Choices

So, for those of you who haven't guessed it, we are moving to Saskatchewan. We considered looking inside the city, but the house prices there are so crazy because of all the albertans moving there that we just can't afford what we want. This time we are not willing to comprimise and move into a house that we hate because we can't afford any better. I've been looking online at the MLS service, and found several three bedroom houses just outside Regina, the farthest being about 30 minutes away. Yesterday Dad and Michael (his wife) spent the day with our real estate agent looking at the houses that I picked. They quickly whittled down the choice from 7 to 2 houses that they liked the best.

House # 1:

This house is in a town called Vibank. which is about 30 minutes south east of Regina on a secondary highway. Vibank has a corner store, gas station, post office, butcher and a K-12 school. The house itself is on a huge lot, but the lot is unfenced. It's been well taken care of, but it does need some work. Michael didn't like some of the colours in the house and the shower in the basement needs to be ripped out and redone. The baseent is fully finished with a rec room and basmement. There is a man floor laundry, a double attached garage, an en suite bath in the master bedroom and a covered deck off the kitchen. They said it is a very nice house in spite of needing some work, they both quite liked it. Oh, and it is 1341 sq feet. They are asking $139,900.

House # 2:

This house is in Gray, a hamlet about 20 minutes straight south of Regina. Gray has nothing....just a post office and a school, which is right next to the property that we are looking at. The house and yard are not as big as the one in Vibank, but the yard is fully fenced, and like I said, it is right next door to the school. Dad says that you walk across a gravel access road and are in the school yard. They liked this house better than the one in Vibank, they said it needs no work at all. The bedrooms are bigger, it has a fully finished basement as well, the floors have been taken care of. There is a neat little sun room connecting the house to the double garage, and it has a new furnace, windows, dish washer, central air and central vac. Michael called it immaculate. Their only concern is whether or not we would want to live in a town with absolutely no amenities, though it really is very close to Regina. This house is 960 sq feet, and they are asking $109,000 for it. The taxes in Gray are also over $1000 less a year than the taxes in Vibank.

Dad is going to check into the status of the two schools on monday for us, and then we will go from there, but I suspect we will be making an offer on one of these houses in a week or so, once we decide which one to go with, and once we hear from a couple of real estate agents here and find out how much this little dump is worth. It's all quite exciting and a little bit scary....things are moving much more quickly than we were planning when we went to Regina last weekend.

As for the rest of our lives...Mary is sick again (still). I ended up bringing her to bed with us last night because she was coughing and crying in her own room. She came and snuggled with us, and ended up coughing so hard that she puked all over the bed and herself. Poor baby girl. She eventually fell asleep with us, but she was coughing and restless all night long. She's had this cough for over a week now, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better, so I guess it's time to get her to the doctor yet again. blah.