Moving day is done, lots of unpacking still to do but the new house is starting to come together!
(Hard to believe those two black couches are ones we bought from The Brick over fifteen years ago when we lived in Calgary. They’re still in great shape to this day!)
There are a zillion different moving guides online with all sorts of tips, tricks and reminders.
But honestly, for our move, I found that using an online To Do manager with different lists for things like “Timeline”, “To Buy”, “To Pack”, “To Fix – Old House”, “To Fix – New House”, “Contact Info”, etc. (but yes, borrowing ideas liberally from those other online sites) was the best tool to keep track of all the various elements of our move.
As part of the process of selling our house, we dug through a box of old files we’ve kept over the years – manuals for appliances, receipts for things we’ve bought for the house, and the original home inspection report we got for our house in 2004.
One of the things that stood out having done this in 2004 and again in 2019 is how much technology has influenced the process – in 2004, our home inspector showed up with a thick pre-printed binder and he went through filling out sections in provided spaces as he worked through electrical, plumbing, etc.
In 2019, our home inspector showed up with a laptop, a portable colour printer, and a digital camera. (I think) he used a web site that is made specifically for home inspectors to create a thin but insightful custom binder filled with as some prepared information but also had unlimited room for custom comments. He also inserted annotated photos of some of the things he found *and* after the inspection, he sent us a link to a web site where we could walk through these issues individually and sort of rank them “Deal with Immediately”, “Not Urgent” or whatever then create a custom report online and/or in print that we could use.
Here’s a pic of me with our realtor’s sign when we sold the condo we owned in Calgary in October 2004 and with the pending move (basically two nights left in our current home!), it’s got me thinking back on other places I’ve laid my head…
0-5 (?) – my parents live in a rental duplex in Indian Head and we spend summers at farm in camper
5-17 – parents buy newly built house in Indian Head (which I live in until graduation and they are still in to this day)
17-18 – Luther College Dorms, University of Regina
18 – Language Institute Dorms, University of Regina (one semester while taking my language requirement)
19 – Living with High School Friend in His Family Condo Near U of R
20-22 – Living with Various Roommates in Condo My Family Buys Near U of R When We Realise Its Better to Have Others Paying Our Mortgage (Especially With My Sister Following Me to University) Instead of Their Kids Paying Other People’s Mortgages
22 – Spend One Semester Living in Dorms While on Exchange in York, England
22-28 – Back to Family Condo (Which Is Where I First Met Shea)
28-31 – Bankview, Calgary – rental condo for a year after Shea gets her first nursing job after University then a condo Shea and I bought for 2.5 more years
31 – Move Back to Sask, Buy Our Current House
33 – Keep House and Rent to Friend of a Friend While Shea and I Move to London, Ontario for my MLIS, Live in Rental Apartment Right Beside University
34 – Return to Saskatchewan and Get Hired by Southeast Regional Library So Spend Weekdays Living With Shea’s Folks in Weyburn and Weekends Back in Regina In Our House
36 – Hired Full-Time by Regina Public Library and Have Lived in the Same House Ever Since Until…
46 – Buy A House That’s A Bit Newer, A Bit Bigger and A Bit Nicer Than the House We’ve Lived In (and Loved) for fifteen years!
“Moving Out (Anthony’s Song)” – Billy Joel
We’ve got our house listed, have already had a handful of showing and I find myself watching videos like this in the small hours of the night (not bad advice but not sure it’s highly top secret knowledge either!) 😉
We likely won’t be permanently into our new house until later next week but that doesn’t mean, now that we have possession, we can’t start getting settled in!
I admit that between things we need for our new house and the usual Christmas pressure to “buy, buy, buy!”, I had a fairly loaded Amazon cart on the go.
But I read this article and just couldn’t do it – I mean, I know most corporations treat workers poorly and do anything in pursuit of profit but Amazon takes it to an AI-enhanced other level.
So, as much as I can this year, I’ve decided to buy from local retailers – whether it’s big boxes like Costco (who are renowned for treating their employees very well) and small local shops too.
Feeling sentimental knowing we won’t have Christmas here this year, I was looking through my oldest photos for a picture of one of our first Christmases at our current house.
Unfortunately, since we bought our house in 2004 and our first digital camera in 2006 (and all our old-school photo albums are in boxes somewhere), I couldn’t find anything.
I did find this photo from 2007 though – in between 2004 when we bought our first house and today when we bought our new house, my cousin (pictured below with baby Pace), came out, married the love of his life and just recently announced that he and his husband are expecting their first baby in the spring!
His news reminded me of this great story of a local playwright who went through a similar surrogate pregnancy (who I have as a FB Friend and his regular posts about “Bette” are one of the only things that make Facebook bearable!) It also shows just how quickly our world is becoming more progressive in so many ways.
Congrats cuz!
