Today is Key Day!

We get the keys around 5PM tonight. I have a million things to do today. On that note, I'm just going to copy the email I sent to my mother last night, giving you an overview of what the next few days are probably going to look like.

So Mom, you don't have to read this again.

Friday morning I work, and Ian works all day. Then I have a bunch of running around to do and things to buy... alarm clock, telephone, some more cleaning stuff, etc. Also have to do laundry, clean the bathroom at Ian's parents', and finish packing our stuff here...

Friday evening we should get the key, at 5. I guess we'll take a quick swing by the house to make sure everything's in order there. Then, we will take both vans (Ian's parents' new one, and their old one) to the mall in St. Catharines where our couch and chair are waiting. We'll bring those back to the house. Might leave them in the garage for now, so that they don't smell like smoke... but we'll see...

Then, providing it's not already too late and we're not already exhausted, I would like to get started on cleaning. Just a quick wipe down of the kitchen, appliances, and all three bathrooms in particular. The fridge in the kitchen is going to need some attention I think, we peeked in it last night and there appears to be some rust in the freezer, so we'll just have to see what we can do....

So then Saturday we'll get our stuff from storage, and bring it all to the house. Also, we have a load or two here at Ian's parents' I'm thinking... We're still debating if it will go into the basement, or into the garage... It depends on what kind of time-frame we're looking at to get everything done I suppose... Don't want to start putting stuff on the main floor because it will get in the way of cleaning, etc. But we do need to pick it up because there is a lot of stuff in there we'll need, like towels, dishes, some cleaning things, etc...

Next on the agenda is to pull down all the light fixtures, and wash those. Also the heat registers, they looked like they could use a good scrubbing... We want to take a look under the carpet in the master bedroom, and see how that floor looks for starters. We may pull that carpet up right away, if it looks pretty good, so that we don't get our bed and matress smelling like smoke, and we can set it up right away... Anyways, then we'll get on to removing all of the ten zillion nails and picture hooks in the walls, and stripping wallpaper. Then washing walls, and filling holes. Then priming. And have to do the ceiling too.

That should pretty much take us into mid November I'm afraid, and that hasn't included actually unpacking ;)

No, hopefully within a few days we can feel somewhat settled... But I guess we'll see!!

Phone, cable, and internet will be installed on Monday evening.

Mom's response?
Whew, thankfully I'm here when you're moving! LOL
(Here being Kamloops, not in NF where we are.)

On that note, I doubt I'll have time to update until we're in there. Maybe Monday night or Tuesday. I can imagine I'll be anxious to check my email and Facebook. Pathetic, I know.

Point being, I'll try to remember to take lots of pictures, and will update as soon as I can.

5 Days! 4 days?

Well it's nearly 4pm on Monday afternoon... Does that mean only five days until we get possession, or 4 days? I'm not going to count the rest of today because it's mostly over, right? But I will count Friday as a day because we don't get the key until around 5pm that day... But if I didn't count Friday it would be 3 days!! How exciting is this? Actually, I'm a bit tired just thinking about it, and the breakouts on my face suggest that I'm more than just a little stressed about the whole thing..

We did, however, find a couch, along with a multitude of other items we'd been hunting for. Here's the couch, only we got it in a really pretty green colour. We also got this coordinating chair in a limey-green leather... It probably doesn't sound as nice as I think it is. It seems to be a very trendy colour this year and will be very easy to accessorize with, I hope. I love the chair. I think that's what sold me. And the price, we got floor models for 50% off the regular prices (which is not the prices listed, by the way) and then the salesperson knocked an additional $60 off the total. Good deal I think.

We also got this set of dishes at Canadian Tire, but now that I am reading the reviews of them, I'm not sure if we should keep them. It says many of the plates have broken. But I guess that's okay for now, we can get dishes we like better at a later date. Or something.

Other items purchased include a new coffee maker, a toaster, a cheap paint tray with cheap rollers and brushes to get us started with priming, a jumbo carton of TSP, a duvet (for a really great deal at The Bay!), numerous cleaning supplies (spounges, Vim, bleach, scrub brush, dust pan, etc.), a full-length mirror, a laundry basket, aaand... Oh yeah, a few things from Costco (a set of knives, and some groceries we'll need this week and when we move in.)

I'm getting tired. Shopping made me tired. Sometimes I tear up for no reason at all. I just get sad and my eyes get all watery. For some reason I was thinking the other day about our drive out here and I can't remember what I said about it. I might have to go back and read it. But it was sad. I think I cried most of the way from Kamloops to Salmon Arm, and probably the only reason I stopped at that point was I had to drive.

