Journey & Adventure

The early retirement plan is chugging along.  I wish I could say it was ahead of schedule, but such is not the case.   If anything, it’s lagging behind slightly. We have made a conscience decision that J would not go back to work.  He would instead spend his time working on the projects around the house, maintaining the yard and really just getting us in a better position to get the maximum return on the house when it’s time to sell.    Well, who knew we had so much unfinished business around our place.  He’s been off work a year now and the to-do list is still a mile long.  Believe me, it’s not for lack of working on things.  In fact it’s far from it - we finish one project and two more come to mind.  There are things we could probably leave and let the next home owner deal with – like new closet organizers, but since we don’t want to leave a dollar on the table, we are working to make things perfect.  Although we re...

I love bright colors. I like being welcomed by the feeling of warmth and cheerfulness when I enter a room. As much as the houses in Architectural Digest are stunning to look at, I don’t think they are meant to be lived in – at least not by me. I understand that some of the first rules when selling a house is to depersonalize it, remove clutter and keep wall colors neutral. This allows people to see beyond the knick-knacks and color on the walls and picture what their stuff could look like within the rooms. Here’s my dilemma – in my opinion, neutral colors can be too sterile, impersonal and boring. I’m not saying I intend on keeping the orange walls in The Boy’s bathroom or the fire engine red paint in his bedroom, but I need to find a compromise that will work for us until we sell the house, but I would like to do it now while J is still willing to have me as his “boss”. We are 98% done the spare room and have finished painting it and in case you’re wondering about the color, we ...

Well, it’s been almost 3 weeks since the beginning of my poison ivy, oak or sumac outbreak and the itching is finally starting to subside. I only have a few remaining itchy spots – mostly on my neck and hairline. That was without a doubt, the worst experience of my life.  It certainly was not painful, but extremely exhausting both mentally and physically. I honestly thought I was going to lose my mind (more so than usual).   Approximately 1 month ago J and his employers came to a mutual decision to “part ways”. I guess that’s a nice way of saying he is now unemployed. Believe me – we are both extremely happy with this decision. I’m happy because I have a built-in maid, cook and contractor. J’s happy because he is no longer working for morons (unless I count of course). The house to-do list is dwindling and we have come to the realization that if it weren’t for him being able to work away on all the projects now, we would never be ready to sell the house and vacate the...

By the end of this week, we will be pretty darn close to checking two major items off of our “house to-do” list.     The major work on the spare room is almost complete.   We still have to paint, install closet doors, light fixtures and new carpet, but in my opinion those are minor items compared to gutting, wiring, dry-walling, mudding and sanding.   The other major item almost accomplished this week has been the removal of 4 very old pine trees from our side yard.   The trees have been there a long time and were quite large; however because of their age, they had started to die from the bottom up and had become a very large eyesore.     Knowing I would be losing my privacy once those trees were removed has caused me a great deal of anxiety this week because our back yard is now visible from the road that runs alongside our house. *sigh*     Here are some before and after pictures.   There’s still a lot of cl...

I am so happy to see January on its way out the door. January is a month that provides me with nothing but misery – it’s long, cold, dark and dreary. With a little luck, I’ll only have to endure four more Canadian Januarys. Hooray! I’ve started with my Fluenz Spanish lessons and so far, things are progressing nicely. I’m only on lesson 4 of the first DVD – only 26 more lessons to go and then I have another 4 DVDs. Good thing I started early. Keeping with the Spanish theme, I’m noticing that the voices in my head are now speaking to me in Spanish - particularly after completing a lesson and then heading straight to bed. I guess it’s not necessarily a bad thing – unless I can’t understand them. J and I are still engrossed in our relocation research. I’ll only say this – we’ve started to look at yet another country as a potential candidate. I’m sure we’ll end up looking at plenty more before we even book another flight to take a research tour. Our new living room furnitu...

Continuing with the 5 4 Year plan discussions, and in order to get cracking on my need to learn the Spanish language before our move, I’ve ordered my Spanish language DVD’s. Once again, I realize we still have 4 years, but at the rate things are moving along, I better get started. After much research and watching online demonstrations, I’ve chosen the Fluenz program. From what I can tell, it’s similar to Rosetta Stone, but Fluenz seemed more progressive and includes DVDs, audio CDs and podcasts. I spend so much time commuting, I figure the audio CD’s and podcasts will be put to good use.  I’ll let you know how I progress with this independent learning thing. Maybe one day, I’ll write an entire blog post in Spanish. Ha! Seriously, that was just crazy talk.

