A tale of two cities

As the reserve bank sat poised to restrict mortgage lending, we swooped in and bought our first home.

The timing, just days before the minimum deposit increased to 20 per cent, was incredible.

It came after months of being outbid at auctions and cashed out of negotiations.

It was an Auckland miracle.

We made the call to keep our home as a rental when we packed up for Taranaki five years later, even if it risked us not being able to buy when we got here.

It’s easy to get sentimental about something you work hard for.

While friends rolled up their sleeves and paint rollers to make their first house a home, hubby and I were making compromises of a different kind. ‘Borrowing, b&b’s and boarders’.

We borrowed. No, it wasn’t all mummy and daddy’s cash, we saved hard ourselves but were also given the benefit of family equity.

Without which, I doubt we would have got a foot in the door.

We advertised for boarders as soon as the house went unconditional.

No, it wasn’t all drinks on the deck and board games around the fire.

Okay there were some of those, but they came hand-in-hand with the need for nagging text messages about cleaning, and awkward conversations about personal space.

Alongside the boarders, we hosted nightly guests through online accommodation website Airbnb.

Yes, there were plenty of sheet changes and room cleans and late-night knocks on the door. But the beautiful Italian and French meals cooked for us and interesting conversation made up for it. During five years, we spent just one week alone. Most of the time I was the sole female in a house of five bedrooms. I hadn’t smelt so much Lynx since high school.

As our brood was added to and our ability to leave the house at night subtracted from, the benefits of having in-home friends were relished. There was often someone to have a w(h)ine with, and always spare milk in the fridge.

When we discussed moving back to our hometown of New Plymouth after our two boys were born, the idea of keeping the house had become an emotional one, more so than financial.

It was the first home of our two sons, the birthplace of our youngest.

It was the location of countless birthday parties, coffee groups, after-work beers and girls’ nights. We wouldn’t sell it. Not yet.

As the packers came to wrap up the contents of our lives in newsprint, I felt relieved to be keeping some sort of foothold in the Auckland chapter of our lives.

The only one I have known as an adult. Until now.

Trying to buy a second home when you’re paying off an Auckland-sized mortgage on just one income is no mean feat. Again, there have been compromises.

Like many Aucklanders, we frothed over an idyllic ‘retreat to the regions’ encompassing a newbuild on a lifestyle block with ponies in the backyard, plus a vineyard and mountain view. That might have to wait.

But we think we have found a pretty good compromise.

Our new 1950s home needs a new roof and fencing but it feels new inside.

After a day of clearing bush we discovered the beginnings of a grapevine.

On a clear day you can spot the mountain through our kitchen window.

To top it off, we have sweeping views of paddocks and ponies, who cares that they’re not ours.

We host weekly dinners with the extended family, who always bring along home baking and wine. And the guest room is used by friends, not boarders.

To look at the numbers of what we owe the bank, it’s a little scary.

But if we keep working hard, our decision to have a home in two cities will not have just been an emotional one.

It will be a financial one.

Most of the time I was the sole female in a house of five bedrooms. I hadn’t smelt so much Lynx since high school.