Vacating, selling and buying houses - all at once!

Ah, Lovelies. This week has been another heady one – the pace is wearing me down. I started with my Feedburner problem so have a peek if you missed my giveaway post and Sunday Splendour. Given the few days I appeared to be ‘off air’, I will now draw my giveaway on Friday 20 May 2011 at 6 pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time so overseas Planetarians please take that into account) – I have amended my post to show the new date. Then of course, my Dad is still in hospital – we’re hoping he’ll go home this week. Oh, and apart from running the usual affairs of state on Planet Baby (let’s so *not* talk about the number of tantrums witnessed here this week - hmm), I’ve had to keep focussing on the details of all matters real estate. Trying to vacate, sell and buy houses all at the same time is *challenging*. It sounds insane, I know! Here’s a little glimpse into what’s transpired on Planet Baby this week – see if you can stand the pace ☺.

Vacating our rental property

All this changing of real estate on Planet Baby’s Monopoly board has meant I’ve had to plonk my lawyer’s hat on for the first time in 3½ years. My goodness, it’s felt odd! And strangely comforting at the same time. To get organised, I had to purchase some pretty stationery supplies first, of course! Dealing with 3 different properties meant I needed 3 different folders. Here are my treasures from Typo.

Aren’t they just scrummy?! I feel so much more organised when using them. And they’re so nifty – you can turn them inside out for another look. Ah, be still my beating heart!

But I digress.

Moving out of our rental property has involved:

Ø   Giving formal notice of our intention to vacate to our landlord’s managing agent;

Ø   Trying to find friends to take over the balance of our fixed lease until January 2012 (no luck there);

Ø  Requesting the agent to advertise the property for us (please cross your fingers for us that someone snaps it up soon so we’re not stuck with paying rent and a mortgage at the same time!);

Ø   Mr PB fixing the curtain rail you saw in disarray here;

Ø   Arranging for the agent to photograph the house next week (hence the fixing of the curtain rail ☺); and

Ø Starting The Big Pack. Fortunately, my aunt is an Avon lady so we have plenty of spare boxes handy! Here’s a pile waiting for us.

And the pixies are really getting into it, to our great surprise. We plan to pack all our possessions and ferry them to our new house by car, aided by generous-hearted family and friends. Then we’ll only have to pay removalists to move our furniture.

So far it hasn’t caused too much inconvenience (apart from Mr PB packing away most of the pixies DVDs, leaving only the scratched ones behind which don’t work. Oh, and the pixies’ Blue Books which I need – see below).

Selling our Sydney apartment

Oh, my! The shenanigans involved here have caused Mr PB’s hair to start turning grey. Seriously. We have:

Ø  Chosen a different agent to sell our place to the company managing its rental for us (yes, you can guess whose feathers have been *ruffled*);

Ø    Retained an old friend I used to work with up there to handle the sale (and for mates’ rates, too – she’s a legend!);

Ø    Been disappointed by the photos taken of our apartment for the advertising campaign (a result of our not occupying the place and decorating it as we would like - not much we can do about that. Here’s an old photo of our kitchen);

Ø  Fielded dozens of phonecalls from our selling agent, reporting on numerous inspections by interested purchasers (a task complicated by the fact that our Telstra T-Hub telephone has repeatedly stopped working – we are currently about to report our third faulty machine – don’t get me started on that topic!);

Ø    Signed a contract with a prospective purchaser and now have to wait until the end of next week to see if her bank approves her loan (cross your fingers and toes for us!); and

Ø    Started the usual argy-bargy with her solicitors who now want to change fundamental terms of the contract their client has signed. Hmmm…

Buying our Hobart home

This is the most exciting property move of all for us but it also fills the thickest of my folders – there is so much to organise before we move! We have:

Ø    Retained my old firm (mates’ rates again!) to conduct the conveyance for us;

Ø   Received a gorgeous surprise from the vendors’ agent – a $500 gift voucher towards a photo shoot, just to thank us for buying the house! Now Sammy can have his turn (oh, and here are the ‘after’ shots following his haircut. He looks like such a little boy now – where’s my baby gone?!);

Ø   Inspected the local primary school and daycare centre (both brilliant, only 10 minutes’ walk from home and they had places for us – woo hoo!);

Ø  Received all the paperwork to complete for said school and daycare (hence the need for the Blue Books as immunisation records need to be provided. Hmm, now where is that box?);

Ø  Contacted our bank about splitting our new mortgage (yes, we’ve had to dust off the old crystal ball and deduce what interest rates are going to do over the next few years); and

Ø  Bought Holly Becker’s heavenly new book Decorate (thanks Booko for the great price).

That’s the closest I’ve come to actually starting to imagine our life ahead in our new home. Ooh, I can’t wait both to read it and finally have a chance to use some of the ideas!

So, I guess it’s no wonder I’m feeling *a little tired* at the moment. Let’s hope our purchaser’s loan is approved on time, we find a tenant quickly to take over our lease and we find those jolly Blue Books!

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!