Home Improvement

Been very busy recently organising a revolving credit part for our mortgage.  With that we've paid off the credit cards, which is how they're going to stay.   We've also put the floating part of the mortgage on it and are doing some improvements to the house.

1.  The one that started us on the mortgage change - a home ventilation system.  After talking to all of them we've gone with Healthaire which filters to 0.2 microns and is custom designed to your home.  It's not cheap, but was still cheaper than the best known one in NZ and significantly cheaper than the heat exchange versions.  It's being installed on Tuesday next week.

2.  Bathroom area.  We're replacing the carpet with vinyl, going from cream carpet (a nightmare with a pre-schooler who misses) to a deep peacock tile look vinyl, the walls are being stripped of wallpaper and painted in Resene Duck Egg Blue (I think that's right); it's a lovely light green with a blue tinge.  The rimu is all being sanded back and varnished; we're keeping the current toilet, bath and hand basin.  Have got a new wall mirror/cupboard which is also rimu. 
The shower is going to be replaced, it's not coping with DH's weight and is making some rather alarming noises; it's also chipped on the base and not really large enough. DH wants to transform the room into a step-in shower, which I'm ok with depending on cost.  Should find out if that's viable next week.

3. Outside.  The service area outside the back door and walkway to the shed is being concreted, the reinforcing wire for that is arriving tomorrow and then we can box it all up ready to go.  Needs to be compacted too.   It was all in interlocking cobbles and was always growing weeds, this will be so much better.   Outside the conservatory which is the BBQ area is going to be a deck, all the stuff for that is arriving tomorrow too.   There's going to be a lot of work, but it will look much better after it's all done.

Once all that's done there are a couple of smaller things like upgrading the PC and getting an expensive service done on the car.  We'll then be paying it all off before putting a room onto the side of the garage for my craft room so the boys can have separate rooms inside the house.   It's all very exciting and a little scary.

Healthy living

This is something I started on a week or so back, fell over on the weekend with a crunchie bar, but back on track now.

I'm aiming at a healthy body and mind, both for me and the boys (DH is doing some too, he's cut down to 4 cups of coffee a day).    Here's what I'm doing:

* No TV until 5pm, this started yesterday and applies to the boys PC as well, unfortunately the PC is currently on as DH promised George he could have it after school.  He now knows better.  I noticed on the weekend that George and Ian play more and are better behaved without them.

* No sweets or junk food.  Finished the last thing of chips today and there's no sweets in the house aside from a thing of lollypops thats a couple of years old.

* Trying to make meals more healthy too, today isn't a great example as we're having chicken pie from Couplands, but there will be more veges than normal, all from our garden.

* Exercising more.  Taken yesterday off as we shifted 4 tonnes of interlocking pavers and scraped the dirt off them over the weekend so we've done enough.  Did some jogging into kindy this morning though.  Have my personal trainer tomorrow, we'll probably do some boxing.

* Using my juicer, just finishing off a yummy fruit and vege juice now.  I hope this will help me detox.