Well I had an interesting weekend!

Dad rocked up late on Friday night so we chatted for a bit before disappearing off to our beds.

Saturday we came into Lismore, collected some stuff from the Tender Centre and had breakfast.  We then spent a bit of time doing some odd jobs around the house and relaxing before draining the last of the petrol out of my housemate’s car and then installing half the roof in the ensuite.

Dad left early on Sunday morning to fly back to Melbourne.  Later on Sunday, one of my housemates turned up and let me know that they were moving out.  I’d kinda guessed this.  So while he packed some of their stuff I mowed the lawn and then being completely exhausted and dehydrated I collapsed on the couch.

For the coming week I’m planning on cleaning the house a bit more; the electrician is due tomorrow (Tuesday) to get some of the stuff done in the ensuite and robe area and then I’ll try and get soem more of the renovations done later in the week.

Until the rain came this weekend I’ve had a fairly productive weekend.

During the week Nathan attempted to convert his car into a submarine; unfortunately this attempt failed at the second creek crossing, the car stalled and filled with water.  This resulted in a good portion of the weekend being utilised to try and get his car functional again.

On Friday night we went to collect the car and had to remove the spark plugs to get the water out of the engine.  This went well until the battery died, so we had to borrow some jumper leads off the people in a nearby house.  Eventually we got the water out and started the car.  The 30km drive home was uneventful but the car was running rough because of the water in the fuel tank.  We put the car in the garage and Nathan started removing the interior.

On Saturday Ren and I went into town, looked through the Tender Centre (where once again I placed way too many tenders) and did some shopping.  Included in the shopping were things such as chassis stands, oil drip trays and an oil change kit for fixing Nathan’s car; we also got about 9 Sodastream flavours.

Saturday afternoon was spent doing a few bits to Nathan’s car and generally taking it easy.

Today (Sunday) we got off to a late start, but we’re removed a large amount of wire mesh from the garden, broken a heap more concrete so it is ready for removal and removed most of the grapevine and associated wires.

The plan is for Nathan to work on his car next weekend when my Dad is here; my Dad has a reasonable amount of mechanical knowledge, so things that Nathan and I don’t know about my Dad can help with.  I’ll try and finish off the jackhammering and removal of the concrete and Ren will potter around the garden or similar.  I’m also hoping to get some more work done on the ensuite during the week so it is ready for the electrician to come and do all the wiring.

Overall I think we’re relatively on track to have things completed by the time they need to be done.  The backyard should be ready for when the waste-water system is installed; the ensuite should be ready for the electrician and then will have more work done to be ready for us to run the waste-water pipes prior to the installation of the waste-water system; assuming finances allow for it I should be able to get the rainwater collection tanks in place and connected just after the new tank arrives and I should be able to finish off my walk-through robes before my Mum gets here mid-year so she can see what I’m doing with the place.

Ok, so on Thursday I bought a house, I have no idea how I managed to get it all done, but it happened!

I called the agent in the morning to organise taking my Dad and step-Mum to see the house; shortly after we hung-up he called back to say that the owners had dropped the price and that they were waiting for a contract to come back from South Australia to sell the house.  This freaked me out because I wanted the house and was just waiting until I could finalise the mortgage aspect of it.

Anyway, I called my Dad to see if he would back-up my house purchase if something went wrong with the mortgage; I also called my mortgage broker to find out how quickly we could push my mortgage through.  Anyway, Dad came good with backing up the purchase so I made a formal offer on the house at midday and it was accepted.

The agent then pulled out all stops and rushed around to pick-up the contract from the vendor’s solicitor; organised the vendor to meet us at my conveyancer’s and he then came to my conveyancer’s premises.  At the conveyancer’s I signed the contract and the vendor’s signed theirs and by five past 4 the agent was on his way back to the vendor’s solicitor to exchange the contracts.

We agreed on a 42 day (6 week) settlement, but the vendors are happy to reduce this if possible.

Now I’m stressing about organising moving house and all the associated tasks.

We few of us went to the Bellowing Bull in Wollongbar for dinner tonight.  The Lamb Shanks are amazing, somehow I managed to eat an entire serve (and have dessert)!  If you’re in the area it’s definitely worth the night out.

I took my parents out to see my new house this morning.  There’s so much potential.  My step-mum seemed mainly interested in the garden where she found pineapples, onions, tomatoes and peaches or nectarines or something.  I’m going to have to do some research on gardening so I can keep the things alive.

My Dad and step-Mum came over for the weekend.  We met in Byron Bay for dinner and went to a restaurant called Fish Heads.  The food was great and the service not to bad either.  We had a great view over the bay and it was an enjoyable evening.