I'm starting to anticipate my birthday. It's a big one coming up. Someone told me we don't celebrate adult birthdays here, we just go for dinner... I'm not sure I'll do anything and that makes me sad. I'm really missing my friends and family these days. When we were shopping the other day I came to a realization that made me very sad. I was looking at big tables and shying away from the smaller ones. I thought I wanted a big table for when we have all our friends over for Waffle Sundays, or maybe hockey games, or barbeques, or whatever... But then I realized we don't have that many friends here. In fact, I have none and we've only spent any real amount of time with one of Ian's friends here. He's starting to think maybe there are no others left. He's starting to feel a bit sad, too. So what's the point of having a big table for just the two of us, to remind us that we don't really have any friends here? He was hoping to make some friends at work, but finds himself working with people who are much older than him, and he's struggling to connect or to find anything in common with them. I'm not a "friend maker." I don't make friends easily. I do make friends, but sometimes it takes time. I don't think this two weeks is going to cut it. I haven't met anyone I really connect with, or feel I have much in common with. When I make friends, it may take longer, but I like to keep them close when I do. I like to think I make friends for life. Obviously not all friends, but I guess the point is I have a few very close friends, rather than a whole lot of acquintances or quasi-friends.

I know we're lucky. People keep reminding me. I keep reminding myself. We're very lucky we got a house. We're very lucky Ian's parents have supported us these past three months. But I can't help but think we'd be luckier still if I had a job. Or if Ian was making more money. Or if we were surrounded by our old group of friends...

So please come visit? I have one booking tentatively for April... Anyone else?? Accomodation with us is free! We will even let you eat with us! ;)

Closer

I saw a big truck at the house today. Guess what that means? It's getting closer! I suspect it's the auction company picking up all of the beautiful pieces of furniture we can't afford to buy from Mrs. S. Once that stuff is out, I'm pretty sure most of what's left will be ours... I know there were a few pieces that her daughter was taking and I'm not sure if those are still there.

I still can't believe how lucky we are that Mrs. S. is leaving us so much of her stuff! She keeps saying she doesn't want us to think she's just leaving her junk. We keep trying to reassure her that it's fine, and we don't think it's junk at all! We have almost no furniture, so anything she leaves will be appreciated.
Next week we'll do the final walk-through. That will be really exciting! We'll get a sneak peak at what she's leaving I guess. I'm almost tempted to drive past the house again and see if I can get a look at what's coming out, but that's pretty creepy. And actually, I don't really care that much, I'm just excited to get in there ourselves!

Anticipation

10 days until possession day! We have been out shopping for furniture, electronics, appliances, accessories, paint colours, etc... We haven't bought much yet and I'm incredibly anxious to get going with things. I know we should wait until we're in there to see how things look and feel, but seeing as we've brought so little across the country with us, I'm anxious to have some furniture at least when we move in. We have a bed, a tv stand, and a bookshelf, but that's all the furniture we trucked over. Last weekend we bought a dresser and two night stands that match our bed. I guess we'll be sitting in the bedroom, and possibly eatting in the bedroom. It's all good, as long as we don't have company over - that could get a bit cozy! ("Here, please, come in, come sit with us on the bed!")

I'm particularly eager to have a couch, but Ian and I seem to have some difficulties agreeing on them. I thought we were on the same page when it came to colour (or more precisely, lack thereof), but when we were shopping this weekend I realized we may have a ways to go yet. He likes deeper and higher couches, because he's tall and has long legs and a long body. I like shorter, smaller couches; I'm short and I get tired of swinging my legs or sitting on my feet. But I thought we would probably find something in between. We found one he particularly liked, and I didn't mind, so we started talking about colour. I like the white, he likes the beige. He thinks the white looks unfinished, I think the beige does.... I told him we'd put some nice, bright, decorative throw pillows on it, but he's not convinced. It's a slipcovered sofa also, so we could wash it when it gets dirty! We left without a sofa. We're still thinking, apparently.
On another note, I started my two-week job yesterday. It went very well, though we were very late getting started that day, so I didn't get home until 11:30am. Today was better, I was home by 10am! (I started at 8am, but get paid for 3 hours no matter what.)

