home staging

so some of our closest friends "accidentally" moved to new zealand. yes. that happened. coronavirus has been causing all kinds of problems all over the place but this is one i certainly didn't see coming. our friends are new zealand citizens and went back to nz for a wedding, only to be locked out for who knows how long because an outbreak occurred over there, right before they were due to come back to australia. because they are not australian citizens, our government has made it impossible for them to get in, and because there is no telling when (or if!) it's going to be clear for them to get back in, they ended up having to make a choice to just stay put.

we miss them dreadfully and there's been lots of tears, but after having flight after flight cancelled, they made themselves comfortable and settled in while i'm running things for them on this end. so, i've sold a car... and now i'm selling a house! i've had my very first (and i'm hoping last) experience with staging a house for sale and i'm so happy with the result! the listing and photos went live online yesterday and they look incredible. light and airy and oh so cosy. they are thrilled and so am i. i am really hoping it doesn't take long to sell for their sake. 

so with no further ado, i present - the newmans house!

and if you want to buy a house - the listing is here.

main bedroom with bedding from my house and lamps from the spare room at mums.

the very elegant pre-teen bedroom 

not going to lie, i'm probably going to swipe this wattle painting for my own house when the house sells.

the cleanest kitchen i've ever seen!

the whole house is set up with random paintings and items i found at my mothers to make it look pretty, without having their personal items and pictures on display, including the wattle painting above, don't worry, i'm not stealing their things!

we kept laughing that i was making such a fuss of setting the fire pit up, because it was such a silly little thing, but then the real estate really showcased it and took like 4 photos of it for the listing, so i guess it paid off haha.

fingers crossed it sells fast for them!

we bought a house!

yes. we. did. 

this afternoon (with just a few days to go before the finance deadline) we finally got the call to tell us that the house is all ours. loan is approved! settlement is 17th september and the loan docs are all on their way. but it is ours! so excited, nervous and hesitant all at once. but mostly excited! 

time to get packing i guess!

(on show of course, is doug's new favourite room...)

make an offer!

so... we made an offer on a house! a few weeks ago we went to a mortgage broker and found out that we could actually buy a house! that you know banks would actually lend us money and that we would then have to act like grown ups and pay it back for the next 30 years... haha

so, we went to look at a few... and this one, number 4 in aveley, was amazing. the only flaw was that it didn't have the big back yard that i have always pictured... but it does have a big park (and by big i mean an entire blocks worth) of park directly out the front door. talk about epic... best of both worlds, because we don't have to take care of it...

but... they accepted our offer! it's all systems go and now we just wait for finance. oh my gosh. we may have bought a house! ♥

game over!

game over!! the packing is done, the house is cleaned and the moving van took everything these lovely people are keeping, to perth western australia. the last two weeks of stress and packing and trying desperately to get all the odd jobs done are finally over... and we can breathe again. steve looks like a huge weight has been taken off his shoulders... and i am so ready to go home to my little girl and her daddy!

settlement is 2pm tomorrow... and then it's all complete. i fly out tonight back home and the kendall parentals will follow me next week once the loose ends have been tied up...

they are being so brave... doing this all for family and i am so proud of them! it's been such a long hard road to get here, especially the last 2 weeks, for all of us, but it's done... and soon we will all be together as a family.

one last sweep of the drive for poppy ♥