SOLD!

We've officially sold our house! Yes!!

I got a call on Thursday from Matt letting us know our purchasers had got their finance approved.  What an absolute relief.  I was pretty sure these guys seemed like they would be smooth sailing, but I guess you just never know so the anxiety was still there a little.  But it's all over - now the real fun begins. And by 'real fun', I mean packing!

I'm one of those weird people that enjoys packing and unpacking - making lists, labeling, organising, wrapping, I love it all.  I've already made some pretty good progress, our front room is lined with boxes all ready to get loaded onto the truck when the day comes (in less than three week, phew!).

Last night I spent a few hours disassembling Taylor's 'meat safe' or safety cot.  Man, what a challenge.  The size of it and the positioning of the doors in our current house mean we could never get it in or out without taking the entire thing apart (believe me, it took us hours of trying to get it in before we admitted defeat and just pulled the damn thing apart).  I really wish I'd taken a couple photos during the process, but it was all hands on deck and it was tricky.  We've decided to sell it, so after I repair a couple of the fly-wire panels, up on Gumtree.com it'll go.  I really liked it for Taylor, but our main reason for that style was to protect her from our cat, who incidentally never went near her as a newborn, so we're going to go with a traditional cot next time.

So here's my to do list for the next week:

• Book moving truck
• Update address and connections for utilities 
• Pack knick-knacks and decorative items (almost finished this)
• Pull everything out of our roof storage (apparently my parents once forgot to take everything they had stored in their roof during a move)
• Sell Taylor's cot
• Organise a termite inspection for the new place
• Put together a 'first night' box so we're prepared when we get to our new home
• Organise my online store so that I can close for a couple weeks during the move
• Figure out which furniture is going into which room at the new place so our DIY moving team knows exactly what's going on on the day
• Get our mortgage docs sorted
• Rearrange all our direct debits and budget plan
• Organise insurance for the new house 
• Meal plan so we get through most of the stuff in our fridge and freezer

Our move is going to be the first week of April, so we've got a lot to do between now and then.  Yay!

Back on Track

Last Friday I had a missed call from our real estate agent (his name is Matt, and since 'Matt' has so many less characters than 'real estate agent' I'm going to refer to him as that from now on).  He hadn't left a message so I assumed he had dialled me by mistake, but I returned his call anyway.

"Hi Matt"

"Hi Tarynnnnn :)"

"What's up?"

"We got an offer!"

"Huh?  From who?"

"A couple of investors that went through your place during the first home open!"

"Really...?"

"The offer is for the same amount as the last time"

"YAAAAAY"

We hadn't even had a home open since the last offer fell through, so I was absolutely shocked and taken by surprise.  The couple that had placed the offer were going away for the weekend and had only made the offer verbally, so Matt suggested we still have the home open we had booked for that Sunday just in case they reneged over the weekend.  We agreed (although I was dreading cleaning the house all over again) and ended up getting a second couple interested in the place.  They wanted to come back and view the property again, but couldn't get back until later on in the week.  

We hmm'd and haw'd over whether or not to see what their offer would be, but in the end just decided to go with the one we had, considering it was the same amount as last time and we were more that happy with that.  Who knows, we might have been able to get a few extra thousand out of the second couple, but honestly, Joe and I just wanted to get the paperwork signed.  The owners of the house we're purchasing were getting a little hot under the collar after our last offer fell through (they even had a home open over the weekend even though our offer was still within contract), so to save everyone a bucketload of stress we went with the easy option.

So here's hoping it's smooth sailing from here on out!  Matt messaged me earlier today to let me know he's received the deposit from our new purchasers (and it's a large deposit, which makes me feel slightly more comfortable, not sure why) so we're on our way.

Back to Pinterest I go!

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 ;)

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).