Saturday, May 12, 2012

Tamzin's House of Dreams

It has been far too long since I posted in this blog. Many things have happened while WBNS has been on hiatus, most of which have been documented on the Invictus Dog Blog, but since some pretty big events are about to occur in this little province, I thought I'd return to writing about Nova Scotia (which includes the dogs of course) and the wonderful life I have managed to set up for myself.
I now work at a shop in downtown Pictou, it's the sort of job I imagined having when I first thought of moving here but the 'small town' mentality got the best of me and despite multiple resumes being submitted to various companies, it was not an easy process to be hired as a CFA (come from away). Thankfully my new employer, Pictou Pharmasave, is a great place to work with the greatest people and I really feel I've met some kindred spirits of the world in one little seaside shop.

The reason I've jumped over to this blog is because big things are happening and rather than make my dog blog more general to my life, I thought it would be easier to make this blog about everything. There will be no shortage of photos of the dogs, or talk about them, because they are such a huge part of my life and why I do the things I do.

Notably the Big Plan for the last 3 years living here has been of a mind to getting a larger property with a larger house that I can fence and safely run the dogs. Here in Pictou County dogs are not allowed off leash unless they are on private land or in designated areas; needless to say I've been walking my dogs 'illegally' for the last 3 years. Time for a change.

I had this last litter of puppies which I knew I had to get raised and placed in new homes before I could list my house. While the litter was growing I was making plans, painting, updating, cleaning and purging so that when the puppies were gone I could list the house. As the litter got to about 5 weeks I spoke to a realtor who is two doors down from the pharmacy and we discussed buying and selling in the County. At that time she told me she had someone who was anxious to get into a house, preferably a bungalow and in The Heights, which is where I live.  (Cool story there, I'll have to tell you one day).

Once I was down to 2 puppies it was time to get serious about looking at houses. I looked at one that is a possibility with 4 acres but there is an issue with the basement and possibly the roof, so it's on the Very Maybe list. I looked at two others, one that needs to be condemned and another which appears to be rotting from the bottom up.  The prospects weren't looking good but it wasn't an immediate concern since my house was not yet listed and my realtor (MR) told me to expect to be on the market 2 to 4 months.

Her 'anxious' person was still anxious so she wanted to let her view the property late last week in an exclusive viewing with a 24 hour contract (which we just made our actual contract in the end). I said that was fine and then went into high gear clean mode to try and get it ready with two puppies still, four adult dogs and two cats! I managed to get out of the house on time, with everything spick and span, fresh and clean and hoped that there wasn't something dog related that I forgot about.

I had arranged with my parents later that day to see the house with 4 acres (we'll call it the Three Brooks House since that's the road it's on) so I drove to meet them and MR there. Once I arrived MR surprised me by telling me my house had an offer! It had officially been on the market for about 4 hours. We looked at the Three Brooks House and then sat down to look at the offer. It was low, lower than I liked, and we countered high. MR said she'd let me know.

The next morning she said the buyer didn't want to pursue but she may change her mind after  some thought. She was right, less than an hour later MR came to me with a counter offer. I spent some time thinking about it, discussing it and working the numbers. While I know that people want the most money for their homes, I had to consider what this easy a sale would mean to me. No more packing up the dogs and cats, no more rushing around to clean and no more people trailing through my house looking through my things. I weighed my options, countered with a slightly longer closing date, and accepted the counter-offered price.

In less than 24 hours my house was sold. As of last night the offer was accepted and I have until June 15 to find a new home. Needless to say there are conditions such as an inspection and the buyer's financing, but as long as those things pull through I will be out of this house, and hopefully into another, on or by June 15! I have a dog show to attend in Lunenberg on the first weekend in June so as long as everything goes according to plan I will be able to take Cora to her first show. If there is something that requires my immediate attention that does not allow for a dog show then her first show will be the end of June.

I never in a million years thought my house would sell so fast, yesterday I was freaking out internally every 20 minutes or so and having little panic attacks but today I am much better. I have a few houses I'd like to go look at so perhaps one of those will be suitable. I mentioned to some friends that I pushed the Easy button and sold my house in less than 24 hours, let's hope the same button applies to buying! Wish me luck finding a house in Wee Bonny New Scotland.

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