The build – 3 weeks in

Next week we’ll put the roof on our house!! Bet you didn’t expect that comment!!! 🙂

But yip they’re started three weeks ago and are MOOOOOVING!

We have been really lucky as well because it has seemed to have rained in the evenings and we’ve had dry days.

Still a little sad that we won’t be in by Christmas, due to our crappy neighbour delaying us 6 weeks, but also know it’s probably for the best with new baby coming……Payback is a beeeaaaatch though because I heard from the estate that he’s been issued with an order to comply, for his illegal walls he put up with no plans. Apparently the inspector from the municipality was on site to check that we are complying and noticed that he has walls up. He’s a new guy so quite a rule follower and thorough and went back to the office and pulled our neighbour’s plans only to find there are no plans for the walls. So he issued him with a written notice to comply or else. You see it doesn’t pay to try bend the rules!!!

I must say this is one thing that our architect has been really good at. He really knows his stuff and has made sure that we comply the whole way….and at least we know that when we get to the end of this build we will have no problems getting our papers done and getting into our house….

I wont lie I still sometimes lie in bed thinking about those first two months and the stress that our neighbour caused us….I still can’t get over how he behaved all because we said we didn’t want to go halves on a a giant wall because of light issues. He went out of his way to threaten us , saying he’d put a stop to our build etc etc and all for a wall and the best part ON HIS HOLIDAY HOME!!! Nevermind the fact that we will always have this guy next door who we cant talk to….

I pray that one day when I have lots of money to throw at a holiday home that I don’t behave like an a-hole!!!

But on a lighter note…..we’re still looking at end of Feb finish and right now Buildwise is living up their promises and we’re on track.

I must say if you need a builder in Durban/Ballito, you need to give these guys a call. Same goes for our architect who has been a star and is always willing to take my calls….and there have been lots of them!!!

28 October

1 November

4 November

5 November

10 November

 

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Its been a bit of a Statue month

There’s been so much going on this last month I’m not sure where to begin nor which topic to tackle first.
So best I just write and I apologise in advance for the hodge podge of information that shall now be spewed forth.

So we’ve moved house… Again…. A mere 11 since relocating from Johannesburg to our new home Ballito. I don’t care how you do it, it’s not fun and it’s even harder when there is a little person involved. Thank heavens for our friends Marius and Kerry who took the ginger to the animal farm for a couple of hours. This allowed us to just get beds made and a little semblance of a house put together before he came home. We used a lovely removal service and will definitely use her again. But moving still sucks and my 11th move in the past decade was no different from any of the others.

There was the usual teething issues with having to get keys cut and of course the one that never ceases to amaze me, the replacement of bulbs!! Who lives with no lights? The pearler for me has got to be the main bedroom which didn’t have a single light in it and still doesnt….we’re getting there!!

But a week down the line the strife seems to be coming to an end.

The past month has been really hard and has come with a lots of kak. And daddy Abs and I are feeling really a bit beaten and a little like the statue at the moment ( you know the one that all the birds sh1t on!!)

To start with it was the Bi polar psychotic chick who was high on drugs when she reversed into me. Who then accused my husband of stalking her on FB.  It went like this: ” I told you I will pay you at the end of the month. Please I beg you stop harassing me. I do not have money. Why don’t you give me a break. What do you want blood. My God, I am unemployed. I had a medical bill. Don’t you have any feelings. Why is your husband harrrasing me 😦 please tell him to stop. I will pay I swear. Just stop stalking me please.”

All cos I kindly agreed earlier that day (a convo she’d forgotten) to let her pay to fix my car over 3 months and when I asked her if she’s paid she wrote this. Whahahaha so I’ve laughed that off as she’s not stable and following everything going on I don’t have the energy.

Strike two was when the body corporate in our old place turned off the electricity in our garage, as they were moving onto a metered system and informed the owners who didn’t respond so they just turned it off. Problem was we had R900 worth of food in our freezer that was destroyed!

Strike 3. We were given notice on our place and kindly accommodated the owners and found a place earlier than the expiry of our lease. We asked for permission to leave early and were granted it. Then when we asked for reimbursement for the days as we left prior to the end of the month, we were not so politely told to go get fried!!

Strike 4:Then on night two in our new place the neighbour above us played his music so loud the windows were vibrating. At
10:15pm we approached him. He was abusive and threaten myself and my husband. He then proceeded to play music just as loud and periodically he and his friends stood and jumped on the floor above our bedroom. Mature I know!

