- Save up at least $30,000 to spend on this trip (done)
- Find a new renter for Kathy's Condo (done)
- Find a temporary home for Kathy's cat while we travel(done)
- Rent out our house (hopefully furnished and with no garage) (done)* had to give up the garage though
And so the adventure is officially beginning.
This week has been absolutely insane. I have been anxious for a couple of months now, because the final piece - the renting out of the house - was not going well. We had a close call with a crazy renter, but she backed out at the last second, which may have been a good thing. This past Saturday we finally got renters to sign the lease for a year rental on the house. We have managed to rent the house out furnished, but they did want a garage, so Mike has been taking time off and packing/sorting everything out.
There were moral dilemmas along the way. For example - should we or shouldn't we tell our future renters that we are only willing to rent our house out for a year? On one hand, if we tell it will be harder to rent it out, on the other hand, the lease does say a year, so it's not like we're really lying.... We opted for a clear conscience and a longer wait time for the renting - which I'm really happy about. The couple who is renting our house seems great. They are both nurses who recently moved here from VA. They work in a hospital right next to our house, and they are looking to buy, so they are interested in only renting for a year. Fingers crossed this will be an easy experience for all involved.
Our parents are not taking the news well. I went over to their house on Monday for our weekly dinner and they looked like they were at a wake. I also had the opportunity to see Mike's parents that day, and they looked no better. They are worried about our careers, our money, our futures, and of course us being away in a foreign country without them there. I understand where they are coming from, but I do wish that they could share our joy rather than having us share their apprehensions.
The other cause for anxiety: our new tenants want to move in November 1! That gave Mike and I one real weekend to pack. Mike is also running around trying to fix all of the things in the house that we have been letting go of, while we were living in it. To be honest this is causing some stress for us, as the completion of some of these projects, or rather the lack of completion has been the source of some big fights in the past. The move is merely throwing oil on the fire. In the meantime, I go to work, come home, and pack. It took me 4 nights to pack up the kitchen, but hopefully the rest of the house won't be so bad. I am hoping to get the bathroom and the spare bedroom under control today, so I will only have our bedroom to worry about on Saturday while Mike is moving the immense amount of stuff from the garage to the storage space. I think I will be completely happy once we are out of the house and bumming it up in the Shafrans' spare bedroom.
On top of that, there are all sorts of logistical issues that I'm trying to handle. Visas are a lot more complicated when you don't know when exactly you are leaving a particular country. For some reason, even though I'm usually very good about these things, I could not figure anything out from the OZ and NZ websites and ended up calling the OZ embassy and emailing the NZ one. Long story short - it will be less hassle to just buy plane tickets out of NZ before we arrive so that we get the automatic 3 month visitor visa granted to tourists. I love that you can apply for OZ visas online, and don't actually have to send them anything via mail. They are a god send. Go OZ!!!!
One final piece of exciting news is that both Mike and I have put in our notices at work. We are both working though Nov 22, 2013 and then we are out of there. Once the word was out at work people started coming up to me and these are the three things that they generally say in the order that they say them:
- Wow, I can't believe you are doing this!
- I wish that I could have done something like this!
- If you were ever going to do this, now is the time!
People have been very sweet in general and I am touched by some of the emails and comments that I have gotten. It will be very strange to leave this place after working there for nine years. I think it will be really good for me to try something so completely outside of my comfort zone.
The plan for this weekend is packing, packing and even more packing. I am really stressed out about how it will go, but I think we will be OK. It will be such a relief to just be able to rest after work rather than pack and run around. I guess you have to have a final stress marathon before leaving it all behind and not doing the day to day grind. I will just focus on what I am looking forward to:
- Not worrying about the house
- Living with one of my best friends for about a month
- Spending some time with family and friends before our trip
- Being tourists in Chicago during the holiday season. There will be lights on Michigan starting Thanksgiving week
- Last, but not least - going on the adventure of a lifetime
*I am also trying to set up my blog to stream to FB and Google+ every time I post something new. I think it will make it easier to stay in touch with everyone. I'm currently using Blogger which can be set up to feed into Google+ automatically. I am trying to use RSS graffiti to post new blog posts to FB. I will let you know how it goes.
