Considering A Big Move? My Life-Changing Leap

If you ever dream of moving rural, you’re not alone! My husband had been saying for years; “Imagine if we lived on acreage?”, “Don’t you think we should leave the city?”, “Wouldn’t it be nice to not be right on top of others?” and the list goes on…

Hesitation

I have never been a person whose been good with change, so needless to say I was very resistant to the idea of making the big move. The thought was overwhelming, moving to a place where we knew no one, moving our kids (aged 2 and 4 years at the time) away from their routine and what they know, just not having the conveniences we were used to that comes with city living.

I grew up in Thornhill, a suburb of Toronto, and my husband in London, England, so needless to say neither of us was at all familiar with rural living. For the past 12 years, we’ve lived in Toronto, Ontario (Canada).

We always enjoyed little getaways from the city, mainly out to cottage country, and had a great love for backcountry camping. The fresh air, slower pace of life, and the less populated areas seem to bring out the friendliness of people, this always drew us in. As we would drive out of the city my husband would comment how he could instantly feel his blood pressure lowering.

I’ve always dreamt of one day living up north on a lake, but this wasn’t the time, as I didn’t want to move our family that far from my family who are in Thornhill. We started to look into locations that gave us that feeling of being out of the city, away from the hustle and bustle; while still being close enough to family.

When The Timeing Is Right

Timing is everything and in March 2020 with an interesting back story (The Search That Led To A Life-Changing Big Move) we found the right home and on June 17th, 2020 the house closed and we took the plunge! The decision was made, we would be leaving behind our semi-detached 19.33 x 176.00 sq ft lot in the city and moving to a rural 1.33-acre property that’s surrounded by 98.66 acres of untouched land.

Once the decision was made that we were going to move out of the city, we knew our family’s life was about to change. We didn’t know exactly what our life would entail, but there was so much excitement that came along with that.

The moving day took place during the Covid pandemic, which added to the already extreme stress of the move. Needless to say, it was a stressful and exhausting couple of days, but when we were done and we sat on the floor of our empty new house, the excitement was beyond. Watching our kids running through the house and all around the property exploring brought on an unexplainable feeling.

Enjoying Our New Rural Life

Coming from a fast-paced city and far from a quiet street that we lived on, it took some time to get used to the new “quiet”. Ok, really not that much time at all. The quiet, the fresh air, the stillness, the slower pace were so welcomed and we find ourselves having an appreciation for our home on a daily basis. We enjoy our morning coffee on our deck admiring the beautiful forested landscape that surrounds us, listening to the neighbouring cows, dogs, and various birds. Our kids spend so much of their time outside exploring, running, investigating the different bugs with their magnifying glass, climbing trees, and well just being kids.

There is no doubt the many differences between living in the city vs rural, some negative, but for us, the positive to rural living greatly outweighed any negatives.

It has been 9 months since we made the leap and left the city – and we haven’t looked back! I find myself reluctantly, right where I belong.