Skip to main content

The Januaryiest January of all Januarys.

I’ve written the word January so many times now that it doesn’t look like a real word, but rather an imposter word like pyjamas does (it gets weirder the more you think about it). I also keep accidentally spelling it with an H instead of a J; the measures one must go to when you have a small babe on you and have to rely on a singular, uncoordinated thumb to type the fake word January one too many times. Sorry if you keep saying Hanuary in your head now.


Anyway, where were we, January? It’s the 31st today and to be honest, I’m very happy to see February arrive. In the four weeks that were Hanuary/January, we had a baby, finished renovating our house, got our conditional offer on a section accepted, and put our house on the market.

Yikes, Hanuary, you got us good.

January is known for being the month of fresh starts and new beginnings all that whatnot, and so I feel that we well and truly got Januaried this time around. 

Last night, my husband finished the house renovations. It’s not complete, but it’s complete enough within the time frame that we have. I know he’s disappointed that it isn’t as polished as he’d hoped and that fully clearing the garden just didn’t happen, but that’s the thing with houses and families and jobs and life. There’s always a bajillion things going on and while there’s always more that’s asking for your time and energy, it’s simply not humanly possible to keep giving. He’s done an incredible job and I’m so proud of all the literal blood, sweat and tears of his that got this house done. If you’re wondering what the whole blood aspect involves, to cut a long story short he dropped a ceramic toilet weighing the same as a baby elephant right on his toe. It wasn’t pretty. The garden was also riddled with blackberry and that stuff is just plain nasty. Hopefully the sweat and tears are self-explanatory.

Anyway, he accomplished so much (he did 95% of the renovations while I child-wrangled) all while juggling working full-time and being a top-notch dad. I truly admire his determination and hard work! This house has been an absolute beast, a sprawling, messy, wonderful, stressful beast, and to be at the end of it is a huge relief. We learnt a lot, made a heap of mistakes, and went through six toilets only to end up with only two new ones installed. So yeah, it has been a lot. And I realise that we’ve had a few too many toilet mishaps, probably more than your average Joe. Oh the joy!

There have been plenty of good things too, I do promise it hasn’t all been doom and gloom. Like the time we dismantled someone’s entire kitchen to use for parts (we had their permission I swear) and we discovered that taking apart a whole kitchen is actually quite fun! And the time where we constructed our whole new kitchen in our living room and putting each cabinet together felt oddly therapeutic. Ripping up the carpet was also a good time (minus the vicious nail tracks), as was scraping off all the wallpaper. Our toddler has enjoyed every moment that she could be involved in and she now loves using a hammer, nails, tape measure, screws, and drill. We will always see all the mistakes and think, “what if we had more time/energy/dollarbucks (I see you grinning there, fellow Bluey fans)?”, but at the end of the day, it is what it is innit!

A lovely opportunity leapt into our path and so we decided to see what would happen if we grabbed it by its real-estately horns. It’s a flattish (you’ll know how key this is if you’ve ever been to our current home and seen the wilderness) section that’s a five minute walk to the beach. It’s not tiny either and nor do we each have to sell an organ to make it work. It’s a bit further away than we currently are, but after many pro-con lists (yes, we’re those people) we decided to go for gold. And so we have a section! Almost. To build a house! Hopefully. And when I say build a house, I definitely mean that seasoned professionals will build it i.e. certainly not us.

So that’s where we are at, trying to keep our house looking presentable for open homes and viewings, all while our toddler is currently living her best life in Run And Destruct Mode: Pure. At least the baby can’t make much of a mess yet, though she does keep spilling. Usually it’s all over me so that’s easier to shower off three business days later, than to mop the floor yet again. 

Now all we need is for the real estate gods to pity us and then things can keep chugging along. And to make sure Banksy doesn’t visit in the next few weeks with her stamps. Love that for us.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A review of the types of people who sell animals on TradeMe.

I’m always on the hunt for new internet rabbit holes to venture down during all these long nights. Sometimes I’ll just read random articles or follow a Wikipedia chain or read up about conspiracy theories just for the fun of it. I’m not too sure how I got into investigating (okay, that’s way too strong a word for staring at a screen to stop my eyelids dropping) the animals for sale on TradeMe, but here we are. Upon reading several listings and gasping at the price of these creatures, I began to notice some particular themes within each subset of seller. And because I don’t have anything better to do during these ungodly hours, I’ve categorised these sellers into neat, little boxes. Healthy stuff. Let’s start with the pigs. Surprisingly, pig sellers tend to be of very few words. I was lowkey disappointed because I expected an almost rambunctious air about them, verging on mildly jolly. However, most listings just include one or two blurry photos of the pigs at least 5m away in a paddoc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plumbers and Broats

Today has been a strange morning so far, involving plumbers, blue food colouring, and awkwardly pacing around inside my house. Is it just me who gets nervous and feels awkward when they have a tradie working in their house? It's probably just me. This would be a typical thing that makes me feel weird, but no one else would seem to have a problem with it. Now I'm just rambling. Another weird thing I do. We have a couple of plumbers working on the downstairs in our house as we're renovating the bathroom. The plumbers are very nice and normal and I've talked to them and showed them the work that needs to be done and it was fine. They aren't even in the main section of our house. My toddler and I are on a completely different floor, but with every little noise I think, "but what if they come up the stairs?" And I mean, what if they do? Therefore, in the possibility that they may come into the main section of our house (which again, is unlikely, given that all ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alone (with peas and Sard).

These past 12 hours I’ve had so much alone time, I feel quite strange and everything feels unfamiliar.  It has been wonderful! But also a bit weird. It’s really made me realise that before I had kids, I had So. Much. Time.  But that’s always the way it is, isn’t it? You don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. And then you have a new blessing in its place and all you can think is, “wow I’m so constantly busy” and “wow, I would love to use the bathroom alone,” and “wow, I can’t remember what silence sounds like.” You lose yourself a little bit in motherhood. You find new parts of yourself too, of course. You grow and stretch and rise so much that it hurts. But you’re also so constantly on 24/7 that you barely have enough time to think you’re own thoughts. Last night my daughter slept through the night! It was amazing! I feel so well rested today and I’m so thankful. I have no idea why or how or anything else and it probably won’t happen again for goodness knows how long, but...
Post a Comment
Read more