Tuesday:
My focus today has been that job my husband is going to apply for on Norfolk Island. He (and anyone else) still have a couple of weeks to apply, but then the job starts on 01 July. Which is 6 weeks from now and 4 weeks from the date applications close so less than 4 weeks between getting a "yes", if that happens, to having to move! There are some things I need to do now just in case.
Like getting the house ready to rent out for the year we would be away. Meaning getting all those little jobs done. Doors that stick, a dripping tap, some tiles peeling off in the bathroom, some water damage from when a roof tile was broken in a storm. Tim doesn't have the time and I don't have the skill so I'm getting a handyman to come in. Also someone coming to quote for new curtains and blinds. And a cleaner to help me with some of the hard bits like the skylight in the bathroom. And a quote for new flooring out in the studio. What I like to call the studio is a room attached to the house but with no internal access, it might have been the original garage and it is now our junk room. Our plan would be to clear out the junk and store our stuff out there while we rent out the rest of the house. That is a huge job - there are a lot of boxes and old furniture out there. And a treadmill that weighs 112 kg. I'm hoping the Salvation Army will want a lot of it. I looked into self-storage nearby but was shocked to find it's $333 per month for a garage-sized room, so it's handy that we have this space separate from the house. Or we could possibly rent our house fully furnished - but do we want other people using our lovely dining table? Or our beds? That is just weird. I'll get real estate agents' advice on what to offer to leave, if anything.
If this seems a bit pre-emptive, well we need all this stuff done whether we go to Norfolk Island or not. Whether we stay or rent or sell, it would be good to have a bathroom door that closes! I've just let all this stuff go for too long because a lot of it seems like things we could do ourselves, but we never do.
My aunty Patricia, who we saw on the weekend, has been to Norfolk Island (in 1988) and said it was lovely, and my friend Caroline has a friend who lived there a long time ago and who said it was nice. It's not much, but it's all positive.
Aside from all those phone calls and research, I did the grocery shopping in the morning and had tea with Caroline in the afternoon. My shoulder is so much better today after last night in my own bed, and also not being stuck in a car all day. Doing my physio like a good girl.
This will be a one year contract? For one year this sound exciting! I was looking in Wikipedia and at the last census, it had a population of 2302 for the whole island... you'll be able to learn everyone names LOL and with you four, huge spike in the population :)
ReplyDeleteYour dollar is almost at par with our Canadian dollar and $ 333 for storage depending on the size, seems excessive. Over here it's half that and they have to heat the storage in winter. Just send everything else here, we'll store it for you LOL
Renting is NO fun... I done it, I hate it, it come down to check the references and even then it's not a guaranty. Renting was probably the biggest load of stress in our life :(
Good luck Natalie,
Yes it's a one year contract. Not sure why only one year but in a way that makes it easier to go - only a year not such a big commitment. And yes I would expect to know everyone's name! Maybe every cow too. And to walk every bit of the 80 km of road/track over the island.
DeleteI'm not keen on renting out our house either, but it seems a waste to leave it empty. I am glad we have the room for storage otherwise there would go most of our rent money!