So close, yet so far away ...

“The Unknown is scary, the Unknown can also be exciting. Your life could change in an instant anytime. But sometimes, that change is the best thing that will ever happen to you. Maybe I don’t have to know what my fate is to know that everything will be okay. Maybe the not knowing is how we move forward. Wherever I’m headed, I know it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.” ~ Susane Colasanti

Well it's less than three weeks to go now before we fly to England for the next exciting chapter in our lives!  Lots of things are moving, one is stubbornly staying the same ...

Selling ezimade seemed like it was going to be easy from the moment Barry opened the shop. He had a list of people who came in saying how amazing it was and how much they'd considered doing just what he had but not quite had the courage/got round to it, and would be interested in buying the business once he was ready to sell.

A few of these people have been in and talked about buying, but to date no-one has made an offer or made any sort of commitment. Why not?  It's such a great business, and is growing daily, I can't figure out where the blockage is. Barry has now listed it on Trade Me - so check it out and if you know anyone interested get them to call him asap! He did call a Real Estate Agent last week and met up with him - but was unconvinced that they would be committed enough or work hard enough to earn the ridiculous sum of money in commission they charge for selling a business.

It's OK, we have someone who will manage the shop once we leave if it's not sold, so we're not panicking, but it would be so much better to be able to let it go and move forward. However, Barry has to return to NZ in August anyway to apply for his visa, so maybe he's meant to come back and sell it then?

In the meantime, we've had another garage/yard sale:

So much 'stuff'!

This one wasn't quite as successful as the first one, but a lot of the same people came. Additionally, during the afternoon I discovered that someone had 'walked away' with a set of golf clubs that had been at the back of the house - Barry's mum's. I was initially angry that someone would do such a thing, then realised that it wouldn't help anything by giving my energy to that, and turning it around saw that whoever took them must be pretty desperate to have to steal from someone else, so it actually made me feel very lucky - so thank you thief!

The weekend before this, we had the auction for Barry's photography. It was such a fun afternoon, and all but I think two of his pictures sold to the people that came, and a few telephone bidders. Since then so many people who didn't manage to come for a variety of reasons have said how much they wish they had, and those who bought his pictures keep saying how much they love them. So it's all good, Barry will be remembered in Gisborne for a long time to come - and he saw how much people value his work as it was converted into cash.

Lee and Alice get Barry's most prized and treasured shot - a country lane near to West Felton, UK, taken in 2007

Sally buys so many photos - and adores them!

Gavin the amazingly audacious auctioneer - what a star!

Jeremy, Jim and Kerri - some of the beautiful people who bidded (I know, it's not a proper word!) and bought!

Our furniture is slowly moving out of the house, bit by bit, and with the photos gone too it's starting to look empty and we are 'letting go' of it, feeling grateful we've lived somewhere so amazing even for a short time, and looking forward so much to travelling to UK and buying another narrowboat. That's what keeps us going, knowing that we WILL get where we want to be, despite the challenges, and then there will be other lovely journeys to plan and look forward to.

Barry has taken some things to his daughter Jamie in Hamilton and will take some to Tom in Wellington in a couple of weeks. He isn't saying goodbye for ages to them yet, because he knows he'll be back in August and be here until he gets his UK visa. Leaving his mum will be something else to challenge us both though - but we can call her and hopefully Skype her with the help of Barry's brother Ray ...

Of course it's through our struggles that we most grow - if life was simple and easy all the time it would be boring don't you think?

Feeling the pressure of moving hemispheres ...

So it's just seven weeks and five days before we fly away from Gisborne to the sunny (!) northern hemisphere - Barry always brings the sun with him so you can count on there being some gorgeous weather in UK from 21st March.

We always knew that sorting the vast amount of 'stuff' we have would be a challenge, and we aren't disappointed so far - in fact there's more than we ever imagined.  That's the drawback of having a decent sized house with a humongous amount of storage space underneath it.  

I sent round an initial list of belongings to a long email list of contacts, and so far we've sold one of our cars, our bike, and tons of other stuff, so it bodes well for keeping on top of it.

On Saturday we've arranged a 'garage/garden/yard' sale at our house - here's a photo of some of the stuff in our spare bedroom ready for this ...

I've already taken three large bags of clothes to the Salvation Army, and two visits to the rubbish dump with unwanted paperwork.

One of the other things we'll be doing is cataloguing and selling some of Barry's photographs - they are, as you all know, incredible works of art and deserve to have homes where people appreciate their beauty.

Coming back from a five night midwifery locum stint at Te Puia on Tuesday, Barry and I suddenly became overwhelmed at the enormity of what we're undertaking and started to panic a little.  Too late to turn back now of course - the house is sold with the settlement date of 31st January.  Those blog readers who have undertaken similar journeys to us, will recognise I'm sure, the pressure that such a big change puts on you, even when it's something you have been dreaming of for a long period of time.

