So let’s do it!!

6 months ago when the conversations in our household turned to sailing, how much it would cost, what we would need and how we would go about achieving it, a whole lot of speculation and daydreaming started.  Tyler and I (#momandson)  spent time on the internet looking at sailing courses, sail boats around the world and trying to calculate how much we would need and whether we could make our pipe dream a reality.  One evening after a lengthy discussion on the subject (over a beer or 2) it was decided that the only way we could get close was a drastic life change. 

The way I was able to retire at the age of 55ish, was by working full time and flipping houses.  I started with my first little house in 1991 and over the course of 24 years, bought and sold 7 of them.  Flipping houses does not mean moving in and out but a lot of hard work fixing up, as Tyler who was the always ready gofer of the mom and son team, can tell you.  Repairing and changing homes to make them more desirable in the house market is hard work.  Most of the time it takes more than just a new paint job to spruce them up and over the years I learnt to take out walls, put in curved arches, replace cupboards, toilets, walls, and must admit at one point had more tools than most men I knew at the time.

Now I really thought I was over remodelling when I sold my last home in Nakusp, BC.  When Tyler decided to sell his last apartment in Burnaby he asked if we could do a makeover so out came the paint, brushes, sewing machine, and call the carpet cleaners.  Hide all the tid-bits and in a week it was ready to go.  It sold 2 hours after the open house.  Nice.

Mom helping Tyler lay tiles on the balcony.

 

Using the equity gained in the sale and a little help from mom Tyler was able to purchase the condo in New Westminster; we became roommates and the discussion of sailing and exploring a new way of life came into play. 

So let’s do it!!

And so it starts

And so it starts.

Mom and son on a journey to visit the world, or so it seems.  It actually started about 6 months ago when Tyler (the son) came home and said that he had been watching a site of a couple that had just bought a catamaran and were traveling the Caribbean.  So being a good mom (Terry) I said “you can do that..... Start saving money and planning for it.”  So for the next few months the conversation at home was how to go about saving money and planning a life changing trip to dreamed of places.

 

A little background information will most likely help at this point.  I’m Terry 58 years young and the mom of a wonderful son named Tyler, 33.  Not the typical woman, left home at a early age, bartended most of the younger years, single mom with a son at the age of 24, back to school and worked full time for a CAD Technician diploma when Tyler was 2, landed a job in forestry.  After 25 years was laid off for the last time, entered the entrepreneurial program offered by the BC government for mature individuals seeking to start their own business and opened a quilt shop in Nakusp BC for 6 years. 

Wow... then 2 years ago I was going through a rough patch not knowing where I was and not knowing where I was going.  Did not have a long term plan and quite worried about it. About that time I was coming to Vancouver about 4 times a year to visit Tyler.  One Christmas we started talking about the fact that I was not really happy where I was and my wonderful son says “come and stay with me...sell the house and move”.  “You can stay here until you find an apartment and we can have fun, and you can decide what you would like to do next”.  So I did. My longarm and I moved into Tyler’s one bedroom apartment for 6 months until my house sold, then into a cute little one bedroom unit in Hastings for 14 months.  When Tyler’s mortgage came up on his condo in Burnaby, he said “mom this is crazy, I’d like a 2 bedroom but would need a roommate, we get along so well why don’t you come and live with me?”  We fixed up, painted, and sold the condo in 2 hours after the open house.  The condo in New Westminster was then bought and my son and I became roommates.

And that is how it all started.