When Plans Sink Before They Set Sail: Our Last-Minute Housing Scramble

Imagine this: you’re less than a week away from moving into your next home for 35 days, your bags are mentally packed, your plans set—when suddenly, the owner cancels on you. Stressful, right? Well, that’s exactly what happened to us.

We were sitting down to a nice dinner, celebrating our 7th anniversary, when our phones buzzed with a message we never saw coming: “Sorry, but I have to cancel.” Just like that, our upcoming house sit—where we were supposed to care for three cavoodle pups and some birds—was off the table. We were meant to move in on the 20th, but now? We were homeless (well, sort of).

The worst part? We thought everything was settled. We’d first spoken with the owner back in August, checked in a couple of times, and even had a small red flag pop up when she mentioned she hoped to sell a litter of puppies before leaving. We made it clear that if the pups didn’t sell, we wouldn’t be able to handle the extra workload while juggling our jobs. No worries, she assured us. They’ll be gone by then.

Fast forward to a little over a week before move-in day. We reach out again to confirm details, thinking we’re just tying up loose ends. Twenty-four hours of radio silence. Then… boom. The dreaded message.

She couldn’t sell the puppies. Apparently, she’d struggled the year before too. So… why plan a holiday if you knew this was a possibility? God only knows.

Last-Minute Scramble: Finding a New Home

Cue the frantic search for an alternative. Last-minute rentals aren’t exactly abundant, and the ones that were available were less than appealing—think shared bathrooms, kitchens with strangers, and no locks on the doors. Hard pass.

After a minor meltdown, we landed on an Airbnb. Not the cheapest, but in a solid neighbourhood, close to work, and with easy access to the highway, so Yorick could commute without hassle. The downside? Our entire paychecks, up until our upcoming campervan trip, would now be funnelled straight into rent.

Day Jobs to Fund the Dream

While travelling, you learn that not every day is filled with sunrises on mountaintops and dreamy road trips. Sometimes, it’s about the grind—putting in the hours to keep the adventure going.

Life at the Boatshed:

My job? Uneventful but straightforward. I clock in, check the dates on prepacked cheeses, rearrange them on the shelves, and make sure the barcodes aren’t fogged up from fridge condensation. If they are, I rewrap them. If I’m on deli duty, I’m making salads, refilling stock, and serving customers. It’s routine, it’s repetitive… but hey, the pay is solid.

Yorick’s Life at the Reef Doctors:

Yorick, on the other hand, is dealing with a whole different beast—literally. One day, he’s at the airport dropping off sharks, the next, he’s selling venomous stonefish for a few thousand dollars a pop. While a lot of his work is tank maintenance—vacuuming shop tanks, feeding fish, and cleaning windows—he also gets to assist in insane renovations. Right now? He’s helping install a 200kg glass panel between a pool and a koi pond in a multi-million-dollar villa. No two days are the same.

Rolling With the Punches

This whole last-minute housing fiasco was a reminder that travel isn’t always smooth sailing. Sometimes, plans unravel at the last minute, and you’re left scrambling for a Plan B. But in the end, that’s part of the adventure. You pivot, adjust, and keep moving forward—because when you’re on the road, the unexpected is just another story waiting to be told.