Time to be Real. Moving to PEI was still a great decision for me and my husband. My Dad has lonely days with both of us working but still seems to enjoy building his new life. He goes into town or putters on various project while being Super Dad/ Super Papa to our dogs

Our son has struggled the past few months. He still loves his new friends but is stressed missing his friends and his brothers in Ontario. Things go at a different pace here which he is not used too.

When we moved here we were told the winters are boring and not much happens…they were right. We are hopeful with spring will come new adventures for him that will ease some if that stress.

When we moved we wanted a fresh start, not having connections here seemed like part of this new adventure. We would meet people and everything would be fine. The problem is winter came before we made many friends and so we had to rely on each other for company. I’m not going to lie. Its been stressful. We have people who I think we will become good friends with and acquaintances so going to town is not as awkward as it first was but when storms come or roads are bad you are at home.

There are only so many movies, books or dog walks that one can do. Now with COVID on the island we feel even more isolated. Our son has asthma and we live with my father so extra precautions need to be taken.

But its March…..and there is grass along the roadside. Soon spring will be here and we will have beaches and visitors and hopefully enough memories to get us through next year.

I have been told my many Islanders the few months of nice weather make the bad ones worth while. I hope they are right 🙂

I have to admit I had no idea how closing days worked. Did we have to be out at a certain time? Was the money automatically available? Were there going to be other unexpected issues?

We planned our closing dates on the properties two days apart, we figured this would give us time to PEI and take care of any necessary business. It seemed like a logical plan. But, as with any of this dream, it did not go exactly as planned.

Our movers were an hour late on the Saturday prior to closing making us an hour late on our last dump run, meaning the dump was closed until Monday (our closing date). I called several places trying to get someone out on a Sunday to pick up a small load but the earliest I could get was first thing Monday and it was a costly visit. So everything was out of our house and I sat on the deck waiting for 1-800-Got-junk. Finally they came and we were ready to head out. I called our agent to let him know we were leaving. I naively thought I would lock the door, drop off the keys to our lawyer, have access to the funds, and be on our way….not quite.

That’s not how things went and as the afternoon wore on I found out your money may not be available on closing day. Our buyer had some last minute paperwork needing to be done and wasn’t meeting his lawyer until 4 in the afternoon. Now you can imagine having most of your possessions on thier way to the island, cars are loaded, pets are ready and you have to wait…and wait. I was determined I was not leaving the province without the funds being in the bank as I did not want to turn and come back if there was something missed in the process.

Just before 5 our lawyer called. Although the funds were cleared they wouldn’t have them until the following morning I was slightly frantic as we had to get on the road to be on the island the next day. Our lawyer assured us it was fine to leave and there would be no issue. If anything came up we would easily be be able to deal with it over the phone or via e-mail. So, against my better judgement we left.

The next morning, our lawyer called to let us know they had made the deposit,in my foggy haze I had said thanks and hung up. An hour later when my hubs and I switched driving duties he checked his account, the funds were held. Apparently, the funds weren’t transferred into his account they were deposited by cheque

We could not do anything without going into an actual branch and even then we weren’t sure what could be done. We were tired and had kids and dogs with us so we continued with the plan of going to summerside.

By the time we checked into our cottage and made it to the bank it was 4:15, the bank closes at 5. The staff here were amazing and about 5 minutes before closing they were able to clear up our funds andnissie the bank draft.

After a good sleep we woke up excited to get into our house, a lawyer meeting was set for 10 and we had our final walkthrough at 9:30. We went to our appointment to sign all our documents and were told the keys hadn’t been delivered so we would have to wait. We headed back to.our cottage and waited.

Finally just after noon the lawyer called and we were able to get the keys and finally step into our new home. We unloaded what we had with us and explored all the nooks and crannies and just took it all in.

