Crazy house hunting trip....

My blog has been quiet for the past couple of weeks and I figured that it was time for an update. At the moment I am sitting in the foyer of the Best Western in Naniamo, B.C. enjoying a few minutes of peace and quiet. It has been an incredibly busy and stressful couple of days. It all started on Thursday morning when we packed up our vehicle, our daughters, our dog and headed into Williams Lake to catch our 9:30 plane. We dropped Chester (our dog) off at the kennel and then proceeded to Walmart where we picked up some breakfast *gasp* and a cartridge for Amelia's mobigo game. We got a little lost on our way to the airport (somehow) and just as we pulled up to the airport Amelia vomited all over herself. While I cleaned her up Nathaniel hauled all our luggage onto the sidewalk and then and then parked our vehicle in the long term parking lot. We checked our luggage which, if you have ever traveled with children, is a lot of stuff...car seats, playpen, suitcases, stroller..... ect. Somehow we got through security on time and had a few minutes to collect ourselves we boarded a sardine can of a plane with our cranky, puke smelling children. We waited what felt like forever, when the caption announced that there was a problem with the engine and that we would have to disembark the plane until they could fix it. Basically that meant that our flight was delayed for another five hours and that we would miss our connecting flight from Vancouver. Off to a great start hey? We killed some time in Williams Lake and then headed back to the airport. At three o'clock that afternoon we were finally in the air and headed to Vancouver. When we reached Vancouver we had to collect our luggage and travel to a different part of the airport to connect with a whole new flight. Unfortunately, we ran into a few problems trying to get our tickets, and spent a loooong time sorting it out at a desk. DAH! It was a insane gallop (about the equivalent of at least 5 blocks) to get to our plane on time. I think we were the last passengers on. At that point I was sweating, stressed and exhausted. On the plane, Claire became incredibly restless until I gave her a candy necklace to chew on (naughty me) but it worked like a charm and she sat happily on my lap or the remainder of the trip. When we arrived at the Naniamo airport, we were delighted to find that our luggage had arrived as well. We didn't expect it to. However, when it came to renting our car it took over an hour since the computers were down. We connected with our real estate agent five hours later than we had initially planned (due to all the unforeseen circumstances) but we were determined to look at a few homes. The first home we saw was fabulous and I loved it right off the bat. The third and fourth homes we viewed were equally awesome. Around 9pm that night we finally decided to call it a night and checked into our hotel. The next day we started house hunting at 10:00am refreshed and ready. We crossed about 4 homes off the list of homes our agent had given us before we decided that we wanted to take another look at one of the homes we had seen the previous night. It had been dark and we had not been able to see the yard or the basement suite and we wanted to give it another chance. It was a new home with a legal two bedroom basement suite in a new development. It was located near the University and backed onto a green belt. Initially we didn't like the yard because it looked small. That was until we learned that the property line extended into the wooded area behind the house. All of a sudden we became VERY interested. We already loved the views, the location, the spacious open concept, and the great suite below and now we had a mini forest in our back yard. We made our offer. The great part about all of it was the fact that since the front and back yard had not yet been landscaped we would be able to have a say in how we wanted it to look. The other homes beside us had these tiny excuses for decks but I envisioned a HUGE deck with built in seating, a trellis with wisteria and stairs leading up to the forest behind. Tomorrow we submit our "plans" to the developer. Nathaniel is upstairs in the hotel room drafting out our dream deck as we speak. We are fairly certain that they won't build all of it, but if we can convince them to build the framework, Nathaniel could easily finish the rest. All in all, we are really happy with our decision and we can't wait to take possession in a couple of weeks.

I'm so happy that we were able to buy a home so quickly, because the next day I became violently ill and spent the day throwing up. It was awful. My brother and his wife as well as my husband's brother and his wife had come to visit with us and I felt awful that I was holed up in my hotel room over a bucket. That evening, Amelia threw up in Boston Pizza and I knew we were in for it. Claire threw up about an hour after that. Nathaniel and I pretty much spent the night collecting vomit and depositing it in the toilet. A rough night to say the least. I still feel a bit weak and nauseous  today, but for the most part we are all on the mend. Hopefully the next couple of days will be a bit more enjoyable and stress free. When I get home I will post some pictures of our home. There are none on mls.ca. Tommorow Nathaniel and I are going to measure rooms and take LOADS of photos. Whi Hooo!