Hunkabutta Archives
07.31.04

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We've been doing nothing but dealing with the purchase of the new house, and it's still not finalized yet. It's been a stressful week.

So far, we've had the house and cottage inspected and that turned out okay; the septic tank checked and that turned out to be in terrible shape, but because of the current dry season lack of water it's kind of an involved procedure to fix it right now; and we've had the well water tested, and that's where we've run into a snag. The well water failed the test on the coliform bacteria count (bacteria from plant matter). We don't care so much about that because we can have the well sterilized and we'll probably have a bottled water cooler in the house anyway, but the bank doesn't like it one bit. They won't issue a mortgage to us until the water passes the test and we can't closed the deal until we've got the mortgage.

We've been trying to get the realtors and current owner to sterilize the well all week, but it's like Mexico North up there and it seems next to impossible to get anything done quickly. The owner couldn't be bothered to take action; the listing agent is away on her sailboat; the well guy that we asked to sterilize the well got pissed off at one of our agents over a telephone conversation and initially refused to do the work; and the septic company guy doesn't work with wells and besides, as he said, he doesn't like to make appointments because he doesn't want people to "get disappointed if he doesn't show up." So you just have to keep trying on his cell phone and hope to catch him with some free time.

We were in a big rush because the purchase contract expires today so we'll have to make a new one with an extension, which means the seller can now back out of the deal if she wants to. Also, the lab tests take a few days to do and we're heading back to Japan next Thursday so we want to get it all wrapped up before then.

Anyhow, the well has been 'shocked', as they say, and we got a new water sample and we're running it up to the lab this afternoon. We'll get the results on Tuesday. If all goes well we'll finalize the mortgage on Wednesday, fly out on Thursday, and be back in Tokyo for the weekend.

I can't wait for this purchasing struggle to be over so that I can get busy working on the house and land, and start bringing into reality this little dream country getaway in the forest that we've been fantasizing about for all of these years.

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07.26.04

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Saturday the 24th was Jack's third birthday, and he loved blowing out the candles on his cake this year.

He got a lot of gifts, but I think that his favourite was probably a tool set from my parents. It came with a little plastic power drill and he used it to go around and screw in everyone's knees at the party.

There's a great satisfaction in seeing your children grow up healthy and happy, and I see now that birthday parties are as much for the parents as they are for the kids. Birthday parties afford parents an opportunity to take a step back, pat themselves on the back and say, "Well, I got him through one more year in one piece, and he's looking pretty good too."

Parental satisfaction was something that I never really understood until I had children of my own, which I suppose is like a lot of things in life. It's amazing how wrapped up in a child's life and well being you can become.

Anyway, Jack doesn't care about any of these things. He's just looking around for some more knee caps to screw in.

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07.22.04

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I feel like I'm coasting down a steep hill on a bicycle--There's a scary kind of rush as the world goes racing by, and I can see only two things: The bottom of the hill in intense, unwavering focus, and a quick succession of blurry trees everywhere else.

The process of setting up our new life in Canada has begun in earnest. There is a mind-numbingly large number of things that need to be done and details that need to be taken care of. We bought a house last week, in a more-or-less snap decision, and of course that in itself has become a universe of busy work: forms to fill out, people to meet, and inspections to arrange. But the larger picture is much more intimidating. This coming fall, when we move, is going to be a memorable time of change in our lives, I'm sure of that.

Not only will we be moving from Japan to Canada, we will essentially be 'emigrating' because we've been living in Japan for so long that we've lost our Canadian residency status. Add to that that we will also be relocating our business, which is of course based in our home. Then recall that Karen will be seven months pregnant at that time and will have our baby at the beginning our December. Finally, squeeze all of that into the realization that we will be moving from the hyper-dense, urban megalopolis of Tokyo into a remote and completely empty house that sits in a forest on a mountain at the edge of a small town in the sleepy Canadian west, and you'll come to grasp some of the enormity of the tasks that lay before us.

It's an exciting time for us. I've always found that great shifts and changes in my life are accompanied by rushing surges of personal energy and the will to be active--does that sound kind of flaky and gay? I hope that this coming fall I'll be able to harness some of that energy and direct it in a fruitful direction.

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07.17.04

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I'm not sure if you're going to believe this, but Karen and I just bought a house. I can't believe it myself--talk about a whirlwind ride.

We went up to Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, to look at a few places on Tuesday. There was one particular place that we were really interested in from the online listings. It had been on the market for a long time, so we figured that there must be something really wrong with it, but when we got there it seemed perfect.

We were going to wait for a while before purchasing, but the realtor applied a few transparent pressure tactics and that's all it took for Karen and I to rush in head first and snap the place up.

So now we are the proud owners (once the paperwork goes through, that is) of a four-bedroom house, guest cottage, and 700-square-foot workshop on five acres of heavily forested and relatively remote land half way up the base of a mountain. We've got an ocean view to Vancouver Island, a well, a septic tank, an old chicken coop, a small orchard, and a tenant in the cottage. The property is only about a 10 or 15 minute drive to either of the two largest towns on the coast (Gibsons and Sechelt), but because it's on the edge of the settlement area at the base of the mountains we'll get all the wildlife (i.e., bears and deer) roaming down onto our property.

I can't imagine a bigger change from the pulse and the roar that is life in Tokyo. There will be no more surging crowds, no more neon canyons, and no more limitless variety of all things purchasable. Instead, there will be a tangible privacy; a great distance between people. From the house area there is nothing to see but trees and flowers and ocean. Nothing is open in the area past nine, and after dark it will be pitch black and silent. We'll have to learn to entertain ourselves. Actually, it's not quite as rustic as it sounds because this part of the country is relatively affluent and there is a big emphasis on socializing and entertaining. There will be many, many parties and day trips.

I've gotten my banjo out of storage from my father-in-law's garage and I'm going to put some new strings on it. It's time for the next stage in my topsy-turvy life to unfold, and I'm really looking forward to all of the new changes.

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Note: I didn't show any interior shots of the house because it's kind of ugly right now and I never really got any good pictures on my tour. The previous owner must of had a fetish for bad wall-to-wall carpeting and country-kitchen style cabinetry because the place is horribly dated and tacky. That's one reason why it stayed on the market so long. But we're going to be fixing it up and you can look forward to some Bob Vila-esque home improvement photo sequences next fall.

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