Tag Archives: Moving

Preparing to move provinces with a 1 year old!

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Preparing to move with any child can be crazy and hectic to say the least. I have only ever moved provinces with a dog and a cat and that alone was a bit much for me! However we did it and it worked fine. Now, moving with a baby or I should say toddler, I feel like there is a lot more we need to prepare for in order to make this a success.

We currently live in Quebec, Canada and will be moving back home to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The total driving time is about 14 or so hours however we all know that with a baby and animals that time will probably look more like 16 or so hours based on the amount of stops that you need to do for different things like fueling up, food, rest and stretch your legs as well as whatever else there is. I have only ever went on road trips when I was a child for bowling around the province of Nova Scotia so I really have nearly no idea what it would be like to move with a toddler. Oh yeah, and did I mention that I am also going to be about 5 months pregnant at this point too? Not to mention there is a lot of of different rules with traveling through different provinces especially with Covid restrictions as well too. Here is the plan and hopefully it does work out!

Food is something that as adults is super easy. If you are hungry all you need to do is simply stop at a fast food restaurant, and keep going. No need to stop and do whatever though we normally do for a few minutes due to the dog. The cat is typically fine for the drive which is okay. The dog we also have to stop for a little bit because if we don’t he might get sick due to being in the car so long which would also suck. Not to mention we have to do his business outside frequently also. For our son I was thinking about (And by thinking at this point I had already gotten) a few things to help with the car ride such as, a small cooler so that we can put some apple sauce and yogurt inside, as well as some small ice packs, and 2 small thermos. I was thinking that the day we leave to make the drive that I could also get up earlier so I can make some oatmeal to put in one thermos. This will be a good start for the day as he does love oatmeal. I also am looking for perhaps making some small pasta with some tomato sauce and putting it into a second thermos for his lunch. Supper will have to be more winged it though which shouldn’t be so hard to think about either. If he was older sure fast food would be maybe alright but since he is smaller I don’t want to have to rely on worrying about restaurants to get his foods though. As far as drinks he only has water right now so we don’t have to worry about that.

As far as entertainment goes, I have gotten a tablet holder for the back of the seat so that we can download some episodes of blues clues for my son since that is his top favorite show right now. This obviously would be nearly a last resort since we try to even limit his screen time by normally putting it on just an hour before bed since he does enjoy it! We also are planning on getting him some new toys just a few books and hand toys that he can enjoy while we drive. Nothing too crazy in terms of pieces because I really dont want to be picking up pieces along the way but something he can just fidget with. One is the lacing toys that he currently has a watermelon of and loves. The hardest part when we drive with my son is stop signs or stop lights as he always starts to fuss so we are hoping by moving on the highway he will do better.

We aim to also be driving early about 4-5am so we will get there in the evenings. And wont be really driving into the dark as that can be really hard. Plus with two of us we will be able to drive so that will be nice to flip if one of us is tired. The hope is that my son will sleep in the beginning since he normally would, and then once wakes up I can entertain him in the back since I will be there. the hope is that we can keep a pretty solid schedule and then it should be okay. He also has a nap as well in the afternoon. And about 7pm or so he should be asleep for the last leg of the drive. It really should be okay however it makes me extremely nervous since we never did this before. Thankfully this is our last move though since we did find our forever home so we wont need to do this anymore. Any family in Quebec will have to come see us in the future til our children are old enough that we can leave and they not ask when are we getting there every few moments!

Other than that I am pretty nervous about it however when we drive to Quebec city which is 2.5 hours away he did pretty good. My son is also old enough that we don’t need to have warming his bottles all the time so that is a good thing, not that he really has many now, we still give one in the morning and one before bed and if he drinks it he drinks it, if not no worries.

Have you ever traveled with a toddler?
What did you find helped with the drive?
Was it over 10 hours?

Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear your experience!

– Stacey

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3 Private Home Buying Tips + The downside of private home sales

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If you are unfamiliar with the stream, you will have noticed that Wednesday last week I was given the new that our dream was dashed.