We spent that night at our cottage as well, the movers were coming the next day. I had booked for two nights for the sole purpose of not having to rush to set up beds, find towels and all the necessities. Our cottage was equipped and it was nice to head there for a shower and another good sleep before the movers arrived.

If I could do things differently I would have spaced the closing dates out a few more days and gave ourselves the extra day in Ontario for any last minute emergencies.

Feel free to comment or email me if you have questions about moving to the island

So we made the decision to move, now to figure out how this was going to happen.

We were lucky enough to have equity in our home, we decided to try to be mortgage free on the island as that would open up more possibilities. By that I mean, you don’t have to have a high paying job to pay your mortgage.

We also wanted to get settled here quickly. To get a mortgage you have to have income; which would have meant us moving here, renting and finding jobs then finding our forever home. Too many steps for us. So we lowered our budget and started looking.

We knew we weren’t interested in the west end of the island. Although it is beautiful, it can be pretty isolated. We were open to travelling for work but with a doctor shortage on the island we wanted to be a reasonable distance from a hospital or clinic.

We had visited the Eastern end of the island previously and loved the town of Souris. It has everything you need ( if there is something you want, Charlottetown is an hour away). My dad and I came out here in the spring and looked at houses, although we saw plenty, nothing felt like home to us. We left for Ontario slightly dejected.

We kept searching, we saw houses that weren’t as the listing seemed, houses we liked but were out of budget and often when we saw one we liked it was gone by the time we thought it over enough to make an offer.

So do we put this dream on hold? Nope. We listed our house in Ontario. As a last resort we would have rented here but were hoping it wouldn’t come to that and now I’m so thankful it didnt come to that as finding rentals is very hard on the island.

Our house sold in 24 hours, conditional for 10 days but the pressure was on. Out of one part craziness and one part frustration I took the filters off my search on Realtor.ca and saw a fridge I liked in the pictures of a listing. I jokingly told the lady beside me at work I was buying this house because I liked the fridge.

By next break I had spoken to the agent, who did a video tour of the house and by 4 o’clock we had a conditional offer in. The next 10 days were a blur of impatience, frustration and a few tears as we waited for our house there to firm up and organize everything here. My hubs and I did a whirlwind trip to see the house before the conditions expired. We left Ontario 1am Sunday morning and were home by 7 Tuesday night.

So we now have a house, are mortgage free, a short drive from the bridge. We are 15 minutes from Summerside, 45 from Charlottetown. As luck would have it we both have jobs less than 10 minutes from home. We have a beautiful view and felt like we were home the minutes we walked in the door. All because I stopped looking with filters and kept an open mind.

Next post: Moving day

Thanks for checking out the blog. Living on the island we notice a lot of posts on other sites looking for information on moving to PEI from another province. Islanders are fantastic at providing the best information and resources, but I wanted to offer another perspective. From someone who is “from away”. That took a chance and followed a dream. A bit of background …..

We have visited the island many times during the summer and we never wanted to leave. I realize this is how most people feel on vacation but this feeling was deeper. I truly felt, as did my husband, that we belonged here. So we starting dreaming of retirement and spending our golden years walking the beaches playing with our grandchildren. When we brought my parents to the island our dream became theirs and we decided that in a few years maybe we could all live here together. Then life changed.

To put it simply, my mother passed away. My mom, who had just retired and had her golden years ahead of her was gone.

The months that followed were very dark, watching my Dad grieve, for me anyways, was the worst part. One day he said he felt like just packing up the truck and heading east. I couldn’t imagine him doing that alone. We asked ourselves why were we waiting to start living our dreams? We couldn’t really come up with a good enough answer so …….

Exactly one year to the day of my Moms passing. My husband, my father, our youngest son and myself moved into our home on the island. Yes, I picked that closing date specifically as we desperately needed some good memories to help us through the bad ones. I think that’s exactly how my Mom would have wanted it.

I will be adding more posts about different parts of this grand adventure as we go. It hasn’t all been easy, but we wouldn’t change a thing 😉