Don’t be Afraid to Take Whisks

Once we had a suitable amount of time to adjust and get over the jet lag it was time to get to business and start establishing ourselves as Canadian residents. Anyone who has immigrated will understand how much is involved and how hard it is to know where to start at times, the Canadian immigration guides are great but paper instructions are not always as easy in real life.

Our goal was to identify the right area to live and then buy ‘THE’ house. Our forever home where we could run a successful business, have time to enjoy life and discover what Canada has to offer. A place to make new memories and grow old after which point, we can leave everything to the nearest animal shelter pat ourselves on the back for a job well done before wheeling ourselves over the nearest cliff, it sounded idyllic!

We had been watching the housing market in Canada, specifically Ottawa very closely over the past few years, Covid had set off a chain reaction in the housing market. People were looking to move out of the city to more rural properties much the same as NZ which meant that by the time we landed in Ottawa, house prices were through the roof and there was little to no inventory, with property market experts predicting this trend to continue well into 2023.

It was becoming abundantly clear that we were going to struggle to find the right home that not only ticked our lengthy list of criteria but that would also be affordable. After all these years of dreaming of settling in Ottawa we had some thinking to do, we might need to produce a plan B.

It is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. – Charles Darwin

We had to go back to the drawing board which was not ideal when we were already in Ottawa and our pets, home, and workshop contents would be arriving in Ottawa imminently. The way we saw it we had three options:

Option 1 – We continued travelling from one AirBnB to the next until the market changed or we found the right house all the while chewing into our savings with short term rentals, boarding kennels, and storage fees.

Option 2 – We rented a property long term that would allow 3 cats and a dog (which is nigh on impossible), probably lose any deposit due to our cat’s inability to refrain from scratching the crap out of everything while living under house arrest, probably lose one of the cats who are notorious escapologists (one less cat to scratch stuff I guess!) and lose money hand over fist on ridiculously expensive rent payments not to mention landlords kicking you out at a moment’s notice.

Option 3 – We moved to a different province that not only had a better inventory of houses on the market but at a price we could afford even getting a bargain. Whilst it may cost us money initially to alter the arrangements with Immigration, the shipping company and Jet Pets and get there, we could get ourselves the property we wanted without paying the earth and still have some savings.

We explored all three options extensively, long term rentals were expensive, hard to come by and few were pet friendly, Airbnb’s were expensive and hard to come by particularly pet friendly one’s especially as we were heading towards the warmer months and if we moved to another province entirely where would we go? Would it still have the right population demographic and cultural/arts elements to enhance the success of the business?

Life happens. Adapt, embrace change, and make the most of everything that comes your way.

When we first started our immigration journey, we recalled a conversation that we had with our visa specialist about Nova Scotia some areas of which had a strong arts influence but being a smaller province with a smaller population we felt at the time that a bigger province would provide us with more opportunities for the business.

Perhaps now it was time to see what Nova Scotia (New Scotland) had to offer. One of the positives to come out of the Covid outbreak is that it had changed the identity of the province. Well known for its beautiful scenery, dramatic coastline, great food, and even greater people it had a history of being Canada’s poor man’s cousin with an unforgiving job market, low wages, high taxes, and poor infrastructure but times had changed.

With a population of just under a million people NS was now a growing province, the influx of ‘incomers’ from other provinces looking for a change of pace, to start a new business or get a property bargain had helped to buoy up the economy. There was still a good housing inventory without the heavy price tags we were seeing in other provinces, the job market was stable in fact employers were crying out workers and wages were slowly catching up.

Our interest was piqued even more when we got on a realtor website and started looking at the houses available for sale in NS. This option really had the most potential, but it also had the most risk, we had already taken a huge risk by packing up our life and immigrating should we really be chancing our luck and taking another? We had some thinking to do.

As had become the routine of late we set off in the snow on one of the many local trails, a trail that we had walked through many times before not only was it great exercise, but it was where we had our best conversations and did our best thinking (well most of the time anyway). We discussed the implications of a move to NS and the drastic change of plans at such a late stage, we questioned whether we were crazy for even thinking of upping sticks and moving on again.

We knew categorically that our friends and family would think we were 100% crazy and that we did not have a clue as to what we were doing, they would not be entirely wrong but with the universe on our side anything was possible right!

You won’t miss a sign from the universe, it will keep getting louder and louder until you get it.

Well, the universe gave us a sign on this walk that we could not miss! As mentioned previously, we had been on this trail many times over the past few days and weeks and whilst we were charmed to see the odd Christmas baubles dangling from trees, we had not spotted anything else other than squirrels scurrying across branches.

But as we were having this in-depth conversation about our future direction and the risks, we were contemplating, we came across a sign that we could not miss …. I mean it was an actual sign for goodness sakes! We could not have been more stunned if we had been smacked in the face with a shovel.

Hanging from a tree either newly hung or previously un-noticed by us was a sign saying, “Don’t be afraid to take whisks.” The universe was practically shouting at us, and we could not ignore it. It had been decided! It was time to jump in at the deep end risk be damned! Nova Scotia here we come.