So with the holiday season behind us, it’s time to start thinking about moving forward on some of those home repair/renovation tasks that J and I have managed to put on the back burner for the last few months. As you may recall, as part of the 5 Year Plan, which is now the 4 year plan because a year has passed, we had a list of home repair/renovations that needed to be completed in order to maximize the value of our home when the time comes to list it for sale. I realize that 4 years is still a long way off, but at the rate we are moving and the way we keep adding to the list, we are going to need every minute of those 4 years to accomplish everything we have in mind. *sigh* Over the holidays, J and The Boy started to hang drywall in the spare room, but that soon came to a screeching halt when they ran out of drywall. You think it’s simply a matter of buying and bringing home some more, but such is not the case. Remember we live in Canada and it’s now winter. Cold, slushy, we...

By the time our early retirement plan comes to fruition, you will be either too dizzy or too confused to follow this blog. Remember how I said, Ecuador would most likely be our retirement destination of choice and then we had a change of heart and thought perhaps Bonaire could work for us and then we were back to Ecuador and then I think when I last left you we were back in Bonaire mindset. Well, after doing some pre-retirement homework while we were on island in Bonaire, reality has again kicked us in the pants. Guess what? We apparently are not made of money and once we quit our jobs, we will no longer have a bi-weekly income in which to support the lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to. So while we could financially make Bonaire work short term, we aren’t convinced it could be sustainable long term. Housing is more than what we want to spend, groceries are on average 5-10% higher than they are here in Canada and the daily housing costs (hydro, propane, water) are significant...

Well, maybe I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I now have a better sense on where I might want to go when I get there. What am I talking about? Well, as we start the investigation process on our relocation plan, we’ve been reading about places and points of interest throughout Ecuador. We know, we want to live on the coast, but we’re not sure where exactly, so to help orient us, I purchased a map of Ecuador.   Before you think it - yes, I’m well aware, you can simply use Google Maps to find the location of pretty much anywhere in the world, but I’m an old fashioned sort of person. I like maps – physical, hold them in your hands, type of maps. And of course, no trip to the virtual bookstore, would be complete without purchasing some books. After all, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free! So, in order to complete the South American experience, I purchased a couple of “Learn to Speak Spanish” books. I’m pretty good at ordering food and drink in Spanis...

I wish I could tell you that I have it all figured out and that our relocate plan is 100% foolproof, but let’s be honest…I don’t really have it all sorted out just yet.   Here are some highlights to date:   1.        Become Debt Free.   Our main plan of action is still to pay off the mortgage, credit line and any other debts we might have within the next 3-5 years.  When the time comes to sell here, the equity we have in our current house will easily pay for our house or condo in Ecuador.  Believe me, we don’t have an extravagant house now, but housing costs in Ecuador are substantially less than houses in North America, which will give us a nice nest egg left over.   2.        Downsizing.   Slowly we will begin to purge everything non-essential from our lives.  Apart from our laptops and iPods and some personal meaningful items, we don’t plan...

In yesterday’s post, I said I would try to explain our decision about our plan to relocate to Ecuador in 2017.   Putting our thoughts on paper is harder than I thought it would be, so please excuse me if it doesn’t make sense to you, but in the paradise that is my mind…it makes sense to me.   Let me first say – regardless of how much I complain about the long, cold, Canadian winters, we love our country and Canada will always be our home.   That said, I’ve got enough love in my heart to go round, so enough with the mushy stuff.   Here we go…   Lack of Time   I know I’m not the only one out there and that the majority of us are in the same boat.   We all lack time and lack of time is has been one of the biggest deciding factors to relocate - we just don’t have time and can’t seem of find the time for anything – no time for each other, no time for our son, no time for chores, no time for hobbies, no time for friends and n...

You might remember me telling you about my 7-10 year plan .   You know the one - when I pay off my mortgage and debts, be totally irresponsible and quit my day job and then run away…far, far away to somewhere warm.   Well, I know this might sound absolutely ridiculous, but the planning has begun.    Put the date on your calendar – 2017.   By end of year 2017, J and I plan to be living in…. (insert drum roll)…Ecuador.   Exact location to be determined, but I can tell you that it will be somewhere on the coast of Ecuador.     There you have it.   There’s no turning back now that it’s on paper.   You, my Blogger friends, are the first to know our little secret.   We don’t plan on telling other friends or family members anytime soon because let’s face it - 5 years is a long way off and there is no sense in stressing them out long before we have to.   Obviously, we plan on taking a few research trip...