Down the rabbit hole

The decorator dramas, 14 hour days and then suddenly we were finished and the open homes began. I spent every day cleaning and trying to live with none of our stuff. Everything was in storage so we could present our house beautifully. Agents here every day for private viewings, open homes on thursday, saturday and sunday. Having to take Frasier away in the car (which he hates) so that he wouldn't misbehave during the open homes (he is a Bengal...this is his territory...misbehaving ranges from quietly seething from under a chair, to yelling a lot, to peeing on handbags). And then finally, after a month the big day arrived and the auction began...Flash and I sat in the hallway straining our ears to hear the auctioneer on the deck, 40 people in attendance, 4 bidders...and then it started...low - ohmigod too low...and then it struggled and suddenly it steamrolled closer and closer to our reserve...and then it stopped. We looked at one another, the agents and auctioneer descended on us. We took 10 seconds and said "yes" drop the reserve...too many places aren't selling and we don't want to sit around, and two minutes later that was it, the house was sold.

It took days for the relief to set in, to stop the obsessive tidying (but the house is still like a showhouse...we are both enjoying that!) to start cooking dinner in our own kitchen (and cooking curries and chillies, as the smell didn't matter any more). The agent dropped us like a hot potato as is their wont, and the cat was allowed inside again (although he now overnights in a dog crate in the garage which is working well).

I am in a form of suspended animation, just doing the bare minimum to the veggie garden, cleaning out the spent plants and saving seed, not much more, no planting for next season as it is no longer 'my" garden. I have no work as my studio is packed and my website now reaches an Otago audience (I already have some bookings down there which is great!) and designing knits just seems impossible with my scrambled brain. So I am knitting my own and others patterns, planning some cowls and balaclavas to protect my cheeks from the cold. I am watching homesteading docos and catching up on  new photoshop techniques. I'm trying to spend my time doing positive things that will pay off in six weeks time when we hit the ground.

I have "met" (virtually) a few of our neighbours to be and they are lovely, I am now receiving the community newsletter and have answers to many of my questions. our internet connection will be enough to watch netflix and for Flash to telecommute, so we are happy with that! the grandchildren are getting more and more excited (donkeys, ponies, donkeys, ponies), but they will have to make do with chickens until we have spent time on the land and worked out what it needs. Exciting times ahead!

Committed

We have decided to go unconditional early, our lawyer is a lovely guy, but ponderous. I have heard too many stories about buyers being gazumped due to lawyers taking too long to let them know about  vendors exercising their right to cancel in the face of a better offer. We couldn't bear the thought and we have bridging finance if we need it, so we decided to go ahead. Scary!

Flash brought a truck home for me to test drive over the weekend (don't fret - the model, transmission, extras and colour were all chosen by me). I am in love...it is perfect! Now to make sure our house sells so that I can buy it. My current vehicle just isn't cut out for icy roads and since I will often have very precious cargo in the form of grandchildren we are not willing to take any risks.  It will also be handy for picking up loads of hay, cages of chickens and sacks of feed (I just love saying all that stuff!).

What day is it??

We are halfway through our third week of renovations. It feels as though nothing is going to get done in time. The painters are still leaving every day after 2 hours work, but there is nothing we can do, we are paying them for the job not the hours and so long as it gets done before the allotted date they can keep disappearing. It is annoying because when those rooms are done we can put the furniture back in them. At the moment we are climbing over piles of stuff and can't even get into the bath to fit the taps as the tub is the safest place to store our art so that it doesn't get knocked!

We spent the weekend completing the upstairs decks, back and front and we are really happy with the results. We know we should have been inside painting before the carpet arrives (Feb 7) but the psychological effects of the great looking decks is worth the anguish over the painting. We will just have to go hard this week. The downstairs bathrooms (bathroom, seperate toilet and seperate shower - very handy with teenage girls!) are looking amazing though!

We have chosen an agent, she was the third one we interviewed and her values seem to align with ours, she is willing to try some of our crazy ideas and has given us a realistic appraisal of the house value.

Tea Mr Shifter?

I was awake at 3 am, feeling nauseous and shivery. I got up and did a bit of work so as not to disturb Flash with my tossing and turning. We are both under so much stress. Finances are worrying us, we jumped into this with little money saved (because we had the "two year plan") and what we have got is disappearing fast...the painter, the paint, new carpet, plumber and today the shifter came to assess our quote.

I'm a little bit terrified.

We have 40 boxes already stored in my Mum's garage - our library, kitchen and spare room already packed. We are looking down the barrel of a 40 foot container from Auckland to Dunedin! Payday is still 20 days away and we are feeling very edgy.

I just keep thinking "leap of faith", step out knowing the path will rise up before you. It will...it always does because we always find a way. The one thing I know and that I keep holding on to is that the house is right, it is so right. Temporary pain will lead to a lifetime of happiness and security.

This afternoon we received an email from the second of the three agents we are interviewing. His suggestion of the expected sales price fell short of our expectations, and varied considerably from the first agent's suggestion. We are slightly confused and a little deflated. I have decided to just keep painting...its not fun but it is constructive.

(first bedroom finished)

Post the first.

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 chaos

the cat supervising

the list (the way out)