Setback.

Well, we thought that all happened a bit too easily!

Everything was going along nicely, I'd started packing a couple of boxes, working on my plans for the move, began making lists and all that good stuff.  Had a valuer from our purchasers' bank come to value our property and then *BAM*! 

We got the call.  Their finance had been declined.

That hurts.

Apparently, when the couple (not) buying our place applied for their Lenders Mortgage Insurance they were found to have a bit of a black mark next to their name due to an old debt that went to collections. They'd paid it out and were okay with the bank, but the LMI mob weren't happy to take them on.  So they've been declined and we're back to square one.

I feel the pain for these guys, it sucks so much worse for them, since they're going to keep coming up against this problem, and the only way around it is to find a cheaper place or come up with an extra $20k before they make an offer on another place.  

We still have three weeks to sell our place, three weekends of home opens, so I'm still feeling confident (just a little miffed).  We've actually got someone coming through the house tonight, so hopefully they just fall in love with it and buy it right away, save us the hassle of home opens.

Ah, the joys ;)

Pinspiration

I mentioned in my last post that I'd been doing some hardcore pinning since we put an offer on our new place - I've got so much that I want to do, I can't wait to just get in there and start figuring out what's going to be possible and exactly what I've got to work with!

Since I've got nothing else to report back on, I thought I'd post a few of my favourite pins that I'm hoping to incorporate or draw inspiration from in our new home.

Enjoy!

jennasuedesign.blogspot.com

Our original plan for when we outgrew our current home was to find a nice 1/2 acre block of land and build our dream house - but blocks that aren't at least 2 hectares are very rare in our chosen part of the world, so we ended up buying established.  Which is more than fine (I must admit, I was dreading that house building limbo period), but it means my fantasy of exposed beams (which was an absolute must have in my mind) was not likely to come to fruition.  I'm not entirely sure that the ceilings in the new place are going to be high enough for us to manage this, but at least this gorgeous rustic look has made it back into the realm of possibility for us!  I'm actually pretty sure this is something we could manage to pull off.  Fingers crossed.

www.smittenstudioonline.com

I'm pretty much taking this entire kitchen and replicating it in the new house.  I can easily paint the existing timber cabinetry and I've already sourced everything else I need.  The layout will be a little different, but everything else is perfect for the look I'm after.  Maybe having my dream kitchen will inspire me to be a better chef!

Doubtful ;)

www.thekitchn.com

Plus these stools for the breakfast bar.  I love their industrial look.

www.livelovediy.com

I won't be able to do this soon enough!  I haven't researched this one yet, but one of my besties works the paint desk at the local Bunnings, so I'm sure she'll be able to point me in the right direction.

www.bhg.com

Green isn't exactly my colour but I love this for the entryway.  Our front door leads straight into the front lounge, so I'd love to add in a half wall to create a separate space there.

mommo-design.blogspot.it

I'd love to recreate this in Taylor's room - the thought of her having a little reading nook excites me to no end, since I was a little bookworm myself.  One of my greatest hopes for her is that she is able to discover all the hidden worlds that books can take you to.  There is no greater gift than the ability to enjoy reading IMHO.

link unavailable.

We're planning on removing the build in wardrobes in the master bedroom in favour of a walk in robe. It won't be as grand as this, but this has a similar feel to what I'm going for. Let's hope we can pull it off!

You'll probably find that I do a few more of these posts, since I can't keep off Pinterest for the life of me.  You can follow me via the link to the right :)

Under Offer!

After two homes opens and two private viewings, I am so happy to say we are Under Offer!  I feel like we really lucked out, with the property only being on the market for two weeks and man, am I grateful!  

We went down south for the weekend (our first trip away since Taylor was born!) and were on our way home when we got the call.  Fist pumping and car dancing ensued.

So now we're just waiting for the purchasers to get their official finance approval.  They told our real estate agent that they had a pre approval that expired only a couple weeks prior, so since their circumstances haven't changed, we should be alright from here on out.  I must admit, it was a massive relief.  And a massive wake up call.  This is actually going to happen!  We're actually going to be moving house!  

