Reach WAY OUT and touch somebody

In order to facilitate the things necessary for a move from city to city we have signed on to Vonage and obtained a 902 area code phone number. This makes it easier to handle the co-ordinating of the various things that we'll need when we get there. It also means that Jeannette's relatives can call her at a local number and talk forever at no cost - not that they're apt to do that, ever.

The vonage set-up went without a hitch, has good sound quality, and you can use any corded or cordless phone. You can access all call information online, in real-time and listen to your voice-mail online too. It's also reasonably priced. So there you go - if you've been sitting on the fence wondering if it really works, it does. You do need a broadband connection to use it, but pretty much everyone is on one of those now, with a few exceptions.

A few thoughts about NB and NS

Travelling around a new area can be both entertaining and informative. Here are a few of the things that we saw on our travels:

The birthplace of hockey is at Long Pond in Windsor, Nova Scotia

The world's highest tide changes are on the Bay of Fundy

The french fry capital of the world is Florenceville, New Brunswick

The world's longest covered bridge is located at Hartland, New Brunswick

People still own Bricklins in New Brunswick

Peggy's Cove is just as magnificent as everyone says it is.

The best hand dryer is the Xcelerator, and can be found at the Magnetic Hill ESSO in New Brunswick. It actually causes the skin on your hands to distort like the faces of the astronauts in G force testing. Awesome!

Bird's eye view

Here's a satellite view of the property (from a few years ago I would guess). The Lat is 44.9644 and the Long is -63.9264, and you can plug these values in here to get an interactive view of the area.

In case you're interested, we're moving from Lat 43.5892, Long -79.5332.

You can also go here for ready made google satellite view, thanks to JD.

And now the moment you've been waiting for.

The drive from Dartmouth to Toronto took place over 2 days, with a stop at the Hotel Berniese near Quebec City providing a much needed rest between stints. During the drive we were in contact with Paulette, our real estate agent who was tabling the offer for the house. Talk about an interesting drive.

At approximately 11:00 pm we received the final counter offer from the vendor, and it was clear then that we had the house. So here are the details:

65 year old country home, located 30 minutes from Halifax/Dartmouth on 1.3 acres of land. 3 Bedrooms, 2 bathrooms - 1-3 pc and 1-4 pc. A sunroom at the front of the house. A dining room off of the kitchen with a built in china cabinet. A den with a woodstove (the house has the original vents to allow heat to move from floor to floor). A 2 tier deck at the back with access from patio doors located in the living room. An unfinished basement that contains ample storage, laundry hook-ups, etc. A covered verandah with space for a few comfortable chairs. A paved circular driveway that runs behind the house and back out to the road. A garage, with concrete pad. A shed. And...a chicken coop with 4 chickens.

okay...we give!

After days of searching throughout Nova Scotia for the perfect house we've finally given in and made an offer on the house that will give us the most eggs. Pics to follow.

Family and friends

Jeannette and I have had the pleasure of staying with Jeannette's niece Christa and her family while we are visiting and touring around the area. They have opened up their home to us so that we have had a place to come back to after the long trips getting acquainted with everything. It has really made a difference, since we have had a 'home' to come to at the end of the day and people to bounce ideas off of.

We've also visited Jeannette's grandmother Doty (Dorothy) - a wonderful lady with a keen wit and the energy of someone half her age. She also makes a mean Hot Cross Bun and Egg Salad. Jeannette has really enjoyed getting re-aqcuainted with her family, and is looking forward to learning how to bake from Doty - though as she puts it 'you wouldn't know the difference if it wasn't right, since you don't bake'.

Thanks also go out to Peter and Paula for taking the time to give us the basic skinny on living in and around Halifax/Dartmouth. They live in a quiet community about 45 minutes from the city. With a view of the ocean, and a deeded ROW to that ocean, none the less, they have everything you could want for a low stress life, including 2 dogs and 2 cats. We now know that we're 1 cat and 1 dog short, and will have to get our quota.

Thanks also go to Fraser Ross at Semaphor Design in Halifax for taking the time to sit down with me to talk about the design business in the area. The cousin of a friend of mine, Eric Landry, he took the time to help in this first phase of developing a plan for the jump to Nova Scotia.

Everyone has been extremely helpful with tips, info, and hospitality. Thanks to all.

You're never far from water...part 2

As mentioned earlier there is a surfing town called Lawrencetown that is world reknowned. The water is cold, and the wind blows with bone chilling regularity, but the surfers still come for the Nova Scotia waves.

You're never far from water...part 1

Nova Scotia is essentially an island with a small land bridge to New Brunswick. Surrounded by salt water the bays and coastal areas mean a wide variety of vistas. On our travels we've visited Shad Bay, with the small lighthouse in the bay to warn of the proximity to shore in bad weather. This is the view from a number of the houses on the Shad Bay coast.

