My dream life has ended. Not literally of course, because i'm still here writing this LOLOL. FYI this is LONG.

On Feb 15th I got the most devastating news I could have imagined. The company went belly up and it's not financially possible for my boss ladies to keep this property and continue my employment contract, and I was given until March 16th to be out. As per my full time employment contract I was given one weeks notice of contract termination and I will be paid out for my accumulated annual leave and sick days. They also gave us the remaining 3 weeks rent and utility free, so no rent or bills to worry about while we searched for a new place to live.

Because they haven't owned the property for a terribly long time (approx 6 years) they can't sell it without having to pay capital gains tax, so they have to lease it to someone for the maximum amount possible, which is way too much for us to pay. They advertised it as a dog housing property (because of our kennels and modified sheds) and some people that rescue Greyhounds viewed it and decided to lease it. They move in on Monday the 19th.

So it has been a very stressful month. In a matter of one day I lost my job, my home and pretty much my entire life. I was in a complete panic in the beginning thinking I was going to have to sell my horses, and possibly even move back home with Danny's parents. I applied for a bunch of rentals through real estate agents, but because we don't have an agent rental history (ALL of our rentals besides one 15 years ago have been private) they have all been reluctant to rent anything to us, despite me doing everything possible to enhance our applications. I even made pet resume's with references for whiskey and the parrots because studies showed that agents/landlords were more likely to rent to applicants who went the extra mile to include stuff like that.

I posted an ad on Gumtree in the beginning (it's like the AU version of Craigslist) with a fairly detailed ad of what I was looking for.. 3-4 bedrooms, gas appliances preferred, dishwasher preferred, garage or carport, pet friendly and fully fenced yard essential. I didn't expect anything to come of it but I got two responses. One from a guy with a SUPER nice house but it was a bit out of our price range and he was weird about pets (god forbid the dog walks on the concrete with muddy feet) so we went to view it but kindly declined as it WAS out of our price range and it wouldn't have been a good financial decision. We can't afford to be picky but we also can't afford to take something that we *can't afford* 

I was then contacted by a lady named Janet that had just moved out of her house (she owns it) and is currently renting a house through a real estate while they look for another one to buy, because she needed more space. The house she owns isn't big enough for her, her son, her husband and his three kids. They were about to list it for rent through a real estate agent when they saw my ad and contacted me. 

We made a time to view it and I fell in love. It's so cute. 3 bedrooms, although a little small the master bedroom is big enough and spare #1 is big enough for the guest queen bed. Spare #2 will be perfect for an office/computer room. It has PROPER hardwood floors (instead of the laminate floorboards or vinyl floorboards most properties have these days), 2 living areas, gas cooking and a wall oven, a dishwasher (YAASSSSSSS), dining area and heaps of cupboard space. It has an external laundry room, a covered deck and bbq area, a decent sized backyard which includes a fenced off section at the back (you'll see in photos), 2 good sized sheds (for all danny's tools and crap) and a covered carport. It's super close to town (15 minute walk) while away from traffic and loud noises. Best of all it's right in our price range! Perfect, actually.

AND, she is perfectly fine with indoor OR outdoor pets. And her husband is a bird nut like me (like REALLY like me) ANDDDD they have an Eclectus parrot!! A girl named Paris. I rarely find people around here that can even SAY it (they usually say "eleptus parrot" lol) let alone someone who knows what they are AND own one. Her husband is also super into go-karting, as Danny is. So we bonded pretty hard over these things LOL.
There was an annual bird fair in Orange last weekend (approx 45 minutes from here) that I REALLY wanted to go to but couldn't afford it. Janet's husband went, and bought a Blue Fronted Amazon baby and I am teeming with jealously LOL! That's my dream bird right there. I ALMOST bought one last month, I was set to go pick him up on Friday the 16th of Feb and then I got the awful news on Thursday the 15th and had to make the grown up decision to spend that $1200 paying off my credit cards and bills before I lost my income and couldn't afford repayments lol. ONE DAY IT WILL HAPPEN.

