Still here after all this time...

Well as you can tell by our lack of exciting posts from exotic destinations around the world, we are still in Edmonton waiting for the house to sell. The price has been reduced for a second time, down to $156900. Although the house is still being shown regularly there are no takers. We have only had 3 showings since the price dropped and 1 was just yesterday so I suppose we shouldn't jump to conclusions too fast.

We are still very committed to taking this trip of a lifetime, it's just taking a little longer to get off the ground than we had initially anticipated. Boo the housing market and the damn economic downturn. Ah well, I have complete faith that the house will still sell and we will be on our way in no time. We may just have to go the other way around the world.

To quelch our wanderlust in the short term we've decided to take a trip on the train to Jasper in February and go snowboarding in the mountains for a couple days.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for us, the house has to sell sooner or later!

Two Showings and a Bazaar

The house finally went up for sale last week after a couple minor snags. Since the house is in my name Ryan got the honor of heading to the lawyer's to sign a piece of paper saying I'm allowed to sell it. Then the real estate paperwork had to be done and signed all over again. Ah well, not that big of a deal.

We've already had two showings which is a fun experience. You need to get out of your own house for an hour so that someone can wander through it commenting on your furniture and the color of your walls. Then you get back to find all the lights in the house off and your doors locked in ways you didn't know were possible. As annoying as it can be, I keep hoping for more showings. Let's get this house sold already!

For a taste of the experience to come, we headed to the Tibetan Bazaar that was held this weekend at Westmount hall. It was a small space but it was packed with the exotic. The usual fare of 'Free Tibet' t-shirts were on sale but there was also beautiful jewellry, prayer wheels and fair trade items. Momos and tibetan curry were also available but we didn't indulge.

Who knew we had so much junk?

After last week's disappointment we were very happy when our dumpster arrived on Friday. There was a new guy driving the truck that brought it and he almost crushed the neighbors car. Instead he just scuffed it a little, whoops.

It sure didn't take long to fill it up. In two hours we had tossed out almost our entire basement. It felt awesome chucking things up over the side and smashing them in there. It's very cleansing tossing out the stuff that we've ended up dragging with us every time we moved. The basement looks huge now!

Now time to sit back and watch the opening ceremonies for the paralympics. This is the first year that adaptive rowing is in the paralympics and I'm so proud of my sister who is the coach for the Canadian adaptive rowing team. Good luck Allison!

A New Coat of Paint and 11 Less Snakes

The painting was completed a few weeks ago and it looks great. Nothing like the smell of new paint throughout the house for a few days. Other home improvements that we've done include new blinds, a small fence and new shrubs in the front yard, re-caulked the bathtub, got new handles for the kitchen cupboards and freshly painted the front window trim. Not much to do now except for installation of a new front door and screen doors.

We also had a bittersweet moment last weekend. Mark Isabell from Gone Snakee came to the house and picked up 11 of our snakes. All of our favorite ones have now been sold and it's an odd feeling seeing the empty cages when we go downstairs. Although I must admit that it has also been a relief. We are half way to our goal of finding new homes for all of our snakes which is a huge step before putting the house up for sale. Selling the snakes is the right thing to do and we've already decided that if we get another snake after our trip, we will only get one and give it the most amazing enclosure you've ever seen.