The Tree Swing

The bare patch demonstrates how much the swing is coveted.

Here we are on the second to last night in the house that has kept us safe and warm (well actually usually too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter…darn old houses) for the last 8 years.  This is the only home our girls have known, Ella moved here when she was 5 months old.  We have put a lot of sweat and money into this house and we have adored raising our family in this home.  I am going to miss it so much! 

When I think of one thing I am going to miss the most, oddly enough it is not even inside the house, it is the tree swing in the backyard.  That swing has provided our girls with countless hours of thrills.  That old cherry tree, which blooms after all the other cherry trees in the city have started to drop their blossoms and starts dropping its leaves far earlier than it should, has proven the test of time with keeping that swing tied securely to its branches. 

We have found a million ways to twist and twirl, under duck and test the limits on just how high we can push the girls, always to screams of delight.  Well nearly always…there was one time when I was swinging Ella by her ankles pretending she was an axe chopping the tree and lets just say I accidentally demonstrated she is not an effective axe, but she does bounce fairly well off the trunk.  I am fairly sure Ella will never let me forget that one.  But generally it has been laughter that swing has brought to our family. 

The swing also functions as a highly effective delay tactic.  Nearly every morning, when I am rushing the girls out the door to school, at least one, if not both, of them would jump on the swing on their stomach and do everything they can to delay getting themselves to the car.  Which of course usually results in my impatiently, and not always so quietly, prompting to get their butt moving in the direction I want them to head.  That swing has played a nearly daily role in our family for eight years.

I can’t believe I am being sentimental about a tree swing, but what can I say, I am the one who cries like a baby to sentimental commercials.  I suppose it is not really just about the swing, but how our home has been a wonderful space for us to create eight years of amazing memories.  I can’t believe how hard it is hitting me that we are saying good-bye to our home this week.  Here is looking forward to what the next chapter holds and we will always have the memories this house has played in the story of our family.

~Janet

Ella at 18 months when we were completely gutting the backyard. 

Ella at 4 ½ years old, always fearless.

Iris giving the swing a shot at 12 months.

Goodbyes suck...

There's one thing that I read consistently in other blogs - I didn't really give it lots of weight until recently.

Making the decision to adopt a semi-nomadic lifestyle has some downsides - principle among them are the need to say goodbye.  Some goodbyes are easier than others - we've had relatively few issues letting go of our stuff, and our house.  We won't miss yardwork or the Vancouver rain.

Other goodbyes are harder...like goodbyes with good friends and family.

In many ways, friends and families are like a good pair of shoes.  Some days you take them for granted but regardless you expect them to be there helping you out when you really need them.  You don't even realize how much you value them until they're not there.

We've been spending more time in the last few months with family and friends than we have in the past - noticeably more.  And it hasn't even been that painful.  Except when we realize that in many cases the goodbyes are different, and difficult and they suck.  They suck even though we're coming back, and we live in an era when communication globally is not just possible it's simple and nearly free.

People keep telling us how adventurous and brave we are, making the decision that we have but I think about those adventurous people who settled new lands throughout history, whether they were striking out thousands of years ago from Africa, travelling across the oceans from Scandinavia, trekking across land bridges from Eurasia, sailing across the oceans to settle the South Pacific atols, or more recently paying for passage to the new lands in North America.  They left everything behind, without the ability to ever see their families again.  They were the adventurous ones and I can't say I would be brave enough to make the choices they did.

Adventurous or not, goodbyes suck.  But we will be back, we welcome visitors and we will see everyone again.

Selling our house...

The realty photographer did a great job...

Yesterday I wrote about how to reset your life.  One of the points I touched on was managing your assets.  This is the story of how we chose to mange our major asset, our house.  It's the story of where the decision has left us and how we hope it will work out.  One thing we're learning as we move forward with this is that you can never have plans that are rock solid, but regardless of that, things seem to have a way of working out.

