JohnnieH's crazy summer.....

JohnnieH

As most of you know, the ‘H’ family has relocated from New Hamburg, ON to Stratford, PEI. I thought I would share the story with you all.

This whole crazy idea came about in late June. My wife was at a conference in Winnipeg talking to a colleague/friend from Prince Edward Island. They were complaining about the challenges in theirs jobs, and the Wife joked that she would move to PEI and take her friends job. Wife mentioned this to me when she returned home, and I said “Wait…quit our jobs, sell our house, take the profit and move to the Island to be closer to the majority of our family? That’s not such a stupid idea.” My wife’s mother was from the Island and met her father in university. We still have many relatives on the Island and have visited many, many times.

While we slowly prepped the house to be listed, Wife casually looked online for some jobs in her field. We had intended on listing the house in the fall but wife managed to land a job interview with the Confederation Centre of the Arts in early July. They flew her out for a day, and she thought it went very well. We crossed our fingers, as she really liked this opportunity.

Meanwhile we had family from PEI visiting us for a week. On the 2nd day of their visit we all were at the Toronto Zoo. Wife started getting texts and calls from her references about calls for the job. Obviously she was in contention to get it. No sooner did we arrive home when her phone rang-with a 902 area code. They offered her the job-Director of Major Gifts and Endowments for the CCOA-which she immediately accepted! Woohoo!

When she was out there for the interview she looked at a few houses and fell in love with one on Harvest Ave that had been on the market since April. After she got the job we bid on the house, but the Sellers agent was a total dickhead, pulling the usual ploy- saying he had ‘other bidders’ that were prepping an offer ‘as we speak.’ Uh-huh. However we really liked the house so against my better judgment we put in an offer with zero conditions. The Seller took the offer, but the fucking agent wanted the deal done-to get his commission- and put in a clause that gave us a week to sell our place in New Hamburg. We didn’t know this until it was too late and clearly didn’t have the house sold. So we had to let the house go. However the housing market on the Island is really slow right now, so we hoped it would sit for a few weeks longer.

In early August, with our house officially for sale with Comfree, we drove my Mustang to PEI so we could look at more houses and so Wife could attend a few days of work. We looked at several, including Harvest Ave, since it was still on the market. While inside however, we started to notice a few small imperfections with it that made us leery of bidding without conditions like a home inspection. Also dealing with the sellers’ agent left us with a bad taste in our mouths. On the day we scheduled to fly back to ON we went to see a couple of more places. Most were just Ok, and one on Bonavista Ave was truly awful. They had reno’d a double car garage into a single car so they could add an extra room for a daycare room. You could tell that the work was shoddy and not up to code. Also the place was very filthy, even the floor was sticky-like a movie theatre. And they knew we were coming into the house to see it too! I guess they have never seen Holmes on Homes or Buy Me on HGTV.

Anyway, here is where the story gets interesting: the night before this our agent got a call from a guy who was considering selling his house, which happened to be next door to the Shit House. Our agent told us this when we finished viewing the Shit House, (which didn’t take long) so we went over to check it out.

This place was beautiful, made all the more so considering it wasn’t even prepped to be shown yet. It had basically everything we wanted in a new house: four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 2 car garage, amazing kitchen and living areas. It even had a cool play set and trampoline in the back yard for our daughter. How much? $15K less then the Shit House. It wasn’t even officially on the market yet, but Wife and I both agreed, this was the place.

We flew home and immediately went into negotiations to get it. Since the average sale of house in PEI can be 6 months, the sellers were thrilled that they had someone interested in buying their place so quickly. An agreement was made in 2 days, and we got every inclusion that we asked for like the appliances and playset and they offered the trampoline and the electric fireplace. They even gave us flexibility of time on the sale of our house in the Burg, which was huge for us.

Now we had to sell our place quick by ourselves before we had to leave, or hire an agent to sell it afterwards. We knew that time was more precious than money so we reduced our asking price, and waited. After a couple of anxious weeks of home viewings and open houses we had a couple that was interested in buying our house. They basically had us over a barrel, and submitted an offer that was quite low, but we managed to negotiate a deal that gave us enough money to pay off the mortgage and our debt. Unfortunately we didn’t come out ahead by much, but that’s turned out OK because of the good deal and inclusions we already had gotten our new place in PEI. Also, the cost of living out on the East Coast is so much cheaper than Ontario we know it won’t be long until we are caught up.

At the end of August were ready to go. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone (especially my mother) but we several BBQs and parties before we left which was nice.