Yesterday, when I got home, I used my new Kitchen-Aid stand mixer mix up some bread dough (using my new whole wheat flour from the mill at Balls Falls!) It turned out better than I expected, though a bit heavy (as could be predicted given the stone ground flour!) More about the mixer: I bought it this past weekend for a fantastic price while we were out shopping for house things. It seems to work really well and I am super excited to make A LOT more with it. It's the pretty candy-apple red colour, and I'm actually considering decorating our kitchen around it, so that I can just leave it on the counter all the time. I'm sure I'll use it frequently, and it's awfully heavy to be lifting up and putting away all the time. Or maybe I should keep it put away so that I'm not tempted to bake sweets every day!
I don't know how we'll ever pick paint colours! There's just so much I like... I might be one of those people that re-paints their house ten million times; every time they finish they begin again... Also dreaming about re-doing the kitchen and bathrooms... Although that may be a bit over our heads for this moment. Once I'm working regularly we can talk about doing the things that are going to cost real money!

Giving Thanks

I spent a lot of time this Thanksgiving weekend thinking about the things I have to be thankful for. I am thankful for:

• my health.
• my friends' and family's health and happiness.
• my husband. He is supportive, understanding, patient, encouraging, etc.. Sometimes I wonder what on Earth I have done to deserve someone so wonderful.
• my mother and father-in-law for letting us stay at their house for three months, rent free! I don't know how we'll ever repay them.
• Mrs. S. for her generosity and kind spirit.
• our new house, even though we have a lot of work to do.
• sun-shiney days.
• red, orange, and yellow leaves.
• the smell of dry leaves.
• the smell of fresh rain.
• hiking on the Bruce Trail, particularly in the fall. 800km of trail from here to Tobermory for us to explore. I think we covered 5.5km yesterday, but seeing as we have to hike one way, then turn around and go back for the car, it was an 11kms and 2 hours... I am looking forward to much more of that though. Fresh air, crunchy leaves, the escarpment... Ahh...
• sales. Who doesn't appreciate a good sale??
• the internet, for giving me something to do every day, and helping me keep in touch with friends.
• work, even though my training is tomorrow and I'm really nervous. Then I have a test on Thursday and the possibility of a holiday position, on-call. But it's an hour away. But I've heard it could be $22/hour. But it could be night shifts. An hour away. In the winter. On-call. But $22/hour!
• yarn. I've been knitting up a storm. I hope you like scarves.
• books. I must have read nearly 10 books already since I've been here.
• Bejewelled Blitz on Facebook. It's given me something to look forward to daily.
• turkey dinner, with all the fixings, but no brussel sprouts! (Sorry Mom, I just don't like them!)
• a glass of wine (or two or three...)
• my wedding pictures, on the beach. They make me smile.
• any pictures of a beach, especially if I've been there. I like the beach.
• the sound of rain at night, especially when accompanied with thunder and lightning!
• peanut butter cookies.
• rice krispie squares with peanut butter and chocolate.

I'm sure there's more, but that's a good start. What are you thankful for?

Bittersweet

It comes as no surprise that with every ending there is a new beginning. But sometimes, when I find myself at the brink of a beginning, I don't remember all of the endings that may be involved. For instance, moving into this house is an end to our renting days. It's an end to living with my in-laws. It's also an end to the seller.
We had the privilage of meeting her (let's call her Mrs. S) this week, for the first time. She is 80-some years old, and has moved into a retirement residence. She must weigh less than 100 lbs, smokes, and uses a walker. She asked us to come over so she could tell us a few things about the house, and so we could discuss some furniture and other items she had and wanted to get rid of. She has very kindly offered to leave us numerous items, free of charge, including two single beds, a dresser (or three), a "craft" table, a laundry drying rack, all of her garden tools, lawn chairs, a glider, knitting needles, a filing cabinet, a desk, garment storage bags, etc... I am actually excited to see what we find the day we get the house. We kept telling her she can leave whatever she wants. If she's just giving it away, or to goodwill, or to the dump, we will gladly take it and either keep it, or dispose of it for her. There are also a great number of items she is offering to sell us. We are waiting to hear what she'd like to charge for these items so we can decide if we can afford them. She has a beautiful dining set that we're particularly interested in. She is one of the dearest people I've ever met. I instantly loved her. She said that she hopes we'll have as many happy years in the house as she has. She's not sad to leave. She says she will not cry.

She's dying.
We're all dying, but some sooner than others I suppose. She's been on dialysis for a year, but hated it and 10 weeks ago decided to quit. Her doctor (whom she says looks like a Greek god) told her she may only have 3 weeks to live. She's lasted 7 weeks longer than that already.

