House-sitting in the Second Half of Life
Meg is our Country Liaison for New Zealand.
“We think we would love you to sit for us. But we need you to know we are not a pristine / new / ultra tidy lifestyle block! Dogs sometimes run through the house…the big back yard is completely overgrown as a dog area (they have a run out in the paddocks – don’t go out on the lead!) Chooks are everywhere! Our place is really comfortable and people always love staying – but it has old windows, a couple of leaks, some sheds need a paint…”
This is the message I received from Barney and Alison 2 days ago…after a 3 week wait … to say I was the lucky applicant for their house-sit in rural NZ, 15 minutes drive from the nearest town (population 23,400), 27 APR 2018 – 22 JUN 2018.
This house-sitting life-style offers way more than I ever imagined when I embarked upon it 3 years ago… seeking an answer to my nagging question ‘am I an Aussie or am I a New Zealander?’
Back then my life in Sydney was steadily leading to a change with the sale of the family home of 32yrs and my 3 children at the stage of life where they consider parents pretty redundant, an obligation that interferes with their exciting, not-a-moment-to-spare life.
It appeared to be my chance to reconnect with New Zealand!
Luckily, or many might say foolishly, I placed my share of the proceeds from the family home into a house in inner-city Sydney which I bought with a friend just 6 days after she’d suggested we combine our assets, and this returned a very small and essential income while I traveled….
Here is my trusty steed which is small but perfect for my ‘travelling show’ as can put the rear seats down and forward to be flush with the front seats leaving me lots of space.
But house-sitting is inexpensive. The only costs are transport, food, toiletries and entertainment which you have control over largely. All the fixed living expenses are paid by the house-owners.
This blog will be about my discoveries while house-sitting;
Change, uncertainty, flexibility, trust, possibility, openness, self-awareness, self-growth, learning, connection and much more.
In a nutshell …. it’s about having the full experience of being human at this unique stage of life; the third act some have named it, with all the ups and downs that occur.
Please join me and add your thoughts, ideas and experiences as they relate to the topic…I welcome them!