Amazing What Can Happen in a Day!

Getting a head start on the walls before the cement comes.

We were starting to worry whether our garage was going to be built in time before our furniture arrives from B.C.  The workers had the site prepared and framed for cement, but then it sat like that with no work being done on it for a full week! 

Finally, yesterday they came and poured the cement pad.  It was a cold day for cement pouring but they assured us that it would set.  After it was poured we had to wait for it to set a little before smoothing out the floor with the big smoothers called helicopters.  The workers worked late into the night to get it done.  If they had left it until the morning they never would have been able to smooth it out.  They were very dedicated workers.  Every couple of hours they would see if it had set up enough to work the helicopter.  They finally finished smoothing out the cement and left at 12:20 a.m.!!  I told you they were dedicated!

This morning we woke up to another beautiful sunny day in PEI.  Workers started arriving and the garage walls started to go up.  We were very excited at the progress they were making.  The next thing we knew, the trusses for the roof started to go up! Could this mean that we will actually have the garage ready for when the furniture arrives?  If they keep this up, it just might happen!

We decided that in order to keep things running smoothly, we needed to keep the workers happy.  So today for their 10:00 a.m. coffee break, we invited them into the house for coffee and freshly made, hot out of the oven, cinnamon rolls.  They loved it!  Tomorrow I think I’ll make them cookies.  There is nothing like having chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven!  Yum!

Our furniture should arrive Monday or Tuesday of next week.  We have to put a lot of things into the garage so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the garage will be ready for its arrival.  Workers don’t work on the weekends in PEI so time will be tight!  Stay tuned as to whether we make it on time!



Supplies are being delivered



It takes some skill to get it off the truck

Carefully placing the supplies

Getting a head start making the walls

Preparing the site for cement

Finally the cement arrives!

Pouring the cement

Trying to smooth the wet cement

Waiting for the cement to dry

One of the helicoptors sitting on the floor

Working after midnight to make sure we get a smooth floor

The first wall to goes up!

Taking a break

It's starting to look like a garage!

Ron wants to move in already!

Ron is very happy!

Not bad after two days work!

Rolling Rolling Rolling!

Ron & Bailey enjoying the day.

The past couple of days have been filled with things that “Roll”.  We had a mix bag of weather over the past few days but that didn’t stop things from rolling!

We had a very calm day with little to no wind.  Ron thought it was perfect weather to try and fly his plane.  He had been waiting until he had a day without wind (rare so far).  He had the perfect runway … our driveway!  He had paced it out and he had over 330 ft of landing strip to take off on!  It took him a while to used to flying again but he had such a good time trying.  He managed to get the plane down the runway and up into flight.  He flew it for a while and then came in for a landing.  He was going to land it on our new garage site as it was nice and flat.  As he approached the landing site it looked good … but then he fell short of it and nosed dived the plane to a standing straight up position. A few other landings put him in the next door neighbors yard.  I thought he kept landing it there hoping they would come out so we could meet them!  Lol  He had a great time!

Ron also managed to get to use his new ride on lawn mower.  He told me that he was just going to adjust the height of the blades and the next thing I knew he was driving past the house!  He had so much fun mowing the lawn.  He only did the front yard, which is about a third of our property, but because we have 4 acres our front yard is pretty big.  It took him about 2 hours to do it.  At one point he picked up Bailey and the two of them mowed a couple of strips together.  Bailey just sat in Ron’s arms as he wheeled his way around the yard.  I think he rather liked it!

Yesterday we received some good news!  All our belongings have been loaded onto the trucks and is on its way out to PEI.  It should get out here in about 10 days!  We have some very good friends in Chilliwack who have been looking after our things in storage for us.  Dean has been kind enough to go and do regular check-ins on our things to make sure that they are still where they are supposed to be.  It gave us great peace of mind knowing that our things were safe and sound.  Thanks Dean! 

Our friend Dennis was able to go and supervise the loading of the trucks.  Dennis has done many a move that involved hired movers so he knew what to look for if anything was to go amiss.  They spent from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to load everything.  Dennis kept us up to date with photos as to how it was progressing.  We were very excited to see the last photo of the trucks rolling away from the storage unit.  Thanks Dennis for a job well done! 

