Shaz's Corner: Goodbye Yaletown, Hello Burnaby!

Home Sweet Home!

It's been a week and we are getting very nicely settled in our new home. I must admit, it has been a very exciting, sometimes stressful but a good past couple weeks. I definitely had a 'sad day' of saying goodbye to downtown, especially reminiscing about the wonderful memories we've had with the girls.

The girls in our moving crates!

Packing went really well. This time round, based on our many past experiences, we had a good amount of time to overlap between the two places. This is extremely helpful in soooooo many ways... so in case you need tips for your next move:

Get keys ahead of your actual move in date. Gives you time to figure the space, tentatively think where you want stuff, and pre-loads if necessary. I found it helpful to bring a load of our kitchen items the day before the move (you don't realize how many coolers you need for fridge items!)
Having access to your old place after you move. Helps a lot to be able to clean the place on a day other than your move out day. Moving out day is stressful enough. You need another day (or two) to clean and clear the place!
Confirm, once twice or even three times with the moving company when to arrive. Although, I did do that, and they STILL thought it was 10am instead of 9am. This became a big problem for us because our elevators were booked from 9am to 1pm (4 hours), so when the movers arrived at 10am, we were already 1 hour behind. So, created quite a bit of stress for Trav trying to fit within that time slot.
As it turns out, the moving company we hired didn't bring a truck big enough for our stuff! Yes, you know when it's time to move to a house when the truck is too small :P. So, having the additional days in the old place was helpful to get everything out. Turned out we did an additional 5 car loads before the old place was finally empty (don't forget your bike in the bike lockers!)
Try and deal with all your little maintenance / painting patches before you move out. Once you move, you'll be so checked out of the place, it makes it a struggle to have to go back to the old place and fix things.
We rented 're-usable' moving crates and found them extremely helpful! Standard sizes, very solid and easy to stack and move. But keep extra boxes on hand for those final moments when you realize you've run out of crates!

Move Out: Where did we get all this stuff from!

Move In: we have so much more space now!

Otherwise, on the moving in end, things couldn't have gone any better. We absolutely love the new house, it's space and just the general feel of living 'out in Burnaby' :). The walk to the Kai's is less than 10 mins, and when we drove to the Yorks for dinner, it took us longer to get our shoes and jackets on than it was to drive there! Love it!

Everything is now 'unpacked' just now needs to be organized! So far it's been really fun figuring out where to put stuff, big bonus of moving to a bigger space, is that you don't have to try and cram it creatively somewhere, we can actually unpack it in a closet or drawer! :)

Trav's commute hasn't really changed, if anything, it's a lot more simpler than before. It only takes about 23 mins (yes, he timed it), door to door. It's a short walk to the skytrain station, and just 4 stops away, then a short walk to work. No need to change the skytrain lines!

The girls have adjusted well. Nora is sad now and then thinking about her downtown life, but the big playroom downstairs and our backyard keep them pretty preoccupied and happy. Our landlords were so kind enough to leave us a trampoline, swings, slides and there's even a treehouse for the kids! Lily is doing awesome and is very proud she now gets to sleep in her own toddler bed.