{"id":1730,"date":"2022-06-27T17:32:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T00:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2022-06-27T17:33:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T00:33:22","slug":"the-final-house-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/the-final-house-move\/","title":{"rendered":"The Final House Move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This past weekend marked the last step in a long chain of events in our move from the province of Alberta to British Columbia. We finally moved into our house!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our journey started in the summer of 2021 when we packed (and I mean literally packed) the SUV and drove up, over, and around the Rocky Mountains to get to the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The urban assault vehicle, packed to overflowing in Alberta. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We moved during COVID lockdowns . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yup. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

. . . and during the height of wildfire season . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wildfire smoke turns the sun red in Kamloops, BC. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

. . . and during a “heat dome” event . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(photo: Global News British Columbia<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and then there was the “atmospheric river” event that caused massive flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flooded beach along the river. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seemed the universe was trying to keep us from our dream of living in the Lower Mainland. But we did it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For close to a year, we cuddled together in a tiny apartment in the suburbs. 900 square feet next to a busy road after living in an estate home on a nature reserve. It was tough, it was stressful, but it was a roof over our heads and a place to sleep. Between loud cars reenacting The Fast and the Furious<\/em> franchise outside our window to the faulty fire alarm that went off multiple times a day when it was on the fritz, moving day couldn’t come soon enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Be it ever so humble . . . (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When finally it came time to pack what we could and make a run for it, the days couldn’t go by fast enough. We counted the sleeps, we jammed the boxes, we hauled the goods. It took 2 days to move–once from our multiple storage lockers, then from the apartment to the house. After a gruelling 48-hour moving marathon, we spent our first night in our actual house in the mountains. Granted, it was a mattress on the floor amidst a sea of boxes, but we were finally home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The kitchen is the heart of the home and ground zero for junk! (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dream of leaving prairie life, with its monstrous hail storms and tornadoes, to the calm serenity of mountain life came with some adjustments. For one, taking Mochi for a walk is now a hike since we live on a mountain. With that walk, we carry bells as almost once a day one of the members of our household spots a bear. From juveniles to the big mama, bears are more common than deer. Instead of looking both ways for cars, we look left, right, up, and down for bears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A juvenile black bear wandering by my retaining wall. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Google, we’re about 50m (165 -ish feet) above sea level here. We look out over a river valley and the sloughs that feed into it. Mornings are filled with bird song, although punctuated by the occasional piece of machinery since the area is still under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view from our neighbourhood. That’s Mt. Baker in WA in the distance. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s been almost a year in the making, but I can finally call someplace “home”. Be it ever so humble (and cluttered with boxes), there’s no place like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Mochi thinks so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mochi’s first nap in the new house. (photo: author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, somewhere in all these boxes are my writing journals. I guess it’s time to start unpacking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Rissa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend marked the last step in a long chain of events in our move from the province of Alberta to British Columbia. We finally moved into our house! Our journey started in the summer of 2021 when we packed (and I mean literally packed) the SUV and drove up, over, and around the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-columbia","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6odz9-rU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1142,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/a-change-of-scenery-moving\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":0},"title":"A Change of Scenery – Moving","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"September 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I think we can mostly agree that COVID-19 has changed the landscape of the modern workplace. Whether that be office work, service work, or health and safety, where we work has changed. For me, the biggest change was going from working eight-to-five in an office to working eightish-to-sometime-in-the-evening hours from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British Columbia"","block_context":{"text":"British Columbia","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/british-columbia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/20210903_TravelapseToBC_YT.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1178,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/cramming-my-creativity-into-a-corner-of-the-couch\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":1},"title":"Cramming my creativity into a corner of the couch","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"October 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"To add a bit of background, we made a snap decision in April 2021 that we were going to pull up roots from Calgary, Alberta and drop them in Vancouver, British Columbia. 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We expected many things to be different after moving from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Autumn"","block_context":{"text":"Autumn","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/autumn\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NewWest1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NewWest1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NewWest1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/NewWest1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2114,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/mountain-life-agrees-with-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":3},"title":"Mountain life agrees with me","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"August 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In early June this year, we finally moved into our home. We're situated near the base of one of the mountains here in the Lower Mainland with a nice view of the river valley and the occasional sighting of Mt. Baker in Washington State. I didn't realize how much my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British Columbia"","block_context":{"text":"British Columbia","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/british-columbia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/BlogHead_MountainLife.jpg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1743,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/getting-back-into-the-writing-swing-of-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":4},"title":"Getting back into the (writing) swing of things","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"July 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"June was stressful. The end. There's only so much upheaval, change, and spur-of-the-moment this Gold, chaotic-good, INTJ-Architect can handle before she blows her top. And said top t'was blown. It took me about two weeks to settle in mentally to the new house. It wasn't the constant beep-beep-beep of construction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British Columbia"","block_context":{"text":"British Columbia","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/british-columbia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DreamJournal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DreamJournal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DreamJournal.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/DreamJournal.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1264,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/a-semi-rare-copy-of-the-hobbit\/","url_meta":{"origin":1730,"position":5},"title":"A Semi-Rare Copy of The Hobbit","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"February 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"... or Adventures in Used Bookstores Being an author, a love of old books comes with the territory. 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