Dad's House is Sold!!!

On Sunday, June 3rd, I signed the papers accepting an offer on Dad's house. A bunch less than we originally thought, but prices are coming down in the Vancouver area in spite of what they say in the news. I am very relieved that it is finally sold. However, I am not jumping up and down yet. The purchasers are new Chinese Immigrants and say they have a pre-approved mortgage. With the new rules, other people from China have had a hard time getting money out of China to here. So .... we wait until June 18th when all of the "subject to's" are supposed to come off. They will take possession at the end of August. I truly hope there are no "hiccups" and the deal falls through at that late date and we have to put it up for sale as an empty house as we will have removed everything in it by the end of July.

All the houses Ray and I have bought and sold, this was never an issue. Once you signed the papers and the subjects come off it is a done deal. I won't breathe easy until the end of August. I have to go over to Vancouver next week to pay the property taxes and check on the house.

Monday, June 4th

We woke to blue sky with some clouds but that soon turned to more dark threatening clouds. The gardeners showed up for a couple of hours this moring and started pruning the hedge so the concrete guys pouring the ramp up to the gangway have room to work. They left as it had started to pour again. The dock guys, Cliff and Dave, showed up to view the area and tell us what they plan to do. If everything goes well the forms and then the concrete will be poured sometime this week. Also had a meeting with Price Alarm about how they are going about alarming our house. So, all in all quite a busy day.

As you can see the hedge is taking over the walkway.

My current view from the deck, you can hardly see the lake over the top of the hedge.

Tuesday

Another cloudy morning. Ray was off early to Nanaimo for a doctor appointment and I stayed home and waited for the electrician to come. The guys for the dock ramp were supposed to come but did not see "hide nor hair" of them. Maybe tomorrow.

Wednesday

Today was our dental appointments with the dentist here in Lake Cowichan. We did not expect much from the look of the outside of the office, but Dr. Wilson sure has all of the "new tools" of the trade, including taking an EKG to check out your heart function while sitting in the chair! The weather has been kind of cloudy with showers, so far this week but late this afternoon the sun came out and we were able to spend some time on the sundeck enjoying the view of the lake.

Thursday

Our great friends Malc and Kathy Warrington, from Victoria are coming up for dinner and a visit. Hope the forecasted rain holds off until after dinner so we can enjoy some "deck time." Kathy brought me an orchid as a house warming gift. Thanks Kathy.

As it turned out we just gave them the tour of the house and sat down outside when it started to sprinkle :( ... Oh well. We came inside and had a lovely visit. All my new recipes, including the pork shoulder that I did on the rotisserie in the BBQ (the crackling was awesome. :) seemed to be well received. Kathy brought a chocolate brownie dessert with fresh strawberries. Yumm

Malcom and Kathy. This picture was taken a year ago in England with their newest grandbaby.  

Friday

Back up to Nanaimo to McLaren's Lighting. I need to pick out a dining room light fixture that will hang from the 30' ceiling. Our electrician said McLarens had the best selection and are a great help with the design for the room. So I took a bunch of pictures with my phone to give them some idea of what I will need to match in with the kitchen light. After a little wandering around with the designer, we picked out a fixture and now we wait to get and answer that they can modify the length of the electric cord for 20 feet. lol. It poured rain all evening and overnight.  PS no sign of the dock guys.

Saturday

Woke to clouds with the sun breaking through and by 7 am there was sunshine again. Yeah. I think we will go into Duncan today to check out the Farmer's Market. Apparently it is one of the largest in BC with over 140 vendors. Left the house just before 9am to miss all of the traffic and parade that was going to happen, closing the main road this morning for Lake Days here in Lake Cowichan. The weather was showery the whole morning ... poor people sitting on the sides of the road to see the parade.

Lots of live entertainment ... they had all of the kids up dancing when we passed these guys later in the morning.

Fresh locally grown strawberries

Quite busy at 10 am

Lots of birdhouses.

 I 'd developed back and neck spasms since Wednesday afternoon and was really suffering. Days of lifting items Ray's incapable of has taken a toll.  Malcolm had tried to fix me on Thursday night to no avail. He is a retired physio and said my back was like a plank .... Anyways I am trying to take care of it and happened to notice a booth for Shiatsu Massage and Craniosacral Therapy. Took him up on it for $15 for about 10 minutes. Felt much better after. :) Did not realize Ray had taken my picture lol.

These two little girls played their celtic harps beautifully. They are raising money to buy 2 of them at $4200 a piece!

 After walking around for an hour we stopped in the Art Gallery in Duncan to frame Garrett's painting he made with Kat's families help in honour of my Dad. At the same time we inquired about E.J. Hughes work. Ray is quite interested in getting a couple of his prints for our new house. We were told that most of the prints were taken to the Arthur Vickers studio in Cowichan Bay for a showing.  So off we went.

Old rowboat in the basement of the gallery.

Quite a few float homes in the marina at Cowichan Bay

After taking a walk through the gallery it was time for lunch.

We tried out the Rock Cod Cafe first, but when Ray saw that it was going to be $30 for a 2 piece halibut and chips .... we left. lol

We decided to have lunch at the little take out stand instead where a 2-piece halibut would have been $24. However they were out of halibut, so Ray settled for cod and chips just like me. It was okay .... not fabulous so we would not go there again. (Lighthouse Restaurant)

Back home by 1 pm. A lovely outing. Ray took Freya for a couple minute bike ride to the marina, a short way down our road, and managed to snap this gorgeous picture with his phone.

Almost like a painting.