Firstly, the contract with my previous employer - for whom I've been freelancing since mid-November last year - and which has already extended almost 2 months beyond the initial end date - is slowly but surely drawing to a close and I'll soon be back to claiming Employment Insurance for the couple more months it's still available to me. Naturally this also means I'd better kick into high gear on the demoralizing and tiresome endurance test of job-hunting. Ho-hum, said Pooh.
To be honest, even though I was quite pleased to leave this job almost 2 years ago, I've enjoyed it much more this second time around, though I suspect that's largely because I'm only a freelancer this time and haven't had to slog myself silly for 11-13hrs/day, nailed to my office chair - which was more the rule than the exception in my previous life here. Plus, I haven't had to focus soley on the proposal-writing side of things but rather I've been involved on a multitude of marketing, writing, proofing and editing projects - perfect for honing my nit-picking, eagle-eyed (anal retentive?), perfectionist skills.
All-in-all it's been a pretty good gig while it's lasted, the money has certainly helped a lot and I've really quite enjoyed getting out and back to work again, using my brain and blowing the dust off my editing/proof-reading and desktop publishing skills. Besides, one can only watch so many daily repeats of What Not To Wear.
I've a couple of good friends still working here too so it's been nice to spend time with them again, albeit non work-based conversation remains somewhat frowned upon in this very corporate environment.There's a small chance they might still call me back in to work/fill-in now and again, if they get really busy and if I'm still not working, but for now, this particular gravy-train is about to reach the terminus station.
And following right behind it is the fabulous house-sitting/rental Gravy Train we embarked upon, 'temporarily'.....four years ago. This particular gravy train generously offered us the luxury of virtually a full, 4-level, corner-property heritage townhouse for little more than we'd ordinarily have to shell out for a tiny, dated and mediocre 1-bedroom apartment in the same area. That area being Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood which, if you'd suggested it to me 5-6 years ago, I would more than likely have turned my nose up at the idea since it used to be considerably grungier/seedy.
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Home for the past 4 years - Our lovely, spacious corner property duplex: all 4 floors;
finished basement, main floor, bedrooms on 2nd level and an attic/office conversion.
Complete with a large deck/patio in the back, perfect for a BBQ and enjoying a fat
Cuban cigar and refreshing beer/scotch in summer. (Really going to miss that!)
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Turns out that, for more than a year Hugh had actually been working in London (UK) and his wife, Karen (who's actually English), and their two daughters were finally going to move over there to join him - at least until Christmas that same year.
And so it was that, in a sheer coincidence of timing, planets aligning and fortune being on our side (since we'd already been considering a move), we accepted their offer. Basically it was to be short-term and sort of a house-sit really, in that they would store all their furniture and personal belongings in the finished basement suite and we'd have full use of the other 3 levels (the top level being just a small attic conversion into an office/bedroom).
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| I love the old fireplace/Mantle. Note our cruelty-free stag's head perched above. |
So initially it was fully intended to be just a 9-month deal, hence they gave us a reasonable break on the rent, to the tune of about $700/month below market rental value. With average rental prices so high in Vancouver, you can see why it was easily worth our while to take them up on the offer, even for just 9 months. Well, that was the original plan anyway.
We moved in on a a miserable, cold and wet/snowy day - March 15, 2009 - bringing all our own furntiture etc. and leaving a lot of our boxes unpacked because we knew we'd be moving again soon....or so we thought. As luck would have it, when the anticipated date of Hugh and Karen's return approached (and we were within hours of signing the lease on a new place) they called us from England just in the nick of time to say they were actually staying there for the forseeable (yessss!!!) and were hoping we'd continue living at the house. We agreed a slight increase in rent (still way below market value) and switched to a month-to-month contract that was left open-ended as to how long we might stay here while they remained in London. And this weekend it'll be a full four years - the longest I've lived in any one place since moving to Canada in 1996. In fact the longest in one house since I was a teenager, still living with my parents in Cleethorpes. Ouch that was a long time ago, I hadn't even finished high school.
We've thoroughly enjoyed living in an actual house and I never imagined I'd be able to say I live in a $1 Million home - even if that doesn't actually mean much in Vancouver, considering a crumbling 700 sq.ft. crack-shack/meth lab slated for demolition still goes for upwards of a million dollars! (Bloody ludicrous, I know - and soooo annoying when you see those american House Hunter shows on HGTV where the participants bitch about getting some poxy 3,500 sq.ft, 5-BR, 6-bath mansion and pool with only 2 acres of land for their 'whopping' $130K budget! Grrrr. Still, that's the price (literally) of living in North America's most expensive city! I can't deny, my heart says I'd much rather be living in Europe for the same money!)
