The Land Purchase

The house on the First of Kenyon was always intended to be an experiment, leading to something defined less by contingency and minimal resources, and more a result of planning and a better financial situation. Furthermore, the quiet gravel concession of decades past, was now a busy collector road — a veritable intercity highway connecting Alexandria to Cornwall and any points southwest.

Retirement provided the time to bring the then 23 year long project to an end, ready to be placed on the market. Though it took another 5 years to fully complete, what was next remained unclear. The available housing stock in Glengarry has long been slim, and building appeared doubtful, given costs, and especially, the negligible supply of suitable vacant land.

The pandemic presented an interesting opportunity. Rising house prices were good for the seller, but benefits are erased when the role is reversed. On the other hand, a higher sale price could provide enough extra cash to afford a desirable building lot should one be found. Desperation led to a Kijiji search. Unbelievably, a piece of land, on a dead end road I had long admired, appeared for sale at a reasonable price. Five acres, three lots down from the cul-de-sac for $60K. Unheard of in 2020, impossible in 2022.

We went to investigate. Trees, nothing but trees. A solid dense wall. There had been an attempt at an entrance into the bush, but it was already overgrown. We couldn’t see past the first few metres. Hard to conjure up a vision. High summer heat, dense bush, bugs, especially ticks, made bushwhacking unappealing.

Fortune would have it that the neighbouring lot was recently cleared and made ready for building. Wandering on that lot gave us a sense of what we might expect in the first acre or so and we were intrigued: south facing, sloping land surrounded by trees providing a high level of privacy. We contacted the owners to see if it was still available. It was. We thought it might be too dark and claustrophobic, especially with low sun in winter. Then it dawned on me: a deciduous forest loses its crown and opens up for half a year. We were sold. It was mid-July.

We took ownership in mid August 2020, hoping to build in 2021. We expected to fully explore the land in the fall when the leaves fell and the insects diminished. One day, we met the neighbour to the west. She told us that she and her husband had toyed with purchasing the lot in order to have a buffer, but had enough on their plate. She told us that this lot, unlike theirs and the one to the east we had used as a comparison, had a very steep slope and building might be constrained. We raised an eyebrow to this and became anxious to examine the grounds.

The first foray into the lot was exciting. Followed a line of ribboned trees and immediately got a sense of the slope, but without knowing the full extent of the drop. Took measurements to see if the house could fit the relative flat before the drop. It appeared to do so. It was only in the fall, when the leaves fell and the culvert and driveway excavated, that the dimensions became clear. It felt dramatic and most appealing. The design process started.