Weekends of Open Houses continue

Despite our best efforts last week, we fell victim to the ruthless real estate market.

Our realtor came by on Sunday, went through all of the details of learning what it takes to put in an offer. She left at 3:30 with the signed offer in hand and was going to head over to present to the selling agent. Unfortunately she wasn't able to reach him and when she finally did he said that he wasn't going to be able to find the seller this evening. So the plan was to present the offer Monday morning.

It was presented, the seller accepted all of the subjects and the only objection was to the price. We went in under asking and the seller was ready to sign it back to us at 1,000 under asking. Prepared to sign it and finish the deal, I waited for the paper work to appear in my inbox. I wait, waited and then heard that the selling agent has received a call and someone else wanted a second viewing. The seller decided not to sign it back to us but waited to get the second offer.

The other offer was for more than asking, and we went back offering a few thousand over the asking price, but it still wasn't as high as the other offer. So it was not meant to be.

It was a bit of an overwelming day as we waited to see if things were going to turn out. There is the sense of disappointment that we are moving into the next 'phase' being home-owners but I also have to believe that if it was the place we were suppose to be in, it would have happened. So we are back to the hunting, and there are some moments when you wonder if you are going to find what you are looking for. This is where you need to believe that persistence will pay off. We have seen a lot of houses in Vancouver ~ here's hoping we don't have to see them all before we find the right one!

A new house?

It's a rainy Vancouver Sunday. Akis has been working a lot and I have been sitting at home contemplating our afternoon. I went out earlier this week with our friend/Real Estate agent and saw a place. I took Akis to go and see it yesterday and we are on the brink of putting in an offer today.

The home is not in our current neighbourhood. We have come to realize the space we want is not something that we are able to afford in our neighbourhood on our current budget. The new location is a neighbourhood that does have character and activity. Moving here will allow us to get into the market and start building some equity. There will neeed to be some renovations done as the cabinets are OLD and the kitchen is SMALL. So we are going to need to have some creative solutions, but it is also something that will be ours.

We'll see what transpires, and keep you posted.

A night out with U2

The entourage had tickets for the final stop of U2's 360 tour. I have never been to see U2, and it was a treat to see everyone and get out for the night.

I had been catching up with Beth and Darci over the past few days after spending Monday night at Beth's dad's place and heading out to Spa Utopia for a very nice pedicure treat. Wednesday night I came home from work to pick up Akis and we headed down to the Westin where the Tacchi's and Yeo's got a suite for the night and gathered the group. After a few drinks, some BC 'herbs', we headed down to our Limo which was suppose to be waiting.

We arrived in time to see part of the opening act which was the Black Eyed Peas.







Had some snacks and beverages while the stage was reset:








Not much I can say about the concert other than we had a great time. Despite playing at BC Place which is notorious for having bad sound, I thought they were very good. The photos look pretty similar, but hey, it's Bono so I took a few. Had we been sitting with Ali, I might have had some of him from the stage, but hey, you take what you can get!

Some of the sounds from U2.

And then the battery gave out ~ but I wish I would have had more of this one!

Great time was had by all ~ only bummer was I didn't have a fully charged camera. That and I had to work the next day, but hey, sometimes you just have to go out and play on a school night.

He's a licensed driver

Tuesday Akis and I headed out to Richmond. For anyone who has been out to Vancouver, you know that Richmond is like a section of Asia has been sliced and dropped into Canada. The signs are in Cantonese, the majority of the population is Asian and the driving there is HORRENDOUS. I'm not sure why, but Akis thought that this would be a good place to take his driving test.

We headed out to Richmond and I suggested that we head out early. It was a good thing we did, as the directions I took from the internet were to a location where you could renew your license, but not the place where you take your exam. So with 30 minutes until the test, and uncertainty whether or not they would let Akis take the test with just his Greek ID, we left the wrong location and headed for downtown Richmond. Encountering traffic, we arrived with 3 minutes to spare. Sending Akis in to pay the fee, I parked the car and came in. I darted to the washroom only to come out to find the examiner standing there with his clipboard and Akis waiting for the keys. The examiner cracked a joke about the fact that the wife always has everything in their purse, and they were off.

I sat and did the crossword, Suduko and waited for Akis to return. He returned 30 minutes after they left the building and I thought ~ shit this can't be good. As I peeked around the corner, I saw the examiner talking and talking with his hands, and I thought, shit, shit, this can't be good. After sitting in the car for 20 minutes, they finally emerged and entered the building. The statement from the examiner was 'sorry buddy, but I can't give that to you'. Then I thought ~ shit, shit, shit.

