A moving experience

The keenly awaited trip back to Ottawa to take ownership of the new house finally came around. As we prepared to leave the apartment at the start of the journey we seemed to have plenty of time to get to the train station. However, as it often does, those spare five minutes dis-appeared in about 30 seconds and so it was at a fast pace we set off to the train station. We got to the station as the train heading in the southerly direction pulled in and we knew that gave us only a minute until our north bound train pulled in. We raced as much as we could, having to go down one flight of stairs and up two with all our luggage and buy Denise's train ticket before we could board the train. After the first flight of stairs a passing man offered to carry one of our cases for us and so he did, he did not need to insist. We somehow got to the platform, bought and validated the train ticket with just seconds to spare before our train closed it doors and pulled out with us aboard.

When we got off the train we had to catch a bus and we were only halfway across a three lane in each direction road, on the median when the bus appeared! Fortunately the driver saw us on the median and waited a few extra seconds at the bus stop to give us time to complete the crossing and board.

The flights themselves were pretty routine although we did get some awesome views of Greenland from 35,000 feet. We tried to spot some polar bears but they would have had to be pretty big for us to have spotted them although the snow and rock of Greenland seemed only just beyond our reach.

southern Greenland from 35,000ft.


Due to high winds in Munich our flight across the pond was delayed and the knock-on effect was that we missed our next flight from Toronto although we were put on the next flight after ours which was only an hour later.

The house closing was routine although when we went to the house for the walkthrough we were dis-appointed that it obviously wasn't quite ready. There was still a lot of dust around (everywhere) and some things were not complete such as cabinet doors missing but, by the time we left, the final clean up was at least under way.

The builder explained that there had a been some minor problems and we were glad that at least we didn't have a removal truck outside waiting to unload.

We came back on Friday and although some of the minor jobs had now been completed, there was dust everywhere (again!). It turned out that the building inspector had instructed the builder to put more insulation in the attic. They had done so but someone had not made sure the attic door was closed and in fact it was slightly open. Hence when insulation was blown into the attic a good deal of it came straight through the attic door and through the house. That evening the cleaners were back again! Again grateful that the main move was not scheduled until Saturday.

Saturday was clear and sunny though cold but the work of loading the truck with things from Daniel and Gill's as well as our storage unit and moving it into the house kept us warm enough. Thanks to all those volunteer helpers, you earned your pizza!
Hallway Basement


Kitchen and second bedroom


from Lounge to Dining Room



Who's got time to take it easy?
There's work to still be done!

We got everything out of the old house and most of the storage unit cleared and into the new house after a fashion in time for a cuppa towards the end of the afternoon.

Most of the rest of the time that week was spent organising the house, constructing a very large (4' x 10') storage shelf in the garage as well as installing a garage door opener and getting the last few things out of storage.

We did fit in a flying visit to Moises and Lolita in Markham which including catching up over dinner in the CN tower restuatrant. The trip down took longer than planned as there was a snow fall all day. Traffic on the 401 was heavy and slow although at least there were no accidents in the westbound direction though there were several on the eastbound side that necessitated completely closing the highway in that direction.

CN restaurant with Moises and Lolita


Hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come later.