Another Year Wiser

Yes I had a birthday recently. Uneventful really as we'd had no sleep for 3 days, my husband was busy at work and my 9 month old needed to be pushed in his pram to have any day sleep. Was quiet glad when it was over and my head hit the pillow. A few days on now the nightmare has lessened slightly. We've had some sleep overnight again, and day sleeps have resurrected themselves in the cot. My husband and I both have colds...so suspect that little one was cold infected at the beginning of the week and just couldn't tell us that his head hurt. The calm of the day sleep for being able to regenerate is essential. 45 mins does not count as a day sleep, that's only enough time to use the bathroom, grab a drink (non-alcoholic), move toys into one pile, reply to my husband about 'how the day is going', organise the next meal and pack the nappy bag if we're heading out, or unpack the car if we're back. An hour and a half this afternoon and still counting...hence I've indulged in some blogging.

The house update: we've finished two bedrooms, ours and Arthur's. Ours also includes a brand new double wardrobe. And slowly but surely the hallway is being stripped of wallpaper. Unexpected find number 3: badly repaired BIG holes (times three) in the hallway. Also induced nausea in my husband when I pointed out the hallway has eleven doorways to be painted. Yes, 4 bedrooms, 3 cupboards, bathroom, lounge, kitchen and the backdoor all enter onto the L-shaped hallway. Even one a week would take 3 months!

We have finally organised life insurance, about 1 month ago, very happy with Paragon, who did finally get back to me. Had a few questions to ask the guy, so went along with having him to come around, but was equally impressed enough to follow through with him and not just go online.

Next 'mini drama' to follow through, is going to exchange the present my parents sent me. I emailed one birthday wish list to husband and parents, both copied on the same email, and they couldn't co-ordinate, nor did either party think to double check what the other was doing. So much for availability, accessibility and easy communication in a modern technology era. So now I'll be scheduling in a trip to the shops (actually quite looking forward to that), but it is something else to do...and something else on the list will drop down and still not get done. There are times when life is just one big long list of jobs.

No one wants our buisness

So I'm still waiting for information from a life insurance investor. Surely he realises we will be changing what we do in the future and looking for investment opportunities in future years? This is after the bank representative didn't follow through on our insurance, even after 15 emails she still had not managed to organise it, so I gave up and looked at other channels. Luckily nothing has happened to my husband in the meantime. We're just trying to do the sensible thing but no one wants our business. Looks like I'll be going on line and using pinnacle life - well worth their TV advertising if no one else in the industry is interested in taking money from clients.

Ode to sleep and the simple life

So I have not been regular with my blog like I was committed to being at the beginning. A few weeks, almost months have past and life is moving on. Really glad to be in our room, took weeks to get the green paint off the walls, and then John spent many a evening plastering and sanding to try and recover some smoothness to the gib. It looks okay painted as long as you don't look too close! The big change with moving into our room was to move Arthur in his own room, the little room. Not that his sleep patterns have changed at all, he wakes for 2 feeds a night (between 7pm and 6am), even just going to one a night would be nice...had 5 hours straight sleep last night from 11:30 until 4:30, felt amazing, rather than just 3 or 4 hours in a go. That has slowed down progress on chasing things up as I'm just tired in the mornings, and going back to sleep when Arthur does, like having a newborn again! Taking on a project like the house has complicated life. Complicated life a little too much! But that's how you learn about yourself and challenge yourself isn't it? Would I do it again, of course; would I change it for anything, no way. Is it worth all the tears (including 2 straight days of tears...) oh yes! There is never a happy medium, that's not how life works. I was almost getting bored, into the Mum routine and having a lovely settled happy boy. Now I have times I crave that simple life but being in our own place is brilliant and there will never be an 'easier' time than now to do it.

Feels like home already

Yes, been sleeping here just over a week and it feels like home. First night was Friday 16 April. Busy weekend as we tried to unpack and organise things to make the place liveable but with moving too much into the bedrooms before we decorate and without putting too much on the floor to let the polyurethane harden. My parents were in town for the weekend so they helped me unpack the kitchen and the three of us basically shoved stuff in cupboards and drawers where ever it would fit. That got rid of a good number of boxes. Thursday this week saw another trip to bunnings - the 4th I think - for a cheap 2 door cupboard to use as a pantry. The pantry, missing from the galley styled kitchen, is now out the back door in the laundry. The exciting part of a pantry was unpacking the remaining kitchen boxes and then clearing the benches! Yah, I have a functioning kitchen now and have cooked a few meals, including entertaining a friend for dinner last night. Am loving having open plan lounge/kitchen. While another place I lived had the kitchen right by the lounge/dining, the walls were still intact, so as far as guests were concerned you were withdrawn from proceedings. Works well even just during the day with Arthur as I can quickly organise food or do a few dishes without needing to move his play area.