Strike 5. You know what? actually I’m going to stop there! There is a strike 5,6,7  but it really is exhausting writing about it and actually no one really cares!!!

It’s not all bad. There’s some really good stuff happening.

• Today we meeting with another guy who is hopefully going to cost the build for us. And hopefully we’ll be getting our approved plans back from municipality soon.
• We are finally in our house and the neighbour above is moving out at the end of the month. I new place is really lovely and will be nice home for us until our build is done.
• Work is good for me and I’m busy and finally doing proper marketing which I’m loving.
• The public holidays are finally over ( I know I’m happy about that, crazy right?) but I’m glad they’re done cos it’s been really disruptive and looking forward to getting back into a routine, especially for the gingers sake.
• And lastly I made my mark today for our country. I’m proud about that and I really hope that I was able to make a difference.

So its not all bad and hopefully the pigeons will disperse and the sh!tting on the Abdo Statue will abate for a bit 🙂

Life oh life, oh life, oh life, do do do do……

So I’ve kind of set our moving into motion. Whilst we still have two months before our lease officially ends I’ve started looking for a place cos I figure the move is inevitable and we will move twice this year like it or not, so there is no point kicking and screaming. Again this little town has proven it’s not what you know but who…..and after phoning several agents (who are nothing but useless!! – and I can make a comment like this as it’s my second time looking for rentals in 7 months- I’m experienced!!) So as I was saying after phoning several USELESS agents I asked Daniel’s teacher if she knew of a place and in half and hour I had a contact who has a place. Saw it, loved it, and just waiting to see if the owner will accept a shorter lease till December when our house will hopefully be done!

House you ask? Yip well our plans are in council and we’re just waiting to ask for early commencement. Now for those that have built a house I can hear you all saying she’s smoking her socks thinking it’ll be done by the end of the year. But I’m remaining really hopeful that our rainy season will not halt too much building and that yes we will in fact be in our new home by Christmas. It seems rather surreal that we’re building our own home and I absolutely cannot wait to break ground…..watch this space.

On the ginger front: we had our School interview this week and Daniel has been accepted. It was so funny…it couldn’t have been more perfect. We arrived as it was break time and he saw both his cousins and ran up to them as the principal arrived! Rachel (the older) is a prefect and Jess no doubt will be too, they are such amazing Kids and I was so proud to say they were “my” girls. Daniel was also on top form and he was his ever engaging self. He is such an amazing kid and confident and full of life. He has the most amazing zest for life. The other day I bought him two pairs of shoes and I say to him: “My baby do you want to see what I bought you?“ he claps his hands with glee and shouts ‘yes mommy’ and so I show him and tell him that once we’ve been into the shops we‘ll go home and try them on and he replies: Ooooh mommy eeeegggciiiiting!!

Back to the school thing though….. finally get how Grade R (age 6/7) and first day of school is a big thing for moms, cos as I sent the forms and the deposit today to secure his place a little bit of me held back. My baby is getting to big SO fast and I actually dreaded how my little guy would walk into school in a uniform (albeit a t-shirt and shorts) and I worried how he would lose the lunchtime sleep and just be a BIG boy.

But I gave myself a good talking to and put my big girl panties on and moved on….that’s a moment to get choked up on in Jan 2015!!

Only three weeks to Easter can you frikking believe it, and a trip to EL in the pipeline (Rich’s hometown) which we’re really looking forward to having been back last in October 2012.

And maybe a house move in a the interim….who knows….just going with the flow here in Ballitoville 🙂

It finally feels like home

I’ve said this several times over the past few months that this has truly been one of the hardest times of our lives. Whilst it has also been the most exciting time with us building our first home together is has at the same time been a real adjustment financially with me halving my salary, Rich travelling a lot and also me moving into a work environment that has been quite different!

But over the past two weeks we have settled into a little bit of normality and it has really started to feel good. Don’t get me wrong I have NEVER doubted our move but I have wondered where we’d have been had we not have moved.

Two weeks ago we had a really busy weekend. We had Daniel’s teddy bears picnic with school after church and then we took our very tired bundle home for a sleep. Then we went off to a braai with friends from church….. and you know what? IT ROCKED! The whole frikking weekend just rocked.

