This week it will be three months since we moved to our new home in Inverell, NSW, Australia.
We bought a lovely old 114-year-old home.
The most asked question we get is “Why Inverell?”
So, this is our story of how we found our new home and why we moved to Inverell.
It is a story of trusting and following our intuition.
That may sound strange, but it is exactly what we did.
Following Our Intuition
Let’s start with following your intuition. Or as some would call it, your gut feeling.
We all have it, but we don’t always acknowledge it, or trust it. Yet it is the thing we should trust 100%. Your intuition comes from inside you, and in my experience, has never steered me wrong.
Following your intuition doesn’t always feel comfortable. Even though you are taking the path that is right for you, following it can feel downright hard, at least for a while. But that’s ok.
It is ok to feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed, nervous and apprehensive. It’s normal. They are just feelings. Feel them, acknowledge them, and move on. Nothing lasts forever, and these feelings won’t either. It doesn’t mean your decision is wrong, it just means you are going through change. And change is hard.
Our Back Story
I should probably start with our back story. I’ll try to make it quick.
Dan and I have been together for eight and a half years.
We are on the same page about most things and are a great team.
We are great at making decisions together. We have learned if something feels right go for it.
Personally, everything became very clear to me when I walked the Camino solo in 2019. I developed such a solid sense of faith – in myself and in life. I truly believe, 100% that everything will always work out, will always be ok, and that I will always find my way through anything life throws at me.
I developed such a deep sense of self; I no longer doubt the decisions I make.
In our first years together, we knew we wanted to find a new location to live somewhere that we both chose. It took a while, but we found the Blue Mountains, NSW, 90km west of Sydney.
It was a place we both loved and had always known. And when we drove into the village of Blackheath we both instinctively knew it was the place for us.
We had no idea when we would move, but one night a house appeared for rent (I frequently scrolled real estate websites), a converted shed that was perfect. We took the two-and-a-half-hour drive up to have a look and applied for it straight away. We were approved two days later and three weeks later we called Blackheath home.
We thought we would never move (lesson: never say never). We thought we would eventually buy a home there and that would be that.
How things change.
After my Camino experience, and before Covid made an impact, I decided to finish up my business, Travel Charm, and dedicate myself to building a vegetable garden with a view to becoming self-sufficient in vegetables, possibly selling some produce and preserves. I also wanted to share my produce with friends and family and donate the excess.
Our landlord was more than happy for me to extend the existing garden and so my passion for gardening began. Dan and I built a huge vegetable garden and I had plans to eventually grow cut flowers for bouquets.
Then Things Changed
What comes next is just a series of events that led to random thoughts that led to where we are today.
That is how change tends to happen, and I never disregard random thoughts. One thought can jump to another, lead to another thought and before you know it you are suddenly the owners of a 114-year-old house in the town of Inverell. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Here are how random thoughts got us to where we are now.
In June 2021, my 91-year-old Mum passed away.
A week or so later, I started to think that I would love to live on acreage. I wanted a bigger garden. There were only a couple of areas in the mountains that interested us, and it would have been rare for acreage to become available in those places. Or even affordable.
Around that time we were watching an Australian TV Series and were taken by the location. We Googled it and found it was shot in Mudgee.
Then, unthinkably, I asked Dan if he would ever consider leaving the mountains. He said yes. I was shocked. I was shocked at my own willingness to leave.
And so, over the course of the next six months, we scoured real estate websites to see what was available and where. There was no real thought to this, just looking.
We discussed lofty, farfetched ideas.
100 Acres. I thought 10 would do. A cow named Norman (don’t ask, a long story). Chickens. A huge vegetable garden and a dedicated flower farm. A farm gate stall.
There was nothing that really caught our fancy, except the area of Dorrigo seemed appealing. I don’t know why. It just did.
Then two and a half weeks before Christmas we received a Notice of Termination to vacate the property. We were in shock. We had been told we could stay forever, and that the owner would never want to live in the property. An unexpected family issue had arisen, and the owner’s brother wanted to move into the shed.
So, here we were, needing to leave within 90 days.
Dan was livid.
I was stunned, but also weirdly excited.
Whether you believe in manifestation, or that thoughts become reality, or not, I do. And I was certain that this was it. Our time to find what we had talked about, a place of our own. And we also knew that our time in the mountains was up.
We could make it easy and find something to rent locally while we worked things out, or we could go for it.
We went for it.
Making Big Decisions
We got our paperwork to our mortgage broker within two days and started the ball rolling. We now knew our buying guide.
The only thing we didn’t know was where to look. Where the heck would we go?
And so, for us, this was the biggest test of trusting our intuition we had ever undertaken.
We bought a map of NSW.
All we knew was we no longer wanted to live in the mountains. We knew we wanted to move to a country town, and we finally admitted to ourselves, that although the idea of the acreage was appealing, neither one of us was ready for that kind of commitment.
Armed with our list of non-negotiables we started to look at larger country towns, knowing we would be guided (I know, I know sounds so bloody whoo whoo) and confident we would know the place when we found it.
We took a day trip to Gloucester having seen some houses we liked there – and knew immediately it was not the place for us.
I was drawn to Dorrigo, so we searched up there. Nothing available. But I was convinced we needed to head north.
We looked at properties online in Tamworth and found several we liked. We scoured the listings in Armidale, but nothing seemed right.
The only way to know would be to look, so we planned a two-day road trip and tried to set up inspections in Tamworth. One house was already under offer.
No one returned our call about another house, another one was more than we were willing to pay.
Finally, we arranged to meet at yet another house at 10 am on the first day of our road trip.
Then we expanded our search range looking at towns we had not considered mostly because of the warmer climate. We liked the cold weather of the Blue Mountains, but I also knew warmer weather would mean I could grow more things (yes it really is all about the vegetable garden for me).