The last little bit of news I’d like to share is I got my hair cut!  It has been so windy here that every time I left the house my hair would fly in my face and would be a mess!  I couldn’t stand it any longer.  It may sound funny, but I really liked the barber that cut Ron’s hair so I had him ask her if she did ladies cuts.  She said yes … so I went to the Barber Shop and had my hair cut.  It felt a little weird sitting there among all the men waiting for my turn as I was the only woman in the place.  I had time to watch her to see how she did her other clients hair.  She was fast but every one of them turned out great.  I had no doubt that she would do a nice job with my hair … and I was right!  She took a long time to do my hair.  I had taken a couple of photos to show her how my hair used to be years ago.  She kept cutting and cutting then cut some more.  By the time she was finished I wondered whether I would have any hair left!  When she turned me around to look in the mirror, it was exactly what I wanted her to do!  It felt so good to have my hair short again!  When I stepped out into the wind all I felt was wind … no hair flying in front of my face.  Right then I knew I had made the right choice to get it cut.  It will also be nice for when we go in the hot tub.  I won’t have to tie it up any more, I can just get right in.  What do you think of the new me?  Did I do the right thing?  J

Well that is all for now.  We are still loving the house and can’t wait until our things arrive from BC.  Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for more updates to follow.



Our Landing Strip



Ready for Take Off!

Flying High

Flying Over Head

Mowing the Front Yard.  Big eh?

Bailey & Ron Mowing the Lawn

They did a nice job!

Moving Day!

Do you think they got enough in?

Nice to see our things well protected

It's Rolling Our Way!!

Before Hair Cut

After Hair Cut

So what do you think?  :-)

The Past 24 Hours

We have had many happy moments over the past 24 hours that I thought I would share them with you.

We woke up with the sun rising up and shining on the water … a sight I will never get tired of looking at.  While we were having our breakfast something caught my eye and I turned to look outside.  At first I thought that snow was falling, but then I put on my glasses.  Much to my surprise I saw the front yard filled with white sea gulls!  They were all walking around and pecking at the ground.  For some reason it reminded me of monkeys grooming each other.  They combed the yard for quite some time, then all of a sudden as fast as they came, they all took off and went to the next property down the road.  It was quite the sight to see.

The next exciting thing to happen was several trucks came to our place to start prepping the site for our new garage!  We are very excited about this.  We found it odd that when we were looking for a house to buy in PEI, there weren’t too many that had a garage.  We found out from our contractor, that people on the island don’t consider having a garage as a necessity, they think of it as a luxury.  Coming from BC where I’ve always had a garage, I consider it a necessity especially with all the stories I’ve heard about the snow on PEI.  I don’t want to be digging my car out of a snow bank just so I can go get a loaf of bread.

The trucks came and went bringing several loads of dirt.  They dug out a hole then piled in some fill, then put more dirt in it to build it up, then rolled it and smoothed it out.  The base of the garage is raised up with the sides slanting downward so the rain (if we get any) will go away from the building.  Now we are waiting for them to put the footings in so they can pour the cement.  It’s getting colder here on PEI so I can’t wait for it to be finished!!

We are still trying to organize the house.  We have been transporting things from the moho into the house to use until our things arrive from BC.  It’s been fun trying to think where things will go once it all arrives.  Even though our furniture isn’t here, I keep changing my mind as to where I want to put things … “should the kitchen table go in the corner … no I think I’ll put it in the middle and put the china cabinet in the corner.  No wait … maybe I’ll put the china cabinet in the middle and the table in the corner.”  Decisions … decisions!  I hope I figure it all out before it arrives!  Lol

To end the day, we decided to go in the hot tub.  The night air was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! It was a crystal clear night and the view was amazing!  There were billions and billions of stars in the sky!  I have never seen the stars so bright!  Being out in the country there were no city lights, so it was pitch black except for the stars.  It was incredible!  We saw the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Orion etc.  We also saw several shooting stars. I made a lot of wishes last night!  It was such an amazing way to end the day!

