Phew, made it through the silly season in one piece. It’s been a bit of a crazy time what with house decisions to make, shop to close up and work space to move, along with getting through the Christmas orders and spending much needed time with family around the Eastern Cape. After that we sort of hibernated in our little house in the 35-degree-and-up heat for a while, gathered our thoughts and rested.
So now - onwards and upwards into 2016! Plans have changed a bit since last we spoke. The offer on our house sale fell through at the last hurdle and after 6 months and more than one unsuccessful offer we were starting to think the universe was trying to tell us something. We learned so much through the process and in the end I think we were lucky that the offers failed.
We started the house-selling journey in need of a change and early on we were made aware of the fact that no matter how perfect our house might be we are ‘not in the right area’. For a while I bought into the panic thinking, “Oh no! What will we do! The house is worth so little simply because it’s on the wrong side of the tracks. We need to get rid of it urgently or we will lose out.” Then time dragged on and I started to think, but what makes it ‘not the right area’ to live? We don’t have any significant crime in the area (touch wood), and I feel safe at all times in my house. Our neighbours are lovely people, even though the dogs can be a little more than I’d like from time to time or a car might be revved a little earlier in the morning than suits me on occasion - nothing out of the ordinary, right? The road is busy during the day but that’s the same as living closer to town. Houses are cared for and full of hard-working families.
It turns out it’s more about old South African city layout than anything of any real concern. We are happy living here and so we took our house off the market and instead of buying another house and then spending more money to make that house what we want, we will stay here in the house we know and love. The house we got married in. Yup, right out there in the back yard. We’ll do some alterations and fixes that will fix this little baby right up. We might not increase the monetary value of our home but we will increase the quality of life for ourselves and really, isn’t that what it is all about?
Of course, when I decided to close the shop and move home with my work space I thought I’d have my own space in an outbuilding in the ‘new house’. Hmm. As it turns out, for now I am squeezed into a spare room in the house until we get the renovations under way. It will be a challenge working in half a small house with builders and rubble underfoot for a while but it will so be worth it in the end. And if we needed any further incentive to live more lightly, paying for the alterations will definitely do the trick. Eek! But there you go, I do like a challenge. My job now that I am at home is to work on my website and increase online sales and also to save as much money as I make. It is so easy to overspend when you don’t have time to think about things. Often little things that add up. Buying too much bread because it’s Monday and you buy bread on Monday. Throwing away the moulded bread from last week.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a true believer in little things adding up. And if I can save on the little things it’s the same as making that money in the first place - right? I’ll let you know. Maybe along the way as I investigate methods and products I can do the legwork and you might benefit from the results. There are so many recipes, solutions and products on the internet - who has time to try them all out? And then translate them into South African practicality. Oh! Oh! Pick me!
So I’m not 100% sure where this blog is going really, but I hope you stay along for the ride as I share my journey, recipes and musings on living lightly with you. We might all need to learn to live more lightly even more than we thought as the drought sets in and the rand tumbles faster than a tumble week in the outback!
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