Moving In

Wednesday, May 16th

The movers arrived at Kristi's house at 8:30 am to pick up our bedroom suite and then we all made the trek down to Lake Cowichan to unload. (Ray in our car and me in my rental car.) Although they had estimated to pick up everything in one try, after packing up the house in Surrey there was some doubt if all the rest of the stuff would fit in the truck hence they decided to make 2 trips.

Once unloaded in Lake Cowichan, we left Ray with Freya at the house and I drove 3 of the movers up to Ray's brother's place in Errington, up island, while the moving truck followed with the other two helpers. It was like driving Garrett and his buddies years ago to Mactush. One of them was sleeping in the back seat as soon as I started off and the other two guys painted his nails with a sharpie while that one guy slept. Had to also stop along the side of the road for a "pit stop" to find some trees for them. Ha Ha. These guys were in their 40's .... I guess boys never grow up. lol

The shed with all of our outdoor stuff was quickly loaded up and then it was back to Nanaimo to Kristi's Office storage room to pick up the rest of our stuff.

Kristi's storage locker

We made it back to Lake Cowichan by 6 pm. The movers only had time to set up the three beds and then they were off to catch the ferry with pizza and a beer in hand. Ray bought the pizza for them in appreciation for the work that they had done. At least all of the boxes/furniture were in, mostly in the correct rooms. Ferguson Moving was great. Nice people to work with and overall quite reasonable for the scope of the work they had to do.

Ray and I kept a couple of pieces of pizza for ourselves and that was dinner. We were both exhausted. A lot of driving for me today so I did not get much unpacked as I would have liked.

Thursday 

Ray and I were up bright and early at 5:30 am ... damn dog. We hit the ground running both days, spending most of our time unpacking boxes so I could set up the kitchen, Ray sitting and unravelings the mega wrapping and me placing. What a chore ... had stuff from Dad's house and our house from 6 years ago plus stuff I had taken out of our motorhome to amalgamate into motorhome and House. Lots of stuff went directly into the trash pile. :) First thing though we had to return my rental car into Duncan and be back for the Shaw Cable guy to hook us up at 9:30 am. Just made it. We also had a furniture delivery from LazyBoy this morning.

With all of the "bad backs" in this family ... I did not want to give up my chair. lol (Picture taken Monday morning)

Friday

Kristi arrived late Friday afternoon with her two dogs in tow to help us unpack. Ray and I took her out for dinner to the local pub, a few minutes away. She did haul into the garage all of the broken down cardboard boxes as it was supposed to rain overnight. Other than that no putting her to work tonight ... we are far too tired. After dinner we chatted for awhile and were all in bed by 8:30 pm. Kristi had been not feeling well on Thursday so she was pretty tired too.

Saturday

We were all up early again and after coffee and a strudel it was time to work. Kristi moved all of the boxes we had sorted and repacked to be stored, downstairs for us.

Garrett arrived about 10:30 am to help with his dog, Kira in tow. Now we have 4 dogs running around the house. The house seems to handle us all pretty good. lol I continued to unpack, do laundry and direct where to move furniture to. Ray had the kids move stuff out of the garage down into the basement and from the basement move up into the garage all left over wood building products so everything is in the same spot. Garrett and Kristi also moved the old woodstove out of the basement to the firepit area in the yard. Louise had left a bunch of lawn furniture so we culled out what we will keep but most also was carried upstairs to the garbage pile. Ray and I had our new dining room table delivered at noon. It looks fabulous and will definitely be well used by family.

Solid maple butcher block table.

Around 12:30 it was time to go out for lunch .... again at the local pub. Sure is convenient. Very reasonable and great food, not to mention great beer. The day was mostly cloudy with a few rainshowers.

Jason arrived at around 3 pm with tools. We were not thinking when we loaded up our motorhome with everything. It stayed in Nanaimo with all of Ray's tools while we needed them for assembly in Lake Cowichan. :)

Big thanks to Jason for bringing the tools and helping set up our patio furniture and TV set up.

Garrett spent an hour putting together my new yard cart that will enable me to take things from the garage down to the basement easilty. Another day gone in a blink. We ordered Chinese Food for Dinner. There is a place again, a few minutes away, so Jason went with Ray to pick up our order.

After dinner, Jason received a phone call that one of his fishing buddies passed away today, in Nanaimo. He ended up heading back to Nanaimo to keep Neil's wife company as she did not have any family close. Hopefully he can come back tomorrow.

Garrett and Kristi dealt with walking all 4 dogs so Ray did not have to. Ray and I were in bed at 8:30 pm. Kristi stayed up with Garrett a little while longer and then also headed to bed. Garrett stayed up until 11 pm but neglected to turn out the lights which kept Kristi awake as her room was very bright. A learning curve for all of us living here. lol

Sunday

We were up early again ... damn dogs, mostly mine creating havoc with the other three. lol

Anyways, once we were all up and had coffee, Kristi walked her dogs and then headed back to Nanaimo for the day as she has a course at Nanaimo General Hospital. Garrett, Ray and I started in on more stuff that needed to be done. Meanwhile, Ray was directing Garrett ... move this here, throw that in the garbage pile etc. I went into town and bought the last propane tank from Home Hardware to get our barbeque operational so I could cook on it easily. Also, they had light bulbs etc. and clips for shelving. Don't know if Jason will be back or not. The dogs are having a blast swimming in the lake and laying in the sunshine on the back lawn. By noon the sun broke through the clouds, a beautiful afternoon.

Jason arrived around 3 pm with a box of Tim Horton donuts in hand. Thanks Jason. Ray and I spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine on the lawn with the dogs. Garrett opted to go swimming .... Brrrrrr.

Athena

Zeus

And there he goes!

Once it started to cool down we all went inside. Jason went for a nap as he had a bad headache while Garrett, Ray and I ate left overs for dinner. Jason was not hungry as he had a huge subway sandwich at about 3:30 pm. Kristi arrived at about 6:30 and had eaten too, so an easy dinner for me to prepare. lol

The bunch of us spent a nice evening together watching some TV with great conversation. It was lovely to spend so much time with our kids.

Monday, May 21st

It was Garrett's dog that got us up this morning. I could hear her upstairs trying to wake Garrett but when that did not work, she made her way downstairs to get us up. I brought her into our room and told her to lay down. She lasted half an hour more until 6 am when she bugged me again, so out the door she went. Yup she had to go.

Made waffles and bacon for breakfast. Jason headed out about 8:30 and Kristi followed about an hour later. A quieter day with just Garrett and us.

A great weekend getting lots accomplished thanks to the kids helping out. Future visits will be more fun for them to enjoy the lake instead of being put to so much work. :)