Back and forth, back and forth

Over the last few days we've covered 600 km around Halifax/Dartmouth looking at houses, property, the ocean, lakes, and cityscapes. The highways and roadways around the region are awesome, with the time from Hantsport to Dartmouth being 45 minutes door to door. Hantsport is a town of 1250 people on the Minas Basin - an area with numerous lakes and rivers, and where the Bay of Fundy ends and the clay begins.

An equally amazing drive is the one to Western Shore. Another 45 minute drive through evergreens and past lakes to a quiet town on the Atlantic, complete with Oak Island (psst, rumour has it that Captain Cook buried treasure here, though no official map exists). There's plenty more to see if you take the HWY 3 drive, but that will add quite a bit of time to your drive.

What we have also found is that sellers really are, sometimes, all about polishing a turd. We've visited properties that on paper looked really good, and in reality we couldn't get out of the driveway fast enough. A prime example was a little gem on HWY 14 on the road from Gold River to Windsor. It was advertised as a 6 year old house with 2 bedrooms - 2 bathrooms on 57 acres with a wooded area, wood stove, central vacuum system, satellite dish, whirlpool, wood heat, and electric heat. Sounds good, right?

Right. What they fail to mention is that the house is only one of many buildings on the property - none of which are even close to finished. The main building has an outside door on the second level, with no staircase or deck in sight. That the siding, or whatever exterior finish was intended for the house, is still at the store in the box/on the skid. That there are vehicles from all of the decades going back probably 50 years littering the property - none of which will depart under their own steam. That there were going to be live chickens wandering around as a part of the bargain. Needless to say, with the amount of clean up and fix up/finishing work involved we chose to forego the opportunity for cheap eggs.

Tomorrow we are off to Terrance Bay and Shad Bay to see more glorious views of the Atlantic, and more houses. Who knows. Maybe we'll find a diamond that's been polished instead.

Porters Lake

Yesterday Jeannette and I drove to Porters Lake to get a sense of the timing, property, and terrain. It is about 20 minutes from Dartmouth and has the lake on one side and the ocean on the other. In Lawrencetown there's actually a surf shop, since this seems to be a good place to surf along the coast.

There are plenty of options available for houses that overlook either the ocean or the lake - the lake is quite big, and you can imagine that it's a pretty popular spot in the summer.

The terrain is very similar to that of the Haliburton region in Ontario, with the road being cut out of the rock and the tall evergreens as far as the eye can see. Porters Lake is only one of many lakes in the region, but it seems like one of the hotsopts in the region.

First impressions

Christa took us on a drive around Dartmouth and Halifax on Friday evening. The 2 toll bridges between the cities are complemented by a land route that goes up to Bedford, allowing multiple options for getting around. This is similar to Vancouver, though you can get around quite quickly since the size of the cities is much smaller than the Greater Vancouver Area.

History is evident everywhere, with buildings that date back to the resurrection of the city following the explosion in 1917, and the military significance of the region. There's even a cemetery that contains the remains of the victims of the Titanic disaster, which is quite a tourist attraction, apparently.

Unfortunately, it was quite foggy when we were out so we missed out on the skyline view at night. In fact, it was so foggy we couldn't make out the stores at Pier 21 on the Halifax waterfront. We could, however, make out that the Garrison Brewery was having a party - and it seemed like a pretty good bash.

The return trip to Dartmouth took us through various neighbourhoods, some of which had huge houses over-looking one of the many lakes that are contained within the region. You can imagine having your morning coffee on the deck, taking in the breathtaking view of the lake below, then jumping in your car and being at work in downtown Halifax in 20 minutes. How can you beat that?

The air is definitely fresher

Travelling from Toronto to Dartmouth we were higher than Thunder Bay and bordering the Appalachians on the right side and the St Lawrence River on the left. We passed graffiti painted on the stone that read 'Mort aux taxes', 'Qui', and 'Pink Floyd rocks'. As we drove from Edmunston NB to Fredricton we saw the new highway being built that will probably replace the existing scenic river route, and reduce the time for the drive dramatically. We wondered if a highway from Edmunston to Moncton was being planned, since it would definitely reduce the drive time.

Driving through New Brunswick we learned that it's still awfully cold there, even to the point of expecting snow - there was still remnants of snow in the trees and some roofs as we drove from Fredricton to Moncton.

As we drove past Truro in the dark we were surprised at how big the city seemed to be with all of the lights. The trip from Truro to Dartmouth was quick, taking about 35 minutes. Once we arrived in Dartmouth we were surprised at how quickly you can get around. The highways run around the city and link up Bedford/Dartmouth and Halifax. It's very easy to get around, and you can easily travel from the country to the city in 10 - 15 minutes.

And so the trip starts

We left Toronto at 2:30 am, reached Montreal for rush hour and lost an hour, reached Edmunston NB at 3:00 pm, and arrived in Dartmouth at 10:00 pm. Some thoughts on what we saw to follow.