Mail Box

The mail box needed a new lease of life. So Steve, Ben and I sanded it back and painted it.
Ben was very helpful for a short period of time, then got bored, but at least he gave it all a go and helped a little. It now looks very smart and will hopefully give a good impression when people first arrive at the the house next weekend for the Open Home

We are Live on the Web

You can check out our home for sale at The Joneses, Trade Me and Realestate.co.nz

Looks good.

For Sale Sign

As we drove down the drive way this morning we noticed a For Sale sign at the end!
We were told that the sign would get made next week and be up about Tuesday.
So Steve stopped the car, I jumped out, Ben is sat in the car saying 'that is my house' and there we have it a sign at the end of the driveway showing us where we live.

Photographer

Today the man from The Joneses came to take the pictures for the Sale sign, brochures and websites.

I had of course spent the last 24 hours racing round the house like a mad woman trying to get it respectful. Now I didn't want it perfect (impossible) just tidy, as these pictures are what people would base their decision to visit the house on.

Everything went well, apart from the 5 minutes that I lost it as the man arrived because the boys had decided to play 'Hide & Seek' in their room and I am sure every toy had to be on the floor and both beds looked like a tronado had gone through them.
I recovered, but just enough to follow the man around and ensure he got good pictures of my house, although as Steve and Grandma both said 'it didn't matter if I didn't like the pictures, I wasn't buying the house!' How true.

When the links are available for the websites I will post them so you can all see.

Garden

Spent the whole weekend in the garden trying to get things tidy for the photos on Tuesday.
Decided that we didn't need to do all of the garden, just the areas that would show in the pictures.
So weeding was completed, bark was resettled and made to look nice and I got the small areas that needed mowing done.

Steve managed to get 90% of the painting finished although there are still 2 areas that need oil based paints and it has not been warm enough to do it nicely, so he would rather not do them yet.
If he hasn't had chance to get them painted before the Open Home on 18th, then it will just get mentioned that it will be a 'condition of sale' that the painting will be completed.

Kindergarten

In New Zealand kids can go to Kindergarten sometime after they turn 3, now the age that they actually get to go can vary varstly between suburbs within one town, just by how many children in the area are registered for Kindy.
You can register children at 2, and so we did with Ben. We just have with Alex as well.
Now we always knew that the chances of Ben ever actually attending a Kindy in Auckland was very slim as I currently work 3 days a week and they like you to commit to at least 3 afternoons, usually between 12.15 and 2.45.
Thus the problem, because of the times and with me working, he was never going to go because it was not convenient, but with moving to Hamilton we are pretty sure that he will attend down there because I won't be working to begin with and therefore he won't be attending daycare, and I really want him to have something to do, mainly for my sanity, I don't think I will survive with both of them at home 24/7!
Well the Kindy that we have been registered at, has changed the age, due to huge numbers enrolling and Ben is still not in there yet, YET being the word.
Here we are, just under 10 weeks until we are all totally moved and now the Kindy have got in touch to say would we like Ben to go 3 afternoons a week? As of next week!Talk about notice, they call on Friday and ask if I would like him to go on Tuesday.
Of course we have had to decline the position, but considering we have been waiting since January for a place, I just knew it would come up just as we moved!

Weather

Steve is having lots of fun on his week off work, unfortunately I wish the New Zealand weather was playing as nice.
With rain forcast for the whole week, Steve is trying to paint windows with oil based paint, that really need warmth and sunshine.
He is managing to get some stuff done, and I am managing to get pictures taken of what he has completed, so will get them posted soon so you can see how things are now looking.