When I was a kid, I spent a lot of my summer vacation time on my grandparent’s farm. They owned 4 quarters near Watson, Saskatchewan, and it was a paradise for little kids. We ran through the fields in the summer and spent our winters attached on a car hood attached to the back of snow mobile. That farm had a huge impact on me, and I always thought someday, maybe I’d have one of my own.
When my husband and I first got married we spent a lot of time dreaming about property. We moved into our first townhouse two weeks before I had our first baby, a little girl, and I’d dream of getting her a pony someday. When our son arrived 18 months later, we thought about how nice it would for him to have space to grow up, climb trees, and build forts.
As much as we loved our townhouse, we didn’t love the crazy neighbors who would blast ‘Tainted Love’ until 2 am. It was time to move on, so we bought a house about 20 minutes farther out of Vancouver. It was what we like to call a ‘BC Box,’ with a basement entry and the kitchen and living upstairs, but it was on a cul-de-sac and we made some great friends there.
During the 11 years we lived there we had two more sons, adopted 2 dogs, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, and 3 cats. When one of our cats was hit by a car because he got out and ran into the busy street, we talked about moving. When our sons refused to sleep in a main floor bedroom with the rest of us upstairs and our family of six crammed into 3 bedrooms, we talked about moving. We’d drive around looking at property and even listed our house to get a Cape Cod on 2 acres once, but it sold before we could sell and for 2 years I didn’t feel like trying again.
Until I spotted this place.
This house was on the market off and on for over a year, maybe longer. I saw it several times, and even took a stab at driving by it once or twice, but I could never find the driveway. There was no marker for it, and when you looked on Google maps it showed a place there but it was covered in trees.
I wondered about it. The listing said it was 12 acres, and in our area, that’s a lot of land. It was out of my price range for a long time, so I’d peek at it, wonder, and move on to the next listing. When it was coming in a bit closer, I asked my realtor to set up a showing. He tried, but at that point the owner wasn’t accepting viewings anymore. I assumed it sold and moved on.
One rainy Monday after a weekend away with the kids in Portland, I opened up my computer and looked at the listings again. And there it was, with a price that was right in my range. I couldn’t figure it out, so I shot an email off to my relator and asked why it was listed again. Then I did what any other mom who went on a 8 hour road trip with her kids does. I fell asleep.
While I was sleeping, I had the craziest dream. In the dream I was walking through a farm, and I was taking instagram photos of all of the different outbuildings and trees. I stopped at a fence and a lady came up to me. I don’t remember if I talked at all in the dream, but she said, “OK, I’m going to sell it to you. Only to you.” I took some more pictures and posted them for friends saying, “Look, we finally bought a farm. This is my farm!”
When I woke up, I thought about the dream and how vivid it was. It was so real, I actually told my daughter about the dream when I picked her up from school that day. That’s why it’s so strange about what happened next.
I’ll be back to update the Once Upon A Farm blog tomorrow!
