"Have you found somewhere to park your Tiny House?"
Well, we have some potential sites, but as of yet, not the perfect one. So, are we being too fussy? What do we want? Back to the lists.
1. Somewhere less than half an hour away from work.
2. Back from the road a little.
3. Preferably within 100 meters of a plug point for our caravan lead.
4. A pleasant outlook.
5. Dog friendly
6. Room to park 2 cars.
7. Place for a small tool/garden shed
8. Possibly a vege garden.
That's about it - shouldn't be too hard. Many have most of those but none have all. So we will look a little longer.
"Let's do a letter drop!"

Lara, the eternal optimist, makes up piles of fliers and off we head into the rural world. She and Andrew are still looking for land to buy - Lara's theory ... If it's not advertised let's just ask!
Letter drops in urban areas are easy. Nice, brisk walk down even pathways with letterboxes in neat rows all close together.
Letter drops on rural roads are a whole different ball game -exhausting.
Now we wait to see if anyone responds.
In the meantime, the trailer for our Tiny Home has arrived.

After much deliberation, we are going with the design that has the pod.
Both the main house and the pod will be built on their own trailers. In this way, the whole setup is easy to move when Lara and Andrew find their lifestyle block. In the meantime, we will start to look for somewhere to rent.
Who says a home has to be stuck on one piece of ground?
Who knows? We could move a few times but hopefully, this will be our forever home.
Perhaps one day our home will be near the sea, but for now, it will be near our girls and our grandchildren. I think gypsies have the right idea, don’t own land, just own a home and go where life takes you.
Downsizing to go Tiny - You have to be ruthless.
I knew it wasn't going to be easy but seriously, how do you get rid of your 38, 36 and 33-year-olds school reports? All of them ... from Grade 1! They came with me from Zimbabwe in the bottom of my suitcase.
Note to self ....... Be ruthless!
Put them in a box. Tell the girls they can have them - Now it's their decision ... Keep or bin?
6 massive photo albums inherited from Mum - Take out a few meaningful photos and bin the rest with the album.
Boxes of family videos - convert to CDs and save to usbs. Get the techokids to do it for you. Thank you Lara. Amazing! and so easy to watch. We watched our wedding ... 40 years ago. Seems like the other day.

Put all large furniture items on Trademe. Anything that doesn't sell, donate to charity. Seems like Trademe has too much choice. Habitat for Humanity got really lucky with our house. They come and collect which makes it much easier. It actually felt good to know that all our "stuff" was going to a good cause.
Only keep what you really need...
BOOM!! - A few boxes and a bedroom suite! That's all our stuff. (And plants of course!)

We will buy size-appropriate stuff when the " move in" time comes.
Moving out and moving on.

I am so impressed with Noel. The Garage and the workshop are spotless. That was a serious downsize! Honestly ... you could hardly walk in the shed. Thank you Noel! Great job. Note - A skip is very handy when moving out.
The house is empty and oh so clean - Some advice, get the cleaners in for an exit clean. By this stage, I'm feeling pretty exhausted. I think cleaning the whole house would kill me!

The garden's looking beautiful as always.

The house is totally empty
You look a bit lonely little house :( .
No worries Tomorrow night there will be new people to fill you up. I'm sure you'll make them happy!
It's been hard work but lots of fun. Well done Boddos! Look what we made.

It's been worth every minute ... from the beginning to the end - The result was awesome.
Little house, you've done us proud!

And given us the best of memories

So now it's time to say goodbye.

OMG!! So dramatic!
I even made me cry!
But look what else we get to say goodbye to!
Bills, bills, bills!

Goodbye to bills!
No more rates.
No more mortgage.
And guess what.
No more life insurance - Now wasn't THAT a waste of money! 20 years of life insurance and we didn't die!
Might still be a little light and water to pay but not much.
Yeah, I'm feeling much happier now.
Thank you for letting me have a bit of a "cry on your shoulder moment", but if you are selling up to go tiny, at least you know what to expect.
Things to remember .....
Cancel house and contents insurance.
Take electrical reading when you leave.
Redirect mail.
Cancel of change Life insurance policy ... I will just keep the funeral insurance going.
Moving on .....
I can't think of a better way to take a breath and regroup than move in with Ash and Ads until our tiny house is built.
Thank you, the Griffiths family for adopting Granny and Grandad. We are loving the early morning cuddles Sophie Jean ( But might try and stretch them from 6.00 a.m. to 6.30 a.m ), the marshmallow evenings, and the awesome company!
We have our own Tiny house within their totally not tiny house! Not the best way to practise for Tiny House Living but a great way to build up energy again.

Next week our Tiny House Build begins!
A whole new chapter (or do we call it a whole new blog?)
Hi Sheila, I saw Sheyes video of your new home in progress. I’m loving this version of Sophie! Can’t wait to see the final reveal. Coleen
Thank you for this downsizing and leaving installment - and for sharing your journey with us all. I love it!!!!