Selling things Part 2

I've just sold my Graco Travel Cot. It was an extra £16 from my starting price. Everyone waited till the last minute to bid. The winner placed the bid literally seconds before it ended. I'm pleased with the price it's sold for and very happy that I can finally bid farewell to this baby item. My sister helped me buy it on Ebay when she was studying in US and brought it back to Singapore for me before Lavigne was born. It then travelled to UK with us.

Two days ago, I also sold a brand new set of Little People's Farm Set. With all these successful sale, I am now more confident at selling stuff at Ebay. Someone just enquired about another item I posted at Gumtree. This is another item I can't wait to get rid of. It is really big and bulky.

I'm trying to sell items (alot long overdue) in order to contribute to our recent/future purchases for our new home. Though it's not that much at the moment, but just like Tesco's slogan, 'Every Little Counts!'

Selling things.....

We held an impromptu not car boot sale but garden sale yesterday. Adrian had sold some baby and children items to a couple from the uni previously and had asked them if they'd be interested to buy more. They were and so we laid out toys and books the girls had outgrown in our neighbour's garden (big and empty and of course we had seeked their permission first). They came and went home with stuff which I was really glad to get rid of and we made £32 out of it. Not bad, I would say. I had told Adrian before that after we move and when the current house is void of our possessions, we should hold a garage sale.

I also placed my maiden advert at Ebay. I'm never a confident seller, more a buyer. Adrian always says I'm good at buying but not selling. I wish I have thicker skin and not worry about the unnecessary. There's a bid for the doll cake tin I used to bake for Louisa's birthday last year. So technically speaking, it's sold! Yay! Qi, I did it! There's lots of 'watchers' for my Graco Pack 'N' Go Playpen. I just wish someone will put in a bid and start a bidding war. Let's hope I sell it at a good price.

We've been having warm sunny days, in fact, a little too hot for comfort. If we stay indoors, it's fine. The house is cool and nice. But night time can be a bit unbearable. There's a fan in the girls' room so they're OK. Their room becomes a hot oven in the evenings. But for us, we have to rely on opening our window wide open, pull up the net-curtain so as to let the draft comes in. Having said that, this weather will not last. We'll be having intermittent rain over the next couple of days. Worst of all, the weather forecast shows that it will rain on the day we move! Argh!

The girls' toys and books are sorted and organised. I really dislike those toys with small little parts. With Adrian's help last night, we put them into toy boxes according to their types (ie Lego, cooking, foodstuff, baby etc) and kept them from the girls' reach. I warned Adrian we should keep them from their sight especially Lavigne's because she's very capable of stuff. I'd stacked up packed cartons in the rooms and she always scale and sit on the topmost. Just so you remember, she's born in the year of Monkey.

Since now the topic's about her, I might as well write about my frustations with her. Perhaps it's because of the move, I've not been able to spend quality time with her. She's been doing all and everything, how should I put it, undesirable. She's been taking food from the cupboard and fridge herself without asking me first; spilling water/juice/milk on tables and carpet EVERY DAY! ; changing a few sets of clothes each day when they are not even dirty; playing with water and making everywhere wet many times a day, every single day; emptying their bodysoap/detergent into the sinks.......Yesterday, she poured powder into Adrian's half-drank cup of water and stirred it with 2 pens. Just a while ago, she opened the freezer and scooped herself some ice-cream. This is the reason why I wanted that LG fridge so much because it comes with a child lock. When she gets reprimanded, she'll say things like 'You're not my friend!' and when I ask her to do or not do certain things, 'No! I won't!' and whatnots will come out of her mouth. Everyday, I get so mad and cross with her it not just hurts me emotionally but physically too. Sometimes I just leave her alone and lock myself in my room just to cool down. I scream and shout, put her on the naughty step, reason with her but all in vain. I wish the move will do us good. I'm sure it will. The girls can play in the garden and I know they will be safe. I can let them do the messy artwork outdoors and not worry about staining the carpet. Yes, I shall look forward and be positive!

Good buy?

I just bought a fridge/freezer from the shop that my neighbour recommended me. Apparently, the owner said from his years of experience, he won't go for LG and certainly not Samsung. The reason - not durable. Even though I really like the LG model which has a water dispenser, a good internal layout and looks really nice, I decided against buying it since 1. it's not recommended by the seller and 2. the capacity is not very big. This is what I have bought.

An Electrolux, a make I didn't look at before since I always only associate it with vacuum cleaners. For slightly more than the LG model, I get a very big fridge space and a slightly smaller freezer. It has a cool Drink Express Chiller which chills canned drinks or wine quickly with just a push of a button. Furthermore, the body is in stainless steel, Adrian's requirement. Though the volume is much bigger than the LG one, it's engergy consumption level is just a little more.

