Mayhem

I feel like our lives have been complete mayhem for the  past five months.  After spending most of our time in Mississauga deciding if we should stay in Ontario or head back to Alberta as originally planned, we decided that we would stay. This decision broke my heart because of all the things that we would be saying goodbye to.  We were just supposed to be on a year long adventure in Ontario, NOT STAY! It came down to the fact that Ontario is the place that Matthew needs to be for his business.  Things have gone very well here for him because he is here full time and not flying back and forth.  We have definitely seen him more since we came here with him and  with all our prayers, having him around was the strongest answer to the question of whether we should stay in Ontario.

 Once we finally made the decision to stay we had a another painful decision of where to live.  We really liked it in Mississauga but we did not like our landlord and we knew we had to move.  We tried finding another rental but nothing worked out and so we looked into buying.  I was appalled to find out what the cost of housing was in Mississauga.  We realized that for the size of house we needed to fit our family we would have to pay 6-700,00 dollars for something we didn't really like, needed renos and had no back  yard.  We were frustrated because we wanted to stay in Mississauga. We loved our ward at church, the kids had made some great friends and Matthew was close to the head office of his businesses main client.  I was online for hours looking for options and I had four realtors sending me properties to rent and buy in the area.

I have a cousin that lives out in Cambridge and  I decided to look out there.  Everyone we talked too said that it was so far out  of the GTA and that it would be a long commute for Matthew that he would hate, but when I looked at the price for housing I got excited.  We could buy a lot more for our money and it was near family - something that I was desperately missing.  It took a lot of convincing to get Matthew to agree to even look. I felt like I was being very selfish pushing to move out there.  Matthew didn't want to leave the ward or commute ( neither did I), the kids did not want to leave their friends and we would be starting all over again. But I felt like we needed to find a place that we could comfortably afford and that is what finally convinced Matthew too.

Since making that decision it has been constant work getting it done.  I feel like I have moved 10 times when in reality it has only been three times in the last 3 months.  We had to get our house in Edmonton ready to sell so  we hired our contractor that has helped us before and a friend who is a painter and got the house ready to sell.  I felt bad for our renters who were going through many challenges of their own: preparing to move to Mississippi, three little children and another on the way, and a father who was re diagnosed with Hodgkins. They were great though, very willing to help through the reno and showings of the house.

We put the Edmonton house on the market on the beginning of June and had a couple of offers but nothing that came together.  Then when July hit the viewings dropped dramatically and we became a  bit worried.  We really needed to sell so that we could then buy before the end of the summer or we would not have any where to live when we came back to Ontario after packing up in Edmonton.  We decided to get out of the rental we were in because our lease was coming due and we did not want to continue with the landlord for any more time and we planned to go back to Alberta for most of July and August to pack our house and see our family and friends.

While we waited for our house in Edmonton to sell we packed up all of the things we had accumulated over the last year in Mississauga and put it in storage.    I stayed to finish up the move in Mississauga with the older two children so that they could finish their camps and football season and Matthew took the younger three and drove across the US.  It took them four days and they drove straight to Calgary and picked us up at the airport.  They looked very tired of the car.  But our journey was not over.  We drove another 8 hours to Vernon where we stayed a week with Matthews father and stepmother at their cabin on the Okanagan.  We had beautiful weather and a wonderful time  together.  It would be our only vacation time over the summer because we then headed straight back to Edmonton where I drove Matthew to the airport to go back to Toronto for work and I started packing.  Thankfully the house sold the first week of August, at a lower price then we wanted but we weren't too disappointed, we knew we had gotten what it was worth.

While Matthew looked for a house in Ontario in his spare time I  tried to purge as much of our belongings as I could.  We wanted to spend as little as possible on moving and we decided to get rid of all our furniture except our dining room table - I couldn't part with it, it was our first piece of furniture I really liked.  I had garage sales over two weekends and I felt exhausted after the first day.  Most of the stuff I was selling I still liked and wanted but couldn't justify bringing it with us. I didn't even have time to price the items before people were showing up trying to get everything for free.  Some things I know I gave away and others I couldn't believe that I got what I was asking for.  It was all a very hard experience for me letting my memories go to someone else.  But I kept the most important things and I know I will make new memories in our new home.

We enjoyed very much seeing our friends and family.  There were so many people that we missed seeing.  Doing this move over the few short weeks of summer made it so that many people were away when we were in Alberta so it wasn't the reunion we had hoped it could be, but we were glad to see a lot of our loved ones before we moved away.

 As I was packing  the items that we weren't selling and getting ready for the moving company, we still did not know where we were going to live when we got back to Ontario.  Ironically the market had picked up in Cambridge and any of the houses that we had looked at before our house sold were selling quickly and we were running out of choices.  We put an offer on one house that I had never seen and we were turned down.  It turned out it was owned by two men who were not speaking to each other and couldn't agree on what the house should sell for.  We made attempts at offers to them and in the end they took the house off the market.

The house we did get was a "fixer upper" that we had looked at before going to Alberta but because there was a lot of other choices at the time we weren't very interested in this one.  I really did not want to have to deal with a lot of renovations.  Well guess what, there are a lot of renovations needed. We decided that it was the right size and right location and right price and it has a lot of "potential".  In fact it will be the best house that we looked at once we have it fully renovated, so we are happy with our decision.

Matthew came back to Edmonton just in time for the moving company to load up.  Then we loaded our van with everything we forgot to put in the truck and we said goodbye to our house of five years and to Edmonton - the home of our hearts.

We were still finalizing the house deal on our drive across the country back to Ontario.  We found that there are very few places that offer print and faxing services between Saskatewan and Minneapolis.  We finally got the deal done and enjoyed a day of shopping and playing at The Mall of America.  It's cool but not as good as West Edmonton Mall.

Having just closed the deal on the house while driving across the country, we were not able to move in right away.  Thankfully my cousin Todd and his wife Paula let us crash with him and their family, which was pretty awesome because they live in a huge house on a lake with a pool and lots of fun things to do.  When we got possession of our new home I took the kids over and showed them the new house, they were not impressed.  I described the plans that we had for renovating it and Noah said "great, you guys stay here, I am living with Todd and Paula".  He really enjoyed their XBOX.

We moved in a week after school started.  We moved all of our Mississauga belongings from the storage unit and set them up but we knew we couldn't really settle in because we were going to be gutting the main floor in the next couple of weeks and would have to pack a lot of it up again.  We tried to be settled in as much as we could but there are a lot of piles everywhere.  We enjoyed two weeks of half settled life and then we went back into caos when our kitchen was torn down, the flooring on the main floor ripped out and dust was settling everywhere.  A huge blessing is that we have been led to some great trades people that have been honest, efficient, reliable and reasonably priced so that we could get through this ordeal.  We have gotten to know a small group of the Portugese community through the network of trades we have met.  The relationship they have with each other reminds me of the feeling of community we have as members of the church.  I have really been impressed with them.

 We have been living without a kitchen and flooring on the main floor for two weeks but we are now at the stage where they are putting everything back together. The flooring is going in this week and the kitchen cupboards come in next week.  I have a brother who with his wife, renovate whole houses on their own and lived in it for months if not years. I do not know how they could handle it.  I am going crazy to be organized again and have a place to cook other than a microwave and a toaster.

I know some day very soon we will be settled in this house and we will be able to do things with it that will make it feel like our home.  We are missing our life in Alberta very much, as well as our new friends in Mississauga.  But we have been very welcomed in our ward, schools and neighbourhood here and we know with time we will be at home.

Happily Ever After!

New house

Old house