Yesterday I got news back about our home valuation and fortunately it was good news!  Five years ago when I started this blog our home was valued at $380,000 by our bank. Over the last few years prices have dropped and three of our close neighbours have sold  in the last few years with prices from $343,000 – $360,000.  Needless to say we’ve been worried about how it would be valued, given that it needs work done.

When the valuer came we had just ripped up all the carpets,  removed wallpaper and we’re in the middle of painting several rooms. The valuation had to reflect the value ‘as is’ and that came in at $350,000, which was a good result. But he also added in that $370,000 was the more realistic value with painting done and carpeting complete. We  are really pleased with that!  We would have been happy with $350,000 AFTER we’d finished all the reno work that needs to be done!

So it’s reassuring to know that we are being realistic about the house value. DH has been organising qoutes. We have builders coming to quote of removing and replacing the front verandah railing and plumbers coming to quote of digging up the broken pipe, replacing it and clearing out another blocked pipe.

I know I need to update on the painting. We’ll be back into that this weekend.

Time for chit chat, thanks to Carla.

What am I reading?

The Four Noble Truths – makes a complex subject very easy to read about and understand.

What am I watching?

I’m  watching the first episode of Biggest Loser 2012!. I need some inspiration.

What am I listening to?

I’m back in the car travelling for work again from today so I started listening to The Girl Who Played with Fire, I’m really enjoying this series. it’s nice and detailed and l-o-n-g, great for the car.

Cooking / Baking

Just made a nice pasta dish with vegetable sauce and I’m about to tuck into what is my new favourite sweet treat: 1 banana, 6 stawberries, 4 walnuts chopped up and 1 teaspoon of manuka honey over it all – really, really  delicious!

Happy you accomplished this week:

Menu Planning!!  I planned a weeks worth of menus and wrote them on the calendar. Felt great to get home from work tonight and I didn’t have to even think about whats for dinner.

Looking forward to next week:

Seeing Sherlock Holmes at the movies.

Thankful for today:

I’m thankful that the home refinance is approved, feels like a weight off my shoulders.

 Click here to catch up with all the other Sunday night chit chatters.

Yesterday was another long day, 8 hours in the car to visit Dad. But is was good to see him again.  When I got home DH was busy mopping up water in our front lounge room. A massive rainfall and hail storm yesterday resulted in water coming in under the front door and spreading about 1 metre inside the house. The good thing is that the new carpet is not down yet, otherwise it would have been soaked. We need to add some new, tougher weather strips under the front door asap.

Then DH took me out the back to see a huge hole dug up under the pergola and a busted water pipe. There was mud and water everywhere!  After noticing water seeping up around the back of the house DH started digging and discovered that the pipe from the laundry and bathroom had burst.

Then we went down to investigate the garage which had flooded due to the burst pipe. Fortunately in the garage we put everything up off the floor, so nothing is ruined, but there is water and mud all through it. Red mud!  A big clean up is needed, and we’ll have to get a plumber in to quote replacing the pipes.

Needless to say I am now glad we have borrowed extra to get the house ready to sell – we’re going to need it!

Our new loan papers arrived on Friday night and I’m just sitting here going through them all. Oh I can’t wait to be done with this mortgage for good, I really can’t.

Shortly we are going over to see our local JP to witness our papers and then they’ll be express posted back to the lender tomorrow. In the meantime our plans to paint today are on hold – we’ll be cleaning up from this burst pipe instead.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. G. Chesterton

It’s been an interesting few days of moving from blogger to wordpress. It was relatively simple but there are still a few problems left to iron out with the comments and setting up the blogroll. Also the site that had taken my content has now removed it. There are a few changes to help prevent it happening again – feeds are only an excerpt (sorry feed readers!;  right click is disabled and a wonderful little plug in called Bad Behaviour is doing a great job at keeping spam commenters away.

DD & I travelled up to the beautiful Hunter Valley for her photography course, only to find it had been cancelled at the last moment. She has been offered a full weekend course instead and some private tuition so we will be be travelling back up again next month.Next time I’ll take some photos to share with you, it is filled with winerys and some of the most beautiful scenery, so it’s a nice drive.

Finances:  It’s going to take a few weeks to get the money organised, the credit cards paid out and the new accounts opened. Once it’s done I’ll set up a new progress page and I’ll be tracking everything in YNAB. I’ve already added some new tickers to track our mortgage payoff and our emergency fund goal.

Tomorrow I’m off to visit Dad, then home to paint some more on Sunday and Monday it’s back to work.

But right now I’m going to try and catch up on my blog reading and set up my new blogroll so I can keep up with what you’ve all been up to. If you could change your links to my new address that would be great! thanks