The average retail price is about £550. I managed to get it for £390 including free delivery. I'll certainly recommend friends to this shop as the owner is really helpful and friendly. I rang him many times to check several models and he wasn't the least bothered by it. Two thumbs up for service!

So glad another task is completed. The more I looked, the more confused and undecided I became. I hope the fridge will serve my family well.

Mr Landlord

So we picked up the key to our new home today. The condition of the house was as before. Weeds everywhere to the front of the house. Grass in the garden that's about 2ft tall. Garage/shed still in pathetic unusable state. Our estate agent ensured us that all will be ready by 31st July. Fine. Until we asked about the fridge. The shocker - the landlord is not providing us one. All the while we were told it will be provided. The estate agent said she had an argument with the landlord today and he had said he'd never promised one. We don't know who to believe. The agreement had been signed, we'd applied and gotten our parking permit and our move is in a week! But no fridge! So our estate agent suggested that we go choose and buy one ourselves and she will reimburse us 50% of the cost. I asked what will happen to the fridge at the end of our tenancy. She said it's for us to keep. Not bad a deal. Problem is we have to go shopping for another big item. I have my eyes on a sleek LG model but Adrian said it's too expensive. I think we're most likely buying an Indesit. Anyone has good recommendations and places to buy? I really doubt our estate agent is earning much from our rental. She'd waived her admin fee and is now forking out money to pay towards our fridge.

On a brighter note, our immediate neighbour is really nice and friendly. I went over to introduce myself and asked them for a favour. I didn't manage to get the council to barricade the 2 parking lots outside our house for the removal truck as 10 days of notice is required. So I'd asked my neighbour to park their car outside on Friday/Saturday so that at least we will secure a lot. They'd also recommended us a place to buy cheap fridge. Problem was the shop had already closed at that time so we couldn't go have a look.

I really like the fact that we are right in the town centre. There's no need to drive. It's like back to the days in Singapore. Everything's at the doorstep. We took a stroll to town to have dinner and went back to take the measurements for the fridge space. It felt really good. Oh and all the curtains are up. I'm glad they fit as I didn't take measurements beforehand and it was all based on 'argaration'. Best of all, they were bought in the sale. Real bargain prices. Louisa made a comment this morning on our way out. She said that we should always use the dishwasher so that mum and dad can spend more time with her.

Note to Syl: You are RIGHT!!! The sale at H&M is SOOOoo good! Dresses going for £1!!! But I didn't buy any leh. Settling back nicely in good old Singapore?

Impending move

So this is all I talk about these days. It has to since all that I do now revolves around our move and our new home. I have to say I'm very excited about it but apprehensive at the same time. Will everything go smoothly? Are there going to be hiccups? You know, all the worries you get with things. I'm really glad we're moving early August rather than the initial plan of end August. Hopefully the weather will be good for the rest of the summer and the girls can spend time playing in the garden. Louisa's been asking for the blown-up house to be set up. Then there's their Igloo Tent from Ikea and their picnic table. Oh there's going to be so many toys in the garden I wonder if there'll be enough room. I guess I'll have to keep some and rotate them. I'm also looking forward to some al fresco dining. Oh this summer's going to be a fun one!

Bad blogger

Friends have been asking me why I seldom blog these days. The reason being that I've been busy getting ready for the move (which includes shopping!). There were things to blog about, such as playdates and the homegoing of a dear friend and many more. But I just can't find the inspiration to blog.

So the big day will be next Saturday. Even though the removal people will come and do the packing for us, I have been doing it myself along the way. I worry if they will pack properly. I wonder if they will just chuck everything into the carton boxes and not categorise them. I have to organise stuff in a way so that they are not everywhere (eg books and toys), hence making it easier for them to pack and myself to unpack. I am so glad we have plenty of storage space at the new place. The things that will not be needed for the stay in the house will be stored in the loft. Those that will be needed at some point of time will be kept in the garage.

We plan to collect the keys to our new house this Saturday, do the minimal cleaning needed, hang the curtains and perhaps move a few stuff over. After we move, I don't even know when I'll be able to blog again. I won't have a table anymore and even if I do, I don't know where I can place it. I don't want it to be downstairs but I can't have it in my room as Adrian and I don't sleep at the same time. I doubt I can have it in the girls' room as it will be slightly smaller than their current room. This is the reason why I need a laptop.

