Currently this blog is private, we have told very few people of our plans...due to our superstitions that if we tell the world about our plans that somehow they may escape our grasp.
A ridiculous idea, but one we fear as we want this SO MUCH!
So, the plan.
We currently live in a very pretty and pleasant corner of suburban Auckland (New Zealand), called Titirangi. We are nestled into the foothills of the native bush clad Waitakere Ranges in Auckland's west. It is a 15 minute drive to the city (in the middle of the night with no traffic) or a minimum of 45 minutes (but usually an hour) if you are my husband commuting by car. Commuting by car is the only option unless you have someone to drop you at the train station which is a 5 minute drive or 45 minute walk away.
I am lucky, I'm self employed and work mainly from home, so am shielded from the worst of the traffic. However, progress has not left me unaffected. I try to minimise my trips around the city, to the supermarket or hardware store. The malls leave me cold and slightly panicky, never being able to find the items I am searching for. I have learnt to plan well in advance and purchase gifts from ETSY, Felt and Toggle. I am a designer and artist, I like to purchase local and handmade whenever possible. I feel that creativity is where the future lies. If robots can perform our highly skilled jobs, as well as the manual ones then humans are going to have to change their plans...soon...and creative self-expression looks like a good route to follow.
Our home is pleasant, large and comfortable. Over the past 10 years we have removed an old and leaky in ground pool and built in spa, built new decks, fully fenced the property with attractive fences and removed a giant Phoenix palm which was attacking our house and threatening our neighbours. We have built vegetable gardens and created a small orchard. We have enjoyed living here, but it does not suit our needs. We sit outside on the summer evenings listening to our neighbours conversations, our visitors jockey for parking spaces in our narrow road, our cat has pissed off the majority of the street in one way or another over his decade here. We feel stifled, squashed. We yearn to stretch and breath, to listen to nothing but the sounds of of the cicadas, the rustling winds, the cry of the Karearea.
We had plans for escape, we had written them down, made ourselves a timeline. We had posted our plans to the wall in our office. Our plans gave us the ability to cope with the present knowing the future was mapped out. We had a two year plan...and then, holidaying in Otago over Christmas we happened upon our dream property. We drove up the driveway and we knew we were home. We walked into the house and both had a little something in our eyes. We went home, talked into the night and the next day we made an offer that we thought was more than fair...we wanted this house and we weren't mucking around. Our offer was accepted and we came home to Auckland and started work.
So now we are 2 weeks in...the house is a bomb site, wallpaper ripped off walls, grout all over the place, carpets pulled up, the spare room is now full of tools and paint, my studio is home to all of the furniture from the lounge and dining, laundry baskets hold our pantry food (in the laundry). This how we meet you then, right in the middle of chaos.
the cat supervising
the list (the way out)
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