Mission Impossible?

Around here at the moment it's like we are living in a war zone.  There are large military operations happening everyone one looks.  Yes, this is the reality of suddenly deciding to sell your much loved house and property.  Said property has been converted into a small fenced in semi-rural-like garden and yard. My spare time in the past weeks has been spent finishing our school year off and landscaping in a major way.

There is a lot of garden around here (which we love), however, it all needs to be removed.  Let me highlight just what we are doing at the moment.  There has been much discussion on our next project, let me explain.

1.   The decision has been made to sell our house and move to the country. Simple Plan.
2.   Start looking at small holdings in country of approximately 10 to 20 acres.  Nice and simple.
3.   Organize potential Real Estate Agent to visit home, give some pointers and arrange next meeting. Nice.
4.   Completely changed surrounding gardens and lawn for a more aesthetic appeal. Much watering needed.
      Slight problem because earthquake has caused lack of city water.  Can only water 3 times a week with
      hand held hose.
5.   Gifted some ready-lawn by fellow church friends to tidy up front of house.  The area had always been a garden full of overgrown shrubs, which we recently removed. I have water blasted the fences ready for painting. Have since planted along the fence and put stones in the garden next to the house.  Will put some "after" photos on here to show you the difference a few plants and stones can make. Thank you Lord.

6.   Secretly using sprinkler on said front lawn at 11pm at night under cover of darkness as lawn needs
      watering intensively for 2 weeks. Shhhhhh.
7.   Leased lockup garage close by to remove excess objects and clutter from around home and yard. Done.
8.   Sadly, realise we are dreaming about buying an affordable property in our price range. Sob.
9.   Decide to look for bare land and build.  Therefore moving aside financially but not into huge debt. Dream.
10. Re-assess planned move, now may include selling, then renting, buying with cash, building farmhouse while living on
      site. Tricky.
11. Need all the money from house sale so decide to sell house ourselves. Easy.
12. Start designing ideal house for family of 4. FUN & TIME CONSUMING.

So that about brings us to where we are now.  Flat out tidying up and planning for Christmas.  My spare time has been spent pouring over floor plan designs, thanks to google images. Just imagine you had the opportunity to completely design your home from scratch to include all those features you admire in other homes.  It's a daunting task as we want some specific features and layout to suit our hobbies, family time & homeschooling space, office, large laundry combined with  wet and drying rooms, verandas, open plan, large fire, kitchen with large storage areas and larder.  As you can see, we are trying to think of everything and still stick to a strict budget.  A rectangular box of 10 by 20 metres or 200 square metres.  Not an easy task, but one in which we are both combining together our own ideas.

On that note, it's goodbye for now and time to start in the yard with my two teenage helpers.  We do however, always have 2 four-legged helpers willing to poke about with what we are working on or shifting.  Can get nasty around the spades and shovels though.  The children are very keen on anything that gets them closer to the country.  Have not struck any problems with them working with us on this move.  Kinda nice that we are all motivated on this one, would be awkward if somebody didn't want to shift.  Great thing with homeschooling and no high school to worry about.  No crying over missing malls, friends and the area we live in.  Most of our close friends live in the area we are shifting to, so we are all excited over that.

Blessings
Lee-Anne