Oli4 and Saartje in Calgary

Long overdue update

2011-08-08T12:50:00.006-06:00

So – finally – summer is here.
And we have a green yard. Whoopie! Finally grass. No more weeds. No more dirt. No more rocks. Just green grass.
The whole house looks so much better now. We also planted some shrubs on the right side. Looks pretty good. First time we planted something. A few weeks later, it is still alive so I call that a success.

Tomorrow we are leaving on a two week – well deserved – vacation! We are going to Nova Scotia. Friends of ours are going to get married and Sarah is one of the bridesmaids! Its gonna be super exciting. I am really looking forward to it and hopefully I can come back with some great photo's!

Otherwise, everything is still ok. We are both busy at work and Sarah puts a lot of energy and time in Elmo. I guess they want to win another competition or two... More on that later. ;)
And we had a HUGE aurora outbreak on August 5. Here are some images from that spectacular night.

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Aurora Borealis 5 August 2011 - Images by Olivier Du Tre

Aurora Activity

2011-05-01T11:57:00.003-06:00

Friday I went out shooting the aurora's.
It was the best display I've seen so far. Very amazing and active with a lot of purple spikes.
Knowing that this was just a minor hick up of the magnetic field I can only imagine what it is going to be like when solar max arrives.
I'm not going to bore you with further technical details I just want to share the slideshow with you.

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Aurora Borealis - Images by Olivier Du Tre

Elmo, my 2nd level champ!

2011-04-23T20:03:00.005-06:00

Last week we had another dressage show and as always Elmo did fantastic again! I was not sure if we were able to go to the show. It had snowed 15-20cm overnight (no spring here yet...) so the roads were in poor condition. Luckily my trainer Monty has connections everywhere and we got a thumbs up that the roads were bare and good to drive.
A lot of people didn't show up so the riding times were a bit rescheduled... I had only 5 minutes to warm up and I had to start my first test immediately. Our concentration was kind of lost in the first test but we had fun. 2nd test was better. We were 2nd in our first test and first in our 2nd test. And overall champion 2nd level! That means we had the best score in 2nd level of both shows.
So proud of my champion!

Our first dressage show

2011-03-19T20:01:00.005-06:00

Last weekend Elmo and I had our first dressage show and what a success!!!! We were first in 2nd level test 2 and second in 2nd level test 3. I am so proud of my boy!! He did a really good job!
Next show is within 3 weeks. We are already training to improve our weak points. We will keep you updated about the results!

And you can see a video of our tests here

Abraham Lake getaway

2011-03-01T19:56:00.004-07:00

One of the advantages of working in Canada is that almost every month has a statutory holiday. And in February that was Family Day. So we decided to go on a trip to Abraham Lake for the long weekend.
Abraham Lake is situated on the David Thompson Highway. (starts at the Saskatchewan River Crossing on the Icefields Parkway) We stayed at the Aurum Lodge, an eco-tourism country inn.
We really enjoyed our stay! The weather was fantastic. Days before temperatures had dropped below -30 but on our trip we could enjoy a -5. Sun was out all day. We went hiking in the snow. We had tons of fun!

Seasons greeting

2010-12-27T19:54:00.007-07:00

First of all we want to wish you a Merry Christmas (a little bit late, sorry!) and a Happy New Year!!
So what happened on the other side of the ocean the last month: my mom came over for a 2 week visit. We had a great time! And did of course a lot of shopping. Her first words at the airport were "Den Delhaize is hier" She brought tons of goodies like chocolate, beer for olli, candy for me, horse stuff for Elmo, ... She even brought "Sinterklaas" with her from Belgium.
Mom is already blending in with our Canadian friends. She went shopping with Bonnie (Nicole's mom) and they went for dinner with the family while we were at Olli's Christmas party. We are already looking forward to her next visit! (olli already ran out of "Verboden Vrucht"). And thanks again for all the gifts!
Last time I talked about our first dressage show. Unfortunately the show was cancelled... Not enough participants... Dressage is not very popular over here. But hopefully we will have our first real show in March. Date TBA soon.
We have heard that it snowed a lot in Belgium! Not a lot of snow here in Cochrane. And temperatures are not too bad either. Normally around -8, -15. On sunday we even reached 4 degrees! It felt like summer!!
We celebrated Christmas evening at home. Olli made a wonderful diner for me. Bell pepper soup to start, maple salmon with carrot mashed potatoes and carrot-mango salad and strawberries with chocolate to top it off! It was amazing! I have a secret master cook in the house ;)
On Christmas day we were invited to Bonnie's house. She made us a wonderful meal again! It is always so much fun to hang out with the Brooks family!
In Canada it's a tradition you give cookies to your friends around Christmas time. Monty (the lady where Elmo is boarded) made us a huge plate with homemade goodies. So to return the favour we made her something real Belgian: vlaai and broodpudding. The first time we made it and it turned out delicious!!!

