Moving Day & Our New Home

Last weekend we said goodbye to our home of 4 (5 for me) years, packed up our stuff, and brought it to our new home. (Click here to read about our decision to move

Seems simple, right? Well…

We had our share of adventures on that day, and I want to share a few of them with you, along with a few thoughts about our new pad.

First of all, renting a moving truck was not as easy as it seemed. We reserved a moving truck through a company (who shall not be named to honour them), but when we arrived our truck was not there. Long story short, we had to drive to 2 other cities (ending up in Burnaby/Vancouver), and got a truck that was twice the size that we wanted. We did however get $50 off, which was nice.

Photo 2014-05-03, 3 07 33 PMWe had some amazing friends help us move all of our stuff from one home to another. We bought Timbits and pizza out of our “moving expenses” envelope (which came from some of our moving sales – I’ll share more about that in my next blog!) and it was worth every penny. Wish we could have had a lovely steak dinner for all of them. Fred had arranged that I facilitated the cleaning process at our old home, so I literally didn’t have to lift a single box all day. It was fantastic. If any of you are reading this (you know who you are) THANK YOU so much!

The unpacking process is slow but steady. As I sit here typing this blog, I’m surrounded by boxes in our living room – the last of the ones that need to find a place in our new home. I had hoped we would be all unpacked sooner, but it’s been nice to organize and decide where to put everything. We hope to be done by the end of the weekend. Photo 2014-05-04, 10 45 36 AM

Here are some pros and cons about our new home:

Pros: 

  • Way more cabinet space – everything fit in my kitchen and I don’t have to have a makeshift “pantry” that I hide behind the TV anymore (yay)
  • Better storage space & bigger closets (our old home had teeny tiny closets and no coat or linen closet, and here we have a great little storage room, a coat closet, linen closet, and a big enough closet to share in our room)
  • Super affordable rent ($410 less than what we were paying in Langley)  Photo 2014-05-04, 10 45 45 AM
  • A clearly defined kitchen/dining room (which made room for Fred’s grandmother’s china cabinet that just wouldn’t fit in our old home)

Cons: 

  • Not having a backyard (or a compost)
  • Having to pay for laundry (you don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone!)
  • Having a utilities bill (we still don’t know how much we’ll be paying)
  • A smaller oven, fridge and freezer (I had to get rid of my “normal sized” cookie sheets, but my casserole dish still fits, so I’m happy)

Overall, we feel happy and at home here. It’s been nice to downsize and decide what’s really important to us. Once we have everything all sorted, I’d love to share some pictures with you!Photo 2014-05-05, 8 24 50 PM

For now, you can see our boxes piled in the kitchen and all our our furniture in a big pile in the living room to give you a taste of how crazy it was in here!

Don’t forget that there are some ways you can get involved with Classy Frugality!

Thanks to you all for reading and supporting me on my frugal journey!