Say What?!

Things have been a bit exciting around here recently and a bit stressful, I'm afraid.  Long story short (well kind of short) ....

We have been on a slow moving list for a space in family housing since last February.  And this last weekend we got the email we've been waiting for.  Well, it was sort of the one we've been waiting for.  It was an offer for a 3 bedroom apartment in the area of campus we want to be.  Oh no, we had been hoping for a 3 or 4 bedroom townhouse.  But, housing is crazy around here (in Vancouver in general but also on campus) and with this particular area of campus you take what you can get.  It's super stressful.  They give you 24 hours from receiving the email to decide and get back to them.  What?!  So, they emailed Friday at 11 am and of course, neither of us checked email at all until that night at 11 pm.  So we had the wee hours of the night and morning to hem and haw and decide.  The place was bigger, better lit, tons more storage .... but an apartment with no elevator.  So that's lugging kids, stroller and everything else upstairs and not having the option of kicking the children out the door when we are about to pull our hair out.  Hmmm... we didn't know what to do.

But, we haven't been very happy here in our 875 square foot 2 bedroom and a den townhouse.  It's too small for all of us.   We have done ok and really want to be people who can live just anywhere and make it work and with joy, but just are generally unhappy and uncomfortable.  And this is in summer when we can go outside but what happens when its raining all the time?  And having Owen in the office/den right off the living area is hard.   and there is a construction site out our front door (they are on level 5 of a 15 story tower.) and the list could go on.

So, we had pretty much decided to just take the apartment and deal with it.  We had heard that once you get in the housing system you can apply for a bigger place and move around.  And, here's the catch, once you say no to an offer (you have 2 chances) you get kicked off the list altogether and start way at the back of the line.  That's 7 months of waiting down the tubes for us!

So we called and said we'd take it.  And they said, "oh wait a minute, you would rather have a townhouse right?" "right, but we'll do whatever to stay in the system."

Then in an email an hour or so later,  "Well, a 4 bedroom townshouse just became available, how about that?"

WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Yes!  We took it. Quickly.  Paid the fee and are officially (well, hopefully, we still need to sign the paper paperwork) renters of a 4 bedroom townhouse moving in September.

It was crazy.  We went from kind of grudgingly saying yes to a 3 bedroom apartment to signing up for the 4 bedroom we have been hoping hoping hoping for in a matter of hours.

We are happy.  But now there are many many details to work out. Like breaking our lease here (a bit tricky it seems - we would appreciate your prayers) and like our move in date in Sept 6 (due to the place being up for repainting) and our moveout date here could possible be sept 1.  And we need our furniture which is being kept nicely for us back in Alberta.   Hmmmmm.....

Prayers appreciated!!

But guess what?  The new place has a dishwasher.... I've never had one my whole married life.  I just may not know what to do with myself. :)

Oh, and a guest room.......