The Elimination process

                                 

So the decision has been made to begin our new life as B&B owners, so predictably out comes my checklist. Prepare house for sale, check. List our home with a local agent, check. Stage the home to look like a model home at all times, check. Prepare for our house hunting trip East, check.

These were exciting times, as often is the case the idea or anticipation of a dream is more of a high than the actual reality of that dream.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of highs since the dream became a reality; however I believe to take such a monumental plunge we do really need to see things at least initially through rose colored glasses.  It’s the old “If I knew then….” but who would take risks, chances, adventures if all you could envision were problems and obstacles? I digress.

We felt fully prepared when we arrived in Nova Scotia with our stack of MLS listings in hand. In fairness, it is mostly thanks to our lovely daughter in law, who is a native of this gorgeous province that we were as organized as we were. She helped us chart a route of house hunting so we could maximize the 7 days we had to find and then hopefully purchase our new dream home. We really had no criteria for location, but as we began looking at homes we soon realized that there were locations that would just not work.

One example was a stunning stone mansion with most of its original features intact right down to the indoor recessed shutters on all the windows. Size was perfect, layout would need some work and grounds lovely, however it was so far from any beaten path that tourist drive-by traffic would be virtually non-existent.  In another instance the home once again was a large Victorian but the price was high and then to factor in renovations to make it B&B worthy, well, too rich for our blood. One home in particular that my Mr. had been fond of for years turned out to be the greatest disappointment upon viewing it.  Location was in a very popular town so that was a plus, price was ok as well, upon entering this one we were hit with the unmistakable odor of decaying rodent, in fact I am sure there were more than one. Nothing says GET OUT like the smell of dead mice, but to be fair even if we could have championed the deceased, the home had been broken up into apartment like dwellings and would cost a small fortune to restore to a single family style dwelling. Add to that was the fact that this particular town had regulations an arms length that you had to meet before you even began to get the dream from fantasy to reality, it was over before we began really.