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