Happy to be house poor!

Ok, so as you might have guessed from the title of this entry, we spent more than we had planned to on our house in Cold Lake ... but, there was good reason for it! First, there was hardly anything to choose from ... and second, it was our best option when considering re-saleability in 4-6 years from now. It is brand spankin' new ... the last day we saw it the drywall guy had just started the basement, and had completed drywalling the rest of the house. This was good because it gave us a really good idea of room sizes and helped us visualize the layout better. Also, we were early enough to be able to choose flooring, paint color, cabinetry etc. So that was lots of fun! We chose some upgrades and decided to do ceramic tiles in hallway, kitchen and eating area as well as the bathrooms; we chose hardwood flooring for the living room and then carpet throughout the rest of the house. In the kitchen, we chose some neat upgrade features - BluMotion drawer hardware so the drawers can't slam shut, also we got french frame doors for the two corner cabinets ... we also upgraded to solid oak cabinets to match our flooring in the living room. The hardest part was choosing the lighting! I never thought that would be a challenge, but because the main level has vaulted ceilings, we could only choose certain lights because they had to have a chain so they could hang properly - then we couldn't agree on a finish (brushed pewter or brushed nickel?!) But, despite all that we ended up way under budget in the lighting, so that was good to help make it up in other areas. As for the layout: it is a 1690 sq. ft., 4-level house, but looks like a bungalow from the front! The main level is living room, kitchen and eating area with french doors leading outside to an imaginary deck, which next summer should become quite tangible! Upstairs is Master Bedroom and 2 smaller bedrooms as well as a full bathroom. Then, downstairs on the 3rd level is another bedroom and full bathroom, and a family room; it also has french doors that lead out to our backyard (which is pure mud right now!). Then, the 4th level, or the sub-basement will stay unfinished and is where furnace, laundry, storage etc. will go. Plus, there is a two car garage and space enough for a huge backyard! The house is in Cold Lake North, which is the part of the city that is closer to the lake and the more 'touristy' parts of Cold Lake (if you can even call them that!) Its close to Kinosoo Beach and the Cold Lake Marina ... and, the best part is the we are literally 3 minutes down the road from the Cold Lake Provincial Park. It boasts TONS of fishing, hiking, trails, skiing etc. so we are really glad that it is so close. We drove through there early Friday morning and saw a doe with her two fawns ... we also picked up some flyers on how to handle bear encounters! There is quite a large population of Black bears and Grizzly bears in the area of Northern Alberta in general, and you forget that your in Northern Alberta until you are reminded of that fact!

So ... all in all, Cold Lake was pretty much what I expected: its got that cottage country feel to it, mixed in with a bit of a small town feel ... and there are a lot of wealthy people in the area as you can tell by driving through some of the subdivisions that surround the lake ... no wonder housing is so expensive there; we were well prepared for that though since we've been checking out housing prices for Cold Lake for years. Apparently the market has increased 35% every year for the last 3 years! Our closing date is January 15 and we are expecting to arrive in the area around the 12th/13th of January - which means that we will be in Amesbury for Christmas this year. It will be kind of sad not having our families around, but we have several friends who will also be here for Christmas without family, so we won't be alone.

On Saturday morning we left Cold Lake and headed back to Edmonton in our huge Ford F-150 pick up truck - it was either that or a PT Cruiser, and we figured, hey, when in Alberta ...Our plan was to shop at the West Edmonton Mall - it was overwhelming! I timed it though and discovered that I can get there in just under 3 hours from home - so its defintely not too far for the odd shopping trip ; ) I also learned never to go there on a Saturday! It was literally wall to wall people and you could hardly get through the crowd! I won't be doing that again ... weekdays only - I hate crowds when I'm trying to shop!

Fletch enjoyed the second week of his 'holiday', but is glad that we're back ... we now have to prepare for our next guests - my parents, who arrive on Wednesday morning ... so ... we'll write again soon. Check Peter & I out in the video below - this was at the beach and we were skipping rocks and checking out all the rich people's houses along the beach : ) Not too shabby a beach for such a small town.

Team PM

Home from Greece ... but not for long!

