Weekend Reading: North America through the eyes of a European.

Episode 3 : Finding a temporary base

We'd found a super place, a fully furnished contemporary condo with big terrace close to all the main amenities, and we began to visualize life in Montreal. But we lost the option on the flat, and the second search for a “home-base” resulted in a great quality, but totally empty appartment needing fully furnished...and re-painted, before it would feel like home.

Furnishing and re-painting the interior of the rented place took care of around $35,000 (who am I kidding...but these are the “official” figures...)

With an estimate of 60,000€ to bring our belongings over from France we decided to move without them! Cherry picking items to keep was a wracking experience. Furniture that we'd bought and loved over the years were suddenly looked at differently when we read the cost of transporting them. Surely it was foolish to pay 2,000€ just to move one old dresser, no matter how wonderful it was? Would it not be better to look at this as a chance to really “sweep out the old” and create a totally new environment once we were over there? And what would happen if we moved everything over then decided it wasn't for us?

So a storage place was signed for, and “The selection procedure” and the biggest de-cluttering known to modern mankind began.

And although I wouldn't want to go through it again, it truly is a way (one way...) to cleanse your soul! Both the Red Cross and the local hospital thought Christmas had come early.

Now that I think about it, it's nice to know that we'll cheer up so many poorly children at Xmas-time with our many and varied Christmas trees, decorations and lights, in fact I suspect that they probably were able to decorate more than one hospital...

Then the local auction room removal team moved in with us for a couple of days. We got quite close actually, and I really couldn't watch when all 6 of them had problems moving our largest...and heaviest pieces (I'm sure his back will be OK by now). Although I have to admit that when I received their bill I felt slightly less guilty!

We filled the auction rooms single-handedly, and once we got down to checking the final accounts we walked away (weeping) with enough profit to buy at least one ice cream each! So the moral in this story is: if you really love it, if it's very good quality...but not a Chippendale, give it away. It's quicker, you'll be less stressed, you won't have to feed and be nice to 6 removal men for days on end...and remembering the hospital experience, you'll feel great!

So with the house (kind of) empty of everything we were not planning to transport (one day...) we had to pack & store the rest. I'm sure all of you big-house dwellers out there will sympathize with me here, because trying to fit the lives of 5 “larger than life” family members into a shoe box (Ok, so it's a garage...but I have to tell you, it looks REALLY small!) is not an easy task.

But slowly & surely we managed, and somewhere along the way we'd also found a buyer for the house! Not a small achievement when the proverbial bottom was dropping out of the property market. But buying low and investing in the right places paid off, as it always does, and the signing date was set with no financial tears. (Good job, I hate wet bank notes)

Bags were packed, our last boxes shoehorned into storage.

Our family were ready to start a “divided life” for an undetermined time.

No one knew how long we would be living on separated Continents, but we hoped the sacrifice would be worth it. I had a company to install, and new roots to lay down before we would be together again as a family.  I would be “doing it by myself!”