Almost there!

It has been a couple of weeks of feeling like we are constantly "almost there". Life is once again full on and the weeks have wizzed past in a blur of school runs, busy days at work and bouts of annoying illness. 

We are now, thankfully only a few days away from a much needed end of term holiday. Spring is beginning to arrive and we have seen glimpses of the summer sun and spent the odd sunny few hours in just t-shirts and sunglasses. We have all had the flu and it is still stubbenly refusing to leave us completely meaning that he girls are still slightly snuffly and pale looking when I pick them up from school.

However we have had one very good piece of news this term. We have finally had an offer on our house in the UK. Like many expats when we moved to NZ over four years ago we rented out our UK house. And like many people who bought when we did, our rent failed to cover our mortgage. So over the past few years we have had to send money back to the UK to cover the shortfall on our mortgage. As well as paying rent over here!

So six months ago when be brought our house in NZ, we very bravely decided to kick out our UK tennants and put the house on the market. We have then had months of worry whilst paying two mortgages. Well finally we have had an offer and accepted it! Yippee! Lets hope it all goes smoothly from now on.

I have spoken to many expats who have been in similar positions to us. I do not know what the best solution is. Some have been renting out their property for years and an unlucky few have had theirs on the market for years. With the recent change in mortgage rules over here it is very handy to be able to sell your UK property and come over with a decent deposit otherwise you will have trouble (as some of our friends have) even getting on the property ladder here at all.

I am just grateful that we secured our home when we did. It is so great to be in a house we own and can alter to our own somewhat individual taste. Hence the latest addition to our household. This is Bob the elephant.

Our own home in NZ!

Five years of not living in a house that you own can drive you slightly nuts! Five years of having to watch your kids like hawks when they want to paint, use play dough or do anything slightly messy can lead to very fraught nerves and high blood pressure. Five years of trying to hide that melted crayon in the carpet every time you have a house inspection by the letting agents can get very trying.

So we finally took the plunge and have brought our own home in the land of the long white cloud.

We loved the little suburb we rented in and tried to find a property in that area but after a grand total of two weeks (yep we have no patience) we decided to widen the search and ended up in a suburb 10 minutes away but, most importantly, within walking distance of the sea!

Our new home is nestled amongst the trees and stands on long wooden pylon's that look quite frightening to someone who grew up in the brick semis so common in the UK.

We discovered our new adventure. We have brought a house that won an architectural design award when it was built way back in 1977 and now is in need of a bit of TLC. It is structurally sound, as our structural engineer and builder have confirmed, but it is a wooden house and needs some attention and probably a new roof in the near future. It also has some interesting 70s design features which although I may grow to love, may need to be updated slightly so that I can happily live with them.

It is surrounded by woodland and as my grandad has said, is essentially a "Shed in a Wood". Hence the blog name! So this will be a chronical of our attempts to make our new family home in our architecturally designed Shed in a Wood.

During the four weeks we have been in our new home my kids have already made it feel theirs. When asked to stop using felt pens near the lounge carpet they responded "Its alright Mummy, its our carpet now, it doesn't matter if we get pen on it"! Not quite my point!