It was only when the examiner asked for the $31 that I realized that yes, Akis is now a licensed driver! So wahoo, my days of Carrie's taxi with the 6am drop off and 11pm pick up is now over. Akis is looking very forward to picking up his Greek license from the North Van office and finally being able to tell them that yes, he passed.

What are you thankful for?

I have made ~ and met ~ a number of turkeys over the years, this year Akis and I made our first turkey together. Armed with the roasting pan I insisted on buying last Christmas for a turkey that was never made, the only utensil that was missing from the bunch was the baster. I know, how can you live without a baster...

Out and about Saturday, Akis and I walked the neighbourhood running these errands. Stopping in at the store, we found the baster ~ a bargain at $2.50 and is made of glass. It reminds me of the glass pipettes we used to use in those Inorganic Chem Labs for Dr. Beauchemin. Jeez ~ isn't that a blast from the past... I can't help but remember Liz running around the lab. I'm sure there is a pipette story somewhere in our history.

With the hardware purchased, we are now on to thawing the bird. This guy has a bit of a history here. He was a nice free range fella who originally belonged to one of my co-workers. For Christmas, his wife's company purchases a turkey for each of their employees. While on a somewhat restricted diet, they were going to opt out of the turkey, but when offered to someone here at the office, they said they would take it off of Geoff's hands. Well for those who don't remember December in Vancouver, it snowed. A lot. And on the 24th, the fresh bird made his way to our office ~ as did only 3 people from our company. So as we sat here, Geoff tried to find a home for the bird that didn't involve a garbage can. The food bank didn't want him, as he was fresh. Geoff didn't want him as he was trying to keep off the 20 pounds he had lost. Simon didn't want him as he was biking and had no room for it. After failing to pimp out the turkey to folks in our sister company, that left me. So home he went and directly into the freezer. Over the months Akis has asked me if the turkey was still good ~ the fact that it had been in there for almost a year was quite distressing to him. Good thing he didn't see Dad's freezer in his pack-rat years.

So now thawed, stuffed and into the oven, we began preparing for our feast.





Akis and I sat down to dinner and realized that there are many things that we have to be thankful for. Just reflecting on where we were a year ago ~ couch surfing, with no job, no papers for Akis and no inclination of what our future path will be ~ we are thankful to have a place to call home. Thankful for good friends and family who support us when we make these kinds of leaps of faith. Thankful for our jobs and our ability to support ourselves. Thankful that we have found a path with great possibilities.






I hope you had a great weekend and are able to see all the great things in your world to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

House Hunting

Let me start with saying that there are 3 things that I find to be rather stressing and not all that enjoyable. Those would be ~ in no particular order ~ job hunting, car hunting and house hunting. Perhaps it is because my experience with all 3 of these tasks has always had a time element associated with it. Must find a job, as we only have $X dollars in the bank and we need to pay bills. Must find a house as I am surfing someone's couch and need to give them back their space. Must find a car, as there is a transit strike and I'm in the middle of nowhere ~ OK it was New West but that felt pretty much like the middle of nowhere.

That said, with my probation under my belt, the mortgage pre-approved, Akis and I have set out on the daunting task of looking at real estate in Vancouver. Now there is something surreal about real estate here in Vancouver. The cost of a one bedroom condo is about what my sister or Dad would pay for their WHOLE house ~ which means that Akis' dream of having a house on grass is very unlikely to happen while we are here. However, I do feel a strong desire to get into the market and at least turn these large rental amounts into something that will help grow our equity.

My friend Aislynn has moved into real estate a few years back and has been great to work with. Despite my reluctance to want to move out of Vancouver proper, she does her best to locate what we can afford, with some of the required elements such as in-suite laundry, patio space, and 2 bedrooms. As with anything, you try to get the most bang for your buck, but as we are discovering that is a lot more difficult than we previously thought.

The housing market here seems to have rebounded quite well and we are once again back into multiple offer situations with bids on houses. Akis and I haven't found any where that strikes a cord enough that we would be thinking about putting in an offer, so for the time being we continue to look. A co-worker has just purchased with her fiance and feels in hind-sight that they did over pay simply because they wanted to get it done and had the heartbreak of losing a few other offers.

