And then she broke....

Image found here

The stress.

It's getting to me.

It's making my life difficult.

Sometimes.... it's hard to breathe.

My stress is only over first world problems, but at the moment there seem to be so many of them, I am finding it hard to cope at times.

I feel like I want to jump right off this rollercoaster.

I want to push the fast forward button and be in a different place.

A place where there are no 4 hour photo shoots or open for inspections for this rental that is being sold (thus meaning that I have SO much cleaning to do!)..... A place where all the packing has been completed and unpacked at the other end. A place where I don't have to go to work but can maybe work from home during my own hours (that's a big dream, ha!) so that I can be here for my children.... A place where everything goes to plan and turns out exactly as it should....

It's pretty safe to say that I am not really in such a good place right now. I am sure that I will come out the other side okay, but sometimes, it's important to stop and have a cry if you need it. I know, because this evening I broke. My eyes are feeling scratchy and my nose is runny now, and I will probably wake in the morning with a killer headache, but I am feeling a little bit better for having gotten it all out, and now I am feeling better for writing it down.

I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I am just a normal person with a HELL of a lot going on right now. I know that there are other people with A LOT bigger problems than me. I absolutely get that. I really do. But no matter how big or small your problems might be, it's important to talk about them, and if you need to - cry. It might just help to make you feel just a little bit better....

I hope that everyone else is okay this evening...


Teresa x

Remembering when....

In my first year at University, my best school friend invited me to a Tupperware party being held by a friend of hers.... I remember on the drive there, the two of us were joking about how grown up we were now (we had met in year four and are still close friends today), going to Tupperware parties and University.... anyway... This day we jumped in to the car and headed up a hill to the house where the party was being held. It was a winding road of course, and when we arrived and were invited inside, the party was being held on the balcony. I remember nothing more from that day, except the view. This was a part of the town that I had never really been to before, and I was amazed by how far along the coast you could see from up there. I remember standing on that balcony, staring out at the view, thinking that one day, I might like to live up on this very hill with a similar view to this... It was a far fetched dream, especially for a 1st year University student with a part time job that paid almost nothing!

At the end of my degree, I moved away from that town, to a much bigger city, and then I moved again to another state, and to be honest, I had forgotten all about that day until recently, when I stood on our balcony at the house, and took in our view. A view that is much better than what David and I had originally anticipated that it would be.

The view on a lovely sunny day before the house was built

The funny thing is, that we didn't buy our block of land because of that view. It was far more important for us to stay in the same suburb or close, and to have the space in our garden to keep chickens and grow vegetables. Our block ticked all those boxes, and was the only other one that did when our offer on another block of land was rejected.

In all the time that it has taken us to finally get started on building our home, there have been some very frustrating times for us along the way, and I think that the view ended up being something that really kept us going. If the process was becoming all too hard, and we were getting depressed and annoyed with the process, we would drive up to the block, stand about half the way up and look back.... and each and every time, all our worries would disappear. We would want to keep going. We were determined to build our house and live here in this beautiful suburb. I do hope that we will never tire of our view....

Up on the balcony at dusk.

I think it's funny how a little thought I had in my head so many years ago has seemed to become my reality. It was never a goal that I was looking to achieve or something that I was actually striving for, but it's a bit uncanny to think that something I had seemingly wanted that day, is so very similar to what we have ended up with years and years later.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Moving House Announcements

The handover date for the house is about 4 weeks away!

So I've started thinking about some announcements. I like the idea of these to give to people with all our new contact details. It's something that I have done in the past, although in the last 3 moves I didn't bother, and we missed some important mail from relatives... I'm not sure that cards like this would have prevented it from happening, but I love sending out cute things like this and since this will be our last move for a VERY long time, I'm going to make the effort!


Here are just a couple that I have found on Etsy...



Image and Card available here

Image and card available here



 

Image and Card available here

 



It's more than likely that I will end up creating something myself, but I actually may need to use one of these if I run out of time (which is VERY likely!)... I like the idea of including a photo as well. I suppose it's also a little keepsake for our family of when our home was finished also.

Have you send moving house announcements before?

The house. Another update!

It seems like forever since I updated you on the house. This whole working three days a week thing makes my four days at home super busy... We'll hopefully get the hang of it soon...

Anyway, check out our house! This is a really photo heavy post, because I have lots to share. The photos are a little all over the place, but they are in order.... 

The build is coming along in leaps and bounds.  It really, really is! It's so surreal after waiting so very long, to have everything finally fall in to place. It's like a dream.

There has been a big focus on the exterior being finished, and at the same time so much has been happening inside as well.

The Hebel went on the upper level walls. We chose Hebel because we used it on the extension in our previous home and loved it so much for its ease of installation (David, his Dad and Uncle put the walls up on our extension in 2 days) and the energy efficiency. We also figured that it would be much easier and cheaper to get a rendered look again as well. And it has not disappointed us. We are happy with the result.



The Hebel going on



The pillars at the front have finally been finished

Starting to look more like a house

 

 

The framework for the decking out the back has had to be removed. Again, I had some unkind words to say about the architect.... The architect drew the decking to match the floor trusses. This in turn has meant that the decking boards were running away from the house, rather than parallel to the back, if you get what I mean! We are planning to extend the deck right the way to the retaining wall, and this would also have made it quite difficult to extend later on.

 





The back area where the decking will go

 

The walls have been insulated and gyprocked as well. With the 6 star energy requirements our entire house has had to be fully insulated in every wall, even the pantry, ha!

The house is SO energy efficient, even the pantry is fully insulated!

More insulation in the family room

Our hallway

Hebel finished and rendering started

Starting to look much prettier

Looking in to the media room and out on to the balcony


 

Main bedroom with walk in robe on the left. You walk through the robe and in to the en suite.

Inside the walk in robe, looking in to the en suite

 

Water proofing has been completed in all the wet areas

Looking at the kitchen. The pantry is on the left.

Looking in to our family room. There will be bookshelves either side of the gas log fire.

The exterior is really coming together now. The Hebel has been rendered and is waiting for its coat of paint to seal.

This afternoon I met the builder down at the block to confirm the tiling, as it has arrived. Yes. The tiling is about to start! I am so excited! The front door and the internal doors should be arriving later this week and apparently the scaffolding will be coming down as well. There is a lot to do, but with perfect weather forecast, and these really hard working men, who continue to amaze us with just how much they can do in one day, I am not surprised that the builder expects the exterior to be finished.

We have Christian's 2nd birthday this weekend, and my Mum visiting from QLD. I am really looking forward to showing her around the house.

Hopefully it won't be so long between updates!


Teresa x