RustyRaven

My brain radio is now stuck on Evenescence.

Wake me up inside Wake me up inside Call my name and save me from the dark

I'm thinking more of all the power tools and bits as well - as well as the tools themselves there will be lots of stuff like spare batteries, replacement lines and blades, oil. Prunings and things I'll probably use my current garden cart for - maybe I can hook it up behind this one and have a road train!

I'm thinking I need a garden cart for carrying my stuff around. Something like this

I haven't seen anything like that for sale here, so I think I'll have to make my own. I'm thinking of getting one of the mesh side garden carts and using the framing from one of the cheap metal hammer together shelving units to provide a support. Lots of holes for attaching things to and (if the sizing works out) fairly simple.

Edit: found another option, this rack should fit inside the cart, with the cart being a bit wider so there would be room to put shovels and things along the edge.

All these shopping plans, I need to work out the budget before things get completely out of control!

I just opened my postal vote envelope and there are way too many options there to deal with at this time of morning. Trying to decide which of the right wing nutter parties to put last will be a challenge. Probably the arse-trumpet party, due to the absolute disgust I feel every time I see one of those awful ads.

I have decided once the lease on the new place is signed I am going to celebrate by buying a new lawn edger, hedge trimmer and the fancy brushless motor for my whipper snipper. I aim to make the garden so neat people assume it's no longer a rental 😁 It also means I'll be able to properly edge my 3m of nature strip here as a parting gift. Hopefully because the edger rests on the ground it won't kill my arms as much as the whipper snipper does. With a much bigger garden to look after (and a 2-strip of concrete driveway, so lots of edges) I anticipate building up lots of muscle. 💪

I'm picking up an armchair for free from Marketplace this morning. Similar style wood frame to my couch, and with a new cover with the same fabric I've been recovering mine in it should blend in fairly well. This will solve an issue in furniture placement in the new place, I will be able to have the couch and a single chair in the dining/lounge, and two chairs in the sewing/sitting room. Or if something goes wrong and I don't end up getting this place I'll have an extra chair I don't have room for 🤣

I think I'll sell my buffet unit. It's a really good solid piece of furniture that makes me feel like I should find it a place, but it really doesn't fit anywhere. Plus it is really heavy and because it is so long has limited options on where in a house it can go. Which makes it hard to get out too, it has to go out the back and out the side gate, which means I would have to lock away Mr Woof, traumatise Miss Meow and let a stranger into the main area of my house. I might just get the movers to put it in the carport when I move, then I can sell it as unattended pickup.

I think I've come up with reasonable options for pretty much all the likely unknown scenarios, so as long as there is nothing completely out of left field like mushrooms growing on the walls or a gaping hole in the floor I think it will be ok. I've even worked out where Miss Meow's stuff will fit.

A double sink, but unfortunately no dishwasher. The windows are the wind out type that are not great for airflow, but it has evaporative cooling, which should be great as long as it is not humid, and hopefully my portable aircon will be enough to get me through humid spells.

I've got a viewing booked on Thursday so will be able to make a final decision then.

It has been confirmed - I didn't get the preferred house. After looking at the alternatives available and thinking a bit more about options the house I've been approved for is growing on me. I think my uncertainty about it comes from two things:

1. I'm filling in the gaps that I can't see with worst case scenarios instead of what's likely, and extrapolating a few things into problems that are unlikely. Particularly concern about overgrown trees - where I am now I have a small garden with trees in the neighbouring yards that grow over and block most of my useable garden space. In this house there are big trees, but they are already mature and there is space for a vegie garden between them. They are also deciduous trees, so I should get lovely shade in summer, light in winter and lots of leaf mulch for the garden.

2. The layout of the house means some changes to how I set up my rooms, I can't just mentally swap the rooms I have now into the new house. But when I sit down and think about how to work with the different layout it should work pretty well. I might end up changing the layout from winter to summer - it has a great dining/lounge room with a north facing bay window that will be amazing in summer, and a south facing lounge that should be much cooler in summer. Being migratory depending on weather seems a good option.

One big upside is that it is in the lower end of my budgeted rent range. I should also be able to do a dog door for Mr Woof - there is a window to floor level in the main bedroom which opens onto the back garden, I should be able to get a door put into that and replace it with normal glass when I leave. Doing that with a small window should not be much more than a good quality sliding door insert would be.

The biggest unanswered question: where to put Miss Meow's litter trays. Do they need to be at ground level, or are cat's happy to jump up on a bench for that? I'll have to do some research, I could put a cover over the bath (which I don't use) and put the trays on there.

Three bedrooms one bathroom is what I am looking at. It's just for me so I don't need or want another bathroom. But if you go down to two bedrooms you rarely get a full kitchen which I want (and modern places often have pretty tiny kitchens too).

I have found quite a few in the area I'm looking at have seperate rooms for bath, shower and toilet so more people can be using things at the same time. I don't think more than one bathroom became common until the mid to late 80s.

Do you have anything which can soothe the angst of uncertainty?