My boyfriend and I are moving back home to Nova Scotia in the coming months and to say we are stressed about a house to buy is an understatement. The reasoning for this is because there has been a minor boom happening there. This is where people from Ontario are buying all the homes as soon as they come up however they are putting it sometimes 20k – 100k above asking price. I think we are prematurely becoming stressed since we wont get our official message of moving til mid April, with hopefully moving in July.

Here is where the story begins. My best friend since grade 6, her parents were selling their house. Well, thinking about it anyways. We had discussed a price. And agreed. For a while they were worried about my boyfriend and I backing out of the deal and leaving them with things. We hyped it up, there was multiple confirmations about this. There were many things happening and nearing the point where we would have an actual agreement written up so that they could sign and it would be a done deal (Obviously confirming we get out message to move as well as an inspection doesn’t have something crazy with it either!). They didn’t want to go public as they were not comfortable with having so many people through their home, they wanted to save money on agent fees since they are also expensive and take a HUGE chunk of the profits too.

Then, their son told them if they were to go public with this sale. He said they could get more money if they went public and welp, long story short. They did. They informed us on Wednesday evening AFTER we had confirmed again that same day. To the point that if my boyfriend had of gotten his lawyer to write up this agreement then he would have been out of money.

Doing a private sale was never something we wanted to do. We did this as a favor for them. However we were screwed. Before people start coming at this, “But of course if they could make more money blah blah blah”. We never denied that they could probably make more money if they were to go public with the sale. We told them that if they wanted to go that route they could. However the multiple confirmations and moments they could have told us they were having different thoughts was far too many to count. We aren’t upset at the fact that they told us they wanted to go with an agent. We are upset at the fact that we were strung along for 3 weeks this promise of a house which never was going to happen. To say we are devastated is an understatement.

That being said. Here is my tips for you if you are considering having a private sale or buying of a home.

1) Get it in WRITING! – One thing we didn’t do quick enough was get everything in writing. The day they called to back out of the verbal agreement was the day we were talking with lawyers to draw up a purchase agreement. Had we have had something in writing then maybe they would have been stuck in what they agreed to however that was our mistake for trusting someone I had known for over 18 years through my friend.

2) Have a back out clause. If you are going the private route make sure that you have a back out clause. Had they have come back to use and wanted to re-negotiate a deal with us. Which they had not done first (Mind you we could have also offered them a bit more then what they wanted to if they had even asked us..But they choose not to.) we would have for sure put something in the new contract in regards to them that if they were to back out they would have owed us something of financial security for wasting our time with them.

3) And I know.. This may come as a wasted point. But DO NOT GET EXCITED UNTIL EVERYTHING IS FINALIZED! My boyfriend and I continuously reminded one another not to get excited, this isn’t for sure, don’t get your hopes up and all that stuff. However as time passed we got more and more excited because there was the confirmations along the way. No more of that for us. It is a very difficult lesson to learn and we are still feeling the loss of this house. Sure nothing was set in stone but that didn’t make anything less real. We got our hopes up in a world that could use a little bit more. And we are the ones who are feeling this loss.

If anything, I hope by reading this you learn from our mistakes. Now we are on the hunt and keeping our eyes peeled on the house of our dreams. We may be looking far too early for when we are able to move. However you really have to keep your eyes on what houses are selling, what prices they are going for, and when are they going up for sale. We have all the criteria we would like to have it’s just catching one that we can put an offer in at the right time without having it go up tens of thousands of dollars and it quickly becomes out of our price range too.

And a friendly reminder, You really don’t know someone for any amount of years. Money changes people. Even ones you thought that you knew. And before letting your heart get broken and back to square one again, remember that you have to look out for number one. YOU.

Do you have any moving horror stories?
Anything you wish you could have done differently when buying a home whether publicly or privately?
Let me know in the comments below!

