The Ostrander household moved from Ontario to Douglas Parish on the outskirts of Fredericton, New Brunswick—and it’s been good for the entire household (Pictures by Chris Donovan)
The consumers
Tracy Ostrander, a 45-year-old HR director; her husband, Scott, a 48-year-old automotive salesman; and their youngsters, Abigail, who’s 27, Kaiya, who’s 20, and Aidan, who’s 18
The finances
$800,000
The backstory
Tracy was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, however moved to London, Ontario, along with her household when she was only a yr outdated. After she met Scott on eHarmony in 2011, the couple settled down to lift their blended household of three youngsters in Guelph—a secure, uncongested metropolis with a small-town really feel. Their eldest daughter, Abigail, was the primary to depart the nest in 2019, when she landed a administration job at an equestrian facility, which got here with room and board. The Ostranders took this as a chance to downsize, buying a three-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot townhome for $498,000 in Rockwood, a township on the outskirts of Guelph.
Across the similar time, Tracy’s prolonged household was making barely larger strikes. Her sister and brother-in-law headed again to New Brunswick—Fredericton, particularly—shopping for an empty lot throughout the road from Tracy’s dad and mom, who had returned east years earlier. The Ostranders already spent a part of their summers visiting the grandparents, however Tracy was tempted to make their keep extra everlasting when she heard concerning the three-bedroom bungalow her sister was constructing, at a fraction of the price of a property in Southern Ontario. “The large factor was: our youngsters weren’t prepared,” Tracy says. “They had been nonetheless in highschool, which is a extremely tough time to make a transfer like that.”
Then, in January of 2023, Abigail misplaced her equestrian job, forcing her to search for new lodgings. Seeing firsthand how COVID had jacked up the worth of native one-bedroom leases—from $1,500 to $2,500 in some circumstances—Abigail hit a low level. Generously, her mother and pa welcomed her again residence, an association Tracy describes as “bursting on the seams.” Abigail took over their unfinished basement and needed to as soon as once more share a toilet along with her siblings. (They sometimes spilled over into Tracy and Scott’s ensuite.) Abigail had additionally acquired a canine and two cats after leaving residence, so her return introduced the townhome’s complete animal rely to 4 canines, three cats and a hamster. Amid the chaos, Tracy was making an attempt to do business from home. “There have been countless assembly interruptions—a lot of frustrations throughout,” she says. “We used to say, ‘There are too many souls on this home!’”
Inside two months, New Brunswick began to look fairly good. The Ostranders couldn’t afford an even bigger place with out leaving Ontario altogether, and Scott, then the supervisor of a software and fasteners firm, was itching for a profession change. Each Aidan and Kaiya had completed highschool, with hole years on the horizon, however each discovered the prospect of leaving their buddies daunting. Tracy and Scott reminded them it will take a yr or so to really feel at residence in a brand new place. Abigail was straightforward to persuade.
The hunt
Primarily based on comparable properties of their neighbourhood, the Ostranders figured they might promote their Rockwood townhome for about $800,000. That will be their finances once they scouted five-bedroom properties round Fredericton, with a room for every member of the family. They had been angling for a home with a little bit of land so their many canines might roam, plus a separate condominium to present the older youngsters some independence. The plan was they’d pay a little bit of lease to Tracy and Scott—however not an excessive amount of, so they might save for his or her futures. “Possibly sometime, it will be an revenue suite for another person,” Tracy says.
By April of 2023, when their search started, properties in and round Fredericton had been promoting inside a matter of days. Tracy and Scott knew it will be powerful for them to fly east at a second’s discover, so that they enlisted Tracy’s mom and sister to see homes on their behalf, sometimes Facetiming them into viewings. “My mother, sister and I are very shut,” Tracy says. “All of us have comparable tastes, and I helped my sister design her new residence. She is aware of that if it smells humorous, I would like no a part of it.”
