So… I guess the next part of the story is the house. The new house is roughly the same size as our
current house only it’s got a layout that’s better suited to our family and the
location is the best part. Our house in the
US has a formal living room that we rarely use, a playroom AND a basement rec
room (because we’ve had toddlers most of the time we’ve lived here and needed
adult-only areas to relax) and the boys are sharing a 10x11 bedroom, which is
fine, but since there are almost 4 years between them, not necessarily
ideal. The new house in contrast has a
living/dining room area upstairs (along with a kitchen that’s smaller, but I’m
reserving judgment until after living in it a few months) a huge rec room
downstairs that we’ll all fit in and 5 bedrooms. This means the 3 kids will be upstairs at the
end of the main hall and the parents will be downstairs with an office right
next to us. Once those kiddos are in
bed, the downstairs is OURS! Which is
good since the new house also has no ensuite, rather it’s a bathroom whose
plumbing has been put in, but the bathroom is not “finished” save a toilet
which does work.
For those who aren’t aware, homes in the Great North are generally sold with the basement unfinished. So the entire living area (ie: kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living room) is upstairs and the basement is a cement block, maybe the furnace and laundry are down there… basically the set up of my very first house, if you’ll recall. Anyways, then most people go on to add a bedroom or two, a 2nd bathroom and a rec room. So when you see a house listed in the area in which we are moving, you’ll typically see a square footage listed of only the main floor… in our case 1080 square feet. The house was built in the 1970s. Having lived in a 1950s house and a 1990s house we feel we are prepared for the inevitable upgrades and repairs. Luckily the former owners were not planning to move 4 doors down the street to a slightly bigger house and every year were doing upgrades. This means the windows, roof, bathroom, floors (no carpet, woohoo!) have all been done/upgraded as well as the downstairs is mostly done with the 2 finished bedrooms and rec room. This also means there’s still some “projects”. But more on those in a minute.
For those who aren’t aware, homes in the Great North are generally sold with the basement unfinished. So the entire living area (ie: kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living room) is upstairs and the basement is a cement block, maybe the furnace and laundry are down there… basically the set up of my very first house, if you’ll recall. Anyways, then most people go on to add a bedroom or two, a 2nd bathroom and a rec room. So when you see a house listed in the area in which we are moving, you’ll typically see a square footage listed of only the main floor… in our case 1080 square feet. The house was built in the 1970s. Having lived in a 1950s house and a 1990s house we feel we are prepared for the inevitable upgrades and repairs. Luckily the former owners were not planning to move 4 doors down the street to a slightly bigger house and every year were doing upgrades. This means the windows, roof, bathroom, floors (no carpet, woohoo!) have all been done/upgraded as well as the downstairs is mostly done with the 2 finished bedrooms and rec room. This also means there’s still some “projects”. But more on those in a minute.
So about the location.
The location is great! It’s NEXT
door to the kids’ school. Granted I may not be extolling the greatness of this
after having balls end up in my backyard, kids yelling over the fence and the
general noise at twice a day recesses. However,
at this time I’m writing sitting in carline. I have only 34 more days after
this to wait in carline, and yes, I’m counting.
We live too close to have a bus, but it’s almost a mile to walk-each way
which means with a 2 ½ year old in tow you either have to try to strap her into
a stroller or it will take 2 ½ hours (not exaggerating…2:20pm to 4:45pm) to
make the round trip walk. I am pretty
stoked to get the kids all parkaed up and wave from the window with my hot cup
of coffee in my pajamas as they waddle along a la A Christmas Story in the
snowdrifts to school.
We have one neighbor on the opposite side- a single woman
with a friendly dog. Yep, a dog we can
visit with but don’t have to fee, walk or otherwise do anything for. Behind us is a greenbelt of walnut trees that
cannot be cut down due to the presence of an endangered tree lizard. Beyond the greenbelt in 4-5 years they will
build houses. Probably nice ones and we’ll be behind one of the nicer, pie
shaped corner lots. On the other side of
the houses is a walking/biking trail with more trees. In our actual yard there are 3 mature cherry
trees, a Honey Locust tree (little tiny leaves) a Western Ash and a fir
tree. I know, sigh, moss and lawn issues
galore. I will say I will miss my beautiful jungle like expanse of lawn until I
can whip the new one into shape. Luckily I saw a Trugreen truck the other day
and plan to stalk it until they come help me fix up the grass. In the meantime, I once again ended up with a
sloped yard (maybe house #4 will be a charm?) so there’s some landscaping that
will happen.
Speaking of projects.