This evening I came across an inspiring video which 'spoke to me', and reminded me to let go and just allow ourselves to freak out from time-to-time about the move.  We've been planning it for over two years now, and we're both sure it's what we want, but the change in the UK visa requirements have meant we must commit to five and a half years to get Barry's 'Indefinite Leave to Remain' in UK, with only limited time back in NZ to see family and friends, if we can afford to return for visits.  'The Power of Vulnerability' is a TED talk by Brene Brown - if you have about 20 minutes to spare, and want to feel more 'wholehearted', I would totally recommend you watch and absorb the wisdom she's gained through many years of research.

Once we've received the house sale money next week, we'll put the necessary funds into an account, and they have to stay there for six months before Barry can even apply for his UK visa.  Then it must be there again two and half years after when he updates/reapplies.  We've now engaged the lovely Colin at 'ivisas' to navigate us through the process, and feel confident all will happen - so long as we gather all the documentation.

Our biggest mission now is to sell Barry's business - he has a few people interested, so by the power of the law of attraction, I'm putting it out there we WILL sell it in the next couple of weeks.

Watch this space - and I'm sending it out too that one day soon we WILL be announcing we've bought a narrowboat ...

Contract signed ...

Our Hillview Terrace buyers have signed the sale and purchase agreement and will be putting their 10% deposit down on our house as soon as we get to see it and sign too - how exciting!  I'll be back in Gisborne on Monday 5th November, so we'll get it sorted and confirmed as soon as possible after that.

Barry came up to visit me on Sunday which was lovely - it gets a little bit lonely up here being on call 24/7.  However it's really not too difficult to stay and work here for a couple of weeks due to its stunning beauty - below are a couple of photos of Tokomaru Bay, taken from the road as I travelled back to Te Puia Springs from an antenatal visit this morning ...

You can see why they call NZ 'Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud'

I've had a few people expressing an interest in being supported on a journey through Holistic Life Coaching with me, so I'm very hopeful I'll get my final three clients signed up in the next week or two for my Diploma case study hours.  I'll still take clients after those places are filled - they'll just not be at a reduced rate.

We're seriously looking at narrowboats now, and have had some communication with a couple selling their boat.  We're not sure it's quite what we're looking for, but it's certainly a lovely boat that we'll bear in mind in the coming weeks ...

Have we sold before we've even listed?

It certainly seems extremely likely - how fantastic! "If you believe it you can see it" is such a better thought and focus than "I'll believe it when I see it".

The story is:

Our neighbours house was for sale for a few months earlier this year, and one day I saw a young couple walking down the drive and said a cheery 'hi' to them.  We got talking and they were asking how much sunshine that property achieved, especially on the deck at the back.  I said I wasn't sure, but that ours got lots of sun as it came up over the hill and around the side of our house, then set in the late evening after enjoying its rays while chilling with a glass of sauvignon (or more likely Barry's home made strawberry merlot - delicious!).

I grasped the opportunity and told them that our house would be on the market in the spring if they were interested - they were!  So I offered to show them around our house and land, despite it being a mess and us being half way through renovating the bathroom - yikes!  It could've all gone horribly wrong, but ...

They loved it!  Hurrah!  I gave them our number to call if they were still interested in a few months.

In the meantime, he went into Barry's shop a couple of months ago and said they were still interested and left their contact details.  So we've phoned them up and they've been round again, this time with the house very tidy and the bathroom completed and they adored it even more.  So we have an independent valuer visiting tomorrow.  Their house isn't on the market yet, so they'll need to get a bridging loan from the bank and get their property on the market asap.  But the cool thing is it would mean:

• No open homes to deal with (well Barry to deal with as I'll be away for all of them if we have to have them!)
• No advertising costs (around $1,500 initially!)
• No real estate agent's fees (we've had them written out of the contract as we already have them and nothing to do with an agent) which are 4% of the purchase price; AND
• We could most likely rent our house off them until we leave on 19th March

So, although it's easy to think 'it can't possibly be that easy', maybe it CAN!  Why not?  Sometimes, when you're taking the right steps and making the right moves in the direction of your dreams, everything literally falls into place.

Here's a few photos of our gorgeous home ...

The updated bathroom - complete with brand new, only put up last night, blind

The sunny back deck - though the sun had just peeked behind the clouds!

It's a split level house - here's the back, with an extra room and a huge storage space under the house - the window above the silver car is the laundry/brewery/man cave!

The view from the deck - the country in the middle of town - idyllic

Further round on the deck ...

And looking up the drive - we're hidden from the road so it's lovely and private in our valley on Hillview Terrace!

Watch this space, we could be making an amazing announcement in the next few days ...