News news news!!

Woah, I haven't written a post in awhile. I have been so busy lately and so much has been going on for us. We had a stressful couple of weeks leading up to going home in September. We didn't have permanent residency yet and we were at the point where we didn't know if were able to go home on our temporary visa but luckily everything worked out and now... WE HAVE OUR PERMANENT RESIDENCY! We are so happy that we finally have it. It was a very long, daunting and expensive process and now it feels so worth it!

Rewind to the week before we received our PR, on Halloween night we got a notice from our landlord saying we needed to leave the apartment by December 31st. This was not the news we needed especially as we are heading home for Christmas in December. Waiting for confirmation of PR is stressful enough and now having to find somewhere new to live, I felt like nothing was going our way. I was and still am very emotional(what's new) about the thought of having to move out of the apartment we are in now. It  is the only place that's been our home away from home for the last 2 and a half years. The day we close the door for the last time I know I will be bawling just thinking of all the happy memories there.

On a brighter note we are not moving far, in fact just one floor below the apartment we are in now. We found out on a Tuesday about our notice and by Saturday we had the keys to our new apartment. Getting somewhere so quickly is unheard of in Toronto at the moment. I have heard stories of people getting turned away for credit history, people being out bid and others getting really small apartments for crazy rent. So we are really counting our blessings that the landlord liked us, that its slightly bigger and that the rent isn't as crazy as it could be. By chance we were the first people to ring the landlord about the apartment and he had made up his mind to take us before he even met us, I think. The day we met him he introduced us to his whole family, wife, children, sister and mother in law, we had not even seen the apartment yet! He was so nice though and we couldn't be luckier.

Now saying all that the place needs a little love, the walls were full of children's drawings. The carpet in the bedroom needed to be professionally cleaned and the landlord needs to get us some wardrobe doors as the old tenant decided to take them with her! lol.

We have been cleaning and painting the past week and we are slowly going to move our stuff in. We are officially moving in the weekend of Nov 25th. Below are some pictures before cleaning and painting. I will do after pictures once it is all done. Follow my Instagram for more regular updates (zitajames).

Have a great weekend!

Talk soon xx

Zita J

Moving In

Hey Everyone,

So last week I was too busy moving into our apartment to blog, sorry about that. Now that things have calmed down a bit I am back on track again. Its the start of a new week and for a lot of people at home its a big week with their children starting big school, preschool and so on. If I was back home I would be back to work today and I am thinking of you all and wishing you the best of luck with all the new experiences ahead. For me and my new experience, sure its only getting started. As I told you last week we moved into our own apartment. For the 5 weeks prior to being able to move in to our own place, we were sleeping on an airbed in a friends apartment. Although we are extremely grateful to them for letting us stay, our backs were getting sore and I couldn't wait to get my hands on our own place and make our first home together.

We got the key on a Friday, two days earlier than expected and we were so excited. We met our landlord for the first time, he is from Montreal and he is so lovely, We are actually one of the lucky few to get a apartment in the location we are in without  jobs. Our realtor was very worried we wouldn't be so lucky but as chance would have it, the landlord liked us and the rest is history.

On Sunday, we went to IKEA. I was very excited as I had never been and neither had Parker. It was not fun and I was very disappointed with the whole experience. It took two subways to get there, which was fine, We went nice and early so we would have plenty of time and eight hours later we could of done with 8 more. We were told we  picked the worse weekend to go as lots of student were shopping as there were back to school sales. From the beginning things didn't seem to go our way. We got a trolley, only to discover it was from an entirely different shop, we asked a staff member where we could get a different one and she pointed us in the wrong direction. We ended up in the market hall (which for anyone who doesn't know it, its where you get everything you need from spoons to rugs etc). Excited, we started filling the trolley, only to discover we need to go to the showroom before going to the market hall. We trekked back to the showroom, with a nearly full trolley and we struggled to view items and take down codes as both our trolleys were getting in peoples way.

I didn't win this argument!

 Stressed and hungry, we got lunch (again with our full trolleys in peoples way). We tried the "famous" meatballs which I must say were average. After lunch and a fit of giggles later (I get very giddy when I'm tired) we headed back to the market hall and the warehouse to collect all the items we had viewed.

From here you would think things would be straight forward...you would be wrong. We thought we didn't need a special trolley for our mattress, bed frame, table, chairs, chest of drawers, lockers etc, we were wrong and we had to load all our stuff on a regular trolley. we couldn't see over it. To add to the mess, lots of the items we had picked in the showroom were out of stock :-( Physically and mentally drained and very disappointed with how unhelpful the staff were. We paid (a lot), sorted out our home delivery and headed back to our empty apartment.

The next day our delivery came (earlier than expected) which isn't ideal when you have a service elevator booked for a particular time in a very busy condo. But here we are, a week later in our new home away from home and I am very happy with how it is looking. We have put our own spin on it and I am trying to be creative by making coasters, picture frames and painting units. IKEA drama aside, the whole experience has been exciting and I am proud of how well we worked together and grateful for the help we received. I am glad we can laugh about the IKEA experience and how stressed out we were over something that should be enjoyable. At the weekend we had a house warming with friends and it was a great night. 6 weeks here and I am starting to settle. Next step, start looking for a job to keep this lovely apartment.

I also might do a video tour of my apartment in the coming weeks if anyone would enjoy seeing it.

Have a great week everyone!

Talk soon xx

Zita J