My mom enjoying a giant plate of Canadian King Crab.

An image we really wanted to share with you. Perfect snowflakes!

Our first batch of 'Broodpudding" and 'Vlaai'. Speculoos and Peperkoek donations are always welcome.

Winter Wonderland

2010-11-20T17:39:00.005-07:00

Yes, winter has arrived in Cochrane! It started snowing last Monday night. I wasn't really looking forward to Tuesday morning because I knew the traffic was going to be horrible. (it always is when it's the first snow)
Got up at 4:30 and there was already more then 10 cm of snow on the ground. Drove out of the garage and there I was, stuck on the street... (we live on a hill and I couldn't get up the hill). This happens when you don't buy a 4WD... Olli to the rescue!! But no luck... We took Olli's car to bring me to the C-train. No luck either. So we had 2 cars on the street and not one of them was able to get up the hill.
Luckily at around 7, our neighbourhood comes alive and 2 friendly neighbours gave me a push up the hill!
We had light snow for 3 days and temperatures are still between -15 and -25. On Tuesday we go to a low of -30... And as I write this update it's still snowing and another 5 cm is expected...
What exciting things are coming up? My mom is coming over again next Sunday, for 2 weeks. So we are both looking forward to her arrival. And Elmo and me will have our first dressage show, also next Sunday!

Panorama of snowy Cochrane

Even Elmo is doing well in this cold

Let the real Canadian life begin!!

2010-10-18T19:44:00.003-06:00

Today was my first day at my new job!
I work as a CAD Technician (this means making drawings, calculations, interpret field notes, ....) for Stewart Weir. So I swapped the Tideway Rollingstone for an office in downtown Calgary.
Let us say that is not very practical when it comes to taxes to work for a Belgian employer and to live in Canada... So I made the decision... Instead of working for the offshore oil and gas, I work for the Alberta oil and gas now!
This means no more travelling, no more 6 weeks on but unfortunately no more 6 weeks off... More time for Elmo (and getting ready for the dressage show season next year) And the start of the real Canadian life!
But I have to admit I will miss the ship and the crew... It was the coolest job I ever did!

Tideway Rollingstone

Tideway Rollingstone

Me and my 8 survey screens. Ah, good times!

Farewell my dear equine friend...

2010-10-16T18:34:00.004-06:00

On the 28th of September, Athena, one of my horses back home, died of colic. Completely unexpected... She was 20 years old.
Farewell my dear Athy, you were an amazing horse! Thanks for all the fantastic times together. You will be missed...

Fall Colors

2010-10-13T09:41:00.004-06:00

Because we didn't really have a summer and the end of august and beginning of september were really wet, the fall colors were amazing this year! Patches of yellow and orange were spread all over the foothills.
So we would like to share these beautiful colors with you.

Summary of Summer

2010-10-05T19:03:00.007-06:00

Wow... talk about a busy 'Summer'. Yes I write 'Summer', because we did not get a real Summer this year. The weather was really bad in May, June, July and August. With maybe a handful of days with decent temperatures. Only for the last 3 weeks weather has been mild and we have been catching up on hiking and sunbathing. That last thing maybe is not true. :)

On the other hand it was super busy at our place the last 3 months. We had a lot of visitors. At the end of June, Ann & Wim (Sarah's parents) and Maria & Marcel (friends of them) where here to enjoy our new country of residence. :) They did a road trip through the Rockies and enjoyed The Calgary Stampede (and the opening parade down town). By that time Laurie & Liesbeth (friends of Sarah) had joined the party. Yep, at one point we were with 8(!) people in the house.
Finally in September our friend Hans was here. I did a 9 day road trip with him to Vancouver and back and we had an awesome time. 6 of those days we spent in rain though.
Did I tell you about our wonderful 'summer' yet?

Thanks Laurie and Liesbeth for the wonderful pictures.

The Calgary Stampede opening parade.

The Calgary Stampede opening parade.

The Calgary Stampede opening parade.

A bunch of cowboys at The Stampede.

The chuck wagons.

Steer wrestling.

The Grandstand Show at The Calgary Stampede.

