After around thirty eight centimetres of snow in three days, Montreal is in recovery mode. The streets are still a mess but the snow clearers are out spending seventeen million dollars on the cleanup operation. The fact that I almost never drive anywhere means I’ve been loving it. Truly a winter wonderland, and even now that the snow has started getting dirty it’s still prettier than bare streets. Even digging the car out twice was enjoyable in a very strenuous way. I must confess that I haven’t been walking to work though, mostly because I’ve had a cold but also because it’s very difficult to walk on uncleared sidewalks. Maybe I should get snowshoes…

For my wife, the snow came at a bad time, she had to take Aidan to two doctors’ appointments yesterday. I knew after driving in that mess she would be completely frazzled when she got home so I tidied the place up a bit, got the teacups ready and prepared Aidan a snacky supper. I also built a fire.

I love living in a place with a fireplace, and having a father-in-law who generously provides us with wood is an added bonus. The only problem is that unless we have the windows open, the smoke from the fire refuses to go up the chimney. This means we have a nice toasty fire going, but the cold air coming in through the windows negates it. We could close the doors on the fireplace but that sort of defeats the purpose. I obviously need to study the physics of chimneys.

So we spent the evening sitting in front of a nice fire, feeling slightly chilly and eating sushi. We should’ve been getting the house ready for Aidan’s birthday party at the weekend, but procrastination won yet again.

So, while on vacation I walked down to Recycle Bicycle and asked them to sell me a cheap bike. I came out with a Raleigh “Tarantula” which, although boasting a very cool name, looks like crap. Perfect. The brakes needed a little adjusting (the back one is still almost useless without some help from the front) and the seat was loose but other than that the ride is good.

I started riding to work again last week, and I’m loving it. I get to work faster than if I take public transport and the ride to work is about 80% downhill. Of course that means the ride home is mostly uphill which kills me but at least I can collapse in a sweaty heap on the sofa when I get home.

There are things I had forgotten about cycling though:

• Having long laces on your shoes is a bad thing.
• Having flappy trouser legs is too.
• Bike seats are never comfortable.
• Taxi drivers will do all they can to knock you off the road.
• I still don’t understand bike gears.
• Stopping at red lights is always optional (yes, I’m an evil lawbreaker and I just don’t care.)
• Did I mention it’s faster (and cheaper) than public transport?

This weekend we drove out to Cornwall to visit an antiques place, determined to find ourselves a table. I wasn’t too optimistic as our requirements are very specific but as it turned out they had almost exactly what we’ve been looking for. The tabletops were not as thick as I like but the finish was perfect. I decided on my favourite almost immediately but Jen spent a lot longer choosing between three possibilities before finally picking the one I picked (although she’s still not 100% certain).

So we finally have a dining room table. It’s a rustic harvest table made from reclaimed wood with shaker style legs and extensions which allow it to seat up to 14 people (although 14 would be squished).

Now all we need are some chairs…

On Sunday we invited P and J over for “tea” with J and K. They were ushered into an empty living room with six tea cups waiting on the coffee table. What they didn’t know was that 20+ of their friends and family were waiting in the parking lot to surprise them with a baby shower. I went off to “make the tea” and came back with the crowd. We spent the afternoon eating, drinking, and watching P and J open a mountain of baby gifts.

On Sunday night we heard a rhythmic “plink plink” on the baby monitor and went to investigate. We discovered water dripping from Aidan’s ceiling about two feet from his crib. That wasn’t such a nice surprise.

On the plus side, we did get to go out for breakfast on Sunday morning, I do have a lovely shiny new kitchen island, and we did watch a very cool movie last night.

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I dread trips to Ikea. Trips to Ikea mean much work for me. Being the man of the house means my wife cooks and cleans and takes care of the boy while I put together flatpack furniture.

But there are more things to dread before the actual assembly of said furniture. I’ll use this weekend as an example. We purchased three whimisical and eclectic bookcases for our office/playroom/junkroom/library/spareroom. These came flatpacked in boxes about the size of a door and weighing 75 pounds each.

