Pauline, lol Yeah, I know, boo hoo. We actually got a really great deal on the house because we bought one that someone else put a deposit on, picked upgrades then changed their mind. Permits were already pulled. There is no way we could even afford this house had we not bought like that. When we came into the picture the house was going for almost $450k. We then said, ok, we don't need the granite in the kitchen, or the fireplace in the family room, nor the $3K faucets in the master plus other misc things, then we made them an offer almost $100k less. It ended up being less then what the base house costs, we still have tile / granite in the master as well as a beautiful fireplace between the bedroom & sitting area. While we did good, there are a lot of builders hurting, they are lowering prices but not our builder. My guess is that after the house went up, someone else came in looking to buy it which is why they wouldn't help us with the very 1st offer we had on our house. We asked for $7,500, they said no. I've been watching the market here and know there are a few houses that they haven't been able to sell, 2 in particular that are the same model as ours but on crummy lots have had multiple price drops. There are a few other houses sitting that are estates. We got through Tuesday with a lot of luck. The mover had to bring a 2nd truck which they had around the corner or something. We were nervous it wouldn't fit and it didn't. We ended up loading the plants in a 26 foot U haul - even stacking the plants there wasn't enough room so when we got to the perennials I just threw plants one on top of the other and figured they would grow back. We left hubby's desk because it would snap in half had they moved it and my daughters bed was broken (hubby) so we'll have to go shopping. Once I get my money from my dad's estate I will take her for a new bedroom set. Our buyer walked through the house not knowing if we'd be out by closing. Hubby ended up leaving with my car, then came back for me. My agent called, I told him that I was going to vac the house but the power was shut off. The movers finished up just before he was ready for me. I had enough time to go through the house, close windows & change my clothes. Hubby called he was really upset. Turns out the buyer thought we'd leave the electric hooked up for them. How silly. Their agent is the wifes grand father, he knows better, for them not to call all of the utilities was something he should have told them to do. The things that came up in the inspection ended up working out after all. We have a crawl space, at one time the owner before my hubby dug it out and put in a service pit. It's 7ft tall by 20 ft wide, about 30 or 40 ft long and holds the water heater, furnace & softener. The old owner put up concrete blocks to hold the dirt in, but when he put them in it wasn't level. You can clearly see that it isn't a load bearing wall and there were no cracks in it to suggest it's moved. Their inspector actually wrote it was amateurishly put up, but it ended up being our problem. The title company had already put the agreed on terms in the closing sheet, so they were forced to accept a $300 deposit my hubby gave to the contractor we picked. The rest of the total repairs was credited to them so if they decide to use someone else, they are $300 short. This was a huge stresser. They ended up calling the contractor Thursday and decided they didn't like him for some reason or another and wanted to change what was agreed on. By the time we got the phone call it was after 6pm on Friday, the start of a national holiday. I don't know how either of us held it together all weekend, we were so stressed. We fully expected not to close Tuesday due to it. The funny thing is I don't remember them ever going down to look at the service pit the 2 times they were there, even when their inspector was there. When they came for the walk through Tuesday, you'd think he would climb down the ladder to look for himself, nope. We also offered for them to come and look at it weeks ago, they never took us up on the offer. We got screwed with our cabinets and ended up with almost 1/2 of what it was worth. In hind sight, we should have had our attorney deal with it months ago to have them take them out. Yesterday I couldn't even put the kitchen together, I put a few things away but decided I'd open boxes in case we needed something & would deal with it today. Once the movers left yesterday, my daughter & I set up all the bedrooms, including computers & TV's. Comcast had come early in the morning, before the computers were unloaded so we couldn't check to see if all of the rooms had internet & we didn't. Hubby and my son worked on unloading the plants (about 500 pots) then made the hour drive to return the truck. By the end of the night I set mine up (which is supposed to run the wired rooms) but the net in the bedrooms wasn't working so we have to get the people that wired the house out today. My son was upset, he couldn't play his Xbox so I told him to bring his stuff to the computer room & hook up there since it's the only room that has internet. Once he did that he was happy. It's going to be another long day. I should have started already but sitting down feels too good. lol You would think that the house would be pretty clean but it's not. The kitchen cabinets are pretty gross, there is dust all over them. Hopefully by tomorrow most things will be put away that we use daily so that I can start looking in the rest of the boxes for stuff I'll need. I still haven't found my business card holder or tools. While we tried to keep everything organized, when the movers came to unload yesterday boxes went in the wrong rooms so we have to deal with that. The top floor is done, I have piles of boxes that need to go to the main floor or basement, I don't doubt stuff in the main section needs to go up. It will be 10 years before we do this again. I don't know how people do this every few years. Moving is the pits. I can't wait to get outside and deal with the gardens. A lot of the roses started blooming because the inside of the truck was hot.