From left to right: Liesbeth, Marcel, Maria, Wim, Laurie and Ann was at home with us.

Getting lost on a hill side

2010-07-02T19:14:00.013-06:00

So yesterday was Canada Day. It's like Belgium's National Holiday times 1000. Everybody is wishing everybody a 'happy Canada day'. Imagine doing THAT in Belgium. People would stare at you.
SO since I had the day off, we went on a hike. We decided on doing the Mnt. Yamnuska loop. Mnt. Yamnuska is the first significant mountain you see when driving West from Cochrane on Highway 1. "Yamnuska" is native for "wall of stone".
It is an often vertical and overhanging south cliff 360 metres in height and almost two kilometres in width. Geologically, the mountain is noteworthy because of the clear view of the McConnell Thrust Fault that has forced 600 million year old limestone over 100 million year old shale rocks. The harder limestone forms the cliff and the softer shales form the lower layers. Check this and this if you want to know more.

Anyhow. So our plan was to reach the summit. Yes that is the view from the parking lot. Looks pretty steep and pretty far. After walking through an Aspen forest that changed into a Pine forest we came to an open area with a pretty view. Looking up, the top of Mnt. Yamnuska greeted us. Still a long way to go.

Our first awesome view of Mnt. Yamnuska's vertical wall. From here we could see our final destination! The summit!

At one point in the hike. About half a kilometer from the top we needed to use a steel cable to traverse a narrow ledge. I though it was AWESOME! Here you see Sarah hanging on for dear life.

Here you see what the top looked like. We were almost there. It was pretty steep but knowing you would be standing on top of a mountain gave us wings.

YES we made it! 3.5 hours later we were standing on the summit. We devoured our food and after about 20 minutes (it was kinda cold on the summit) we prepared ourselves to go home.

Here you see the path we needed to follow. At one point in our descend we took a wrong turn though. We had the choice, going up or downhill (at that point I was done going uphill, I wanted to go down). After about 45 minutes the trail that we 'thought' were following stopped. There we were, on the backside of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. We decided to back up. But by now, my legs were dead tired. My body is not made to go uphill for a long time. I like to go down, fast, running, jumping from rock to rock. But uphill it was. After another 1.5 hours we were back where we made the wrong choice. But we still needed to go uphill for about 300m. Once over this ridge it was downhill all the way.

It was one of the best descend I ever did. You were walking in loose gravel, riding your own little rock landslide for about 50% of the descend. You get down fast and it is easy on the knees. It reminded me a little of walking in deep snow, or even snowboarding. You can see a shaky video of it here.
SO 6.5 hours later we were back at the car. I was done. Sarah too. Dead tired we decided to treat ourselves with ice cream and pizza. Yes in that order. Life is too uncertain, eat desert first!

Weed eradication

2010-06-13T16:21:00.003-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks our 'yard' has become infested by weeds.
Every time I pulled up on the driveway I could swear I saw these things grow higher and higher. So today, it was eradication day! :D
We started around 10.30 and where done by 2 I guess. We where pulling out the weeds by hand, leveling the soil and getting rid of all the stones we were able to find.
We filled a total of 8 garbage bags of weeds called 'Stinkweed', and we just found out that it is kind of poisonous.
Landscaping plans are still on the to do list for next year. In the meantime we'll stay busy pulling weeds I guess.

Elmo, BBQ's and other stuff

2010-06-07T19:01:00.003-06:00

Life is still good on the other side of the ocean.
We've been here for almost a year and a half now. Last Saturday, we came another step closer to 'Canadian integration'.
As some of you know, you are not a real Canadian if you haven't got a BBQ on your deck. Canadians use that thing day and night, winter and summer. So we felt it was about time to buy one.
I've christened the thing on Sunday. With a nice big juicy steak (steak must be bigger than your hand). Needless to say, it was great! From now on, all the meat goes on the BBQ. What a difference.

And again we have a new family member! Nope, no dog or cat but a horse! Let me introduce: Elmo! Elmo is a 15 year old Hannoverian gelding that is trained in level 3 dressage. (kinda the same as "zwaar" in Belgium)
So Teara (my lease horse I wrote about a few months ago) went back to her owner and Elmo belongs to the family now.

I (Sarah) got home last Wednesday after 7 weeks spending in Sweden, Finland and Russia. I am leaving again at the end of July.
But in the meantime we are expecting new visitors! My parents and their friends are visiting at the end of June. And in July Laurie and Liesbeth are visiting us during their 3 month trip through the States and Canada.
Activities planned: the Calgary Stampede of course!

