Getting Settled In

Our living room after one day of unpacking and settling in. Charlie has already reserved his spot....

Our container from the UK arrived on Monday 21st August. We were delighted to find that the only damage sustained in the 3500 mile journey was a broken wine glass.

Unfortunately the 20' journey from the van into the house resulted in damage to one of the bedside cabinets as it rolled off the trolley being used by the removal men to carry it up the front steps. I guess that's what insurance is for !

The house didn't need too much cleaning as the previous owners had left it in pretty good condition. However, the whole of the main floor is solid hardwood floors and so we cleaned and treated those before all of the furniture arrived on Monday.

More pictures will follow as the remainder of the house gets decorated and becomes presentable !

A & D

Photos of 3627 Princess Avenue

Front of the property

Looking sideways across the garden showing deck, patio and lawn areas
View of the rear of the property

We've Moved !

We have finally completed on the purchase of our house in North Vancouver (see 3627 Princess Avenue, above)

For the estate agents who are viewing this blog, we completed on Monday 14th Aug, but only took possession on Friday 18th. This is because comp & poss take place on different days so that everybody in the chain moves house on different days so there's no issue over keys being ready & vendors moving out in time for the buyers to get in. Basically, the system is fantastic !

The house is a 'split-level' built in 1971 (classified as an 'old-timer' in Canada). There is just under 3000 sqft with the upper floor offering an 'L' shaped Living/Dining Room, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 bedrooms (one with en-suite) and a family bathroom. Downstairs in the 'basement' (although this is all above ground) there is a family room, huge laundry, furnace room and a further fully self-contained one bedroom apartment which is currently rented out (the tenants of the previous owners wanted to stay and we were happy for them to do so).

The property does need some decorating and a bit of updating, but what we fell in love with when we viewed the property was the location - it is situated in a very upscale neighbourhood of large family houses about 20 mins from downtown Vancouver, and only about 5 minutes from the town centre of North Vancouver. As well as this convenient location the house also has a large 70' westerly facing rear garden and there is an enormous park directly opposite the property. We don't look into other peoples living rooms, rather lovely mature trees and a creek. We are also within walking distance of the edge of the city, so can walk Charlie into the hills from our doorstep and enjoy beautiful views from the area.

We really look forward to having many of you visit us here and showing you our new home.

A & D

Log Booms

Looking South West from SW Marine Drive over a log boom towards the airport (barely visible in distance on left).

Looking West from SW Marine Drive over the log boom. The mountains seen in the distance are on Vancouver Island.

Log booms are big business in British Columbia. Having so much forestry industry, there is a need for felled trees to be sorted into types and grades before being shipped off to sawmills and other log customers.

The logs are normally 'dragged' down the coast by tugs and can be a great length, often several hundred metres in length. At night, tugs must display a visible warning light to indicate their length to other vessels.

So, that pine chest of drawers you have in your bedroom may have once been floating in the waters off Vancouver !

A & D

The Festival of Light

At this time each year Vancouver plays host to 'The Festival of Light'. This is an international fireworks competition or rather the final of the competition. This years finalist were Mexico, Italy, China and the Czech Republic. Mexico Won, though we thought that the show close, an extra display, was the best.

The event happens over four nights spread over 2 weeks and is attended by about 300,000 a night. The pictures here are of the first night viewd from Point Grey (see previous blog entry) where quite a few locals gathered to watch the display across the bay with the city and mountains as a backdrop.

We saw the Grand Finale night from a roof top in Kitsilano while at a Margarita Party.....more on that later maybe, but the fireworks were great and we look forward to next years event!

D & A

Evening views from Point Grey

We recently went out for the evening to watch the Celebration of Light (more on that in another post). We decided to watch from Point Grey Park, which was the nearest location to where we live that we would get a good view. The photograph above shows the view North East from Point Grey Park towards Downtown, and the Northshore mountains beyond.

Me with the marina at Point Grey in the background.
Terrific sunset looking West from Point Grey Park. In the foreground once again is the marina and in the background across the water is Bowen Island.

A&D