My first job was to struggle with them up two flights of stairs. I made it up the first flight ok, but had to make Jen pause in her cooking and cleaning and looking after the boy to help me with them up the final flight.

Step two involves completely reorganizing the destination room to make space for the new furniture. Bear in mind that this is the room we’ve been putting stuff in that we didn’t have a place for, which is about 80% of everything we own. I emptied the room and reloaded it before I had a wall clear to put the new bookcases against.

Now it was time for the assembly. I unpacked the first box and carefully read the instructions. I inserted dowels in the right places. I tightened screws in the right spots. I installed funky widgets as instructed. For once (and I’ve done this many many many times) it all came together almost perfectly. I even managed to nail the backboard in place without exposing any nails on the other side. The second case went together equally well, and the third was going just fine until I couldn’t get the pretty bit at the top to go on right. I huffed and I puffed and I struggled and I hammered but no joy, the third case will never look as good as the other two. Sorry Jen.

But the ordeal wasn’t over yet. Oh no. Now we had three empty bookcases sitting in our spare room just begging to be filled. The rest of the afternoon was spent emptying boxes and installing their contents on our shiny new shelves. The shelves are now full, but not as full as they could be because Jen insists on having the junk interspersed with little decorative vignettes. I blame Changing Rooms.

On Monday the movers arrived. We were still packing. We made some piles of stuff “we would take care of” and told them to take the rest. They were loaded up in 3 hours and unloaded at the other end just as quickly. We went back to the house to finish packing.  Another trip with three cars and we still didn’t have everything out.

Tuesday, Jen went and cleaned and picked up more stuff. Richard filled his truck once more. There were still the plants left.

Wednesday, Jen got the plants, the house was finally empty. Not as clean as we would’ve liked but at least it was empty.

Now we have an apartment full of boxes, filled with stuff that we have no idea what we’re going to do with. Half the boxes are either unlabelled or labelled wrongly. I think we’ll be unpacking for a while…

But we have a useable living room and kitchen and a place to sleep, so life is good. Walking to work is a joy (walking home again, not so much) and being able to walk to the supermarket is equally joyous.

We’re never moving again (just like we said three years ago).

On Monday we quit being suburbanites and return to being city dwellers. We are moving to the NDG/Westmount area where I will get more exercise (if I stick to my pledge to walk to and from work every day whatever the weather), I will get more sleep (Aidan permitting), we will have more money (if we don’t spend it all on gadgetry and home decor) and we will have more of a life (once again, Aidan permitting).

I will miss doing the crosswords on the train every day (and throwing away the NYT crossword in disgust on Thursdays and Fridays). I will miss the overheard conversations of spotty teenagers. I will miss our back garden (yard if you insist). I will miss my workshop basement. I will miss Homestyle Bakery.

I will not miss tax bills, heating bills, home maintenance or getting up at 6am every morning.

We are now busy packing up all the stuff we want to take, selling the stuff we don’t and throwing out all the stuff that nobody will want. We collected an impressive amount of clutter considering we only had the house for three years.

I’m still a little freaked out by that, as it happened so fast.

We’ve been talking about selling for a while, but hadn’t gotten around to putting it on the market. Someone we knew knew someone who was on the lookout for a new house, so they came over and had a look. Four days later they made us an offer and we accepted it. No agent means no commission, although we gave the buyers most of that benefit.

So we’re moving. The sale closes on February 1st after which we have 28 days to get out. Anyone have a gorgeous Westmount apartment available for rent on March 1st? It must meet our requirements:

• At least a 6 1/2.
• As spacious as possible.
• Must have a fireplace.
• Must have a dishwasher.
• Must have laundry facilities
• Must have a room appropriate for a big screen TV.
• Must have a good shower.
• A garden would be nice, communal or otherwise
• High ceilings are a bonus
• Less than $1900 per month

That’s not too much to ask, is it??

Now before we move we need to get rid of lots of crap lovely stuff that won’t fit in to our apartment living lifestyle; so we’re having a huge garage sale this Sunday, weather permitting. We will have furniture, books, bags, kitchen stuff, cards and stationery and who knows what else. We will also have “loot bags” and special prizes. Fun for all the family! Email me if you want more details.