Thinking about it…

I wasn’t going to write this post yet, because who knows how things might turn out, but I’m excited and can’t sleep and have so much I’m thinking about that I’m going to write it now anyway.

The other day I was searching for somewhere local that I could buy a fruit tree from for the garden. As I was searching, up popped a nice looking acreage with a nice house in Duncan. On a whim, I linked it to Kris. I didn’t really expect him to give it a second look, but he agreed it was pretty nice. And of course that set me to looking on MLS to see what’s available nowadays. We’ve been keeping a pretty close eye on the market for a while now, mostly so we know what’s out there and what the costs are so that if something perfect comes up we’ll know whether it’s a good deal or not. I linked him a few in Shawnigan Lake (which is closer to Victoria and much less commercialized than Duncan), and some of them actually looked like they might be worth a second look. A friend of ours agreed to drive us out there to have a look this weekend.

We have looked at places before, semi-seriously. But never with any real intention to buy. Again, it’s always been more so we know what’s out there and so we have an idea of how to read behind the lines when looking at real estate ads. The three places we were thinking of all have some positive points, but also some negative points. None of them seemed quite perfect. But, it’s a nice drive and the weather might even cooperate for a stroll around the area and a picnic with our friend.

Then today, it popped up on the listing my realtor sent us when I mentioned we were maybe thinking of looking at some places. The place. Two acres, an orchard, a greenhouse, a cute little cottage (slightly smaller than what we’re in now, but the land is big enough we could build another house one day, or extend the current one). The cottage is beautiful inside, with a wood burning fireplace, a raised oven (a big bonus for Kris, he’s always talked about wanting an oven like that). It has a garden patio (something I’ve always wanted). It is a five minute walk from the ocean and a marina (something Kris has always wanted). It’s walking distance to a little village with a bakery, shopping, etc. It’s an easy drive to Duncan or Victoria. And we can afford it. In fact, if we work it right and roll our current debt into the mortgage, we’d be paying less on a mortgage than we do in rent and debt payments right now.

Part of me feels like it is too good to be true. I called the number on the picture and it turned out to be the owner who has been trying to sell it on her own, and the realtor just listed it yesterday. She will be around tomorrow and can let us in to have a look. There’s a part of me that wants there to be something glaringly wrong with it. How could we go from talking about living here for the next 2-5 years last week, to looking at a place we both may fall in love with tomorrow?

Things always seem to happen like that for us. Sometimes it feels like we do things on whims, but it’s never done us wrong before. In fact, the last time was when I decided on a whim to apply to a housing co-operative. They advertise that they often have a three year waiting list. You’re supposed to send in an application and then keep updating it every 6 months or so. They recommend applying to many different ones for the best chance. I applied to one only (our first choice), but was pregnant at the time, and didn’t feel up to applying to any others. Six weeks later, we were accepted in the one and only one I had applied too. It was their only opening in over a year, and they didn’t have another opening until 14 months later.

The biggest complication about moving so far for me is that I have a community here. I have a really good friend who is the only person I know in person who feels exactly the same as me as far as parenting goes. Meredith and her son adore each other. There are other people in this area who I also like and who would help me out no questions asked if needed. A friend I’ve known for 14 years lives in the same city. What if I get pregnant this summer like we’ve talked about and I’m alone on a homestead with a baby and a toddler next spring? Am I crazy to even be considering that? Should we just pull out now before we’ve seen the place in person and put the MLS listings on our blocked list until after next year? And how would I ever get my garden to the point it could sustain us with a newborn and so little gardening knowledge? (My friend here has been helping me a lot this year with that!)

But then, there are these:

Honestly, could you say no? It’s always been my dream to have a homestead. Though part of that dream has always been to have one or two likeminded families on the same property or at least nearby. I guess that could come. And two acres for Meredith to play on? The ability to have some chickens, maybe goats or even a cow, maybe a pony. I don’t know how big two acres really is, but it’s sure a lot bigger than what we have here!

I’ll update tomorrow after we go see it. At this point, I know I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if it did end up having something really wrong with it, because something perfect will come up. But on the other hand, maybe this is that perfect place we’ve been waiting for and it would be a shame to let it pass us by. With all the coincidences and perfect timing that has happened in the past before for us, I do believe things happen for a reason. But we control our own destiny and I think I’d regret it if we didn’t at least go look.

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