It's starting to feel real

It's three years since that day in Melbourne, when we made the offer on the acre in Nova Scotia. In those three years we've bought the land, we're 95% complete with house plans and a landscape plan. We've booked tickets for a visit in August, and we're planning to move to there in early April 2015. When I re-read that, it sounds like a heck of a lot of progress in three short years, but it's actually felt like a lot of slow motion to us (who will not be remembered for our patience!). Here's the quick version of how we got from April 2011 to here -- less than a year out from moving back to Canada.

2011 -- offer to ownership
The offer was quickly accepted, and all we needed to do was satisfy our only condition -- that one of us stood on the land, and liked the feel of it. David was more flexible with his working hours at the time, so he headed off to do the deed. When he rang me from a phone box to report "mission accomplished", he sounded a bit miserable. It was raining and cold, he'd been en route for 36-ish hours, and what we thought was a flat acre, actually sloped downhill in the back corner. But over the next few days he walked the land over and over, declared it a good piece of land, and we bought it.

In November 2011, our dear friends T + J came to New Zealand for the first time. That trip is a story in itself, but the short version is that J got shingles in her head, was seriously sick, and was housebound for 5 weeks. The upside to that story was that we had two architects captive in our house, observing our patterns and habits. With nothing else to do, they drew a floor plan for our Nova Scotia nest. Our new house started taking shape in our imaginations.

2012 -- we both stand on the land

The christening party.

14 months later, in July 2012, we both stood on the land together, and T + J (fully recovered) came to see it too. I loved it. Loved It. David was very relieved. Turns out he was worried that maybe I'd get here and be disappointed. But no. I immediately felt that this was a special piece of land. Yes it was sunny, the birds were chirping, and there was huge patch of wild raspberries down the back (sold!). But those things aside, it just felt like home, right away, and I was happy.

A new method of surveying.

Before this visit, we spent many hours online looking for a builder and landscaper. We zeroed in on Denim Homes, who seemed to have the best local expertise and reputation for energy efficient house construction, and Down to Earth landscapers, who we just sensed would be a good fit for us. (OK, judging purely from the photos on their website, I loved them.) This visit was a chance to see if the chemistry was right -- to see if we felt comfortable entrusting a big part of our dream to these people. It was, and we did. The people at Denim were smart, knowledgeable, and gave us confidence our nest would be in the best hands. Kari from Down to Earth stood with us on the land, listened to us dreaming out loud, then said matter-of-factly "I get it! You want to live in a nature park!". We'd picked a good team.

2013 -- bound for Nova Slowtia

2013 was the year I seriously started wondering if this project would Ever Happen. It took more than 2 months to move a few thousand dollars between our bank on Main St Wolfville to the builder's bank a few kilometers down the road. Don't ask me why, except that internet banking ain't what it used to be! That one transaction involved faxes and mail and real signatues in real ink and a cheque to be picked up at the branch teller! But we got there. 

We've spent the best part of 18 months going back and forth with the house plans, getting various options costed. We mostly communicate by email, and occasionally have a Skype meeting. We are almost at the point of signing the contract with the builder. Still ironing out a few details.

We lost contact with the landscaper for most of 2013, but we persisted and we're now all busily sorting out the components of our nature park. There won't be an inch of lawn on the whole acre. How about that! 

2014 -- the home stretch?
If you drove up to the acre on Orchard Ave today, you wouldn't think "home stretch". It looks exactly as it was three years ago when David stood on it for the first time, and two years ago when I stood on it for the first time -- scrubby and full of promise.

But the dream is getting closer. We'll visit again in August and spend a couple of weeks finalising all the fixtures and finishes for the house, and maybe even watch the bulldozers roll in and start clearing the building site. We'll walk the future pathways, say hello to the fledgling orchard which will likely be partially planted by then. I'm going to pick a very special tree and plant it myself -- a tree to watch carefully, and get to know, as I get to know the land. I am going to have to learn a whole new way of gardening in this place -- a new scale (the acre is 24 times bigger than our current section), a new climate (there will be real winter!), a new flora and fauna altogether. I'm going to want a special tree with me on that journey. 

In the beginning.....

We were in Melbourne, Australia, when we decided to make an offer to the owner of this one-acre lot on Orchard Avenue in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. That was in mid-April 2011.

By then, we already had our sights on Wolfville as the next destination on our journey together – a journey that started in a corporate boardroom in Vancouver in 1995 and that, nine years later, took us to New Zealand - initially to Arrowtown and, after a few years, to our current nest in Wellington.

I don’t recall when we settled on Wolfville as our next destination. But that decision was followed by countless hours trolling through listings on mls.ca and Property Guys looking at houses, none of which stirred us. We had renovated two nests already, so knew that what-you-see doesn’t have to be what-you-get. But even renovations have to live within the existing bones of a nest.

We were ready for a fresh start. For a nest where no nest currently existed. I don’t know which of us came to the light bulb moment first – why not build our own nest from scratch? – but it immediately energized us. No more peeking through listing windows. Just show us the wide open spaces, thank you very much.

And that’s what happened on Orchard Avenue. It began as a Property Guys listing, followed by email exchanges with the owner; exchanges that continued while we were on our Melbourne holiday. Then an offer, a counter-offer and then an accepted offer. All by email.

Technology had taken us this far, but a real journey was required to complete the deal. Actually, we could have closed the deal long-distance, but for one tiny detail – neither of us had actually stood on this land, had not walked it, nor gazed up from under the tree (actually two intertwined trees) that dominated the posted images. That was a journey I needed to take.