When I think of where I have dreamed my life would be it always included a family, a home and community.  When I was living in Vancouver, I had the community but the home was a small apartment and I did have family. My family is quite large, most living in the Vancouver-area, and we are quite close.  But that is not (only) the family that I mean. I meant my family: husband and children.
I also had trouble envisioning how having a home would work: housing prices in Vancouver are STUPID.  Vancouver is a beautiful city. I love it dearly, and loved living there. But, even as a two income couple, I can’t imagine how we would be able to afford a home.  Since I was curious, I went to one of the real estate websites for Vancouver and input our purchase price to see what range we would have been looking in and the choices we would have had (staying in the area I would have preferred to live – without a horrible & long commute) and I could have purchased a ~600 sq ft apartment, not unlike what I was living in before I moved. That place was TINY: perfect for me, but much too small for two of us. We are in a two bedroom apartment now ~825 sq ft and we have no space for anything. Never mind adding kids to the mix down the road.
So, life as I have written about in the past has led me to another city: we have found our dream home here, my future family will be from here and community is growing. Finally, on Feb 7th we closed on the house! To begin the steps of making the house “home”, enjoy the wood burning fireplaces (one of them at least) and give our friends a glimpse of the house in its “BEFORE” stage, we had a Housewarming S’mores Party.
The biggest gift I received was from two close friends from Vancouver, they drove down and surprised me with a visit. I have never felt so loved as watching them walk through the door. It was even better as she had called me that morning to tell me how sad she was that the party was on a Thursday and they couldn’t get off work on Friday! Sneaky friend!
The day after we closed, I had the pleasure of ripping off the ugly wood panelling off the living room wall.  It was a delight to be able to begin to transform this long-unloved home into my home, OUR home, the one we will hopefully be in until we are too old to stay there.
To come: Photos. I want to find a photo sharing site where I can link (and have the photos show up as a slideshow) without uploading it directly to wordpress.  I’m also hoping I can use the same link to show the photos on Facebook (so that I don’t have to organize and upload photos more than once), and I am hoping that way I can just email the link to those who don’t come to the blog or have a Facebook account (yes, they do exist).  Stay tuned (and comment if you have any photo sharing site opinions… I am hoping for free).