It’s Here

It’s only 8:30 and I have already crawled into bed.  Ron and I have spent this week getting ready for what is about to happen.  We have signed papers to sell our house and had a zoom meeting to docusign to purchase one.  We have cancelled utilities in Alberta and arranged for hookups in Ontario.  We have our suitcases packed and hopefully they are hidden enough from the real packers AND tomorrow it begins.  The packers will arrive and get to work while we sit and watch.

I think we will have the weekend to live amongst boxes and they will return on Monday to finish it up.  Tuesday, our house will be loaded into a transport.  That thought always blows my mind.  How can it fit?  I then find out that actually three household items are going to be in one truck and transported to Ontario.

So, good night from me.  It seem to take along time but now we are here.

One Last Time

The time is getting closer and closer to our move date. Every time we do something now, we wonder is that the last time before we move?

Yesterday, we headed to Waterton with our snowshoes, wood, lunch and games.  The drive down was beautiful.  It was a gorgeous day and the mountains looked spectacular with their winter coats.  We drove down the Akimina Parkway.  There were very few cars and the big horn sheep were enjoying the quiet road.

We were stopped a couple of times going in and they did not seem at all concerned that we wanted to get somewhere.

We parked at the road closure and put our snowshoes on.  There was a nice path through the “woods” that we took.

 A fire from a number of years ago has left mostly blackened trees or stumps but new growth is taking over. This could definitely be a good sermon illustration.

It was almost theee kilometres to Cameron Lake.  The temperature was very mild and, for the most part, we were sheltered from the wind.

We arrived at the lake and could hear laughing somewhere but no sign of anyone.  It’s quite different in the summer when the place is crawling with people.  We had a little rest in the shelter before starting back on the road.

Painting on the window

The snow was good for snowshoeing but so much less than other years.  We have to keep going higher in the mountains to find the white stuff.

Once we got back to the truck, we headed down to the village.  The sheep had moved to the side of the road.  

There was one guy that wasn’t sure if we should be passing and he kept us waiting while he strolled down the middle of the road.  We aren’t going to have this happen in Ontario.

We found a little warming hut and Ron started a fire.  I made our lunch and some hot drinks.  

We played a few games of Rook before packing up.  Ron was the big winner!

We burned up all of our wood because we are assuming that that was our last time for an afternoon fire in Waterton.  

19 days until our move day!

Steps To Moving

 One month from today we will take possession of our new home. It certainly is a process.  Our final move is courtesy of the RCMP which means we do everything according to their schedule which is okay when they cover the bulk of the costs. So let’s, step back and see how we got here.

August - we listed our house.  Over the next three months, we had a good number of showings but no offers.  As the three month contract approached, we decided to take the house off the market and wait until spring.  

November - The week before the agreement was to expire, we got the offer. We went to Ontario and shopped hard for a house but nothing firm was completed in the first seven days.  That first week was paid by the RCMP and after that we were on our own.

December - After three long weeks, over 30 houses and our third offer, we found the house we wanted to retire in.  We flew back to Alberta, decorated for Christmas, and had Stephen and Kylie come to celebrate.

January - we undecorated and left all the Christmas bins and boxes in the middle of the recroom floor.  Ron has been busy with talking to lawyers, finding insurance, getting tv and internet disconnected and connected, dealing with the propane company and the hot water heater situation.  I have worked on finances, giving dates for disconnects and making sure that we have hydro when we get to Tamworth. 

Our minds are constantly thinking about what we need to do next and going over lists of what we need to remember.  It will all happen but sometimes we need to just get out and clear our mind and that is what we did yesterday.  

So what else needs to be done:

• Clean out the storage area in the house
• Pull down all of the items from the shelves at the top of the garage
• Clean the appliances when we are done using them (the mini fridge and freezer are already empty)
• Continue to organize by putting things together so they will be packed and unpacked together 
• Go to Lethbridge to sign things at the lawyers and pick up the summer tires that have been stored at Honda
• Do a mail forward at the post office

We have also been doing all of our last appointments.  We had a dentist appointment and a massage. I have booked blood work, a doctor’s appointment and a hair appointment and we both have one more massage appointment.

Looking ahead:  

• February 9 & 12 - packing the house
• February 13 - load day and start our drive

Counting Down

One month from today our house closes in Pincher Creek.  We will no longer be homeowners in Alberta and will actually be homeless for 5 days.  It will be through those days that we travel to Ontario.  Our bank account will look good for a little while.

In the meantime, we continue to enjoy the area.  The weather has been bitterly cold and kept us close to home.  Today, the temperature rose a bit and we headed to the pass. Ron headed up the hill and I went towards the lake…no drastic inclines.

