Category: House

The new house

Picked up the keys last night.

Last night we picked up the keys for the new house. I drove down our driveway, and we walked around the now empty house and for the first time it really felt like ours. It was great. We poked and prodded and discussed what we were going to put where. I wish we could just magically transport everything there overnight and start living there full time.

Here’s the weird thing, though: Normally I’m the pessimistic one, and it’s Vicki’s natural optimism that gets me through the day. But as we were going through the house, and especially on the drive back to our soon-to-be-ex-house, I had to keep reassuring Vicki that this is the right thing and we’re going to be so happy here. I was bubbling with enthusiasm, but Vicki was crying. That’s not right.

Even stranger was that we were looking at some of the things that need fixing, and future projects, and I was even enthusiastic about them. Normally me and spending money on household projects, or even worse, working on household projects go together like pure sodium and water. Ok, bad analogy – I don’t explode, I wince at the expense and try everything I can to avoid the work. So maybe we go together like oil and water. But I found myself actually getting enthused at the prospect of taking this beautiful period house and making it more period and more beautiful, and maybe a little bit more comfortable at the same time.

I hope I can convince Vicki that this is going to be a good thing. I know I’m convinced. Except for moving out of the Rupert house when Shani kicked me out, I can’t think of a single move I’ve done that wasn’t an improvement in my life, and which I didn’t look forward to before hand and be glad of afterwards (at least until it was time to move again.)

Close on the house, go kayaking

First I wrote the biggest check I’ve ever written in my life, and went to the bank to get a bank check for that amount. Then we went to the lawyer’s office to wear out a couple of pens signing and initialing several trees worth of paper.

Once that was over, I came home and went for a paddle. Without Vicki, so I paddled faster than I should have and took fewer rest stops. I tried to concentrate on making a good stroke without much elbow action, except when doing sweeps. I’m starting to feel a little twinge in my left elbow, so I’ll probably regret it tomorrow. There was a pretty brisk breeze blowing (the aviation weather report said gusting up to 19 knots), which was mostly acting opposite the stream, so paddling downwind and up river and then down river and into the wind, but the creek is twisty enough that sometimes I was fighting both stream and wind, and sometimes I was getting benefit from both.

I did the left fork up from the wier, which is a lot less used than the right fork, and much twistier and with a bunch of false creeks. Lots of paddling with the skeg up, maneuvering around, which probably isn’t so good for my elbows but quite fun.

At one point I coasted along a paddle’s length away from a Great Blue Heron whispering to it that I wasn’t a threat and it didn’t have to fly away. Another point I came around a corner and saw a 20 metre straight stretch of river with 5 geese poking their heads up out of the grass on the bank.

And now the details

Edit: Vicki didn’t think we should link to the page directly, because it would give too much away. So here are some links to some pictures:
Front view
Living room
Kitchen (yes, it’s small)

It’s 2700 sq feet, including a finished attic with two bedrooms and a full bath in it. The tree arching over the front entrance is a magnolia, and it was in full bloom when we went to see the open house yesterday.

The owners were out of town all weekend, so they won’t even see the offer until this evening.