Movin' to "The County"

Well like one of my favourite bloggers Farm Girl we are thinking of making the big plunge of selling this ridiculously expensive house and moving to "The County". Which is Prince Edward County in Ontario Canada. It is a beautiful island that is just starting to be discovered by tourists in search of antiques, good wine, (and Black River cheese) along with all the arts and crafts created by the artisans that live there.

I went there to visit my parents who both live in Belleville, which is just over the bridge from the County. I also went to check out some real estate. Tim was coming up by train late Friday night so I was supposed to qualify some of the places we had found on our MLS search during the week while I was there. I did some major running around and my Dad was good enough to come along and his girlfriend Pat babysat Quinn and Leah tagged along with us.

What a crazy busy time and trying to sleep at night was impossible. My brain wouldn't be quiet and Leah kept flopping on top of me all night and my mom snoring in the other room made for alot of lost hours of sleep. The excitement of finding a great place to live definitely kept me going though.

So by Saturday I had it down to 4 properties one of which I hadn't seen but was the property that started it all and then there was a big victorian with only a wee bit of land and a house with 2 outbuildings that all looked like it was about to fall down but it was in a prime location for tourist traffic. Then there was this Farm that I had seen the day before, sigh... it was so beautiful there, I fell in love before I knew what hit me. I didn't say much to Tim other than "you've got to see this place, it's really nice".

Our adventure started at the house on the river with two cute barns and a newer raised bungalow. The location was good, the house was in great shape and roomy and the views were spectacular. The odd thing was we both felt that the acre and 1/4 lot seemed too confining.

Next we went to The Farm. The owner, Sid, was waiting for us with raincoats and an ATV with a trailer to haul Tim, myself our real estate agent, the kids and my mom back to the back of the 80 acre farm. What a great ride we all had fun bumping along the trails and admiring the 400 trees planted in '76 and the 4000 trees that had been planted in '81 along with the 50 acres that his neighbour rented off of him to farm. Also behind the house is an evironmentally protected marsh.

It was a bit shocking how big 80 acres really is. The property reached back a mile and 1/4. We decided then and there that the ATV would have to be part of the purchase of this place.

I really thought Tim would like the place but lean more towards the riverfront property so I kept watching him to gauge his reaction. We ended up staying there and checking everything out for about an hour and a half. I think Sid and his wife Marg really liked us and the kids had them laughing with all their antics in the hay loft. Sid's daughter and her family live right next door, actually, come to think of it they are about the only neighbour you can actually see!

When Tim and I finally got a moment alone to talk I found that he had the exact same reaction to the place that I did, you just feel like you can really breath. Like you finally are able to take a huge deep breath after ages of breathing very shallow. I described it to Tim that it was like your chest just got opened up so that your soul can step out and take a real stretch.

Now we number crunch, which really means we make up numbers that we think it will cost to live there and then come up with numbers of what we think a business like what we want to create will make. Then we hope that the 2 match up! Ridiculous or what? We have been talking and planning and talking about doing this for 4 years (it was our 5 year plan) I say F**K it and we just do it and then work our butts off to stay afloat. I don't care if I have to work for minimum wage at a grocery store or hardware store I just want a chance to do what we have always wanted to do. Set up a studio create our creations, sell them from our studio/home and online and at craft/wholesale shows and just plain go for it.

We shall see, Tim's going to see it another time with his Dad in 2 weeks. I hate waiting!!!