How much do you say? Well from the moment we decided that this was actually going to happen to when we left, we had about 7months. There were so many things to think about, consider, organise, dispose of, cull, and arrange.
But the things that seemed to occupy our minds most at the beginning of the process was what were we going to do with our house, and what would we get to be our future house. Both pretty important decisions.
At first we began looking at caravans and campers. We considered the pros and cons of both.
Camper trailers would allow us to go to places less accessible to full sized caravans. But on the other hand, there was limited space and storage, and there was always the set up at every stop just to be able to sleep, and some trailers we considered, even access to the fridge and food is travelling required partial set up.
Caravans on the other hand provided space, storage, abolition facilities and could be accessed easily with no set up required. But they were bigger, requiring more power in the towing vehicle, and could not be taken as many places. Even then, within caravans, there were so many types. Soo soo many types. Pete spent hours, literally hours trawling the Internet, eBay and other sale sites looking at vans. We looked at big, small, and in between. We travelled all over the place looking at old, and new ones.
In the end, we decided to get a caravan with bunks, and possibly a shower. Not necessarily a toilet, as neither of us we overly keen about emptying them. It had to have good storage ability as it was to be our home for the foreseeable future. And it had to have 4wd suspension on it, as Pete being Pete is always looking to do things within the limit of the item, and wanted to take the van with us most places.
In the end, we found our home. She is a 2008 Roadstar Daintree 24' van. It has two bunks and a shower built in. Pete travelled to the Nsw/Qld border to buy her, and the previous owners threw in a heap of extras; annexe, generator, cutlery, crockery and a few other sundry parts that shouldn't be shared, like bras, undies, socks and personal toiletries.
Even after we got her to our house, she required work. Although not old, the poor girl needed a good clean. It took me about a month of a couple hours every second day or so to scrub her from top to bottom inside. She looked clean when we got her home, but she was absolutely filthy. We also had to change the rego over and that was a nightmare. RTA in NSW is not my favourite place, and I rate the majority of the staff as really rude and they deliver absolutely terrible customer service. Well in wagga wagga they do any ways.
And just before we began to pack the van to leave, we thought it might be a good idea to get the 12v/solar system looked over just to make sure we'd have enough power. It was very lucky we did, as the batteries in the van were illegal and very dangerous given that the were within 2 meters of gas cooking facilities. They made the van a rolling death trap, as they possessed a high risk of combustion if gas cooking was used while they were charging.
Even now, a month into our new life, we are finding advantages and disadvantages with this van, as well as working out the kinks. Just as you do with any new home. We've changed things, broken things, got no idea what's wrong with things, and learnt lots about living in a van, and even more about grey nomads in caravan parks (ie, not a lot of them are nice people or remotely tolerant of two normal active, noisy little boys - disclaimer as this has been the experience we have had so far, we know this isn't the norm)
And what do you say has become of our family home?
Well in the months leading up to leaving, we completed the long term renovation we'd been doing. We waited for tradesmen to show. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didnt. This drove me mad in particular. Pete being a tradesman, is very punctual. Maybe that because his father is always late or the last person to arrive, etc. And for me, it meant, I could have been doing something else that needed to be done with my time, rather than waiting around the house getting more and more frustrated.
Finally it was finished. Yep, finished ready for us to leave it. No time to enjoy what we'd worked so hard for over many years. Yes, that is true, but had we not been leaving, would it have ever been finished?
The house needed to be finished before we could do either of the options that we could have taken with the house, to rent it out or to sell it. Our house wasn't a stock standard home. We'd created a five bedroom + study, three living area, two bathroom home big enough for even the Brady bunch. It's not that we were too emotionally attached to it to rent it out, we were just worried about the upkeep and the repairs that may need to be done whilst we are travelling.
Truthfully, Pete and I don't intend on returning to live in Wagga Wagga. And we both felt that a clear break might allow us to enjoy our travels without the constant issue of the house in the back of our minds.
So with these issues in mind, the only logical option was to put the house on the market. We are hoping that the house will sell quickly. Please put it out there for that. Because until the house is sold, it's like the caravan is not yet our home. We still have the house to go back to, and the kids still refer to it as home, not a the house in Wagga.
The last month has been full of change and learning experiences. I guess life is all about learning and changing. I think we've done a fair share of this lately. Probably with a hell of a lot more to come.
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