This weekend has seen a beginning to the recorating of the bedrooms. Unexpected find number 2: while only two layers of wallpaper in the master bedroom the underneath is painted. Well that is as stubborn as an icelandic volcano. It's taken my husband two 8 hour days with me chipping in gentleman's hours between breast feeds and playtime to get 75% of the room stripped. So now looking at taking a month to paint our first room, so much for doing a room a weekend like the reality shows, let alone the ludicous 60 minute makeover. Surely more time goes into planning the execution of the 60 minutes and mapping it all out that just doing a room at normally speed.

Arthur is not particularly amused by Mum, Dad and the floor being covered in peppermint specks of paper. He lasts about 1/2 hour of watching stripping before he needs a change of scene. We've managed to start solids this week. In amongst stacks of boxes and just generally stuff, I focussed on achieve some parenting. Having decided I had everything to get started on Monday, it took until 3pm - his afternoon feed to be ready to try. Well into the swing of it now. Spent one evening this week cooking pumpkin, and managed to puree it this morning for Arthur to eat today. Pumpkin had a worse reaction than rice cereal or banana. But then he turns and opens his mouth again, ahhh, the curiosity. Curiosity got the cat and almost Perky the pukeko, but luckily human nature bowls us on, your either a genius or a darwin award contender. Hopefully we all have more time in the first category not the second.

Boxes, boxes everywhere

So the lounge and kitchen are now piled with furniture and boxes. So far haven't thought I wonder where that is...More the thought is what do we have in all those boxes that I'm sure we need and use, but don't need this week. The floorsanders will be finished today and floor should be dry tomorrow, so then we're in! Sleeping on the floor on a mattress at our rental place. Arthur is coping well although nights have been full on! This week he's been waking 3 or 4 times a night. So not only are we trying to clean and finish packing but doing so on little sleep. Last night was only once, yah!, amazing how wonderful 9 hours sleep with only one wake up feels. John took yesterday off work, we had a nice family day, cleaned the rental house so it's spick and spanned. A trip to bunnings in the middle of the day was a nice distraction. We picked out some light fittings for the new place. Arthur thought the light section was great as they had big displays of all the various lights displayed with the light turned on. There was also a section of outdoor LED lights, they were all flashing away, very exciting for young one, who sat in his capsule in the trolley mesmerized.

Managed to break a nail, aggghhh. Pulled off an annoying chuck down the inside of my thumb, ouch. One of those annoying injuries that you feel when you use your hand, but isn't really bad enough to claim any sympathy. Let's hope that's as bad as injuries get on this project...John has some great marks on his legs, and scratches up his arms, will do his office soft limbs good though.

New Mum tip number 1: the nappy bag is more useful if it actually has a nappy in it. John went to change Arthur on sunday afternoon around at the new house, and alas no nappies in the bag. Ooops, should really follow through on the tip I was given to repack the nappy bag as soon as you get home. Really need to get a bit more rest so things are quite so much of a blur...

Unexpected Find number one

So the reality hit today, like a sledge hammer. A live-in renovation project, what was I thinking! Well too late now. Carpets are all up, thanks to lots of hard work by husband, and very little work by me. I slept into until 8:30 with little one who must have been exhausted from yesterday's moving disruption and so much stuff to look at, stimulation galore. His synapses must be snapping like their on speed. Then we headed to the supermarket and did a few other essentials, yes life must go on too. Entertained a friend who came to have a look and before I knew it was 2pm and I hadn't helped at the house at all. I had booked an electrician though. Lights weren't working when we moved in (unexpected find number 1). The electrician suggested some of the electrical items in our house should be in MOTAT. He's now got us thinking that the rewiring needs to be further up the priority list. Why is it that all the boring jobs that give you little to show off seem to end up high in the list. Tomorrow's to do list includes getting keys cut and ordering a miniskip (for said carpet that is now piled on our front door step and not lying about on the floor).

New Beginnings

I'm a 32 year old first time Mum and I was determined to have a family home for my children to grow up in. My husband and I were renting in Auckland after arriving back from 5 years in Sydney. Following my husband being made redundant and starting a new job I was only 1 month away from due date for our first baby when I started saying, regularly, we will be out of this house by winter. Roll forward to April 2010, 6 months later, we have a beautiful, happy chappy named Arthur who is 5 months old and we are moving this week into our new house. My husband will now admit he couldn't see how it would happen, and was never fully supportive of my statements as he didn't want to see me disappointed. If you've ever seen a tired pregnant woman being told it is available in light blue, not baby blue, you'll understand my husband's pussyfooting over finding our dream house.

The one catch - the house is a bit of a doer-upper. There has already been a few mini sagas and rigmaroles, no doubt more to come, along with blood, sweat and tears and hopefully lots of smiles and laughs too.

So: THE PROJECT

1 house to be fully renovated inside, front of house revamped, deck added to provide outdoor entertaining, and a spruce up of the garden. Budget will need to be managed month by month, so jobs need to be prioritised.

Continue raising our gorgeous son.

Return to work in November.

Time Line - 1 year 5 months (so expecting to take 2 years)