It makes me sad to realize our new beginning is tied to this ending... I realize death is a fact of life. But I wish for just a little more time to get to know this woman, and learn her stories. I'd like to hear about all these items she's leaving with us, like the desk that was her husbands. It's huge, solid oak, and painted green because that was his favourite colour. Like the red oak tree in the front yard, and how the man who cuts the lawn says oak trees have no business being in residential areas, they belong in the forest, because he has to rake up all the acorns. The linden trees in the back yard: the one on the left is the female, the one on the right is the male, but she doesn't know why that's important. There are two naval maps on the walls, and she said they have significance, but didn't elaborate on what that was.

There are many stories in this new house we may never learn.

SOLD!

We bought a house!

It all began just over a week and a half ago. Well, that's not entirely true. We started looking at houses before we even moved here. But just over a week and a half ago we met with our realtor for the first time. The first house she told us about, on our first meeting, sounded wonderful to all of us. It had just been listed that day and she was excited to show it to us, however, another agent had already put an offer on it! So, not wanting to be disappointed, we didn't go see it. We talked about some other houses we were interested in, and thought we'd start looking at some with the realtor on the following Saturday. She called the following day and said that the realtor had been offered a counter offer, and had not accepted it, so the house was still available. However, the seller would not be showing the house for another three days because she had some family there and was finding it too stressful to deal with at the time. So we decided we would go see the house on the Friday (the night before we had planned to "start" our search with our realtor). Then we heard that they would be presenting offers between 6 and 7 that Friday evening. So we would see the house shortly after 5, and if we were interested, would have to present an offer immediately (no sleeping on it!)

So we went to see the house on Friday. And we both loved it! It's not an open concept, but has a lovely, spacious feel to it! All of the rooms are such a nice size and there are cathedral ceilings! The basement is bright (relatively), and more than half of it is unfinished. The woman had it professional decorated 30-some years ago and it still looks pretty good, apart from years of her smoking leaving stains in the carpet and on the walls. The back yard is quite large, and it's in a really nice neighbourhood. It has a huge laundry room downstairs that I could really see doubling as my "sewing/craft" room, with lots of storage space and bright light. There are three bedrooms upstairs, and two and a half bathrooms in the house.
We decided we liked it enough to put in an offer, even if it meant we had competition. The house was definitly priced right, and we thought (realtor included) a little low for it's condition and location. So we were prepared to pay a little more than they were asking, we felt we could be competitive. We rushed to the realtor's office, wrote up our offer for three thousand dollars more than asking, downed coffees for dinner, and then drove to the retirement residence where the lady was living so our realtor could present the offer herself. Ian and I waited in the car for a nearly agonizing 20 or so minutes. Maybe longer. It felt like a long time.

Our realtor was going to go in there and sell us a newly married young couple who had just relocated to the Falls, and were hoping to settle down and start a family. She told us that she was going to make the lady think that the sun shone out of Ian's butt (which of course it does!) She was also going to offer our services to dispose of anything she couldn't handle, or didn't have time for. We would be more than willing to take any furniture or other items she had no need for, we would even pay for them. She came back and told us that the seller was "as smart as a whip!" and also that all her furniture was taken care of - it was to be auctioned off in Toronto. Our realtor also told the woman that we were outside if she wanted to meet us. She said there was no need for that.
So we waited. In the car. In the parking lot. Of a retirement residence. Shifts changed. We waited. Finally the seller's realtor emerged and rambled about having been unable to locate the van we were in "around the corner".. WELL!? He says "well your's wasn't the highest offer, but for our purposes it's the one we're going to work with." So does that mean... You mean..?! We got it?!?! Wait, there are some changes. The chest freezer is broken. The water tank is owned, not rented. Closing Oct. 29th (not the 15th we'd requested). That's all?! Of course we agreed!

We had seven days then to get our mortgage secured, seek insurance, and have the house inspected.

The following Sunday we went back to the house with Ian's parents. We found evidence of a water leak in the foundation at the front of the house. The house inspector said it may simply have been due to bad grading and eavestroughs draining directly down into the weeping tile (which we can easily fix). Also said many of the outlets aren't grounded. We should have the trees and hedges trimmed away from the house. We should install bathroom fans. That was the worst of it I think. We called a few basement waterproofing companies. One quoted us $1500 to fix the basement. Another quoted $2500.

Insurance people finally called back. We got some quotes. Our mortgage company called and said we'd been approved.
We made an amendment to the deal asking for $1500 off the purchase price, to help us pay for the cost of fixing the foundation wall. She accepted, and apparently said she felt so badly about it that she may be leaving us some furniture after all!
We have a house! We absolutely can not wait to move in, and my mind is constantly racing with ideas for renovating and decorating!!

None of the furnishings in the following pictures are ours at this point. You can pretty much tell what will definitly be auctioned off!