Roses

I don't know how many rose bushes there are at our new house but there are lots. Lots that sorely need dead-heading after their late summer flush.

There are white roses and yellow roses, pink roses and peach roses. There are standards and climbers and bush roses. And I plan to befriend every single one.

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Welcome to Our New House #2: Main Bedroom

The main bedroom is one of my favourite rooms in our new house. It is pretty, well-proportioned and filled with light, even on an overcast day like today.

The left-hand door below leads to the wardrobe and the right-hand one to an en-suite bathroom.

It is great to move into a house that has already been renovated as I have very limited design skills. Picking paint colours is my idea of torture. Our furniture is a mixture of new and old, and while not worthy of a fashion spread, I like living with pieces that have a history.

Of the pieces in these photos, the dressing table and bedside tables came from my husband's grandparents; the bed was purchased new last year, the chest of drawers was purchased by us early in our marriage, the bedside lamp came from a garage sale, and the dressing table cover is a scarf that belonged to my grandmother.

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Welcome to Our New House: Front Sitting Room

I am starting to think that this house is cursed (or maybe it's just me).

Yesterday I arranged for a man to come today and install a clothesline at the side of the house. The clothesline will be one of those fold-down ones supported by two metal poles that need concreting into the paving. Marcelo the handyman showed up on time, had a quick look at the job, then went off to buy cement. Twenty minutes later he rang to say that he cannot come back because he has had a car accident - fortunately he is not injured.

Today's photos are of our front sitting room.

One of the things that impressed me with this house is the previous owners' attention to detail. The colours and paintwork are done beautifully.

We will eventually put a picture or a mirror over the fireplace. The photo below looks from the sitting room through the dining room to the long central hallway.

There are arches each side of the fireplace between the sitting room and the dining room.

Looking in the other direction towards the window we have put the piano and an antique card table. I'm going to have to work out what to do with all the pictures sitting on top of the piano.

Eventually we will buy two sofas for this room, one of which will be a sofa-bed, but that will have to wait a while.

And here is the view to the right of the window. The 1930s Rosenstingel sideboard belonged to one set of my husband's grandparents and the corner china cabinet belonged to the other.

Stay tuned and more home photos will follow over the next week or two.

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A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month

There's a children's story called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Everything seems to go wrong for poor little Alexander and he decides that he wants to move to Australia. The book ends with his mother's assurance that everyone has bad days, even people who live in Australia.

I can assure you that Alexander's mother is right. Things do go wrong for people in Australia.

This month has been one of the hardest I have ever lived through. It has truly been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month.

Starting with Tom's accident on the 1st and continuing with the delayed settlement on our new house due to not one, but two caveats listed on it, life has felt awful indeed. There have been many sleepless nights, many mornings when I threw up before work from stress (and no, I'm not pregnant.)

Even moving day on Wednesday was difficult as the removal van broke down with all our goods on it, causing a delay of over an hour.

And yet, and yet there have been blessings too.

Tom is recovering well and is even able to ride a bike again.

We have a renewed realisation that family and health are much more important than material possessions.

We finally have a place in Adelaide that we can call home. The second caveat was thrown out of court on Wednesday and settlement went ahead yesterday without a hitch.

I am thankful more than I can say that all our prayers of the last month have been answered.

(I'm writing this on the library computer as I still don't have home internet, so no pictures just yet. They will come, I promise. We should be up and running by next Monday. Yay for Telstra - not!)

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Dumbfounded

For those not familiar with recent events, let me provide a summary:

In July 2008 our family moved from Melbourne to Adelaide. We thought we would buy a house here quickly but in the end it took about 18 months to find and purchase our dream home. We were due to settle on the house on 15 March and had planned to move in the next day.

However, someone with a grievance against the seller listed a caveat against the house the Friday before settlement which meant that settlement did not proceed and we were unable to move as planned. This caveat was thrown out of of the Supreme Court last Friday and we thought our ordeal was over. Settlement was planned for early this morning.

Well, guess what - the (unspeakably horrible and malicious) person who listed the caveat has gone and listed another one. Even though listing a caveat against the same property twice is not allowed.

*#!!!!*$#!

And I don't usually swear!

This afternoon we signed a license to occupy which means that we can move in on Wednesday, but we won't own the property until the case goes before the courts again - hopefully before the end of the week.

What a month!

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House Update

I am writing this at the library as we currently have no home internet. I have to type quickly as I only have a 15 minute slot.

As you will know, settlement of our new home was delayed due to a caveat listed just prior to settlement.

The drama continued all week and was terribly stressful. The case between the vendor (seller) and the caveat-lister came before the Supreme Court on Friday. To our enormous relief the judge threw the case out of court.

As it was too late in the day for settlement we are now settling on Monday. However, we met with the vendor last night and they gave us keys to the property. They have been as stressed as we have been as the caveat seems to have been a spiteful action intended to hurt them and their reputation, rather than anything based on fact.

Anyhow, the house is as beautiful as ever and we will be (finally) moving on Wednesday. I promise that I'll have lots of pictures once our broadband is working again.

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The Saga of the House

Tonight was supposed to be our last night in our rental home. The real estate agent was going to deliver our keys and we were going to drive over to the new house for a look around. After that we were planning to order Indian takeaway and opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

Unfortunately today did not go according to plan. On Friday somebody with a legal grievance against the vendor lodged a caveat against settlement of our new house. Our conveyancer only found out about the caveat this morning and settlement did not proceed.

We hope that the issues between the vendor and the caveat-lodger are resolved in the next day or two and we can move in before the weekend. We definitely hope that there aren't protracted legal issues.

In the meantime we are stuck with a house full of boxes and nowhere to go. We have had to cancel removalists, cleaners and others.

We are exceptionally thankful that a new tenant has not been found for this house. Otherwise we could be looking down the barrel of homelessness.

Who has ever heard of a house sale falling through because the vendor defaulted? I certainly hadn't. The conveyancer says this is the first time this has happened in her 15 year career.

This has not been a good March.

At least we can still have the Indian takeaway.

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