Leave my nest alone

For the fourth time in 16 months, I am collecting boxes and weeding out closets in preparation of an unplanned relocation.



In April 2008 I made the decision to move from Vernon, B.C. to Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Then, in July 2008 I moved from company-provided housing into a generous friend's house. This friend provided me (and later, Kelsey) with a great rental deal. Unfortunately, six months later, he and his gf decided to move back into the house. In keeping with his generous nature, he let us stay until his gf's house sold and offered us the luxury of being able to stay in the house AFTER they moved in if we weren't able to find a place right away. Fortunately for him, we found a place a few blocks away and moved out.

That brings us to our current situation. We moved into our four bedroom duplex in April, just before Scott's arrival. Our time here has been quite enjoyable--plenty of room, separate bathrooms, a west-facing deck, and of course, our amazing pool.

All was going well until yesterday when we got word that, once again, a landlord had decided to move back into his rental unit. This wouldn't be so bad if we weren't happy with where we were living (especially for the price) and hadn't just moved in five months ago.

After a few hours of running around to view a number of possibilities yesterday, we finally narrowed it down to three options: O'Coffey Crescent, Saline Creek Drive and Wood Buffalo. After debating back and forth about which one should win, I made Scott and Kelsey participate in a highly-scientific points-based scoring system to select the winner. Using a scale of one through five, we agreed to settle on one score for each of the following criteria: furniture, price, yard/deck situation, bedroom separation and parking. With grand totals of 18 points, O'Coffey Crescent and Wood Buffalo ended up in a tie for top spot, but ultimately, O'Coffey won due to its close proximity to our current location. Saline Creek had two downfalls: the first was that the landlord lived downstairs and the second was that the previous tenant doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire while inside the house (100% serious here). However, the plus side of this story is that the house has been completely rebuilt. Still a creepy omen though.

We are now just waiting to hear from Landlord Lori of O'Coffey Crescent. Then, the $3,000 damage deposit and $3,000 first month's rent will be in her hands within days. Yup, that's right folks, welcome to Fort McMurray. You need a frigging downpayment just to get a rental unit. I guess this is why they don't recommend coming here sans-employment.

So as you are all enjoying the last few days of summer, please think of us in this little ol' town sweating our asses off as we pack boxes, load and unload trucks.

Oh, and Landlord Lori: don't even think about moving back.