channel which are the two that I browse the most when there is nothing else on Foxtel anyway and they have a good selection of children's channels. I can get those two packs for $12 a month where currently we pay something like $90 a month for Foxtel. The only thing my wife will really miss out on is the last season of Game of Thrones, I'm sure she'll survive when she thinks of the savings we'll have from cancelling Foxtel.
Bomber
I've never watched an episode of GoT
It would be interesting to see what they say and we may get a chance to look at them as things progress, I'm most interested in the valuation as it will let us know what the banks think our house is worth and if we will be receiving a fair price for the house.
Everything is moving along nicely but I think it is already getting to my wife, she likes to be super organised well ahead of time, where I'm not getting too excited until we've at least exchanged contracts and have booked in an actual date for settlement to occur.
In my mind, if we're not sure of the settlement date, then there's no point talking to removalists or the utility companies as they will want to know what date we're moving in so they can book everything in at their end. I've asked my wife to tell me what I can do to help, but so far she's not tasked me with anything. I still have some painting and what not to do around the house, so I'm going to busy myself with that over the weekend and hopefully next week we'll have the settlement date so I'll start organising the utilities and internet connection. I'll also book in for Foxtel to come and collect their equipment as we've decided that we're not going to get the same kind of pay TV at the new place. We already have 3 Fetch boxes and I'm going to sign up to get some channels through them, we can then watch them on all three boxes for the one fee. Currently we only have one Foxtel box and I only watch two or three shows on it a week. The Fetch TV has the Discovery Channel and National Geographic channel which are the two that I browse the most when there is nothing else on Foxtel anyway and they have a good selection of children's channels. I can get those two packs for $12 a month where currently we pay something like $90 a month for Foxtel. The only thing my wife will really miss out on is the last season of Game of Thrones, I'm sure she'll survive when she thinks of the savings we'll have from cancelling Foxtel.
Bomber
I've never watched an episode of GoT
Monday, 4 February 2019
Time to start organising things
After work we met with the solicitor who is handling our sale and also our purchase, everything seems to be in order and we are aiming for a simultaneous settlement in mid March, most likely the week we return from our holiday on the Gold Coast. We are just waiting now for the contracts to exchange so we can lock in a definite date and start booking in everything that we'll need.
We've decided that we'll use professional movers to move everything as we don't have any family living nearby and my wife's back wouldn't be up to helping me to carry out all our furniture. We'll probably have to start boxing things up before we go away and then when we get back finish off what is left. We also need to arrange for the power and water to be connected as well as the phone and internet. We'll probably move our pay TV over as well so there is a little bit of co-ordination required to make it all happen. We're hoping that we can get access to the new place a couple of days prior to settlement to allow us to move in. I'd already planned to take a couple of extra days off after returning from the Gold Coast, but at the time I had no idea that they would be used to pack the house and get things ready for moving. My wife and kids will be at work and school the week we move so I'm guessing that I'll be doing most of the work and co-ordinating of all the different people who will need to go to each house.
We have a building and pest inspection at our house tomorrow that the new owners have organised, it means that I'll be a little late to work so I'll probably have to work back a little to make up for it. We're not sure if we're going to bother to get one done on the place we are purchasing as it is a new build and they reports are known to be basically useless, the one we got done when we purchased our current home had all sorts of mistakes in it. I think they even stated that the garage was made from brick when it is clearly galvanised iron. They also stated that the alarm system and electric garage door appeared to be in good order and functioning correctly. We asked the previous owners about it as things didn't seem quite right and as it turned out the alarm systems battery had been disconnected as it went flat years ago and the remote for the garage door hadn't work in years as well.
Bomber
I'm still surprised that I can write each night.
We've decided that we'll use professional movers to move everything as we don't have any family living nearby and my wife's back wouldn't be up to helping me to carry out all our furniture. We'll probably have to start boxing things up before we go away and then when we get back finish off what is left. We also need to arrange for the power and water to be connected as well as the phone and internet. We'll probably move our pay TV over as well so there is a little bit of co-ordination required to make it all happen. We're hoping that we can get access to the new place a couple of days prior to settlement to allow us to move in. I'd already planned to take a couple of extra days off after returning from the Gold Coast, but at the time I had no idea that they would be used to pack the house and get things ready for moving. My wife and kids will be at work and school the week we move so I'm guessing that I'll be doing most of the work and co-ordinating of all the different people who will need to go to each house.
