Best of Maclean ’s: The Move: Kelowna to Nova Scotia

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The Move: Kelowna, B.C. to Nova Scotia for a breath of fresh air

“My doctor told me that, at that time, breathing the Okanagan air was the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day”

The buyer: Dana Kayal, a 54-year-old cookware entrepreneur

The budget: $650,000

The backstory: In 2014, Dana moved with her three children—Jared, Ronel and Alexa—from Kelowna, B.C., to a rural property just a 15-minute drive outside of town. She hoped that the teens would benefit from more time spent outdoors. For Dana, an avid gardener, it was an opportunity to plant a bevy of fruits, veggies and robust nut trees. There was just one problem: her new lot, which topped out at 15 acres, was long but narrow. “The distance between my house and my neighbour’s house was four feet,” Dana says. “You could reach over and drop a dinner plate onto the balcony next door.”

By 2020, Dana was once again itching to move. Her spice-and-cookware business went online just after the onset of the pandemic, and Jared and Ronel had moved out the previous year. Alexa was just about to graduate from high school. Most importantly, the smoke from B.C.’s forest fires was affecting Dana’s health. “My doctor told me that, at that time, breathing the Okanagan air was equivalent to smoking two or three packs of cigarettes a day,” she says. In July of 2021, a fire started just down the road from Dana’s property. The only reason it was quickly snuffed out was because her neighbour happened to drive by the site in a water truck en route to his well, which had dried out due to the area’s hotter-than-hot temperatures. “I thought to myself: this is ridiculous. I need to get out of here,’” she says.

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