The search for land didn’t begin with any grand plan. It began on a quiet evening, both of us scrolling through listings from different cities - texting each other “what if we bought a forest?”.
Each property looked promising in its own way—some had forests so dense you could almost smell the pine through the screen, others had lakes or rivers that caught the light just right in the listing photos. We’d pause, text the other person, and say something like, “What about this one?” or “Imagine building here.”
For a while, that worked. It was more of a way to kill time during lockdown, and less of a reality. But the more we looked, the more everything blurred together. Should we actually do this? What better time could there be to plan this in the remote wilderness than the pandemic? As we looked at the properties, it started to feel more real. I reached out to my real estate agent for help and advice - and continued to look.
As we looked the properties themselves blurred together. The “four-acre one near Bancroft” became impossible to distinguish from the “five-acre one near Calabogie,” and we kept mixing up which ones had wells, which ones had hydro, and which ones had… absolutely nothing.
Sorting Through the Options
As it became more difficult to compare properties among the many factors, I started to write things down. Utilities on site, like a well, were a positive but small land was a negative. We started to come up with the things that mattered most to us - this list ended up being:
- size (<1 acre was not great, 5-10 was considered good, and too much meant the price was too high)
- waterfront or no waterfront
- hydro access or off grid already installed
- well, septic, both, neither
- annual taxes
- distance from anywhere meaningful as well as our homes
At first, it was just a way to keep track. But as the list grew and the conversations got longer, we realized some things mattered more than others. Waterfront felt significant. Access to hydro was desired, but not essential. Distance was flexible — too close felt busy, too far felt impractical, and we wanted somewhere roughly in the middle of our 2 homes.
Eventually I started building a makeshift spreadsheet in a Notion database which quickly evolved where each column was a weighted value - the sum of which was the overall score. Some factors nudged the score slightly; others carried real weight. After viewing a property online, we’d plug in what we knew and see where it landed. If the overall order felt right, we’d leave the weights as is but if they felt a bit off we’d figure out why and adjust weights accordingly. The scores weren’t the final say, but they helped us see what we were consistently drawn to.
| Ranking | Price | Waterfront | Size | Annual Taxes | Distance from Toronto | Distance from Ottawa | Water Supply | Sewer Supply | Electricity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 | $140,000.00 | Direct | 17.28 | $375.00 | 3.5 | 2.5 | Well | None | None | |
| 34 | $95,000.00 | Direct | 4.805 | 2.75 | 3 | None | None | None | ||
| 33 | $112,230.00 | Privileges | 5.72 | $263.00 | 4 | 1.25 | None | None | None | |
| 30 | $139,900.00 | Direct | 18.29 | $688.00 | 4.5 | 5 | Well | Septic | Hydro | All Approvals Done, Build Now, Survey 2019, Driveway |
| 23 | $105,730.00 | Privileges | 3.46 | $111.00 | 4 | 1.25 | None | None | None | |
| 23 | $102,730.00 | Privileges | 3.44 | $112.00 | 4 | 1.25 | None | None | None | |
| 23 | $100,730.00 | Privileges | 3.02 | $109.00 | 4 | 1.25 | None | None | None | |
| 13 | $68,880.00 | None | 5.7 | $200.85 | 2.5 | 3 | None | None | None | |
| 9 | $99,900.00 | None | 14.52 | $377.97 | 3 | 2 | Well | None | Hydro | Well and Grey water tank as is |
| 0 | $120,000.00 | Direct | 2 | 5.5 | 6.75 | Spring | None | None | ||
| -4 | $130,000.00 | None | 3.45 | $836.00 | 2.5 | 2.5 | Well | Septic | Hydro | 14X24 Garage (Electricity), 12X16 Workshop & Small Creek. |
| -5 | $99,900.00 | Direct | 0.6 | $321.00 | 2.75 | 2 | None | None | Hydro | |
| -5 | $89,900.00 | None | 1 | $374.23 | 2.75 | 2 | Well | Septic | Hydro | Fully Cleared |
| -7 | $119,800.00 | Direct | 0.78 | $125.00 | 2.5 | 2.5 | None | None | Hydro | |
| -65 | $90,000.00 | None | 0.5 | $2,070.39 | 1.75 | 5 | Municipal | Sewer | Hydro |
It wasn’t complicated. It was just enough structure to keep the whole search from turning into guesswork.
The Land That Wasn’t on the List
One evening, we ended up looking at a listing that wasn’t on our spreadsheet at all. It wasn’t even in our saved searches yet—it just appeared while we were aimlessly browsing. The photos painted a picture we liked - a land with enough space to build, a “waterfront” that was just a flooded area from some beavers, and enough woods to really be beautiful. The description wasn’t selling anything dramatic. But something about it made us stop.
We drove out to see it. The road in was quiet and long. It was raining slightly and we could barely make up up the driveway before the overgrowth made us stop. The area was beautiful.
We had worked with the spreadsheet enough to know that this was a winner from our existing research. We made an offer which was accepted.
Later on I added it to the spreadsheet out of curiosity and let the formula do its thing. It landed at the top (that one ranked 48!).
Learning What the Land Meant
Being here now, the land has taught us a few things the spreadsheet didn’t cover.
The wetland and pond bring more mosquitoes than we expected—more than any listing photo can prepare you for. And because the property sits directly on the Canadian Shield, digging almost anywhere reveals bedrock just beneath the surface. Six inches of soil, maybe a foot if we’re lucky, and then: pure bedrock.
This makes building… more involved. Septic systems needed careful planning. Trenches become projects. Even simple tasks ask for a bit more consideration. It’s not impossible, but it is different from what we imagined when we were scrolling through listings months earlier.
None of it makes the land worse. It just makes it real.
Looking Back
Choosing a plot of land didn’t hinge on a single perfect metric or magical moment. It was a slow understanding—of what we valued, what we could live with, and what felt right when we stepped onto the soil.
The land may not be perfect, but it’s a real piece of Canadian wilderness and we’re learning to be stewards of it every step of the way.