We moved......from my hometown (Fort McMurray) to Mr.Loonie's hometown (Fort Saskatchewan) - close to it anyways. It has been our plan for a few years now to move south once we were established financially and had some careless baby-less fun. So since little Pen Pen was baking in the oven, Mr.Loonie has been on the job hunt. Our luck finally came quite a few months back but because of the lengthy big company interview and testing process, our move was only official recently. Our house hunt started all over the place....it covered Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan and NE Edmonton with anything meeting our search criteria of an older bungalow in the minor renovation category backing onto green space. You wouldn't think this would be so hard but it was. After a month there was nothing, we weren't in a big rush as Mr.Loonie's company would have supplied accommodations for 3 months but I did not want to live in a condo during the summer with a baby, a cat and a dog. Then a house came up. We were going back to what we dreamt of years ago...an acreage. But the house is the best of both worlds....country and city living. We are 5 minutes from the Fort, 15 from Edmonton but our front yard is a river and the backyard is a farmers field.....it's amazing.
Remember the part where I said we were willing to do minor renos....HA! Scratch that, looks like we have abit of a project on our hands and I will be chronicling every step of it for ya'll.
So a bit of history....our house is an old school! Apparently we housed the classrooms for grades 5-8. The main room was for grades 5 and 6 and the bedroom end of the house was for the 7 and 8's. Now as for the basement, we are unsure of. From the little bit of information we have, the school was turned into a house sometime in the 50s and then renovated in the 90s such as the windows, insulation, shingles and garage construction. We hope to learn more as we get to know our neighbors.
Our move has been pretty smooth since Mr.Loonie's employer covers most moving expenses including the packing and transport of our belongings, Realtor fees (our Fort McMurray house is still for sale but fortunately 3 months of our mortgage is also covered by the employer) and house hunting trips. What hasn't been easy is poor Penny's sleeping habits, which we have finally got back on track after 3 weeks of a pretty tough time - I guess she just didn't feel comfortable with her new surroundings. Also, our trip down with the animal farm was hell. What should take us 4 hours took 6.5 hours due to a blown trailer tire and a crying baby. The moving company wouldn't take liquids due to their terrorist policy (?) so our tent trailer was packed full of cooking liquids, bathroom and garage liquids...I guess liquids add up because our little old tent trailer tires couldn't handle the excess weight. The cat was meowing, the dog was pacing and whining and the baby was crying all while the parents were calm....HA!
What matters is we made it and we have been working our asses off to make this old school our own. Lots of updates to come....stay tuned!
P.S. And for those friends at "home"...I miss you tons!!
