You Had Me at Hello

As ridiculous as it sounds, we knew we wanted to buy this house as soon as we walked in to the first room! We had entered the main living area of the house from the patio door off the back deck and were lost for words as soon as we stepped inside.

We were awe struck by the kaleidoscope of light and colour that filled the room, the large windows framed the forested backdrop like a painting and the cerulean sky dazzled us from the skylights above. The sheer amount of floor space made the room feel cavernous, even with an open plan setting with kitchen, diner, and lounge there was still plenty of room to spare, so much so that we could imagine ourselves roller skating around the laminate floor of the room … We might also have been inspired the gymnasium appearance of the flooring, which was odd looking and would be one of the first things to go (Yep, I was talking like the property was ours).

Everywhere we turned in the room we were met with light coloured pine, the ceiling, the skirting boards, window frames, kitchen cupboards, and furniture, anywhere else it would have been very reminiscent of a Swedish sauna but it seemed to work in this space and we loved it, in fact we loved it so much that we sat at the breakfast bar chatting with Claire just soaking up the atmosphere and character of the room (for at least 30 minutes I might add), we felt like it was our home already. It was peaceful, warm, light, airy and gave us the warm fuzzies.

I could tell that Martin felt as I did and that we had just found ‘our’ house, but Lord Martin was wearing his poker face for Claire and was reserving any judgement. I wish I could say that I was cool, calm, and collected, I was anything but! In fact, I was about as transparent as a pane of glass (freshly cleaned too).

We finally moved out of the living area to view the rest of the house, with Martin walking ahead I yanked Claire back by her arm and all but shook her hysterically while whisper-shouting” what do we need to do to make it ours?”  Claire replied laughing “don’t hold back love, tell me how you really feel”. We had fallen in love with this property (okaaayyy…. One room so far) it really ‘had us at hello’.

Having just revealed my hand and scared the bejeebers out of Claire in dramatic fashion I thought it wise at that point to catch up with Martin and look at the rest of the house and check that there were no Godzilla sized rats and rivers the size of the Nile in the basement.

The rest of the upper level contained a large master and spare bedroom as well as a smaller third bedroom. There was an office area, large utility room, bathroom and surprisingly storage space up the wazoo, and although you could see that the rooms were a little tired and in need of TLC the potential was clear as day.

The lower level was equally impressive with another bedroom, toilet and living area all bedecked in pine in the true Swedish sauna style but this was the house that kept on giving because when we walked through a door into the last remaining room, we found a space that was big enough to play hockey in, I kid you not! This room was so big that the property owner’s grandchildren obviously played hockey in it in the colder months as evidenced by the hockey goal, pucks littering the floor and puck shaped holes decorating the walls.

This property had more than enough room for us and for family to visit without being on top of each other not to mention rental potential, more than satisfied with the house it was time to move on to the workshop or barn as they call it in these parts. The all-important workshop could be the deal breaker, okay that is a big fat lie because as far as I was concerned the house was ours and if needs be Martin could work in the shed, or the greenhouse.

This property was blowing us away at every turn and aside from the gymnasium floor, baby blue vinyl sidings and blue and red roof you could see from space it was hard to find any negatives, even Claire was impressed with how beautiful the house was and how well it had been presented compared with some of the houses worthy of their own horror movie that she had shown to clients.

Walking into the barn for the very first time we finally saw Martin’s guard slip, his eyes grew round as saucers and his little face lit up at the clean, open, and dry space, space that went on and on with not a nail or rusty pointed farm implement in sight.

The barn was perfect, we could envision the amazing workshop space that it could be! There was more than enough room for Martin’s tools, equipment, and machinery plus so much more in fact I could see all the synapses firing in Martin’s brain and drool glistening from his mouth as he began salivating over all the new tools he could buy.

The house and barn had won us over it was time for us to check out the garden and for this we needed a professional, this would be Lola’s area of expertise! As soon as we got Lola out of the Warlock and into her harness the next door neighbour’s dog a Pitt Bull cross called Brute (at least that was the name the neighbours were shouting) came through the little path that stretched between the properties and introduced himself, needless to say Brute and Lola hit it off and with reluctance we managed to coax Lola onto the forest track while Brute scampered home.