Anyway. On the day we viewed the house both Danny and I were pretty much sold, but Janet said to talk it over and she'd call the next day. We agreed (didn't want to seem too eager lol) and went home, talked about it for like 5 seconds and agreed we wanted to go ahead lol. Janet called the next day as promised and we made another day/time to meet again and discuss tenancy details further. We figured she would want a proper application with work details, copies of ID, references and all that. Nope, turns out she was all good to go and even picked up a blank official tenancy agreement on her way there so she could fill in the details once we'd chatted. All she wanted was a couple of rental references (which we had) to verify that we do pay our rent on time and don't trash the property. So, we're signing the lease on Monday night! Super excite. 
Place to live: Check.

ALSO regarding my horses, Danny knows a guy that has like 600 acres that isn't actually too far from here and he offered to let us keep my horses on his property as long as we visit regularly and feed them etc (which is a no-brainer obvs! I'm gonna visit my boys every chance I get). No payment required, he just wants us to pop around for a beer every now and then (he's a guy in his 60's that lives on this big ol' property all on his own) and he's a REALLY nice guy so I imagine it's going to turn out to be a pretty awesome arrangement!

Obviously I need a new job. They don't come easy around here and if I get too desperate i'm going to have to take Danny's boss up on his offer for me to do traffic control for him. I don't know why and I can't explain it but I get such TERRIBLE anxiety at the thought of doing that job. I did it in 2016 but I was partnered with Danny and it was a super quiet, isolated job in a town 2 hours away and we didn't have to actually DO a whole lot. I think my anxiety is mostly caused by the fact that we rely heavily on walkie-talkies/radios to communicate and every time i've visited Danny at work and he'd get a call from his other traffic controller on the radio and I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND what they said at all. He did somehow but I couldn't understand it. I cannot imagine myself in a situation where I can't understand my teammate's communications and have to ask them to repeat themselves over and over. All the while traffic is piling up on both sides and motorists are getting angry and start yelling. NOPE. I'm having head spins just thinking about it.

ANYWAY, there's a boarding facility approx 30 minutes from here (smack bang between two towns lol) and I thought to myself a while ago "i'd really like to work there, I should take my resume in sometime" but I didn't. On Tuesday I found an ad posted by them on a job search website. It was dated a month ago, but I applied anyway and included in my cover letter that I realize the position I am responding to has likely been filled but I would like to be considered for future positions. They replied to my application that same day and said they read my application with much interest, and while the advertised position had been filled, they still really wanted to meet me and have a chat. So I called them asap, made an appointment and I went to see them yesterday at 1pm!

It went VERY well. I was there for like an hour and we chatted the whole time about various things. They said they had filled the position they advertised for but they couldn't look past someone who has experience managing 30-40 dogs on their own lol. They are a public boarding facility so obviously some things are different to how I ran things here. For instance here I pressure washed the kennels on Saturdays and then hosed out on Wednesday just to keep them nice and clean and nice smelling. But I had the same dogs pretty much all the time, and if any new dogs were coming in they were put in empty kennels that had been bleached and pressure washed prior to their arrival. At the public facility they pressure wash every day because they are almost constantly moving dogs around between kennels whether it be moving dogs to better suited areas or taking in new boarders.

They said they would check over the roster (they make the roster a month in advance) and schedule me for a trial day! And if everything goes well on my trial day they will start scheduling me for shifts. Obviously in the beginning it would probably only be a couple shifts a week to fill in empty spots or cover shifts (I said I can be on-call any day, any time) but they seem like the kind of company that will give you excellent hours and support if you show commitment and a good work ethic. They said they had a couple of girls start early this year who SWORE they could handle the physical side of the job as they were used to being on their feet all day at work.. One lasted until lunch time before she went home and never went back, and the other lasted two whole hours before she just left lol. So I can understand them being wary of putting on new people willy-nilly. But if my trial goes well they are essentially going to create a position for me. So yay!
New job: ALMOST check.

PHEW. So kudos if you actually got through all of that lmao!! Here's some photos of my house.

Wow, Shae!

So sorry to hear about this sudden change!
I can't even begin to imagine how much of a whirlwind this entire situation has been for you guys.