It was still cold but we were dressed for it.  I had been hesitant about going but the views, as always, didn’t disappoint.  

After I made it to the lake, I turned around and headed back towards the truck.  I put my skis away and grabbed my snowshoes and headed up the hill.  Once I was at the top, I met up with Ron.

We headed back down the hill.  He was able to go much faster but I always feel safer going down the hill on snowshoes.

Another gorgeous day in the mountains.  People say we will miss the mountains and that is true!

One Month

One month from today our western life will come to an end.  The movers will be loading our truck on February 13th and we will be spending Valentine’s Day somewhere on the road. 

Abby has always identified me as Nanny out west….I guess we will still be a little west of their home.

In the meantime, we are hibernating.  It’s been a very cold week!

It got down to feeling like -54 Celsius last night!

Happy New Year

As the calendar switched to 2024, so did our minds take a turn.  Reality has set in.  WE ARE MOVING!  It’s the waiting that is the hardest. Even though the RCMP hire packers, there are still a lot of things to think about.  Ron has been busy on the phone and iPad organizing things.  We have dismantled some equipment and still have others to do.  I took down the Christmas decorations and all the bins are in the middle of the floor downstairs.  For the next five weeks, we will live with clutter and organized chaos.  We are excited about the move but have all those familiar feelings.  We have enjoyed our time in Pincher Creek.  We love the mountains, the hikes, snowshoeing and cross country skiing.  I don’t even like to think about saying goodbye to the friends here. 

On Wednesday, we drove to Calgary to have a visit with our nephew and his family.  This has been another great thing about living in Alberta.  We were able to reconnect with Dustin and Katie and their adult kids. It was a great dinner and a nice time.  I will miss this but am trying to encourage them to come for an Ontario visit.

On Thursday, a family that we adopted, came for a visit.  Japhia brought soup and I made pie.  We played games and enjoyed lots of laughs. Once again, we did our best to sell Ontario so that they would come for a visit.

Yesterday, we drove to Waterton.

 We did a little walk around the village.  It was cool and windy but still so pretty.  

Sarah told us that we are going to miss the park and yes, she is right.

It started to snow when we were going to bed last night and this morning our world has turned white.

The countdown is on…5 weeks and two days and the moving truck will be pulling out with us not too far behind.

Christmas Catch Up

Normally, I would start decorating our house for Christmas the middle of November but this year things went a little crazy.  Getting an offer on our house right when I would normally be pulling out the many bins definitely threw my schedule off.  So, instead of decking the halls, we were throwing things in a suitcase and heading off to Ontario to buy our forever home.

Finally, after three weeks, many kilometres, three offers and perhaps a few tears along the way…we were able to check that huge purchase off of our list of things to do.

We arrived back in Pincher Creek on Tuesday afternoon and unpacked.  Wednesday morning the bins, boxes and trees came out of hiding.  By that evening, the house was looking very festive.

The next day, Ron and I both had massages.  I was told that my neck was extremely tight. Stress…perhaps!

Friday morning, we headed to the mountains.  A massage may remove some stress but there is nothing like the view of the mountains to help you relax.  

We took our skis and snowshoes to see what activity the snow would allow us to do.  In Pincher Creek, we have green grass but the mountains shared a little winter with us on that day.  We went further than I expected but it was just too nice to stop.  

Apparently, the warm weather has confused the bears because we did see some tracks of them roaming. And yes, we will miss our mountains when we move!

On Saturday, we had a relaxing day and then on Sunday, we went to church.  It was nice to see everyone.  I went to Tracey’s for an afternoon tea and we visited for a couple of hours.  I’m going to miss her.  I’m thankful for modern technology to help friends from far and wide to connect.  It’s not the same but it helps with the goodbyes.

Another week as gone by since then and it makes you wonder how time can fly by so fast.  Christmas will be here and gone before we know it.  January will bring lots of preparations and February will be our move month but stop, I need to enjoy the moment.  I’m sipping on my last bit of coffee with the Christmas lights adding some ambiance…time goes by too fast and so does the coffee.

We Bought a House!

 Let’s step back a few months…we listed out house in Pincher Creek on August 13th.  We had quite a few initial showings through the month but no offers.  In September, we spent the month in Ontario, hoping for a sale while we were away.  We only had a couple showings through that time.  In October, the showings picked up but still no offers.  Our contract with our realtor was due to expire on November 12th.  We thought at that time, we would take the house off the market for winter and start fresh in the spring.  

