A magical place
I still don't know quite how we bumbled onto this place, nor did I envision how magical we would find it.
Last winter and spring, before we could do a site visit to finalize our purchase, we continued to talk about the house and garden even while traveling in other wonderful places. We were basically obsessed.
We mused about the wonderful antique Quebecois pine furniture (what had we actually agreed to purchase? What would the former owner leave? What was part of his "personal collection," actually?) We couldn't make heads or tails of the handwritten list that he'd sent via our notary from memory as part of the purchase agreement (following her mid-April prompting -- he had planned to do an inventory in late April) and almost everything seemed to be an "armoire."
What would the garden really be like? We're confident gardeners, thank goodness, so weren't really worried about that.
Can we possibly learn some decent French? We're experienced international travelers, but managing a house in Quebec? Setting up a cross-border banking system, getting the purchase $$ in Canadian dollars to our notary, thinking about driving up here planning to buy a house we'd not actually seen in person (a site visit was part of the purchase agreement); all of this seemed quite remarkable.
But as the time got closer, and we received a positive house inspection report in May, with the addition of "it's a great house" in our phone conversation with the home inspector, we were feeling quite positive (even if still a bit concerned and more than a bit anxious about the whole thing).
I've written about our arrival and last summer in blog posts on Natural Gardening from late May to early August. Here were the early ones.
The adventure continues
A new garden awaits
A new house, kitchen, and garden
And, it's been wonderful so far. We didn't create this place, but it is magical; a restored schoolhouse turned vintage home, surrounded by outbuildings to match. And, we quickly decluttered some of the excess collectibles, rearranged some things, and my garden companion got the landscape back in shape. I "helped" in the garden, but quickly realized that my heavy gardening abilities were limited. I may know a lot about gardens and gardening, but my talents are NOT in heavy maintenance.
This post reflects my thoughts about being here in winter. Who knew that we'd love winter's cold and blanket of snow so much!
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| Arriving for our site visit last year at the end of May |
Last winter and spring, before we could do a site visit to finalize our purchase, we continued to talk about the house and garden even while traveling in other wonderful places. We were basically obsessed.
We mused about the wonderful antique Quebecois pine furniture (what had we actually agreed to purchase? What would the former owner leave? What was part of his "personal collection," actually?) We couldn't make heads or tails of the handwritten list that he'd sent via our notary from memory as part of the purchase agreement (following her mid-April prompting -- he had planned to do an inventory in late April) and almost everything seemed to be an "armoire."
What would the garden really be like? We're confident gardeners, thank goodness, so weren't really worried about that.
Can we possibly learn some decent French? We're experienced international travelers, but managing a house in Quebec? Setting up a cross-border banking system, getting the purchase $$ in Canadian dollars to our notary, thinking about driving up here planning to buy a house we'd not actually seen in person (a site visit was part of the purchase agreement); all of this seemed quite remarkable.
But as the time got closer, and we received a positive house inspection report in May, with the addition of "it's a great house" in our phone conversation with the home inspector, we were feeling quite positive (even if still a bit concerned and more than a bit anxious about the whole thing).
I've written about our arrival and last summer in blog posts on Natural Gardening from late May to early August. Here were the early ones.
The adventure continues
A new garden awaits
A new house, kitchen, and garden
And, it's been wonderful so far. We didn't create this place, but it is magical; a restored schoolhouse turned vintage home, surrounded by outbuildings to match. And, we quickly decluttered some of the excess collectibles, rearranged some things, and my garden companion got the landscape back in shape. I "helped" in the garden, but quickly realized that my heavy gardening abilities were limited. I may know a lot about gardens and gardening, but my talents are NOT in heavy maintenance.
This post reflects my thoughts about being here in winter. Who knew that we'd love winter's cold and blanket of snow so much!
Quebec is certainly a magical place - Montreal, the Gaspe, Quebec City, the Townships. Can't wait to get back there. Our son spent a year studying at McGill, so we have been a few times, though never in the dead of winter. Sounds like you've had a wonderful adventure that really gave you the feel of life in the Gaspe.
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