Are we crazy?!?!
Are we crazy? Maybe. Depends on how you look at it. Why am I asking this? Well, my husband David and I are in the process of putting our house on the market and buying a caravan to live in full time. When I tell people that I get one of two responses, either we’re crazy, or people are enthusiastic, wishing they could do it or are planning on doing it.
So how did this all come about?
Well one of our longer term goals is to travel. I’ve been to 22 countries so far and want to add many more to my list. But I don’t just want to tick them off, I want to be able to soak in a culture, maybe learn some of the language, and really get a feel for a place. Dave hasn’t been to as many, however when he was in his mid teens living in the States and his mum went to a job fair, while she was looking at jobs in surrounding states, he was looking for jobs for he in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and other far flung destinations. Which eventually bought them here. We’ve been talking about travel for many years. Dave has three daughters from his previous marriage and we wanted to make sure they were through school and fairly settled before we left. His youngest just turned 18 earlier this year, but between Covid, his study and house stuff, our current goal is to be heading overseas within the next two years.
The current plan (although it’s totally likely to change) is a six month RV trip through the states, then a year in Europe. I’d love to be based in Italy but I’m not sure how that works with visas (if you know please let me know!!). Followed by six months in South East Asia on the way home. Maybe Bali, Thailand, Vietnam or the Philippines. But then we went to Sydney last year to visit family and I can see us spending an extended amount of time there. I have long had a dream of exploring the middle east, especially Egypt, Turkey and Jordan, and the Bible countries. I LOVED my visit to East Africa and Benny is super keen to go to Africa and go on Safari. The list keeps growing and growing, so at this point in time my goal is to be home by about the time Benny is 12 so he can be settled for high school if he wants to.
Which brings us to the caravan. Dave came up with the idea. New Zealand is beautiful, and we want to see more of it. Maybe trying to live in a small space while we’re still on familiar lands is not a silly idea. We’re in the process of building another house (well, rebuilding to be more precise) and if it all goes totally pear shaped, we can just sell the caravan, rent or crash with friends til the house is finished the move in there, and totally rethink our travel plans.
For a long time I’ve been fascinated with the concept of minimalism, and the tiny house movement. Part of me loves the idea of living in a tiny house. Getting rid of anything that doesnt bring you joy, truly simplifying life and not having as many things, which often allows you to have more life. But then part of me loves the idea of a big house with loads of space and beautiful things around me. I love that maybe we get the opportunity to do both. To have both, even if it’s not at the same time.
We’re trying to think through it rationally though. It’s not just some cool idea with financial benefits (although it will definitely have those!). We’re thinking through what do we need to survive, to stay sane, and to possibly even thrive in this situation. A few things I’ve recognised I need is some space, downtime, peace and quiet, whatever you want to call it. Being stuck in a small space long term is not conducive to that, but knowing that it is a need of mine means I’ll be more likely to be proactive in getting it. Getting out for a walk in nature, going to a coffee shop to do some work or just sit and enjoy a drink in a new environment, putting my headphones on and listening to music or a podcast, reading a book in the sun. All of these things help me recharge. Good food is a big need. And by good food I mean food that tastes good and nourishes my body, leaving it feeling good. This is probably my biggest fear at the moment. We’re used to having a full sized fridge freezer plus a chest freezer and a rather large pantry. Restricting it to a caravan sized kitchen and a bar fridge could be a challenge, especially when it comes to preparing meals in advance. But we have some ideas on how we can hopefully make it work. Probably my other biggest need is to get a decent sleep. So the sort of caravan we get, and the sort of bed it has is important. In an ideal world it will also have a door between the bedroom and the rest of the caravan since I go to bed before Dave does, but what we end up getting remains to be seen.
If you know me personally and have for a while, you probably know I lived in a caravan for 10 months while a previous house was being built. That was a crazy experience. I was living on site (unfortunately that isn’t an option this time around) so it was amazing seeing all the progress each day on the build. However the sort of caravan I had didn’t have a bathroom, so having to do picnic wees or find a local public toilet each time I needed to go until the builders portaloo was on site wasn’t ideal. Then the portaloo got a bit funky smelling at times too. Haha. Thankfully I was working full time in an office back then so got to spend a good part of the day out of my small confined space, and a gym membership and swimming pools concession card were helpful in keeping me fit and showered. I realised it’s amazing how much you can cook on a BBQ (pizzas are amazing!) or slow cooker, and I’m incredibly grateful to my friends who regularly invited me around for meals and let me use their washing machine. Dave and I actually met while I was in the midst of caravan living. It didn’t scare him off back then so hopefully it can only grow us closer this time around!
Another big component is the financial element to it. We’re fortunate that we still have Daves old family home as a rental, and early on in our marriage we had enough equity and income to get a second rental. They’re doing not too bad a job of looking after themselves financially (although once the mortgages come off fixed term it could look a little different!). We’re also in the process of a rebuild. The last house we bought, well, we bought it as a project back before Benny came along, when we were struggling to get pregnant and I wanted something to distract me from that. Turns out it was a much bigger project than we thought, and after getting engineers involved, the EQC onsold process is coming to the rescue. The rebuild costs are pretty much totally being looked after by EQC treasury money (Phew!). That was a many year battle/challenge that Dave was leading but it is definitely paying off. The hope is that we’ve made some money off our current house when we sell, but time will tell. Some places locally are getting sold super quick, others are sitting on the market for months and months. Hopefully it sells quick, makes us some money so we can reduce our mortgages and the rental income looks even healthier. Either way, once we sell it will be a rather large chunk of mortgage that no longer needs to be paid, which gives us soooooo much more flexibility in our working environment.
Before we fully committed to this course of action, I talked to Dave about it. I wanted this to be something we’re doing because of the opportunities, because of the adventures and the increased family time and simplicity it can bring, not just coz of the finances. I didn’t want it to be something we were pursuing because of the fear around our current finances (those interest rate and general cost of living increases aren’t much fun, am I right?!?!?!), but focusing on the cool stuff that can come as a result.
Which brings me to one of the main things I wanted to mention. I feel like we often get stuck in this idea of what success is. The big house, the flash car, the fancy clothes or dinners out. Maybe. But what if that’s not actually your idea of what success is for you? What if success for you is family time together and being able to stay emotionally regulated. What if success is cooking food grown in your garden? What if success is working part time and enjoying your time off now rather than waiting until you retire. What if success is being able to stay home to parent your kids rather than having to return to work. What if success is being able to work while knowing your kids are well looked after, and being able to be present and engaged when you are with them? Success can mean different things to different people. Dave and I are exploring what it means to us, and family time and adventures are definitely coming up high up! What does success mean to you?
