birthday dessert ideas: March 2010

Easter Picnic - With Cupcakes

After school today we headed to the park for the Grade One Easter picnic. The mother who organised it all is a gem. There was an Easter egg hunt and bunny face painting - not that any of the 6 and 7 year old boys would partake of that. Too uncool!

She also made cupcakes for all the parents, and they were as delicious as they were beautiful.

My little Easter bunny - or bilby, as we often have in Australia. He did agree to wear bunny ears because without them he couldn't join in the egg hunt.

So practical!

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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!

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.

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.

Packing Up and Shutting Down

With only three days now until we move the time has come for me to say good bye - well, at least until we are settled into our new home. Later today or tomorrow I will be packing up the computer and then there will be no more blogging - for now.

Telstra has advised us that it will take four days to reconnect our broadband, so I expect that I may be without an internet connection until late next week.

In the meantime, I'm planning to take lots of photos so by the time I'm back on line I'll have lots of house and garden pictures to show you.

While the house has been renovated beautifully there will be things to change - for example, the room my two youngest boys will be sharing is pink - so I'll also be asking for decorating ideas and suggestions.

I am looking forward to sharing the next stage in our red house journey with you.

Five Days to Go

the new house

I shouldn't be writing this at 11 o'clock at night as what I should be doing is sleeping.

I really do need my beauty sleep, what with the stresses of packing boxes and going to work and caring for my injured son and three family birthdays in the first two weeks of this month and having potential tenants go through this house to decide if they want to rent it. I know that last sentence was too long but that's how every day feels at the moment - crammed full of far too much activity.

The only way I can get through it all is by not stopping, and by working as hard as I can every waking minute. It's amazing how much one can achieve when fueled by adrenaline, coffee and chocolate.

However, my eyes are barely open and my bed is very comfortable, so I'd best be gone.

Sweet dreams until tomorrow.

A Picture of the New House

This afternoon we went to the new house to learn how to use the security system, heating and cooling (and also, of course, to have a surreptitious look around and think about where we are going to put things.)

I couldn't get any pictures of the inside because the owner was with us the whole time, and, in any case, the house is as full of boxes and half-packed items as ours.

Anyhow, the picture above is of our new front porch. And with only nine days to go we are longing to cross that threshold and move on in.

Easy Meal Ideas, Please

In a fit of energy at 6 am this morning I cleaned my oven, cooktop and rangehood. This was after discovering yesterday that a cleaner would charge $60 to perform these tasks.

After our arduous week and knowing how heavy our commitments are over the next 10 days, we have decided to employ cleaners when we leave this property. However, there is no way that I am paying $60 just for the oven!

I know doing a final oven clean 10 days before moving house is a trifle premature, but I wanted to see how clean I could get the oven in case a second clean was required. Fortunately, as you can see below, the oven turned out very well.

My pristine oven leaves me with a dilemma, however, as I would prefer not to mess it up again before we move.

What am I going to cook for the next 10 days?

Since our microwave oven died a few months ago we haven't had a microwave, so I can't rely on quick meals that way.

I am feeling very uninspired at the moment, and would value your suggestions.

Can you suggest any good, quick, stovetop, barbecue, griddle, cold, or otherwise easy meals? Do you have any tips for preparing meals during those extra-busy periods in our lives?

Since we will want to cook simply our first few days at the new house, any easy meal ideas are fine - you don't have to limit yourself to microwave and oven-free ideas.

I have put one of those Linky thingies at the bottom of this post. If you haven't used one before, the idea is that you link to a post on your own blog. If you don't have a blog, ordinary comments are fine. Old blog posts with easy meal suggestions are fine, too.

Please link back to my blog when you write your post, so that others can find the complete list of suggestions. Thanks in advance.

If using a MckLinky proves popular I might make it a regular feature here at Our Red House.

Your tips and ideas for easy meals are greatly appreciated!

What a Week!

This has been one week that I am totally and utterly glad is over. Between the stress and anxiety of Tom's accident and the pressure of preparing to move house in 11 days, this week has been almost unbearable. Add to these the need to keep the house spotless to impress potential new tenants who have visited, and you have a truly horrible week.

However, there have been some good things: the kindness of others after the accident; Tom's small, daily improvements; the fact that every day brings us one day closer to living in our new home.

In addition to the real-world support of family and friends, I have experienced great support from the blogging community. Thank you so much everyone who has left a comment here, who has emailed, or has taken a moment or two to pray for my family. I am honoured to know you.

The Accident: An Update

Thank you to everyone who left a kind comment after my last post. Now that things have settled down I can tell you what happened.

On Monday my eldest son had a mountain bike accident while on school camp. Amongst other more minor injuries he sustained a significant gash in his upper thigh, where the leg joins the torso. The flesh was torn right through the muscle to the bone and he bled very heavily, soon going into shock. He was taken by car to a small country hospital where they quickly realised that his injuries were too serious to be managed there, so he was sent first by road ambulance and then by air ambulance back to Adelaide.

When we arrived at the hospital we saw a groggy, white-faced boy attached to several machines. He went into surgery at about 10.30 pm and at around midnight the surgeon called to say that the surgery had been successful. He is now home from hospital and mostly resting and he should eventually make a full recovery

We are very thankful for everyone who has helped and supported our family over the past two days. This includes the teachers whose quick actions in a rural location ensured that my son got the medical care he needed, other members of the school community who have offered support, the hospital staff, my boss for willingly giving me time off work, the lady from church who dropped off a meal last night, and everyone else who who has rung or emailed.

I am particularly grateful for the Australian public health system that provided two hospitals, an ambulance, a helicopter and a surgical team without charging us a cent.

Please Pray for My Son

My eldest son, aged 15, had a nasty accident on his school camp today. He was flown by air ambulance from Goolwa back to Adelaide. He will be fine but is currently in surgery. I have just come home from the hospital and will return in the morning.

We are very thankful for the excellent medical care he is receiving.

I will provide more updates in the next day or two.