We read in the realtor marketing description that the property came with fifty acres of forest and 300-400 metres of river frontage, and we wanted to see it, so we dragged Claire much to her dismay (it was tick season after all …. actually, every season is tick season) down the extremely well-made road that led away from the back of the house and into the forest.

The forest in NZ was so very much different to the forest in NS, this was the forest we knew, this forest felt like coming home. Pine, Beech, Maple, and Oak trees surrounded us and stretched as far as the eye could see. Ferns bowed at our feet and gently brushed our legs as we passed (are you imagining all those ticks crawling up our legs?? I’m not paranoid, your paranoid). The damp, rich smell of the earth was like mother nature’s perfume, mosses, and lichens in varying shades of green covered the ground like a soft, spongy carpet leading us down to the river’s edge where we almost wept at the sight that lay before us, it was so beautiful.

The time for reserving judgement was over (for Martin anyway) we had seen all we needed to see of the property and land, our viewing which should have taken approximately thirty minutes took two hours, the property owner had even returned and was parked down on the road waiting for us to leave, so after returning Kevin the cat to the safety of the house we met Claire at our car, it was time to talk business.

We wanted this house; it was perfect for us, and we could see all our dreams unfolding before us every time we looked at it. We asked Claire to put her cards on the table and tell us what she knew about the property owners, their expectations and how many other people were interested and thinking of putting in an offer.

All offers had to be submitted by midday tomorrow and at that stage no one had put an offer in on the property, Claire felt that we had a good chance at success and agreed that we should offer the asking price in the first instance, so that is what we did. To say that we drove back to the Lilly Pad brimming with hope and excitement was an understatement, we could not wait to tell our besties next door.

Dare to dream big dreams. For those are the dreams that have the power, to push your entire world forward.

Sleep evaded us that night, we sent all our positive thoughts out to the universe to make the house ours and talked into the wee hours of the morning about the life we could have and all our hopes and dreams for the property. Well into our second cup of coffee on ‘D’ day we got a phone call from Claire, four more offers were now on the table and Claire wanted to know if we were prepared to offer a bit more over the asking price. We wanted this house but at the end of the day we could not afford to make ourselves bankrupt for it, we stretched the budget as much as we could afford and left our fate in the hands of the universe and Claire.

Waiting is the hardest work of hope.

We were so disappointed that there had been other offers but not altogether surprised. We now had to wait until midday to discover whether we had secured our forever home, a place that we had fallen head over heels in love with or whether were back to square one living out of bags like hobbo’s.

The waiting was painful, in fact it was so painful it felt like the walls of the Lilly Pad were closing in on us, we were going stir crazy and were in danger of wearing a hole in the rug from all our pacing back and forth.

We were sick to our stomachs with nerves and anticipation, we had to get out of the cottage. We decided to take Lola for a walk into Annapolis Royal, it was cloudless and bright as we walked along the boardwalk letting the crisp cool air fill our lungs and clear our heads, we strolled through the town into the Fort stopping every now and then to read the historical information boards dotted along the way, we had just reached the lighthouse when Martin’s phone rang, it was Claire with the decision.

We stared at the phone buzzing away in Martin’s hand for a few seconds (that felt like minutes) we knew we had to answer it but were petrified of it being unwelcome news, we finally pulled up our big girl knickers and steeled ourselves for whatever was to come and answered the call.

Now, I was considering ending this post on a cliff hanger and revealing whether we got the house or not in next week’s edition to build up the anticipation for you the readers, but I treasure my life and do not fancy being lynched so have decided against it.

Dream it. Believe it. Build it.

Claire’s voice was calm when she spoke, but we could detect an undercurrent of excitement, “it is yours” she said. The news was not only good, but it was also great, amazing, and fantastic! In fact, it was life changing. The months of living out of bags, sleeping in Air BnB’s, boarding our cats, and not having a place to call our own were over.

We finally had somewhere to put down roots, to settle, to make a life and start putting into place all the things we dreamt about four years ago when we began this journey.