Anyway, before I digress too much on that well-worn rant of mine, let me continue my blather. It's a lovely house, lots of light, big bay windows where the cats spend most of their time staring out and getting all fired up at the slightest glimpse of a bird, a falling leaf or the neighbour's cats, especially Blackie or 'Black Cat' as we nicknamed him, since we didn't know his name for the longest time, (not that 'Blackie' comes as such a surprise.) Never have we seen Mishka get her knickers in such a twist about another cat as she does when Blackie hangs out on the fence, or comes right up to the back door, staring in and taunting her, (see below).
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| How much is that kitty in the window? |
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| Nap time (Left to right: Louis, Mishka and Mel) |
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| Mel & Louis - ridiculously excited at their first glimpse of snow (Dec. 2012) |
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| WTF? Come on...you've got 3 black cats already, surely one more's not gonna hurt? Eh? Whaddaya say? Look into these eyes and tell me I'm not adorable? Huh? |
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| "Black Cat" from nextdoor, aka The Interloper - Mishka's arch nemesis. |
So how is it that this gravy train is coming to the end of the line? Well, Hugh and Karen can't decide on how much longer they'll stay in London so they've decided it's a bit crazy (and expensive) to keep their house in Vancouver, so they're 99% decided on putting it up for sale - for approx $900K! Of course friends of ours immediately pipe up with, "You guys should buy it!" but, when you realize that we'd have to use up all our savings AND the mortgage would still be about 3 times what we're paying in rent...plus we'd assume all costs for the things that need fixing around here, it really isn't even a remote possibility. We'd have to have frikkin' rocks in our head to put ourselves in that position....and the wisdom of my favourite blogger, Garth Turner, will tell you that too.
Our good friend John - who's a Realtor in Victoria, though we try not to hold that against him, haha - even suggested we buy the house, live in the basement and rent out the rest. Bless! Yeah, not gonna happen, my friend. Why would we live squished up in the small dark basement while renters get to enjoy the rest of the house, thumping and crashing above our heads - when we'd still have to use up all our savings and pay about another $1800/month for the 'privilege'?
And so, after Karen came out for a week in February to sort out all the stuff she, Hugh and the kids have stored in the basement and attic, we were definitely led to believe they were leaning much more towards selling.....imminently. With talk of getting painters and workmen in and of 'staging' the place (even hinting that we should put some of our own belongings in storage to make their house look better and not risk them losing $30K because it looked so 'cluttered'....cheeky mare! Especially since half the boxes that 'cluttered' the place were stuff we'd been storing in the basement but had kindly moved upstairs purely to give her more room for sorting out her own things down in the basement.) It was clear that Karen no longer sees us as the paying renters/house-sitters but rather as people (and cats, which she clearly doesn't like) living in her house and touching her stuff. Naturally we appreciate we've had an excellent run to have lived here 4 years but it's becoming obvious, on many levels, that we should find ourselves a new place to live.
And that's just what we've done! (well, thanks largely to Lorne, who so diligently scoured the gazillion ads on Craigslist these past few weeks). We've just signed a lease on a cute but small.....as in small...as in not very spacious.....as in the little side of large.....petit and bijou......compact...and did I mention small (??)...townhouse in Kits. In fact it's just 3 blocks from where we lived for a few years before moving into this house - and closer to Vicky and the kids too. In fact only about a 15min walk away. :-)
It's actually a nice, bright (little) 2-level townhouse....all 740 sq.ft. of it - with two balconies. A nicely renovated 2-up-2-down you might say (reminiscent of terraced houses back in England), with a doll-size kitchen, decent living/dining room and 2 bedrooms. And while the cats won't have nearly the same view or constant action right outside the windows, we hope they settle in well and will be buying a new kitty-condo for them to hopefully ease the transition and give them a lookout.
So we'll be back in the old 'hood - our former stomping ground - close to beaches (one of which is a small beach just minutes away where we always enjoyed a cigar, even though that's now banned in Vancouver!...whatever!) and back to the land of Starbucks-wielding, yoga-mat bearing Lululemon Barbies and the 'look at me' musclemen that pose around Kits Beach. Do I sound bitter? I don't mean to, but I can't deny that one of the things I've loved about living where we are, in Mount Pleasant, is that, for the most part anyway, the locals are just a little less stuck-up, fairly low-key and have a relaxed laissez-faire/anything goes attitude. Of course there are a few trendy hipsters, playing it down in their bearded shabby-chic, granola-grunge look, but overall much more ordinary than the Kits-crew tend to be. Mind you, I have always spent most of my weekends shuffling on West 4th or on West Broadway, so it's great to be heading back to my regular/favourite part of town.
Anyhoooo, this has turned into an incredibly-long-winded post simply to say I'm still working (for now) and we're moving house.
Ladies and gentlemen, this gravy train is now pulling into its terminus station. All passengers are requested to disembark and please remember to take all belongings with you. Mind the gap......
