Feb 28, 2012

End of June of 2010 – spring is in full force of course and we had been running the seed company as usual. We had put an offer in on the property in Powell River, but it was conditional on inspections – by us, by a building inspector and by a septic inspector. The other two inspections happened first and turned out fine.

Then it was time for our inspection and we decided that I would be the one to go. In retrospect I am not sure why really. It was a jam packed couple of days – very surreal in some respects. Many what-the-hell-are-we-doing moments.

I flew out one day – to Comox, took the OMG too early ferry to Powell River in the morning, took the ferry back that evening and flew back to Ottawa the next day. Whirlwind. While in Powell River, our extremely helpful real estate agent Richard Clark picked me up, drove me to see the property, dropped me at the bank and then took me back to the ferry to go back to Comox.

The property was lovely, the house needed just as much work as we feared it did. But, of course as it was a rental at the time, it was not going to look great. Here are some pictures. 

The Water System - yep

The kitchen - more than rustic

Master bedroom with what passed for a closet on the left.

Second bedroom - the best part anyhow, the window seat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third bedroom - interesting colours, no.  

Wait until you see how our daughter fixed this one.

Yard art. ??

The Living Room.

The Vegetable Garden - somewhere in there I guess

The yard

The little building that has become our store

What its all about - the view from our balcony - looking over the hill and down to the ocean.

February 11, 2012

So that was May of 2010 - a great trip to BC and then we came back to sort stuff.

The garden centre we had looked at in May sold - but not to us.  We just loved Powell River though and we were told that the buyer of the garden centre would not be running it as a garden centre.  So we looked around for another property and found a great site.  One with two houses, one a good size and the other tiny.  Perfect for a store.  WIth 2 and a half acres there was lots of room.  The pictures were charming (of the outside, the inside was a little wierd) so we went ahead put in an offer and I inspected at the end of June.


Here it the ourside of the house

And part of the inside

But the little house we now use for the store is adorable

The 'To Be" Store

In all of this of course there was still the ongoing things of life.  Our two girls were finishing their school year - grades 8 and 9 and they did just fine.  More power to them; they really are great people.

At the time I was working full time for a government department.  High stress and getting pretty hard to take.  You can only be a beurocrat for so long before it either wears you down emotionally or you develop "I don't care" sheilds.  I find it really hard to take the "I don't care" approach and I had been at it for years.  My husband was managing our seed business and the farm on his own.

So we worked up to what we agree was the worst day of our lives.  Moving day.

January 31, 2012

By this time our house in Quebec, being sold, was in turmoil as we purged and packed.

It was May and we had to be out by the end of July.  Imagine the shear amount of stuff we had accumulated in 14 years of living in the same house.  It was overwhelming.  So we went room by room and got rid of stuff.  Doantions to Salvation Army, garbsge, and then we got ready for a yard sale.

This is an art - the yard sale.  When to hold it, hours to be open and how much to charge.  All a huge mystery really,  I know some people make their livings having pretty much a permanent yard sale.  Things I thought would sell, didn't and stuff we thought was junk sold.  If you are going to do this it is likely a good idea to do some on-line research first so you have a better idea of what to do than we did.

New Kitchen Table and Chairs - cafe style - did not sell

Weird old combination electric and wood stove that did not work - SOLD

In the end we just moved lots of it to the local donation box.  It is a wonderful place, really.  You drop off your stuff beside the box and most of it disappears that same day.  I know that it is really not the intent of the box - the items are supposed to go somewhere and be sold.  But I figure that the people that got the things really needed them.

So we got ready to leave Chelsea Quebec.  Not sad to see the end of the snow.  At times it was taller than me and although I am not really tall at 5 foot 5, thats still a lot of snow.

January 21 2012

Here we are in the new year.  I can only wonder what it will bring.

The last thing I wrote about was our arrival in Powell River on our exploratory trip.  I was just a great trip.  We looked into the garden centre that was for sale as well as becoming aquainted with the town of Powell River.

The garden centre was not in great shape - very old style greenhouses which is OK if the systems are kept up.  The house was pretty scary.  Very eclectic colour wise - blood red kitchen, lavendar halleway and bedrooms of different colours.

The high school in Powell River - Brooks secondary - is just aweome.  Wonderful programs, great facility, and they partner with VIU (Vancouver Island University) to offer entry level University courses.  Such a great opportunity for our girls.

We spent a couple of days tooling around and then headed over to the island on our way back to Vancouver for our flight home. 

December 31, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!

It takes two ferries to go up the coast from Vancouver to Powell River. IN between those two ferries is Gibsons, Sechelt and the twistiest, hilliest road I have ever experienced. Period. There are signs that say slow down to 30 km per hour – better do it, you will need to. Some just say SLOW.

We arrived in the region of Powell River in the early evening. Beautiful May day. Looked for our hotel which was a little up the coast. We stayed at the Oceanside resort, which was wonderful. They have individual little cabins, complete with fridge, stove and TV. Its just great. When we checked in the water was a few feet from the deck in front of the hotel. When we woke up it was a couple of hundred feet away.

Take a look.

Try out squidoo.  Great articles on every topic.  Here is my link to this blog!!

http://www.squidoo.com/we-moved-across-canada

December 15, 2011

More on our trip to Powell River to see the prospect garden centre.

We flew into Vancouver and picked up our rental car. It was mid-May and everything was green and warm. We stayed overnight in North Vancouver in a nice little hotel. We used Google maps to get directions from the airport to the hotel. Love those Google directions. They usually work just great. This gives you a feeling of confidence you should not have on those occasions where they do NOT. Once in a while Google sends you to someone's house that you don't know or just drops you in the middle of an intersection somewhere near where you are going. This time we got the driveway option – nice folks.

Its a long day from Ottawa to Vancouver with a 3 hour time difference. So when we finally did check in that evening we just crashed. A new adventure the next day.

From our hotel it was only 20 minutes or so to Horseshoe Bay. The location of the Ferry terminal did escape us the first time up, but we quickly recovered, panicked once and got in line with everyone else.

The line-up for the ferry is a very different experience. Very relaxed once you get there. I guess it is because everyone knows that they are either on this ferry or waiting for the next one. You aren't going anywhere. You are parked. You are waiting. It is out of your hands.

You might just as well open the tailgate, set up your lawnchair and relax. So they do. Folks visit. They walk about. Its great. There is a small town at Horseshoe Bay with a couple of restaurants, artist's studios, and shops. Beautiful scenery. Lovely little park by the marina. Grab an ice cream. You can sit upstairs at the Bay Moorings restaurant and have a snack and a drink. http://baymooringsrestaurant.com/

This is a great place to go even if you are not taking the ferry.

Once on the ferry, which is a little scary the first time, you are parked and can get out of your car. The ferry has lounges, restaurant and a little souvenir shop. Most importantly for our daughter, you can charge your laptop !!

Going up the coast was wonderful. Pictures don't do it justice but here they are anyhow.

Its a 5 hour thing, getting from Vancouver to Powell River. That's if you do not miss a ferry and have to wait for a couple of hours for the next one. More soon.