October 29 Weekly Update: Happiness!

It has finally happened—we are homeowners.  We will take possession of 111 Eagle Point in Osoyoos on Monday, November 6.  What a miracle!

We are not sure what caused the vendors to have second thoughts, but a couple of days after the failed offer, their agent let ours know that they were proceeding with the electrical, plumbing and heating checks, regardless of whether we were interested on not.  Everything passed, and the conditions were removed last Wednesday.  Given that is only 11 days from the possession date, things started moving really fast.

The thing we are most looking forward to is getting our household back.  Snow tires for Helen’s car, only 5 weeks after they were required!  Fall and winter clothing!  Real cooking utensils!!

The guest room will be one of the first set up, so stay tuned.

Winter is approaching here, with ample snow at the top of the hill where the ski resort lies.  There are real mountain trucks here for those who are not satisfied with the regular ones.

There is more than enough snow to clear.

You can look off into the distance the see the Monashee mountains and all of the highest peaks are sporting at least a little snow.

In the meantime, we have learned about the Vernon winter:  the Inversion.  

Expecting to experience sunlight all year round, we found instead that the lower levels of Vernon are plagued with fog throughout the winter months.  With the lakes being too warm to freeze, they offer lots of moisture into the cooler winter air that settles in the valleys.  

Morning makes the valley look like it has been stuffed with cotton, and the fog stays for several hours until it finally burns off.  It makes quite a spectacular view from above.

Since we don’t have to force ourselves to house-hunt any more, we have gone back to a little hiking and exploring.  Yesterday we went for a walk in Kalamalka Provincial Park.  Our previous trips had most of the scenery clouded by smoke; now they have the fog to contend with.  The views are spectacular once the sunshine burns through.

With clear skies, the sunsets are fantastic.  I will try not to overburden you with these, but we have had 17 years with sunsets obscured, and are most appreciative to realize they are still around.

There will be no update next week since we will be in the midst of moving, but I will pick up as usual the following week.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Sunday, October 22, Update

This last week is a difficult one to describe.

From a real estate standpoint, it has been literally hell.  But maybe heaven might come yet.

At Eagle Point, we had the well, water and home inspections done on October 9 and 10.  By the end of the week, there were some concerns (fixable: regarding the well top, electrical circuits, plumbing (no water flow in the ensuite shower, and a dishwasher recalled because of a serious fire hazard, and lack of heating to one room (radiant floor heating)).

On Monday, October 16, our agent called us to say the vendors had had second thoughts (they thought we should have paid more, despite them having accepted the offer!) and they were not going to pursue the required tasks…basically the offer would lapse on the Wednesday, October 18.  We signed the paperwork to let this go.

Terribly disappointed, we came back to Vernon to look at six more homes, all within subdivisions of the city.  We finally chose an upper end one, and asked the agent to book a final showing on Saturday (so we could figure where to put furniture) and then make an offer on Saturday (October 21).

Friday, October 20, the agent from Osoyoos comes back and said the vendor of Eagle Point had had second thoughts, and were doing all the required work October 23 and 24 and were willing to accept all the terms of our offer.

How do you spell dilemma?

We tried twice to present an offer in Vernon, and backed off so as to waste no-one’s time, when we realized that we are not willing to return to suburbia.

So—we have notified Eagle Point that we will be prepared to restart the offer, based on what the plumber and electrician say this week.  Apparently the vendors are REALLY eager to set things back on path.

From our standpoint, the possibility of getting our stuff from storage in two weeks is almost irresistible.  Hopefully this will all work out this week.  At this point, nothing would surprise us.

In the meantime, just to give you some pictures, we went out to explore some of Vernon’s special sights.  Some years ago, an artist decided to paint some wall murals on the sides of buildings, depicting parts of the history of Vernon.  These are amazing pieces of art.

To begin with, a mural depicting Ogopogo, the monster of Lake Okanagan, is on the back and side of the science museum.

A mural depicts Eastern Europeans interred in Canada during the first world war, especially the Ukrainians interred in Vernon. 

The children of the Fisher family are shown fishing in the Shuswap River, while their father on the right, the founder of the Fisher’s Hardware Store, is represented.  The Fisher family still runs the hardware store there.

In 1934, two Vernon boys, built a small open cockpit monoplane in ten months from plans bought out of a magazine.  The plane flew effortlessly at 75 mph for three years until Transport Canada denied the boys a license.

In all, there are 28 murals throughout the city, all masterfully done, and an interesting insight into some of Vernon’s history.

While we were out taking pictures of murals, I had a chance to see the maple trees shedding numerous leaves in a city park.  These ones were yellow, but there also a lot of red maples here.

Finally, when there is nothing else to do, we troll the road, looking for beer cans.  First of all, the views can be wonderful.

Today was a huge haul.  No one can say we are sitting around watching TV.

Why, we are looking at $3 at least here.......(to pay for more storage and rent........)

