A Year of Preparation

      

It was probably more than a year ago that we discussed that we were going to go on this adventure starting in May of 2016. With that much time, you'd think that we would have everything in order by the time we left but that was not the case. So for those you who are thinking of doing something similar, we wanted to share some of our experiences preparing for this adventure. I know that many people have moved across the country and they may have had the same difficulties or maybe not.


Anyway, here is what we had to deal with:

Rent or buy: do we buy a house in each province or not? We first considered buying but each province has a different economy and who knows if the house would sell before we moved to the next province? So renting it was to be.

Furnished or not furnished: Since the fall, we looked online to see what places were available in Newfoundland. We were looking for a location that had less than 20,000 in population. We had a quote on what it would cost to transport items for a 2-bedroom household and we were blown away by the cost. (up to $10.000, depending upon the total weight of the load). For a one-year stay, it was not worth it so we decided to rent a furnished house or apartment. There were a quite a few out there so the search was on.

Now our own house: We decided that we would keep our house and rent it out while we were gone.

Packing up: Because we were looking for a furnished place, we needed to deal with all the items that we had collected over 33 years of marriage; 28 of them in the same house in Newmarket. I can certainly sympathize with people who have to down-size their household. Deciding on what to keep can be very challenging and emotional. I know that they are only things, but there are some strong attachments to some of them. We spent many hours going through items, cataloging, donating to family, friends and organizations, posting items for sale, taking items to an auction house and holding garage sales. Finally, in the end the things we did not need or want to keep were thrown in the dumpster. Recommendation: Live simply and don't allow creative ideas to insist you hold on to things. Also have your children take their things with them and not clutter your space.

Keep up the maintenance of your home. Regularly check things and repair them as needed as soon as possible. We had wallpaper removal, painting, cleaning, staining a detailed deck, removing and replacing carpet and lots and lots of sorting to do. Of course our time was running out so we hired someone to paint several rooms and large foyer and hall. Others never do the job as well as you could do. We were very disappointed in the paint job. We actually had to go back and repaint some of the area and clean up the imperfections of the painters. We also hired someone different to finish the staining of the deck and that too was not done to our complete satisfaction.


Don't be afraid to move forward with your plans but be aware of the pitfalls that your previous lifestyle has created before you.

Final words: Give yourself lots of time to prepare and pack; start now by keeping your life simple; keep up with home repairs and out-dated styles; try to do the work yourself so you can only blame yourself or hire someone you know who works well within your standards.

Finally ready!