The big day finally arrived and so did the movers, right on
schedule at 9:00 AM. That of course is
when my ability to go online stopped because the computer was all boxed up and
packed. The guys got busy and started
packing the truck and before I knew it, half the contents from my house were
onboard. It was kind of
bittersweet. It was the end of one very
large portion of my life and the beginning of a whole new adventure.
I took Toby to the park to play, where he got to say goodbye
to a couple of his friends, like Dallas and Ktulu. After the park trip we went back to the house
and found the truck was now ¾ loaded and before I knew it, they were done and
we were on the way at 12:45. There were
several things forgotten, such as I forgot to empty the fridge. It was not a big deal as I will be going back
on Sunday to pick up the boat.
Now here we are and the process is being reversed, with the
guys unloading the truck and filling up the house. It was hard to match boxes to locations as
you go from a basic one room basement to a 3 level townhouse. Unloading was obviously faster than loading
and by 3:45 PM, I had paid the bill and the big empty truck headed off. While I had visited the house 12-14 times
before and had never seen it in the rain, the reverse happened today. Halfway through unloading it started to rain.
Just after the movers left, the ongoing saga with Telus
continued. The install guy finally
arrived and began to hunt around the entire complex. He need to find the electrical room, which
for my building is actually on the side of my suite. I kept telling him this, but he insisted on
going to the other end of the block.
Eventually he found the proper room but could not get in as it was
locked. Apparently he could only get the
keys from the Presentation Center, but they are closed Fridays. So, here I am, still without my home phone. He said it was something to do with fiber
optic cables.
After he left, I went over to pick Renee up at the Westcoast
Express and it turns out that the station that we had thought she was going to,
wasn’t this one. I managed to get her on
the cell phone and we get that straightened out. Finally, she was here. Toby was beside himself with excitement and
still the rain kept falling.
The house is full of boxes and this is Renee’s first look
inside my actual unit and I think she is impressed. Because everything is boxed up and we can’t find
any of the kitchen stuff, I’m not able to cook and so we resorted to ordering
in pizza from Papa John’s. We spent some
time unpacking some boxes, but didn’t get too far. We headed upstairs and I could not find the
DVD player, but did find the Blu-Ray and after a quick hook up, we settled down
in the new bed to watch some Seinfeld episodes.
I managed one, before I zonked out.
It was a restless sleep though with new surroundings, new
bed, sore back, feet and legs, and Toby’s unrest. With another 4:30 AM wakeup, it was time to
just take in the new surroundings. After
Renee got up we got a few more boxes emptied and I started organizing my
cupboards a little. We were just about
to head out the door for breakfast and coffee, when they guy from Shaw called
to see if he could come early.
I had been waiting since Tuesday and yet I turned him down
if you can believe it. After a quick
breakfast at McDonald’s and then having coffee at Starbucks, we grabbed a few things
at Save-On Foods and headed home, just in time for the furniture to
arrive. Finally, there it was my
recliner, TV, Sound Bar, and dining room chairs, sitting in my house.
Just as they left, the Shaw guy arrived. I warned him about the problem with the
electrical room access and while the Presentation Center wouldn’t be open for
another 45 minutes, he didn’t have the same problem. He has keys for the whole complex electrical
rooms. This guy was amazing and very
friendly. He went through, hooked up the
spectacular new TV, hooked up the old TV and goy my internet going. He went above and beyond as well, making
recommendations for things to see and do, restaurants and handymen that can
help with mounting the TV on the wall.
Having two TV’s and separate rooms allowed me to watch the
hockey game while Renee was able to watch her program at the same time. Toby took up a position halfway between us so
he could protect us both. Talk about Mister
Hi-Tech. I watched the entire first
period of the game being really disappointed in the picture and thinking that
the old TV is far superior. Renee came
down to see how things were going and she pointed out that I was watching a
low-definition channel. When I found the
proper HD channel, I was blown away. 65
inches of awesome.
We went out for dinner tonight to the China Kitchen, a
Chinese Buffet. It was great! Good food, very friendly people and
reasonable price. That is one thing I
have noticed in the short time I have lived in Maple Ridge. It is small town values and everyone is very
friendly and helpful. It’s a small city
of 100,000 people but a far cry from the attitudes of people and politicians of
Vancouver.
Sunday morning was another early wake-up made earlier by
daylight saving time. The plan is for a
busy day. We headed out at 6:30 AM and
arrived at the hockey arena at my usual 7:00 Am time. My first trip to hockey from the new
house. It’s also the first time in many
years Renee has come to watch me play.
Once the game was over, Karl and his buddy joined us for breakfast at
The Slocan Family Restaurant, my hangout for years. This will likely be our last visit as it’s a
little far to go.
There is a reason for being here though, as we are heading
back to the house to pick up the boat and anything that had been
forgotten. Karl and Jeff loaded my old
hide-a-bed into my truck, while I emptied the fridge. When all that was done, we hooked up the boat
and by now it was totally pissing rain.
I wandered around the house for one final goodbye, and it hit me a lot
harder today than it did on Friday. I
guess because this is the last time I will be here.
We started the trek out to the new house with the boat in
tow. Once we got here, the plan was to
put the boat close to the garage and the three of us would push it inside. I knew there was 4 inches of clearance on
either side of the door to the sides of the boat. I had not measured the height, but that didn’t
prove to be an issue. Combining my “masterful
driving” with Karl and Jeff keeping an eye on things, I managed to put the boat
bang on into the center of the garage.
The truck won’t fit in there as well right now as there are too
many boxes stacked up. Once those are
cleared out I will be able to put both the truck and boat inside which was the
goal right from the get go. I even
managed to draw an audience from Ken and Jennifer, the sales team as well as a
group of potential buyers waiting to see if I could get that big boat in the
garage. Hopefully they were all
impressed.
So here we are at the end of the first weekend in the new
house and we are loving it. One thing I
am really enjoying is having heat after living in the basement through the
winter with no heat source except for a couple of small space heaters. There is a ton of work ahead and a lot of new
adventures to come and I am looking forward to it.
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