Finding the One

Viewing the property in Bear River came with much anticipation, having previously been hoodwinked by real estate photographers we were keeping an open mind about what we would find when we arrived, that being said we still had a good feeling about this one!

Much to our surprise and delight this property was not only the same in real life as it was in the photos, but the description was accurate too. It ticked off almost all of the extensively long criteria on list –

• Rural location – CHECK
• Close to a shop; the nearest convenience store was a 15-minute drive – CHECK
• Close to a town; the closest town was Digby a 30-minute drive, but Digby was a small town with not much as far as retail to offer – NOT IDEAL
• Tourist location: Bear River is known as an artist’s enclave and draw for tourists – CHECK
• Big garden, woods if possible; just over an acre partly wooded – CHECK (but could be better)
• Quiet road – CHECK
• Plenty of room for family to visit; 5 bedrooms, lounge, dining room and basement ready for converting …. say no more! – CHECK
•  Workshop: The property had a large garage and adjacent woodshed – NOT IDEAL

Truth be told we really liked the property, and it looked like it would be a comfortable home to live in but was it perfect for us and did it knock us on our butts and shout “I’m the one you have been looking for, buy me, buy me” as soon as we walked through the door, no not really. We had fallen in love with Nova Scotia and its people, we now wanted a property to fall in love with, we liked this property a lot but was it love?

When you aim for perfection, you discover it is a moving target.

The workshop was not as big as we had hoped, having enough room to fit all the tools, equipment, machinery, and customers comfortably was critical but we could work with the garage and shed until we had something built. The biggest sticking point was the garden size, Lord Martin was unable to hide his disappointed in the lack of acreage that came with the property, being accustomed to thirty-one acres of Manuka and native bush to stroll through in New Zealand Martin was now fearful that his title of the ‘Landed Gentry’ would be stripped from him.

Those issues aside it had so many other things going for it like not having a river running through the basement and thankfully no rats …. At least not in the hundreds – Did you know that a group of rats is known as a mischief? Personally, I would have thought it would have been a plague but what do I know!

We discussed our thoughts about the property on the thirty-minute drive back to the Lilly Pad, were we being too fussy? We would be lying if we said that we were not influenced by the pressure to find anywhere to live so that we could stop haemorrhaging our savings in Air BnB’s and pet boarding, we knew we were running out of time and that if we did not find a house that we were happy with we would seriously need to consider long term rental.

With that in mind we decided that the Bear River property had far more ticks than crosses (thankfully not the eight-legged critter kind) so we let the realtor know of our intention to put an offer on the property as soon as we walked through the door to the Lilly Pad. The property was being listed for a lot more than properties would have sold for pre-covid but none the less we were prepared to offer the asking price. What we were not prepared for was the sheer number of other people who had also put an offer in on the property. There was the catch.

The thought of all the competition for the property left us with a sinking feeling, whilst we were prepared to offer what we thought it was worth which was just over the asking price we were not going to get into a bidding war. Where covid property prices had worked in our favour in New Zealand those same covid property prices were about to bite us in the rear end!

Our offer was not accepted, and the property went for far more than the listing price and far more than it was worth. Naturally, we were disheartened that the first property that we liked and did not require condemning was snapped up before we could blink and at an extortionate price, were we ever going to find the house of our dreams?

We had some seriously high hopes when immigrating to Canada, this was supposed to be the land of milk, syrup and cheaper properties so why was finding ‘Our’ house proving to be so difficult.

Take a deep breath. Crack open the wine. Start again.

So, it was back to the drawing board, not only was time running out for us to find somewhere to live but our time at the Lilly Pad was ending. In just over a week, we would have to pack up our bags once again (okay I am telling fibs because there was nothing to pack, we have been living out of our bags for months) and Lola and head to the next Air BnB in Liverpool which is a few minutes shy of a two-hour drive from Annapolis Royal.

We had to make this time count not only in terms of enjoying the company of our wonderful new friends and exploring more of the Annapolis Royal a place we would dearly love to live but house hunting too. We still had about five local properties that we had ear marked with regards to viewing, they all had potential but did not quite tick all the boxes but some while ago I had spotted a property in a place called Bridgewater that I liked the look of, it matched all of our criteria but because it was over an hour away from Annapolis I put it to one side, perhaps it was time to reconsider.

Time is your most precious resource; make every minute count.

At the suggestion of the Realtor, we carried out a drive by (not shooting, just to be clear) of the five local properties before viewing to save wasting both her time and ours, you can tell a lot about a property by doing this and boy are we glad we did, those annoying realtor photographers had been at it again! To say these properties lacked curb appeal was an understatement, that statement is not totally accurate because the curb was on the front doorstep of one of the properties, our cats would have lasted five minutes before becoming roadkill.

We needed to widen the net on the property catchment area as we had fast run out of local property options and for some reason the property in Bridgewater was calling to me, I had looked at the photos and property description so many times I knew it by heart. I knew that I needed to see it, it ticked EVERY box on our list.

• Within our budget – YES,
• Plenty of bedrooms – YES,
• Huge basement for converting – YES,
• Rural setting but close to the shops and I mean proper shops – YES,
• Set back from the road – YES
• Huge workshop with an upper and lower level – YES
• A beautiful and large garden – YES
• Out buildings including a large shed and sugar shack for making maple syrup – YES
• Fifty forested acres with maple trees already tapped – YES YES YES!

Bolstered by that inner voice I told Martin that we had to book a viewing for this house, I had a distinct feeling that we were being steered towards it, and I hoped to goodness that the universe was not leading us up the garden path.

Bridgewater was a completely different area to Annapolis and looked after by a different team of realtors, it took us a while to get through to the Realtor for this property but when we did, we knew one hundred percent that this property was going to be ours, the sign from the universe did nothing short of smack us upside the head and say “finally”.  

We could not believe our luck not only was our realtor Claire from the UK, but she also hailed from Kent having studied at the same college as Martin the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Rochester, at the same time. Now I know it is a small world but come on! What are the odds?   

In our immigration journey we have been blessed with our realtors firstly with the lovely Jenn who sold our property in New Zealand and now with Claire. Talking to Claire was like talking to an old friend, we felt like we had known her for years. We were able to reminisce over all the things we missed about the UK like Marmite, Bisto Gravy, Iron Bru, pickled onion Monster Munch the list went on.

We trusted Claire, she was incredibly open and honest right from the get-go and let us know that we couldn’t hang around with this property because they were taking offers the following day, all bids had to be in by Sunday night (tomorrow) and a decision would be made on Monday, so we had to view that property now. Time was against us.

We hightailed it to Bridgewater and the property in Baker Settlement to meet Claire in person, not only was Claire just as vibrant and funny in person but I had also met my potty mouth match, I had found a fellow sailor finally.

Science of swearing: Researchers reveal ‘sounding like a sailor’ may be a sign of intelligence, creativity and has superpowers that help us endure more pain.

The first thing to greet us at the back door was a sign saying “Kevin can be let out if he wants” … Kevin was the little black and white kitty pressing his jellybean paws on the patio door demanding his freedom. Far be it for us to deny him we opened the door letting Kevin step out as we stepped in (Kevin followed us back in shortly after) and it was at that moment that we were knocked on our butts and the house shouted, “I’m the one you have been looking for, buy me, buy me”!