It’s been an exciting time since we got here!
Househunting was a blur. We saw two great ones and missed out on one that I really wanted. One of the great ones had some major flaws, so we picked the second one, and are very happy with where we have ended up. Strangely enough, we are now directly across from the building we missed out on, and our concierge (whom we really like) has no good words to say about that building, with all the stories he has heard while working in ours. So maybe it was meant to be all along?
We got the keys to our new home on Sunday, May 31st. That gave us an opportunity to load the place up with IKEA boxes while Joe’s friend Darren helped out with driving. Joe’s licence expired back on his birthday earlier this month, so how will he be able to rent the U-Haul truck we need for tomorrow? That is a tomorrow problem, today, he and Darren will deal with IKEA. But first, the girls have to run through the apartment and take pictures like the ones they’ve seen in the ad for this place:
Monday morning comes around, it’s our last moments in the AirBnb (thank goodness), and we have a hectic schedule. Joe and I have to be at ICBC to renew/move our drivers’ licences over to BC at 8.30am, so of course the girls have to tag along. It takes us almost the full hour at the busy office, but by 9.30am, we are out of there. While we were there, my friend Beth drove all the way from Langley to come meet us and help us out for the morning. Beth joins me at the bank to get a bank draft for the move in fee (Hello? BC? What’s with cheques and bank drafts, can’t money be moved electronically in this part of the country yet?), before we head to the AirBnb to clear it out. Joe and Beth stuff her mini SUV to the rafters with all our stuff, and the girls and I walk to the apartment.
After we leave all our belongings in the apartment, Beth drives us to the U-Haul to pick up the truck. She will hang out with the girls, while Joe and I go unload our storage box and bring it back to the apartment. We rent our truck and leave for the storage box.
Once we start unloading the box, we realize that we can’t fit it all. The truck can only take so much, and we ask if Beth can swing by. We manage one of the bikes and some of the more fragile items in the back of her vehicle, but still end up having to leave some boxes behind in the storage box, for Joe to pick up later. Beth has helped us out for hours, so she needs to get home, and I will stay in the apartment with the girls. Joe does the last few boxes on his own.
We get home about 8pm, and the search continues. The girls both have mattresses thanks to Joe’s IKEA haul yesterday, so they are ready for the night. However – where is our air mattress? Where are all our pillows, our duvets? We find sheets, but what about the rest? My guess is, in the blur that was the last few days in Tecumseh, we gave away the rest, whatever couldn’t fit in the box, or it could be that we donated a bag that should have come with us instead. But the air mattress? It should be here somewhere! We open all the boxes so we can at least look inside, but no. We end up spending the night with a daughter each, on the floor, on twin mattresses, with blankets and stuffies. Luckily, we have lots of those…
Surprise surprise, I wake up early. It was not a great sleep, it was not comfortable, and so I get up around 4.45am. That’s horrible, right? But if I hadn’t, I would never have discovered that in addition to great sunsets, we ALSO get great sunrises! (At least in summer. Winter might be a whole different story.) Our livingroom is on a corner, with one side facing northwest, and the other facing northeast. From our balcony and the girls’ bedrooms, they get beautiful sunrises. From our bedroom, we’ll get the sunsets. Fair!
It’s Tuesday and we have a ton of boxes to unpack, but we also have nothing in our kitchen. Priorities, right? We head out for what will be a rare treat here, breakfast out. There’s a handful of hotels a couple of blocks away, and I’ve found a menu I like. We have a delicious breakfast there, before heading to Avis to rent a car. Joe gets a large black thing that’s super fancy with all the screens and buttons and stuff, I think it’s a Hyundai, but I don’t speak car, so I don’t know.
First stop: We drive to the Endy mattress store, but aren’t impressed with their beds. We say thank you for the information, and go home and order the (in our opinion) better choice of Douglas from online. Our mattress will be here on Friday, but the free add-ons of pillows, duvet and linens won’t arrive for another two weeks.
Second stop: Walmart! This Walmart is larger than anything we’ve ever seen before, three levels (well, parking lot and McDonald’s on the bottom level, but two entire levels of huge warehouse on top! There are escalators for people, and escalators for shopping carts:
We stock up on everything! Shoe rack, toaster, kettle, air mattress, essentially all the things we left behind in Ontario last year. Then we have to head home, there’s a repair man coming to fix some stuff around the apartment.
