Our principles

One of the first activities that the four of us completed, was to develop a set of guiding principles for both building our new home, and for living by. Through much discussion back and forth, emails and cups of tea, we came up with the following:

Our mission is to create a family home that responds to the needs of each family member.

Our guiding principles are, that we:

• embrace a healthy lifestyle
• respect the land and it’s ability to nourish and sustain us
• are committed to being socially and environmentally responsible
• celebrate life with laughter, hugs, fun and adventure
• support each other through companionship, security and having a united purpose
• recognise that life is an ongoing journey of teaching, learning and discovery
• provide a stable and loving environment for ourselves and our extended family and friends

At some point, once we are all living together, it might be a valuable exercise to revisit our vision and principles to see if anything has changed or evolved. I also want to do something visual with this, as a daily reminder. Maybe turn these words into a piece of embroidery, a painting, a vision board…..

Introducing our multi-gen family

Bob, Bets, Karen & Nick

‘Multi-gen‘ or ‘multigenerational‘ is defined by the Oxford dictionary as relating to several generations. As a child living with Mum and Dad we existed as two generations in a reasonably normal nuclear family unit. Now 29 years after leaving home and the nuclear family, I am preparing to live with my parents again and we will be redefined as a multi-gen family and household.

So who is the ‘we’ is this multi-gen family? Firstly there is me: Karen, my partner: Nick and my parents: Bets and Bob. I also have a 20 year old daughter: Hannah, who is a pivotal part of our family; but who has declared that she does not want to live in the country with her parental units and grandparents. The lure of inner-city living, experiencing life and travel is understandably much more attractive to her.

At the moment, Nick, Han and I live in Melbourne, Australia. So the move to establish a home with Bets and Bob also includes a shift across the Tasman Sea. This is going home for me, and migration to a new country for the Australian-born Nick.

In between playing golf and croquet, Bets and Bob can often be found walking along the beach or in the garden growing amazing fruit and vegetables. They are two of the busiest people I know, and inspire me with the longevity of their marriage and their unconditional love for me and my two siblings, and their four grandchildren.

We are using Facetime, email, texts and regular flights home to plan this venture. At this stage we are hoping to move to NZ close to the end of 2016 and plan to commence building our new home at the beginning of 2017.

We are excited about this new journey and building a new home that is tailored to the unique living conditions of two adult couples cohabiting.  We have spent the past few months researching, talking, writing and planning. We have purchased a hectare of beautiful land in a small rural town called Kaukapakapa, and are working closely with an architect to design our dream home.

Setting up this blog is one way that Bets and I can work through the process of living together again, and learning more about each other, our family and multi-gen living.

Welcome to our blog and our family.

Karen xx