We will keep you updated!!!

Finally an update

2010-04-18T20:48:00.003-06:00

I know, I know. We are really bad at updating this blog. But sometimes we just lack the energy and the inspiration to write something. Everything is fine. No need to worry about us.

A couple of weekends ago, Kris & Ine came over for a little visit. Kris & Ine are Belgian friends who live in Vancouver. They moved there a couple of months before we arrived in Canada. We've met them through Hans, a mutual friend.
We had a very nice time catching up on things and the funny thing was that they've experienced all the same things we've experienced adjusting to the 'Canadian way of life'. Banking, buying cars, insurances, buying a house, getting the mortgage, ...

The day after Kris & Ine left, a new batch of visitors entered our home. Maarten & Tina. It was so awesome to see these guys back!
Last weekend, the four of us went on a little road trip to Jasper. I took Friday off so we could enjoy 3 days of sight seeing. Finally I was able to photograph stuff that had been on my list for a couple of months/years. Jasper is such a nice area. Wildlife simply walks everywhere you look. It is crazy to see Caribou grazing around the outskirts of the town in the morning.
We also did the Banff upper hot springs on our way back. And after our little soak, we had a really nice meal at the Banff Grizzle House. Mmmmm too bad you come out of that place smelling like a smoked ham. :)

Sarah had to leave for work last Monday so that sucked bigtime. She's now somewhere in Swedish waters, near Oskarshamn. She dropped me an email and she said that Oskarshamn looks very beautiful, 'a lot of small colourful houses'.

Maarten & Tina were scheduled to leave this evening but thanks to the Icelandic Volcano Ash Cloud thing, they are kinda stranded here. The earliest flight M & T are able to catch is the one on Monday, the 26th. So they have to stay a week extra. Against all will. But I'm sure, deep inside, they don't mind. Everything is re-booked so fingers crossed...

I leave you with some pics from our road trip.

Let me introduce....

2010-01-29T22:12:00.004-07:00

TeAra, my new equine friend!
After a year of "horse inactivity" I felt the urge of having a horse again. TeAra is a 13 year old american quarter horse mare. (AQHA) I am currently leasing her because I want to see how things work out with my job. Leasing means I just pay for boarding an other expenses but she remains property of the owner. She is boarded within a 5 minute drive from our home (In Canadian language "just around the corner" ;))
We will keep you updated about our adventures!!

The visit of the Olympic flame in Cochrane

2010-01-22T10:14:00.004-07:00

As all of you know, Canada and more precisely Vancouver is hosting this year's Olympic Winter Games. And no games without the Olympic Flame!
The Olympic Flame was lit in a traditional ceremony in Olympia, Greece on October 22, and traveled throughout the country before being handed over to representatives of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). Once in VANOC’s hands, the Olympic Flame boarded a trans-Atlantic flight and arrived in Victoria, BC, where it started a 106-day during journey. On this journey it will visit more then 1000 communities across Canada. 12,000 people will have the honour of being an Olympic Torchbearer and will help carry the flame to Vancouver, a majority of whom will be selected through public programs. The Olympic Flame will complete the cross-country journey at Vancouver’s BC Place on February 12, 2010, as it lights the Olympic Cauldron, signaling the start of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
On day 83 (20th of January) it was Cochrane's turn to greet the Olympic Flame!

The Popo's getting ready (aka Police)

The van with the other Olympic Torchbearers

And there comes the Flame!

It's getting closer...

And closer...

And closer...

In it's full glory!

And on it's way to Vancouver

1 year anniversary

2010-01-19T18:49:00.003-07:00

Waw time really flies when life is good! Today, one year ago, we arrived in Canada. Everything is more than A-OK over here. Last week we even said to each other that we didn't feel any regrets at all about our 'big move'. We are still living the dream. :)

Two weeks ago we got hit by what are called Chinook winds. This is air that literally rolls down the mountains and picks up heat. We went from -35 to +10 in a matter of days. All the snow is almost gone. Roads are back to normal (except for the massive amounts of gravel, and the windshield chips that come along with it).

Also today was a big day in Calgary. The Olympic Flame was back in town (since 1988)! They even lit the Calgary Tower again! That is one awesome sight! It looks like a big birthday candle to us (happy 1 year anniversary!). ;) My boss was one of the lucky ones to run with the flame this morning. And he let me touch the torch!
Tomorrow the Flame passes through Cochrane and Sarah is planning on watching it run by.

