MOVING this Saturday!

Down to the last couple of days at the 'old house' - I am the one who is having the most emotional qualms with the move - because I've been connected to this place since Mom and Dad built it - with my help - in '73.  I think Grant also realizes that the 'new place' may be a stopping place for a few years, but not much more. 

Sitting here in the Den, looking out the window towards the back fields and trees, with a morning mist lit up by a bright sunny sky - we won't have a view like this at the new place.  Here we have views from every window, and hardly need curtains. 

We do need to look on the positives with the move:

• we are eliminating the 'mortgage'
• we are downsizing - including with utilities etc
• we are downsizing 'stuff'
• the new house should sell a lot faster and more 'definitely', being in town
• the new house should sell for more money after we've done the planned renos
• we've definitely learned a lot more about selling & buying houses from this move!

Gary - our contractor - is set to start work on Heather's new bedroom on Saturday.  With luck she will be in her new room before she and Ian go down to Victoria for her 'birthday present' - Ian bought tickets to a Music Fest.  Her birthday is the Wednesday, so she just might get in to her room as a birthday present.

We have a new Helper - Linda is from the Netherlands by way of Australia and NZ - very interesting accent!  Great worker and good company.

Ian is still away, but due back hopefully tomorrow.  He left a week and a half ago - 3 days after I brought him back from Camp Thunderbird - and has been visiting Drew, hiking, and visiting his Uncle Lo/Aunt Darlie in Lethbridge/Calgary area.  I asked him to phone before he starts heading back home - but knowing him we probably won't hear from him until he gets on the ferry and calls for a ride.

Today I'm going to town - will stop in at the office and check phone calls, call our client who calls in to the office, and just 'check on things'.  Will also stop at a Budget place and reserve a truck etc for Thursday evening - or Friday morning at the latest.  At home I plan to 'finish off' some rooms, move the computer to the folding plastic table and then pack up most everything else in the den.  Tomorrow with luck I won't have to go out anywhere and Linda and I can go thru and get more rooms finished off.

Definitely glad we are not doing this move with kids in school - it is complicated enough moving from large rural to normal city, with pets, extra vehicles, etc.

Guiding Registration is Thursday night at the Moose, then after that I can pack my uniform in the 'last packed' wardrobe box.  Friday morning is the United Way Kickoff Breakfast - after that I can carefully pack most of the rest of our closet, being careful to get that container unpacked quickly.

Must run - I have some toast all ready to eat which is getting cold.

My WORK is moving too!

As if moving house is not busy enough, now my work is moving!  I no longer work for Nanaimo Telephone Visiting Society - we have changed our name to Nanaimo Seniors Visiting Society.  And we will be moving to the same building as United Way (and several other non-profits) at the end of October.  We will be saving money, and having the plus of being with other similar agencies.  Having United Way just down the hall will be great for increased visibility!

With me being away for two weeks for moving house, we don't have a lot of time to get ready for our move.  Today we started going thru boxes and deciding what goes to Value Village, what is garbage, what is paper recycling/shredding - and what we want to keep.  I know that we will need to have a volunteer or practicum student help us with re-sorting and organizing all the papers into useable resources.  We did junk old day-books, hundreds of thank-you letters going back to the early 80's, etc.  But I kept a variety of really interesting in/out letters.  Some of the most interesting were letters to and from government officials and politicians - including Premier van der Zalm! We even have a personal letter from the Premier!

We do need to find a place to store some of the things which we won't need til Christmas, etc - then I hope we can be finished with a huge lot of seasonal decorations.  We use the Nanaimo Ecumenical Centre every year, and therefore take advantage of their decorations.  We just won't have the space to store all this stuff.  And we did not use it this past Christmas.

At the top is our current logo - NTVS standing for Nanaimo Telephone Visiting Society.  We don't know what our new logo will be - for NSVS - but hope to know soon as the local web company who is working on our new website is also working on our new logo.

MOVING next weekend!

Moving day is getting VERY close now = we take possession of the new house at 9am NEXT Saturday!  We have a lot packed, with still a fair bit to do.  I am so very glad now that we arranged it so that we can get into the new place a week before we have to be out of our current place.  We are still not certain how we are going to convert to city folks - 8 years here have truly countrified us. 

