July 16, 2016

THE LATEST LIFE STORM


i recently hiked up cypress mountain. 

i got up at 6 AM (which, for many reasons, is a feat in and of itself), drove an hour, then hiked 3.5 hours in the pouring rain in 10 degree weather...but the view made it all worth it! not.

Vancouver is behind those clouds.

actually, what drove me up that mountain, what is driving many of my outdoor adventures, is a need to escape from a tough reality that has been a dark storm cloud hanging low and menacing on the horizon for the last several weeks.

we found out in june that our house was being listed. again. we went through this two years ago. (read about that here and here). obviously, it didn't sell back then... possibly because of the whole blue tarp of death - read about that in buyer beware lol. the story of the blue tarp and the fact that i was wearing one on my hike is totally ironic. i didn't think of it til i started writing this post. funny.



so the blue tarp of death bought us another 2 years in our home. my little dollar store blue tarp came in handy on my hike and provided a bit of shelter from the driving rain and wind of the day. but, alas, there are no more blue tarps to shield us against the driving elements of this latest howling storm -

our house has sold. we have to move. 

word came this week that the home we have called our own for the last 17 years has been sold. in our world, this is not welcome news. it's hard, disheartening, sad news.

after all, 'our home' was never really ours to begin with. it was always owned by someone else. now a new someone owns it. they bought it AND they want to live in it. the nerve!

so we will have to leave...by december 2016.



{She stood in the storm and when it did not blow her away,
 she adjusted her sails.}

i do not want to leave my home; the only home my youngest two have ever known. and i don't want to leave this city i love with all my heart. yet, the inclement conditions of the vancouver housing (rental) market and rental bidding wars may blow us clear across the country.

i don't know if i can adjust my sails to that.

this latest life storm has got a mountain of emotion to traverse. the winds of it are a howling cold front cutting an icy jagged tear through my heart. i've got a tidal wave of feelings blitzing their way through my body and a torrential downpour of sadness cascading down my cheeks. the dense, dark cloud of it all sits low and thick obliterating my view... of where to go or how to move on from here.

they say home is where the heart is... but my heart is here. in the mountains i climb. in the forests i bike. in the ocean i kayak. and in east van with the kids we work with.

it's gonna take awhile to adjust my sails to this one.


in fact, i've (we've) been grappling with this for several weeks already. and it's just been too hard to write about or speak of because that would mean i'd (we'd) have to really face the full brunt of this storm. this is hard on so many levels and for many reasons. however, we can no longer ignore or deny that a move is looming overhead and there appears to be nothing affordable on the horizon. 

where to go? or more like where can we afford to live? well isn't that the 50 million dollar question.


we've been looking for awhile now and there is nothing that compares to what we are currently in - both for size or price. pretty much anything 3 bedroom for us; even a shared living space (top floor or basement), would mean a complete redefinition of the word budget. And finding an extra grand per month is not something we can adjust the budget to. 

this is hard to share... but we're putting this out there in the hopes that you will share it or that you will know someone who knows someone who has a place we could settle in to.

HERE'S THE SPECIFICS:



we'd prefer to stay in current east richmond neighborhood (avery is starting grade 8 in sept)
or 
make a move into east van (where graham works and where we have always hoped to live.)

a 3 bedroom house or townhouse with adequate storage; (clean, bright, quiet, mold-free environment is needed as both Parker and i have significant chronic health issues)
enclosed garage/storage area as we have bikes

dog-friendly as we have a small, non-shedding dog. (harrison is almost human but you know, not everyone sees it that way, so we have to classify him as a dog.)

move-out date on or before december 1,2016. (we do not want to move at christmas time)

our current rent is $1640. there is not much room in the budget to pay a whole lot more than that. 







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your blog! I live in the UK, have recently been diagnosed with Lyme after 15 years of mysterious symptoms. Now I discover that I have passed this disease on to my children and my world is collapsing around me. I really don't know where to find the mental strength to face this and then I find your blog where you and your family are climbing mountains and mountain biking in between illness. Well done! You have given me hope.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Blast from the past here, done this as anomynmous, for now.
Let us just say that I was very familiar with your PICC line!
I am so sorry to hear that my favourite young man is still suffering, this disease is indeed a complete ba**ta*d. I have thought about you and the family often since my weekly sojourns to your wonderful household, glad that wee Harrison is still doing his job so well.
I see your plight with housing and I will put out some feelers to all the people that may be able to help.
Strangely, the reason I even started looking at Lyme blogs was because I am awaiting results from the great CDC at this very moment, been ill for a long time, just managing work, Hubby does EVERYTHING else. Fortunately I am now in the office all day.
I will get back to you if I find any accomodation. D.

s. said...

Dearest D

well hello there, blast from the past! I read the family your message and we are pretty darn sure we know who you are :) It is so very lovely to hear from you albeit I am so sorry to hear that you are sick and possibly facing a diagnosis of lyme. so very sweet of you to offer to help with our housing situation - good news with that is that is not necessary! we found a place and we're still in Richmond - albeit Steveston Village We are loving our new digs - guess you could say we're village people now, lol.

Now, back to this lyme business...If i may jump on my soap box for a moment and interject and say, 'please don't rely on the CDC for diagnosis. AHHHH! Studies out of Johns Hopkins have shown time and time again that the testing the CDC relies on is not reliable (about a 50% of tests return FALSE NEGATIVE results). therefore, a diagnosis of Lyme should be based on clinical presentation. The good news is that there are several doctors here in the Vancouver area now that have been trained to make a clinical diagnosis and treat Lyme. i would be more than happy to direct you to one - also, I would LOVE to chat and catch up, so please drop me a line via my email - sngoertzen@gmail.com - it's private so you wouldn't need to be worried about anonymity.

hope to hear from you,
s.