– Stacey

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We Are Moving Home!! February Update 2021

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WE ARE MOVING HOME!!
Okay, Nothing is official until we get an official letter near the end of April but as it stands right now we are at like a 99% chance we will be moving back home this year towards the beginning of the summer. I couldn’t be more excited. It really is going to be amazing to finally be back home and able to drive to my parents house again. Not that I really went there a lot before because I am lazy and enjoy my own space a lot of the time but the possibility is there! They can finally meet my son! And if everything goes according to plans then maybe we will be announcing that we will be having another little one too! This is such a huge relief for me to know that I will be in our own house again. We will be in our own space. I can paint my kitchen whatever color I want. I can have a new couch since ours is basically falling apart. I cannot wait til everything is set in motion and we can actively look at homes. We browse now but obviously if we aren’t told it is official we wont be buying anything. Just the fact that we will be moving back and have a fenced in yard again FINALLY will be huge even for the dog. I keep thinking and brainstorming ideas that I would like to do this summer. Obviously with moving in this summer we aren’t going to get everything we want right away but there is a few things like a fenced in yard would be great, the same with a fire pit since they are simple and can make the yard feel more like home. Especially on a hard day unpacking or organizing or even decorating our new home we can sit outside and relax.

Weight loss is going too. I have decided that I will not be smoking weed for the month of February. I want to really hammer down and hopefully lose 10lbs before March. I am excited for my weight loss update tomorrow since I am down weight but I would like to go a bit further and really push myself this month for weight loss. And to do so weed needs to be gone for a bit. I feel like there is added pressure with the weight loss blogs that I am totally okay with. It is a good pressure of course. In the back of my mind I just think how silly I would be if never lost weight in like 6 weeks also. That would be insane and I would look super bad in front of all of you guys! Which is not what I want though. Ill talk more about weight loss tomorrow though in the update!

I NEARLY AM FINISHED WRITING A BOOK ALSO! I am really working hard on completing a book that the idea popped into my head last week. I believe it will be mostly an eBook but the idea is amazing!! I am in the finishing process right now where I am just reading it for a 3rd time. I will send it to a few friends who will read it and let me know if they have any questions or comments too that I can tweek it and add to it. It will be hopefully approx 12,000 words by the end of it. A respectable amount for my first book. I also have some facebook pages to read in order to gain more knowledge on the whole self publishing and writing process. My mom’s friend gave me these when I mentioned I was writing. I have so many ideas that I have to write down so I don’t forget. This first one I feel like could be a real winner though I know nothing about publishing I just hope that I can really make this work. I think writing and being an author could be my way to make an income by being a stay at home mom! It really did pop in my head and I think pursuing writing will be a great thing for me to gain some financial independence again while maintaining a household and being a stay at home mom too!

streaming I think has been going fantastic also. I feel like I have a schedule that is actually achievable for me. It may only be 3 days a week but those 3 days make me feel great. The fact they are spread out works even better especially if the baby doesn’t sleep well or is up one night even if I stream that day I know that I have a break day so to speak where I am able to go to bed as early as I want. I find this has been extremely helpful when it comes to trying to get enough sleep at night not to mention I think it can also be sustainable when we have another baby as well, up until the birth anyways!

Overall I couldn’t be more happier with how January is going not to mention the good news that we will be moving and getting to buy our own house again! I probably will mention this multiple times because this has been what we have been waiting for! I think that with time passing as fast as it is hopefully the no weed in February will also help the time pass. I look forward to having a clear mind and looking forward to being that much closer to being able to head back home. Not to mention also, my son is nearing his 1st birthday! I have been a mom for an entire year! That is actually insane for me to think about as well too. And to think we will soon be looking at having another child in this crazy world we live in right now too! 2021 is already looking like a great year even if Covid is still around!

How was your January?

Any goals for February?

Let me know in the comments below!

-StaySeeJ

Things We Want For Our New House!

