So we have survived our first trip to our new home!
Monday was to have been our day to take possession, but since that wasn't possible after all my husband was able to get some rest and do a tremendous amount of parish work that day, preparation for his departure. It meant we missed driving in a bit of a blizzard and were able to have very clear, dry roads and even a bit of sunshine as we drove on Tuesday. Those conditions helped us in dealing with wind chills of lower than -30C the entire day.
By the time we got into our place and unloaded boxes and boxes and more and more boxes, (How can one man cram that many boxes into one little truck box???), we were so tired and so cold we could hardly believe we were still standing....actually we didn't have a choice since other than in the stairwell there was no place to sit down other than the floor in the townhouse. hahaha It is going to be a really comfortable space once the chairs arrive!! At suppertime we drove down the street to what I think is going to become a bit of a hangout restaurant for us, collapsed into a warm, clean, upholstered booth, ordered our meal and then began to physically shake uncontrollably...both of us sat there shivering and shaking and I am sure our poor server thought we must be two elderly druggies in need of a fix. Then we both began giggling uncontrollably and realized that the stress let down was as responsible for the shaking as the day's exposure to the cold temperatures and howling winds. It hit us that we have our new home and this move IS happening!!
Our townhouse is a nice space for us. The living room/dining room are the typical old L shape but the living room is particularly roomy. As we gazed about, our chronic renters' sharp gazes taking in every mark and defect for the walk through report with managment, we were also making mental notes to ourselves as to where the furniture and way too many wall hangings are going to go. I love "playing house" with my "stuff" each time we move: arranging and rearranging furniture and knick-knacks, filling the cupboards, emptying and refilling as we decide how to make the food prep space work best for us.
Once again the differences in provincial standards of acceptable cleanliness surprised us. My husband is very thorough in his inspections and although we were delighted with the new paint, new countertops and thoroughly cleaned carpets, we were not thrilled with the plugged furnace filter, 3 burned out lighbulbs, a ring of dirt around the rim of the toilet seat lid, the cobwebs hanging from the ducts in the basement, the broken blind on the kitchen window, basement steps that are coming apart at the bottom and, worst of all, the filth inside the heat and cold air return vents. When I remember the standard of cleanliness required in Alberta for rentals, the demands on the tenants who are leaving to ensure the place is ready for move-in by the next tenants, etc., Saskatchewan's different standards over all just freak me right out.
Fortunately for us, the management team at our new place got right on the repairs. My husband likes to do his own installations of bulbs and filters so they cheerfully gave them to him and they have the furnace duct cleaners going into our place at the end of this week to clean the ducts. There is a work order posted for the basement stairs. We have a different kitchen blind coming as well. They are a kind and good bunch of folk, but it surprises me that we had to even ask for such basic repairs/cleaning to be done after our possession date. I am very glad I have lived out here long enough to no longer be angered by the lack of attention to detail (11 years on the prairies will do that) and lack of committment to excellence in areas of life that are important to me personally, but it does still amaze me, I have to admit. Slowly I am becoming a Saskatchewan gal, but I am not completely there just yet. Different province, different history, different expectations, different culture....the province has many many good things to offer and as I adjust to the more laid back attitude I am finding more things about it that I like. Give me a few more years though, okay?
The items we found in the venting gave us a quite a laugh! Obviously a child or two has been living there recently. Inside the vents we found pennies, pencils, buttons, lollipops, candy wrappers, little plastic toys, a nail polish brush, Cheerios and shredded bits of this and that. Some little fingers were very busy stuffing all manner of things through the metal grates. Kids...ya' gotta love 'em. hahaha
My most favourite time was yesterday afternoon: we went shopping for furniture and found everything we wanted in one place: Office Supply! Their office waiting room sofas and chairs are excellent quality, professional looking clean lines, nice leather upholstery and smaller than the overstuffed sofas and chairs in the furniture stores. Each item is also about half the price! My husband got 3 file cabinets for half price, one of which is going to be his bedroom dresser as it has the deep drawers and full pull out he couldn't find with the usual wooden furniture styles. We each got new office desks. What excited me the most however was finding the perfect arrangment of cabinets and hutches to make up the exact configuration of shelves and doors and spaces for a china cabinet! In fact, the prices of each unit were so good my husband told me to get 2 of each of them. We can put them back to back to delineate a space between living and dining room areas, use the open shelves in the hutches to display my pottery collection and the enclosed shelves for my good dishes and vases and such. I am so excited! We got all those lovely new pieces of furniture and a sturdy set of metal shelves for basment storage and still came in five hundred dollars under budget!
Like the dummies we are sometimes, we didn't arrange to have the items that were all ready in stock delivered to the townhouse...o no, not tired, exhaustion stupid us. We got the warehouse workers to load up the back of the truck, drove home and hauled everything over the snow and up the back stairs ourselves....TWICE. Two big loads of ridiculously heavy furniture items that nearly did us both in just getting them out of the truck and onto the dolly. We are so grateful to the maintenance fellows in the complex who came along with the big "cat" and dug us a straight, flat path through the snow from the parking lot to our back door or we would never have survived that last part of our unload. Maybe it is just as well we ended up carrying the heaviest items last or we wouldn't have had the energy or courage to do the rest of it. I am so grateful that the few remaining items that had to be ordered in WILL be delivered and it will be someone else's problem to get them into the house. Whew!!!! At one point my husband pushed the bottom of the dolly over the bottom stair just a little harder than I was prepared for, I lost my balance on the stairs, landed on my butt and started sliding down the stairs and under the heavily laden dolly. hahahaha I can imagine the sight the neighbours, pretending they were all cleaning their windows or were out sweeping off their all ready immaculate back decks, were greeted with. hahaha O we know how to party, we do!!
However we survived. We even survived our one overnight in the new digs, sleeping on packing foamies and having dizzying middle of the night allergic reactions to the high gloss, oil base paint on the kitchen cabinets downstairs. So thankful the double pane windows are nearly new and could be slid open even in extreme cold to give us some fresh air. Fortunately the place has another week to air out before we return.
Over our delicious restaurant meals we marvelled at how we will once again have a choice of some fairly decent restaurants now, great choice for groceries and generally just be able to enjoy all the amenities that even such a small city has to offer. We began to realize how long it has been since we lived somewhere that did not require a long trip into a city for shopping and air travel. Slowly we are becoming free to get excited about the move.
Although we drove into about 80km of freezing rain on the way home last night it wasn't bad enough to create more than a slight delay as we slowed down to avoid sliding into the ditch. We lost less than a half hour of time in total. What a grand round trip for a mid winter run.
So today is "change of address" day for all the downtown businesses whose most recent bills we have had to wait for, pay and then be able to get the address change arranged. The electronic age is marvellous with all the arrangements made for immediate change instead of having to put everything into place weeks in advance. Must go and get dressed and ready, get my husband set to do a lot of talking since most of these particular businesses have all their paperwork in his name, as we head out into the wind and cold once again.
For the past week my jaw has been misaligned due to the tensions involved in moving and by last night the inflammation was so bad it was effecting my hearing. I woke up at about 3am just disgusted by it all since I know how much work there is left to be done over the next few days, prayed and asked God to please deliver me from the stress so that I wouldn't crater before we are done this process, went back to sleep and woke up for breakfast with all the pain and problem gone. Thank you Lord!! Just talking to God and knowing he is there relaxed me so much. No pain, hearing is fine...YES!! I should have done a lot more relying on God over the past 2 weeks and gotten my head out of the little details of moving a lot sooner!
Have a great day everybody!!
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