Family Gap Year Post #9: A Plan Takes Shape

Trying to plan a Family Gap Year during an international health crisis is quite a trip (pun intended).

A tentative plan is taking shape. None of this has been 100% confirmed at work, but you know I like to plan, even when it’s not 100% certain! Here are the details in case you are interested:

1. Matt and I would keeping renting out this house. We have had a tenant in that house for more than a year now, and she wants to stay.
2. Starting in June, we would rent out the house we are living in. Our neighborhood has an HOA that prohibits short-term rentals, so we will find a long-term renter. Otherwise, we would have rented it out via AirBnb while we are gone. We are going to offer our house as furnished or unfurnished. Either way, we are going to keep the garage for our own personal storage (by turning around the lock).
3. We are going to keep renting out our vacation house via AirBnB and VRBO. We will start making more money each month because we won’t be using it ourselves once a month.
4. There’s still a debate about how much stuff we will bring with us on the trip. I’m angling for each of us to just have this carry on suitcase + backpack. It makes traveling way more affordable when you don’t have to check bags. Matt says he needs more stuff. Stay tuned!
5. We will sell my electric Fiat in May. We will keep our Honda Fit for a little longer (see plans below).
6. Starting in June, we will head off on an Epic Road Trip. The final plan is Austin to Bloomington to Madison (Wisconsin) to Livingston (Montana) to Baring (Washington) to Vancouver to Eugene (Oregon) to Stinson Beach (CA) to Los Angeles to Pasadena.
7. Then we will ship our Honda Fit from Los Angeles to Hawai’i (for ~$2,000).
8. In July, we will travel to three different islands: 10 days in Oahu, a week in Kauai with some of our best friends, and a week in Maui with a different set of good friends.
9. If I don’t use any of my PTO days, then I will have 3 weeks of vacation throughout the summer. I will be working full-time remotely. My hours will be wonky because of the time change, so I will be working before the boys wake up, during their screen time, various points throughout the day, and in the evenings.
10. In August, we will settle on the Big Island near Hilo. Matt will homeschool the boys while I work full-time. I can provide support before my work day starts and during my lunch break.
11. We just got invited to a wedding in Malaysia in October/November, so at that point we will sell our car and fly to Malaysia for the wedding. Then we will stick around for another three weeks so we can spend time in Bali.
12. Next, it’s off to Australia (fingers-crossed). If I had to guess, I think we will fly into Melbourne to visit friends and then do a road trip up the coast to the hinterlands of Byron Bay.
13. And hopefully by the end of December New Zealand will be open again? If so, our dream is to meet our friends there for Christmas. We would spend two weeks together on the South Island. Then my family would continue on a road trip around the entire South Island.
14. Then we would land outside of Wellington and hopefully enroll the boys in school, which starts at the end of January or beginning of February.
15. Our goal would be to be back in Austin by August 2023.

Phew! That’s the tentative plan (knock on a whole bunch of wood).

It’s so hard to plan anything right now. But the plans for June and July are pretty set. All of the AirBnBs are booked. Everything else is still a major question mark.

I tend to share more frequent details in my weekly newsletter if you want to stay more up-to-date!