We are planning on taking our time, so hopefully I won't feel the pressure to make a snap decision. In the meantime, weekend time when Akis doesn't work seems to be filled with Open Houses and appointments with Aislynn to see what is out there. Here's to having faith that we'll find our right home and it will be somethign that we can afford!

It's been a year

For many things. A year since we got married, a year since we came to Canada, a year since we have found our home ~ with all of these milestones, you look back and realize just how much we have been able to accomplish in a mere 365 days.

As a gift, our friend Marc gave us a weekend away in the interior. We are nearing the end of the season upon which we can drive into the interior ~ the Miata doesn't do snow so well ~ so I was glad we were able to fit it in. I haven't really taken Akis out further than the Lower Mainland so this was a great opportunity to show him another part of BC and I was quite looking forard to it.

We got off to a late start on Friday night ~ stopping in Chilliwack to fuel both the car and ourselves, we were off. As we drove out of the city, the surroundings grew continually darker. For Akis, he is often amazed to look out and see nothing ~ or as he would say 'tipota, I tell you, tipota'. As we turned off Highway 1 and headed into the mountains, there were very few people that crossed our path. We drove into the darkness and it was a bit unfortunate that the moon wasn't out to be able to see a bit more, however we were just excited to be getting away.

We arrived into Osoyoos around 2am ~ much later than we had thought, but it was good to be there and know that we had a full day ahead of us.

We got up Saturday morning and headed out for Breakfast. While I wanted a nice brunch, Akis wanted the Boston Cream donut from Tim's. We ended up visiting both establishments ~ where he puts all that sugar I just don't know.







After a leisurely wander back through town, we decided to get in the car and head up to Bliss ~ the bakery owned by my friends Barry and Darci. I knew that Darci would be out of town at a food show in Seattle, however Barry was to be around. We pulled up to the bakery around 3pm, looked a the huge line, joined it and when we got to the counter, proceeded to get coffees and ask if Barry was there. I wasn't surprised to hear that he had gone home for the day but was a bit stunned when the girls at the counter REFUSED to give me his number. What? So I did my best to talk them into sharing the number but they were having none of it. I attempted to call Darci ~ but the call wasn't going through and I wondered if her phone was set to roam in the US. Miffed that we came all the way up there and hadn't seen Barry is about a year, I was beside myself ~ which Akis found a bit funny. I proceeded to text Darci, only to not have the text go through and discovered it really wasn't Darci's phone that was causing the communication problems but my lack of signal. I wandered outside, managed to send the text and connect with Darci. She found it hysterical that the girls were being the gatekeepers, and I was given the magic words that would allow them to relinquish Barry's number. I tell you ~ it was a true mission.

We had a lovely visit with Barry ~ they have done so much work on the house and the deck has a spectacular view over the lake. Cozied up with some wine and good company we spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out.

Our trip home was a bit adventurous as we once again encountered some wildlife. Another bear wandered out to see what was going on. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems that every time Akis opens his mouth to ask if we are going to see Bears, Deers and the like, regardless of how remote the possiblity is, we do in fact see wildlife. I think I have seen more wildlife with him in the car in the past 2 years than I have in my many years of driving.

Sunday we packed up, took a small tour to the Burrowing Owl vineyard and headed back towards home. I love driving through the mountains with the top down. There is something very freeing about it. The trip home did take a bit more time as we stopped here and there ~ some lunch, some veggies stands. We were also able to enjoy the view. You can tell autumn is here ~ the air temperature as we crossed over the passes tells you snow isn't far away. Perhaps next year we can do this while summer is still in the air.

The Registry Gong Show

Have you ever had one of those tasks that no matter how hard you try to get it done, things just don't go your way... this is me and the Gift Registry. When Akis and I started planning our summer party, Dad asked that we register for our party so in case anyone asked, he didn't have to continually repeat the list. So in interest of making things easier for him, we did.

We opted to have a couple of registries and we did get some gifts off the registry. My friend Brandye, who now lives with her family in California was the first to jump on that bandwagon. She had mentioned it in passing back in the summer, however I never received a phone call so I figured, hey they are waiting until the 'big day'.

I also received gifts from the Noes and McMeekins ~ had a lovely gift card with the gift receipt and promptly returned to Vancouver. The days got busy, the list of 'to do' items was MIA, and finally I got a note from Brandye ~ had I gotten my gift from her? Feeling badly that it had been about a month since we had returned to Vancouver, I tasked myself with heading to Metrotown and picking up the gifts.

