Troy and I love going camping. We head out to Crown Land in southern Alberta and almost always go camping along Stud Creek. Don't ask me how it got its name; coldest water I've ever tried to swim in! We were out there about 6 years ago and feeling very relaxed. As we chatted at the campfire, Troy and I got to talking about how great we felt out there, very relaxed but energized. Happy. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just live out there?
That was the seed of our plan to actually do it. Last Friday, we took possession of our land. You might think we'd put things on hold for the 6 years but we really didn't. It took us that long to find the right property and financing. Turns out the banks and lending institutions aren't so fond of taking a flyer on our dreams. Imagine that! We had to prove our ideas were solid, that we'd done our homework AND that we are actually capable of doing the work.
Well, our real estate agent knew what we were looking for and one day this past December we went to look at a property we'd seen on the MLS.ca site. Tom (our agent) suggested we look at this nice piece of property he knew about. We tramped around for a little bit and decided we could see ourselves there. It's a great piece of property in exactly where we wanted to be. The financing came through from a local credit union where the manager really understands where we're coming from. Could this be the time it all works out? YES!
Our house in Calgary went on the market a few days before Christmas 2014. The upside was that we'd been anticipating moving for a couple of years and had divested ourselves of a lot of extra things and we'd packed up those items we thought we might use but didn't need at the time. Odd how that still left so, so many other things -LOL! It was a bit worrisome (and I tend to worry at the best of times!) because the market in Calgary was starting to turn and mid-winter isn't generally a great time to sell. Or so I've heard. The house was on the market for about 40 days, I think, and then it was sold.
So now we are out of our house and staying with my mother and her husband until we can get something livable on the property. And utilities. One of our goals is to see how much we can be off-grid but realistically that isn't going to happen immediately. I work from home and need electricity.
That's the background! The true adventure began on Friday when we walked around the property with our German Shepherd, Riley. Today, we meet with the Rocky REA to find out about getting power onto the land.
Hope you enjoy the adventure with us!
That was the seed of our plan to actually do it. Last Friday, we took possession of our land. You might think we'd put things on hold for the 6 years but we really didn't. It took us that long to find the right property and financing. Turns out the banks and lending institutions aren't so fond of taking a flyer on our dreams. Imagine that! We had to prove our ideas were solid, that we'd done our homework AND that we are actually capable of doing the work.
Well, our real estate agent knew what we were looking for and one day this past December we went to look at a property we'd seen on the MLS.ca site. Tom (our agent) suggested we look at this nice piece of property he knew about. We tramped around for a little bit and decided we could see ourselves there. It's a great piece of property in exactly where we wanted to be. The financing came through from a local credit union where the manager really understands where we're coming from. Could this be the time it all works out? YES!
Our house in Calgary went on the market a few days before Christmas 2014. The upside was that we'd been anticipating moving for a couple of years and had divested ourselves of a lot of extra things and we'd packed up those items we thought we might use but didn't need at the time. Odd how that still left so, so many other things -LOL! It was a bit worrisome (and I tend to worry at the best of times!) because the market in Calgary was starting to turn and mid-winter isn't generally a great time to sell. Or so I've heard. The house was on the market for about 40 days, I think, and then it was sold.
So now we are out of our house and staying with my mother and her husband until we can get something livable on the property. And utilities. One of our goals is to see how much we can be off-grid but realistically that isn't going to happen immediately. I work from home and need electricity.
That's the background! The true adventure began on Friday when we walked around the property with our German Shepherd, Riley. Today, we meet with the Rocky REA to find out about getting power onto the land.
Hope you enjoy the adventure with us!