2011 Transition to the Comox Valley

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All photos for this move can be found in our
2011 Transition to Comox Photo Album
Some are also shown in this blog.

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November to March

Well, here we are 5 months later.

At the end of October recall that we had received and accepted an offer on our condo in Calgary with a very short possession date. The buyer had a financing condition which took longer than expected to release. In fact we had to give two extensions to the condition deadline (we decided to ride it out rather than say, nope, the condo is back on the market, mostly because we now had a whack of boxes packed in the middle of the living room and the second bedroom) but finally it was done and we had only 10 days to get the rest of our packing completed, get the movers in and our stuff out, do a final cleaning and be gone.... it was close!

On November 17th we vacated the premises. We then spent a few days in Calgary wrapping up some lunch commitments with friends etc before heading off towards Vancouver on November 22nd. The drive west was a beaut! We spent the first night in Banff so we could do a nice soak in the hot pools which turned out to be extra pleasant as we sat under a nice soft snow fall. Then it started... the next day we awoke to hear about possible road closures through the mountains. We headed off west on really quite badly pitted packed snow and ice. Very bumpy and a tad slow going, but that was only the beginning. Arriving at Field we found ourselves stopped in a long line of big transport trucks and numerous other smaller vehicles such as ours. Due to an accident, the road was closed from Field to Golden. "Shouldn't be too long" we heard. Well, four (yes 4) hours later we were finally on our way. Bad winter driving conditions all the way to Golden where we decided to stay the night. Good thing as we found out at the hotel that the highway was now closed both east and west out of Golden! By that time, the highway through Golden was stacked about 4 deep on each side by large transport trucks... should make for interesting travel the next morning if and when the highways open. By the time we left at about 9:00AM there were very few big trucks left so we knew they had all hit the road early. Same lousy driving conditions up over the Rogers Pass and down into Revelstoke but it cleared after that and we had a fairly easy drive as far as Merritt where we decided to hunker down for the night as the Coquihalla appeared to be a tad snowed in for the night. The next day we took it easy over the mountains and coasted into Vancouver to spend a couple of days with our friend Marian.

After a couple of days in Vancouver we flew to Las Vegas for a week long getaway before embarking on our "official" transition to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. Our week in Vegas was pretty laid back. We stayed at the Polo Towers which are pretty central and are right across the strip from the mammoth new "City Center" complex. Each morning we went over to the Bellagio for a coffee at the Palio Coffee Shop. Very nice. Walking through the lobby of the Bellagio each day we got to see the progress of the winter wonderland display in the Atrium. They were just starting on in when we arrived in Vegas and it was officially opened the day before we departed...unfortunately we always forgot to take the camera with us when we left to have a coffee.

We rented a car to do a bit of touring around, including a trip down to the outlet mall at Primm. It seems that mall has fallen out of favour with the shops we prefered so it is unlikely we will make a special trip out there any time soon in future trips through Vegas.

The highlight activity for the week was our experience at the Indoor Skydiving Center. This was just a lot of fun. The feel of free floating in a very safe environment was great for those of us not likely to ever actually sky dive...here's Kris floating with the instructor... 

After returning to Vancouver we stayed with Marian again for a couple of days then headed for Comox on Dec 7th. We rented a VRBO place named the Mariner's Lookout for 3 months while we checked out the real estate market in the Comox Valley. What a great place to stay. The kitchen table view over Goose Spit is fabulous and it is a short walk down to the beach. Our hosts Henri and Pat are very friendly, knowledgeable about the Comox Valley and helpful in every way possible. Very nice. Check it out if you ever want to come and stay for any length of time. Here's a view from our kitchen table window....

Shortly after arriving in Comox, we started to "get settled". We signed up for various client royalty cards at such places as Quality Foods, Thrify Foods, along with a few others. We also set out to investigate the various available yoga and pilates studios and the local rec centres in the valley. Since arriving in early December we have done yoga and pilates mat classes at the Kingfisher Resort & Spa, pilates classes at Island Pilates, yoga classes at Yoga on Rosewall, pilates reformer classes at Bodyworx and finally, to round out our new found fitness activities, the "55 & Better Aquafit" classes at the Courtenay Rec Sports Centre. The aquafit is actually a whack of fun, not to mention great exercise.

After settling into a bit of a routine we contacted a realtor and started the search for a home here in the Comox Valley. We initially focused on Comox but quickly realized that there was not much in our price range where we would be able to walk to downtown (one of our criteria) and what there was... well let's just say they were not to our liking while leaving out words like repugnant. We didn't like a single one of the new development properties. We expanded our search to Courtenay where we looked at a 1960's rancher with a full basement/lower level and a very large yard (.3 acre) and was an easy walk to supermarkets (4 blocks) and downtown (10-12 blocks); pretty much the same, distance wise, as our condo near downtown Calgary. BUT... it did need some work and we were concerned it might be a bit of a money pit. Talking with our realtor we decided to hold off until January when, he figured, new properties would hit the market. Well not much changed after the new year. We viewed about a dozen new properties which came on the market but nothing tweaked our fancy as much as the rancher. We mulled it over and decided to go with it. After a bit of negotiations we agreed on a price and made the deal...

It took a couple of weeks to get everything done and we took possession on Feb 10th. Our friends Joan and John were visiting from Victoria at the time so they became our first official visitors. John even volunteered to weild a crowbar to help start the "gutting of the basement". We continued the gutting and six days later the lads from 1-800-GOT-JUNK arrived to take it away....

Empty truck (except for one door that snuck on before I could get the pic)...

Almost done...

Since we had plans to head out on our next road trip at the end of March, we didn't have much time to get some major renovations done. We decided to hire Torry and Sons to do most of the HVAC work for us. Over the space of the next 4 weeks, we had the basement floor dug up for new plumbing to enlarge the bathroom, new heat pump and new hot water on demand installed (to replace the old furnace and hot water heater) and the upstairs bathroom enlarged. At one time we had 6 of the Torry & Sons vans parked in our driveway or on the street in front of our house...

... and other progress being made...

In the midst of renovations etc, all our stuff from Calgary was delivered and we had the trees in the backyard cleared ... WHEW...Not close to being finished but a lot done as we head out on our 2012 South/East USA road trip.