 |
| Home Sweet Home |
The last week of January saw our rental at Tosswill Road vacated so we
could organise marketing the property ourselves through Listing.co.nz. A great website, easy to use. The house was left beautiful, just needed to do a little bit of work around the grounds.
 |
| Private Sale through Listing.co.nz |
We had ordered the sign (which turned up a couple of days later) and had our Trade Me listing ready to go. We were still parked up at the Stables Camp Ground for a couple of weeks as the Tenant's in our own home, weren't able to vacate our home until mid February.
We started running open homes each weekend over February and had good turnouts for the first couple of weeks. But mostly people were checking out the market. The majority had to sell their homes first, so sadly nothing much came from this. We decided to rent the property out once again for another 6 months till early October and we will see what the property market is doing. Fingers crossed it picks up.
 |
| The Green Gremlin |
Once again a few days out from our Tenants vacating Tahunanui Drive, they asked for another extension as there was a delay in their next property. An extra month was required, so we decided to co-share the property, with us staying in the bus. This worked well as we could at least start on the gardens which were quite overgrown.
 |
| Co-sharing the property - plenty of room 😊 |
 |
| Trimming the drive |
We engaged a building consultant to get consent signed off on the alterations that were done up at Tosswill Road. This would ensure next time we go to the market, everything is signed off and council records show the changes, not that this was an issue this time round. But better to be prepared and do it while it was vacant.
 |
| Looking good 👍 |
We did mange to sell our double kayak during this time, which was perfect timing for Bill to buy his next Ute. The other Ute was so useful during our time up at Tosswill Road and now will be at Tahunanui Drive, especially to enable us to drive up with the Bus. There are a few trees to trim and clear damage / spoil from last August floods. There were no Utes in our price range in Nelson, so had to look a bit further away and we found one in Christchurch. A cheap flight and Bill was off to Christchurch after we had paid a deposit. We were a little concerned with all the scams around that it existed at all! But thankfully the Green Gremlin was sitting there waiting for him.
 |
| Bit of trimming |
Still waiting to move into our home, we had some time up our sleeves. So we headed over to Ligar Bay to fish with one of Bill's ex Telecom mates -Rod. The weather was still great, so we had a swim with Anne on our arrival. Ligar Bay in Golden Bay is a lovely wee spot, especially at this time of the year. Unfortunately the next day it rained and there was a bit of a swell. Still, we gave it a go. But sadly no luck so we headed back to Nelson to the Stables in time to do another open home at the weekend. This was also the weekend Cyclone Gabriel was creating havoc up North. Thankfully it didn't cause too much damage by the time it got down this way. The Ute was great to clear the driveway and prepare the area for our Bus to park up.
 |
| Keeping Amanda warm after leaving summer in Switzerland |
Saturday February the 18th we moved back onto our property after 8 and a 1/2 years away, although not inside our home just yet but back on Property.
The weather continued to be very settled so we got into the gardens as things had got overgrown and we had lost the view at the front of the house. Bill & his trusty little chainsaw we're working overtime.
 |
| Heading home with our catch. |
 |
| Gerry, Rod and Bill having dessert 😄 |
We managed another trip over to Ligar Bay and this time we were lucky. Snapper for a few meals. Unfortunately a guy slammed into the side of the Suzuki on our way home, ruining what had been a beautiful day. Thankfully an insurance job.
 |
| Nephew Simon helping Bill to bring the laundry back inside 👏 |
 |
| Bill's next project! |
We did our last open home early March and with the market still very quiet, we organized for the property to be rented out from April for 6 months.
Our tenant's at to Tahunanui Drive finally moved out over the following weekend so we took our Bus and had 2 lovely days at Rabbit Island staying overnight at nearby Green Acres Golf Course. Very relaxing after all the Open Homes and gardening. When we returned on the Sunday night, the tenants still needed a couple more days to complete their move after two years of living here. Mid March we finally got the house to ourselves almost! But not quite as the carpets needed to finish drying.
My niece Amanda flew into NZ for 3 weeks from Switzerland to catch up with Family and Friends. She had 5 days with us so we played tourists while the weather was beautiful.
I managed to get my eyes tested and new sunny's ordered from overseas before heading South. I was delighted to see I got them cheaper than Bill had when he ordered his. But as I finished the order, the price changed to NZ dollars! Bummer!! But still far cheaper than buying local.
Finally on the 19th of March, we had our first night back inside 177. Felt very weird actually.
 |
| A well earned beer 🍺 |
 |
| Time out with Joan at Rabbit Island |
As we had planned to head away to Central Otago to catch the autumn colours in April, we only had 2 weeks back inside but I couldn't really get into it . I found it a bit overwhelming really. We got our bedroom set up and some gear unpacked and back into the kitchen & dining room. We will sort the rest on our return. plenty of gardening to do with the weather so good and the time. The weather had been so settled, it was a lovely end to summer.
We also got to meet nephew Mathew and partner Sarah's wee baby boy Elliott. It's nice to have a baby in the Family in town.
 |
| Nice to see our sunsets once again 💗 |
