Getting Ready for PEI Living

It has been a whirl wind of activities ever since we bought a house in PEI.  There is so much to do when you move to another province.  We have a list of things we have to do, and the list is VERY long!  Little by little we are nibbling away at the list, but there are still so many things to do!

At the moment we are staying at Crystal Beach in New Annan, which is just outside of Summerside.  We have been here for the past 2 months.  But it seems that everything we want to do regarding the house, we have to travel to Charlottetown about an hour away.

Last week we went to Charlottetown to CAA to see about house insurance.  We wanted to do the car insurance at the same time, but found out that you have to do a few things before you can get car insurance.  We had to contact ICBC back home and have them email us a driver’s abstract, then we had to go and get the car inspected.  Apparently this has to be done every year.

We had the car inspected, and printed off the driver’s abstract that was sent to us, gathered 2 pieces of mail with the new address on it and headed back to Charlottetown today to get the car insurance. 

After we got the car insurance done, we headed over to the Access Centre in Charlottetown to get my new PEI driver’s license and new PEI license plate for the car.  They were very nice at the access centre, especially since I walked into the office just 4 minutes before they closed.  The girl took all the information for my driver’s license got me to smile for the camera and told me to wait 2 minutes until the license was done.  They printed it right there!  No waiting for it to arrive in the mail.  This was service!

Then, when I asked about the license plate, she looked at me and said “I thought you only wanted a driver’s license.”  Now they close at 4:00 p.m. and it was now 4:13 p.m.  She looked at me and then looked at another girl ready to walk out the door and said “what should I do?”  The other girl said, “Just give it to her.  It won’t take you long.”  then the girl walked out the door.  The receptionist came over and gave the clerk a hand getting  all the paper work together.  I told them “I owe you big time.”  They worked late because of me but were very nice about it.  It was 4:28 p.m. by the time I got out of there.  I’ll go  back to the Access centre the next time I’m in Charlottetown with a little something for the two of them for staying so late for me.

There are so many things we have to put a change of address in for, as well as organizing a lot of things like getting our things shipped from BC to PEI, getting quotes for building a garage, arranging lawyer appointments, shopping around for a ride on lawn mower and more importantly a Snow Blower!  Sometimes I wonder if it will all get done!  We move into our new house in one week!!

We are really looking forward to moving into the new house, but we are getting exhausted trying to get there!

Time For Good News!

I know I’ve been absent from blogging ever since Jasper passed away.  We needed time to grieve and decide what we were going to do.  We had two choices.  We could continue looking for a place to live, although time was running out until they closed the campground, or we could plan our future trip down south for the winter.  I decided to keep my options open and do both.

I kept my eye on the real estate market on line but we also talked about where we wanted to go down south and looked up resorts to stay at on line.  I didn’t feel very optimistic that we would be finding a place any time soon.  I found that I was looking at the same properties over and over again on line and it was getting very frustrating. 

There was one property that I kept looking at on line.  I really liked the photos that I saw on line, although we have found out in person that photos aren’t always what they seem, and the price was really low.  The only thing was, there was no garage.  That was a deal breaker in our eyes.  With the winters they have in PEI, you really need a garage for your vehicles.

One night I was talking to my sister and told her about the property.  She looked it up on line and really liked it.  She started to read the description on the property and mentioned a basement!  The listing I was looking at didn’t mention it or show any photos of it.  It turned out to be a fully finished basement!   With the price that it was offered at and the fact that it was only 4 years old … I told Ron that we could build a garage!

We went to take a look at it and I instantly fell in love with the place.  It was exactly what we were looking for.  It is a 4 year old, 2200 sq. ft. Rancher, open concept, 5 bedrooms, a sitting room off of the Master Suite with a water view, 3 full bathrooms, 3 separate sun decks all with water views, a Gazebo on the back sun deck, and 1.06 acre.  It also had a fabulous sandy beach just 5 minutes up the road.  It was perfect!

We started the negotiation process and started looking into how much it would cost to build a garage.  We were lucky enough to have the vendors agree to a quick possession date … 3 weeks!  This worked out perfectly with the closing of the campground.  Things went back and forth a few times but we were able to come to an agreement on the price.

The only condition we had was a home inspection, which is a must these days.  Ron met with the home inspector and spent 4 hours checking everything in the home.  We found a few problems that needed to be addressed.  We went back to the negotiating table and the vendors agreed to fix the serious problems and gave us a reduction on the sale of the property so we could address the remainder. 

So … the deal is done!  We now own a home in PEI.  We have an acre of land, which Ron was looking for, and we have a water view, which I was looking for.  We are having a garage built and making it large enough so Ron can have a workshop in the garage.  This is what we had envisioned for our retirement.  Our retirement dream, is coming true!



Kitchen & Dining Room

 

Back of House with Gazebo





Downstairs Family Room




Living Room




Beach 5 minutes from home




View from all 3 Sun Decks







Feeling right at home



R.I.P. Jasper Huybers

Jasper Huybers
April 11, 2007 - September 1, 2012

It is with a very sad heart to have to inform you that our beloved Jasper passed away this morning.

We went to the University of PEI Veterinary Hospital where he has been staying for the past 2 days. If you read the earlier post from yesterday, you would know we were hoping to be able to bring Jasper home. We found out, that wasn't to be. 

Jasper had been bleeding internally for the past week and a half.  He had several blood tests, a blood transfusion, and an ultra sound done. Yesterday he had an endoscope procedure done and didn't recover from the anesthetic as well as he should have. The doctors felt that his liver was giving out.

Shirley was able to sit and hold Jasper for a long time.  He snuggled right into her neck where he usually liked to sleep. I know that he felt comforted with us being there.

It was a hard decision to put Jasper to sleep.  Shirley was able to hold him while they gave him the injections giving Jasper a sense of peace. We will miss him terribly.  He was a wonderful member of our family.  

R.I.P. Jasper Huybers - April 11, 2007 - September 1, 2012  We will always love you.

Ron & Shirley & Bailey Huybers