Extra mortgage payment & decluttering

Our holiday is all now all paid for. I made the last payment yesterday. The only costs now will be anything we spend when we are there and we don’t usually spend much at all. So now I can get back to paying every spare cent off the mortgage.

I made an extra mortgage payment of $800 yesterday with a new mortgage balance of $152,264. Feels good to be back on track with extra payments.

Made a big batch of cauliflower rice which tasted fantastic! Just cauliflower chopped finely with onion, bacon, leftover lamb, carrots, peas and egg cooked in a little olive oil. DD took this lovely photo of it for me – she’s much better at food photos than me.

Today I’m still working on decluttering in the lounge room. I’ve sorted a couple of boxes already this morning. I still have several cupboards to go that are filled with old games, CD’s and old newspapers/ family papers. My plan is to fill some more bags for Vinnies over the coming week from the lounge and bedroom and do a trip to the op shop next weekend.


Visit to our retirement unit!

We got the keys to our rental unit yesterday and went down to have a look after work. It was great to see inside again – its been a few years- and nice just to spend some time there thinking about where we will  put things when we move in. I took a heap of photos so I can refer back to them.

This morning we were down there again taking measurements and deciding what repairs we want to do. If we do things now its a tax deduction. If we leave them till we move in they aren’t. We are going to change the lights over to LEDs as that will be more economical. We also need to regrout the shower and we will also make a wooden top for the window seat which is showing a bit of wear and tear. The garage floor could do with a repaint so we’ll get a quote on that as well and some more pavers for the garden.

After making our list of jobs we went off to Bunnings and bought our supplies.I’m looking forward to going back down tomorrow for a while to do some more planning while DH does the grouting.

Our unit has just four rooms and a small garden. Its a timely reminder of just how much downsizing we need to do over the next few years! I have several bags of ‘stuff’ to go to Vinnies so I might try and drop those off tomorrow.  In the meantime I’ve been on pintrest pinning ideas for the little garden and for storage in small places.  Can’t wait till we’re retired and living there for good!

Heres a few pics of where we’ll be headed in a few years time.

The kitchen and lounge/dining room

The second bedroom upstairs, which will be my sewing room.

The ceilings in the front of the unit are all lovely and patterned.

We have a small yard for an outdoor setting and a smaller side yard off the kitchen as well.

Looking back from the kitchen to the lounge/dining area. The door opens to the garage / laundry which will be DH’s workshop area when we move. We’ll park the cars in the street.

There is also small bathroom and lovely large main bedroom with leadlight windows behind those curtains. The window seat looks out over the garden and that timber on the floor goes on the seat.

So I need to cull our ‘stuff’ from 30+ years here in our big four bedroom home to fit into our little four room home over the next few years.