What did we just do???

So, buying a property in a place far away from where you live is interesting.  You are in town for such a short period of time and you really don’t have a ton of time to spend at every property.  All four of us came out to Nelson to look at properties, and all of us loved the one we eventually bought. So in love in fact, that, maybe some of the finer details got a little blurry around the edges after we got home. You walk through a property and you start seeing the future vision –  having all these wonderful ideas about projects you will take on once you get there. Fallon and Darren – who lived in a very dark, cave like 700 sq ft basement suite – walked around the lovely 2600 sq ft house that would be theirs, and talked about all the windows and the natural light, the big basement and the three bedrooms.  Chuck and I wandered the 2nd house on the property and discussed how it was just the right size for us, we didn’t need anything big, we would need to make a few changes, update it so to speak – after all it had been built in the 50’s!  Move a wall, maybe a door – open the spaces up a bit and make it homey.   Right!

Here is where I have to remind you that we are city folks.  Have that thought firmly settled in your mind.

Being the responsible folks that we are, we had the houses inspected by a really terrific guy that our realtor suggested to us.  A really thorough guy. Pretty detail oriented.  He spend an entire day on the property and when he was through, he walked us through both houses discussing the good and the bad, in a blur of detail.  Holy hannah!  What did we know about septic tanks, snow loads ( are you kidding? who worries about that in the city? ) and well water – with what felt like an hour spent on water pumps and pressure tanks for deep wells and shallow wells – Huh?  Cold storage rooms, oil space heaters and proper cleaning of chimney flues. How to keep bats and other critters out of your attic – excuse me???!!!! Bats?  What exactly are “critters”? After which he thanks us very much for using his services, tells us to call him anytime we have any questions, and then hands us 2 BINDERS!!! with all of the lovely details of our homes in them. Maybe it’s time for a little Pollyanna reality check….. or so you would think.

As the chief Pollyanna of the group (Darren being a close second!), I am certain that we can figure it all out!  We are intelligent people and obviously others have been living in these rural communities forever, and it has turned out just fine for them.  Darren is very handy – working on the houses is something he will be able to do a good portion of for us.  Chuck and I have tiled and grouted and painted and such….. Really – not a problem.  Chuck and Fallon however, are far more practical, serious thinkers and a tad more cautious by nature.  They tried really hard to keep Darren and I focused – reminding us that there was a fair amount of work that would need to be done. Oh they loved the property too, but they didn’t have the same rose coloured glasses on that Darren and I did.

But really…. some flooring, some paint…. everything will be fine.  We will get the houses all ready to go and then have some fun with the 43 acres of land…… vast expanses of land….. all around us.  And hey, 15 acres of it is cleared and ready to go and it has a creek running through it…. doesn’t that just sound amazing?!

What could possibly go wrong?