Now, in order to make this dream a reality, there was one huge condition.  We had to sell our house.

Since 2000 Janet and I have lived in North Vancouver.  At first we rented, then in 2002 we purchased a 980 square foot pre-sale condo on the North Vancouver waterfront for what seemed to be an outrageous sum of money.  We sold that, trading up (in size and debt-load) in 2007 and settled into the suburban life, trading time for money and money for home.

The thing is, the Vancouver real estate market is a strange beast, rising faster than a farmer at the rooster's call.  In spite of dismal financial markets, employment figures that caused some doubt and cautious economic outlooks for BC the value of our home far outstripped what we paid for it.

So - in order to make this all real we took the huge step of listing our house for sale.  That was January.  We had been watching the market for more than a year and hoped that it would be a time of high demand, coming off of the rainy winter in Vancouver.  With that in mind we anticipated that it might take a month or so to get reasonable offers and interest.  We had no inkling of how wrong we were or the flurry of activity that was about to come.

The day before the listing went live was a Thursday and we were a bit surprised when our realtor asked when we would be looking at offers.  Uncertainty descended and in a moment of blind intuition we said we'd consider offers the following Monday.  The moment that decision was made we began second guessing ourselves.  What if we didn't have any offers?  What if buyers were put off by an offer deadline?  What if it made us look greedy?

We should not have worried.

We listed on a Friday, by that afternoon we had 8 showings lined up for Saturday and more for Sunday.  By the time the weekend was over we had more than 40 individuals walk through the house.
Monday night came and had 4 offers presented to us.  Each one was above asking.  We were blown away.  Never in our wildest imaginings had we expected that it would take just 72 hours to sell our house.  The accepted offer?  $998,000.

We had just won the lottery - the Vancouver real estate lottery to be specific.

Now we are due to leave our house on May 27.  It is the only home our girls know and has sheltered us, providing warmth and security for the last 8 years.  We're sad to leave it but also so happy that the final thing we'll take from this home is financial freedom.

With the money from the sale we're able to pay for our boat - our next home.  What's more, the sale is the source of most of the funds that will enable us to live this dream.  Invested and spent wisely, they should be enough to fund this lifestyle for as long as we choose.  (See my post on cost of cruising for details on what the lifestyle costs).

There's no doubt in my mind that we were extremely fortunate in the decisions we made and the timing we had, and I like to think we will keep that in mind and make the most of our good fortune as we embark on new adventures.

How to hit "reset" on your life

This is what we put in storage (minus the wicker)...everything else we own
 is either going with us, or going to a new home.

I guess I knew that taking on full time cruising was going to be challenging, I just didn't realize how challenging until I was in the middle of it.  I mean - how do you pause your life, mid-stream and then hit reset without hard work?  The answer: you don't.

Okay, so you wake up one morning and decide that you're done with your corporate life and are going to chuck it all to go cruising.  Sounds good - what's first?

How about the boat - you do have a boat don't you?  No...ok this just got a bit harder.  How about a job that you can work at remotely?  That's taken care of right?  Oh - you were hoping to not work.  Hmmm...good thing I like a challenge.  Ok, but the good news is you're not tied down by debt or family committments.  Wait a second - you have a house and mortgage and 2 kids under 9...

My thoughts on how to hit reset on your life (keeping in mind we don't even move aboard until July):

Step 1: Believe you can.  
Don't let anyone tell you that you need to start small, buy a day-sailer or dinghy and sail locally for a few years before you move up to a bigger boat.  Don't let anyone tell you that you can't afford it or that you have to have a job that's location independent and don't let anyone tell you that you should wait til your kids are older, or your parents don't need you or...  Not to be selfish, but this choice needs to be about you, about living your life the way you want to and accepting the risks, sacrifices and potentially catastrophic outcomes that it may bring.

