From City To Country - The First Week
It's been a crazy first week here at the new house! From discovering there are wolves in the forest in our backyard, to watching the little ones fish frogs out of our stream, it's very clear we're not in the big city anymore. And we couldn't be happier with our decision to move!
When we initially got here, we decided to spend a week at my parents' house to facilitate the children going to their new school. It would also give us a chance to get a lot of unpacking and painting accomplished without the distraction of children running around. And we're thrilled to be only a short drive away from grand-maman & grand-papa's house! We weren't visiting as much as we would have liked to because we were a 3 hour drive away.
Life in Toronto wasn't for us as we had become 'homebodies' shortly after having kids. We however felt that there was more money/opportunities for hubby's business there, so we stayed as long as we could. Finally it was time! We decided we would say goodbye again, once and for all, and choose a quieter life in the country; making the necessary cutbacks to be able to afford the pay cut. We even at one point entertained the idea of a tiny house to make it happen, now that we're on a tighter budget. And have now even started monitoring our spending habits (for a nice change). However, we find that many extra curricular activities for our little ones are much cheaper here.... almost half the price... which is great when you have three children. Initially we were worried that sports or camps would be a far drive away, but that's not the case. Everything we need is within a 20 min. drive, which is terrific! When we were in Toronto it took us at least 30 min. to get to a destination that should have been less than a 10 min. drive.
It hasn't been easy getting settled in, which is to be expected, but we feel like we're a little out of our element both being big city folk all of our lives. We bought a used rider mower for a good price (we think) because we now have an acre of grass to cut, but discovered shortly after bringing it home that it wouldn't start. This seemed odd to us because the guy we bought it from drove it onto our trailer. We thought 'GREAT! We bought a lemon! That's why you have to spend more and buy new' and we were convinced we got ripped off. As it turns out the battery was dead - go figure. There are also driver belts that need replacing but hubby is pretty handy and determined to fix it all himself... we're confident it'll work just fine?
Being on a well for the first time is a whole new experience. We're constantly worried about our water usage and will be taking a few days to fill our above ground pool. We now hang our clothes on a clothesline, which we could have done in the city, the drawback being the weird looks you get from your neighbours. There are a lot of flies/bugs in the air already and it's only spring; however we have big plans to plant an abundance of flowers that will repel mosquitoes... hopefully it's not all just a lie and they do work. We bought two fruit trees yesterday (apple and cherry) and are going to buy more once our local nursery gets restocked. So excited to start our mini orchard! Our garbage does not get picked up, but we do get door-to-door mail-delivery service that makes up for it.
Our new home is a bit of a fixer upper as not much has been updated/replaced in 30 years. There are a couple of leaky faucets that are driving us a bit crazy, but they will get fixed/replaced in due time. We're trying to get unpacked, cook meals, get organized, order new supplies for our renovation projects and start painting; never mind the stress of everyday conflicts we normally experience with our little ones and our pets. And to spice things up even more (as if we needed more aggravation in our lives), our dogs went missing the other morning because we still have no fence around our property and our youngest let them outside without us noticing. We called out for them and scoured the neighbourhood to finally locate them at a nearby house on our street almost 6 hours later.
Needless to say days are very long, for now. We're mentally exhausted and physically drained! Painting has been put on hold for a little while and we're now going with the mentality of taking things day by day, so we don't lose our minds. Before photos of our reno projects will be posted with our after photos for those who follow along our remodel journey.
Regardless of all the stress we're experiencing, we love it here! The fresh air and being surrounded by nature is wonderful. Hearing the wolves howling, in what felt like our backyard the other night, was pretty fantastic. The stream provides hours of entertainment for our children as they are in heaven fishing out frogs almost every day (they all now have names). The privacy and the views through every window are amazing! We have vision of movies under the stars, lush gardens, a tree house, a greenhouse, etc..... all of the wonderful things country life has to offer. Hope we can make it a reality soon because we plan on soaking it all in!
