I won something!
A week or so ago I saw a competition on The Livingroom (I think it was — we weren’t actually watching, just surfing for something to watch). Typical “25 words or less” with a website under tenplay — or maybe I just went to the site looking for a way to win an Xbox One? Whatever the case, I entered (with a barely witty appeal to the competition sponsors, Temple & Webster) … and a few days later I got a call telling me I’d won!
Not a small prize, either: a $20,000 living room makeover, complete with our own personal interior designer figuring it all out for us, and delivery and “bump in”. We don’t even need to be here! Once I’d gotten over the feeling that it must be a joke or a mistake, I was excited: what with the house and everything, we were planning on a pretty austere Christmas (no presents for each other, but of course we have some stuff for Jules). But winning this competition is OUR Christmas present!
On Friday morning I met Jess, our designer (see her style on Pinterest). She toured the house, measured stuff and helped me pick some “styles” from a bunch of magazines. Really just a fact-finding mission for her — she’ll go away and select some things from the suppliers to Temple & Webster and get back to us with options. Since we do most of our “living” throughout the whole house, there’s a good chance at least (I’m flying blind here really) that her suggestions will run all the way from our little kitchen to the outside balcony where the dining table is. We might even get some bedroom stuff, towels, and possibly garden supplies! Who knows. I’ll yay/nay stuff when she comes back to me, then I expect there will be a bit of back and forth until we’re set on the “look”, if not the individual items. So freakin’ excited!
(Dee’s taking a passive role, which was a surprise to me (perhaps doing our place in Cockatoo was stress enough?). She just wants to come in one day and have a new living space, which I totally understand. It will be a surprise! Luckily I’m reasonably confident that I can pick stuff that she will like — and, more importantly, veto those that she would hate! And of course I’ll try to take some “before” and “after” photos — they’re the best part of any reno show, aren’t they?)
In other good news, our house sale is now unconditional — the buyers have been approved their finance, and the building inspection was clean. We’re going to ask if they want to move up the settlement date (it’s February at the moment) but I’ll be taking a (frequent-flyer points) flight down to Melbourne (and a visit to the ‘go if I can squeeze it in ;-)) to get the last of our stuff. (Yep, part of the sale deal included the furniture, so we don’t have too much to move. Perfect, as we were just going to sell it on gumtree anyway!)
I really feel like our karmic investments are finally paying off.