Moving Day

This past Saturday, August 29 was moving day for us! It was also the day of the biggest wind storm in a decade! LUCKILY, in the three hours we were actually moving furniture in pick-up trucks there was no rain. However, when we arrived at our new place to pick up the keys, the power had just gone out. The power was out at the suite too, which made packing up more difficult because there are no windows there!

Proud key holders!

Trees were falling down left, right and centre. It was scary driving around that day. 

BC Hydro sent out a statement saying that there were over 500,000 customers in the lower mainland without power. Some people still don't have power today, almost 72 hours later. 

Our kitchen when we walked in for the first time as homeowners!

Our whole move took place without lights, heat, vacuum, or a refrigerator! Thankfully our place has many windows, which allowed us to survive with just candles and flashlights in the evening; very little struggle. We didn't get our power back until 5:30 am on Monday, August 31. On Sunday evening we were driving back from dinner at David's parents house, and we could see that our neighborhood was lit up. We were super excited, and then we drove into our complex and saw that Jen & Ryan had their lights on and got even more excited! When we got to our suite.... no power... apparently our complex is on two different grids. Unfortunate!

Playing cards by candlelight

I can't describe how happy we are to be in our own home. I feel so proud; I want to have people over every day. I made cookies AND had people over for dinner yesterday! So domestic :).

Don't you just LOVE this island? It's my dream come true.

The night before the move, Elissa and Michael came over to help us load up the trailer our realtor, Greg Holmes, lent us. The boys loaded the trailer while the girls tidied inside and ate snacks (that's my kind of arrangement!). Afterwards, they invited us to their place so David could shower and we could all eat together. The boys made us some delicious perogies with sausage, bacon, onion and rum mix on the side! We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends who are willing to sacrifice their time and help us out. 

Greg said he'd never seen this trailer packed so well! 

Getting there!

Elissa and I working hard. Note the creepy light smiley-face watching us through the window. 

Elissa sampling our margaritas

Deluxe Perogies! Good job boys!

On moving day, we sent Sherlock to Coddled Canines, a dog daycare run by one of my coworkers, Joyce. He had a blast there. Didn't even want to come home with us at the end of the day!

Sherlock is adjusting so well. I can't believe it. I'm not sure he's even realized there's anything different, except that it's so bright. He seems happier now. He's more playful, but also peaceful. He is perfectly happy sitting on the deck staring out at the complex for an hour. He's also loving having freedom in our tiny yard. That's more freedom than he's had in the past! He's sleeping great, and hasn't showed any signs of separation anxiety.

See how bright! You'd never know we didn't have power. Don't mind the mish-mash of furniture. it looks like a bachelor pad in there! Especially with the cooler coffee table. Can't wait for our new couch to come!

Playing with ALL his toys

Sherlock LOVES his new deck. He could sit out here all day.

Just breathing in the fresh air

Laying in the backyard

Creeping on the neighbours

With the power being out, all the grocery stores had to close down as well. We went on a wild goose chase for groceries yesterday. The two grocery stores close to our place were closed due to the outage. Then we went to Safeway at Willowbrook and struggled there as well. Below is a shot of the dairy section at Safeway. We finally found the rest of our groceries at Save-On in Langley. What should have been a 15 minute shopping trip turned into an hour and a half!

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Is this what the end of the world will look like? Dairy rapture

Settling into the new place overall has been fun. I whipped out the label maker for my spice drawer already, and we've spent some time decorating with our own personal touches and exploring the walks around our new neighborhood. When we get our new couch hopefully David can take some "real" photos of our place to post on my blog. 

The mountain view from the second bedroom upstairs! Soon to become my craft/reading room.

I think I'm jealous of my own spice drawer

Cooking our first breakfast in the new place! Finally had power.