So, we've been thinking about housing once we get to New Zealand. To buy or to build? There are some really nice energy-efficient house designs on the EEH site - not only are they gorgeous houses in themselves, but they are meant to be much easier and cheaper to keep warm in winter. I know Christchurch should be sunnier than Ireland in summer, but it does get cold in winter, and most New Zealand houses are very poorly insulated. Not to mention that they don't seem to believe in central heating...
If we could get a house built, it would be to our specs and it would be well insulated. That sounds fantastic to me. The only real drawback is the price of land. If we're looking at NZ$300k just for a patch of land in a nice area, there won't be any money to build the actual house.
Of course, there is cheaper land. Ordinary housing-estate land in ordinary areas. Are we being greedy by hoping for more? I honestly don't know. I know there should be a good big deposit once my house is sold and Skry's house is sold; I just don't know how far it will stretch when we get there.
Oh well, no point in worrying too much about it now. We still haven't even got the stuff together for our ITAs! I'm going to have to give Skry a nudge in that direction this weekend, because he has a lot more documentation to pull together than I do. I'll have to keep him in order, as well as myself!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A Blase Family Reaction
I was on the phone to my mum last night, and brought up the subject of me moving away from Belfast. I was expecting some kind of reaction, but all I got was, "Oh, we'll miss having somewhere to stay when we're up north"!
It would be pretty cool if that was how my whole family reacted. I know they'd miss me, and I'd miss them too of course, but it would be good to not have guilt to add to every other emotion that I'll be feeling when I leave Ireland.
Of course, there's also the chance that my mum is thinking, "I'll believe it when I see it". Emigrating to the far side of the world is probably something that a lot of people talk about but never do. I didn't tell her that I'd already started the process to obtain a visa, or that Skry will be coming too, as this is something that I'm trying to keep quiet both with family and with work. It will take months more to even get the documentation together, never mind get the actual visa in our passports, so that bit of news will keep.
It was quite funny tonight, though. My sister texted me to say that she'd heard I might be moving to NZ, and could she come and visit? She said we might see more of each other if I'm on the far side of the world, which is probably true!
It would be pretty cool if that was how my whole family reacted. I know they'd miss me, and I'd miss them too of course, but it would be good to not have guilt to add to every other emotion that I'll be feeling when I leave Ireland.
Of course, there's also the chance that my mum is thinking, "I'll believe it when I see it". Emigrating to the far side of the world is probably something that a lot of people talk about but never do. I didn't tell her that I'd already started the process to obtain a visa, or that Skry will be coming too, as this is something that I'm trying to keep quiet both with family and with work. It will take months more to even get the documentation together, never mind get the actual visa in our passports, so that bit of news will keep.
It was quite funny tonight, though. My sister texted me to say that she'd heard I might be moving to NZ, and could she come and visit? She said we might see more of each other if I'm on the far side of the world, which is probably true!
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