However, I'm really glad to hear that you seem to be right back on track.

I hope you love you beautiful new home with that awesome yard!

It's really amazing that you've found so many things in common with your new landlords!

Thanks reno!

It has definitely been a freaking rollercoaster these past few weeks. When I scored the job here I was pretty much at rock bottom and was struggling to see a way out, then they offered me the position and it almost felt like a reward for battling through the sheer crapstorm that was our relocation to the city LOL.

Now again when I felt like I was in my darkest hour these two things come up. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not without trying, these things most definitely haven't just fallen into my lap LOL.

I am eagerly awaiting the call from the kennel about my trial day. I don't know how long I should wait before I contact them about it (if they don't call me in the next week) because I REALLY want it but I also don't want to pester them lol.

I'm so happy we have so much in common with our new landlords. On the first day we met to view the house we had pretty much gone through everything and then she was like "so you have a couple of parrots?" and immediately in my head I was like "oh jesus she's going to question me about how loud they are" because while Eckies are a generally quiet species they have a DEAFENING scream (i've lost a little hearing in my left ear thanks to sam!)

So I was like "yeah I have two Eclectus parrots and two cockatiels, the eckies are usually pretty quiet though" and Janet was like "it's so strange, we never find other Eclectus people!" and I was legit confused as heck for a second and she continued "we have a female Eclectus, her name is Paris. She's my husband's bird but she has finally warmed up to me and sits on my shoulder while I play the piano" and I felt like I literally melted into a puddle of squee. FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS BIRDS!!

Wow, shae! What a rollercoaster! I'm so glad things are once again looking up for you!!!

Wow! You've been super busy these past few weeks! Like reno has said, I'm so sorry you had such a sudden shift of luck that you almost lost everything BUT I'm so happy you managed to find an amazing community { and possibly new job, WHOO!!} to get back on your feet :)

Wishing you lots of luck!!

Louise from the kennel called and left a message today (I didn’t get it because we don’t get mobile reception out here) asking me to call her back. I think they want to schedule my trial!! ITS HAPPENING!!!

Congrats!!!!

get it, girl!!!

I AM SO HAPPY YOU FOUND STUFF! 

I know how stressful those situations are (me the last half of 2016 and first half of 2017 actually, hints my HP disapperance during that time frame). It's amazing, awesome, and so so wonderful that you've managed to find stuff so quicky! I REALLY hope that job works out for you! Having worked in a public kennel over here I can say I really enjoyed the work, I just needed more money at the time and more hours to work with Bella so I had to leave.

Shae?! Updates, lady!

I neeeeed to know! :D

so sorry things arent going well. ihopeingor whatever the reason this way setofplans is better for you and your crew. hope the job works out so everything is better. so gladtheohter stuff all fell into place

My trial is tomorrow!! 7am to 5pm haha. Then when I finish I have to keep moving so we can be out by saturday. Busy busy! I'm really excited though :D

oh my gosh! this was an insane post!
glad everything is working out for you!

Woah, that had to be scary :[ But I'm glad so far things seem to be working out for you! I hope everything goes well with the possible  job too :D

Paints since 6-8-14

Best of luck with your trial day!
The new place is cute!

The trial went well. My feet disagree LOL. It was such a fun day! It's so relaxed there. Like half the day is spent pressure washing all the kennels (i'm a wizz with the pressure washer!) and the rest of the day is feeding, rotating dogs in the yards, and play time with the boarders and doggy day care dogs.  It's all fairly easy, just physical and a ton of walking. Which is fine! I'm just a little slow lmao but they assured me that everyone is slow in the beginning!

So the position that I responded to HAS been filled (I worked with the guy today :P) but they are going to keep me listed for emergency shifts which I said is fine. As things progress they will roster me on more and more and eventually i'll likely become a full time team member as well. They just can't afford to create a full time position for me when it's not ENTIRELY necessary, which I completely understand, but things change and they are going to keep in touch!

I'm starting a course next week to get certificate 3 in financial services so that will keep me busy for the time being.