Personal

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One Thing I Forgot to Mention About the Real Estate Purchase

When I told the real estate agent that my RV is parked in Weyburn, her reaction was, “Oh, this serviced plot will make an awesome RV pad for you to come back to in the summer!” *pause* “That’s your intent; right? To leave it vacant and come back once a year to park your RV on it?”

Yup.

And she is confident that the municipality won’t have an issue with that since she knows others in the municipality who do that. I’ve been researching this RV pad idea for ages, so I’m pretty sure I’ve found the only province with towns that will let you do this.

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What Does a Plot of Land Mean?

I don’t consider my real estate purchase official until the money has been handed over and the papers signed, but the real estate agent says that the owners have done their bit and the money is out of my bank account. So I feel like what I imagine being pregnant must feel like. There’s no baby yet and there’s a chance of something horrible going wrong, but the odds are favourable that the plan will come to fruition.

So what will it mean for me to be a landowner? I have to pause here and quote a line from one of my favourite movies: This land is mine! Mine by destiny!

Ahem. Forgive me. 🙂

To be truthful, I don’t know yet what this plot of land is going to mean for me. I have a vision of spending at least the first part of next summer on it provided that I can actually get the RV onto the plot. I remember that the unserviced lots would have required a culvert being installed, but I can barely remember anything about the serviced lot, so certain was I that my ludicrous offer would be refused. I’ll be able to confirm that tomorrow, when I will be taking pictures!

This lot is everything I would have dreamed my RV pad would be several years down the road, if ever, in that it already has sewer, water, and power on it and it is landscaped with trees. The unserviced lots were just prairie. Now, we all know how much I love the prairie landscape, but I like the idea of a few trees as a windbreak and for privacy.

 

Taxes on my lot, as long as there is no building on it, is $25 per year. And I know you are all dying to know how much I paid and I am actually going to tell you! But you have to guess first! Go on, have at it in the comments and I will let you know there.

My only real concern at this point is internet access as there is no cell service out there. I’ll figure that out next year; there does appear to be hardwired internet available, so that could be an option. And even though it is serviced, I have no idea if there is actually an electrical outlet and a tap on site that I could use until I build a proper RV pedestal. All those questions should be answered tomorrow. Let’s say those things do exist, then the first priority next summer would be to bring in gravel to make the RV pad itself. But it’s way too soon to make any plans.

Note to self: as the real estate agent if it’s going to be a problem to let the grass grow all summer. Oh, the things I have to worry about now. 🙂

I’m just about out of battery juice, but I will say that the plan at this point is to get this all buttoned up first thing in the morning then get myself down to the Estevan Walmart so that I can cross to the US first thing Thursday. We’re supposed to get sun tomorrow, which should buy me some time on my batteries, but I need to get plugged in. I had originally planned to spend a night in Minot and then move to the only RV park I found open in the wintertime, but if I get across quickly, I will be tempted to haul ass all the way to that RV park Thursday night. All that to say, don’t expect pictures till tomorrow evening!

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Dealing With Growing Disillusionment

I’ve had a lot of time in the last six months to think about what’s going to happen when it’s time to leave the east coast this fall. I have had a lot of thoughts rattling around in my brain that have been difficult to articulate precisely. These thoughts have been about the collision of my dream for a full-timing life and the reality of it.

My dream of full-time RVing is an American one. It falls apart in the face of Canadian reality. It is impossible in Canada to have the kind of freedom I wanted RVing to give me. There are a number factors which have led to my growing disillusionment with the full-time RV lifestyle in Canada:

-The Cost: living in this country is expensive and you don’t gain anything by being an RVer because Canada doesn’t have nice open tracts of land where you can spend months on end. I’ve stayed in places where RV park rent was twice the monthly payment on my house.

-The Constraints: It’s impossible to travel freely around Canada if you want to abide by the laws governing health care, vehicle registration, and insurance

-The Climate: There is no decent place to winter in this country.

My two months in the US last year confirmed that for me to continue RVing, I need to be able to travel in the US for a good part of the year. My expenses drop by 50% when I’m there. I can’t work there, so I need to spend the other part of the year in Canada to work and save money. But I can only do that if some nice folks will let me park in their yard or their driveway, otherwise all my income disappears into rent.

Since even before I hit the road, I thought of buying some land to use as a home base. The more I realised how much Canada was constraining me, the less I wanted to buy land to play by the rules. But going to the States changed my attitude. I can get that lot to satisfy the US’s concerns about my having ties to Canada. Now that I have satisfied my Canadian bucket list, I wouldn’t mind going back to the same place every year for four or five months to work without worrying about paying rent or overstaying my welcome.

Having traveled the breadth of this country, I knew that the only provinces where it made sense to buy land were Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Every other province is too expensive and too restrictive, with rules governing how long the lot can stay empty and forbidding turning them into RV pads.

Manitoba’s real estate prices have jumped 158% over the last six years. Saskatchewan is ripe for a comparable boost as it now boasts the only truly affordable acreages along the US border. The word on Bay Street is that now is the time for savvy investors to buy Saskatchewan property and that that investment will pay for itself shortly, just as those who were wise to buy in Manitoba a few years ago have made good on their investments.

So that’s why I decided to meander through the Saskatchewan countryside yesterday. I was checking out several possible pieces of property.

Today, I drove back out to Assiniboia to make a formal offer on the ideal piece of land and a backup offer on a slightly less suitable lot. And that’s all I have to say about that at this time.

Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about
Who’s never left home, who’s never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl’s dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn’t yet guessed

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Thank Goodness for Organization

Last night reminded me of my first few days on the road and how much time it took to find space for everything. While I tried to put things away as I brought them back in, the day grew very long yesterday and I piled the last few (dozen) loads wherever there was room. I thought I had at least four or five hours of work ahead of me by the time I was done in the apartment. HA. There was nothing that hadn’t been in the rig before, so it was just a matter of remembering where each item went and I was done in under two hours, which included reorganizing a couple of cabinets. I still have a few little things to square away this morning before I take off, but I did about 95% last night before falling into a pile of exhaustion.

I’m off to do a last load of laundry, mop the apartment floor, and, eventually, hook up the car. I hope to be underway by noon.