This summer it's going to be crazy busy around here. A lot of friends are coming over from Belgium. We are really looking forward to this. Luckily we have some spare rooms to share.

Last but not least we want to wish you all a happy new year and lot's of joy in 2010.

First real winter storm

2009-12-06T09:50:00.003-07:00

For the past couple of days, Alberta's weather (which was really nice until now) has taken a turn for the worst. Yes winter has arrived and it did it in a violent fashion.
Last Friday (the 27th of November) the drive home was close to hell. What normally takes 40-45 minutes, took me 3 hours. The roads were covered in Ice. Super slippery conditions. I have never seen this before. The moment you even thought about using your brakes your were sliding all over the place. Thank god I drive a stick! Those guys with automatics really are in for some serious trouble whenever it starts to snow.
On Friday (4th of December) the first real winter storm of the season swept by leaving behind some 20cm (and in other cases close to 50cm) of snow. Driving home from work on Friday was bad but not as bad as the Friday before. The roads were covered in ice and the wind blew snow allover the roads (which made the visibility very poor in some spots). Took me only 2 hours to get home... *sigh*
The storm was accompanied by some strong northern winds blowing the snow allover the place on Saturday. Temperatures have really plummeted. From around 5 degrees high (last Thursday) to -20 right now. Together with the wind chill this makes -33 for now (yes this is in Celcius). I tell you, that is cold! I walked around the neighborhood yesterday to make some shots for the blog and I was happy to be indoors again (after I was away for 15 minutes or so).
The house is doing really fine in these conditions. There is some snow shoveling involved to get in or out the garage though but that's it.

These are some shots of the mountains we are seeing from our living room. The car shot is after 2 hours of snow in Calgary. I forgot to take a picture when it was time to go home but the snow on top of the car was more then double. Next shot is the commute home on Friday. Hey where is that road anyway? And the last 2 shots are our neighborhoods' snow drifts (a.k.a. snow dunes). :)

It has been a busy few weeks

2009-11-21T15:19:00.007-07:00

We are sooooo sorry it took us a little longer to update our blog. But it was quite busy the last few weeks. With Sarahs' mom flying in, taking possession of the house, moving, sorting and unpacking everything, Kristof (good friend) flying in, ...

We were lucky that Ann was here. Some extra helping hands around the house sure made a difference. After a day or two everything was basically unpacked.
Living in our own house by the way has been awesome so far. It already feels like home. Although it's still a little empty because not all of our furniture is in yet. But that will change next month.

Also we had a few very nice diners both in town and with our friends. Nicole invited us 3 for diner at her mom's place and Chris did the same for us 4 (with Kristof) at his dad's. On both occasions we enjoyed the most wonderful meals. We are very lucky we have friends like this!!! And everybody wants to 'adopt' Ann! Everybody liked her soooo much.
Sarahs' mom has since then left and Kristof is still hanging around the house. It was awesome to pick up our friendship again. It is like we never went away. Sadly, he is leaving tomorrow and we will be all by ourselves again tomorrow night.

The last three weeks we obviously were acting as tour guides for our guests. We visited all the classics spots. We went to Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore, Kananaskis, we got stuck in snow on the Icefields Parkway, Drumheller, visited the slippery Johnston Canyon... Sarah also went snowboarding with Kristof this week. They had a blast!

Ann at Lake Louise.

Together with Chris, Nicole and Bonnie, Nicoles' mom.

Slippery Johnston Canyon.

Two best friends.

Ginger stuck in snow.

Kristof wanted to taste real fresh ice. Hey no problem, chew on this.

Only the tip of Sarahs' nose was exposed to the elements when she went boarding.

Look at me. I make this look good!

Kristof falling asleep after a day of snowboarding.

The house is ours!

2009-10-29T21:19:00.002-06:00

Super super quick update. The house is ours! This week was super busy. Bank stuff, lawyers, Sarah's mom flying in. And finally today was possession day! We got the keys to our own house. Immediately we started to move boxes from the apartment to the house. After two runs (Roger and Ginger were packed to the roof) everything was basically up there. Tonight we've already unpacked most of our stuff. We had some 'ahaaaa' moments but no big surprises yet. Everything is going as planned. Tomorrow our furniture is arriving (well most of it) and our mattress too. That means tomorrow night, we will spend our first night in the new home. It's all so exciting. We don't realise it yet that we are new home owners!
On another note, you won't see a quick update soon. We won't have internet access at home for the next 2 weeks. So bare with us... We will update the blog as soon as possible.