Well, Peter and I are back from our cruise through the Greek islands ... we had a fabulous trip! The ship itself was amazing; there were 4 restaurants on board (64 chefs!), the 'Marquee' was where there were shows every night performed by the ships' dance troupe ... also there was a casino, several shops, a cyber cafe, the Blue Bar and Connexions which was where the art auction took place, as well as stand up comedy. In addition there was a grand piano in the 'Village Square' which was where reception was, and Charlies' - the coffee bar ... but about the piano, there were lounge type performances there several times. AND, there was Top Deck which was where the two pools were, hot tubs, the Splash bar - which you could swim to to get a drink, there was also basketball, shuffleboard, golf, and a giant chess board .... needless to say there was LOTS to do! Oh, and there was a cinema where we saw 3 movies while onboard - a great time filler between other activities. We spent out first day on the pool deck lounging, we even ate breakfast out there - since this was a sea day we stayed on board all day and just relaxed, swam and read. The second day we were in Dubrovnik, Croatia and then each day after that we were in a new port: Corfu, Cephalonia, Katakolon and then Piraeus which is closest to Athens. Each day that we were in port we got off the ship and did as much exploring as we could ... my favorite day was when we were in Cephalonia. We did an 'Action Ashore' activity which are preplanned trips that you can go on from the ship ... so we went to Drogarati Cave, Sami, which is a small town where 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' was filmed ... and then finally to Melissani Lake which is a tiny lake that used to be inside a cave, but the 'roof' came off during an earthquake. It was spectacular and the water was the clearest blue I've ever seen! Athens was also really cool ... other than the fact that it was 40 degrees .... but seeing the Acropolis and Parthenon was a very incredible thing to do. There are TONS of pictures, so instead of posting them on here, I'm in the process of posting them on www.flickr.com/photos/teampm ..... so check them out there. Here's a few as as an appetizer ; )

In other adventures ... Peter and I somehow managed to get all the pieces of the househunting trip together (so not in our hands!) and we are leaving tomorrow for Edmonton! We will be back on August 27th and will be new homeowners by then! We are really excited, there is one house in particular that we really like and it seems pretty perfect in all ways .... so hopefully it will work out for us to purchase. As always, we'll keep you posted : ) In the mean time ... I am looking forward to going to Alberta and finally getting to see Cold Lake (we drive there from Edmonton). I've never been further west than Waterloo, ON. so I'm anxious to see some of Western Canada, as well as the new city that we'll be living in for the next 4-6 years. Oh, and in case your wondering ... Cold Lake qualified as a city in 2000, but it still only has a population of 12,000!

As a sidenote, for those of you wondering about Fletch ... Peter's classmate at school told us that his mother-in-law often dogsits for them, so we gave her a call and she was more than willing to take care of Fletch for us for both weeks that we are away. She has a huge back garden where he played ball all last week, and she also has a dog of her own. I think he got a little spoiled though since he wouldn't eat his food until this morning since we brought him home on Thursday evening. Her dog is quite old, so we're wondering if she put something over the food that she gave to her dog ... anyway, we're heading back to her place this evening to drop Fletch off again for the coming week. She is really nice and gave Fletch lots of attention and play time, so we were really happy to leave him there rather than in a kennel.

Team PM

More of Salisbury

Yesterday, after church Peter & I went to Queen Elizabeth gardens in Fisherton Park in Salisbury for a free string quartet performance. It was a really nice day, one of the nicest we've had this summer. It was about 30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky ... it was the first time we'd been to this park so I took alot of pictures and I thought I'd share some with you ... enjoy : )

Family of 3

Our latest attempt at a 'family' picture occurred last night on a walk with Fletch at Old Sarum. It was really nice and sunny out so after dinner we drove over for a walk and some play time for Fletch. We thought it might be nice to take a pic of all 3 of us together ... it didn't work very well because Fletch, typical of most 7 year olds, couldn't stand still and thought it was a game! But I thought I'd post the pics anyway :)



I don't feel the need to give updates alot because I am always posting something on here, but since its usually about my travels with our guests, here's an update from Peter's end of things. He is just about to finish his second semester at ETPS: can't believe how fast the time has gone! He's just handed in a huge assignment that took him many weeks and a lot of 14 hr days to complete, he should have his mark by next week so he is anxiously awaiting that. Also, next week his big summer break commences: he is off from Aug. 9-27. Once he goes back after the break, he's really only got 3 more months of school (Sept, Oct, Nov) because December is a 'tying up loose ends' sort of month with some formal events happening and a lot of 'fun flying' as Peter calls it, as opposed to work flying. So, its almost the last leg for him, and he's really getting anxious to be done working so hard all the time!

We are really looking forward to our Cruise in Greece; we leave next Thursday morning on a 6:50 am flight from Gatwick to Heraklion, Crete in Greece. After 7 nights we will come back home, and at that point we may be taking a househunting trip to Cold Lake, if not, then I will probably be going solo in October. So, if we're here the week after the Cruise we are planning a driving trip to Scotland, possibly. Anyway ... as usual, we'll keep you posted on what happens!

Team PM