Our House In Bali February 2022
Georgie, Finn and I visited Bali at the end of 2018 partially as a reward for Finn’s completion of Year 12 but mainly because it had been almost 10 years since we had last visited this magical island. I had been visiting Bali since 1983 and Georgie and I spent very special times there in the mid to late 1990s.
Toward the end of our stay an old dream of having our own house in Bali was re-kindled. After a few false starts we took a lease on a small villa in Penestanan which we transformed into a beautiful little getaway in a very short amount of time. We are good at that. We also found a girl named Purnami who we gingerly asked to work for us.
Click on this link to take a look at some memories about our visits to Bali over the years.
Villa Tusk
Several trips later in August 2019 and a few more false starts culminated in us agreeing to buy a 20 year lease on a villa in Penestanan (near Ubud) that was named Joglo Puhti. This means “white house”, it was actually sky blue. The person we bought the lease off happened to be a girl who I had first met on New Year’s Eve 1974 named Elizabeth. We sat on her front porch in the hot afternoons scratching our heads whether we should go ahead but knowing that we felt very “at home and familiar” with the joglo and it’s location in Penestanan, a village that we were very familiar with and had spent time in over the previous four decades.
We signed the lease for Joglo Putih in November 2019, set up Villa Kecil just around the corner, hired Purnami and listed it on AirBnB. It was a huge success and our booking calendar filled up fast. We also renamed our new villa as Villa Tusk. By the time we had arrived back in Australia renovations were about to begin .. a swimming pool, 2 new bedrooms, walls ripped out, a new kitchen and much, much more. We booked several trips to Bali over 2020 so Georgie could keep an eye on the progress as she was the architect running the renovation. We popped back to Bali in January 2020. By the time we had returned Covid 19 had raised it’s ugly head. Needless to say it was a huge challenge for Georgie to run the renovation but she did with the help of WhatsApp and Purnami.
Now it is 2 years later and most of the work is finished. We will return to Bali in April to style Villa Tusk and add whatever magic we need to with artworks, artefacts and other bits and pieces.
The next step is to get it ready for listing on AirBnB so we can get some of our investment back and more importantly to enjoy being there ourselves.
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Comments
I’m so happy for you and dearest Georgie! Know I am praying for your safety, prosperity and health during these crazy time! It looks like the dream is coming together.
I’m building a tiny bungalow in New Orleans for myself. Prices and delays are ridiculously high due to Covid but it’s trudging along. I am thinking I’ll do the same in Bali in my 5-yr future. Villa Tusk is an inspiration. :-)