Live - from Newark!

I am now in my fourth hour here at Newark Liberty (ha!) airport. My flight was cancelled and I'm re-booked on a delayed flight.

I left F'ton around 7 am - after missing a turn and going the wrong way on the Trans-Canada, with the fuel light on, in pitch darkness... I made it to Halifax right on time, gassed up, returned the car, and treated myself to a lobster roll. Here's what I wrote while in flight:

I arrived in Halifax at 1:50 on Saturday afternoon and was soon on the road to F’ton. I made it exactly four hours, good time considering it included a stop for a snack. When I arrived I immediately drove by a few of the properties I would be seeing with the realtor on Sunday. I knew as soon as I pulled up to the “primary target” that it was a no-go. Without going into too much detail, it was just a weird set-up in terms of the garage, access, etc. And, when my lights hit the side of the house I could see that there had been a lot of touch-up work to the wood siding, but not a full paint job. Normally that’s nothing, but after six years of major renovations to a 1918 home we are really not interested in moving in with a “First we’ll want to do this…” mindset.

I drove past another place that was intriguing, but really on too busy a corner. I had made up my mind that I was not going to ‘settle.” If all goes well this may be the last house I ever buy; I want it to be as close to perfect as possible. It was getting dark so, after a quick stop at Atlantic Superstore - I had to be sure to take back a few Coffee Crisps – I headed to C&L’s for the night. My hosts, C&L, were out for the evening so I was able to unpack and get settled and, just as I was writing a note for them - before turning in - they arrived. We ended up talking until almost 1 am!

On Sunday morning C – a Montrealer by birth – made cheese and apple crepes with maple butter. Oh, my gosh – to die for! At 10 the realtor picked me up and we spent a whirlwind day looking at I don’t know how many properties. I’m glad I hung on after the rocky start of wondering if she would return my emails. She’s great! Later in the day I saw a place quite a way out of town. I wasn’t sure about the location, but the house was perfect!

Now, allow me to digress. We started this adventure hoping to rent while we built. Then, as renting became more and more challenging and the idea of building seemed more and more daunting we abandoned that idea and focused on buying. Then, it was condo, city, country, house…? With a going-on 7YO there is one set of criteria, regardless of my yen for less burdensome property. And then there’s our dog. He’s always had a yard. So, late Sunday evening I returned "home" absolutely frazzled and exhausted – and feeling like I was getting a cold. I had seen a lot of houses that I couldn’t imagine buying – all needed too much work, or had a layout I didn’t like, or were on too busy a street… Except for the aforementioned house and it seemed a bit far away.

So, up and at ‘em Monday morning - I drove out to the property - 20-25 minutes from downtown, max. It’s a psychological adjustment, I think, that, given the size of the city, something so rural is only 20-25 minutes – shorter than my previous commute from Minneapolis to Saint Paul. After a delay while she got a dog on the plane to Australia, I hooked up with the realtor and discovered that the owner had just accepted an offer. But, having been down that road before, I concluded that it just meant something better was to come.

After looking at a few more things and talking about how perfect that house was, we talked about building. Was it really possible? The builder whose work she likes – not a big, mass production guy – came and met us at the house. I knew that it was basically a stock plan bungalow and that it would be easy enough, but we walked the house and talked about what I like about it, etc.

We then went to an area where he has a few homes and we talked further. Longer posting short – based on what I had figured out about the different areas of greater Fredericton I pretty much knew where I wanted to be, if possible. Lo’ and behold there are two one acre lots available, heavily treed, 15 minutes from downtown.

I figure that, if we buy a lot, and things fall apart, we have a lot to hang on to for the time being. But, we both (P and I) like the idea of getting what we really want. E.g., we want smaller and greener. A lot of the homes I saw were too big. Even the one I loved was bigger than we need. The builder is really into green building and R value. It’s more expensive up front, but one home that he did that is something like 3500 square feet has a heating bill of about $180/month. Some of the homes I saw that are that size or less were running about $350/month.

So, I don’t know how this will all turn out. It will be fun/ny to look back at this post a year from now and know where we’re living, how it all turned out, etc. I’ll keep you posted!

Other thoughts from this trip –
My blood pressure drops when I arrive in Canada. I love cheerful, laughing tollbooth attendants. The trees in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were just gorgeous. This year a more muted yellow dominates, punctuated by bright reds and orange, with the green of the firs. I can’t wait to go hiking. I know there were other things that made me think, “Oh, I should write that down for later,” but I didn’t and now I’ve forgotten.

Stay tuned!