The Monday & Tuesday were packing days and Wednesday they loaded. The movers came prepared and we had a pretty seamless pack and load. Thursday was cleaning day & travel to Campbell River & Friday they arrived in Campbell River and unloaded our stuff.
2 unhappy cats, but happy the movers were gone & it was once again quiet.
Instead of staying in a hotel we opted to spend 1 night in our old place with the bare necessities, and 1 night in our new place. With 3 cats staying in a hotel didn't feel like the best option, and I am glad it worked out as well as it did. Our last night in our old place...
Dining room
Bedroom
We took some time to reflect on the past 5 years we have lived in our place and toasted to the ups & downs and our hopes for the next chapter of our lives.
On cleaning Thursday we went to our favourite cafe, Wild Poppy Bistro and enjoyed and amazing breakfast. Hannah makes the best almond milk vanilla latte!
After what felt like endless hours of cleaning it was time to hit the road. Aaron loaded up the truck with the things we would need until the movers arrived with our stuff & got the cats into the focus and we hit the road.
After a very long day we got to spend the night in our new home.
Friday morning our stuff arrived. We had initially been told our stuff would arrive on the following Tuesday because of the long weekend, so we had arranged for the carpet cleaner to come the Friday afternoon, along with Telus to set up our services. Since the carpets weren't being cleaned until the afternoon the movers loaded all of our belongings into the garage, living room, and under the patio. One thing we have learned over the years is that fed movers and happy movers, and happy movers take extra care & go above & beyond with your stuff. We got them Tim Hortons & Pizza when they were loading and then Chinese food on the day they unloaded. They were appreciative and we were happy with a crazy but seamless move.
Once the carpets were dry we were able to move everything into the house and start unpacking. It took 2-3 days before we were able to slow down. We had our first real meal in our new home.
A once a year meal in our home, we had steak with mushrooms, asparagus, corn on the cob, and baked potato.
I will take you for a little tour around our new home:)
First upstairs
Entrance
Kitchen & dining room
Living room
Main bathroom
Guest bedroom
Laundry room
Bunkbed room (my brother is helping me assemble these next week,
and will update the photo once assembled)
Master bedroom
Ensuite
Downstairs
Aaron's music space
Rec room
Second guest bedroom
My yoga/craft/sewing/whatever I want it to be room
Bathroom
Across from the bathroom is a large storage room that also has the hot water tank and forced air equipment for the heat pump.
The yard
The front and backyard is a blank slate and we look forward to a fall yard project.
The pile of still needs to be sorted through in the garage, which I am determined to go through before Aaron gets home so a car can actually go in the garage!
There are some upcoming projects such as getting the sundeck done in duradeck, my Uncle Dave coming to paint the entire inside (goodbye beige) and the trim on the outside, putting large garden beds in the front yard where the grass is (finally planting most of those plants in pots), and in the backyard planting mature trees for privacy and building garden boxes.
We have lots of other ideas for the place, but that will depend on if we will be sticking around long term or not, and I expect we won't be sure about that for likely another year depending on Aaron's work and being happy here. We have ideas for a garage in the backyard, a sitting area at the island, windows in the bathrooms, different window coverings, and maybe a door separating the downstairs from the upstairs, and big plans for the yard, we shall see if those long term plans come to fruition!
It is taking quite a while to get the cats settled and they aren't there yet, but it's not a surprise as I myself and not yet feeling settled and Aaron is is Australia, which makes it challenging to settle in when you are in another country haha!