I've been going pretty hardcore at Pinterest since we accepted the offer - I've got so many ideas, I just want to get in there and get going on redecorating!  But first comes the much dreaded packing stage.  I've collected a few packing boxes, packing tape and newspapers, but am trying to hold myself back from actually putting things in said boxes until we get the official word that the purchasers have their finance approval.

Fingers crossed it doesn't take too long! Let's keep this ball rolling!

Getting Ready for Sale

Firstly, let me apologise for the lack of instructional photos - I'm still getting back into the swing of things with the blogging caper and photography still isn't at the forefront of my mind.

We met with our real estate agent on Monday to sign our Offer and Acceptance contract and to go through the house and figure out what we needed to do to make it as sale-able as possible. We've always managed to keep the house fairly tidy and clutter free, but of course our spare bedroom/my office is a complete junk room, we never got around to painting the front lounge (which we've also been using as a makeshift gym), the grout in our bathrooms was never sealed and the garden is just...blah.  So we had a bit of work today.

My main frustration has always been our en suite shower - I love white bathrooms and kitchens, so our house features white tiles and white grout.  When we built this place back in 2009 the tile company told us we would't need to bother sealing the grout because grout doesn't get discoloured.  Doesn't it, tile company, doesn't it???

These photos were taken at night, so the tiles have an apricot tinge - they're white - but you can see how disgusting the grout looked.  Please don't judge me ;)

I tried everything to clean the grout - scrubbed it, Exit Mould, Easy-Off Bam!, Ajax Shower and Bathroom, vinegar and bi-carb powder and plain old bleach to name a few, nothing would work.  Thing is, grout is pourous, so scrubbing isn't really going to help once you get to a certain point and it's already stained.

I was so fed up that I even considered getting our ensuite regrouted completely.  The quotes I got back came in at $1800, which I'm not prepared to pay considering we're trying to sell the place and I'll need that money to fix up the ensuite in the new place (call me selfish).  I'd tried painting the grout before with on of those grout pens you get at hardware stores but found it to be too uneven and came off after a couple of showers.

I spoke to a tiler friend who suggested I try MasterLine Tile Grout Colourant, which is the product he uses as a professional.  At under $10 I thought why not!  He warned me I would have to get the tiles super clean before I painted so that the colourant would adhere to the grout effectively.  So a trip to Bunnings was in order - I picked up Long Life Grout Cleaner which again, was under $15 at $14.99, a grout brush and a foam paint brush.

 

Scrubbing the grout was the worst part - the smell of the cleaner was overpowering and I probably should have worn a mask.  The grout came up really well, even with just the scrub but still had a grey-ish orange tinge to it, with black mould spots still really prominent (although softened), so I decided to proceed with the paint.

I still want to paint the ensuite floor, so I'll try to remember to take photos then so you can see the technique, but seriously, easiest thing ever.  I did two coats since the first was still a little too uneven for my liking.  But the result looks like this.

 *Angels chorus* Hallelujah!  I still want to recaulk/resilicone (whatever you call it), but I'll get to that in the next couple of days.

Our other main job was to paint the front lounge (and get rid of the sports equipment). I don't have any before photos, but here are some during.

The paint colour we used is Dulux Clay Pipe Half - we'd pretty much already painted the entire house that colour and had leftovers, so that's what we went with.  I like the colour and think I'll use it again in our next place (mostly because we have so much left over!).

After everything was cleared out and painted we rearranged the furniture like this.

I wish I had a before photo because this looks SO. MUCH. BETTER. I can't even explain.

The rest of the week was spent decluttering - we took heaps of stuff to our parents' homes; thank goodness they both have massive sheds and spare rooms! For the photos that'll go on our sale listing we threw a bunch of clutter that needs to stay at home in the laundry (they never photograph in there) and in our cars.  Baby gates came down.  Counter tops were cleared.  To give you an idea, my best friend said she didn't recognise parts of the house with all the clutter gone.

Let's just help this house sells quickly, because I don't know how long I can manage to keep up this level of pristine tidiness (especially with a toddler running around).