Very quiet blog for some time.

After a very unsettling couple of years - 2011-2012 - coming to terms with some hard facts like a) I was living in the wrong place and b) I made it worse by continuing to work, i.e. commuting daily to Wellington city by train (preferred) or car, which meant that I didn't ever get involved with community apart from the shopkeepers just down the road, especially the bakery.
It then became clear that I didn't have enough work to sustain the commute, and that I had no life in Raumati Beach. So I decided to move back to Wellington and put the little house and it's amazing shed on the market.

It didn't go well, lots of argy bargy with the KCDC who declared the shed a two storied building and wanted money to make it 'legal'! My buyer offered me a figure $20,000 less. I told him definitely no having gone right off him by then. Finally a buyer came along who just loved the house and shed and bought it regardless, but I lost money. Now I'd sold but had no where to go. My nephew came to the rescue with a flat he has for mates and other dog boxed friends which I used for six weeks.
I found two flats in a 1960s block in Hataitai, one above the other. I liked both. The first one, on the ground floor, was on the market a long time, but I'd not sold and wasn't confident to put an offer in and before I had money it sold. The second offered at the same price came up and I had money and put an offer on it. Very happy until a day or two later the owners withdrew the flat from the market. Very unhappy. Old notebooks reveal that during two months I looked at over 100 properties in and around Wellington. Anything I liked required a $30-60,000 mortgage. It was too big a risk to take.

Leigh and Catherine colluding cooked up a scheme for me to come to Wanganui for a literary weekend, and also to look around at houses for sale here. This was the first house I looked at, and although I looked at others nothing compared.
The first two months were very exciting changing things and making it mine - builders, plumbers, electricians and the painter changed the kitchen, bathroom, the big bedroom and did quite a lot of maintenance. I realise I may never finish the plan in my head but I am very happy in it and Wanganui, although I could do with getting to Wellington a little more often.

I still have a little design work, a couple of journals - one annual, the other now bi-annual, a photo album and the PHA (Vic) newsletter every two months which keeps me very up-to-date with skills.