the end is nigh

making a cubby

Oh godness it has been a long, cold, windy, difficult, memorable Winter. Spring has finally turned up and I'm now ready to re-visit this blog and fess-up. Thing have been changing and we are hitting the final stretch of life in the van. 

kids watching TV

The biggest change that has happened is that we have given up on building our dream house. We are bitterly disappointed and extremely relieved all at once. As we had our final design meetings with the architect Rich and I were 100% thrilled with the way our house was shaping up, even Rachel the architect confessed that she thought it was rather special. The only problem was that with every step forwards we were getting deeper and deeper into financial strife. When we did our initial research into the pre-fab process we were certain we had an adequate budget to build a house. It turns out that there are unexpected costs associated with this process like any build (we have all seen Grand Designs). We were under a false impression that a pre-fab approach makes the cost estimation more controllable. In the end we were looking at having a shell of a house delivered, no floors, no cladding, no paint, no cabinetry  cheap fittings, etc etc. Even then we were going to be in terrible debt. We were prepared to live in a beautiful shell, we were enduring camping in a caravan during the freezing winter in order to make it happen, we were prepared to continue on until another lucky solution arose. The house directly across the road came up for sale.....

playing

We are moving in in early November. Out of the van. Away from cooking on a BBQ every night in the cold by torchlight. Away from dragging, slopping on my feet and emptying every bucket of water we use on the lemon tree.  It will be goodbye turning off the heater when boiling a kettle. No more sitting freezing on the banquette in the evening in jackets using the laptop to heat my lap and putting my icy fingers around the charger to try and warm them. Soon I will be able to wash my face in the evening. I've missed doing this more than showering for some reason. Goodbye baby wipes (our between showers essential!). Hello wardrobe, hello shower, hello running warm water, hello dishwasher, hello wonderful pipes that take water away, hello stovetop and popcorn and frying things and oven that roasts things and baking and all the simple pleasures that having a house brings I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

cooking

Standing out in the cold and rain to simply re-heat dinner makes me appreciate appliances like you wouldn't believe.

There is two problems with this new plan. Leaving these trees, and giving up the dream. The house was my dream house full stop. BTW I do realise that I am spoilt to be able to choose where to live and have such wonderful options and that this is totally a 'first world problem'. I'm a creative person however who found designing my new house exhilarating, it fitted the land and trees perfectly. My brain had mapped our family growing up amongst this bush setting in this lovely modernist house. This was what the pain of every moment in the caravan was all about. I'll try to be brave and put the designs up online so they can at least be enjoyed as a concept here. Don't tell me I'll build it one day - that doesn't help for some reason! I'm now getting my head around 1950's weatherboard house. Its really sweet with plenty of assets  I'm positive I can turn it into a different type of dream house. Most importantly we will be able to breathe a sign of relief as living in our modernist dreamhouse would have been a financial nightmare!

having nightmares about mum putting all the lego on ebay!