Heading into Summer

Well there is a lot to be a house owner. Very different than the condo, that is for sure. But part of being in this great community is belonging to different groups.

Right now I am watching the ferries come and go from the office while the sun dances on the water, but in a while I am heading off for a meeting. This community is working hard to grow more of its own food; to be sustainable.

We have a big back yard, and I am not much of gardener, but I can learn.

Settling Iinto the New House

The house is great, but there are 2 or 3000 jobs to do. We need a lawnmower, rake, welcome mat, vacuum, etc. the list goes on and on.

We also inherited a cat and all that this entails.

I do love our home. I love the washing on the line and all the room and the apple trees.

BUT

It was nice when someone else was paying

taxes
utilities
insurance
pet food and costs
and all the other lovely costs that other people took on while we lived in their house.

Do I regret buying. Not at all, but the housesitting for 15 months was fabulous too.

The List of Where We Went

1. Sechelt Cottage in the woods 1 dog
2. Powell River Geodesic dome on 5 acres 2 cats
3. Sechelt Small family home 1 dog
4. Vancouver Townhouse 2 cats
5. Cowichan Bay Cottage in the woods 1 cat
6. Metchosin Huge country house 3 dogs
7. Powell River Home with seaview 1 cat
8. Powell River Other home with seaview 2 cats
9. Cowichan Bay Cottage in the woods 1 cat
10. Metchosin Huge country house 3 dogs
11. Wildwood Acreage and Giant Garden 2 cats and 5 ducks
12. Comox Small Lovely Home in town 2 cats
13. Roberts Creek Artistic Home in the woods 2 cats
14. MetchosinHuge country house 3 dogs
15. Roberts Creek Family Home 2 dogs and 1 cat
16. Gibsons Family Home near the beach 1 dog
17. White Rock Gorgeous View Home 2 cats and 1 dog
    
18. Powell River Family Home near the woods 1 dog
19. Halfmoon Bay Family Home 1 dog and 2 cats

Now a few of these places have been repeats, but that is where we got to in our 15 months of house and petsitting. It was a blast.

We have a HOME!

Well we finally have a home.
This is it. A nice 1950's house with good bones and a fair bit of work to be done. It has a partial seaview as you can see and is about a 2 minute walk from the beach.


Housesitting was great. About 15 months in all, and we lived in more than 14 different homes. It was an adventure, that is for sure, but for now we have put down roots. I will tell you more about the changes to the house as we go, plus reflect on what we learned by "sleeping around" so much.

Mag My Pic

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Now here's a lot of fun. This is a website that allows you to put your photo on a magazine cover. So here is Paul playing banjo. He looks like he is right out the Ozarks, right? Well he is playing behind a shed near Powell River.

Magmypic.com is really worth playing with.

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My Last House sit

Well here I am in Powell River. Paul is still down in White Rock, taking long walks on the beach with his little buddy Willy. But i hopped up here so I could be on the spot for when we buy our new home at the end of the month.

I am in a lovely home on a quiet cul de sac, backed by forest walks.
Every day I am reassured that this is the right town for us.

I went to a wonderful musical St. Paddy's day event at a wonderful local restaurant yesterday.
Tonight I am going dancing to learn a few salsa steps.
I have had coffee with 3 friends already and been on lots of ocean walks.
I enjoyed a wonderful church dinner last week and met some lovely locals.

Paul will be here on Thursday. Then we stay until the end of the month and take possession of our new home. I will post pictures when we get in there.

This has been an amazing journey, since December 1 of 2006. We have met so many good people and had wonderful adventures.

But maybe it isn't over yet.

Fries With That?

On our journey we have met the most interesting people. In the little town of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast (the place where they filmed that old tv series, the Beachcomber) we ran across Johann. He is an amazing guy who not only works as an environmental educator and consultant, but lives it too.

The first day we noticed his car had letters on it saying something about vegetable oil and when we asked him what it was all about, he gave us a wonderful tour of how to run a car on mostly vegetable oil.

In this picture he is adding filtered vegetable oil that he got from a local restauant into his specially adapted car. It was really amazing that he can run his car on nearly nothing.


Johan tells me if people are curious about the system, you can connect with him via his "Waste Veggie Oil" link at

sunshinesvo@gmail.com