New Home

Good morning from under more than 40cm of snow!

Winter has definitely arrived here in the valley and it's wasting no time in cleaning things up with a deep, fluffy layer of white.

The ski hill's opening day is November 24th, and I suspect there will be a great base for early-season.  Currently, the snow table at the hill is in the dark - here's the view from yesterday, and it has snowed again overnight...

With the cold season here and the sump pump going all of the time in the basement apartment (and stressing me out!) Tom and I started looking for other rentals in town.  As luck had it, just as we were talking to another landlord about seeing another rental, our current landlord proclaimed that she was moving home permanently. As of that day.  Thanks for the heads up ** eye roll**.  You may remember that she was living somewhere in Northern Alberta, working as a chef for the mines, guiding and planting camps (the story seems to change all of the time), and was never here.

When she got back to Telkwa, it was a nightmare.  She stomps around upstairs like an elephant, has a dog that howls and poos all over the backyard, and she hides from us, not wanting any contact.  So to date I have only met her in person once, and that was because Tom and I went up to her door last year and stood there till she opened it.

Low and behold, we have found an AMAZING rental in town, and have moved in!  We have a whole (small) house to ourselves.  No basement = no flooding!  In-floor radiant heat that hasn't even come on yet!  We've set it to 18 degrees, but the house is spray foam insulated and ridiculously airtight, so the inside has been staying anywhere from 20-22 degrees on it's own! The house comes with layers upon layers of garden boxes along the front and side of the house, a large greenhouse where we can start our seeds this February, and a HUGE shop.  You could park a logging truck in there.  It conveniently came with workout equipment in the shop, so that will likely save us money in gym memberships.

And now for a tour:

With all of the noise upstairs, the cats were freaking out and were so happy to help pack.  They wanted to leave first.

Our cozy little home. 1658 Third Street.

Front entrance.

Entrance, living room and kitchen.  And Tom.

View from the back door - where our boots were in the last picture : ) Those far doors are our bedroom on the right and spare on the left.

Swanky IKEA kitchen.  DISHWASHER!!! Would it kill Tom to smile?

Our bedroom

Yoga room

Washroom (jeez I just noticed myself in the mirror)

NOW he smiles.... Tom in the workshop.  This is really only half of it's depth!

Greenhouse.  I.  Can't.  Wait.

Those pictures were from only moments after we got the keys.  We now have our bed and furniture (two chairs and a coffee table lol) in the house and have our eyes open for a cheap couch.

The house is only one road back from the highway, and I've been surprised at how much faster I can get to work! Bonus, because now I have a little bit longer to wake up in the mornings before hitting the road.

We can walk right across the highway to the Post Office and the walking trails along the river.  There are also walking trails on our side of the highway, that connect all the way back to Tyhee Lake.

Also, because the house is so well insulated it is very quiet inside.  We don't hear the highway (not that there is much traffic in the north anyhow) and the only sound that makes it inside is the muffled train whistle (the tracks are now closer to us).  In the summer if we have the windows open, that could be another story, but for now it's amazing how much more relaxed I feel in the new place.  No worries about how much noise we are making, or being startled by an elephant tap-dancing upstairs. The cats are so happy and play all day and all night... which can be annoying when we're trying to sleep haha. They love the warm floors and flatten out like cat-carpets.

So far this house design is pretty amazing.  We will only have one utility bill to pay - hydro. And honestly, because the floors haven't even come on once, I don't expect it to be outlandishly expensive. Definitely something I am going to remember in the future when we want to build our own house.

This is how much snow we had at work in Houston yesterday... 

Jill has been keeping me in the office lately, helping out with permitting.  It's a bit weird, teaching the new permitter things, when he's full time and I'm at the bottom of the food chain here.  But, I have a company truck, good pay, and for the moment I'm not breaking my back everyday.  So I shouldn't complain.

That being said, now that I sit all day, I have to remember to get up and move nd do some exercises at my desk - my back is aching from not being used at all now hahha If it isn't one thing it's the other.  Something to work on.

My contract is up at Christmas and will renew in the new year for 10 months.  That means I will have two months off!  I'm thinking about trying to get a job at the ski hill, or as a barista... but at the same time, E.I. and a ski trip to the Kootenays sounds pretty good too.

Anyhow, we still don't have our internet set up in the new place, so I've come to work early to get this up - I'd better start doing some work now. 

Hopefully the beginning of winter is being good to all of you!
xoxo