Again, with the planning.

Planning is always at the heart of every great endeavor. I love this stage. It's exciting and thrilling and all possibilities are open and without constraints. Your imagination is the only limitation.

So it sounds a bit contradictory to list and organise every tiny detail into a closed schedule, that would seemingly impose constraints.

But just because you plan, does not mean you can't be creative and think big.

Even an artist plans.

Planning is how I cope with the stress that will inevitably come with such a large project.  Planning is the thing that gives you a long list of delicious check-boxes to tick.

So, what am I planning you ask?

Two weeks ago, I would have replied that I was planning our move to live at WG. Planning to pack up the current house, get it ready to rent out, find a good agent and then tenants. I would say I was planning how we will fit all the furniture in the new house, how we will manage the dogs, chooks, cars, gardens at WG. How to resettle Mr K's mum and pack all her things and store them.

Today, I have all this to plan and one tiny detail more.

The 'one day' extensions to WG house, the ones we thought we would wait until we had lived there a few years and get a feel for the house and how we live in it, have just suddenly and surprisingly time traveled back in a giant leap into the present.

How did this all happen? It started innocently enough. Mr K had some reservations about the move to WG, not that he didn't want it to happen, but rather he needed a few 'essentials' done before it seemed to him that we were moving forward instead of backward. The house at WG is pretty basic. It's a three bedroom, 1960's farmhouse. It has been very nicely done up in places, like polished jarrah floorboards, and lovely wooden window and door frames. However, other things are just very basic, like the shower is just a painted cubicle, the bedrooms are pretty tiny, there are no WIR at all and one basic linen cupboard. All things I can merrily live with, but Mr K is giving up a very big and suburban house to go-a-farming with me.

The kitchen was renovated 10 years ago, and will be ok as it is, for a while anyway!

All of which was fine, he was happy to move, until it came to his Precious. A pot-holed, gravel driveway and no carport or garage is no way to treat a pedigree Jaguar. To have her constantly covered in red dirt and live outside in the elements is too much to bear for this highly bred beast. Mr K said the compromise was to bitumise the driveway and build a carport, both things I was in agreeance with as I secretly didn't like the idea of my lovely new white car getting the same treatment.

The gravel driveway and nowhere to house a pedigree.

The problem was, where to build the carport so that it fitted in with future plans for extensions. Also, where to stop the driveway so that it didn't have to be dug up at a later time when we had finalised the plans. Solution? Get an architect to draw up some concept plans for an extension now, so we know exactly where the carport and driveway will go.

So that's what we did. Which if course was where the whole train derailed and ran away with us. Mr K and I have always had in our hearts and minds a 'one day' ideal house. We agree almost 99% of what this looks like. And WG was blossoming as a building site to build this dream home. It had all the elements. So when Mr Architect arrived to view the location, and his face lit up and he started getting all animated and sketching things on his pad ... well we too let go of all constraints and got excited, silently both making the decision to plan and build now, not two years from now.

We justified it to each other on the way home. It will be much better to build now than to be living on a building site. It will be cheaper to do all the land clearing at once, so while we need to do groundwork for a carport, we may as well do it for the building site. We need to match the building materials for the carport and the extensions. If we are borrowing to do the driveway and carport, we may as well borrow it all in one lump sum for the building too (we really were making excuses now).

Main bedroom. Love the floors and light, but no cupboards at all.

By the time we got home, we had convinced each other that this was a no-brainer and we were now in fact going to build the new extensions now.

Jodie, get out your notebook and start making lists. We have planning to do!

Good Things come to those who wait ... and wait ... and wait ...

The title of this blog is Journey to Contentment. It started in April 2010, the same year that we bought our dream property. It was New Years Day 2010 that Mr K and I first saw it. We had been looking for a property just like it for years and we both knew we would know it when we saw it. Many a weekend was spent with a weekend real estate paper and long drives and animated plans. We traveled from Toodyay to Wandering and everywhere in between, finding little gems and letting our imaginations run wild. We came close a few times, but each opportunity had more minus's than plus's.

