Home Sweet South African Home

Home Sweet South African Home

The time had come to go to Johannesburg and choose a place to live. My husband Vince would be starting his new job pretty much as soon as we touched ground so it naturally fell to me to find our new Home Sweet South African Home. Good thing one of my favorite television shows is House Hunters International. 

We were given the services of a relocation company to help us with our search. They promptly sent us a questionnaire to fill out to help define our requirements.  But before we could articulate our ideal housing arrangements, we needed to think about our expectations. What did we expect our new life to be like in South Africa? What kind of space and what location would be best-suited to satisfy those expectations? Did we want to recreate our living arrangements in NJ or would a new and different living arrangement suit us better?

I assume that when most people relocate internationally they probably go with the same set of expectations and values they espoused in their home country. But as it happened in our case, the move to South Africa coincided with a deep desire to change our priorities and simplify our life. In my case I yearned to rid myself of the weight of unnecessary possessions and burdensome traditions. In Vince’s case, he wanted a lot less shit to do around the house when he got home. We had become minimalists and we wanted our lifestyle to reflect our new philosophy.

And since we were now empty-nesters whose two young men had gone west, it also became an opportunity to find a new set point for our 32+ year marriage and an opportunity to adapt our living arrangements to suit it.

We had spent the last 25 years of our marriage in a sprawling 200 year old historic landmark which had once served as the Scotch Plains train depot for the Elizabethtown-Somerville Railway.

Decommissioned as a railroad depot in 1878, the simple three room depot building was expanded in all directions over the next 150 years until it became the four bedroom, three and a half bath colonial revival we called home. The original three rooms were extended into a formal dining room, parlor, powder room, entry foyer and center hall mahogany staircase, and living room/ library downstairs.

conservatory

The Darlington and Tallmadge families did most of the work adding on an eat-in farmhouse kitchen with a butler’s pantry and a second set of stairs to a second floor with four bedrooms and three more bathrooms. They added a sunroom study off the living room downstairs and another sunroom study above it off the master bedroom, a laundry room off the first floor powder room and a dressing room off the master bath.

who knew we had a boma?!?

 

We added a real English conservatory off the kitchen and a wine cellar in the original rock wall basement. And we added a greenhouse, a fieldstone patio, a fire pit and a free-standing dovecote to our little acre. We tamed a massive honeysuckle grove in the yard with an iron pergola, added a fountain and an iron gazebo and made it into a little secret garden.

iron gazebo

It was a great place to raise a family and I loved every minute we lived there, but it had become too big for just the two of us. But every time I thought about selling and downsizing, I was put off by the amount of work it would take.

greenhouse

We had expanded into every nook and cranny. The walls were filled with paintings and photographs. The tabletops showcased years of collections and souvenirs from our travels. The book shelves were crammed with books, playbills and photo albums. I never threw anything out because if I couldn’t find a place in the house, there was always room in a closet, the shed, the attic, the garage or even the basement to shove it. Yeah the house did not really suit us anymore but it was comfortable and I was too lazy and Vince was way too busy to contemplate a move without a really compelling reason.







And then came the opportunity to move to South Africa, a chance to reinvent ourselves with new expectations and new priorities. We had been given a wonderful gift, a positive impetus to propel us into the next chapter of our lives and our marriage.  A reason to get off my lazy butt and move.

So we filled out the relocation questionnaire with our new expectations in mind. We wanted a secure, furnished apartment or townhouse close to Vince’s office in Sandton, a city suburb of Johannesburg. At least two bedrooms so we could have guests, decent closet space, and a nice private walled-in garden for the dogs.



We preferred one story, at least two bathrooms, a shower for Vince and a bathtub for me, a garage with a door that locks so that we could use it for storage as well as for car(s). A nice kitchen because we like to cook.

A decent size dining room, living room and patio for entertaining, and a separate study or office. While we wanted simple, we were also realistic. After living in a house for most of our marriage, we had to have someplace other than the bedroom for one of us to hide if one of us needed.

patio

Additionally, we wanted something we could lock and leave. Even though he is based in South Africa, Vince’s area of responsibility is Africa and the Middle East so I expect we are in for a great deal of travel.

west meadow and dovecote

Pretty simple requirements to fit our desire for a simpler life. 25 house and apartment viewings and 10 days later, we signed a lease on Valley Lodge, our Home Sweet South African Home.