We had a request for a second showing on November 3rd and nothing happened.  I was sitting on the couch 3 days later when I received a text from our realtor that an offer was coming in. The first thing that we noticed was that they had picked December 11th as a closing date.  We knew that wouldn’t work for us unless we wanted to be homeless for a while.  We signed it back changing the closing date to February 15th.  On November 16th, the conditions were cleared and by the 18th, we were driving to Calgary.  We flew the next day to Ottawa and arrived at our hotel for a week to house shop.

Some hotel visitors 

Jenn took the day off to join us and the realtor to start house shopping. I had previously sent my organized spreadsheet to our realtor to list the houses that we wanted to see with explanations of why they interested us.  We were prepared.  

November 19th - Day One - we were excited!   We had 8 houses on the agenda. Our top choice sold before we got to look at it.  Our second choice had an offer come in as we drove into the driveway.  Another house owner wanted to change the showing to the next day.  We stumbled through some other showings where we just couldn’t see us living for one reason or another.

November 20th - Day Two - another full day of listings which meant more driving than the previous day.  We looked at some city home with tiny driveways and match box backyards.  We toured houses with no closets and then stumbled on one showing where a tenant had moved in the day before and didn’t allow us to see the home.  

November 21st - Day Three - we pushed our circle a little further out and ended up in areas where we had never been before.  We felt like it was bit of a wasted day.  We did not feel comfortable in any of the homes that we walked into but we did have some laughs.  One house was built in the 1980’s.  It looked like no one was living in it although it did have bed sheets hanging half out of the dryer.  There was a gremlin on the roof.  👻

November 22nd - Day Four - we decided to put in an offer on a house in Kingston.  The house was nice enough.  The garage was a decent size.  The deck was super tiny and the backyard not much bigger and it backed out on a busy street.  It would be a central location between Jenn and my parents.

November 23rd - Day Five - The offer was signed back and when we sent it back, the seller didn’t want to play the game and so we walked away from an empty house.  

It was now the weekend and our time was up at the hotel.  The first week of house shopping was on the RCMP and now the expenses were on us.  We moved to Napanee to be with mom and dad.

Week two began and, instead of excitement, we felt urgency.  We wanted to get this done. Mom joined us to take a look at one house a second time and one other house.  We decided to put in an offer on the house that we had seen twice.  The setting was very nice.  The house felt cozy and the decks were amazing. The owners had added a clause that they needed to get a good well test on their property before we could clear our conditions.  There test was to be done on the Friday.  Our inspections were lined up for the following Tuesday.  

We felt we had some free time and so we did some Christmas shopping, enjoyed a church banquet with mom and dad and went to church with Jenn and the girls.

On Tuesday, we headed to the house.  We were anxious to get the inspections done and be able to get back home to decorate our house for Christmas.  The house inspection was going well.  There was a good water flow but then the quality of the water was drawn to our attention.  I sipped on a glass of water that tasted like I should be gargling.  It had a very high salt content.  

The next day, we searched out some water treatment places and did some online investigation.  We knew that the water consisted of 1770 Total Disolved Solids.  

As we sat thinking about what to do, we got a text from our realtor that the water test came back with some coliform and a little ecoli.  We decided to back out of the offer.

That night, we were more than exhausted, frustrated and felt deflated.

A new house came on the market and so we added it to some of the old listings that we hadn’t looked at yet.  The weather was a little nasty but we continued our hunt for a house.  I think both of us felt that we were going to have to settle for something that was good enough.  We looked at all of the houses on our list.  Our realtor had been so patient with us.  We saw a nice house in a not so nice location.  We saw nice locations with not so nice houses.  We came to the end of our list and I was ready to cry.  Another new listing came on in the afternoon.  Our realtor called and got us in for 6:00 pm.  My hopes weren’t high and Ron hadn’t even looked at the listing.  

We walked in the door and it didn’t take us long to know that this was our forever home.  Our realtor went right home and drew up the offer.  The offer was accepted the next day.  Inspections were lined up for the next Monday.

We were cautiously optimistic that things would work out.  We went to a banquet at Jenn’s church on Saturday night. We did a walk through candy cane lane before the banquet.  We went to mom and dad’s church on Sunday.

Monday arrived and we were at the house with the inspectors.  The water level was good.  The dissolvable solids were in the acceptable range were in the “sweet spot” for drinking! The house inspector was pleased which put a smile on our faces.  We left the house, booked our flights and were off to Ottawa within hours.  We flew home the next morning.

We are not homeless! It only took us looking at over 30 houses.

P.S. next blog will include Christmas decorations and mountain pictures!