Crunch Time!

2009-10-17T17:43:00.007-06:00

Waw the house looks stunning! We are definitely in the final stages now.
All the bathrooms are finished. Every bathroom now has a mirror. In our master bathroom the shower has been installed. All the closets now have hangers. Pfff it's too much to sum up really. The correct carpet is in! ;) They arranged our 'fake firewood' in our fireplace. Next week the appliances are going in (they are already delivered and are waiting to be installed).
I'm lazy. I'm just going to post a lot of images.... ;)

A little snag

2009-10-13T20:53:00.003-06:00

In the previous post I was telling you guys that everything was going great with the house! That the hardwood and the tile were in and that they even were busy installing the carpet. Well - thanks to the observing eye of Sarah - we suspected that they were installing the wrong carpet! And our suspicions were right, IT IS THE WRONG CARPET!
But that carpet is coming out on Thursday and by the end of the day we will have the right shade of carpet in our house! Pretty funny, and yet again, not really.

So I've also told you that I was going to do a lot of photography this weekend. Well I did and it was pretty awesome.
Yesterday I spend my day around the Vermillion Lakes in Banff. I think it is gorgeous up there. Mount Rundle is one of my favourite mountains. I like the shape of it and you can photograph it whole day long. At sunrise over Two Jack Lake and in the afternoon and evening over the Vermillion Lakes. Yesterday though the weather wasn't really cooperating in the afternoon. But I wasn't going to give up this easily.
I've visualised this shot a long time ago. I wanted a reflection, some ice, maybe a nice ice feature, some reeds or grass in the foreground, Mount Rundle and some sunlight.
I picked my spot fairly early in the afternoon and just waited for the right light (while watching a little duck that was making waves in the opening in the ice). After 2 1/2 hours of waiting, I was beginning to believe this evening wasn't going to be spectacular after all and then, as by magic, a ray of sunlight broke through the clouds (and went away again). I started to get my gear ready. Maybe, just maybe, I could get lucky. And then it happened. At first there was a clearing in the clouds. Then the wind shifted and the clouds that were hugging Mount Rundle for the whole afternoon began to disperse. I was able to see a spectacular dance between the clouds and the warm sunlight. This shot was taken about 5 minutes before everything began to turn for the worse again. When I was back in the car it began snowing again and it never stopped.
Why I like this picture? Well it shows you to never give up. No matter what. Fall is a tricky season up here in the mountains and sometimes you need a bit of luck. Yesterday I was the lucky one!

Almost finished!!!

2009-10-10T22:01:00.006-06:00

Hello everyone. I was so anxious to see the house today! This week the hardwood and tile were going in. So I knew I was in for a big surprise. Even today tradesmen were working on the house. They are feeling the deadline! :p They were busy installing the carpet! (I didn't have a chance to go upstairs and check out the bathroom though, because I wanted to keep the carpet clean!). I don't know what these guys were thinking but it was smoking hot inside the house! Felt like a sauna!
So downstairs all the hardwood is in but it's all still covered up in cardboard to protect it obviously. Also the whole kitchen is protected in this manner. This way I still find it difficult to put it all together in my mind... Also all the switches and outlets have been installed now and all the lights are in (and working). We even have a bell already (and that's working too! dingdong). Since we could not choose the lighting package, these WILL be our first upgrades somewhere next year I think. No I don't think, I know so! Because I hate them. Why?! Well for starters, every Canadian has them in their home :). And the weird part is, they like them too.

On another note. On Friday I found out it's Thanksgiving weekend this weekend and I don't have to work on Monday. Well thanks for telling me (I didn't know)! So as a last minute 'I need to do something' I am planning on doing some photography again this weekend. Today I went to Canmore. I am trying to make a good shot of the 'Three Sisters' (3 mountains, not 3 Canadian hot chicks). And I've been looking for a good spot on Google Maps for 3 weeks now. Today I went up there to see if my theory held up. It did not. But hey lesson learned. Lets try again tomorrow!
I did see 2 bull elk and 2 female elk (a cow for you nature buffs)... strolling around Canmore (inside the city limits). An amazing sight!

A quick update

2009-10-04T13:55:00.007-06:00

Winter has arrived in Calgary. Already?! Jeps, we got 2 weeks of fall and that was it. Straight to winter it is. Last night it started to snow and it snowed until just now actually. Very lightly and nothing is accumulating on the ground but still, first snow is first snow.
So, what's going on with the house? Well big news actually. We are taking possession on the 29th of October!!! Yeeeeaaaaah. The house looks great. All the cabinets are in and the house is fully painted. This week the tiles are going in. And after that the hardwood. I am busy organising all the bank and legal stuff. But everything seems to be ok. Only 4 weeks to go!