The Ostranders remotely toured 21 properties in complete, with Tracy, her sister and their mother preserving observe of listings by way of each day texts and a shared spreadsheet. One was a sprawling nine-bedroom century residence with authentic mouldings, stained glass and a riverside lot listed for $699,999. However there was no land. One other was near Tracy’s dad and mom home—nevertheless it reeked of mildew. Yet one more was a six-bedroom bungalow with a barn on 10 acres, nevertheless it wanted a ton of upgrades. Tracy and Scott handed on all of them.
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In early Could, Tracy’s sister noticed a brand new itemizing on MLS for a five-bedroom bungalow in Killarney Highway, a wooded neighbourhood simply outdoors of Fredericton. The images weren’t nice, however Tracy was shocked by the specs: two acres, scads of timber, a big entrance porch, ethereal rooms with loads of home windows, and an enormous deck with a scorching tub. Her mother and sister booked a viewing for the following day.
The house is on the outskirts of Fredericton, in a wooded neighbourhood referred to as Killarney Highway
For a household eager on some privateness, one of many greatest attracts ended up being the house between the bedrooms. The first bed room was on the entrance of the home, whereas the opposite two—which Tracy imagined housing her residence workplace and Aidan—had been on the again. “My son performs video video games ’til 3:00 a.m. and I don’t want to listen to any of that,” Tracy says. A basement condominium was outfitted with a full kitchen, rest room and residing space, plus two bedrooms, excellent for her daughters. It even had a separate entrance by the storage. “My sister mentioned, ‘If you happen to don’t make a suggestion on this home, I’ll by no means speak to you once more,’” Tracy says, laughing.
Tracy and Scott fearful that making a suggestion conditional on a house inspection would decrease their possibilities of success in a fast-moving market. As a substitute, they booked a second viewing and despatched Tracy’s brother-in-law, who owns a house renovation enterprise, to do a 90-minute sweep of the house’s effectively, septic system, electrical and home equipment. When he mentioned he’d purchase the home, the Ostranders made their supply: $625,000, together with the sellers’ tractor, which they deliberate to make use of for snow removing and lawn-mowing. They in the end agreed to the sellers’ counter-offer of $645,00 (together with the tractor). “It was terrifying,” Tracy says. “All of a sudden we had to maneuver.”
The Ostrander household performs playing cards on the giant picket desk of their new residence
In June, the Ostranders listed their Rockwood townhouse on the market; unsurprisingly, it went $50,000 over asking. Two months later, Tracy and Scott took three of the canines and one cat and drove east of their SUV. The youngsters took the remaining furry buddies in one other. Due to the transferring firm’s schedule, the household’s belongings had been set to reach per week after their arrival in Fredericton, so that they booked a week-long visit an area Airbnb. “My mom went over earlier within the day and arrange some balloons and an enormous welcome signal on the storage,” Tracy says. “It felt like coming residence.” After they lastly pulled as much as the property, Tracy says she actually wept tears of pleasure. Kaiya, Tracy’s center little one, mentioned it was the nicest home she’d ever been inside. Not one among them felt claustrophobic.
Nevertheless drastic, change has been good for the entire household: Scott took a number of months off earlier than looking for a brand new job, and now works at a Mitsubishi dealership on the town. Tracy is having fun with having her of us and sister shut once more, and so they take their pack of canines for weekly walks up at close by Killarney Lake. She and Scott have put in a firepit and have plans to construct backyard beds and a rooster coop this summer time.
The household has 4 canines: a yellow lab named Hank, an Italian greyhound cross named Scooter, a Yorkshire terrier cross named Mike and a fantastic Pyrenees-Newfoundlander cross named Norman
The youngsters are adapting effectively, too. “We collect for household meals most nights, however we positively see them much less,” Tracy says. “They’re relationship, creating new social circles and so they’ve gotten jobs.” Abigail and Kaiya have but to ask their dad and mom down for dinner of their condominium. They’ve lengthy since adorned, however, as Tracy says, “they’re extra the instant-noodle kind of cooks.”
