First To Resign

Bernie won! He was the first to resign. And here he is on his last day of work.

This is the happy face of a man who is about to begin an early retirement.

I went to resign yesterday but the principal was away. This morning when I tried to do the same he was busy organising the school production. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get an opportunity.

Renting the house proved easier than we thought. Around 50 people were interested in the property. Many seemed to be potentially excellent tenants with outstanding references. One offered to pay a years rent up front.

A lady, Jay, from Masterton rang and asked if she could view the property earlier than the proposed weekend we had set aside for viewing. We agreed. So she flew to Nelson the following Monday and liked the place. And we liked her. So Jay and her dog Bentley, are soon to be our new tenants.

Finding the perfect tenants

On Saturday night we placed an add on Trade Me to rent out our house. We advertised it as being semi-furnished, pets negotiable and stated we wanted long term tenants. It wasn’t long after the add went live that emails started arriving with interested tenants.

We’ve decided to let people view the house on the 11^th June. That’ll give us two weeks to put the final coat of paint on the sleepout and for Bernie to finish the kitchen deck.

The house will be available on the 8^th July. That’s the middle weekend of the school holidays. Enough time to pack-up and vacate during the first week of holidays.

Garage Sale

5:30am we woke to the alarm. It was time to get up to begin putting things out to be sold in our garage sale. Sarah (our neighbour) was having a garage sale as well, so we were hoping a few bargain hunters would turn up.

Funny, how when you are selling something cheaply people will still ask for more off. I guess they are seasoned bargainers...us on the other hand we are novices. Some people obviously left feeling very happy they'd got a great deal. And, at the end of the day, we were happy to see some stuff leave the property.

We managed to fill the trailer to the brim with stuff/rubbish. When we started it all seemed overwhelming so I tried to be as ruthless as possible. Being a hoarder by nature meant I had to keep reminding myself that this stuff had not been touched or looked at for a couple of years.

By midday we'd made a dent, although we still had mountains of clothing. I loaded up the car to The Sunday Market and try and get rid of more stuff. Then the remainder will go to the SPCA charity shop.

Again the alarm woke me early on Sunday morning. Fortunately the car had been packed the day before so all I needed to do was shower, dress and collect Becs. We were at the Sunday market by 6:45 unpacking our stuff.

Lucky for us we got a site (quite by fluke) beside a tree. The morning started off cloudy and at one stage there was a hint of rain. But by 10 o'clock that had changed and the sun came out in full force. We were grateful for the shade the tree offered and moved our chairs to follow the cool shady spot.

Set up behind us was 'The Coffee Guy'. It wasn't long before the tempting aroma of fresh brewed coffee wafted our way. That was all the convincing Becs needed - she ordered a couple of coffees and a plate of Danish pancakes dripping in syrup with a dusting of icing sugar. What a great way to spend a Sunday. Parked up on deck chairs, chatting to my daughter, being entertained by bargain hunters while being paid for it. We made over $200. 

Next, will be the house! Where does it end? Preparing to go on the road is a mission. We really have needed a year to get familiar with the rig and get that organised and the teething problems solved. I think we are still another 4 - 6 weeks away from being ready to leave.

Finding tenants who'll care for the place is every landlord's dream and we fall into that basket as well. You hear all sorts of horror stories about people renting properties used a 'P' houses. I do worry about that. But I remind myself that this whole adventure is a leap of faith. And I trust that finding the perfect tenants will all fall into place.