Sarah swapped cold, damp Calgary for the heat of Mexico. She's on a ship (the Rollingstone) smack dab in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Communicating with her is going to be though because she doesn't have any internet or phone access. Last Wednesday she called me with a satellite phone to inform me about her situation. She is surrounded by oil rigs and apparently that's an awesome sight. I can't wait to see some pictures. It sounds neat!

At the end of the month Sarah's mom is going to be visiting us! Great timing Ann!!! You can help us move into the house. :)

I am going to leave you with some pictures I took on a photo excursion last Sunday (and the weekend before). They are all taken in a region called Kananaskis. I was surrounded by beautiful fall colours. And I saw a lot of wild life!

This is really starting to look like a house!

2009-09-16T20:19:00.004-06:00

Wow, crazy stuff has happened in the house. Jayman emailed us this week saying that this week would be 'cabinet-week'. We were really excited to see the house today. When we entered it we were surprised that the kitchen cabinets were in! Check it out. This is a huge kitchen. We will have to be careful not to get lost walking over to the fridge! ;)
All the doors and the door frames were in and the base boards were in on the top floor as well.
The bathrooms upstairs are starting to take shape too. By next week I think we will have sinks. Also all the light switches and outlets are being installed. Cool the see a working light for the first time!
The pictures also show the first coat of paint that I was talking about in an earlier post. And you will also see that weird (a.k.a. Canadian) ceiling finish.
On to the pics!

Say hello to our new family member!

2009-09-13T09:33:00.004-06:00

It was quite a busy day yesterday. We took possession of Sarah's new ride. We've bought a new Ford Ranger. Sarah has always wanted a little truck and with that Ford Employee Pricing going on last month, it was too good to pass up. So it's a brand new Ford Ranger Sport, Supercab, 2 wheel drive, 4.0L V6, 210 hp.

So yesterday we took it for his 'maiden' trip to the mountains. But first we went to see the house. The house is looking great. This time around we had gutters all around on the outside. And the concrete foundations had that 'stucco like finish' that I talked about in an earlier post. On the inside a lot has changed too. The first coat of paint was on. Looks fabulous. Also the railing on the stairs was in. That looks very good too. The casing around the bathtub was in. And there was a trades person in doing preparations to install the doors. He was attaching a million hinges to the insides of the door frames.
After visiting the house we drove to Banff. Enjoying our little truck on the highway. I was surprised about the handling of 'Roger' (o yeah we've named him 'Roger the Ranger', sounds good eh?). We strolled around in Banff. Sarah bought some really cool winter gloves. And around 6 we drove to the third Vermillion Lake. I wanted to do some sunset photography of the Mount Rundle and Sulfer Mountain. I found a perfect spot. I installed my gear and 20 minutes or so before sunset, 9 other photographers joined me. It was quite busy. But I had the best spot. Lesson of this is kids: better come an hour early then 10 minutes late!

The sun touching Mount Rundle at sunset. Sulpher Mountain is to the right. Notice the light is still warm and yellow.
By now, the sun has set. Notice how the light changes to salmon pink.
The sun has now set for about 10 minutes or so. The sky turns purple. That dark purple region on the lower left (in the sky) is actually the earths' shadow.

Long weekend!

2009-09-08T21:02:00.006-06:00

Last weekend was a long weekend here in Canada. It's called 'Labour Day'. We decided to book a hotel in Lake Louise for three days to enjoy the mountains (again) and to do some hiking. And I planned for three days of photography of course!
On Saturday we hiked to the Plain of the Six Glaciers. The weather was fine and we enjoyed this awesome 7km hike (one way). The hike ends on a viewpoint above Victoria Glacier. From up there you can see six glaciers (hence the name, duh).
On Sunday we did a short hike to see the Silverton Falls (yeah me and waterfalls). After that we hiked to Boom Lake. The weather had turned for the worse. Showers and it was gray and cold. But with our new hiking gear everything was OK! ;)
On Monday (the weather was still not cooperating) we hiked to the Ink Pots at the Johnston Canyon. The Ink Pots are 6 turquoise blue cold spring pools. One pool flows into the other and the water is a constant 4 degrees year round. When you do this hike you pass the popular Lower Falls in Johnston Canyon and the Upper Falls (which we had never seen before). Johnston Canyon HAS TO BE one of the most touristic places in Alberta! The cars are literally lined up to get in. The trick is to come early!

