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After leaving Iqaluit on July 7 we spent 83 days living in friends' places, hotels, vacation rentals, a tent and our coach. On Friday September 28 we took possession of our forever home on beautiful Tyee Lake in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. A huge massive thank you to everyone who helped us move out, move in and gave us food, shelter, emotional support and counseling on this journey.

The first thing out of the sea can was the box of cleaning supplies that Linda had left me when she and Craig left town in May. It cleaned their apartment and both our houses in Iqaluit, then travelled across the continent to clean yet another home! Friday afternoon I cleaned while the Internet and TV guys did their thing. Our neighbour Dale cut down a tree so that our Internet dish could see it's satellite clearly but Bell TV couldn't get a thing. I guess one out of two isn't bad but we sure wish we had known that we would be buying in a Bell free zone before we left Iqaluit, could have sold our receivers there easier than here. Blaine arrived home from work in the evening and hitched the small trailer to the Rhino side by side then we proceeded to unload the sea can until it was pitch dark and we were fit to drop. We dined on frozen pizza and slept on our mattress on the floor.

Saturday morning we were running loads before the coffee had brewed and by mid day we were unpacking things and arranging furniture. Downsizing before we left Iqaluit was necessary ( the sea can was stuffed full) but now that we have a 2,000 sq ft home it looks kinda bare! The downstairs walk out basement is mostly unfinished so we are pretty much just living upstairs now but even that looks sparse. With my kitchen mostly organized I made us roast chicken for supper which we ate at the kitchen breakfast bar since the dining table was not yet built.

Sunday was much of the same, unpacking boxes, finding places to out things and starting to unpack the coach. In the afternoon Val and Dale came over to visit and brought their friends Sharon and Ray to meet us. They came bearing housewarming gifts of wine and sunflowers and we visited a while but I must confess that Blaine and I were still shell shocked at actually having made it that we were poor hosts. 

On Monday Blaine had to leave for work and wouldn't be back for a few days so Johnny, Sage and I continued with the unpacking and making home. We also made time to explore our new neighbourhood and followed a quad trail from near the top of our drive that makes a 3/4 mile loop through the woods - ideal for a short walk. The week was also spent preparing for our first house guests, the Guertins were arriving on the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. My main focus in this regard was preparing the hot tub. I had no idea how complicated hot tub ownership is, thankfully the very sweet patient girl at New Waves hot tub store walked me through everything, gave me detailed (written thank goodness) instructions and sold me all the chemicals I needed to brew up our people soup. A different TV guy came out and hooked us up with Shaw Direct, we need to fall a couple more trees to get HD but at least Blaine can watch NASCAR and I have the Food Network.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome and our house certainly now feels like a home. Shalla and I totally rocked the kitchen with little e as our assistant and we ate like kings for three days straight. The boys went out exploring the trails, clearing paths with the chainsaw and bringing back rocks to build a fire pit on the lawn. Sage and Johnny showed Oscar and Trixie around the area, Trixie is more of an inside girl but Oscar loved the forest... even after he fell/jumped out of the back of the Rhino at 40kph!

Everyone has gone again so the dogs and I are snuggled up in front of the fire in the living room with a bottle of wine. I have to keep pinching myself to check if this is really real.

Posted with Blogsy