Discovering Stephane and I were not cut out for renovating houses together, did not kill our two star retirement plan altogether: It simply helped us define and clarify what we each needed, and what we each could or could not tolerate. So ultimately, while that was a difficult process to go through, we are now back on track with new clarity. No more renovating houses - together! That means if I find a great house I just have to buy and renovate, Steph will gladly go hang out in Montreal with his family, and when it is all over, he will return. Having said that, I am in no mood to do this again anytime soon.
The house turned out fantastic, and the yard is amazing (if I do say so myself), and even though it was our first year, the vacation rental unit upstairs was solidly booked, bringing in about 25% more revenue than I had expected. Next summer should bring an additional increase of 25%, so I am very pleased. This was our yard in March
And this was our yard two months later
Living below the rental unit, in our newly built "owner's suite" was comfortable, and not as bad as I thought it might be. People are generally pretty quiet, and with the exception of two groups who were quite loud, our Safe and Sound insulation did a good job of buffering the noise.
Now that it is fall, we are back upstairs, and have a six month tenant in the basement. He is here on a temporary contract with the prison, and will be leaving about the time we return from our winter travel and are ready to move downstairs again for next summer. We also found a short term tenant to move into our upstairs unit for the four months we will be gone. That was always the plan: have short term rental income coming in up and down, and that effectively pays for our winter travel.
Last winter, Stephane had decided to go back to work, and so he spent a fair bit of time this spring looking for employment. Eventually, in August, he was offered work - doing the same kind of work as he had before retiring - but he decided to turn it down. After a lot of thought he chose to work instead in the spring, summer and fall for a friend - working on pools, leaving his winters free to travel. This of course delights me, and will mean far less stress for Stephane, which we think is a good idea.
This summer we sold our secondary property here in Oliver. My son and his wife had lived there since 2014 but decided to buy a house of their own in July. After a quick, very minor face-lift reno, we sold it in one day, without realtors, for almost full price! This left us with a tidy profit which we promptly used to pay off the line of credit we grew during the renovation on our house. So Stephane's summer job, combined with my vacation rental income, should be more than enough money to live on. Especially now that we are effectively debt free. We won't have the additional bonus money that house flipping would have provided, but at the end of the day, we do not live large (except for travel), and I believe we can keep our day to day expenses well within our budget.
Our travel budget, is our biggest expense, and I am always looking for creative ways to do what I want to do without breaking the bank. In 2016 I rented a 3 bedroom place for 3 months and rented out the other two rooms on Airbnb, then in 2017 we tried renting for 6 months at a time which generally reduces the cost of accommodation significantly, and this year, we are simply going somewhere where the Canadian dollar goes a long way: Africa.
I have always wanted to return to Africa. In 2007 I spent several months there with my oldest son - visiting Morocco, and volunteering throughout Ghana and Kenya. That was an amazing trip - part of a four month journey around the world with my eldest. I blogged the whole trip and it is a good read - so be sure to check it out at http://corrieandjoelstrip.blogspot.com/2007/09/ After doing a camping safari in Kenya I knew I would safari again - only the next time I would do it in luxury and with Stephane.
So in January, after a couple weeks of visiting Cape Town and its surrounding wine region, we will head to a private game reserve called Timbavati, and will stay at a luxury camp called Simbavati River Lodge...check it out...this is the room we booked. It opens onto the Sabi River where wildlife come to drink. This reserve is the only one in Africa with white lions...and this year there are two sets of babies!
Since we can only afford to stay there three nights (it is over a $1000/night) we will afterwards be staying in a lovely 2 bedroom unit at the Sabi Sun resort - which I got through my travel club for only $400 for the whole week! This resort is near Hazyview, South Africa right beside Kruger National Park so we will spend an entire week doing self drive safaris! After that we will head to the Dolphin Coast for some beach time, then onwards to spend a few weeks driving the famous Garden Route. We have decided to leave the month of March unplanned to give us some flexibility.
We are considering going to Zimbabwe (I have always wanted to see Victoria Falls), Botswana (I really want to do a boat safari in the Okanvango Delta), and Stephane wants to go to weird places with weird names like Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Bujumbura, Burundi, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Flic en flac, Mauritius.
I will, as usual, post blog entries on Facebook and Twitter, and hope you will come along for the adventure! We start our travels on Dec 6 - heading to our favorite place in Conchas Chinas (Puerto Vallarta) for three weeks before heading overseas, and as always, I love your feedback and comments.
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