We hve been trying to sell our motorhome but so far no luck - one couple has come to look at it 3 times - last time yesterday after it was completely emptied and cleaned out, and they emailed this morning saying it is not what they want after all.  And our stove is not sold yet - one lady enquired, but she ended up buying a new stove on the weekend.  I'd love to keep the stove - but there is gas at the new place.  If we don't sell it by next week I guess we are taking it with us and storing it for a bit - ugh - we really don't have the space there to be storing appliances.  I wish there was a place to take appliances to sell on consignment.  Maybe I will check into auctions - I know there is an auction on Shenton Rd not far from the new house - and maybe have an electrician see if we can put in the right wiring for the electric stove so we can get rid of the gas stove...

I just realized that I've not yet put in a photo of the new house - so:
This photo shows where the two major renovations are going to be to start - the single attached garage will be renovated immediately to be Heather's new bedroom, and the front porch/overhang will be renovated to be a large front foyer, with the den opening off of it.  This will add about 350sq ft to the house, and make it much more useable for us.  I have to do a fair bit of landscaping next spring, as there is nothing but a few trees/shrubs now.  I NEED at least one cedar tree - kind of hard to have a website etc called 'CedarHill' with no Cedar trees!

We have a great Helper, Sofia, from Mexico with us now.  She is heading back to Ontario on Friday.  I think we will be having another Helper arrive in the next week - great to get more help with the move etc.  I've also enquired with Brenda, the SD Homestay Coordinator about students for 2nd Semester - we will definitely be finished major renovations by that time - especially the master bathroom.

The move will be a LOT of work, but I am looking forward to organizing and transforming the inside to look more like our home.

Almost September!

Yesterday we had our final Yard Sale before the MOVE - Ian, Grant and Sofia (our new Mexican Helper) helped set everything up, and at the end Ian, Heather, Sofia and I cleared everything up.  What did not sell we either put out on the 'free pile' or loaded in the van - Ian then drove stuff to Ryan's to donate to 1st Cedar Scouting, then to Value Village for the rest.  Some things they did not take - not sure why - so Ian added those to the free pile when he got back.  Luckily the weather cooperated and other than a bit of wind it was quite a nice day for a Yard Sale.  We netted $145, with no expenses as all I did for advertising was put a posting on Kijiji and a neon pink sign over the For Sale sign - good use for it now!

Back up a day - 5pm Saturday Grant and I were supposed to drive down to Victoria to pick up Ian after his summer working at Camp Thunderbird - but mid-morning Saturday Grant found out he had to go in to work for the afternoon - so I went down 'just me' to get Ian.  I got there a few minutes before 5 - actually surprised him I think with that - then after he loaded everything in we drove first to Sooke to see if there was an interesting place to go for dinner.  No luck - always has struck me as odd that Sooke does not have any nice restaurants etc with the wonderful views.  So we headed home, after deciding we'd detour thru' Cowichan Bay for dinner.  I parked in the town parking lot, then we wandered down the road looking for a place we'd not been to before that had seafood.  We ended up in a pub - on a balcony over the water.  Perfect evening, and good food.  Got back home around 9ish.

And - to back up even further - shortly after 8:30am on the same day, the phone rang, and it was Sofia, our new Helper from Mexico, saying she was on the ferry.  I met her as she came thru the arrival doors.  She is very nice, and her English is quite good - even tho she wants to improve it.

As it is now 8am, I'd better stop here and add more later - have exciting news about work.

MOVING time getting closer!

Less than a month now till MOVING TIME!  I've just posted ads for the MOVING/YARD SALE we are having this coming Sunday.  We've now also sold our ride-on lawnmower and three beds which we will not need.Last weekend we bought a bunch of used-once boxes from a couple who had recently moved from Alberta - wardrobe, china and 2+ cube moving boxes.  Hope we now have enough!  We plan on doing a lot of packing etc this weekend, along with having the yard sale.

I'm still having a lot of ups and downs emotionally about the move - I think it is a combination of not knowing how we will cope with living 'in town' after being on an acreage for 8 years, and also selling the house that my parents, and then us, built over the past 37 years.  It is probably a bit of the grieving process from Mom's death this spring still mixed in!  This is a very, very busy year - with no sign of letting up.  And to increase the activity it looks fairly certain that we may be moving at work also - I'm hoping for the end of October for that!

Ian should be coming home fairly soon - he will be helping with the move, but off a lot for some more trips and a few short courses, before he heads to UNBC to start his second year in January. 

And - we will be having a new helper, Sofia from Mexico, who is due to arrive on Saturday - probably in the morning.  I'm hoping to be able to have her do a lot of helping with cleaning before, during and after the move.  Along with helping with everything else to do with the move.

more later - the clock says I should be getting ready for work!