The Real Estate Agents picture - this is what we saw that special day.

On our way to a friends for a New Years Day BBQ 2010, we took a detour to just 'check out the area'. We both saw this house, set right back on a few acres of grass, a farmhouse nestled in trees with wide verandas and everything we both always loved. As we drove along the road frontage we excitedly said to each other that this was exactly the type of house we wanted. At the very edge of the land, near the driveway I saw this sign out of the corner of my eye. 

"Stop" I yelled ... It said 'For Sale'.

We discounted it. Sadly but resignedly, this area was WAY out of our price range. On the way to our friends, we dreamed and let our imaginations run wild that one day we would buy some land and build that type of house on it. We felt happy to have just seen a perfect example of what we could achieve one day. It was great Mr K and I felt the same way and had the same vision. This was enough. Of course, this didn't stop me having a little fantasy, somehow finding the money and imagining myself living there. Fantasy is what I lived on.

Closest picture I can find that represents what was in my head. Even this doesn't compare to my special place now!

At the BBQ, Mr K and I were still enamored by the vision, so of course we mentioned it to our hosts, one of which was in real estate. She said, why don't you phone up the agents and see what they are asking for it. My stomach turned over at this comment - excitement that we would ever entertain this step and dread that my fantasy would be extinguished by confirmation this was out of our league. Its the same reasoning I give when I have lotto tickets which I never check - I don't want to confirm the end of the fantasy by finding out for sure its not a winner.

But we did make that phone call, and I watched Mr K's face closely for a clue. He had his poker face on, so when he got off the phone and gave a listing price that was a lot less than I had ever hoped, I was like a eight year old just told I was going to the Royal Show with $5 pocket money! Our real estate host friend, in true fashion, then fueled and facilitated the fantasy and the rest of this story has a happy ending which I have written about before. It was also the birth of this blog.

Links to a smattering of Wattle Grove posts :

• Its the Little Things
• My Place
• Dear Santa, I Wanna Poneeee for christmas
• 150 Posts
• Today was first time in ages
• Mop Up Day
• Building Stable Yards and Doors
• Demolition Day
• Planning Day
• Farm Day
• Bonfire Night
• Aww Gawd, is it Monday already?
• Progress so far
• Being kind comes back to you
• We have a special visitor today
• Where we are at now
• Wow! What Week
• So how's the Journey so far?
• Poached egg for breakfast

Today I can say that the waiting, at least, has an end date! 

That strange marker of all things new, Christmas* 2014, is the date we have given ourselves to have moved in by. This property has a special place, a little magic corner that everyone who goes there says the same thing ... "this would be a great place to have long, leisurely lunches."

Time for plans. And where better to share them than this blog and all the wonderful readers who have shared this journey.

Mr K and my Dad having 'lunch' by the stream after a hard days work on the stables.

* strange for an atheist like me

Talking about My Car .... My Car!

The one I fell for (well not this one exactly, but a carbon copy) ... Nissan Dualis

Sitting in the waiting room of the Nissan dealership waiting for my new car to have her first service. Have I told you lately that I love her? 

Just yesterday, I had to go do the shopping and it was so easy to park and I had a spring in my step because I had independence and freedom and my own freaking car! These little moments keep cropping up and I go wow, I have MY own car! And this sounds like I have been some little mousy downtrodden 'kept' wife who has been held in her place by not being allowed to have her own car. It's not like that at all. It was just circumstance that led to this situation. 

First we had the work cars. 3 little Micras at our beck and call to take home whenever we wanted. I could jump in one and go do errands or visit Ikea. (little constricting to go to Ikea in a Micra - I mean how do I fit in a new bookcase, doona cover, 5 packs of paper napkins, a cutlery drawer organiser, three pots and matching plants, a set of coasters ... none of which I wanted or needed until I arrived in the great hall!.) But as the business got busier and the techs needed their cars, (how rude) I found that my opportunities to escape with a Micra were less and less and then I would get a phone call to ask me how long was going to be? Huh? You cant predict that in Ikea. It takes as long as it takes people!

