Moving again

I just talked about moving 12 times in the past 10 years and now I have to move again!

When we rented this house, we were hopeful that within a year I'd be gainfully employed and the property distribution between my partner and her ex would be settled, so we could buy a new house. Needless to say, neither of those happened. But we were perfectly happy in our rental except for the cold downstairs, so I offered to make a deal with the owners.

Rather than let the rental go month-to-month, which is normally what happens after the first year, I offered to sign another one year lease in exchange for them putting in a heat pump downstairs. It seemed reasonable to me, as we knew they intended to reoccupy the house at some point, so they would benefit from it, too.

They responded they would be reoccupying the house in May.

May is a terrible time to move house in NZ. It's winter and nobody else is moving, so there is very little on the market. Almost all house moves occur in January, before the school year starts. We got this letter right before Christmas so we decided to start looking straight away.

Remarkably, the house we tried to rent the year before--but someone else pipped us to the post--was back on the market! It wasn't perfect, the kitchen was dated, the carpet was cream colored, they didn't accept pets and the cat the vet said would be dead 18 months ago is still going strong. But it had two living areas, four bedrooms, two and a half baths plus a study. (Initially we were going to convert the study into a fifth bedroom and get another international student, but then I got the job offer working from home so it will be my office.)

It's also much closer to the shops, library, recreation centre, swimming pool. It's near the main road but at the end of a cul de sac, which is surprisingly quiet. The only sounds you hear are the birds and the stream that runs through the front yard.

Our international student returns Jan 29, the kids go back to school Feb 2, we move Feb 5 and I start my new job Feb 9. I will also be going to the UK for a couple of weeks (courtesy of my new company!) but the dates haven't been decided. 2016 definitely seems to be the year it all comes together.

And hopefully 2017 will see us buying a house, although realistically we'll want to stay in Karori until the youngest one finishes primary school* in two years, and I'm not sure we want to buy in Karori or someplace more convenient for the colleges.

* In New Zealand, primary school is often years 1-8, although in some areas  primaries are 1-6 and then intermediate school years 7-8. College is years 9-13, and please don't ask me why they call them colleges. In Wellington most of the colleges are single sex--only two are co-ed--and for some reason the boys colleges are on the opposite end of town as the girls! So in two years we'll have to decide which college to send the youngest to and then move into the catchment area for both the girls and boys schools.