Buying the Farm

I have big news to tell ... Peter and I have bought a 'lifestyle property' just outside of Levin and we will be moving there by the end of the year. Not only that, but Peter has got a new job at Massey University in Palmerston North and will be starting work there next month.

We have been talking for a long time about buying some land and trying to live as sustainably and self-sufficiently as possible. We started talking about this before these concepts hit the mainstream media. I think it was probably 2004 or 2005 when Peter first introduced me to the concept of peak oil via the documentary The End of Suburbia. Since then it's been in the back of our mind the need to start looking after ourselves because the cost of petrol, groceries and living is just going to continue to rise. However, with Kathleen coming along and us wanting to move to Wellington to be nearer to family, this idea was put on the backburner. We started talking about it again about a year ago, but with Victoria now on the way I said I wanted to wait until she turned one before moving (having only just moved with Kathleen then 10 months old and knowing I didn't want to be raising a new baby out in the 'wop wops' with no support nearby).

However. About two months ago I happened to be browsing on TradeMe and happened to see a place I really liked. So I flicked it on to Peter and we went to look at it the next weekend. We really fell in love with the place. We went back to look again and then put in an offer. The offer went unconditional last week. The vendor is selling because they're moving to Australia, however they're not moving till the end of the year. So we arranged a settlement date of mid-December - this we thought would give us plenty of time to sell our current house in Island Bay, and for Peter to find a job. I didn't really expect him to get the very first job he applied for, but he has.

The place we've bought is on 11 acres of land which is approximately 4 or 5 paddocks, one of which is entirely planted out in lavender and which provides a supplemental income. The house is approximately 400 square metres (4300 square foot?). It has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and 3 living areas. There will be HEAPS of room for our family to expand (not in the way of more children, but in the way of more stuff). We are already finding our current house way too small and as the girls get older and accumulate more stuff (as little girls tend to do), it's only going to get more and more cluttered.

The house was built in the 1930's and moved to its present site approx 15 years ago. At that time it had a basement/games room and garage added underneath and a self contained unit added upstairs. We just fell in love with the house. It's got old style charm. Sure it needs some work done to it and some maintenance brought up to standard. But it feels like a HOME rather than just a house.

The land is pretty much exactly what we were looking for. It's the size we wanted. It's not flat, but it's not steep either. The house is situated on the highest point of the land, therefore not a flooding risk. There is a creek at the back of the property. There are trees for shelter and trees for firewood. There are established fruit trees. There is a large lawn for the girls to run around on. There is ample space for a vege garden.

It is only a five minute drive to the centre of Levin and the main highway & railway. There is a school bus that stops outside to take the girls to school. And just a couple of properties down the road is a cafe/restaurant.

Peter's new job involves Network Security (sorry don't know the job title) at Massey University. He'll be starting there on July 22nd. They've been very flexible about his start date and hours of work, which is great. He'll have to spend the first couple of weeks there while he learns the ropes, but after that they've said he can work from Wellington a couple of days a week, and Palmerston North 3 days a week. So he will be home as much as possible until we sell the house and all move there permanently. During this time Peter will be staying with our wonderful friends Lou and Caliope in Palmerston North.

About the only downside to all this is that our new property is actually a half hour drive away from Palmerston North. So Peter will be facing a half hour commute each way. And with rising petrol prices, that's almost defeating the purpose of why we wanted to move to the country. However, where he is working at the moment he currently has either a half hour drive or one hour bus/train commute each way, so it will be no worse and possibly better than we have now. There is a bus from Levin to Palmy, but it would see him away from home from 6.30am till 6.30pm, so is not ideal.

So the next step for us is to spruce up our current house and list it for sale. I don't really want to but it's the only way. It's really, really hard to have to sell the house I grew up in. Our plans for renovating the house have been put aside. It was a bit of a shame because I had put a lot of effort into choosing the right benchtops, cabinets and vinyl floor for the kitchen, and the carpets and curtains for the rest of the house. It was a fun project, although sometimes difficult to be dragging the girls from store to store all the time.

Do you believe in fate? I think I do. Twice now we have come to the point of signing on the dotted line to begin renovating the house, and twice now we have pulled out at the last minute. The first time we were ready to go then they came back and said it would cost twice our budget and be finished the day before Victoria was due. The second time we'd drawn up all the plans for the kitchen and were just about ready to go when I found the farm online and we stopped to rethink. I think it must be fate saying that we're not meant to mess with it. We are currently in the process of doing a few little things to tart it up, but nothing major. I'll blog that in a separate post.

So now Peter is in his last couple of weeks working at IBM. At the beginning of July his sister Gayle arrives from the States and he'll take a couple of weeks off to spend with her (and show her some of the country). Then on 22nd July he starts work in Palmerston North and will be gone for three days a week. And that will go on until we sell this house. However long that will take. Hopefully not too long.

Ironically we did the same thing when we moved from Auckland to Wellington. Peter went on ahead and I stayed behind with Kathleen to sell the house. Kathleen was at that time 9-10 months old. And this time it'll be me with Kathleen and Victoria. And Victoria will be 8 months old.

But it is an exciting time. Much as I'm sad to be leaving Island Bay and my childhood home, I'm excited about the new life and the new challenges we are going to have.

-Megz

PS: Full credit for all the photos goes to Les Tilbury from LJ Hooker Levin