Home, Sweat, Home

Well, it is done!  After 6 weeks of ferrying boxes, pictures, clothes, bedding, aquariums, books, movies, music, plants (so many freakin’ plants!!!), we reached the end of the road on Saturday, March 23.  The big stuff came over.  What a day that was!

I reserved a 2 ton truck from Budget Rent a Car on Kingsway in Vancouver.  I did it online because that seemed to be the simplest way to accomplish the move.  On Friday afternoon, I picked up our good friend, Roy from the Ferry Terminal.  He came over to help with the move.  His lovely wife, Angela came over on Thursday.  Unfortunately, her trip over was to catch a ride to the airport.  She had to fly back to Halifax for her mom’s funeral.  Very sad for Angela.  Alex and I did what we could to make her brief visit here quiet and relaxing.

Back to the move…. Saturday morning, Roy and I got up early and headed out the door to pick up the rental truck.  In the meantime, Telus showed up at the house to install TV, Internet and Phone.  That made Alex a happy camper.  He got to stay behind and supervise. The Telus installer showed up around 9:00 am and would be staying there for almost 6 hours!  Those of you who complain about Telus… STOP IT!  We had amazing service.  This man crawled under our house 4 times, removed all the old cabling, set up all new systems, upgraded our modem and was generally amazing!  Kudos for Telus!!!

While this was going on, Roy and I headed over to Budget to pick up the truck, where would also meet up two more able bodied friends, Dwayne and Tina.  When we go there, I showed the counter person my reservation and she started the paperwork.  She asked me for my driver’s license and credit card.  Out came the credit card and my TEMPORARY license ( I renwed it with a change of address on the Friday before).  *sigh*  A word of warning:  DO NOT EVER RENEW YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE IF YOU NEED TO RENT A VEHICLE THE NEXT DAY!!!  

The counter person refused to let me have the vehicle because I didn’t have picture ID.  *sigh*, so, back to Surrey, I went to collect my passport.  

90 Minutes later, we were on our way…..  We got to the condo at around 11:30 instead of 10:00 am which is what I was shooting for.  AUGH!  Our friend, Bonnie was waiting oh, so patiently for us.  We got right to work.  We surveyed the remains of our lives in that condo and determined that everything was gonna go over the balcony.  A joy having a balcony only 3 feet off the ground.  It made our move so much easier. 

The sofas, armoires, chairs and the like went over the balcony.  The freezer and a few other items went down the elevator.  Amazingly enough, we finished in about 90 minutes.  Whew!  Then began the convoy.  We had three vehicles and only one person who knew where we were going.  Me!  So, in the truck,  I went with Dwayne, while Bonnie followed in her car and Tina and Roy followed in mine.  

Of course, we had to stop for gas…. Qu’elle Surprise!  So, that made it even more challenging.  But, we managed.  After about 45 minutes, we slowly pulled into the drive.  Another friend, Mona was there to greet us with two helpers: her daughter, Mallory and Mallory’s boyfriend, Rowan.  Excellent!  More slave labour…

But, first:  FOOD!  Mona was amazing and whipped up a great lunch for us.  So, we ate, rested and after 30 minutes, we started the unloading process.  Again, it went so quickly.  We had everything unloaded in an hour.  

Dwayne and Tina left just after and returned the truck for me.  A huge thanks to them for their help and being kind enough to return the truck…..

Mona, Mallory and Rowan left shortly after.  Many thanks to them for their assistance, too.  They were amazing.

Roy, Bonnie, Alex and I began in earnest to put the rest of the stuff away.  We worked late into the night to put stuff away and by 9:30, we were done.  Roy rewired all of our electronics and got the tv’s, computer and various media devices working.  So, we sat back and watched 1 movie:  The Mummy Returns…. and by midnight, we were ready for bed.

I slept the sleep of the dead… well, for about 6 hours… then Nykie decided it was time for us to get up…. We had a great breakfast and at around 11:00, Bonnie and Roy left to go home.  That left me, Alex and Nykie to bask in our new home.  Which we did.  

Pics to follow soon.  Alex did an amazing job getting our home ready.  I will be thanking him for some time to come…..