A lot has happened in the 16 months or so since the last post, and by a lot, I really mean our son Avery 🙂
Funny how working full time, running a business on the side and raising two kids leaves so much time to update a blog isn’t it. Our daily routine starts at any time between 4 and 6am when one of the kids wakes up, have a quick play and brekky over the next couple of hours, go to work, get home do bath, bed & stories with the kids then Ash and I get an hour or so of sofa time before we crash and rinse/repeat for the next day. Weekends are better, but lately I’ve had a lot of extra work on and spend at least one afternoon in front of the computer. Usually with one screen playing a kids show for Abi as she hangs out with Dad in the office. It’s a pretty full life.
Yard wise, we finally got our front fence built and what a drama that was. Without going in to too much detail, we got shafted a bit on the price, the contractor was a client of mine, we had a contract for some reciprocal work and he pulled out partway through building our fence and demanded more money. All this while Ash was about to have Avery. Interesting times. It’s easy to look back now, but it was a pretty stressful time.
We’ve had more dramas with the shed we bought too. After paying for our shed, we had to wait until the fence was done to get the slab poured. No problem, said the shed company, “We have sheds here that are 5 years old. We’ll just hold it until you’re ready”. Fast forward about 10 months and I heart one of the guys at work discussing how the shed company (he had used them in the past) had changed hands. A couple of anxious phonecalls and emailed receipts etc. later and the new owners said they would honour the order. Phew. So after anothe few months, they finally deliver the shed (a day after their installer had shown up to our place to put it up mind you). The installers came back and started putting it up. The estinated about 2 days. After 10 days, the shed was a mess. Holes everywhere, nothing lining up or square, the walls leaked, doors not opening and the whole thing was 200mm lower then it should have been. Bottom line, we rejected what they’d done and they have since come and taken it all away. The third party installation company have been sacked and we’re waiting now for the shed company to deliver a new shed then we will take care of the install ourselves I think. To their credit, the shed company have been great – completely accepting responsibility and doing the right thing. We are being patient but I fully expect them to come to the party and to have a shed soon.
We built a big sandpit for the kids out of railway sleepers and filled it with whit sand over the past couple of weekends. It’s turned out great and they love it. Might need to rig up some posts and a sail for it for summer though. They spend a fair bit of time out there.
At the moment, we are building an enclosure in the front yard for the ducks Ash is hatching. In a couple of weeks time we will have potentially about 30 chicks and 9 ducklings.
Anyway, enough procrastinating. I am supposed to be working… 🙂