So much to tell!

NB - Posted without photos until such time as Blogger figures out its "temporary error"!

What a week - so much happening, and yet I have had no time to blog about it!

After much thought and discussion, we have decided to put our house on the market. We are currently in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house that we love. It has a pretty little garden and a lovely pool, and has been the perfect place for us to start our little family. But, with the advent of the Family Daycare business, and the possibility of more little ones, we have decided that we need 4 bedrooms. And it helps that we have found a house nearby that fits our "wish list" (4 bed, 2 bath, office, landscaped pool, bigger back yard for kids to play in, closer in to the village centre), and that we plan to make an offer on today!

The next big decision is which real estate agent to list our property with. We are actually planning on selling our investment property as well, to get a really good deposit for the new house, so we are double customers for some lucky realtor. There is a lady with extensive knowledge of our area (we bought this house off her, and maintained contact in the interim). But she has been a bit presumptuous that of course we would use her company - and the commission she is charging is around A$11,500 per house!

On the other hand, a new-ish realtor (2 years) has taken the market by storm up here, by offering fixed price commissions at much lower rates (around A$6,000 per house). That is half price! And the agent I have dealt with there impresses me as being honest, down-to-earth, not ridiculously pushy or presumptuous.

So today I have to tell the other lady that unless she can do a really good deal on the commission for selling 2 houses, we are listing with the other realtor. **Be strong, Sasha... stand firm. It is a lot of money at stake!**


Let me see, what else to tell.... oh, yes, Naomi has learnt herself a new skill. Look closely at this picture... See that white lumpy thing on the floor in the bottom left of the frame? Yep, she has figured out the velcro fastening on her disposable nappies. More specifically, she has figured out how to undo the velcro fastening! I am going to have to get some nappy covers, or put her in shorts every day from now on, to avoid having to clean the floors again, and again, and again!

Last but definitely not least, it has finally happened.... I am in love. Yes, at the tender age of 30, I have at last found true bliss. Here is my new partner....

We have had my mum's old washing machine for the past 3 years. She had it for 15 years before that. It worked just great, and was nice and large. But it finally died on Saturday morning, so we decided the time had come for a new one. Front-loading, water-saving, quiet-spinning, all-singing, all-dancing... and we get a $200 rebate off the purchase price, from the Government, for buying a water-saving model. This made it cheaper than the top-loading, water-guzzling machines we had been looking at! What bargain shoppers we are.