"The House"

As I have mentioned previously - I had almost given up on finding the house that would check all of our boxes. Location, size, character, barn, and acreage. Zoe never gave up. She is a determined young lady who knew she was not moving three provinces away from her friends and family to settle. If she was to live here, it would be in a house she LOVED. She confiscated the truck and our last remaining 2 gigabytes of hotspot data and searched. She emerged to tell me to call our realtor because she had found our house. I called to book the appointment but didn't want to read any details about this house. I had gotten my hopes up too many times with perfect sounding write ups only to be sorely disappointed with the real thing. Zoe was so enthusiastic and determined though that this was
the one, that she quickly won me over and had me biting my nails in anticipation.

Only three of the dozens of houses we saw were occupied. Most of the real estate in our price range was not being lived in. This home, of course, was one of three. And...the home owners needed 24 hours notice for any viewings. Ugh... this meant we called on Saturday night and were unable to get a viewing until Monday morning. If you don't know us very well-Zoe and I are not patient people. This was the longest Sunday in recorded history!

Our first glance at the property confirmed it was indeed 25 useable acres - not swamp land. There were three standing outbuildings - needing some tender loving care - but they were there. So far the write up was spot on and our hopefulness was growing. Fingers crossed for the house. Five bedrooms, two bathrooms, with an on-suite opportunity for Zoe. It was part of our deal, if possible, that she could have her own bathroom in exchange for her work when our farm got up and running!  The owners had carpet and stick on flooring on many floors but it was obvious that the original wide floor boards were in tact underneath, there were gorgeous doorknobs and hinges as well at the original stair newel post - yay character!! There are double doors at the front entrance - this was on Zoe's wish list for character. It has a wood burning stove and forced air furnace. The stove was on my must have list and the forced air was something we realized in all our viewings that we wanted. We didn't like the baseboard heaters that took up too much wall space and limited how we could arrange a room. The basement was full and high and beautiful for a 180 year old home. Unfinishable, but dry and usable. We were in love!!

Our real estate agent forced us to go away and think about it. We went antiquing and two hours later were at Exit Realty in Digby with Valerie Barr signing an offer. Real estate in Nova Scotia is very different from Ontario. When selling my Beamsville home, I would get a call at 11:30 at night or 6 in the morning to sign papers or read an offer. We were on such a tight deadline to sign back counter offers or meet conditions. In Nova Scotia it is so relaxed. Our offer was two pages short, the counter offer came back but didn't get signed for 16 hours because our real estate agent wasn't in her office and "that's okay, we'll get it to them tomorrow!". We were told it was typical that conditions must me met within a month - hello Ontario and 5 business days!! One of the main reasons for my move to Nova Scotia was for the calm, slower pace, but unfortunately I was forced into the role of Ontarian as I insisted conditions be met in 7 business days so Zoe could be back in Ontario for her birthday. We got our letter of insurability and spent the long weekend in August twiddling our thumbs waiting for the inspection Tuesday morning. The house is 180 years old and I went in with an understanding that comes from previously owning a century home. Wayne Thurber of Kirwynd Real Estate Services was professional, thorough and made sure I understood everything about the house that he could explain to me. Fantastic gentleman that I will recommend to anyone who asks!

Inspection done and nothing arose to scare me away - so I signed off on that condition and September 7th, 2018 this will be our new home. Now we wait, and wait, and wait.........