Looking up...

Sorry I was so doom and gloom on my birthday. It was just kind of a rough day because of the lack of sleep, and today doesn't look like it's going to be much better in that regard. Dylan got a late night because we had some car trouble (though not nearly as bad as last time) and he woke up early. Couple that with late pregnancy insomnia, and it adds up to a pretty long day. But we aren't expecting any company today, so I'll get a nap with Dylan.

We had our house valued on Tuesday, and it was OK news. If we were to sell our house tomorrow, as is, without doing ANYTHING else to it, apparently we could expect to get £80-85,000 for it. Not bad, considering we bought it for £70,000 at nearly the peak of housing prices in the UK three years ago and the market has fallen around 20% since then. If we finish our current projects and give everything a quick coat of fresh paint, we can expect around £95-100,000. We don't need to spend much money to finish it, either. It's mostly just hard work that's involved, and we can do that! We are aiming for an April "launch date" for the house sale (recommended by the estate agent).

So if the housing market hadn't crashed, we would have nearly doubled our money on our house. That's really good--we had anticipated doing just that! And, I am going to have a few other estate agents come and do the valuation once we are done with the renovations just to get a feel for what they have to say. We'll decide who we're going to list with at that point.

My birthday ended up being very productive, anyway. I got half of the really long wall in the nursery plastered, and it's looking very good! I would have finished the long wall last night, but we drove in to Grimsby to spend some Freshney Place vouchers we got from the Gilbert grandparents for Christmas. I had my eye on some pajamas (haven't had any new ones since Christmas '04) so we popped in and then had dinner with Cathy. On the way home, between Stallingborough and Immingham, the back box on the exhaust fell off our car. It seems the exhaust pipe had rusted through. We were on a back road and not going too fast though, so the back box just needs re-securing. We will need a new exhaust pipe to fix it to, though. Exciting stuff! So we called Laurie and Christine and the AA. Christine gave me and Dylan a ride home, and Laurie helped Martin finish taking the back box off (it was dragging) and we are going to get the cr in to the shop today. So annoying, more than anything!

Martin may have found some lucrative work, even though it's temporary. They are planning a shut down on the refinery and need temporary workers for it. It would be 12 hours a day and 13 days work with one day off at a time. Plus, the supervisor lives in Hull and would be able to pick Martin up for work every day since it's on his way. And Martin would earn in 6 weeks what he normally earns in 16 weeks. That work wouldn't start until April, but he still has the part time option at the Place. There might be some work on the refinery in the mean time, as well. He just has to get a safety passport first, which shouldn't be too hard.

So things are looking up. I would be on my own with Dylan and the new baby, but Christine has offered lots of help and I will certainly take her up on it. Plus, I am still trying to get my mom over here. That would be even better!

Anyway, it's time for me to make Dylan's breakfast. We are both starving and it's got to be oatmeal. He sleeps better after lunch if he's had a huge breakfast!

Happy sleeping, I hope!