We hired a moving company to get our stuff to our new home, and we drove out in Wife’s Rav4. We had to spend a week at her Aunt and Uncles farm before the deal on this end was finalized, but on Friday we finally moved into our new home. The Sellers left even more stuff behind for us like a steel fire pit and a sandbox in the backyard. The house was totally clean too-even the grass had been cut recently!

So that’s the story. Thanks for reading. Where did the friggin summer go?

moose

Awesome story. I'm going to call your family The A Team.

The A Team

Milo

Sad to see you leave our midst, but happy that you and yours are pleased with the results.

compuease

And happy (K,8 happy :)) that you are sticking around here.. Perhaps you can find enough players there to get a game once in a while..

JimmyHo

Good to do it before the kids get attached to their friends...where did my summer go??? rep soccer four days a week!

JohnnieH

compuease;360270 wroteAnd happy (K,8 happy :)) that you are sticking around here.. Perhaps you can find enough players there to get a game once in a while..

I've already met one neighbour across the street who hosts regular low-limit games! He was wowed by my table and chip collection.

Milo

Remember, shear a sheep many times . . .

djgolfcan

Milo;360283 wroteRemember, shear a sheep many times . . .

Is that going to be Johnnie's new job ? If that doesn't work out, he can move some couches, he's had practice at that too.

piggypie123

Glad to hear things are working out for you. Best of luck to you and your family.

Buzzzardd

Best of luck Johnnie. I am going to miss your Christmas tournament.

JohnnieH

Thanks for the love, guys. I will miss seeing you guys around the local, low limit poker scene :)

djgolfcan;360291 wroteIs that going to be Johnnie's new job ? If that doesn't work out, he can move some couches, he's had practice at that too.

I had an interview last week with Red Shores to be a Blackjack/poker dealer. I think this would be a good fit for me and I hope to hear some good news soon.

Wetts was kind enough to set me up for an interview through a contact of his, but unfortunately the job started at 5am everyday. I just finished working a 4am start and I don't want to do that again. I hated going to bed at the same time as my 4 yr old.

Other than that, we are all settled in and mostly unpacked. Our daughter is still too young for Kindergarden here so we put her in a Montessori School in town. She seems to be having fun and learning something too, which is nice :D

wildbill7145

Buzzzardd;360307 wroteBest of luck Johnnie. I am going to miss your Christmas tournament.

Post xmas tourney will be missed here as well.

JohnnieH

wildbill7145;360517 wrotePost xmas tourney will be missed here as well.

Yeah, me too. I was always proud that of the fact that I would get players from all over SW Ontario to meet up in the Burg. I wonder how many players I'd get if I posted one this year :D

The local poker scene here in Charlottetown seems to be quite strong. I've talked to several people so far who play casually at least. I was also at Red Shores on Thursday afternoon and they had several players playing 5/5 NL.

Milo

Going to have to start calling you "Island" Johnnie soon . . .

JohnnieH

I finally got a call back from RS to set up another interview. I guess the delay was the RCMP check. I have to go through another screening, assuming that goes well, then I can start my Blackjack training. They will 'train' me on poker after that, since that is my strength.

wildbill7145

I had no idea that you had interest in being a dealer. Hope this works out for you John, I could see it being kind of fun. Some of the dealers in Vegas look like they've been injected with some sort of zombification concoction, others looked like they were actually enjoying themselves. I guess it's like any other job after a while.

JohnnieH

wildbill7145;360547 wroteI had no idea that you had interest in being a dealer. Hope this works out for you John, I could see it being kind of fun. Some of the dealers in Vegas look like they've been injected with some sort of zombification concoction, others looked like they were actually enjoying themselves. I guess it's like any other job after a while.

I've always thought it would be a cool job. It's only part time and mostly evenings/weekends, but that suits me just fine. We will be OK since we're super lucky my wife has a that good job. Our expenses are much cheaper now too, so we will have funds for extras like flying, vacations and other fun stuff. Much easier to get by out here vs Ontario where we were living day-to-day.

Another bonus of working at the casino: it will keep me out of there as a player. That will save us money too :D

Milo

JohnnieH;360546 wroteI finally got a call back from RS to set up another interview. I guess the delay was the RCMP check. I have to go through another screening, assuming that goes well, then I can start my Blackjack training. They will 'train' me on poker after that, since that is my strength.

Just waiting for that sixth or seventh player to violate a casino rule . . .

seriously, though, congrats on the life change aspect of things, John. not many people get to do what you and Wraychel have managed.

moose

Do you keep tips or are they pooled?

Milo

Island Johnnie H . . . has a nice ring to it.