Take Two

Here we go again. Our second attempt at throwing off the shackles of suburbia.

If you have been following along from the beginning you'll know that way back in May last year we sold our lovely home overlooking Tauranga harbour in preparation for when our fifth-wheeler arrived & we'd be able hit the road full time. When we finally sold our home the deal included a house which we knew would be fairly easy to move on after a little bit of a tidy up. As it has turned out we've held onto the house a little longer that we originally planned to. Our plans over winter changed due to some unforeseen circumstances, namely my father having a heart by-pass & me having surgery on my feet. I'm now into my seventh week post surgery & I've been very pleased with my progress, my feet are still quite swollen & I can't stay on them for too long but I can move about at a reasonable shuffle keeping the weight to the outside edges of my feet. I still can't wear any usual shoes so the black strappy number I came home from the hospital with are still in use. They weren't kidding with the three months recuperation.

Now that we are out the other side of winter we're both getting itchy feet (excuse the pun). Our tentative plan is to head to the South Island by no later than the end of October as we want to be in Invercargill by early December as we have a Christmas date with David's daughter & family. Then we'll stay in the southern part of the South Island over summer & move north as autumn & winter approach. We expect to be down south for at least 18 months to two years & do a number of circuits & a few criss-crosses of the island before we are done.

So we decided to get the house on the market as soon as possible and during the past couple of weeks we've been cleaning, polishing, gardening & part-packing the house in preparation for sale. Photos have been taken, ads are ready & the first open home is happening this weekend. And we're hoping for a quick sale although we've already decided that if it's not sold before the end of September, we'll pack up our personal gear, put that into storage & leave the house furnished & still on the market with our agent & we'll head off. When it does sell we can fly back from the South Island,  pack & store the remainder of the furniture & tie up the loose ends before returning down south.

Already we've had a steady stream of people through the house so things are looking good. Fingers crossed.

We'll certainly miss the great outdoor area of this home