Blogging break

I will be on a little blogging break while I pack up the unit and move into the new house!

Should be back in a few weeks time.....Wish me luck!!

10 Honest Things About Myself

I was tagged last week by The Red Deer and thought I would put my list together now before I get swamped by packing and moving, and then I might never get around to it.

1. I LOVE coffee.....I don't need 10 a day, but I really enjoy my morning coffee and will often have another in the afternoon when I'm enjoying some me time with the kids asleep.



2. I have a knack for putting pieces of technology together. My hubby might buy the X-box/computer/dvd player/home theatre but it's me who will end up plugging it in and putting it together. I'm the person everyone in my family asks when they need troubleshooting advice!



3. I went to a selective high school and ended up feeling so much pressure to do well in my HSC that I got distracted and didn't do as well as was expected at all.....



4. I'm moving into my own house with its own back yard in the next month!



5. My all-time favourite dessert is tiramisu. The best one I have eaten is one I make. I'll share the recipe if you like, if I can dig it out!



6. I love shopping for my kids, and love buying pieces that are beautiful, great quality and a bit different, even if it means spending a fortune, and even if it means I look shabby myself.



7. I still love to cuddle my mum. There is just nothing like getting a big hug from her, it still makes me feel safe and cosy.



8. It would be cool to re-live my wedding day again. Such a happy day and I would try to stop and savour it a bit more.



9. I love watching Greys Anatomy and have it all on DVD. (Yay! It's on tonight.)



10. I love my little family to bits.

The house is ours!

After all the drama of last week and us losing the first loan we applied for, onedirect (ANZ) came to the rescue!! We received our formal unconditional approval yesterday just in time for our extended cooling off to finish. The race is on to get everything organised for settlement now. Looks like we will be in the new house in the first week of July. In the meantime we are going to live with hubby's dad for a few weeks so we can pack up our unit and paint the new house before we move in. We are renting back our unit for a week also to buy a bit of extra time.

Can't believe it's finally happening.....though I probably won't relax until I'm actually in the new place, and then I will have a billion boxes to unpack!

It's the little things

It's the little things that often give you and others so much pleasure and joy. Example: always being the one to 'ruin' the family photos. I've been doing this since I was a child!!! So much fun! ;)

The Sims 3.....

Anyone else a dork and like this game as much as me? Well, I used to anyway....

Hubby came home with it yesterday as a surprise. Usually I would have been jumping for joy with excitement. It's such a time wasting game, and now that I have 2 children, I just don't think I will ever have enough time to myself to enjoy this game anymore. Didn't stop me installing it and having a peek but it's just sooooo time consuming. I'll probably explore a bit a time. In a past life I have been known to still be awake at 4am playing this game. Gone are those days!

Some good news.......I think

After the devastation on Wednesday night about our home loan not being approved, I madly tried to get another home loan happening with another product. I had actually picked this product after much research a little while ago, but at the time we ended up going back to a broker we had already seen and chose a different loan product they offered. Big mistake in hindsight. I should have just gone with my own research....

Anyway, in LESS THAN 48 hours, they have verbally unconditionally given us approval. I have to wait for the official loan offer to come through on Tuesday. Fortunately, we were given another 24 hours to our cooling off period also, so it SEEMS all is well. I guess things could still go pear shaped, and I was a little hesitant about posting this without the paper loan offer but I've allowed myself to get excited again and it looks like the house is still ours.

I'm just so outraged that the first bank took 3 WEEKS to finally tell us that they wouldn't approve us (and it was over a COMPLETE misinterpretation of my husband's work situation) and then we were able to go to a different bank and get approval in less than 48 hours. Just ridiculous!

I'll be waiting anxiously for Tuesday now. Once it's all in concrete I will be singing the praises of this bank and urging all to go with them! I'm going to get hold of our contact's manager too and write her a positive feedback letter. She delivered fantastic service to us in very short time frame.

Now to enjoy the weekend. xo

My first blog giveaway win!!

Having only just started in this blogging business, I was very excited today to find out I was a runner up in one of the first giveaways I have entered. The giveaway winners announcement is here at Mama Loves To Shop. Thanks Kathryn!!

Gutted.

I'm devastated.....seems I spoke too soon. At the eleventh hour, the lenders decided not to approve our loan over a misinterpretation of my husband's work situation. Makes no sense. I just can't believe it.

My shopping spree!!

I had a few thoughts about what to do in J & Z's rooms, and then went on a little shopping spree, which included a couple of beautiful things for Zoe which I fell in love with and couldn't help but buy.

I bought these little suitcases sets, the red for Josh, the white for Zoe. I think the red will go well in Josh's room with the sheet sets I bought him (see post further down) and he already has a red arm chair for his room too.



I also decide on getting some wall decals which I haven't purchased yet, but I am planning on purchasing these beautiful Love Mae decals from The Hip Infant.

The vintage cars for Josh:


and these forest critters for Zoe:


My other splurges today, from Babys Got Style (where the suitcases also came from), was this gorgeous Three Little Trees dress:


and this beautiful outfit by Ivy Designs.


I've been eyeing off the above two outfits for some time now and decided to finally bite the bullet no matter the expense. We might be poor in a month's time due to the house we have just bought, but Zoe will look beautiful!!

Feeling positive.....

Ok, well I'm starting to feel a bit more positive that we should have an answer about our loan and that I will actually be moving into a new house in the next few weeks.....so, here are a few sneaky peeks at the house in question:









Obviously the furniture, etc is not ours. At the moment we are going to just paint the entire interior with 1/4 strength Hogs Bristle and trims in white. I'll spare you a photo of the outside as the brick is hideous. But I'm prepared to live with it for a little while before we might try and render it in some way.

I'll update with some more photos once we have settled in and I have things looking the way I'd like, particularly J & Z's rooms. I'm most looking forward to doing something special in their rooms. And already have some ideas.

Selling, buying, getting a loan

Well, we successfully managed to sell our unit about a month ago. We decided to try and sell it privately first to save ourselves any agent fees and because the market for selling units was so good. We were so fortunate that the very first people who came through decided to make us an offer of our selling price and all is well. Then about a week after that we found a property we wanted to purchase.

I didn't think buying a house would turn into such a drama. The banks are inundated with work at the moment because of the First Home Owners Grant and so there are delays in getting unconditional approval. We have exchanged with our Vendors and are awaiting this approval.....it's been 2 weeks already, we have another week to have it sorted out and I can call this place my new home.

I thought I was going to have a lovely lunch break today resting while the kids were asleep, but it seems every spare moment for myself is snatched from me and I end up being consumed by all things bank/mortgage/loan. I spent about an hour and a half emailing and on the phone, trying to get some more documents together for our application to the bank. They wanted further evidence for a few things. Anyway, it's done now....and I'm tired of it all. Don't even get me thinking about the packing and moving that is ahead of us with 2 small children. I'm in denial about that at the moment.

Anyway, we are getting closer and closer to our approval. Our valuation came back at the contract price which is good, and our broker assures us things are looking good. It's a race now for them to get back to us by about Wednesday as our cooling off period ends this week. I'm not going to be able to rest until that approval is in our hot little hands!

Piccies of the new house coming soon!