We have a building and pest inspection at our house tomorrow that the new owners have organised, it means that I'll be a little late to work so I'll probably have to work back a little to make up for it. We're not sure if we're going to bother to get one done on the place we are purchasing as it is a new build and they reports are known to be basically useless, the one we got done when we purchased our current home had all sorts of mistakes in it. I think they even stated that the garage was made from brick when it is clearly galvanised iron. They also stated that the alarm system and electric garage door appeared to be in good order and functioning correctly. We asked the previous owners about it as things didn't seem quite right and as it turned out the alarm systems battery had been disconnected as it went flat years ago and the remote for the garage door hadn't work in years as well.
Bomber
I'm still surprised that I can write each night.
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Weighing In
A much better week this week than I've had in quite a number. It was only a four day work week with the Australia Day public holiday on Monday but as I mentioned earlier in the week, I was really busy at work. The heat is still here, the next couple of days are meant to be a little cooler so maybe I'll get back in the swing of things.
I didn't get any tidying or cleaning done this weekend, it was pretty busy with going to lunch with dad and checking out houses as well as the kids swimming lessons yesterday, so I basically took it easy and played a little Fortnite with my son.
I do need to get things done around the house as now that we've put an offer in we could be as little as 45 days away from moving and we've got a fair bit on in that time including going on holidays for a week to the Gold Coast.
I imagine that now we've found a house that we're happy with that the content of this blog will once again shift a little to everything involved with moving and then setting up house. There is a fair bit that we'll need to organise, like some landscaping and some electrical work in the house itself. Depending on how much money we have left once we've moved in, I'd like to look at putting a PV system on the roof to try and offset some of the aircon costs that we're no doubt going to have in the new house. I'd also like to put in a watering system for the yard to keep everything looking nice since we're going to have to plant a hedge and some trees out the front and in time we'd like to put a hedge along the back fence and maybe the side fences too.
Weight: 110.5KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
I didn't get any tidying or cleaning done this weekend, it was pretty busy with going to lunch with dad and checking out houses as well as the kids swimming lessons yesterday, so I basically took it easy and played a little Fortnite with my son.
I do need to get things done around the house as now that we've put an offer in we could be as little as 45 days away from moving and we've got a fair bit on in that time including going on holidays for a week to the Gold Coast.
I imagine that now we've found a house that we're happy with that the content of this blog will once again shift a little to everything involved with moving and then setting up house. There is a fair bit that we'll need to organise, like some landscaping and some electrical work in the house itself. Depending on how much money we have left once we've moved in, I'd like to look at putting a PV system on the roof to try and offset some of the aircon costs that we're no doubt going to have in the new house. I'd also like to put in a watering system for the yard to keep everything looking nice since we're going to have to plant a hedge and some trees out the front and in time we'd like to put a hedge along the back fence and maybe the side fences too.
Weight: 110.5KG
Steps for the week: 45,275
Average daily calorie burn: 3,381
Bomber
Our offer was accepted!
Saturday, 2 February 2019
wowsers!
Did I say just how fast things were moving and how it was all becoming a blur. Well last night and this morning my wife had been basically talking non-stop about houses and we realised that no matter what, we'd have to be making compromises. Whether that was on the size of the house, or yard, living spaces, location, inclusions, orientation etc etc.
We both started looking back over the houses we had visited and decided that we wanted to take another look at the second house we'd inspected. We initially ruled out this house as it had large windows facing west and would get pretty hot in summer, other than that, it was a nice house. Of all the others we've seen this was the only house where the compromise wouldn't be in the size of certain aspects of the house or in the layout.
The price is also good and will leave room in our budget for making some changes to try and alleviate any summer heat issues. We'd also need to get a few power outlets installed and a gas connection for the bbq area as once you've moved away from using bottles, you never want to go back and we converted our bbq several years ago.
