Friday, February 24, 2006
Renovatin
Had a major milestone acheived yesterday with the renovations. We got the 3m sideboard delivered to the dining room and we hung Jodie's picture of the Cocky, which is now all nicely framed. The dining room is now completely finished except for some plastering around a new power point, and some patches to the painting.
We've had the electrician through and installed all of the lights, and new power points throughout the house. Just need to get a new distribution board installed in the studio and a TV Antenna installed, and all of the electrics will be finished at the new house.
The old house is pretty close to completion as well. We've finished all of the paving (including relaying of the driveway), finished the painting, essentially finished moving everything (just the piano to go - and that happens next tuesday). A few little paint chips need to be fixed, but that's less than an hours work. The carpet, blinds and electrics are all booked in, but we are having problems with the plumber. He wouldn't fix the leaking mains pipe because there were a few bees around. They are only there because of the water, and aren't there in the morning or evenings, only during the hottest part of the day. We've left bug spray there for him, but it was all too hard apparently to either spray them before he did his work, or to reschedule so that he comes earlier or later.
Needless to say, he won't be getting any further work from us.
The wedding plans are kind of happening, albeit slowly. We've booked our ceremony venue, and we've started interviewing photographers. We were due to look at a reception venue tonight, by having a meal there, but they rang us to tell us that they are closed, so cancelled our booking. Pity, coz it was a nice venue, but we don't need this sort of thing happening a week before the wedding, so we are looking into some more professional venues.
Big bridal expo tomorrow, which will be interesting. I've never been to one before, but I have a suspicion that it is going to be very much focussed on the ladies. Anyway, hopefully I can scope out some limosine companies, look at some suits, cakes and honeymoon ideas. That will give the girls some time to look at dresses, shoes, makeup artists etc.
It's all starting to get pretty exciting, and Jode's is working very hard with the organization.
The studio is slowly getting back to a state where it is once again inhabitable. I've got most things connected up and working, but there's still lots of boxes and cables that need to be organized. The office is holding us up a bit, as I've still got one wall to paint before we can get the desk and bookshelf in again. Once that's done, we can unpack a heap more boxes and get the office organized. This is important, because I've got a huge pile of paperwork to get sorted out and that's holding up my cashflow a bit.
Speaking of cashflow, I've had the initial meetings with a financial planning firm. Rates have certainly soared in this industry since the government regulated this industry, and a plan that once cost me $300 now costs me around about $6000 (though this does include the implementation phase, which in my case is going to be significant, because of the complexity of my affairs). Jodie's a little lukewarm about it all. She's been working hard on paying down some debts and the prospect of investing is quite foreign to her I think. She tends to like to live in the moment, a little bit mroe than me, though I really appreciate this.
Her attitude brings me back down to earth when I most need it and I think my long term thinking is a good balance. Together we tend to work well. Not always an easy journey but we get good results at the end.
A case in point is the renovation. It's something that I would probably have put off for some time, but I'm so glad we did it. Jodie sometimes can't see the finished result while we are up to our armpits in paint, but the journey has been worth it. The house looks spectacular.
Work is busy at the moment. We are in the middle of an engineering study for a pilot plant in China which is keeping me very busy. It's all coming together nicely but I'll be glad when it's all up and running.
Anyway, I'd better get back to it...
We've had the electrician through and installed all of the lights, and new power points throughout the house. Just need to get a new distribution board installed in the studio and a TV Antenna installed, and all of the electrics will be finished at the new house.
The old house is pretty close to completion as well. We've finished all of the paving (including relaying of the driveway), finished the painting, essentially finished moving everything (just the piano to go - and that happens next tuesday). A few little paint chips need to be fixed, but that's less than an hours work. The carpet, blinds and electrics are all booked in, but we are having problems with the plumber. He wouldn't fix the leaking mains pipe because there were a few bees around. They are only there because of the water, and aren't there in the morning or evenings, only during the hottest part of the day. We've left bug spray there for him, but it was all too hard apparently to either spray them before he did his work, or to reschedule so that he comes earlier or later.
Needless to say, he won't be getting any further work from us.
The wedding plans are kind of happening, albeit slowly. We've booked our ceremony venue, and we've started interviewing photographers. We were due to look at a reception venue tonight, by having a meal there, but they rang us to tell us that they are closed, so cancelled our booking. Pity, coz it was a nice venue, but we don't need this sort of thing happening a week before the wedding, so we are looking into some more professional venues.
Big bridal expo tomorrow, which will be interesting. I've never been to one before, but I have a suspicion that it is going to be very much focussed on the ladies. Anyway, hopefully I can scope out some limosine companies, look at some suits, cakes and honeymoon ideas. That will give the girls some time to look at dresses, shoes, makeup artists etc.
It's all starting to get pretty exciting, and Jode's is working very hard with the organization.
The studio is slowly getting back to a state where it is once again inhabitable. I've got most things connected up and working, but there's still lots of boxes and cables that need to be organized. The office is holding us up a bit, as I've still got one wall to paint before we can get the desk and bookshelf in again. Once that's done, we can unpack a heap more boxes and get the office organized. This is important, because I've got a huge pile of paperwork to get sorted out and that's holding up my cashflow a bit.
Speaking of cashflow, I've had the initial meetings with a financial planning firm. Rates have certainly soared in this industry since the government regulated this industry, and a plan that once cost me $300 now costs me around about $6000 (though this does include the implementation phase, which in my case is going to be significant, because of the complexity of my affairs). Jodie's a little lukewarm about it all. She's been working hard on paying down some debts and the prospect of investing is quite foreign to her I think. She tends to like to live in the moment, a little bit mroe than me, though I really appreciate this.
Her attitude brings me back down to earth when I most need it and I think my long term thinking is a good balance. Together we tend to work well. Not always an easy journey but we get good results at the end.
A case in point is the renovation. It's something that I would probably have put off for some time, but I'm so glad we did it. Jodie sometimes can't see the finished result while we are up to our armpits in paint, but the journey has been worth it. The house looks spectacular.
Work is busy at the moment. We are in the middle of an engineering study for a pilot plant in China which is keeping me very busy. It's all coming together nicely but I'll be glad when it's all up and running.
Anyway, I'd better get back to it...