I arrive at the Bay, present myself and ask if there is anything there for me. The woman at the counter then promptly told me 'it can take up to 4 months you know for things to arrive. Did you get a phone call?' To which I told her I had no phone call, however I had the gift card and was a bit surprised that it would take 4 months to get some glasses... Anyway, she looked up my name, reviewed the page, and then said 'ah yes, we tried to call you but the phone didn't work. We emailed you to come and pick these up.' Turns out they wrote down one digit in the phone number incorrectly, and the email I gave them is my spam account, so it would seem I didn't read that very carefully. Guess it was a good thing I didn't wait for that phone call...

The woman brings the bundled package to the counter, asks me to sign here, here and here, date here and here and there you go. As I am signing, I do notice Brandye's name ~ great, her gift is in here, and there's Sue's name ~ fantastic. Everything gets put in a bag and carted back to the home.

It is only the next morning when I have unpacked the boxes on the kitchen table that I scratch my head and wonder, is this right? I have 3 boxes of glasses, however I think these are all from Sue and Nina. As I go through the gift receipt trying to decipher the codes, I am still confused. I go back to the gift notice the girls had put in their card and yes, it would seem that the glasses are the ones from Sue and Nina. Where is the gift from Brandye? How did this get so complicated, so confusing and hey wait a minute, I've already signed the registry saying I've picked up her gift!

So on the phone, it is too early on a Sunday morning. I leave a lengthy message explaining what I think has gone on and ask them to call me back. I sit to enjoy my morning tea and Akis asks if I can do something with the stuff on the table. Sure ~ as I begin to unpack the glasses and put them away, I open the first box and low and behold, one of the glasses is missing. As I uttered things out loud and probably the most polite of them being 'you've got to be kidding me' ~ I pick up the phone to call the Bay yet again to add another chapter to my story.

The woman who answers the phone is very nice, listens to my woes and then puts me on hold while she goes to look for paperwork. After a few minutes she returns to the phone only to tell me she can't find the paperwork ~ ummm, I just signed some yesterday... She apologizes for the confusion and tells me that she will call me back. A few hours later I hear from her, and they are able to replace the missing glass that I picked up the previous day, however she would need to look into Brandye's gift and track it down.

All in all, I did return to the store a few days later to gather the replacement glass along with the missing gifts, but I gotta tell you ~ it was the most bizarre experience, and the moral of the story, follow up on your registry purchases!

Time for a change

As though our life has not been filled with enough changes... This time it is about trying to be a bit healthier. It used to be that I attributed my increasing pant size to the fact that I was captive to a menu on the ship. Now that I have been off the ship for over a year, I really can't rely on that for my excuse.

So turning over a new leaf, I have re-joined my gym. This time however I am spending time doing circuits and to be honest, it is a lot harder than I expected it to be. I have also decided that we are going to jump on the Organic bandwagon ~ well as long as our wallets will allow. I have been doing a lot of reading regarding the hormones and additives that are used with farming now days and realize that I don't really need additional growth hormones... unless of course I was hoping to reach 7 feet.

So as I endeavour to follow a more healthly lifestyle, I'm trying to figure out how the wine, beer and snacks will fit in. But I promise, I'll figure it out!!

We'll check in after a few weeks as they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit... I think I'm going to miss those mashed potatoes.

Our big 'Canadian' Day

It seems that family only gathers when there is a crisis or a celebration. In this hectic time, it seems that it is all we can do to just 'get it done'. Because Akis and I opted to get married in Greece, we decided that it would only be appropriate to have a party for our Canadian folks.

I must say, while I did have a few spastic moments the morning of, the family really stepped up and pitched in. Dad and Jane did a spectacular job getting things around the house ready. Krista entertained my indecisive and multiple trips to pick up last minute things. Craig and Akis ~ superstars who got the cold beer! (Afterall what is a party without the beer???)

I opted to get someone to Cater and the food was fantastic. Tyler and his wife Carrie are local and make one of the best beef roasts I think I have EVER eaten. Christa has become a bit of a local star with her cakes and ours was no exception. I also opted to hire someone to take photos for us ~ I have seen a few of Brad's shots and am very excited about being able to post, however I have yet to receive them. So once they are here, I will be sure to post.

We had quite the mix of people ~ family, friends, previous co-workers and neighbours. I'm grateful that the weather held out and even more grateful to everyone for making the trip to spend the day with us. It was fantastic to see everyone!