One Step Closer

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I am so super excited to announce that we are finally seeing some progress… my next post will be all about what’s been happening here at The Pictou Puffin…  But for now here’s a special post about my trip to Cambridge which afforded me some great pieces for the b&b, but I get ahead of myself. This blog is supposed to be about the journey to my dreams, the start of a new life, of building a future in a new province and of course of running a b&b.  But in order to talk about the journey you need to include everything that goes into it.  So my journey back home, 1.5 months after moving is relevant to me and gives me the courage and the drive to continue on this journey. So here’s some past details that moulds into my new life. My parents, are of course in Ontario, and were the reason for my return home.  I won’t lie and say that our relationship (parent and middle child) has been the best one in the history cause it wasn’t.  But I won’t bore you with that cause frankly that doesn’t define me and I will never ever let it bring me down.  That being said although we don’t have a great relationship I still don’t want to see anything bad happen to them.  

For the past 10 years my parents have been fighting dementia and Alzheimer’s and its very sad but my mom has lost the battle and has been struggling for the past 5 years or so.  My sister and I have been trying to help for the past few years but unfortunately my father (who was slowly succumbing to the disease) wouldn’t hear of us helping.  This is due to the relationship he has with us (his daughters).  Suffice it to say, after many battles with the powers that be (ccac, doctors, family etc.) my parents are finally being cared for 24/7.  My mom is no longer in danger of getting hurt (she did fall two times previously and broke bones) and my dad is also getting the help that they need.  The family is of course madder than hell because they can’t see my dad deteriorating or refuse to see it and think he should still be caring for himself and my mom.  Suffice it to say, my parents are in a good place, together, just what my dad wanted.  They are about one hour away from Cambridge but they are together.  The family is up in arms about us moving them so far away.  I think they just want to complain about everything and frankly I’m over it and basically they should get over it too.  Mom and Dad are together, they are safe, they are being cared for and we have made sure that the rest of their lives will be lived together.

So back to my trip, with my mom and dad moving out of their home and into a nursing facility, their house needed to be sold.  No one was going to live there and it didn’t make sense to keep it.  So I flew back to Ontario to help my sister clear out the house and get it ready for market.  I was so excited at taking a flight from Halifax airport to Toronto.  It was my first domestic flight and this was going to be very cool.  Yes I can separate the trip and all my new experiences from what I was going back to do.  It was going to be a hard week going through that house but you can’t dwell on the negative all the time, you need to see the rainbows and smell the roses.  That’s the type of gal that I am…

This is the Halifax airport, a view from the airplane right before take off.  The two crane looking trucks are the de-icers that we had to go through so we could fly out.  It was mighty cold here in Nova Scotia but it was soooo much colder in Ontario (but I didn’t quite realize that til I got there).   And this is what de-icing looks like..

The plane ride was really nice… the seats were perfectly sized and there was enough room between the seats so you didn’t feel so damn crammed.  I got to the airport early, (Alex dropped me off), and had time for a quick coffee before going through security.  It really was a breeze.

We flew into Montreal and then hopped another plane, which was again very comfy and this time we got snacks, which then took us to Toronto Island, Porter Airport.  I love going into Porter.  Its the perfect size and you don’t get lost and you feel important.  Yeah Porter.  Once I landed I hopped the VIA train to Kitchener.  I had planned to come back to Ontario on a weekday to stop in and see some friends.  So I was excited to book my plane ride home and have enough time to catch the Go-Train to Kitchener and be able to go home with my friend Priya on the train.  I worked with Priya at IFDS and I missed her, so it was going to be great to catch up with her.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot that Feb 17th was Family Day in Ontario so 1. Priya wasn’t going to be at work and 2. no GO-Trains on holidays to Kitchener… lol  there goes that plan.  So Via Train was the way to go.   Ricky and Jose (sister and brother) picked me up at the station and off we went back to Ricky’s house.  After catching up on Nova Scotia, the move, the new house, the B&B plans and everything else under the sun we settled in for the night, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a very long day of sorting through things and memories.

I found out that my brother Jose kept Chuck Rodent safe and sound for me.  This was a present that I gave my father about 20 years ago and every time we discussed getting things from the house, this was the only thing I ever wanted and the only thing I had plans to take.  Well I got Chuck and he came home with me, in style no less (you’ll see next post lol).  But wait you’re asking who Chuck Rodent is aren’t you?  well watch the video… that should tell you…

Yup you guessed it, Chuck Rodent is the gopher from CaddyShack and at the time of the singing fish, I though he was much cuter… lol.  He’s mine now and sits in my office watching everyone who comes in.