So, after having lunch at Dad's, we headed out for another look. If anything, it was slightly better than we remembered and the front room and master were already starting to heat up. Everything else is actually really good and the yard size, whilst smaller than I'd like, is bigger than most in our price range.
We left the inspection and are now both really keen on the house. We know that the builder has already dropped the price a couple of time and is very motivated to sell, so we might be able to negotiate a fair price for the house.
We both started looking back over the houses we had visited and decided that we wanted to take another look at the second house we'd inspected. We initially ruled out this house as it had large windows facing west and would get pretty hot in summer, other than that, it was a nice house. Of all the others we've seen this was the only house where the compromise wouldn't be in the size of certain aspects of the house or in the layout.
The price is also good and will leave room in our budget for making some changes to try and alleviate any summer heat issues. We'd also need to get a few power outlets installed and a gas connection for the bbq area as once you've moved away from using bottles, you never want to go back and we converted our bbq several years ago.
So, after having lunch at Dad's, we headed out for another look. If anything, it was slightly better than we remembered and the front room and master were already starting to heat up. Everything else is actually really good and the yard size, whilst smaller than I'd like, is bigger than most in our price range.
We left the inspection and are now both really keen on the house. We know that the builder has already dropped the price a couple of time and is very motivated to sell, so we might be able to negotiate a fair price for the house.
Bomber
we made an offer on it....
we made an offer on it....
Friday, 1 February 2019
a swing and a miss
We looked at the house that I'd pinned my hopes on this afternoon. It was just too small. The agent then took us to another that was a bit bigger and now we have a dielema. I think my wife really likes this new place but it didn't grab me. I'm starting to think that it won't be our forever home that we move into next, it'll be where we live to raise the children and then we'll probably move again when we're older, either downsize or upsize down the coast or something when we're ready to retire.
The new house is about three houses from the end of what should be a quiet street. At the end of the road there bushland but it doesn't look like that there will be any footpaths through it and it is quite steep sloping down away from the road, it doesn't look like the kind of place the kids would go and play. At the other end of the street there is a park and then around the corner from there is a couple of ovals. To get to that end of the road you have to cross a couple of streets to get there, but again they look like they should be quiet streets. The house is north/south on the block with the living areas facing east. The lounge room is on the northern side but the kids bedrooms are on the western side so could get quite warm. I'd prefer east/west with the living areas facing north and the bedrooms on the northern, eastern or southern side of the house.
The house we now really really want is too expensive, we're still going to go and have a look at it on Sunday afternoon and we are also going to talk to our broker to see if there is anyway that we'd be able to get approved for a mortgage of that much. This house has a dedicated study as well as a dedicated space for the kids, it would be perfect for us. There would be a dedicated guest bedroom instead of what we were planning on doing which was using the 4th bedroom as a study and putting a sofa bed or something like that in there.
It's really doing our heads in at the moment becuase we can't quite afford what we know would make us both really happy, possibly broke, but still happy.
Bomber
still wanting wanting wanting
The new house is about three houses from the end of what should be a quiet street. At the end of the road there bushland but it doesn't look like that there will be any footpaths through it and it is quite steep sloping down away from the road, it doesn't look like the kind of place the kids would go and play. At the other end of the street there is a park and then around the corner from there is a couple of ovals. To get to that end of the road you have to cross a couple of streets to get there, but again they look like they should be quiet streets. The house is north/south on the block with the living areas facing east. The lounge room is on the northern side but the kids bedrooms are on the western side so could get quite warm. I'd prefer east/west with the living areas facing north and the bedrooms on the northern, eastern or southern side of the house.
The house we now really really want is too expensive, we're still going to go and have a look at it on Sunday afternoon and we are also going to talk to our broker to see if there is anyway that we'd be able to get approved for a mortgage of that much. This house has a dedicated study as well as a dedicated space for the kids, it would be perfect for us. There would be a dedicated guest bedroom instead of what we were planning on doing which was using the 4th bedroom as a study and putting a sofa bed or something like that in there.
It's really doing our heads in at the moment becuase we can't quite afford what we know would make us both really happy, possibly broke, but still happy.
Bomber
still wanting wanting wanting
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