Dan suggested Inverell. I had already looked online at a house in Inverell that I absolutely loved but thought the climate would be too hot for us, so I hadn’t mentioned it.
We watched a Chamber of Commerce video on the town, and we both got emotional which was totally random and unexpected.
Dan found a house. He said he loved it. Would I consider it?
It was the house I had looked at.
We booked an inspection for the second day of our road trip, for three other houses in the town. Suddenly it felt easy. We were excited.
Fate (Universe, God, Creator) Stepped In
On the first day of the road trip, we made good time and were expected to reach Tamworth 15 minutes before our appointment.
Then we encountered a road closure and a detour that the GPS had not picked up. We would now be 30 minutes late for our inspection. We called to cancel. Our GPS then detoured us (on a dirt road) around Tamworth.
We laughed. We clearly were not meant to go to Tamworth.
We went to Dorrigo, just to have a look. Nope, not for us. But when and if we ever buy acreage that is where we will look. While the village was not what we were looking for, the surrounding area appealed to us.
Day two came.
We pulled up outside the house and instantly knew it was for us. She was a beauty. Of course, we looked at her through rose-coloured glasses, seeing nothing of what was wrong, and only the romance of days gone by and what she could become again.
But we knew she was for us.
We made an offer 30 minutes later, and it was accepted. We drove out of Inverell a few hours later (we were staying in Armidale).
We bought a house, an old, old house, in a town we had spent three hours in. And yet, we knew it was the perfect place for us and the right decision. Neither one of us had a doubt in our mind.
With only 90 days to move out of our home in the mountains, we had not only found a town to move to but also a house to buy and we did it all over Christmas and New Year when banks, mortgage brokers, and conveyancers were closed. We got a quick settlement and moved with three days to spare.
Chasing Dreams is not always Rainbows and Sunshine
So, has it all been rainbows and sunshine? Definitely not!
It has been a roller coaster ride.
Two days after coming home from our road trip, we put to sleep my little dog Toby, my constant companion of almost 15 years. The tears still flow now as I type this. I had no idea his loss would hit me so hard.
We made the trip up for the property settlement (an 8-hour trip each way), were back in the mountains for two days, and then made the last trip, a grueling event with an extremely stressed dog (Merlin, our elderly boxer) and a GPS that took us on dirt roads in the middle of the night, encountering a calf and kangaroos on the way.
The removalist truck with all our possessions arrived at 8 am the next morning. We were exhausted.
And once we were here some major problems surfaced (or at least they seemed major to us).
I did not fare well through the transition.
It’s a funny thing to be aware you may struggle emotionally, to then feel shocked when you actually struggle.
Anyway, it took a couple of weeks, some good tradespeople, lots of sleep, and good conversations with loved ones to feel grounded again.
One day I woke up excited, looking forward to the next project (and there will be many!) and feeling at home.
I did not regret our move or buying the house, I just felt overwhelmed, sad, and unanchored. Not once have I thought we did the wrong thing. Quite the opposite.
So Far, So Good
Now, three months in, and things are wonderful. We have achieved so much already.
I believe Quiamong called us here. When asked why we moved to Inverell, the answer is simple – a house.
Our neighbours are lovely and have been extremely helpful.
The town is great.
I know it’s early days, but we feel at home here. We have met some amazing people who we are looking forward to getting to know better.
We have done this before, moved to a new place, and thought we would stay forever. Things changed. That may happen here too. If it does then we will follow our gut feeling where ever it takes us next.
House Among the Hills
Our house is called Quiamong – “House Among the Hills”. We are still searching for the origin of the name.
She is a little tired and very wonky and we are looking forward to sprucing her up. She has most of her old charms and character, and we plan to keep her that way.
So far, we have had a new toilet installed, doors hung on the shed/garage, and a new rose arbor built, and eventually, we will sort out a new bathroom and plan a new (or revamped) kitchen. We have found many wonderful tradies to help us with building things, electrical and plumbing work, cleaning fireplaces, and more.
An arborist has worked his magic on the trees, many of which were growing on the house, and into each other. Unfortunately, one large old tree had to be taken down, it had become a huge issue. They gave some TLC to a 50+-year-old Magnolia tree.
The backyard looks like a tornado has hit it as we wrangle the out-of-control garden into a productive vegetable garden. There was a mountain of wood chips sitting in our driveway for over a month from the tree they took down, but finally, we have it all moved. Next, we will create beds for summer crops like pumpkins, melons, and sweet potatoes and a small cut flower garden.
I started raising seedlings a couple of weeks after our arrival and they are now planted in the ground. That felt like a huge achievement to me.
If you’re interested in our journey and life at Quiamong, please stick around as I share projects around the home, what’s happening and growing in the garden, and what’s cooking in the kitchen. Or you can follow along on Instagram if you like.
I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t inspired to blog anymore or post on social media while I was still in the mountains. Seems I was just uninspired by life in general.
Not now. I have inspiration galore here.
There are many things we want to do (and need to do), to add our own stamp on this house and property, to bring her back to life.
So far we have met the granddaughter of the original family who lived here during her childhood and another previous owner. There are so many fascinating stories to hear and document.
Some have said they believe this house chooses its owners. I believe that to be true, and as her new custodians, we will endeavour to do our best to honour her.
We plan to learn more about the history of the house and the history of Inverell.
114 years old. What was happening in the world in 1908?
Anyway, thanks for sticking around. I will have plenty more to share as we live life here at Quiamong and in our new town, Inverell.
I don’t think Dan and I have ever been happier. Granted we are more exhausted than we have ever been, but regardless life feels great.
Love
Cindy x