A little post with big news!

Hello, my sweet, wonderful friends! How are each of you as February wraps up? It's hard to believe that more than a month has whipped past since my last blog post here (for which I really cannot thank you all enough for your incredibly caring, supportive comments on). And - at the risk of veering into broken record territory - though this site remains very much on hiatus, I simply had to share some excellent news here with all of you.

As many of you know, Tony and I have been searching, ceaselessly, high and low for the past two months trying to find longer term housing (as our current digs were only temporary - especially since the lovely homeowners may convert it to an AirBnb soon and major renos on both floors have been underway for the last two months, whilst we were living here, to make the house even lovelier and more contemporary looking).

To say that this was one of the hardest and most stressful tasks of our entire lives would not be a stretch. The housing (especially rental) market around these parts is abysmal at best and laughable at worst. Think staggering high prices (even for shared accommodations; which was not something we were looking for at all), tons of competition for the few places that surface, homes that were/are often in deplorable condition, and a serious shortage of properties that accept pets.

Around the clock throughout all of January and very nearly the entire month of February, we searched, contacted listings, viewed homes, applied, and continually expanded our search radius as far as nine hours away from Penticton. With each passing day, our stress level rose and our already taxed nerves grew more frayed.

In the end though, mercifully, we didn't have to go anywhere near that far afield. As February started to draw to a close, we were elated and beyond thankful to have been approved and selected by the owners of a beautiful two-story home in the nearby community of Okanagan Falls and couldn't say "yes" quickly enough to their rentership offer.

This house was our favourite of all those we saw and the one we most hoped to be selected for. It checks off our major needs (including having a fenced backyard for our dog, Annie, to utilize), is in a safe, quiet neighbourhood, and is owned by really nice people who live right here in the Southern Okanagan, too.

Our new little community, Okanagan Falls (aka, OK Falls), is a spot that has appeared here in some of my outfit shoots over the years (such as this one from 2013), and which I've always enjoyed spending time in.

We're both delighted to be so close (just twenty minutes away) to Penticton (where we were living at the time of the fire) still and moreover to have a great new roof over our heads. As well as, we hope and pray, the ability to finally stop feeling like we're in a state of topsy-turvy flux and uncertainty (regarding housing) after what happened to us last October.

{Our boxes are packed, we've got a small team of friends and family to help, and tomorrow we'll be hopping from one side of Skaha Lake to the other when we move into our terrific new abode in Okanagan Falls. I truly cannon wait! Mid-century moving day photo image source.}


I've had to move houses really quickly a few other times in my life, but less than a week to pack, switch over services (utilities, internet, etc), get a new PO box, and scads of related things is definitely a new record for the fastest I've ever changed homes and we've not had a moment to even stop and catch our breath since signing our new lease.

I'm certainly not complaining though - far from it! This house (I don't have a photo of it yet, but will try to post one on my social media in the near future) is just perfect for us and we can't begin to convey how incredibly grateful we are for it (just as we were to have our temporary home in Kaleden over the winter months).

It is my sincere hope that once we're settled in and unpacked, I can finally allow myself some time to properly rest, recoup, recover, grieve (further), and get a better handle on where my health, life and very future itself are at this stage.

On the exact same day that we signed our new lease, our old house (the one that was destroyed by the fire) was finally demolished (they'd needed milder temps in order to safely do so). Some might see that simply as a coincidence, but to me it much more than just that and stands as the absolute perfect symbol of one chapter in our lives ending and another beginning.

None of knows what the future holds in store for us, but quite literally tomorrow, I know that we'll be moving into our new house and - even though my health is in shambles right now and I've rarely been more exhausted on every level than I presently am - I simply can't stop smiling and thinking positive thoughts about the life that we'll create and live in Okanagan Falls.

British Columbia bound!

Fans of Canadian folk music may recall Gordon Lightfoot's classic 1970s song, Alberta Bound. It's something of an anthem for those headed to the land of open prairie skies, and its lyrics have been wafting through my mind for the last few days, as we've buzzed around like busy bees in preparation for our cross country move this week.

This time around though, our journey does not lead us to Alberta. Instead, as many of you know from my recent posts here, come late tomorrow evening, my husband and I will be touching down on British Columbia soil, ready to call Canada's most westerly province home (once again for me, first time for the mister).

The past several weeks have been ones of immense activity, planning, energy, fortitude, and a little bit of good old fashioned luck. Elbow grease, packing tape, and lengthy lists have abound, as has the enthusiasm that one could practically see hovering in the air around our place.

By this time tomorrow (assuming all goes as planned - and goodness, it better, our schedule for Thursday is so astronomically tight it makes a Victorian corset look like a muumuu!) the movers will be here, loading all of our earthly belongings (save for those in our suitcases) on to their large truck.

Somewhere, we're told, between 7 and 14 days after that, our household contents will reach us in beautiful British Columbia, and it is at that point that my husband and I will take up residency in our new home.

{Long haul moving, a service which this 1940s Canadian moving company offered, is on the agenda for us this week as we trek - by air! - across the breadth of Canada from Ontario to British Columbia. Image via the Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists.}

In the meantime, we'll be staying with some of my relatives who live in the same town, and thus I suspect that this will be my last post for the next little while. If circumstances permit, I may post during the next two weeks, but if not, I'll do so once we've settled into our new abode and have the good ol' interwebs hooked up once more.

I want to thank you all sincerely for you wonderful support, encouragement, and positive words over the past couple of months, as we've been preparing night and day for the move. They’re really helped to keep my batteries charged during this endlessly hectic period.

It is with great eagerness that I look forward to blogging next from my home province, and sharing in the joys of living in B.C with all of you.

Know that I'll miss you dearly, and that with all my heart, I'm wishing each of you every bit as much joy in your own life as I'm experiencing in mine right now. ♥

Well we're moving on up

Or to be more accurate, we're technically moving down - to the ground floor that is. Oh, and in another city. In different a province.

That's right, sweet dears, for the inaugural Chronically Vintage post of 2012, I come bearing (what is for my family and I) extremely good news! In a matter of weeks, my husband and I will be leaving Toronto and heading to my home province of British Columbia.

The decision to make this move is a very multi-faceted one that was not, by any stretch of the imagination, reached lightly. For the last few weeks, the mister and I have debated, planned, and endlessly discussed the pros and cons of leaving Toronto, and ultimately decided that moving is the right thing for us at this point in our lives.

There is - as cross country moves by their very nature to involve - much work to be done between now and when we leave Ontario at the end of February, but that's more than okay, because I can't remember the last time we were looking so forward to a major life change.

{Moving nearly always entails a lot of work, planning and a dollop of luck, but it's worth it in the end if you get to end up someplace you love, as we'll be doing when we head out to B.C. in a few weeks. Charming 1940s moving day themed beer ad via paul.malon on Flickr.}

 

For the time being, things around these blogging parts will be much the same. With last year's Vintage 365 behind us, posts will likely appear here two to three (or more) times a week, right up until the final days that I'm in Toronto, and then they'll pick up again once we're settled into our new place in B.C. (it will take our furniture and belongings a couple of weeks to arrive on the moving truck, so I may be MIA around then, but I'll let you all know for sure as those days draw nearer and I better know how things are going to unfold).

So, while (in an admittedly retro nod) the Jeffersons we're moving on up, we're moving on down from our little high rise apartment to a ground floor condo, in a beautiful town, in my favourite Canadian province, and that really is a piece of the pie, in our books!