Then was the time I was at the hairdressers, a place I find stressful at the best of times, and I was practicing my Zen pose whilst making small talk with an Irish hairdresser I could not understand, when I had no less than 4 calls and just as many text messages asking how long was I going to be! That was it. Something needed to change.

I could have taken the 'ute' - our Nissan (see a pattern here?) Navara Dualcab ute to Ikea or the hairdressers. Sure I could have fitted an extra 2 seater sofa, matching coffee tables, a shelving system, doona and pillows to go with the cover, but at a cost of my euphoric feeling after having tried to park a huge boys ute with bullbar and winch on the front and treg hitch on the back. Not to mention putting nice things in the tray that last week had gravel and mulch and a bale of hay. And certainly not mentioning the smell of border collie in the front, or the black and white hairs flying all over the place. And how could I possibly get, all dainty like and coiffed hair, into a ute!

And yes, I hear you asking, Mr K does have a car and I can use that ... but I value my marriage and my sanity. Backing out Mr K's Jag from our very narrow, long, awkward driveway is just the start of the anxiety. Once you get on the road, there are other nut cases dong stupid things near his precious Jag. Then you get to the shops and drive right down the very back of the parking area so you can get a nice vacant space that is not next to some old clanger whose owner doesn't give a toss about banging the doors. But then you also panic cause now you have parked so far away from any other people and surveillance and some tosser might run their keys down the car and .... no, no, not on my watch. I would rather not be responsible for one little mark on the Jag thanks very much. 

So that left me carless (as opposed to careless). Well I did get offers from the MIL to take her car. Which was lovely of her but it was so OLD. Not the car, no that's a couple of years old Nissan Tiida. No, its an old ladies car INSIDE. It has a funny beaded seat cover, old shopping bags, a walking stick, and a walker in the back. A straw hat, and then you turn it on and the radio has some stuffy FM on. I felt like I was 100 years old when I drove it. 

So, that left me really, really carless! Opportunity arose when the last payment of then Navara came up and I could salary sacrifice my own car. So what did I choose? A Jag? ha-ha. Get real. Not enough Xanax in the world for that. Nope it had to be a Nissan of course. Mr K had seen this new car called a Juke. Looked pretty funky in the brochures and online. So we went for a look. Yes it did look funky but way too over the top for me. 

I'm too sexy for this car .... the Nissan Juke

I went and tried every car in he lot, the Xtrail, Pulser, Juke, and finally a Dualis. I had discounted the Dualis as the first models looked so mundane and 'soccer mummsy'. But there was this pimped up one, the sports TI with mag wheels and spoiler and leather seats and moon roof and white pearl paint and little rails on the roof. That was it. I fell for her. 

Which brings me to now. Here I sit, waiting for her to have her bits checked and okayed and we can be reunited. They wouldn't let me in the workshop to hold her steering wheel. I may have embarrassed myself by sobbing a little.

Monday ... should rename it to get-yourself-organised-day

Why is it that Mondays always are the days we give ourselves the good talking to? The day we start a diet. The day we will set the alarm early and get up and go for a brisk walk. The day we will make a healthy lunch at home to take to work. The day we get ready for work peacefully instead of a hideous rush and leave the house with wet hair and un-ironed shirt (it looks OK, doesn't it?  I just wont take my jacket off). The day we plan with our partner to have a date night this week. The day we eat Bircher muesli and fresh blueberries for breakfast.

By Tuesday we have fallen back into old habits, we tell ourselves that this week isn't a great week to be starting new routines.  We have a meeting with the boss, a visit to the dentist, the car needs a service and besides it's so bloody hot. Next week I will start. I promise. I will even go buy a new diary today and write myself a proper schedule.

It's like a mini New Year resolution every week. The feeling of being in control on a Monday wanes away as Friday approaches and we collapse in a  guilt-fueled, I-give-up Saturday. Sunday night, what I always call Hair Washing Night - as that's when my mother would wash our hair and make sure all our school uniforms were washed and ready and we were made to pack our school bags (often having to unpack the fish paste sandwich left there Friday) - is when we take stock of the less than satisfactory week and give ourselves a talking to, that starting Monday, things are going to change around here. (Can you hear my mother's voice here? I can!)



