…continued from yesterday
I can’t say that after the “moose of promise” I slept like a baby, but I did rest grinning, knowing we were in the right place to be looking for a property. We got up and had a lovely breakfast made by our hosts on our back deck watching the deer have breakfast in the mist on the lawn. We went into town and met Deb our agent, and away we went to the properties on our list. Two we couldn’t go through, and the rest, while all having their charms, felt like strangers. Like someone else’s home. Like a badly tailored, ill-fitting yet beautiful suit. The one house that, from the photos, we thought would be the winner, presented more problems than we were willing or able to take on. That’s where I almost tripped over doubt again. Deep breath, eyes on God.
The second last house on our list was the glimpse of yellow we’d seen after the moose the night before. We drove down the driveway and I had to grab the dashboard. I couldn’t even see the house yet but I had those tingles again… I knew in my bones this was it. I said nothing. I said nothing when we pulled up to this quiet, bright house with the dormer windows and covered wrap-around porch that I’d laughingly said I wouldn’t buy a house without, thinking what a silly requirement, of COURSE I wouldn’t actually make that a deal breaker.
Andrew and Deb got out and casually chatted about the property and stats and figures (how did they not feel that this was holy ground?) while I stood looking up at the trees that I already knew were going to be friends. We were standing in the midst of a hundred year old growth, Deb said, as I took in the silence and green. I slipped beside the house to the back and gasped as I found myself in front of a small, wild pond surrounded by giant firs. That’s when I got emotional.
I came back up the hill, almost afraid to go inside now, in case I found out I hated it or it wouldn’t work for what we needed, dreading looking at the numbers because I already knew it was above our level of responsible spending. Andrew was telling Deb about the moose from yesterday, and she replied, as if this was a normal occurrence, “Oh yes, there are a few that live in the neighbourhood, you’ll see them a lot.” Our southern Ontario minds were so not ready for this glorious info.
We walked into the front entryway/dining room, and my eyes rested on the familiar… an antique Singer sewing machine used as a hall table… only the exact same one in the same spot and purpose as one in our front entryway back in Ontario. The kitchen was bright, and, our agent said, custom built and designed for the wife, who was shorter than me. This kitchen was built with tiny in mind.
Andrew is a Tim Horton’s guy and I am a Starbucks mug girl, a carryover from my barista days and I’ve collected over forty five of the “city” mugs from all over the world. I looked up, the open shelves are FULL of mugs… Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The pantry? Ground coffee exactly like our pantry at home. We walked through the house, naming each room for what we would do with it. There were enough for every need, an office for Andrew, an office/studio for me, rooms for the kids, a large basement for guests and a play room. Andrew opened the garage door and nearly died… enough room for a workshop AND both cars, and they nicely showed off the parking space with their truck… a make and model Andrew aimed to one day own and have a need for on a small acreage like this.
I went into “Andrew’s” office to inspect the bookshelf, as we’d seen what looked like an Emmy award sitting on it, and I was curious as to what category it was for. Gobsmacked, I grabbed Drew to see for himself that this Emmy was for the technical broadcast side of things, the exact same Emmy his department had won a few years before! The owner was in his industry! We later found out that they have overlapping colleagues and friends. (They now meet for monthly breakfasts with two other colleagues from Calgary in the industry. Totally normal.)
We just kept looking at each other and going oh no this is home. Deb asked if we wanted to go see the next house, and we both, wanting to act like adults, said yes, let’s finish the list… full well knowing we’d be somehow, some way, buying this place.
After seeing all the properties, we went back into town to Creekers Bistro for some lunch. We told Deb that the yellow house with the Four Acre Wood sign above the door was the one we’d be putting an offer in on. We explained our financial worries and we arrived at an offer that made sense. Deb submitted it to the owner’s lawyer over peanut chicken wraps and coffee. She couldn’t believe we were putting an offer in on a house after four hours of hunting, she said, with slightly wild eyes, that she’d never had this happen before with clients, usually it was weeks to decide… We were getting good at giving real estate agents heart attacks at this point.
We went back to our cozy little nook in West Bragg to wait to see what the owners would say, praying like crazy that God would move the way He needed to and we wouldn’t force anything that He wasn’t in for.