IWANUS: The call of home: Moving to New Brunswick (Part 2)

Columnist shares more highlights from journey of moving across Canada in 2019

Jerry Iwanus used a U-Haul van similar to this one during his cross-Canada move in 2019. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

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Now what?

As I wrote in my last column, we finally had one foot in New Brunswick, where we really wanted to be, but didn’t know exactly when we would move here or what our life here would look like.

Would we come just in the summers or live here full time? What about Michele’s job and my appraisal business back in Alberta? And what about our kids? They were technically adults, with neither living with us full-time, but we had to factor them into the decision as well.

In other words, while we finally had one foot firmly planted in New Brunswick, the other was still firmly planted in Alberta.

Then there was the house we had just bought. The home inspection we commissioned when purchasing it resulted in a passing grade, but there was no question that it needed some things done sooner rather than later. What about tenants, on-site management, and about a hundred other things? How exactly do you own a home and rent it out from 4,400 km away? 

It turns out that buying the place was the easy part.

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Making it ours

In early October 2014, right after we took possession, I took a short trip back to New Brunswick by myself and met with various people about the house. These included our lawyer, the realtor who sold us the house, a septic tank cleaner, and several others. We needed to put a lot of ducks in a row before actually advertising the house for rent and starting the process of making it our home in the years to come.

Incidentally, early October is always a great time to be on the East Coast, with the fall colours still out in full force. We had never visited the Maritimes this time of year, so I had never actually seen a red maple leaf, but I was thrilled to be able to do so, finally. (Let’s leave aside for now the conversation about why our national flag includes something that you cannot find west of Ontario…)

The home inspection report found a multitude of issues that required attention, including missing and curling shingles, improperly installed gutters, trees and shrubs too close to the house, an old, non-conforming wood stove in the basement, and various small to not-so-small electrical and plumbing issues. Essentially, the previous owners had not maintained the property over time for various reasons.

Now that the initial euphoria of being “home” had subsided, it was time to face the stark realities of owning an improperly maintained, 50-something-year-old house.