Application Submitted

It took a whole day longer than promised but the deposit finally got to the apartment manager.

I texted her to make sure it had actually arrived and she confirmed that as well as letting me know our application was sent to the main office. According to the paperwork, we should hear back "within two business days" so that's by the end of the week. I'm super excited and mom's nervous because if we aren't accepted for any reason then we still have a lot of work ahead of us trying to find something that good and that cheap.

Prayers, thoughts, well wishes, positive vibes all appreciated.

Can the Snow Just... Not?

So when we filled out the application for the apartment on Saturday there were a few bits and pieces we needed to include that we didn't have with us. Mom said she'd send the last month's rent by Priority Post on Monday and I said I'd get my "proof of employment" to them a.s.a.p. this week. The idea was that if they had all the bits by Tuesday, they'd have an answer for us by the end of week

I went after work today to drop off my pay stubs and the manager said the deposit hadn't arrived yet. I texted mom for the tracking number....

Okay, so it's been delayed a day or two due to the nasty weather. Delightful. 

I really am hating this winter.

It Has Begun

Not bad for the first little stint of packing. 

Three boxes ready to go and one box for donations that's about a third full.

Why am I up at 6 am ?

So I'm awake. Might as well show you the cat keeping me company and tell you how yesterday went. 

Yesterday was a long day. Mom and sis came into town on the train but it was running late so we barely had time to trudge through the drifted snow to the first appointment. We looked at several apartments in two different buildings. After the first building (we were a bit disapointed with the size and such) we had a light lunch at TheRootCeller and discussed roommate type things like internet speed and food sharing and housework. Then we trekked to the second building which seemed much more promising. Even the smallest of these apartments were larger and the rent was the inclusive type(which we both prefer). The one appartment caught everyone's attention. It was the only one we were shown in that building that didn't have a balcony but it made up for the lack of outside with a huge inside. The bedrooms were only slightly bigger but the living room was very large.  We agreed that this place would suit nicely and filled out the application paperwork. 

Never had I thought of looking for a rental so early. There's four months til we would move in and I had assumed every company would just laugh and tell us they wouldn't hold an appartment that long. Somehow mom managed to find buildings that had riecently come under new management so as tennants move out they're renovating the apartments. One place we looked at was completely gutted. The one we decided on just needs the carpet in the living room removed and some mold removal in the one bedroom. (The last tennants put a humidifier in that room and just constantly left it running). Even though they'll have to rip out the drywall and insulation and such, the lady is confidant they can have the whole appartment done by the end of April.

So since I'm obviously up for now, I'm going to go put on some coffee. 

You're Living With Your Mother!?

Well not yet, and it's not like you think. My mom and little sister are moving to London at the end of April, Megan hasn't decided what she's doing or where she'll be at the end of the year, and Eric's stuck in his lease til at least July. I can't ask mom to get a bigger place on the off chance that Megan moves out west and Eric and I don't move in together and if she only gets a 1br and I DO want to live with her later, I'm out of luck. So instead, the only logical course is to share a place with mom and sis. The best part is that as a side effect, mom pays less rent and her life is a little easier.

They would have split a 1br and those cost $650-800. On the other hand, 2br are only $800-1000 so she pays less, I get to live with people(I don't like living alone, too quiet) and even if Megan decides to stay in London, she's better off than mom and can afford her own place.

So that's it. Logic wins and mom's coming to town this weekend or next to look at apartments with me.

Perspective on Possibilities

Sometimes I feel my farm idea is a long shot; A castle In the sky that isn't actually realistic, and that I'll wind up broke and barely scraping by. I was talking with a co-worker today about mortgages and we got talking about my farm ideas.

It seemed like every time I said a thing I was thinking of doing like having cows or making wine, he'd turn it into something bigger like selling organic milk for $10/litre or running a big winery with my wines in shops all over. I was starting to get annoyed that It seemed wasn't able to get across to him the simplicity I was going for when it kinda hit me. All the things he was talking about... People DO those things.  They're clearly within the realm of possibility even though they're 10-100 times larger in scale than I had in mind. That means, this is possible. My grand designs aren't that grand and are in fact quite humble.

 Thanks for the boost buddy. I owe you a litre of organic milk. 

Busy Weekend

My weekend was filled with waiting with a sprinkling of party and a dash of groceries. 