Step 2:  Prepare.
You can do this even if you have no experience, but you can't go into it pretending it's not hard.  Earning the skills necessary to survive the worst that the ocean can dish out is a long term game.  The price of admission to the game is knowledge.  Learn everything you can before you leave, learn from classes through a local yacht club, association or power squadron, learn from fellow sailors and non-sailors alike.  Learn first aid, learn how to deal with diesel engines, learn how to play with electricity, learn about radios and getting along with others in small spaces.  Learn about knots and boat bits.  Every piece of knowledge you gain is a credit against that day when something unexpected and potentially life threatening may happen.

In Vanouver we were lucky to have access to a fantastic group of cruisers in the Blue Water Cruising Association www.bluewatercruising.org.  This group is world-class in terms of support, education and fellowship.  If you live in Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, or Calgary I suggest looking them up.  Membership is worth every penny.

Step 3:  Go on a diet.
No, not from calories, from stuff.  Boats are small.  Houses are big.  Western culture values consumption and collection of stuff.  Unless your positively Ghandi-esque in your habits there's a reasonable chance that you own too much stuff for your boat.

We began our diet by stopping new purchases fairly early in the process.  We got tired of asking each other whether that new item could be used on the boat, but it worked.  We didn't buy much that we aren't going to take with us.  Keep in mind that we may still overpack - I'll update you later on whether we actually need all the stuff we're taking onboard.

From not purchasing we graduated to downsizing our possessions.  We have 2 girls under 9 - they had lots to off-load.  Again we took it in steps starting with garage sales, regular thrift store runs to donate usable goods and by filling our trash can each garbage day with those items that we didn't need and were either broker or unsaleable.

Starting about 6 months before leaving we ramped things up a bit.  We began posting our belongings on Craigslist (the big ticket items).  Now, with 8 weeks before we move aboard we're in a mostly empty house, eating dinner at a borrowed card table and sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

At the end of the day what we've got left is what's coming to the boat and what's in storage at my mom's and fit in 3 boxes in the back of a truck along with some stuff that she's taking off our hands permanently.

Step 4: Manage your assets.
There seem to be two major camps when it comes to cruisers and houses.  There are those who see it as a long term investment in their ability to return to land based life and those who see it as a source of cruising funds to draw on.  The former group typically keep their home, rent it out or find some other way to ensure it pays for itself and plan to return someday to take up life in the house again.   The latter cash in their chips (and in Vancouver it wasn't much different than a lottery) collect their winnings, and quite happily march off into the sunset to spend it all "out there".  We fall into the latter group.  Making this decision means its unlikely we'll ever own a home in Vancouver again, but there are worse things in life.

Step 5: Make sure you've got a boat.
Kind of important, but not necessarily a pre-requisite.  You don't need to have one in advance, you don't even need to know much about them (see step 1) but you will need one eventually.  You'll hear lots of people voicing their opinion about which boat to buy, but what's important is that it is built for what you're planning to do with it and that you like it.  Your options in this area are vast but boil down to some key decisions.

• Mono-hull or multi-hull?
• New or used?
• Fibreglass or Metal or Wood (becoming rare)?
• Buy locally or buy overseas?

I can tell you from experience that getting a boat can be challenging, but it is not that bad...even if you buy it from a broker 1/2 way around the world.  I'll write a separate post about the process once the deals actually completely done.

I think for now it's enough to say that we found the boat we wanted (multihull, used, fibreglass) in Europe.  What this meant is we were dealing with an unknown boat, in an unknown area where we didn't have any resources (read surveyors) that we knew around.  And that's where google comes in. There is no doubt that the world is getting smaller and we're benefiting from how easy it is to get information about anything, anywhere with just a few key-strokes.

My last little bit of advice on hitting reset?  Understand that you'll never be 100% confident, nor can you be 100% prepared.  You can however, think of every possible aspect that you can and trust that you will have the ability to manage past those you missed.

Life is a journey, not a destination so enjoy the ride and don't worry too much about the pot-holes.