This much anticipated week finally happened- moving out of the family home of 22 years and transitioning into the big unknown of early retirement. In this weeks blog find out how our big move went, learn what we found from our first few days of dog sitting in a van and a lovely and unexpected surprise from our friends at VW Bus Magazine.
VW mag surprise
It was with much surprise that we had the latest copy of VW Bus magazine delivered to the house this week as we were not expecting to be featured this month after our 3 part travel series had come to an end in last months edition. However, they chose to publish an article we had submitted a while ago on our adventures based around the Yorkshire Dales last summer. It came across really well, and we are so proud of how it shows one of our favourite places. The feature has run to six pages, which is really pleasing, meaning that our photography work gets some good exposure. We just hope that our write ups of our adventures inspire others to do the same, just get out and on the road to see what is out there to discover.
Moving day
I am sat here in our quiet lounge, on the floor as we have no seats in the house, at 0545 contemplating the day ahead. We have waited so long for this day to come and it is finally here. In reality, it has been a really quick process- from putting the house on the marker to completion day today has been around 13 weeks. We still have so much to do, and a bit of the day fills me with dread. All of the heavy moving was done over the weekend as we moved into the storage space, however the clutter just seems to keep on generating as fast as we clear it- it is like the magic porridge pot! The final bits are really hard to collect together and sort out a place to go. They have to go somewhere as we are living in the van from tonight onwards for the foreseeable future.
Some of the highlights for today include: getting Nelson the van to the garage for some work highlighted from the service yesterday, moving the garden furniture to our neighbours, moving our bikes safely to Jackie’s mums house along with any last remnants of clutter, packing the van so that we have our self-sufficient home on wheels, moving the cats temporarily to Jackie’s mums house, picking up the dog for dog sitting duties, informing a whole raft of companies about our move…the list just goes on and on.
One thing is for sure- the day will come and go and tomorrow we will be another step closer in our plans for early retirement. We will survive the day, because what we are facing is not real hardship, but exciting challenges that move us closer to our ultimate goal of where we want to be. So with a sharp intake of breath, here we go…
So the day went as well as could be expected. The whole money transfer process seems horribly antiquated, with solicitors seemingly loving taking on the principle role in the whole Dickensian drama. We almost laughed when asking for an update we were told nothing would happen for an hour or two as it was lunchtime. I pictured victorian bank clerks putting down their quills and stopping counting the pound notes for a well earned lunchtime break. As we are fully immersed in a technological world, it seems like house sale completion day remains firmly in the past! At about 1530 we were notified that the sale had completed. We were now officially houseless…but never homeless with Nelson the van.
Van dog adventures
In order to facilitate the temporary homing of our cats, we have found ourselves dog sitting Jackie’s sisters dog for a couple of weeks…whilst living full-time in the van. All we know is that looking after Cali, a super-soft mature cockapoo, has to be easier than living with 2 van cats for a fortnight. As it turns out, Cali has taken to van life like an absolute dream, fully enjoying her days in the great outdoors. It is fair to say that Cali is not a massive fan of walking, so it looks like we may be confined to being close to the van for the next couple of weeks. With a few nights close to home to make sure Cali and the cats cope ok with their new living arrangements, we plan to head off to more distant parts with our new van dog to see what we can find.
YouTube update
Well we had our first cringeworthy effort in front of the camera this week- and what a humbling experience it was. It is fair to say that we could both put it down and leave it right here before we have even started. Just thinking about it now makes me sweat! But life is about experiences and putting ourselves out there.
There is a famous quote about living life on the edge as it is the space that is least populated. We always knew that we were going to find this difficult- and that was the whole aim- to put us in the beginner mindset and see where the adventure goes.
What we didn’t fully appreciate is how difficult it is to edit videos together in a coherent way- it’s going to be a steep learning curve- but hopefully people will appreciate our clunky and honest presentation style. At least our editing skills have plenty of scope to improve. The creative work we need to put in is going to be a definate blackhole, sucking in time and being all consuming. Well we needed something to do in our retirement…
The first few days of being houseless (not homeless!).
Once we had sorted the conundrum of the cats, and traded them for Cali the crazy dog, we had a few days this week to become accustomed to being houseless and what it will mean over the course of the next few weeks. We were pretty conservative in our choices- a couple of nights close to home for the animals, a pretty safe wild camp to see how Cali coped, and then a couple of days at the coast to cool down in the heat wave.
All went pretty well, although we were both surprised with the unexpected feelings of loss with moving out of the family home. The prospect of being on the road was nothing new to us, however doing so in the knowledge that we had no firm base to call home was very strange and rather disconcerting. This feeling won’t last forever, but it is reassuring that we really do need to be able to call somewhere home. What is really lovely is that we are going to be calling home- the Yorkshire Dales.
So that’s it for another week…and what a week it has been. Another piece in the jigsaw, another part of the grand plan complete…our early retirement adventure continues.
Have a fantastic week in the sun,
Richard & Jackie.
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