I'm very tired. Good night.

Housing and Histamine

There's a lot of factors to balance when pondering the next 6 months which decide the next 3 years.

Eric's lease isn't up til July. Megan doesn't know what she's doing yet or even what province she'll be in come summer. Mom and my little sister are moving to town in April and not a month later. This means that if I'm going to live with Mom I need to decide that very soon, but I don't know what Megan's doing and Eric will not be free til later but I don't want to leave either of them hanging for a reasonably priced place to live and... well, you see the problem.

On top of that, there's the cats to consider. Meg has recently become mildly allergic, mom is mildly allergic, and Eric has a dog but I love my kitties and could never just drop them in a shelter. Mom has said she's willing to deal with the cats so that door isn't closed. The cats and dog might get along so that's still a possibility. And Megan loves the kitties so if she's close enough to visit she'll probably spend half the visit petting the cats anyway.

I think the term Meg uses for situations like this is "spoiled for choice". I can't seem to narrow down the options so soon I'm just going to have to decide what I WANT to do.

~Sent from my cell~

Solution is in the S.O.I.L.

 I was looking up land in BC because sometimes memory is faulty and things do change, so I wanted to make sure I could still get 5-25 acres (with or without shelter) for $50-100 thou. It turns out I can..... but it's nowhere NEAR where I want to live or have the ability to work in a city nearby to pay the mortgage.

 The land where I wanted to buy was listed at $300 thou for 5 acres! (incl cottage). For that price there was a remote mountain top valley that as over 100 acres... but that was in the middle of nowhere and even if I did have a car or snow mobile it would take more than 2 hours each way to drive to work. Ouch.

So after about an hour of stressing over the fact that my current plan just wont work... I bumped into an old bookmark for S.O.I.L. http://www.soilapprenticeships.com

Wow, I can't believe I'd completely forgotten about these guys! I found them years ago when I was still with the mooch and although I really wanted to go for even just 3 months, I decided I couldn't because he wasn't healthy enough to come with(bad back and feet from being overweight) and there was no way I could afford to pay for an apartment and food for him while I was gone. I should have just gone, but that was a dumb and stubborn period of my life where I was insisting on making that relationship work.

Now I'm not attached at the hip to another human being and although I love my SOs, they are grown adults who take care of themselves so I'm free to take care of myself. I now have the opportunity to work and learn and save up all at the same time IN BC so when cheap land or a good opportunity for a co-op comes along I can snatch it up.


So that's the new plan. Work here for 2-3 years saving up a nest-egg, then working on a S.O.I.L. farm. Now all I have to do is figure out where and with whom I am living these next few years.

Getting up to Date

So last you heard, it was March and I was setting up for a work from home job. It looked like my long stint of under-employment was finally coming to an end. Unfortunately it turned out that "work as many hours as you want" REALLY meant "grab whatever hours you can AFTER the top performers get first pick of their preferred shifts, then sit by the computer every minute of every day in case someone decides to drop and hour or two so you can grab it before the other new people". 

After a week of that I decided to continue the active job hunting. After a few weeks of doing neither very well I told them that I had to quit to focus on finding stable employment. Then there were months of unemployment, and it was summer before I found my current job through a friend of a friend. Happily, I've been content here ever since. :)

During these past few years I've been living with my long-term girlfriend Megan and our housemate John. This is the first house I've lived in for more than a year, in the past 10 years. I love the feeling of stability, but this house just isn't suited to what I want out of my life. I want a farm. I want land I can call my own. I want to stop paying other peoples mortgages in the form of rent. I want to live somewhere I can plant a peach tree and enjoy the fruits of that labour.(pun intended)

It's kind of hard to describe what I want and what I plan, so I'm going to do the next post as a Q&A to get it all sorted out.

The cats are happy and, other than Willow needing some dental work this past winter, both are in good health.

A New Year; A New Beginging

Soooo... It's been almost a year.

It's been so long in fact that I considered creating a new blog for this new chapter of my life. I've decided against that idea because I don't want the past efforts lost to time. I want to bring with me the memories and lessons of these past few years.

That being said, there is so much we have to catch up on before I can even start telling you about now, let alone the future. But there's time for that. I'm not leaving the city for at least two more years so we have all the time we need.

For now however, it's past 1 am and I should be asleep. Goodnight.