A "strange" sense of relief

Well, our stuff is in a GIANT 40' container.

The bug is strapped down inside and ready to go.

We paid the bank draft today...barf.

Our container goes on the train tomorrow and heads to Montreal.

From Montreal it sails to the port at Rotterdam, NL

and is scheduled to arrive in Holland on December 27th.

There is a definite sense of relief that our stuff is packed and on its way

and we will meet it there.

We are living with the bare minimum of supplies.

Eating off paper/plastic plates.

We have borrowed cutlery, coffee cups, some living room furniture

a table and chairs to eat at and 2 beds for the kids.

We are pretty comfortable.

Kind of crazy to think we just spent a gazillion dollars

to send our belongings overseas yet we are surviving

just fine without any of it.

And....we signed our rental contract yesterday so its

officially official!

Our new address is:

Willen de Nobelaerlaan 21

2273 HL

Voorburg, Netherlands

I am SO excited!

I can't wait to set up our things and make it our home.

Put our touches on that beautiful house.

And maybe I'll make a trip or five to Riviera Maison

(my FAVE store in Holland)

for a few extra decorative goodies :)

These are emotional days....

There are boxes EVERYWHERE in my house.

Crazy.

Freaky.

Emotional.

My house will be empty in 5 days.

All of our possessions in someone else's hands.

The great news....

we may have found our new home!!

It's beautiful.

And about as big as our first house!!

Willem de Nobelaerlaan 59.

Voorburg, Netherlands.

Wow.

We still have to sign the contract and iron out the details

so no photos yet ;)

And I'm FREAKING OUT  'cause Holland is 

9 HOURS AHEAD

and we have to act fast

and I don't want anyone to scoop 

what would be an amazing house

out from under us.

I think I actually feel an ulcer developing....

Overwhelmed....to say the least

I am feeling completely overwhelmed.

I have to pack this week.

BIG TIME.

it's seriously happening.

The moving company is coming on the 5th to pack our kitchen and

our breakables (picture frames, mirrors, decor)

and we have to have everything else ready to go.

All of our possessions leave this house

 on DEC. 6th!!

We will have a couple of suitcases each, some food left in the fridge,

the iPad and our phones

and each other.

It's kind of liberating.

And to be perfectly honest, there isn't anything that we have sold 

that we are really missing.

Which speaks volumes to how much CRAP we accumulate

that we really don't need.

We are settling on a property in Holland this week.

We'll have a new address.

I feel a little lump in my throat as I type.

And think about the HUGE decision we are making.

A little scary....

but SO EXCITING!

You will have to read this blog in baby steps

so that I don't lose it.

the countdown is on.....

Yesterday marked our "2 months left in Canada" point.

Whoa.

That seems SO CRAZY to say out loud!

What's even crazier, is that we are signing our moving contract on Monday.

...and they pack us up the FIRST WEEK IN DECEMBER!!

(However, our stuff will arrive in Holland 1 month later.)

That's less than ONE MONTH!!!

Double whoa.

Things are going quite smoothly.

My sister told me I sounded quite calm...really?!

Actually, I do feel pretty good.  We are trying to do a little something

for the move every day, and that is helping keep the stress level down.

We have sold a bunch of stuff on Kijiji.

We are having the BIG moving sale this weekend and we are hoping

to get rid of a lot of the big things....

55" TV, dining table & chairs, china cabinet,

couch, chairs, lamps.

CAR!!

Wish us luck :)

The days seem to be flying by.

My friend M made a good point the other day when she said we were 

running out of weekends to get together.

It made me a little sad.

Honestly, that's going to be the hardest part.

Everyone I'm close to is going to be so far away :(

I'm trying not to think about it too much.

 Or dwell on the size of my future phone bill.

 

SOLD....officially!

WOOT!

Conditions were waived today and we got a SOLD sticker!

And we celebrated....me a little bit too much ;)

It was also the last day of keeping my house like a museum.

Whew!

And, for the double-whammy....

we finally sold the tent trailer!!

Sold to a young family whom I'm sure will make some great

camping memories just like we did :)

So, for now, it's back to Kijiji

in an attempt to sell some of the bigger items in our house.

Might list some of the things on the BLOG too so stay tuned.

And feel free to forward this to anyone you know

who might need stuff :)

SOLD!

well....conditionally anyways :)

Who would have thought it would be easier to sell our

home than our tent trailer?!

We seem to have a lucky 3 day streak....

our last house sold in 3 days too!

Keeping trend, here's hoping that we can find a place to live in 3 days

when we arrive in Holland!!

Ralph's uncle knows a realtor that's going to help us 

line something up quickly for rent,

then we'll shop for a house so we can take our time.

In Holland, you pay month to month and don't need to sign a big lease

so we can rent as long as we need to.

Our plan is to ship a container of our personal belongings

to Holland in December so they meet us when we arrive there in January.

We will be living in a pretty naked house by the time 

Christmas rolls around.

But that's okay :)

We look good in Holland :)

OMG!

We've made one of the biggest and most exciting decisions of of lives.

WE. ARE. MOVING. OUR. FAMILY. TO. HOLLAND!!

We're actually doing it!!

We've been talking about it and trying to make it happen for over a year.

Ralph got a great new job.

It is scary and exciting and there are moments I still can't believe 

its actually happening!

This BLOG is going to chronicle our last few months in Canada,

and the start of our adventure in Holland.

 For now, we are going through our belongings.

Which is strange in some ways and amazingly gratifying in other ways.

I LOVE to purge, so we're selling lots.

 Selling everything with a plug....different electrical in Europe :)

Stay tuned for the MOVING SALE if you need lamps, TV's, 

furniture, plants, etc.

But, first things first.....we need to sell our house.

And tent trailer :)