Moving to the country

[Shadowjack]

I shifted to a small community 45 minutes out of town about 18 months ago. Had researched the option for several years (geologic events here made it about 4 years longer than originally intended, but that's another story).
Commuting doesn't take any longer (and is sometimes shorter) than my city-based colleagues. And, apart from snow/ice days, the bike is used for this.
I live on 800 sq mtrs; modern(ish) small cottage; section had been let go a bit, and is a project. Rates are cheaper than in town.
No street lights; river and bush down the back; seven neighbouring properties (three permanent), rest of it is rural outlook, as they say.
Power supply is affected by wind storms, and snow events. A small generator and a wetback takes care of that.

The nearest supermarket is 20 kms away, but a little forward planning means very few separate trips are needed.
Petrol and other small goods cost more at the local store, but then again, it's there, not 20 kms away.

The local garage does motorcycle WOF's. Even in town, you had to go looking for a suitable WOFman.
The local Business Information Exchange is about 5 kms away, and calling in on a Friday after work can solve most construction project issues.
My children are adult now, the move wouldn't have been a goer 10 years ago.
I haven't regretted a second of it (except, well, shovelling snow becomes not-fun after the first shovel-load).

[F5 Dave]

Golly its a struggle to agree with scbob but sounds like a well reasoned answer.

OK here's another alternative. I'll use the same bloke as I used before as an example. Let's just call him John.

Anyway when Jeff (see what i did there?) was single he bought a warehouse in an industrial area. He was lucky it was in a 8-5 /5 days a week, lots of storage type area. He had to do some conversion for a decent bedroom and the boy racers were a pain when they were swarming. But it was a real lads pad, had heaps of space for work and motorbikes, no garden maintenance, and for the most time he was home, no neighbours.

Had his RD350 in his lounge near the wood burner. You can buy building recycled kitchen or whatever and reassemble it in a corner, there's always a corner.

He regrets ever following a woman out of there and now can't afford to go back.


Movin to the industrial area, gonna eat a lot of pizzas.

[sidecar bob]

My next purchase will be a double glazed tilt slab stand alone lock & leave industrial building with small living quarters & large workshop.
Fortunately my wife is as big a petrol head as me & half the toys in the garage are hers & she's right into the idea.
We will keep the houses as rentals so we have some choices later if we want them.

[Ocean1]

The country is also full of reclusive weirdos that don't relate well to other people

Cheeky cunt.

Besides, like I said, I'm not there any more.

[Ocean1]

My next purchase will be a double glazed tilt slab stand alone lock & leave industrial building with small living quarters & large workshop.
Fortunately my wife is as big a petrol head as me & half the toys in the garage are hers & she's right into the idea.
We will keep the houses as rentals so we have some choices later if we want them.

A mate has probably the best of both worlds. Bought an ex MOD warehouse, rural enough to have the neighbours at a safe distance but civilised enough that the local roads make reasonable test facilities.

Building must be an acre, one corner machine shop, another kitchen, another for toy storage.... you can still play cricket in the middle when it's pissing down.

[jasonu]

30 years ago you could have moved to a small town that seamed like many hours drive north of Auckland and bought yourself a decent plot for buggar all. Albany...

[jasonu]

The only important point which has not been covered is kids schooling. Live in the country with kids and you're a full time taxi service.
Even if the bus stops at the gate, anything after hours or weekends will require YOU to do transport duty.

But, hey, that's what correspondence schools and boarding schools were invented for.....

I grew up in Bulls. Most of the farm kids went to boarding school.

[Grumph]

My next purchase will be a double glazed tilt slab stand alone lock & leave industrial building with small living quarters & large workshop.
Fortunately my wife is as big a petrol head as me & half the toys in the garage are hers & she's right into the idea.
We will keep the houses as rentals so we have some choices later if we want them.

Old ex racer mate has just that in chCh. when he dies it's going to be like Auction Hunters as it's chocca with so much bike and car stuff he can barely move.
He'll probably die from an untreated infection caught bumping into something while trying to move around in there...

Shadowjack - 18 months in Whitecliffs isn't enough to find out just how bad Selwyn Council is....you'll learn.

Which raises rural councils as an issue - down here they're crap. Poor representation. Unless you belong to fed farmers, you can't get heard if you have a problem. rates are going up constantly to pay for gin palace offices....

[tri boy]

5Yrs in our latest rural home.
Pluses.
We own it.
Closest neighbour is a farm workers house about 700mtrs away.
Quiet place about 80% of the time. (cropping/calveingetc happens but is over in a few weeks)
The commute to work is an easy and enjoyful 35km. (about the maxium I was willing to do)
The neighbours are very approachable, but we all live our own lives. (just need to know each other for emergencies etc)
Life slows down
Many more pluses also

Minus's
Property maintenance ties up a fair bit of free time. (But the place is yours, and it;s more of an attitude change needed)
Thats about it.

[jasonu]

Looks like you don't have to worry about your rural cat disappearing...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11569008

[pritch]

Paedophile. Not pedofile, peedopfyle or any other corruption.

/Pedant

That's brave of you, not many people would stick up for the pedos. As I have mentioned previously though, you do have to give them credit for slowing down when driving past a school zone.

[Voltaire]

30 years ago you could have moved to a small town that seamed like many hours drive north of Auckland and bought yourself a decent plot for buggar all. Albany...

You can still live cheaply in Albany, large lifestyle block just West of the town, fully fenced, long leases available

[pritch]

Which raises rural councils as an issue - down here they're crap. Poor representation. Unless you belong to fed farmers, you can't get heard if you have a problem. rates are going up constantly to pay for gin palace offices....

Got like that here too but the last election saw off most of the main offenders. Still, the Council staff will undoubtedly be working hard to knobble the new guys.

We went through the gin palace thing earlier. The mayor at the time had developed a certain reputation. When asked what the mayor's job was worth the answer was "A hundred grand and as much Steinlager as you can drink".

Afterthought. When I referred to the gin palace thing in the past tense I had forgotten this our new art gallery. It was not supposed to be funded from public money but there was widespread suspicion that there had been ummm creative(?) accounting. This became the flagship issue for those wanting a cleanout of the spendthrift councillors.

[F5 Dave]

You can still live cheap any, large lifestyle block just West of the town, fully fenced, long leases available

Is that one of those Cult/communes where someone else chooses your sexual partner?

What was that song by Tool?. . . ,

[Grumph]

Got like that here too but the last election saw off most of the main offenders. Still, the Council staff will undoubtedly be working hard to knobble the new guys.

We went through the gin palace thing earlier. The mayor at the time had developed a certain reputation. When asked what the mayor's job was worth the answer was "A hundred grand and as much Steinlager as you can drink".

Afterthought. When I referred to the gin palace thing in the past tense I had forgotten this our new art gallery. It was not supposed to be funded from public money but there was widespread suspicion that there had been ummm creative(?) accounting. This became the flagship issue for those wanting a cleanout of the spendthrift councillors.

The Rolleston pool is our big white elephant currently. Too close to ChCh but funded from a targeted rate across a district going as far as Arthurs Pass...
Some creative accounting going on here too. Word from the inside is that it's running at a big loss but all the PR is saying the opposite.
I just hope the facts come out before the next elections. At least our invisible mayor is standing down....finally.