Tuesday started bright and early, around 11am I’d say :).  Ricky and I went over to the house.  It had been about 5 years since I’d been there the last time (told you it wasn’t a good relationship, maybe someday I’ll write about that but not today).  The first thing that hit me was the state of the home.  The couches were worn, they were a little dirty, the carpet frayed and there was a smell.  This was not my mothers house.  My mother kept that home impeccable and being there, in this condition, I knew having them in a nursing home was good, she would have died knowing she was living like that.  We walked through all the rooms and made a plan to tackle it the next day.  What was going where, what Ricky wanted to keep, what I wanted to keep, what should be sold, what should be given away etc.  Obviously we couldn’t do it all at that one time but we needed to look and have some sort of game plan.  Just looking at the pictures on the wall brought back memories and of course a lot of teasing Ricky’s way.. lol

We came back on Wednesday armed with garbage bags and boxes.  I found two really great pieces of furniture that would be great for my house.  They were really old and 1. would look great and 2. was something I thought we should keep in the family and hopefully pass down to one of the kids some day.  Here are the two pieces:

They look pretty old and are in excellent condition so I talked with Ricky and we decided I should take them.  She has a small home and has no room for this furniture so I got to take it. I always say things happen, when they happen for a reason.  If I hadn’t of married my ex, I wouldn’t have moved to Toronto, I wouldn’t have met Alex and I wouldn’t be here right now.  I try very hard to never regret anything in life, cause it has made me who I am and I am where I am now because of my past and experiences.  So my parents going to a home now worked out really well.  If they would have gone 5 years ago, then a lot of this furniture and my mom’s dishes and things would have all been given away or sold at auction.  I had no use for it, Ricky had no use for it, my brother had no use for it and my sisters kids, LOL, they want nothing to do with it.  So this was good timing, I was able to save a lot of my mom’s things and I know that when she finds out (at least I hope so anyway) that she would be very happy that I took them and I’m caring for her stuff like she would.

Back to the house, once we started opening cupboards and china cabinets and closets and looking under beds, we realized that for the past 10 – 20 years my parents have been hoarding things.  Holy Makka, you should have seen everything.  Ricky and I were exhausted after a few hours of work every day.  It was such a daunting task.  Figuring out what to do with everything, figuring out what we should keep and who should keep it, figuring out what to do with all the furniture etc. etc. etc.  I don’t envy anyone this job.  It wasn’t so hard for us because we knew our parents were still alive and doing much much better, but I can’t imagine how hard it would have been if we were doing this after they passed.  Again, things happen when they happen for a reason. We spent days there at the house, packing items, sorting items, trying to find people to take stuff.  We were really lucky and we were able to donate a lot of things to the homeless shelter and also to St. Lukes (like goodwill).  Some furniture was sold, some taken by me and some taken by other family members. I found a couple of chairs, that once I sat in them, I thought they’d make an elegant addition to one of our b&b rooms, once I cleaned them.  So I brought them home with me and of course a few other items of interest.  Just to be clear my sister and I were in total agreement with all that that transpired over these 10 days.

So there’s the chair, its part of a pair… I’ll show you the rooms when they are done and you can see everything as we see envisioned it.  

I also found this ornate metal chandelier in my dad’s garage.  It was scheduled for junking but I decided I’d take it and refinish it… Hopefully in a year or so I can complete the work on it and have it displayed in our front hall.  Until I have some down time to be able to do this, its going to sit in my basement.  I’m going to paint it black and find great glass lanterns (or such) for it.  I also brought back this grandmother clock, I think this should be an heirloom and this awesome Heart Lock that I had to fight Jason for, but I’m older so I won.  I was also able to bring a tonne of dishes, dishes that my mom collected over the years.  I am so excited to have so much history, my own personal history, to add to this house.  The house is 158 years old and now has additional years of Portuguese history too.  This is something I’m going to take great pride in displaying to all who come to see the home and its furnishing.

While I was there I met with the real estate agent, Tony, and turns out he’s a really good guy.  Don’t have a lot of good to say about real estate agents but I like him.  And that was before he gave us crab legs that Jason cooked up for dinner one night.. lol Yummo.. they were Yummo.  Tony actually sold the house before it was even listed on MLS so yeah I like him a lot.  Kept things really simple for Ricky and me and kept things moving along.

Well the week went as expected, a lot of hard word, a lot of waiting around for people to show up to pick up things, a lot of packing, some tears, some arguments and a lot of memories.  Good and bad, happy and sad, all that makes me what I am today.  95% of the house was done by the time I left Cambridge, so Ricky didn’t have a lot of stuff to do but well she still needed to do some extra stuff and I thank her for that.  I was missing my family after 10 days and of course missing the new homestead.   So Friday morning after being there over a week I started the trek home.

And what a trek that was!!!