I say it again it has been such a wonder and joy to be part of CCNC our church. Not in the 9 years I was in JHB did I have that sense of community and friendship that we have had in the short time we’ve been a part of CCNC. Whilst my dad was sick in Feb the prayers were unbelievable and the offers of food etc. THAT is what a church is about! It about having a family away from family. And of course there’s the amazing benefit that Rich after us being together for 9 years is finally worshiping with me and it’s because he feels comfortable and he too feels the sense of community and that’s awesome!

Last weekend was super awesome too. We went out for supper with Daniel’s “girlfriend” Lilly’s parents and on Saturday I played Action netball with the mom’s from our school.

We got our asses kicked but it was helluva fun (I couldn’t walk for three days kinda fun ;)) Then we rushed off for an impromptu date night Daddy Abs and me and went to watch my home rubgy team The Sharks play the Lions.

This weekend we having people over for a braai. I’m unfortunately having to work the morning tomorrow but then I’m done for the week.

So yah it finally feels like we have a little bit of life and it feels really good.

In other news our plans are ready to be submitted to council. So fingers crossed and lots of prayers that they sail through and that we can start building by May.  All Very exciting!!!

Kicker of a ’14 its been

It been a real kicker of a year so far!

Don’t you feel that gone are the days where you used to be able to go on leave on the 16th December and then gently ease in the year when you got back until at least the 16th January.

I didn’t have much leave this year and maybe that’s why I’m feeling the effects more, but it just seems that we have NOT stopped.

Work

Work is busy and there is immense pressure for me to sell sell sell! I’m gonna find that hard being a Marketing Manager. After all what I believe my role is, is that I do the marketing to enable the sale. But it looks like the expectation is for me to literally get in my car and go sell. Go me!
I’ve also taken a tremendous amount of extra work on with regard to the function side of stuff. I’m enjoying it tho….its keeping me out of mischief. There also seems to have been an influx of work with regard to the sections all wanting a piece of me. Never a truer word….the more capable you are at something the more gets asked of you!!!

Then there’s the our week life. There have been a few after hours meetings which have really peeved me as its precious time away from the ginger. But hey what a girl gotta do in a recession but bite the bullet.

It has fortunately tied in with a quieter travel time for Rich but heaven only knows how we’ll cope if this continues when Rich’s business flying schedule picks up!

But it’s not all doom and gloom even though the last few paragraphs have looked so 🙂

It been flippin hot here and all the locals tell me it’s only going to get hotter in February so heaven help us! The ginger as a result is not sleeping poor dude and neither are we. He wakes at least 4 times a night and is sopping wet. He’s sleeping in a nappy only and even that doesn’t help. So roll on winter please.

There has been a little respite over the past two days and never in my life have I been happier to see rain! It so funny with the ginger sleeping so badly the nights blur big time. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this but often Rich and I will be lying in bed in the morning going: “Did he wake last night 2/3 times?” and one of us will reply “ I got up for him” “ or no, wait, was that last night or the night before ?!?!”

The Ginger

The ginger is growing in leaps and bounds with the newest development being potty training. For a few months he shown a little interest and at school they have been kind of potty training him in October we sent undies to school but with all the rain and cold we had it proved a little difficult.

Then all of a sudden of the Christmas break Daniel said one afternoon that he didn’t want a nappy he wanted undies and three weeks later we are fully potty trained during the day. This has involved a few bribes especially in the department of no 2’s and also many a happy dance, high fives and stars have been dished out, but it’s such a lesson in parenthood that you can stress about everything , wonder , debate plot things or you can largely let them get on with it and the ginger has done so.

My little boy is getting so grown up and I’m aware every day just how fast they grow. Someone just stop the clock for a second so I can take it all in!!!

The house 

There’s been a little panic/drama. Well not really drama but a little worry. We’ve been pushing the builder to give us a prelim costing before we go to finish finally plans of house plans no2. Finally he came back with:

“but am confident with the right amount of negotiating and cost saving we can achieve a smaller than desired yet liveable solution.”

So I questioned liveable and realised that for our budget he was able to build us a shell! And by shell I mean, four walls, roof, windows, doors. We still had to supply all the fittings!

Dude, just a little note here. THAT AINT LIVEABLE!!!

Anyway long story short, met with the architect, blew off a little steam, ok so I raised my voice a little, but the end result is that they are going to finish our plans and can assist with the build/referrals to do an owner builder with a reputable and we will come in on budget!

Seriously so we wasted almost a month with the contractor when all we wanted from the start was to owner build. Very frustrating from a time perspective but I’m still remaining ever hopeful that we will be in our house by Christmas this year, fingers crossed.