You know how I love a good project and have been kind of itching since
we’ve had our US house Honey Do list done for about 2 years now. Here’s our to do list for the new house:
1)
Sewer fix-done…
the house was sold knowing that there was an issue with the sewer
pipe. The week after we bought the
house, we flew back for spring Break to start on the project list and this was
the first priority. Good thing, too
since the break ended up being a true break, not just a crack and it was 5 feet
from the foundation. The good news was
it was fixed in half of a day for less than we expected because they dug less than they expected.
2)
New furnace-done… we knew there was an issue
from the inspection with the furnace. We
thought it was a repair, but I’d noted on my list “save money for a new furnace”
and sure enough the other one has some sort of leak and needed replacing” The new one, I’m happy to report is very
efficient and very quiet.
3)
New water heater-estimated…. Water heaters are
commonly rented there. It’s getting less
and less now that people are realizing that a contract on a water heater means
that in the time you rent one you could have bought 2 or 3 of them outright, so
when we saw the tank was a rental, we planned on waiting for a sale. The furnace
guy informed us once the bathroom is done, it will no longer be up to code and
must be upgraded. However, he was
pleasantly surprised (as were we) when we discovered that a tankless was only
$500 more than the upgraded one we need due to the furnace room being entered
from the bathroom.
4)
Paint-lots of it. Henri’s room is done, Valerie’s is almost
done, our bedroom and office still need to be painted, the rest looks good.
5)
Bathroom completed-the plumbing is in, we need
to design and complete the work. As part
of it, we’ll tile the laundry/furnace room as well and also move to door to the
laundry room (Paul’s suggested a pocket door) since the previous owners put the
vanity right in the traffic of the two doors of the bathroom and the laundry room
and moving the door is easier than moving plumbing and electric.
6)
New siding, move windows down in back, new
window in Henri’s room…. This should be done this month while we are wrapping
things up south of the border. The old
siding was aluminum, probably original to the house and the back windows are
really high but new windows, so we’re moving them down 6 inches while the sidings off and putting in
a bigger window in Henri’s room. The
current window is a typical bathroom size and can’t be wider due to the garage
location, but can be longer due to the location of the window in front of the
closet, where there will not be any furnature anyways.
7)
New front door-maybe…definitely adding deadbolts…
the original door is dated, but we may just paint and spruce it up a little.
And add a deadbolt. Apparently the new neighborhood is super safe-no deadbolts
anywhere.
8)
Outside-there’s a beautiful deck and gazebo area
that needs to be stained this summer, I want to put my own stamp on the garden
that’s currently there, would love to add a hot tub, and the steep slope makes
me want to add some stairs or terracing and some landscaping. Also the issue of
the weedy, mossy lawn. I’d also like to
do a shade loving ground cover under the cherry trees to avoid cleaning up pits
and add a little path from the front yard around to the back.
9)
New insulation-in process… the insulation’s
original and during inspection we found it had been home to a raccoon. Before we even sent the paperwork back to the
owners they tore out the old insulation, put in new, thicker insulation in the attic. We need to insulate above the garage still
and when the siding is added they’ll add more insulation around the edge of the
house-should be much toastier this winter.
10)
Kitchen????
The new kitchen is quite a bit smaller than my current kitchen, even
before you add in the fact that there’s no pantry. BUT it may be manageable
since we’re close to the store and Paul will be working from home. So, I plan to live with it over the summer
(not that we’ll have extra time available to do anything with it anyway-I have
other priorities) but between the fact we feel we got a fair deal on the new
house and sold our old house for more than we expected, if by the fall I can’t
fit into the new kitchen, we’ll be making some changes. Also, the range may have a limited life and
the microwave (above the range) is not working at this time.
The U.S. House…
We did not realize the difference 2 years would make on the
value of our house. 2 years ago, we were
struggling to get what we paid for it in 2004 when we moved in. This time? We
put it up for $50K more than we bought it for and got 11 offers in one weekend
for thousands of dollars over asking.
The first morning after we came home (we put it on the market while we
were back at the new house) I thanked God profusely for his timing and the fact
that I didn’t have to keep the house clean with 3 kids for random timed
showings. It was crazy. Either the
market is looking up or there’s a gold mine under our house we weren’t aware
of. There was literally a line to get into
the house Sunday. Crazy! The Canada
house was a good price too. For its location, we were looking at other houses
in worse shape that were listed for $20K-$40K more. Between the two, we’re thankful for trusting
in God’s timing and patience and also much more relaxed about repair costs that
pop up and moving costs, and government fees and taxes related to the move.
Oh, wait, you want pictures, do you? I have some, I didn't take great angles, but they'll give you some ideas.... I'll put them in the next post.
