Sunday October 25, 2015

Sunday, We spent the morning house hunting. This is not a good time to buy. Barrie’s house prices have gone up and the mortgage rates are at an all time low. It appears to be a sellers market.

There was one house that was a possibility. The house is a two-bedroom house with a finished basement, but when I think of the amount of stuff we have I am not sure where it will all fit.

Of course, we really need to downsize and get rid of a lot of the stuff. I had thought we had done that before we left on the Grand Adventure, but apparently didn’t get rid of enough stuff.

Monday, Today was job search day. I sent my resume to a couple of secretarial positions and also to MEC. MEC is where I really want to work. It is a retail position which I haven’t done in years, but it is an outdoor store with lots of neat stuff. I can sell bikes and clothes and camping stuff, I hope they give me an interview. There are some part-time casual positions available.

Ralf also applied for a back-stock room position at the same place, fingers crossed for both of us. Ralf has also applied for some additional training certificates. The government will pay for one-day training courses that cost less than $500.00. He is taking a Forklift Training course, Handling Gas and Propane, Health and Safety Course and a First Aid Course. That will give him the “little pieces of paper” that a lot of employers are asking for.

We met Bob and Gail for lunch. We stayed with them in Florida when we arrived in the US. They will be heading down to their winter home in Florida the middle of November.

Ralf and I also discussed the possibility of going to Thailand sooner rather than later.

Tuesday, More houses to look at and a serious chat about going to Thailand. If we don’t find a house by the middle of November, Thailand here we come. It will cost us the same amount of money going to Thailand as it will if we stay here for the winter and we will be cycling and it will be warmer.

Looked at the house that we saw on Sunday again. We have decided to put an offer in on this one. Time to downsize again and clear out stuff, do we really need dozens of beer glasses? It is not the perfect house, but it doesn’t need anything major doing to it and it will be a very nice house to rent out on short-term rentals. It is in a good location for the rental market, and in a nice location for when we want to settle down. It is close to stores, the library and not too far from the lake, I am still trying to convince myself that it is the right house for us.

Wednesday, a very cold, wet, windy day. A day to snuggle under a blanket and watch movies or read a book. I don’t have a book, my e.reader is in storage. Ralf is working on the computer. I will have to go to the library again and pick up a few books. I watched Still Alice, it was a great book and not a bad movie. I always find it difficult to watch a movie when I have read the book. Often you wonder if the movie maker actually read the book. In this instance, they did manage to follow the essence of the book.

An offer has been submitted on the house, and we are having it inspected by a home-inspector tomorrow, fingers-crossed there will be no surprises.

Thursday, Here we go again – a slight problem with the house. There is a tenant in the house who has not yet given his notice, we might not get the November closing we want or possibly a December closing! Maybe this is a sign. After more discussions about the pros and cons of this house and the fact that the owner did not want to negotiate at all we opted to take our offer of the table. I feel so relieved, I wasn’t sure this was the right place for us.

Ralf and I are both feeling really stressed about the whole house hunting/condo/rental situation. We are going to view one last condo and if this doesn’t work we will think about Thailand and/or renting for the winter, clear out what we don’t need and then search again in the spring.

Friday, What a difference a day makes!!

We have found a condo, put in an offer, it has been accepted and we will be moving into our “tiny” condo at the end of November. What an interesting week. Condo to house to condo. This condo is in the same block that we had previously put an offer on – the three bedroom condo that was over two storeys. After discussing the pros and cons of condo/house, we both realized that we didn’t want the house option. On the road we had been talking about down-sizing, not needing much, living small and simple. Within a week of coming back we were looking at three-bedroom townhouses with gardens to maintain, why?

The “tiny” condo  (722 sq ft), is two-bedroom, it is ground-floor which will be ideal for when we get older and cannot manage two flights of stairs! It has a lovely little patio area where we can sit outside in the summer and enough space that we can put a storage unit for two of the bikes, in the winter – the other two will be in the spare room which we will be using as our work-out room.

The amazing thing is that the front walk-way which has a little border garden has lavender already planted in it. Lavender is one of our favorite plants and to see it already flourishing in this little garden area told me this was the right place for us. I felt as if my Mum was looking down at me and saying this is what you need – small and simple with a little tiny garden that you can grow your herbs and tomato plants in the summer in planters. Thanks Mum for watching out for us.

The down-side of this is that we will not be able to do short-term rentals, but that is fine the condo was a lot less expensive than the houses and other condos we have viewed. We now have to clear out BIG time, it is liberating and I feel less stressed today than I have for a week or more.

We celebrated with a bottle of pretend champagne. Melinda said you have been really stressed not having a plan, not being able to get organized! Yep, although I had been living on a day to day basis on the road, I still had a plan. I knew where we were supposed to be in the next couple of days and how we needed to get there. Not having that structure in my life was driving me crazy.

Friday, Ralf went to take his Forklift Course. He knows how to drive a forklift, but everyone needs a certificate. The government paid for the course. Ralf went to catch the bus and half an hour later came flying back into the house – the bus didn’t show up. “Quick get my bike helmet, shoes etc” he shouts up the stairs and of he flew on his bike to where the course was being held.

I stayed at the house and did the washing, cleaning etc. a nice relaxing day for me.

Saturday, A relaxing start to the day and then off to do the shopping. Ralf wanted to buy a new granny cart and persuaded me to buy the Cadillac of granny carts! It has a capacity of 250 lbs, – 4 cases of beer and a small person!

I think it looks like a homeless persons cart, well if he doesn’t get a job at least he can go around the neighbourhood on recycle day and see what he can collect.

We watched the Rugby World Cup (Ralf had recorded it on PVR) – way to go All Blacks.