Unpacking

Well hello there!  I'm back and all went well and smoothly with the move and release of the rental unit I was in.

Last Sunday I took Jasmine down to the breeder's home where she had herself a doggie vacation. I had an email from Terri (the breeder) that night telling me that she was settled in just fine and running around like crazy with all of the other dogs (6 of them, I think!) and having a ball.  I'm guessing she hasn't missed me at all... but I freely admit that I have missed her terribly this week while she's been away.

This week has been amazingly busy for me and, yes, though I have missed her terribly, it would have been a very stressful week for her, had she been here. People were in and out of both places frequently, I was away from the home for long hours at a time and when home, finally, I would have a bath and go to bed almost right away.

The move went well - the moving company did an absolutely fantastic job with everything!

I spent a couple of evenings having to do double duty - cleanup at the old place and a little unpacking at the new home.  Thursday night finished the last of that and then Friday I went, on my lunch break, to do the final walk through. Inspection passed, I headed back to work and training.  Friday night I came straight home for the first time, cooked some dinner and spent a few good solid hours unpacking before bed.  Same tonight.

I also got out into the yard to start hacking away at the very overgrown space back there.  The large sumac tree is dead and will come out, the smaller one, though alive, is also going to come out.  Sumac is a very invasive plant and sends runners out all over the place.  Left unchecked it takes over.  This one was most certainly left unchecked and started to do this.  While I haven't yet cut down the big tree (Dad's going to bring up his chain saw - yay) or the little one, I will get rid of it and then for the next number of years, continue to cut out the sproutlings.

Most of the boxes have now been unpacked and I've started the process of organizing what I have all over the place into actual living spaces.  I still have a long way to go, but I also, now, have all the time in the world.  it's a great feeling.

Tomorrow I have a day down island with my family - we're congregating at my brother's home and picking apples - once picked, we'll be juicing.  About 3 PM I'll head down and pick up Jasmine and then bring her home to our home.

Now... I have to tell you about the amazing generosity that I have been on the receiving end of lately.

Mum & Dad not only looked after the move for me, Dad spent some time setting up and repairing the yard gates for me, so that Jasmine will have a safe and fenced in yard to play in.

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I had the extremely touching experience of receiving a gift card for Home Depot from a friend of mine who lives in the US.  Thank you SO much Nancy!

And then today I had not one, but THREE wonderful things happen. At 4 my boss sent me home early - just because it was the end of the week and sunny. 

When I got home, I had received an email from Terri Perrin over at Fine Art of Intention Feng Shui letting me know she was ready to set up our next consult (in her new process) and could I call her.

While I *do* have a couple of large chunks of money coming in within the next couple of weeks, I don't know exactly when it will be arriving and so when I explained this to Terri she told me that she was so excited to be able to share the whole process with me that I could pay her once the money came in!  We're booked for Monday the 3rd!

Then, later on, I called Kel at KWA Construction to change the date that he and Roger will be coming in to install the hot water tank and toilet.  When I initially booked them, I had completely blanked on the dates and had booked him for Thanksgiving Sunday!  Mum & Dad are holding the family dinner on that Sunday and I needed to reschedule. When I spoke with him, we discussed possible dates to complete the job (later that same week - about a week and a half out from now) and I casually mentioned that, right now, the hot water is coming out tea coloured.  The hot water tank is 23 years old, after all! Anyhow, his demeanor changed immediately - this is an indicator that the tank is about to "go" and pushes this to urgent as opposed to important.  Anyhow, I told him the same thing I told Terri and he told me that I could pay him as soon as the money came in, but that we need to get the hot water tank dealt with as soon as it's delivered.

I am so very grateful for all of these wonderful people in my world.  

They say that what goes out there comes back to you threefold. All I can say is that I hope the universe is listening to my gratitude tonight - the kindness and care that I have been on the receiving end of this week has been utterly amazing and has filled me with joy. I sure hope that all of the givers out there receive back tenfold for their wonderful care of me!

With love across the waters,

Last Update Pre-Move...

I'm into the final crunch of the "pre-move" days - in fact, I *may* have my keys to my new house tomorrow, if all goes exceptionally well!  

I took Jasmine down to the breeder's house today for her week of boarding there - tough for her - she will spend the whole week running around and hanging out with 5 or 6 other dogs, of varying ages, who are JUST LIKE HER. She's going to have a GREAT week!

Home early this afternoon, I continue to plug away at packing - slowly.  I'm not in any huge rush to pack absolutely everything I own - I still have a couple of days until the move itself, and don't want to pack something I may need over this next 2 or 3 days. Tonight I'm doing scads of laundry - blankets, towels, clothing.  Tomorrow night I will do sheets and my duvet cover and that way, when i get up on Wednesday morning, I can easily fold it all up, stuff it into the space bag I have all ready and laid aside for that stuff and suck out all of the air.

The moving company rep will be over tomorrow to pack up the kitchen (and all of the rest of the breakables) and then tomorrow night I will pack some more.  At the very latest, I'll have the keys in hand after 9:00 AM on Tuesday and will, as soon as I have them, take some stuff out to my new house myself - plants mostly, but also some of the gardening tools and fooferah that resides in the storage locker.

So... tonight's is the last post for a little while.  Internet should be up and running in the house some time on Wednesday and further updates will happen later this week, once I have made a good dent on the UNPACKING part of this exercise and have the house somewhat to sorts and ready for Jasmine's return a week from today.

Until later this week, with love across the waters...

A Small "A-Ha" Moment and Day of Positive Accomplishment

During a text-message conversation late last night, a friend said something to me that gave me a second of pause, and a small "a-ha" moment. You know how you believe something, wholeheartedly, and yet sometimes still need to be reminded of that very thing? That is what this friend did for me. Thank you!! 