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It comes as no surprise if you are a regular reader of the blog that I am more than excited to move back home to Nova Scotia. Mostly because we rent right now and cannot wait til we buy and have our own property again. There isn’t a whole lot on our list of demands when searching for a house but there is a few non-negotiable here. Especially where this will be our hopefully forever home and we won’t be moving again after this.

My boyfriend has one major request. That would be he either wants a garage or he wants a place to build a garage. All we had before was 2 sheds and now in our currently rental we have nothing. He wants a place he can tinker around or store his bike if he wants too. A place to put all his tools and what not too. For me it really doesn’t effect me about a garage or not but for him it is for sure a major deal breaker. If a property does not have a garage either, that will hopefully be reflected in the price. That way in the future he would be able to build one too.

For me, I am way more picky. I would like the house to have at least 1.5 bathrooms. In our old house we had a master bathroom and a half bathroom upstairs. No second shower or anything but there was a second toilet and sink which was great. If my boyfriend was getting ready for work he would be able to shave or wash his face instead of taking up the bathroom. Also if you needed to use the bathroom and someone was in the shower you would be able to do that without intruding on the person washing up. This was huge and we never really noticed the difference til we move to this rental where the bathroom is so small you can barely even move around. If you are sitting on the toilet you are only able to open the door a crack unless you turn around because there is so little space. I wouldn’t mind if we had just one shower and bath but I know for sure there best be two toilets in the new home! Along the lines I would like to also have a deep bathtub. Ultimately I would like to have a bathtub that I can lay down in and have my knees be under the water. I am not super tall so this might not be a hard task however the bathtub that we have no it gets the job done, don’t get me wrong, but I would like something that is a bit deeper. As far as jets or anything I really could care less since apparently they are a lot more pain in the butt than they are worth.

The backyard is something we are slightly both picky about. If the backyard has a fence that would be huge bonus points. We had a fenced in yard when we owned a house before and going to a house where you cannot have a fence and if you do it is a pain in the butt since you cannot take it with you when you move and you have to sell it. I would like a fenced in yard so that Sheldon can run around and enjoy the freedom. He cannot be let off a lease or he would run and run and run. So a fenced in backyard is for sure a bonus, if the yard doesn’t have one though we will just put one in so that really isnt a deal breaker.

Privacy is huge for us. our last home we lived somewhere that everyone could see in your backyard. There was no privacy what so ever and our rental home here is no different. When you stand on your back deck you can see at least 8 other homes. We do not want this. Ideally, we would like to have a house where we don’t see anyone. Total privacy but not in the sense that you have to drive to a neighbor, but just so that you don’t see them. They are close enough that if something happened you can go there but far enough that you don’t have to see them when they do things. We want it to also be a big back yard as we would like to put in a pool eventually, my spouse would love a hot tub but for me I could care less. We also want to build a nice fire pit for some entertaining hopefully when covid is over with. We want our back yard to be like a hidden oasis. I know it sounds nutty. We do not want to be house poor and forced to live just at our house but we want a space that is so nice we wont want to go anywhere else.

As far as inside goes, I would like a big kitchen. And big to us is really not what you may think. Our kitchen now in our rental is so small you can’t even stand together cooking. We want something where you can have a few people around and much more counter space as well. We went from a big open concept kitchen to this super small one and we both do not like it. So something open or even just a bigger space would be great. if it has a dining room area that would be a bonus for us but by no means a deal breaker though. And as far as bedroom I would love it to have 4+ since we would like to have 3 kids. Master bedroom would be ours and each child would have their own. However if there was a den that could be turned into a bedroom eventually that would also work out great as well too. Though I have no idea where we would be putting out computers and things though, that is all up in the air! Paint colors or flooring is not really a deal breaker either as we will be changing it if we do not like them.

Overall I feel like we are a bit more picky this time around instead of when we first bought a house. Mostly because of the fact that this will be our forever house. I will not want to move anywhere after this. I want to be here for the rest of my life tweeking and working on it so that we have a home anyone would love to be in.

What are somethings you want in your dream house?
What are your deal breakers?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe I can add to my list too!

-StaySeeJ08