So what happens? Why this roller-coaster? Is it just me, or (I hope) do we all do this? We must do. I just read an article in The Australian that talks about our 5:2 lives. How we live for five days of work that leave us depleted and emptied, and try and fit another life, our social and personal life, into the two days left in the week. I see the problem as having higher and higher expectations. We don't just have friends over for dinner, we have friends over for a dinner designed by Delicious Magazine, in a house that Grand Designs inspired, with a walk around the garden modeled after Monty Don's French Gardens. Impossible standards, unless you have a maid and a chef and a gardener. And that's just a part of the weekend - there is the washing, cleaning, shopping, lawn mowing, pool cleaning, kids sports, car washing, dog washing, blower vac-ing .... and on and on it goes.

(Binge, crash: Welcome to the 5:2 lifestyle
SHANE WATSON THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY 17, 2014 12:00AM)

So, never one to admit failure, I keep trying to get it 'right.'

I set my alarm this morning. I had written a plan (this was after an inspirational writing course this last weekend) to rise at 6am. Do my chores and be sitting at my desk, coffee in hand, open page and spend the next hour writing.

At 6:01am I turned off the alarm, mumbled to the dog, "I'll do it tomorrow" and went back to sleep. In my wisdom (I know myself well) I had set another alarm at 6:30am. 
6:32am - I found my phone stuffed under 3 pillows, and turned that alarm off too.

At what point do we give up completely and just get on with life?

Disclaimer - I apologise that my blog posts might sound odd and jaggered. I have spent the last few months (in blog exile) writing academic essays. I feel the need to reference everything and write a bibliography. Hopefully I will loosen up a bit as I write more!

Oh Yay!!! I got my blog back.

It got hacked. Some nasty little Malware got into my blog and it has been shut down for the last 5 months!  

I was so scared I had lost you all, and lost me with it.

So I now have protection ... should not be catching any nasties anymore!

I got so much to tell you all ... go get a bucket of coffee and a whole box of Tim Tams ..

:-)  I am just a little bit happy (well a lot happy)

Vinyl, Lino, Carpet Squares ... a whole new frontier

I thought I knew a fair bit about building, building terms, finishes. materials. I know at a glance what a four by four looks like, I know what rio bar is, I know the different between cement and concrete, I even know the correct mix of sand, cement and aggregate to make a good mix.  I don't get caught out when a tradie asks me to go down the hardware store for a long weight, or even a 3 inch hole.

This is possibly the vinyl we will go for in the Kitchen & Bathrooms

But yesterday I went on a whole new builders journey - into the commercial world of fit-outs. I learnt what coving means, (and I like it), I got over my fear and loathing of carpet tiles (and I like them), I learnt about how soft close door hinges work (and I like them too) and I learnt that stone bench tops come in 3m lengths but laminex is 1200mm.  We also confirmed to ourselves what makes a good salesman, and what makes a bad one.

Mr K and I spent a very exhausting day going out to the industrial area of Perth and visiting Kitchen/Cabinet makers, tile showrooms, carpet showrooms, vinyl warehouses. I think we have come away with a better idea of what we want, at least I hope we have as time is running out.

So, what is coving? When you lay vinyl floors (and yes, I know you are asking vinyl floor?  Are you mad?) you can lay them loose or glued down. As we are using vinyl in the kitchen, the shower room and toilets, it has to be stuck down and completely water tight. To do this they cove the corners, and run the vinyl up the wall as a skirting. Think hospital floors.  Its a very effective way to make wet areas sealed, although not very cheap.  From a cleaning perspective, I love it.

Cross section of the coving process

What it looks like

Carpet Tiles were a new frontier too. We all have memories of those ill fitting, curling at the edges, scratchy, blue or pink carpet tiles. But they too have come a long way, and you can get all manner of designs, colours and qualities. I like the idea that we can replace any damaged or stained tiles, I like that we can put them down last after we have painted and made a huge mess, I like that they actually look pretty smart. They cost no more than a fitted carpet. Mr K is still not very convinced.