Busy day

I have a throbbing headache now, after having had to run around the whole day. First it was leaving the house early with the girls to go for Louisa's ballet exam in another town. After which we had to come back home to get her clips (she insisted on having them on for school). Then rushing to bring her to school. This was followed by going to Lavigne's school for a farewell party. We came home for a short break. I had a quick lunch and then rang up the girls' new schools to check that everything's in order and that they'll be sending us the letters of offer, calling up uniform shops (Louisa and Lavigne are going to different schools and no shops stock both schools' uniform) to make sure they are opened throughout summer before making a mad dash to Louisa's friend's house to have a meeting with 2 mums. Louisa's having a joint birthday party with 2 of her classmates. More of that to come later. Immediately after that, we had to go pick our children from school. Oh and did I say due to all these activities, I forgot to bring my keys out when I went to the mum's house. Had to call Adrian to get his. Came home and realised my dad left a message so I rang home. To my big surprise, he told me he'll be coming to UK in 2 weeks' time! I was very surprised because I had urged him to come many times before and he wasn't keen to the idea at all and my sis did tell me of her suspicion that he didn't like coming here. So why the sudden change of mind? Of course I'm delighted he's coming. But I'll be happier if he comes at least a week after we move, not a day after. He'd thought we're moving end of next month. I want to have enough time to upack before he comes and not when the house is in a mess. I still can't quite fathom why he's coming all of a sudden. It is very strange indeed. I just hope he's coming out of his own free will, just so he can enjoy his stay here.

Not just a duvet

In my search for a duvet, I've come to realise the choices out there is pretty mind-boggling and overwhelming. I was never one who have any in-depth knowledge of the types of duvet other than the TOG (a unit referring to the amount of heat retained by the duvet). I understand it as the higher TOG a duvet is, the warmer and thicker it is. Other than that, I only know that there's different type of fillings. Today, we were at Debenhams because of the blue-cross sale (up to 70% off), thinking we'll come home with a new duvet for us. We ended up buying nothing. Why? I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted. There were really bargain ones where prices had been slashed but they didn't seem that good. OK, good or no good is subjective but put it this way, they weren't what I was looking for. On display with the different types of duvet. Down, Goose Down, Duck Down, Goose Feather, Duck feather, synthetic etc. My favourite was the Hungarian Down. It felt very soft, plumb and lofty, very comfortable to the touch. Then I realised, it's the ultimate luxurious duvet around. With a price tag of more than £100, I decided it's out of my league even though there's a 15% discount and definitely can't afford to pay that much for a duvet. Even if I could, I think I'll have trouble getting out of bed. So the next best option? Goose/duck and down. After doing a search online, I realised that there are duvets costing more than £500!! Certainly for the rich and famous and the royalties. So the hunt is on for an affordable All Seasons (2 duvets, 4.5TOG - summer, and 9.5Tog - spring and autumn, which can be attached together for the cold winter months) Goose Down duvet.

Our new home

We've found a place! Actually, our offer was accepted last Friday but because Adrian said we hadn't exchanged agreements, it's better I keep quiet about it so as not to jinx it. We have paid the deposit so the deal's more or less sealed and I can safely blog about it.

I'm so, so glad this house hunt is over. It's tiring making the return trips to St Albans. Moreover, the schools we had applied for needed a confirmed address before offering us a place. So now we can finally move forward. After getting quotations from 6 removal companies, I have decided on one. We are now in the final stage of negotiation. Once that's done, I can just concentrate on clearing clutter and get rid of stuff we don't need before the men come to pack. I now have only slightly over 3 weeks before the big move.

I think it's fated we have this house. There's a long story behind it which I won't go into details now. But it's an interlink of events. We're very happy with this house. It's in the town centre, along a quiet street, with a nice and easy to maintain garden and best of all a converted garage for storage. Adrian will also have his own study. We're all looking forward to a new chapter of our lives come August!

Update: Halfway doing the layout, the removal company rang me back and accepted my price. Yipee! Booking of removal company - Done! (Gordon Ramsay)

No stress, no pain

Now that the stress has gone, the tummy's fine too. Strange. I told Adrian that during exam periods, I also suffered from those symptoms, to the point I felt I was going to be sick. Then everytime after I came out of the exam hall, I'd get better. I was glad stress didn't affect my memory. More updates on the house soon.

Health

This moving house business is wreaking havoc to my body. The stress, the running around, the viewings, the waiting game have caused some bad effects to my tummy. There are lots of wind and I just feel bloated all the time. I remember those days when I was working, I got that quite often too. So it's back to gastric pill popping like before again. Oh yes, it's not just me who's not well. Adrian's down with a cough and cold. I just hope the right property will come along soon.

Frustrations

It's been a nightmare dealing with the estate agents. Will blog more about our experience WHEN we get a house. Strangely, the market's been quite quiet. Please let us find a house soon.