A little history...

You could say this whole process came about on a whim...and in some ways it did.

Shortly after Lorne and I were married, I was sitting at my computer when out of the blue he asked me "hey do you wanna move to Nova Scotia?". I said "sure...why not!". So we decided to check out the real estate listings and much to our surprise and delight we discovered how incredibly cheap and beautiful houses were in the Maritimes. Not like where we were in BC, where it cost you at least $300,000 just for something, and not always something nice, or something in a good neighbourhood. That day we actually found our dream home...2 and a half years later we are still talking about it! It sat on the market for over a year, and we kept checking the website hoping that it wouldn't sell before we could decided once and for all what we were going to be doing. 

In the end, we decided to finish the renovations on a modular home I had bought 10 years prior and then list it. It took us about a year to finish everything to our level of satisfaction and then about 10 months for it to finally sell. During all this I managed to land my dream job and my husband ended up with out a job. So our plans seemed to be changing constantly. I don't know about him, but I was starting to feel very frustrated and was getting tired of being at loose ends constantly. 

By September of 2008, the construction company that Lorne worked for was closed. The owner sold his house, packed up and moved to Drayton Valley, AB. Lorne was promised the business with a healthy clientelle (this really wasn't the case or so we came to find out). On top of all this...the sheet metal business I worked for was on it's way out too. After waiting for almost a full 2 weeks for the 4th pay period in a row, I quit. So now we were renovating our place full time and boom...all work done and listed by October! 

Our first offer actually came in by month end, but then Fanny-Mae hit. Yet another bump in the road for us. Let me tell ya, by this point I was pretty much done with BC, houses, buyers, sellers, businesses and people in general! We had 3 other offers over the next 10 months. Two more fell through and finally, with much luck and quite a bit of prayer, the 5th offer became the one that came to fruition on August 2nd of 2009. 

During all this, Lorne started working for a transportation brokerage in Quebec and I pretty much spent all my time job searching well...everywhere! Thank God for EI!! I even checked out jobs in Quebec but not being bilingual was a bit of an issue to say the least. Let me note here that our goal was not to move to the Maritimes exclusively...it was to find a full time job for me, affordable housing, and someplace where we could open up the business I have been hoping to have for almost 5 years now. We didn't want to be in debt for the next 40 years just to have the life we wanted. 

Now back to how this whole idea came about...

When the house finally sold, we had a 12 day turn over. I know...insane right? Well it was what it was. So I hit the computer yet again and we started making a list. We wrote out our wants, needs and desires and then matched them against a list of the top 150 places in Canada to live. We ended up with 9 possible cities stretching from BC (Grand Forks) to Newfoundland (Corner Brook).  Then it was pack up time, load the u-Haul and away we went! We didn't even have a final destination in mind. Our plan was simply to head east until we found some place that felt like home. Our only goal what-so-ever was to arrive in Quebec no later than the 22nd of September for a golf tournament. If we found our new home on our way there, then great! If not, then carry on after a few days of golf and visiting.

So as we said to our friends and family...Let the adventure begin!!