Hello Waiparous – We bought a home!

Life’s been pretty crazy these last few months. Exciting changes are happening as our life here becomes more and more settled.

Biggest news… we sold our house in the UK and have BOUGHT a house here!

I still can’t quite believe it myself.

The house we have bought is truly mine and Henry’s dream home. If you have read past posts, you will know that we wanted land, and we wanted a place that one day we could start a business, build some cabins and rent them out as little luxury holiday lets. This place has everything we need for that and more.

We will be located up in Rural Big Horn, about 20 minutes from Cochrane and about 50 minutes from Canmore. An hour from Calgary airport for any of you planning a trip out to see us. The nearest village is Waiparous, but this is a tiny hamlet that you drive through on your way up to Ghost Crown land. The crown land is so popular there as a spot for locals to take their toys for adventures. Quad bikes, dirt bikes, hunting, fishing…you name it you can do it up there. A lot of people go up there to camp so maybe us being the last stop of civilization before all this open space will be appealing to those who want the adventure but still a comfy bed at night.

We first saw this house early in the year and loved it straight away. We didn’t think we would get it because we were a little way off selling the house, but still it was fun to look. The property market was pretty slow here beginning of the year (thank god) and by the time we were ready to put an offer in it was still available. The owners are a couple who have lived there for 20 years. He’s a brit (Geordie to be precise) and she is Canadian and we instantly clicked. They did us a great deal and long story short they accepted our offer and the house was ours.

We have had a few hoops to jump through with financing but Canada has been very kind to us and Henry and I were able to get the mortgage we wanted. If you’re in the area and looking for a mortgage broker or a realtor I would highly recommend everyone we used. The process has been easy, friendly and manageable. It’s a scary thing to take on in another country but everyone has been so helpful. In a way starting with a blank slate has made the buying process better for us. No one bringing up that phone bill you paid late 15 years ago, or that online shopping addiction you had. The exchange rate is good for us right now and in a weird way covid has helped us out too, trying to get the economy up and running has made interest rates low and borrowing realistic. All these factors mean we have been able to buy a property that would have been miles out of our wildest dreams in the UK.

The house sits on 10 acres, has 4 bedrooms and a 5-car garage. High ceilings upstairs and downstairs and 200-year-old cedar wood floor. A deck that wraps around the house and a beautiful big kitchen. When you sit out on the deck you can see the beautiful Rocky Mountains in the distance and not another soul for miles. PERFECT! The master bedroom is bigger than the whole apartment we live in now, and Rocket has a bed room he will never outgrow.

Our neighbors to the left are 300 big beautiful Alberta Beef Cows and to the right, nothing but crown land. There is a house just north of us but it’s is a big luxury ranch holiday rental that is not permanently occupied. The owner lives in Australia and apparently is looking for new ground keepers. (Hello new project for me and Hen)

There are a few renovations that we want to do to the house, and if you are interested, I will be blogging about the project. Plenty of before and after photo’s documenting all the way. Henrys got his eyes set on big landscaping projects. With 10 acres to play with I’m sure he is going to make it beautiful. There is WAY too much wood in the house for my liking so lots of decorating to do there. But other then that the house is great. Nothing is getting knocked down or rebuilt. (accept maybe the play house which looks like it was built by the Blair witch) My dad is the master builder, and we can’t wait for covid to fuck off so that we can get him out here and inspire us. I know he will look at things totally different and have great ideas.

Dad –  I promise not to put you to work as soon as you get here, but lets just say you better bring your work boots 😉

We are so excited for this next part of our journey here in Alberta.

After 18 months of living in an apartment with 3 dogs and a Rocket we are all ready for some space. We have both worked so hard and we are incredibly proud of ourselves for making this happen.

We move in July 26^th and can’t BLOODY WAIT!