The exact wording is gone now (I deleted a bunch of texts on my phone) but it was truly along the lines of believing in something hard enough to make it be in real life. This friend has been using this with great success for some time, and, as you know, I have been following this principle for years now - most recently, of course, to get my full time job and home.

Feng Shui is one of the tools I use.  Creative Visualization is another.

This morning I woke feeling energized. I had had a great sleep last night and an actual sleep-in this morning - so my chi was high and sparkly when I finally decided it was time to get out of bed.  Today felt like a great day  when I got up - and it hasn't disappointed me in the least!

At 10:00 this morning, I had an appointment at the house with my Real Estate Agent and Contractor in order to get in and look at the immediate work that I need to do (the hot water tank and toilet) and to gather information to provide me with a quote for the costs.  At about twenty to 11 this morning I headed to my second appointment of the day - my lawyer's offices - in order to sign the paperwork to finalize my house purchase.

OK - papers signed (and there are a LOT of papers to sign!) I headed over to the bank to transfer the monies from my account over to the lawyer's trust account.  I had about a half-second feeling of squishy in my tummy over transferring the money out of my account, but VERY quickly got over that because really, this means I'm investing in me and my own future, as opposed to someone else's future. 

That done, the next stop was Slegg Lumber to arrange the purchase and delivery of my new front door, hot water tank, and toilet.  I managed two out of three as the door guys were off on breaks when I was in, so I went home and had some lunch and then dealt with paperwork. About an hour ago I headed back over to Slegg Lumber to talk with the door guys. Armed with this information, I need to have another conversation with my contractor in order to get a better idea of his costs for the door installation, and also to arrange for another visit to measure up the rest of the stuff needed before the door gets ordered - but since I'll be hearing from him in the next day or two about the quote for the toilet and hot water tank, I'll hold off until then.

Home again - and this time, I think, in for the rest of the day, I fiddled with some paperwork and then sat down on the computer in order to do some book-keeping, and while the book-keeping is a teensy bit stressful just at the moment (money is tight until October 7th when the new pay amount kicks in) it's a good stress.

Besides, going back to what my friend said to me last night, believing in something hard enough makes it happen in real life.  

I *believe* with every fibre of my being, that this move is going to be smooth and simple and well within my overall budget.

With love across the waters,

Packing. Packing, packing, and more packing.

So... guess what today's project is?

hee hee hee

Yes, today's project is to pack much of the upstairs bunff and, in the process, also to "let go of" a few more things.  When my brother moved down to Nanaimo, he took much of his stuff - and most recently, came up to collect his bed - leaving his former bedroom bereft of furniture - but in the process, also, making it the perfect staging area for the boxes that are packed upstairs.

I forgot how much I dislike packing.  I do, though, also remember how much I like unpacking - and since the move itself is now a scant 2 weeks away, well, I will just have to settle myself into packing and look forward to pulling it all out and unpacking as I go!

Something I have been thinking on, though, is the ghastly wall-paper that is everywhere (remember how I counted 10 different kinds? Here are pictures of 9 of them) The white in the dining room is actually textured and the kitchen and one of the bedrooms both have 2 different kinds. In the kitchen, the checkerboard stuff IS wallpaper and in the bedroom, the grey-blue is ALSO wallpaper... oh, and underneath the gold one in the hallway is another one that is stripey-shiny pink - that's the only one I spotted that you can't see.

Laundry Room

Front Bedroom

Back Bedroom

Bathroom

Hallway

Kitchen

Dining Room

OK - so anyhow, what I was thinking (before I went off on the wallpaper tangent) was that I might just leave the bed not set up, so that I could take down the wallpaper and paint right away in the room I am planning to use as my bedroom... Jasmine will be out being boarded for that week when I am moving & it would be the perfect opportunity to get some of that initial grunt work done in (at least) one room before I go collect her and introduce her to the new home.

OK - I need to get back at the packing...

Baby Steps

No, not a post about my gorgeous, wonderful and genius nephew Finn... he is, after all, only 5 weeks and 3 days old.  Walking at this stage of the game would be utterly miraculous - and probably a little scary for his parents!

:-)

This is a post to let you know that I am now making progress in baby steps toward my move.  Today I booked the movers (and I HIGHLY recommend that, if you are located in the Comox Valley, you give Courtenay Transfer (they do not have their own web page but ARE in the yellow pages) a call for your next move. The estimate was thorough and professional, and I was left with a feeling of trust and confidence.  

AND their quote (which is a firm rate) came in over $300.00 LESS than the other guys!!

Terri Perrin (from Fine Art of Feng Shui) was also over today to have a preliminary visit surrounding her review of my new place and her new process. She received permission to include my house in her training course as a case study, and I am very much looking forward to being able to share my thoughts about her new process with you.

The rest of my day was spent in study.  Some on-line work and a practice test (once again showing that I have a LOT of work to do on this course between now and Tuesday night) followed by making up flash cards for the stuff I REALLY need to cram into my head.  Dinner (and yes, a cider tonight) and now am planning to finish my day off with flash cards in the bath tub followed by bed and sleep...

My night life is so exciting!!

Tomorrow promises to be action packed and, hopefully, filled with more of the cramming of stuff into my noodle for this upcoming exam.  I'm probably going to have to be a little scarce until the exam is done, but when I was out for my bike ride in the early morning hours this morning, I was shat upon by another owl (??!!!) and so considering the sheer great luck and happenings the first owl-crapping brought me, this one promises great good stuff too!

With love across the waters,