I thought it started snowing!

The birds have landed!

Grooming my yard

I am so tired!

The beginning of the Garage

Here we go!

Digging the hole

Bring me more dirt!

Rolling it flat

Part 1 is done.  Now we wait for the cement!

We Made It!!

Our New Home!

We are very pleased to announce that we have now moved into our new home on PEI!! It was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the air was filled with excitement and the view from our front porch was amazing.  I had only been in the house once … the day we viewed and put an offer on it.  Doing the final walk through on the day of possession made me love it even more!!

As we were moving things from the motor home to the house, I saw a couple walking towards me from the house next door.  It was our new neighbors, who were the previous owners of the house we just bought.  They came over to welcome us into the neighborhood.  Carolyn was carrying a beautiful arrangement of flowers as a welcome gift and Gordie gave us a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the move into our new home.  Carolyn also gave us a telephone/address book and had entered several phone numbers into the book that she thought might be helpful to us.  She entered numbers like, her phone number and cell numbers, a carpenter’s number, Marine Electric, a plumber’s number, the neighbors on the other side of us etc.  I thought it was very thoughtful of them to do this for us.  It is going to come in handy for sure.  We are very fortunate to have such wonderful neighbors.  They made us feel very welcome.

We made it through the first night and woke up to a beautiful sunrise over looking the valley and river.  We have this view from every window in the house.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.  It is EXACTLY how I pictured our retirement, sitting with our morning coffee over looking a beautiful water view.  It is perfect!

At the moment we don’t have much in the way of furniture in our home but we are making the most of it.  We have taken things from the moho so we can live in the house.  We took a mattress and put it on the floor of our bedroom so we could have something to sleep on, we took dishes, pots & pans, our clothes and the food.  The only thing we were missing was furniture so we got out our lounge chairs so we could have something to sit on and the small TV from the back of the moho so we had something to watch in the evening.  The downstairs is completely empty … until the furniture arrives at the end of the month from BC.  Then it will be crammed pack I’m sure!

We are also getting ready for the garage to be built.  The men came and staked out where they are building the garage.  They will be back on Monday to start digging and preparing the site for the foundation to be poured.  We are hoping that the weather holds out long enough for that to happen.  At the moment they are calling for rain, which is not good for pouring cement.

Another exciting thing that has happened is … Ron had his new “toys”, I mean his “necessary tools”, delivered.  We now have a ride on lawn mower and a very nice snow blower!  He was very excited when they showed up with them.  Ron couldn’t wait to hop on with Bailey and take the lawn mower for a spin.  He says he can see both himself and Bailey having lots of fun mowing the lawn in the future!

Buying a house in PEI has been a long process.  I spent the last 2 years watching the housing market.  When we decided to take the plunge to retire and move out here, we were faced with a lot of ups and downs not to mention the heartbreak of losing our beloved Jasper. 

Then we thought we had found a house to buy, only to find we had to walk away from it due to too many red flags.  We were going to leave the island but found out the vendors from the house deal that didn’t happen, wouldn’t authorize the release of our $5000.00 deposit which was being held in trust.  This of course created a lot of stress for Ron and myself and also resulted in us having to file a law suit in small claims court.  Of course this meant that we couldn’t leave the island until the law suit had been completed.  But things happen for a reason … if we had left the island we would not have found this little piece of paradise we now call our home.

We have come a long way and have gone through a lot of emotions but in the end … it was all worth it.  We are VERY happy in our new home and look forward to many happy years looking out over our beautiful view while we enjoy our retirement.



What a brave man. He wanted to carry me over the threshold.



Morning sunrise from our front porch.

What a view first thing in the morning!

Flowers from our new neighbors

Our Laundry Room

Downstairs Bathroom

A Big Storage Room

Ceiling Fan in the Living Room

Large Storage Shed

Fire Pit with a View

Ron with his new Snow Blower

Ron with his new Ride On Lawn Mower



Sparse furniture in Living Room



Office and Bedroom off of Living Room



Kitchen Bar