Wish our office view was this good!  But the floors could be

We are leaning towards a charcoal grey.

Finally, the Kitchen. We have one quote and waiting on another to get a kitchen company in to build and fit instead of us doing a flat-pack kitchen. We want it to look really nice, so worth spending a little more more on it, plus if we get it supplied and fitted then its one less job for us to do. Of course it costs a (lot) more, about double the price, but I think it will be well worth saving the money in other areas. We are getting towards the pointy end of this project!

Kitchen will be kinda like this, but with a yellow splash-back. 

I'm just a suburban hen...

... I know the heading is a bit corny and probably the young ones won't know what it means at all. It's a play on words of a song from 1978, a Perth boy called Dave Warner who had a mild hit - "I'm just a suburban boy".  Nothing at all to do with chooks and everything to do with my strange mind.

Anyway, here are my much coveted, long anticipated girls - Daisy and Mabel. They are Australorps, bred by my 10 year old nephew. Tommy (the Border Collie) is self appointed minder. He takes his job very seriously. I get two eggs most days and the girls are very chatty and friendly. If you call me, and I don't answer, you can be pretty sure I am sitting down with the girls.

Tom thinks working hens with the 'eye' works like it does on sheep - it doesn't!

They love their greens

They are trying to find a way to get to all that green stuff!

Daisy in the front

My first egg in the egg basket my Dad made me (after I showed it to him on Pinterest!)

Mabel, in front and Daisy behind. I had just turned over some soil and they loved it.

My daily gift from the girls .. their yolks are so big and dark yellow - makes perfect poached eggs.

A New Office - Part Three - The fun bit

The new office and how we planned it. 

This is the fun part, well it's the fun bit until we start having to consult the budget anyway. Being creative is so expensive!  So how do you start this great big lumbering project? I use Microsoft Project (thanks David for putting it onto my PC :-) and start by creating the big categories first:

• Lease
• Preliminary Research
• Preparation to Move
• Final Plans and Budget
• Quotes and Bookings 
• Business Services
• Enable Services
• Demolition
• Rebuild
• Decorate
• Purchases
• Move
• Set-up New Office space
• Clean up and finalise lease at old office

Ideas for the wall panels behind reception desk

Then I go back to each category and fill in every single step that needs to be done. I ended up with five pages of individual tasks - and that's just the draft. As we go along there are always extra steps to add, something we have forgotten, an extra bit to add, an unforeseen problem that needs a solution.

After this list is sketched out, the managers all got together and went over it, adding their two cents worth and fleshing out a time schedule so that it all gets done on time. We have a little time on our side this move, certainly more than we had last time we did this.

Ideas for the staff kitchen

We are up to the final plans and budget stage, with a lot of the quotes and bookings being done this week as well. It's a constant juggling game, the budget has been up and down like a whore's drawers, we lose a bit, gain a bit, lose a lot, gain a bit. I think we are over our original budget but not by a lot (yet)!

It's an expensive business this office fit-out caper - we have a very limited budget of $70,000 which is chicken feed in the world of fit-outs. Some things may have to take a number and sit down for a while, but they are things that we can live without for now and do when money permits. We won't compromise on the customer facing areas, or the comfort for staff areas - got to keep both happy - so they will be done first.

Sofas for the reception area

So, we have a 95% complete plan, a schedule that is (so far) on track, a budget that looks pretty reasonable, funds in the bank and ready to go. Its been a week of Mr K meeting tradies onsite, handing out plans and instructions, getting back quotes and tweaking. More homework on wall finishes, carpets, paint choices, kitchen fit-out (good ole Ikea), cabling options, signs.

We officially take over in a little over a week (1st September) so want it all systems go for then. 

Its about to get LOUD!

Boardroom idea

A New Office - Part Two - How?

So, in the words of a old school friend of mine who was shipwrecked and lived to write a book about it - How do you eat an elephant?