When we get home and I go to boil some water for tea, I find that the kettle is broken… I pack it all back up and prepare to take it back to Walmart later in the afternoon. But first – lunch! I reheat yesterday’s pho leftovers for Joe and the girls, and make myself some toast. The new toaster works well, so at least that’s something.
We also bought an air mattress, so at least Joe and I have our own “bed” for tonight! Once that’s all set up, I take the girls back down to the library for an afternoon Minecrafting session with other kids their ages. Joe stays home to wait for the repair man.
Joe picks us up at Richmond Centre and we manager three more essential stops with the rental car before the day is over: Walmart to return the kettle, Ikea for pillows, duvets and linens for the kids, and Costco, for bulk foods to stock up. We get home from Costco only to realize that our amazing double fridges and freezers don’t have as much room as we’d like, and our three Costco size bags of frozen food and vegetables essentially fill the entire freezer space… Oh well, lesson learned. Better make some smoothies soon, I guess!
Joe built Maylin’s bed Tuesday, so now she’s off the floor. We build Téa’s bed together on Wednesday, so that’s done as well. I go to build Téa’s desk while Joe is building Maylin’s in the other room, and CRACK! I used the long screw instead of the short one, so the writing surface is now broken. I am so disheartened, so disappointed… Joe fixes it as best he can, hammering the protruding pieces back down, and we’ll pick up some wood glue one of these days to make the fix more permanent.
On Friday, our Douglas mattress is set to arrive. Joe is heading out with his friend Darren again to pick up our new TV, and essentially tells me to build our master bed before the mattress delivery. What?? So I start. Steps 1 through 20 are a breeze, with a little help from Téa, but when we get to step 25, I realize in horror that the part from step 4 is backwards!!! We disconnect the sides and foot board from the headboard, take off the sealing strip, take off the sides, take off the backwards part, turn it around, reassemble the sides, reattach the sealing strip, the sides and the foot board, before we continue with step 25. When we have finished step 39, we can look at the finished product and I essentially swear off any further IKEA projects. ME! Who loves IKEA projects! Maybe I’m just exhausted, who knows…
So the Douglas mattress arrived while we were hammering away at the frame, so as the girls and I head out for another library event (STEAM club for Téa), Joe unwraps the mattress. It needs to air out and come to full shape, but we can still sleep on it tonight. I am so done with temporary beds, temporary solutions and uncomfortable sleeps. Yes, we are still using stuffies and blankets, but pillows and duvets are in our future. We’ll get there. At least the mattress will be better, albeit smelly for the first couple of weeks.
So it’s all coming together! We’re slowly but surely building (literally) our new surroundings, and enjoying what we find along the way. We have ordered a couch which will get here sometime next week, and we are hunting for a TV stand this weekend so we can finally unpack the new TV. We may have to stand or sit on the floor to watch it for the first little bit, but we have time. And space. Oh, and I made pancakes in our new kitchen the other morning (and realized we were missing vital ingredients, so they were a bit dense), but it’s getting there! We’ll be “back” to our new normal soon.
Leave a comment and let me know your questions! I’ll try to show you around, all you have to do is ask!
I’ve gone through that type of transition a number of times. It never gets easier and it was always just me. I suppose it both helps and hinders to be handling everything for four. You have an extra set of hands but way more stuff. I do remember seeing that storage container just before you closed it. I’m impressed at the IKEA furniture already set up.
Yes, you and I know the relocation processes well. I swore off moving by airplane when I first arrived in Canada, but I guess it can’t be helped sometimes… I look forward to moving fridge to fridge next time though, not having to completely restock an entire pantry next time!
Ja, dere har sannelig vært i aktivitet denne uken! Jeg er glad for å höre at dere er fornøyde med leiligheten, men det tar jo alltid tid for å få allting på plass. Jeg har bodd hos Sverrir og Yrsa i en ukes tid nå, mens arbeidsfolk har drevet med renovering av ovnene i leilighetene i blokken. Da måtte de flette av parketten og fjerne fliser. Stövete ble det også. Nå er jeg flyttet tilbake, fikk folk til å gjöre ordentlig rent, og har fått tingene på plass. Deilig! Jeg ønsker dere lykke til videre! Spennende å få følge med!
Takk Mette, vi setter pris på at du følger med oss på reisen – og etterpå!