For the last few months Clive and I have been preparing the back portion of our house in readiness to list it with Airbnb.

If you are new to these Over To France tales, my blog was born out of a trip to France last year and now incorporates our dreams of returning there, possibly even to live – not permanently, but for a few months at a time anyway.  Unfortunately dreams like that cost a few dollars and money-growing trees haven’t been that easy to find, despite living so close to the bush.  Since our French adventure, many a conversation has taken place on the “How to Become Independently Wealthy Quest” topic.

A lot of decluttering has taken place and many things have been sold, mainly by Clive.  He’s been an absolute trooper in this regard.  I’ve sold three bar stools and one pair of sensible shoes.  And that’s all.  I feel slightly affronted by the fact that no one was interested in my hideously high and bejeweled heels.  It’s not about comfort people – comfort is for sissies!  What’s a bit of toe pain when you can look so fabulous?  Ah well, moving on.

While the selling (yes, by Clive) continues, we’ve realised that these small sales are not likely to get us back to France anytime soon.  And so we’ve embarked on Plan B:  Project Airbnb.

We love our house but it really is a bit too big for us now.  The back part of the house only gets used when overseas family members come to stay (or when two very special nieces from around the corner want to have a sleepover at ours).  So, working with the “use what you’ve got” idea, we decided to list it with Airbnb.

“It’s nearly ready, as it is,” said Mr Calm and Collected.

“No, it’s freakin’ not!” replied Mrs Not Calm and Hardly Ever Collected.

A list of to-dos was made, and added to, and added to again – until said list was quite a thing to behold indeed.

Cleaning, painting, purchasing (amazingly, Briscoes had a sale) and rearranging.

It has been a lot of work but we are almost there.  I say almost, as there are still some things to be ticked off the list.

“We’re so close. We’ll just list it now,” said Mr Optimistic No Clouds in the Sky

“It’s not ready yet. There’s still too much to do!”  replied Mrs Pessimistic Find the Cloud in Every Silver Lining”.

But listed it was, last Sunday.  Since then, we’ve had three bookings and the first guests arrive this coming Sunday.  I could lie and say I’m not panicking, but you’d probably see right through me.

Oh, look what I found! Now where was this little guy before I spent all that dosh at Briscoes?!

L’arbre à argent