What it looks like now

Well the answer is obvious ... you don't ... elephants would taste horrible and besides they are such wonderful animals how could you kill one to eat? I guess the rhetorical question might apply if you were a lion, in which case the lion would answer (after he had finished a mouthful, lions are very polite you know) - "one bite at a time".

A Before Photo - to go - pink carpets!, beige walls, vertical blinds - yuck!

Is this how we tackle the move to our new office? One bite at a time? Sure feels like we are moving an elephant! Before we can actually move, we need to do the fit-out of the new place. If we were a mining company or had unlimited cash flow, we would get a fit-out company to come do it for us for about 10 times the cost. We don't have unlimited funds, we have a small loan (small in terms of business, not small in terms of retired people) from my wonderful parents, and that's it so - we can do it ourselves!

Therefore we get smart, work hard and chew like crazy. The plans are almost finished - that was a task and a half on its own. There was only a very rough plan of the office, with no measurements and not entirely accurate. So Mr K and I had to measure every wall, window, partition, pillar, doorway and enter it into a plan making program (Good old Google and Sketchup). Now we had an accurate plan, it was time to get creative and move stuff around on paper.

One thing it has is LOTS of good storage and shelving

Easily done on a piece of paper, but the reality is every wall we moved has to be pulled down and removed in real life. Every line we drew back in, is a wall that has to be built. Mindful of this, yet needing to change the spaces we currently have, Mr K and I worked on a plan that will do both.  I am pretty happy with it so far, but experience has taught me that what works on a plan, does not always work on the ground.

That's OK, we have talented and experienced builders on the job - my Dad and Mr K.

Still in the planning phase, we don't get official possession to start work until the 1st September, we are using this week to get all the trades - plumbers, electricians, data cable, glass partitions guys, sign-writers etc to meet us on site and get quotes and ideas and schedule the works.

View out the front door

Come the 1st, we are into demolishing and clearing out what we don't need. 

Then the next phase begins.  It is a lot of work ahead, but I am just a bit excited!  The next post will be the new plans, the finishes we have selected and the scope of works.

A Big Growly, Grey Cat

Back in December, I wrote about a carrot and a stick. A Shaguar - oh Behave!  Seems the carrot got caught and is now sitting in our carport!

Yes. Mr K got his much coveted Jaguar. Its so cute how a (almost) 50 year old man, reverts to a small excited boy who got a bike for his 6th birthday. That smile, the one in the picture, is reserved for the grey cat - I have caught him a few times now, out in the carport with his hand lovingly stroking her, with that grin on his face!

Now, anyone who knows Mr K in the flesh, will know that he is not a car-washing-every-Saturday-then-blowervac- the driveway-and-clean-the-pool kinda guy. He does 'man chores' if and only when they really, really need it. BUT, this Jaguar, that we have had for 2 weeks now, has been washed 3 times, polished once, vacuumed twice and had the leather inside all wiped over. (I know, my Mum will have gasped at this abomination). This is a man who can walk over cat sick for weeks, uses the same coffee cup for days without washing it, decides if a pair of worn undies are clean enough by sniffing them!

So, it must be love. For Mr K to take such care of her, it has to be the real thing.

The nice part - he is sharing his new love affair with me. I got to drive her down the shops the other night. I was terrified. It took me a full 15 minutes to back out of our driveway - I was so nervous I would scratch it. It tells you how to reverse, to watch out for things on your left, right, back front - even peeped loudly when I was about to back over the dog! It turns on the lights automatically, the windscreen wipers when 1 tiny drop of moisture falls.

Then when I got to the shops, I parked right down the back of the carpark, despite it being night and a dodgy area, just so no-one in their common old Ford would dent the door. I packed the shopping carefully in the boot, terrified the milk would tip over and spill. I drove home like a 100 year old Kalamunda granddad on his way to bowls. 

Secretly, I love it too. The walnut burr finish, the black leather, the way it thinks of your every comfort.

Oh and another proof of Mr K's starry eyed passion - he has not smoked in it at all, and said he never will!!