Thinking of moving? Here’s my feedback!

Hi friends! It’s a been a MINUTE! My gosh, life has happened and the blog has been on the backburner but I’m back and ready to share what’s been happening! I don’t think I’ve posted since April but I’m excited to get back to it and share with you our renovations in our new home! We decided to move back in April for a few reasons – 1. Marc lost his job at the start of the pandemic and started a new business. He is doing amazingly well but the uncertainty and cyclical nature of entrepreneur life had us feeling a little uneasy financially. 2. We always hoped we could move north to be closer to the water and my parents (they live where we moved to!) but our jobs always held us back. Since Marc’s work had moved remotely and he is able to travel to clients, and I can work remotely too we decided it was a good time to do it! 3. Our biggest hesitation was that we LOVED our old neighbourhood, the neighbours and friends we’d made there and the community of support we had for our kids. That is a hard thing to let go of, but we also felt it wasn’t the reason we should stay. We will build a new community here over time and our kids will adjust – they are already doing so great!

We moved north to Wasaga Beach! We bought a house built in 1997 on a large lot with a pool. We are so excited to experience a full summer here next year and for now are enjoying more space for our kids and dogs to play. We are on the West side of town, so we’re only 5 min to Beach 6 and 10 minutes to Collingwood and I find myself doing a lot of my shopping and such over there. We’re also only 12 min to my parents who are on the other side of town, which is a true blessing. I haven’t lived close to them since I left home for University and I’m so grateful my kids can have their grandparents close by!

If you’re considering a move, here is some of my feedback from our experience! Our closing dates did not line up. In fact, the previous owners of this home wanted to close almost a full month after we closed on our house in Guelph. At the time I thought it wasn’t a big deal … we would store our stuff for a month and stay with my parents for 4 weeks and then move in. The problem was it wasn’t as easy as I thought to store our things with a moving company. Most companies were going to charge us to move, as well as store our belongings which meant they needed to move everything off the truck and back on … essentially we were paying for two moves!

Our other option was to pay for these storage pods that they leave in your driveway and you fill them yourself. Then they pick them up and store for you until you’re ready for your belongings to be delivered to your new home. A great option except that it means you have to do the move yourself. In the end this option was going to be half the price of hiring movers, even if we needed two pods, so we went with this option.

It started out fine. I booked the first pod to arrive about a month before our closing date so that we could fill it over the course of a week or two. This one was easy. I packed everything we wouldn’t need until the fall – Christmas decorations, all our dining and serving ware, decor pieces, a lot of our basement storage room, kids toys, furniture from rooms we wouldn’t need etc. Marc worked hard to pack this up Tetris style and it worked great. The company picked it up and a new pod was delivered a week before we had to be out.

Problem is, you always have more stuff than you think! Our second pod filled quickly and I found myself without room for a lot of odds and sods. We also didn’t want to put our TV’s or any framed pieces in there for fear of breaking so we loaded those up into our own vehicles to get a storage unit for. My parents took the kids the weekend before our move to allow Marc and I time to finish packing and clean. We had friends of ours moving into our house so of course I wanted to leave the house spic and span. In hindsight, I should have hired cleaners as we had a 2800 sq ft house that was a LOT to clean all at once.

In the end we were exhausted, stressed out and it wasn’t the greatest experience. Because of the pandemic and at that time some people just starting to be vaccinated, we didn’t really take any help and it proved too challenging for the two of us. I ended up having to get my Dad to make 3 trips down in his truck for a lot of our extras that wouldn’t fit, and left behind a few things for our new owners like our backyard picnic table and some basement shelves that just would not fit in anywhere!

I said a teary and exhausted goodbye to my neighbour friends and the new owners of our home and headed north. It was actually my birthday and I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired. We loaded all our extras into my parents garage and were able to secure the last available storage unit in the area for our TV’s and frames and extras. As our closing day on the new home approached and we planned out our renovations (more on that in my next post) we realized we would need to stay out of the house for longer than we thought to allow for demolition and a lot of the reno work to be completed.

In the end we were with my parents for 9 weeks, not 4 so that was a challenge. When we took possession we were met with a very messy house which was so disheartening. We were so excited to get the keys and had made a good relationship with the previous owners through our visits but because we were renovating we feel they really took advantage of us. The house was dirty, full of pet hair (they had two dogs and two cats), they left loads of garbage in the garage, a whole bunch of old stuff under the deck and a terrible smell of cats in the basement laundry room. We were upset for a night, but our demo started the next day and I just kept my vision of our new space in my mind!

Note to self: if we ever move again (or if you do!) put in a clause that the home in professionally cleaned before possession. All of this upset could have been avoided if they just moved the day before and brought in a cleaner. You always think you’ll have time for that, but in the end it’s not something you’re going to want to do. I did in our house, but it is WORK!

I’ll share our reno experience in my next post, but here is what we planned for the new space: – new flooring throughout – new kitchen – new baseboard and trim throughout – fireplace addition in living room – addition of mudroom at front entrace – addition of a bedroom/office in the basement – primary ensuite updates – paint throughout – updated stairs – addition of potlights and repositioning of light fixtures

I’ll share how it’s going next time … yes, it’s still going! In the end, we will be happy here but the unsettledness of a move and a big reno at once with two kids and two dogs in a pandemic has been extremely challenging. I knew it would suck when we chose it and I remember saying that. Just very hopeful that the end result will be worth it!

Stay tuned,

J xo