Moving day | from Gatineau to Ottawa
After almost 20 days into the new house, here I come to share some details and news about it. Coincidentally, moving to the new house (for us, at least) and debut on my blog posts in English, all new things that take time and energy, so I just took longer to come here to write about it, just because, we always seem to underestimate the power of moving from one house to another. We still can’t believe how many stuff we gathered in just over 4 years (hummm… that’s why our last move wasn’t thaaat bad…).
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| We have the keys – yay!!! |
First things first, someone asked if we were moving within Quebec or changing provinces. We just moved back to Ontario, where we originally arrived. The main reason was Diego’s commute, which was bothering him for so long. Other reasons, may or may not include our poor french skills, the fact that our old neighborhood seemed not as friendly as we wished for and the higher income tax that goes on Quebec (although the housing is more affordable and people think it may compensate… long story…blablabla).
What I can say from my part and Diego share that one with me, is that (sorry Gatineau lovers) we didn’t feel Gatineau like home. Nothing personal, it’s a beautiful and nice place to live, it’s just us.
So, on the week prior our possession date, we started power packing, using most of the 60+ moving boxes I got for free (and in excellent condition I may add) in a mom’s group on FB. We got the keys on a Friday, October 4th and planned to spend the whole weekend ahead moving stuff and emptying our home. Did I mention that it takes forever and you think it’ll never end?
On Saturday, we packed the cars and had a few things over the new house, but Sunday was the big day, when we rented the truck and asked a few friends to come over and give us a hand (I’m gonna take this opportunity and thank Gio, Márcio, Keli and Roberto for the big help…).
Long story short, it was the most exhausting weekend to date, I’m glad we had my parents here, who helped us a lot. I’m pretty sure without them, we couldn’t have done it. Thanks mom and dad!
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| Almost no space for the driver… |
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| Hello garage mess… |
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| Things are going but wait, more things are coming… |
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| Alice took grandma for a walk… |
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| The truck! |
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| Who’s driving today? |
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| Kitchen mess… |
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| Alice just had to take a closer look at the truck interiors… |
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| One load done… |
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| Diego and my dad getting busy… and sore afterwards… |
You may think we are cheap (and it may be true…hehe), but we decided to do our packing and moving ourselves mainly because we had (as everybody) so many expenses during the buying process that we felt safer (and cheaper, obviously) to just spend our energy and time to do it, rather than paying some company to do it for us. We could have used moving companies to help us pack and move all our stuff or just with the heavy and big furniture and boxes, the service that’s frequently paid per hour. That’s something we may need to consider next time we move (which we do not expect to be anytime soon – 20 years?)
Well, hope this debut wasn’t so bad. Next on the blog, sneak peeks of our new house and a small tour on the Byward Market. It should be fun.
Note/tips:
– I’ve got the boxes for free, but they can be purchased in many different places, such as Home Depot and other home improvement stores, Uhaul and storage facilities (such as Dymon).
– The truck is rented per hour or day, we rented from Uhaul, but companies like Budget, Penske and Discount have trucks available too. Our truck was 20′, but huge 26′ trucks were available as well.
– Many rolls of tape were used on that weekend and let me tell you, having a tape dispenser was a huge help…
– I’ve got the boxes for free, but they can be purchased in many different places, such as Home Depot and other home improvement stores, Uhaul and storage facilities (such as Dymon).
– The truck is rented per hour or day, we rented from Uhaul, but companies like Budget, Penske and Discount have trucks available too. Our truck was 20′, but huge 26′ trucks were available as well.
– Many rolls of tape were used on that weekend and let me tell you, having a tape dispenser was a huge help…
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| Source |
See you soon,
10 Comments
Izabel Jordao
Olá Adriana,
Parabéns pela nova casa!! o/
Felicidades à família!
Aguardo o próximo post. =)
abç
Pat
You know that part you said about not feeling like Quebec is your home, higher income tax even though you work for Ontario.. well well, that is actually happening to us right now. I'd love if you could write some day about the neighborhoods in Ottawa. My hubs works for a company in Ottawa, that is actually pretty close to Orleans, so I am thinking about moving to that place a lot. But it is so hard to look for a place when you live 2 hours away, it is just like immigrating again, and I really wanted to move to OUR house. I guess I'll be spending a lot of weekends over there in the next few months lol…
I also heard a lot of good things about Kanata. Can you tell us more about that area? Commuting time to Ottawa, school etc?
Ps.: Já que vc escreve em inglês, a gente responde em inglês rs
Beijos!
Eliana Costa
Consegui ler tudo pelo Google tradutor. hahahaha. Enfim, amei, tô ansiosa para ver a nova casa e as decorações. Bjos pra essa família linda^^
Caroline Xavier
Que bom que deu tudo certo na mudanca. Muito em breve seremos nos fazendo o mesmo :)BJs
Anônimo
Nice Canadian home, congratulations! It's comforting to see that it's possible!
Lidiane Schmit
Que linda! Estou ansiosa pra ver ela por dentro com a sua decoração.
Tudo de bom nessa nova fase. Bjo
Cristine Jungues
yaaayyy
Parabéns a você e ao Dig pela nova conquista!!! Linda casa!!!
Bju bju!
Cristine
Beatriz Jungues
Amei ver as fotos e relembrar a bagunça, mas tembém a satisfação de ver a new home linda e organizada! parabéns queridos. muito sucesso para vcs 3. bjao bea
Beatriz Jungues
Amei ver as fotos, foi uns dias trabalhosos, mas prazerosos, por estar com vcs, poder ajudá-los e poder compartihar com vcs muitas transformações para melhor na vida de vcs 3. Parabéns, muito sucesso, alegrias na casa nova. Bjao mami
Camila Otero
Parabens pela casa nova!! Eu e meu marido chegamos essa semana em Toronto (no Halloween!!!), e estamos procurando um lugar para alugar… Em busca da combinacao: boa localizacao + preco razoavel + tamanho adequado… E que aceite imigrantes recentes como nos… rsrsrs