Gary and I talked for several years about our retirement plans . . . his plans included traveling in a motor home and of course mine included lots of trips to Disney.  We knew that our house in Burlington, with it's swimming pool, water garden and extensive flower gardens would simply not allow us to travel the way we would like, so we concluded that at some point in time we would have to sell the house on Rolling Court.  We had talked about moving to the Kingston area, somewhere between Bath and Gananoque, but I was never really sure that Gary was convinced this was the right area.  However, once his son Steve moved to Gatineau, Quebec, he seemed quite comfortable with the idea.

Then in 2006 we purchased the motor home, and our plans and dreams started to become reality.  The time to sell had come.

Our long time friends and neighbours, Tom & Linda Tennant, dropped over to see the new motor home that was parked in the driveway and we told them, "Don't be surprised to see a For Sale sign appear this summer."  Within a couple of days they were back at our door telling us, "Don't list the house - we want to buy it."

So that was it!  We agreed on a price, drafted an agreement, and the deal was struck.

We immediately began looking for a new home in the Kingston area while at the same time cleaning out the basement, the closets, the garage and all the little nooks and crannies where so much stuff had accumulated over 25 years.  After deciding what we would move to the new house, everything else was set aside for a Garage Sale.  Everything that was left after the sale was donated to a local charity.

Selecting our new home was not an easy task.  Our Burlington home had spoilt us; it had everything we wanted and was decorated to our taste.  We could not find anything remotely close in any of the 50 or so resale houses we looked through.  Although we did not really want to build a brand new house, there seemed to be no alternative, so that's exactly what we did.  I had looked through a model home at least a year before we decided to move and told Gary about it so the previous September when we were visiting in Kingston Gary had the opportunity to go through the model. We both liked it and maybe that was why we were having such a hard time finding what we wanted, we had this picture in our minds and nothing was coming close. So that is the model we ended up deciding to build.  Of course, that was not before we looked at several other models just to make sure.

Once the decision was made, there was a flurry of activity.  Choices to make including brick, siding, shingles, cupboards, hardwood, carpet, paint, countertops, ceramic tiles, etc., etc.  It will suit us to a tee and actually has more space than the Burlington house, just a lot less property.  It's a 2,000 square foot elevated bungalow with a finished family room, gas fireplace, lots of oak rails to match our oak furniture, and big rooms with high ceilings.  We could never have found this in a resale home.

The sale of the Burlington house closed August 15th, so we arranged for the movers to come August 14th to load up all of our possessions.  Once the house was empty, we moved the motor home into the driveway and stayed overnight while we did some final cleaning.  

The next morning it was time for a final walk around our old yard and gardens.  A few tears were shed before Gary boarded the RV and I jumped in the van to head off to the next phase of our lives.  It was a wonderful home for us; we both have many fond memories of our time together there. 

I know that I will miss the gardens.  They were beautiful in all seasons and brought me a lot of joy.  Now my biggest challenge will be to resist planting as much in our new home, working with the plants and gardens is an inherited trait and one you cannot over come easily, so we will see how I make out with that one.

Our new house was not going to be ready for seven weeks so with all of our goods in storage, we hit the road in the RV.  We traveled through New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and New Brunswick on our way to Prince Edward Island where we stayed for ten days. Our trip home took us back through New Brunswick and around the Gaspe Peninsula By September 1st we were back in Kingston and checked in to the KOA Campground just on the edge of the city to wait for the house to be finished. The originally scheduled closing date was September 29th and it was finished right on time. It was a good thing, I love travelling in the RV, but living in it is another story, both Gary and I needed to have something more to do.

We took possession of the house on a Friday and the movers were not coming until the Monday so we spent the few days just wandering around the empty house, checking to be sure our furniture would fit, figuring how we would set up the rooms, measuring windows and the such. Gary was planning future development in the unfinished part of the basement that included where his workshop would go.