This next week should be interesting.  Stay tuned, because all bets are off at this point.

Sunday October 15 Update

This has been an exciting week in comparison to the previous few.  As part of the conditions on the offer we made on the home, we had a well inspection Monday, followed by a building inspection Tuesday.  There are some issues that need to be dealt with by the 19^th, but I don’t believe there are any show-stoppers on the horizon.  Hopefully.

Speaking of the horizon, see our view of a storm coming in while the building inspection was going on.

The immediate neighbors came over to check what was going on and then turned their backs on us.

We came back to our rental castle only to find rude news the next morning.  It is definitely that time of the year here.

While twiddling our thumbs, we decided to go for a walk at Mabel Lake, about an hour’s drive from here.  The forest near the lake was a real eye-opener for us, because it was wet and mossy!

There were some huge trees as usual, but to my surprise one of them was a massive poplar—I had no idea these guys grew THAT big.  Note the one deadfall acting as a nursery tree to both a polar and a coniferous sapling.

The beach around the lake was interesting in that it varied from boulders to pebbles to sand and then back again.  (The individual in the picture doesn’t seem to realize the paraparazi are right behind….)

Another interesting thing was that the clouds stuck in valleys of the hills……..

There still seems to be some fall colours here, with yellow poplars, red dogwood, and bright red maples (most often seen in town).

The sun was starting to drop as we finished our walk and checked out the loon on the lake.

Driving back to the Castle brought its own share of wildlife sightings, including deer crossing the road and a black bear crossing the road about 1km from our apartment.

Hopefully there will be more substantive things to mention next week.

Sunday, October 8, Thanksgiving Update

This week finally has created some news of various sorts.

Fall has arrived, and to my surprise there are colored leaves despite the drought.  Some of them look a little crunchy, but there still are some bright reds and yellows.

Some of the clouds in the vista also brought snow.  We didn’t get it at our elevation, but cars returning from the Silver Peak Ski Resort had 2 inches of snow on their roofs.  

Temperatures overnight are getting closer and closer to 0, making our winter clothes in storage all the more attractive in their absence.

This week was extremely busy on the househunting front, and we finally made an offer on a house in Osoyoos Wednesday that was accepted.  Next week we have a well test scheduled for Tuesday and a building inspection for Wednesday.  If those are satisfactory, we will get possession of the house October 31.

There are some wrinkles in that the sale of the house was an estate sale, and there was a certain amount of work left unfinished, such as landscaping.  Nonetheless, that is something we can handle.  The other concern is that the house has been basically unoccupied for two years, and we want to make sure that all systems are functioning properly.

If you want to look, check out MLS #166660 111 Eagle Point Road to see what it looks like.

In the meantime, what do you do on Thanksgiving when you are homeless?  In this household, we go out picking up beer cans off the road to make money to pay for dinner.  (The sixth-line garbage picker is alive and well……..15 cans! A great haul!)

Then you go to the Outboard Pub and get a full Thanksgiving turkey dinner for $16, which included a large slice of pumpkin pie.  It was great and there are even turkey leftovers for tomorrow (just like the real thing)!

We hope each of you enjoyed a happy Thanksgiving, and will keep you updated on progress on the house front.

Sunday September 30 Update

House hunting  continues…………..

With the lack of interesting houses on the market, we went down to Penticton and then Osoyoos (3 hours drive south of Vernon), where we finally saw two potential homes that were of interest to us.  We made an offer on one, only to be soundly rebutted, and came back to Vernon to lick our wounds. 

Osoyoos would not have been ideal because of having to drive 2-3 hours to any major services, but at least we tried.

Last week was not a high point for us.

However, back at home, there were a few lighter nature moments.  There are several groups of California quails at our lodging, and after I starting putting out food for them, they became regular visitors.

Their colouring is quite smart, and they have this most amazing pop-up crest on top of their heads, making them look like they are ready for a dress party.  While not large birds, they make quite a variety of sounds and are certainly fun to watch.

After our setback last week, we did a major change in direction, and asked our real estate agent to look for newer homes within the city.  (It’s trade-off time.)  We saw some interesting ones today, and will see some more tomorrow, with some encouraging results already.  The trade-off for an acreage is easy access to amenities, hopefully a nice view, and a newer home that won’t require any upkeep.  Oh, and we bought our ski passes to Silver Star Hill in Vernon so we are now committed to the area!

Our realty firm hosted a client appreciation day, at one of my favourite places:  a pumpkin patch!  The driveway to the patch was lined with little pumpkins all along the way. 

The patch itself was wonderful, and we got to bring home our own pumpkin.

I caught a picture of Mom having the kids pose for a picture—there were lots of families out there choosing their pumpkins, gourds and coloured corn for thanksgiving.

Beside the pumpkin patch was an apple orchard, and there are apples for sale everywhere.  All in all, a cheerful harvest season.