We are still young. :) But my husband did say he hopes this is our "forever" home since he doesn't know how much longer he can do this (fixer uppers). LOL. Thanks for the advice, lots of good stuff here. I remember hearing that well water wreaks havoc on your hair, and your laundry...??? It's about 2.22 acres...and it is grass, and a lot of it, definitely not a push mower thing. If we don't mow, neighbors would be pretty upset. Pretty much everyone has mowed acres with mature trees, with tree lined unmowed areas along the lot lines for privacy. I was thinking of keeping the planting beds closest to the house, and adding ornamental trees further from the home. There are definitely a lot of trees that need attention as far as trimming, and some removal. I was told the soil is not clay, and the surrounding areas have a lot of rocks, so good drainage, but I'm assuming this also means not much moisture retention. They said the grass is usually brown, but this year there has been an unusual amount of rain, so grass is greener than most years. So much for hand weeding. I'm guessing I should give up on my "Ligularia, The Rocket" which does fine in my clay soil, but I'm sure it will suffer there with not enough moisture. Even here, I water, water, water to keep it happy. I don't usually plant edibles, mostly just perennials, but I'll have to look into perennials that wildlife favor. I'm guessing edibles would either be a huge undertaking in competing with wildlife, or just too much maintenance in general. I'm assuming plants will be happier with well water as opposed to city water, right? I was also told that with a John Deere mower, I can plan on maybe 45 minutes per acre? There are plenty of mature trees - conifers, and deciduous, and others I haven't identified in my limited tree vocabulary. I was going to start with installing a short picket fence for my dogs in the rear yard, and then go from there as far as planting beds closest to the house. I'm looking forward to adding red japanese maples, dogwoods, magnolias...so many possibilities. Going from 1/8 acre to this is going to be heaven. "They'll eat saplings and some evergreens, garden perennials. Rabbits, voles, mice, chipmunks abound also. Plant berry bushes and you might get a bear or two." --- I had no idea deer like evergreens, ugh. Thanks for the info.

Thanks Savona. We're sure looking forward to it...hard to believe that we'll likely be there in a little over two months. I've been lurking around on here, but I feel so out of the loop, because I'm not starting seeds or buying plants even though I have spring fever...it seems really strange. Next year! There have been some big developments though. Our house is now officially conditionally sold...We should hopefully know in the next two weeks if the two conditions have been met. And they're going to do all the finishing work, so we don't have to do anything but pack. (Which we've been doing :o) Mom and Dad had to go out there anyway so they took our 5th wheel and boat loaded with stuff this weekend. Verena

Shauna, My DH does the same thing with designing. He was the Manager of Public Works for the City of Brandon before he went out on his own. He is sooo busy here. I bet if your DH wanted to start his own business he could. It is a very big jump and we did have a few lean years. I was also not working outside the home. Somehow, when they are engineers the desire for their own company is so strong. Thankfully it has worked out for the best here. My DH is swamped with work. If your DH was to start his own company and that does not work out... with the amount of work that you said that Alberta has for engineers... would he not be able to go out and get a job for another engineering firm? And the advantage that he has as a senior project manager is that his name is familiar to the municipalities that he already works for and to the contractors. Just a thought. (Bad thought?) Brenda