Our move into a fifth wheel camping trailer was not a final destination and since moving to Prince George we've been keeping a cautious, curious eye on the market while praying hopefully that the right place would come available at the right time.
We've explored lots of ideas and options and have been immensely blessed by our time living in our trailer on the Floskstra's property in Prince George.
In our search for a home before moving here everyone told us to 'just wait for the spring market!' Except in 2024, with high interest rates that were predicted to come down, not many people were selling at that time. 2025 had a simliar tune, except now many people were hesitant to sell while waiting for the results of the election. April 28th's election rolled around and did not have the outcome that the people of Prince George were hoping for and so the spring market felt pretty pathetic yet again.
I've been keeping a few notes as we've been house hunting and I really wasn't expecting it to get so long or to have so many twists and turns. I'm going to leave it at the cliff hanger because then parts 1 and 2 will be about the same length and not a total book when posted all together as one read. So you'll have to be patient and wait for the second part to come out. Hopefully I won't leave you in suspense for too long!
February
Not many houses for sale at this point. There's still a lot of snow and we've been told the market should pick up as the snow melts in March/April. Although there's no MLS listings catching our eye, there are a bunch of vacant lots for sale and some do peek our interest there. Also a few places for sale with too-small houses so we took a trip to the permitting office to figure out what the regulations are for adding a second home to a property. Will also asked about building a quonset home as that's an idea we've been throwing around for a quicker way to build a house.
So with all that information in mind we went shopping for mobile/modular homes to either use on bare land or as a second home on a property that already has a house. Some fun layouts from the modular homes and large enough ones that really could be feasible. A mobile home would probably need to have a basement if we wanted to see it be a long term home for our family.
April
The snow is gone for the most part and the market is picking up a little. Whatever is nice seems to sell very quickly and above our price range. Not-so-nice places will sit for a bit longer. We know five other families with similar criteria and budgets and we're all feeling kinda stuck.
We spent an afternoon that Will had off from work driving around and we looked at three places. Two were easy no's but this parcel of land really pulled our heartstrings. It was so fun to watch the kids run through the fields and play in the trees. We imagined where we would park the trailer for the first bit, the position of the house, and where we'd build a barn. Trying to find that line between figuring out if this property would actually work for us long term, and are we just getting our hopes up and wasting brain power planning all this?
The last update was from the beginning of April, now at the end of the month we went to look at a fully treed five acre lot. Much harder to imagine living on a property when it is all just trees. The property from before sold so now we are considering this one. Thinking through moving the trailer here and building, or staying where we are while building, and do we even really want to build? Can we even afford to build?
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We talked over our different ideas/options with the folks we go to when we need to seek wise counsel. The weightiest of opinions told us that we've got to figure something out. Moving back to the Valley doesn't make sense financially. We don't really want to move anywhere else but are feeling a bit lost. Wise Counsel told us to make Prince George work if we want it badly enough.
So we tried to buy a ranch. A very beautiful place with some houses, acres, animals, a creek, and crown land. Unfortunately another buyer got an accepted offer in on it which meant we had to patiently wait to see if the buyer would clear subjects. Then it got extended and we were made to wait again.
May
The beginning of May was when the ranch's accepted offer had a month-long extension put on. So we sorta had to drop that dream for the time being and figure out really what our plan for the future would be. We can't stay in the trailer for forever. We laid out many different options for what we can do with the financial situation we have. We tossed around the idea of moving to Coaldale where we have our rental house. I am not a fan of the idea at all, but Will kindly has pointed out how it's probably the next best thing to us moving back to the Valley and financially it just makes sense since we already have a house there.
May 22
Okay, buckle up for the wildest ride.
Will and I seriously discussed moving to Coaldale last week Saturday and Sunday nights. There's not much for houses to buy in PG, and we're pretty sure we can't afford to build. I cried. I really did not want to move to Coaldale but it made the most sense financially.
Why didn't we move to Coaldale before? Trust me, before our move to PG it had been considered often. When you consider that we own a house, there's a church, Will's extended family, and multiple job offers for Will there, it all seems to equal a no brainier. But it's far from the Valley and I didn't like how flat it was. And being so far from the Valley is an even greater negative than all the positives.
When we gave a good honest look at our current situation over the course of that weekend, I could tell it was time to put aside my disdain of the endless skies and trust that moving would be a good choice for our family.
We agreed to keep considering it and see how things go.
Then on Monday I noticed that Will's uncle who lives in Coaldale posted on Facebook a job opening for the company he runs there. Not ground breaking news, but it was acknowledged and I thought 'who knows?'
Will was gone overnight on Monday and on Tuesday morning I woke up to an email of eviction. And it was so awfully sanctifying for my stubborn heart. Everything made sense now and we were supposed to move to Coaldale all along. "Why the detour to Prince George?" I didn't understand that part yet, but I was sure it would be made clear eventually.
Since Will was gone Delilah was sleeping in our bed with me and when she woke up I asked her about her thoughts on moving to Coaldale. Sweet girl was up for any adventure but the first thing she asked was, "What language do they speak there?"
"English, same as us."
"Okay good, cuz it's hard to make friends when you don't have the same language."
Other than that, no concerns from her about moving.
Will came home around 10am and we both raised our eyebrows at each other and said, "So that email, hey?"
And we knew it was time to move to Coaldale.
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