Category Archives: Preparation

Packing Up.

The contents of the kitchen all boxed up
The contents of the kitchen all boxed up

It’s our last night in our house tonight. Tomorrow we have the moving truck coming to move a small amount of stuff into a room in Milford where we will stay in between trips in Rafe. I’ll be more or less full time. We are both quite looking forward to not having to think about looking after a house and having a good look around the country in between the jobs.
Our property manager had a hiccup with one tenant who agreed to rent the house three weeks ago from Europe after sending a friend through the house on her behalf. She signed a contract for 12 months after her friend said it was just right for her and when she arrived last week, began inventing excuses as to why it wasn’t for her. She is paying rent until someone else is found. Two people who have been through just on Friday are both keen so we don’t see any problems. Honestly, what planet was this silly woman on!

What was my office. Buy 5pm the room was empty
What was my office. By 5pm the room was emptying
Empty spaces. The carpets have been cleaned and most of the furniture has already gone
Empty spaces. The carpets have been cleaned and most of the furniture has already gone
The rubbish pile and part of our storage area.
The rubbish pile and part of our storage area.

It has been really liberating over the last few months, selling off stuff we don’t use any more, giving stuff away and dumping a lot of things that either doesn’t matter or we don’t use. Just in my wardrobe, getting rid of stuff I haven’t worn , it’s fantastic.

Alex came over today with the grandsons and Andrew popped in too to help with the last packing and shifting stuff into a storage are we have.

Rafe waiting patiently to takes us away.
Rafe waiting patiently to takes us away.

A busy day! A pizza for tea as everything has been packed and a glass of wine while we prepare ourselves for another busy day with a pre dawn rugby semi final to enjoy and the packers coming.

We’re just about there

As we’re renting the house out, we’re running down the pantry stocks in the house so provisioning the van for the Sth Island trip tomorrow was pretty straight forward… more a case of finding places to put stuff.

Madam in the Supermarket provisioning for the trip.
Madam in the Supermarket provisioning for the trip.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday pulling everything out of the cupboards and resetting where stuff goes in which cupboards… It’s amazing the space that was created for yep! …. more stuff

Under floor storage. There are three ares like this .. Very handy

We use big plastic storage bins for keeping things tidy in the garage and most of that was rejigged as well so it’s all looking good..  I’ve got that feeling we’re going to forget something important..

Wardrobe drawers.. A cheap way for extra storage

On a recent visit to the Plastic Box company, I discovered a neat way of making better use of our wardrobes. They have a hanging draw set that is designed to make a wardrobe into some shelving… To do both wardrobes was about $140 all up and it looks like it should work quite well..

Yippee .. Off tomorrow to meet some Motorhome friends at Raglan for a couple days, then Marton to meet some other Motorhome friends and then we travel in convoy to the South Island via WOW in Wellington.

I’ll try to post daily now we’re on the move. Keep your eyes peeled😃

Easy Clothesline

Ready for the towels
Ready for the towels
Ready for the road
Ready for the road

Today I installed a clever Fiamma clothesline that integrates with the bike rack we had installed a week or so ago. The nice part about it is it stays on the back, whether you’ve got bikes or not. It simply unfolds.

Perfect for the towels after a shower or the tea towels and flips out in seconds.

Wow .. How is that Black!


Tough painting on your knees amongst the plants. The base of the steps look great.

The black really looks good … More rent ?  🙂

We’re online !

We had the property manager today to list the house for renting. I’ve been busy painting trellis by brush ! .. The spray gun started to paint things I didn’t want painting so it ended up in the big green bin……

Why are we doing all this ? … To hit the road fulltime.. so  Bugger it, We are off

We’ve done the sums and by renting the house out, along with some other income, we can live very happily on the road….

Sir Rafe on the park we made by chopping down an oak tree and installing a gate.
Rafe on the park we made by chopping down an oak tree and installing a gate.