Off farther north

Just to be sure we decided to have a look farther up Island to see what could be had within our budget. So we packed the dog in his crate and drove the two hour treck from Duncan to Courtenay and Comox. Downtown Courtenay is wonderful, the high street peppered with high end shops selling anything from beautiful furniture to fashion and designer boutiques with prices for the rich and famous. Many delicious eateries offering a miriad of tastes from all over the globe. A little Mecca. But as we drove around the neighbouring areas, including Comox, we found our budget sadly lacking. Typically free standing homes start at around the $650000.00 mark and going up weekly. Add that to the fact that this area is an hour and a half drive north of Nanaimo, the nearest link to the lower mainland.

Casey had a ball, so many new smells to sniff and so many new people to get acquainted with. He is a very grown up dog, even when a young poodle type thing wanted him for lunch, he just stood there and looked at him as if to say, "You are some special kind of stupid eh?" We found a few beautiful areas in this part of Vancouver Island, but they are way beyond what we want to spend on our final home.

We drove the fast route up there along highway 19, and decided to drive the slow route back to Duncan along highway 19A, the original Island Highway. So nice along the coast through all the quaint little towns. Vancouver Island is a gem to be enjoyed whenever you can... Once we got back to our house-sit I took Casey for a walk and then we settled into the house, had some dinner and relaxed, while we waited for David, our realtor, to get back to us with news about the two properties we were hoping to deal on.

Property number four...

The annoying part of this is that while their properties were listed for sale, they were not ready to build on because they had not yet filed their plans with the land title people in Victoria. How can you possibly put a building plot up for sale when you can't build on it yet! Frustrating to say the least... David had put in a request for more info on the properties we were interested in, but that was slow going. To get a property through the land title office could take up to four weeks. Our house is sold, we need action soon. The next day we were still none the wiser so I dicided that we needed a distraction and planned a visit to Cowichan River Provincial Park.

The Cowichan River

Taken from the old railway bridge.

Cowichan River Provincial Park is located west of Duncan. It has a few picnic areas and a campground. The scenery is amazing and there are some wonderful hiking trails. We wiled away a few hours here strolling through the greenery. Shelagh's arthritic knees are getting worse every day so a long walk was out of the question, but we are sure that we'll be back here many times for a picnic by the river's edge. One of our favoutite pasttimes in all seasons except winter.

On the way back to our house-sit we stopped by Keystone drive for another look. We both like this street, but if they can't start building for another month we'll not be able to make the dates work, frustrating... We decided to drive by yet another complex in the works on Gibbins road. It's slightly farther out of town and surprisingly way more quiet. The wheels in my brain began to churn... Quiet, backing onto a green belt with a walking trail, and by the state of construction I figured completion could happen end November to early December. We went home and I took the dog for his walk and, when home, talked about this third possibility.

Could this be the one?

On Monday morning we packed up our stuff, did laundry and house cleaning, changed the bed and made everything ready for Sharon's return from Victoria. We left the house at about 14:00 and checked into our hotel. The Thunderbird Motor Inn is the place for us. We got a wonderful room at a wonderful price and had a glass of wine. Then we decided to fire off an e-mail to David to set up a viewing on Tuesday morning, he was right on it. We were ready to meet him Tuesday at 09:30 to take a look...