Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. None of this is financial advice. I encourage you to do your own research.

By the spring of 2023 the markets were green year-to-date! We were still far from our historic highs of December 2021, but with the bear market of 2022 in the rearview mirror and inflation coming down, 2023 was shaping up to be positive. Around this time, on a warm Sunday morning Victor and I were getting ready to leave on vacation. After years of Covid-related travel restrictions we had booked a dream trip to Greece. I was busy checking everything off my list to shut the house down for two weeks. Clean out fridge and empty garbage, check. Turn the air conditioner off, check. Make sure back door is locked, check.

“Want me to turn off the water?” Victor asked. Over the years he had picked up a few home maintenance tricks himself.

We went down the stairs to the basement and opened the door to the furnace room. An undeniably strong smell of rotten eggs slapped me across the face.

“What’s that smell?” Victor asked, alarmed, his eyes widening. I sniffed the air.

“Gas!!” we both exclaimed.

“We gotta get out of here!” I shrieked, taking his hand and bolting up the stairs.

“Calm down,” Victor said. “Where are you going?!”

“She’s gonna blow!” I screamed, dragging us both outside and collapsing onto the driveway. My heart racing, I fumbled for my phone, dropped it, somehow managed to Google Enbridge and called their emergency line.

“We have a gas leak!” I screamed into the phone. “Our house is going to explode!”

“Calm down ma’am, natural gas is fairly safe. Just open some windows and we’ll send someone over within the hour.”

“Within the hour??” I cried, my voice cracking. “We’re supposed to be leaving on vacation!”

“It’s okay sweetheart,” Victor said calmly. “I’ll go open some windows.”

“Oh my God, be careful, and do NOT light a match!” I yelled as he disappeared inside.

75 minutes later the Enbridge guy was in our furnace room, waving a long yellow wand across our furnace equipment. As he passed over our hot water tank the wand started beeping uncontrollably.

“There’s a leak in your hot water tank,” he said. “Looks like the leaking water has put out your pilot light. The gas valve keeps releasing gas but there’s no flame to light it, so it just keeps releasing more…”

“Okay, so what do we do?” we both asked, as clueless as the mice scurrying in the dark corners of our basement.

“I’ll turn the gas off, but you’ll need to call Reliance to replace the tank. Hopefully they can do it today.”

I explained that we were planning to go on vacation. We had a plane to catch from Toronto the following evening.

“If you call them now, they should be here soon,” he said, writing up a report.

I asked him what would have happened if we had left for vacation for two weeks without noticing the gas leak.

“Let’s just say it’s a good thing you caught it when you did,” he said handing me a stack of papers.

Even though the gas was turned off the whole house still reeked so Victor and I went outside to call Reliance.

“Thank you for calling Reliance Home Comfort,” the voice on the other end cooed. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your tank…yes they should be able to make it as early as…tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow??” I said, panicking. “No, no, you don’t understand, we need to have this fixed today! We’re leaving on vacation tomorrow. We have a flight to catch!”

“I’m sorry m’aam, it’s a long weekend, there’s no one available.”

“Please,” I pleaded. “We can’t leave a leaking water tank for two weeks.” My chest tightened as I pictured 50 gallons of water bursting from the tank, a tidal wave crashing against the furnace room door, leaking out into the basement causing thousands of dollars in water damage while I toured the Acropolis unaware.

“Let me see what I can do, stay on the line,” the voice said.

As I listened to the Call on Reliance jingle on repeat, my buttocks digging into the cold concrete of our driveway, I remembered a quote from JL Collins’ Manifesto:

“You own the things you own, and they in turn own you.”

It had never been truer than in this moment. Our beautiful house that had given me so many memories over the last three years was now owning me. I couldn’t just up and leave for a vacation with my passport and backpack, I was at the mercy of the heating & cooling industry. And perhaps even more concerning, if we had not noticed the gas leak and left on vacation for two weeks, the gas would have continued to emit each day that we were away, building up to potentially toxic levels. Would we have returned to a poisonous situation making our home unlivable? Would teams in yellow hazmat suits have to be called in? What if the slightest spark from an electrical wire or light bulb ignited the gas and blew up the house, our 450k investment ending up on the 6 o’clock news? It was all too much for my anxious mind to handle.

“I have good news,” the voice said, returning. “There is a weekend Reliance expert just three hours away. He should be there this afternoon between 1 and 4 p.m.”

Four hours later, Keith the Reliance home comfort guy was examining the damage in our furnace room. “Yeah, I’m not going to be able to replace your tank today, we’ll have to order a new one,” he said. “But I can drain ‘er so it don’t leak while you’re gone. You don’t happen to have a garden hose, do ya?”

Together, Victor, Keith and I hooked up our hose to the hot water tank and spent 45 minutes draining 50 gallons down the laundry sink, trying not to slip as we mopped up buckets of spilled water from the linoleum floor. When it was all done the gas was off, the water was off, and the hot water tank was disconnected. But as a double-checker I still wasn’t convinced.

“So you’re sure there’s no way the water can suddenly start flowing while we’re gone?” I asked, seeking some sort of reassurance that Keith could never give me.

“Sure am,” he said. “Have a good trip and we’ll install’er when you’re back.”

Somehow, we locked up the house a second time, drove four hours to Toronto and boarded our flight to Greece. The trip was a dream. We flew to Crete where we explored Knossos Palace on a beautiful warm spring morning, the mountainous terrain surrounding us as we took in the ancient wonders of the peaceful ancient Minoan civilization. In Athens I felt a sense of freedom after hiking all the way up to the Acropolis, the wind in my hair as I looked out over the blue Aegean sea, the ferries below sailing to distant mediterranean islands. We floated in the rooftop pool while gazing at the Acropolis from the sun-sparkled water. We walked through the ancient Agora, in the footsteps of Aristotle and Plato, and stood where Socrates famously drank the poison that would kill him. And in a humorous display from the Greek god himself, we ran laughing through a dark, practically electric thunderstorm while visiting Zeus’s playground. Ancient marble and bronze sculptures beckoned me to return to this beautiful, sacred land, to the relaxed Mediterranean way of life. But all the while I kept thinking about the house. Were the water and gas valves secure? What if something else went wrong? I was in Greece, but every night my anxiety flew me back to Canada and I would wake up in a cold sweat, worrying, unable to relax.

The Greeks have an ancient philosophical expression, “know thyself”, inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Throughout my journey towards financial independence I had come to know my true self. I had discovered that minimalism made me feel at peace. The fewer material possessions I had weighing me down, the happier and more at peace I was. I thought back to that carefree month I spent living out of my backpack in a 3-star hotel on the shores of Lake Nippissing. Whether I was exploring my own backyard or discovering a new country across the ocean I wanted the freedom and flexibility of a nomadic traveler. I knew it was time for a change.

It was time to let go of the house.  

The gods must have been listening, because during our trip Victor got his long-awaited posting message. Somehow three years had gone by since the start of the pandemic and our life in North Bay had begun. We would be saying good bye and moving back to Toronto for one to two years. But first, we would need to sell the house.

Repeatable steps I took that you can too!

  • Okay I actually didn’t take any steps that I recommend you taking. I wish I had been a less anxious person better equipped to run a home. So instead I’ll just offer the advice that I wish someone had given to me. Remember that home ownership means there will inevitably be surprises. Most days homes run smoothly. But when disaster strikes, it is always unplanned. Be prepared for gas leaks, bursting pipes, leaking roofs, falling fences. Make sure you have an emergency fund to address these, and that your home insurance is up to date. And ask a neighbour to check on your house while you’re away. You will be more likely to avoid disaster and enjoy your time away without worrying.