Burke is Going to be a Farm Dog

When the thought of selling our beautiful home came up early last year, we had a new baby on the way, and had just got settled in... people thought we were crazy. The market was as hot as ever, and homes were selling within hours of being listed for way over asking price. We thought it over and decided that selling could only do one thing for us - put us in a better position for the future, regardless of where it put us in the mean time.

Our dream has been to find a plot of land somewhere in the country, but not too far from town. We wanted to have a large lot for Leo, Burke, and any future family additions to play in. We wanted kids to be able to be kids, and for Mitch to be able to run tools at 7am or 9pm without getting noise complaints from the neighbours. We wanted to be able to walk inside with 17 grocery bags in hand - Mitch always says I'm the one trip wonder - without having pesky neighbours who hang out two feet from our driveway asking if we're busy or have time to chat... because clearly a baby, a dog, and 17 bags in my hand screams 'please tell me about how cold it was at your cottage this weekend'.

Essentially, we wanted privacy.

Once we decided it was the right choice for us, we started thinking about what we were going to do in the mean time. Usually people want closing dates within a couple of months of the sale, so we needed to check our options for living arrangements. Mitch had been studying the market and the trends, and knew that buying again right away - whether a lot or a home in the country - was not the right decision. The market needed to slow down, and we needed to be patient. We got lucky, as my mom has a rental property, and her current tenant was going to be moving out at the end of the summer.

We sold our home, and the closing date was August 8th, 2017. It was a bittersweet feeling for me, even though it was the right move. We had made so many memories there. It was the first place we lived in together, it was where Leo came home from the hospital, and we had done a few DIY projects specifically for the spaces in that home. We made our own industrial looking bookshelf (and learned how to weld), some floating shelves in the washroom, and done a backsplash and complete wall in brick tiles in the kitchen. We had been making it more and more like home.

Needless to say, we would be making more memories wherever we went, so the hunt began.

It was only 8 months, but it felt like forever. We searched and searched, we looked at lots, & fixer uppers, on MLS, on kijiji, and every other outlet we could think of. We were staring at the computer screen after long days of work hoping something new would pop up, and we were driving from one end of the county to the other on nights and weekends to see if any places had potential. We had exhausted all options, all while packing up and trekking around Leo and Burke each time. We had a couple of offers out there, but we got beat out. We lost sleep over wondering whether those overpriced places would have been perfect for us, even if at the top of our budget. We didn't realize that it would be so exhausting and that just the perfect thing at a price we could accept might not exist.

What we did know, however, was that there would eventually be something that felt like home, and we just needed to be patient. Even when one offer fell through, there were other things coming out that were getting us excited. We waited, and waited... then boom, this lot came on the market at 4pm on a Friday afternoon. It checked all of our boxes. It was one acre, backed onto farmland, had no neighbours anywhere near by, and the biggest one was that it was close to family. It was about three minutes away from Mitch's dads house. We drove by the lot at 6pm on a dark November Friday night when Mitch got off of work. At that moment, we called our real estate agent, Eric Mickee, and the offer was signed and ready to go in for 8am the next day. After losing out on some other properties - that now look mediocre compared to this one - we were not ready to let this one go.

This is where we want to build our home, and our family.

We are excited to say... the lot is OURS! We couldn't be more excited. We have been out there a bunch of times now - even just to ponder our dreams and see what our options are, and each time we get this heartwarming feeling that we're going to be able to raise our family. This exact lot is the reason we sold our home and started on this venture.

- Bailey

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