Now on to the photography part of the post!

Castle Mountain in evening light.
Moraine Lake at Sunrise.
Mount Weed and Silverhorn Creek in evening light.
A little stream in the woods on our hike to Boom Lake.
Silverton Falls.
Upper Falls in Johnston Canyon.
Upper Falls in Johnston Canyon from the observation platform.
'Middle Falls' in Johnston Canyon.
Mistaya River in gray, rainy, evening light.

On our return trip on Monday, we passed by the house. We have a finished ceiling and the walls were prepped for painting! Next step will be the installment of the door and window casings and the installment of the doors. Pretty exciting!

Another House update

2009-09-02T21:17:00.002-06:00

SO we just came back from the house and it looks great. The outside is almost finished and the colours are just perfect! It's been a while since we've seen the colours on the little swatches at the show home. We were relieved that the house looks very good!
The things that remain to be installed on the outside are: the rain gutters, railing on the deck and in the entrance, stone finish on both sides of the garage and entrance pillar, finishing the concrete of the foundation on the outside with a layer of what looks like stucco, and finishing up the pot lights and switches.
On the inside another step was made. All the dry wall seems have been closed. And the sanding has been done too. Next step will be the ceiling. They cover this with some sort of uneven plaster. Looks really weird the first time you see it. And it's kind of hard to explain. But I will post pictures in the near future so you can better understand what we mean.
So on to the pictures! I did two 360 panos again, this time with descriptions of where everything will be located in the house.
O and don't be shy to leave any comments behind. We LOVE reading them!!!

Weekend adventures

2009-08-31T18:23:00.010-06:00

Two weekends ago (Sunday 23rd) we decided to go to the Columbia Icefield. No, the Icefield isn't in Columbia like the name suggests. It's about 1,5 hours north of Lake Louise on Highway 93. It's one of those popular spots that – when the weather is perfect – can be awesome. We have been there four times before and every time the weather was bad. So now this was going to be our fifth time and all weekend we were keeping an eye on the weather. This time the weather was cooperative though, and we decided to take the $45 snowcoach trip up the glacier. Needless to say it was an awesome experience. First, those snowcoaches are really fine examples of superb enginering and second, standing on a glacier is an amazing experience. The temperature up there was really cold... wow what an icy wind.
So especially for you I've done one of those 360 degrees panoramas again so you too can enjoy the wonders of nature.

ATHABASCA GLACIER (click and drag mouse)

Last weekend we went hiking again! This time it was the area around Lake Louise. We did the trail to Mirror Lake and Agnes Tea House. It is so beautiful up there and you are so close to the mountains. It feels almost like you can touch them. Then we pressed on to the Small Beehive. Wow that was a pretty hard hike. Well I don't like going UPhill, but I like going DOWNhill. Why, I don't know. It has always been this way. Even as a kid I would run down a mountain. ;) For Sarah it's the other way around. So going uphill, I'm always out of breath and shouting (whilst on hands and knees) to Sarah 'PLEASE SLOW DOWN, I'M AN OLD MAN!'.
Conquering the Small Beehive made us curious what the view could be on the Big Beehive. So, we went uphill again. And o boy was it BIIIIIG. On top of the Big Beehive there is a little hut (I don't have pictures of it) but people were leaving their names on the wood there for ages. There are signatures from 1923 and even one from 1919 (with the full name and address of the individual). Pretty cool! The view on the other hand was being blocked by trees.
I think we did close to 15 km in total. We were tired and last night we slept very well! On to the pictures!

First picture is Mirror Lake. Second picture is Lake Agnes. Third and last picture is the view from a top of the Small Beehive and the Big Beehive. You can click all pictures to see bigger versions.

So what about the house I hear you ask. Well we were there on Saturday. The siding was almost completed. But we won't show you pictures yet! We want it to be fully finished before we unleash the pics. It looks stunning but that is the only thing I am going to say. For now, we will show you the inside. Since the rough-in has been completed the trades men were busy starting on the drywall. Seeing the rooms of the house without the fact that you can see through walls made a huge difference. We are both really excited about the house. It will look awesome!

So what do we see? First picture is the view in the living room. From approximately the area where the raised eating bar will be. Second picture is the view from the second floor looking down the stairs. Third picture is looking back from the master bedroom to the bonus room. And the last picture is the view from the master bedroom looking at the bathroom and the hallway upstairs.

The end of the Deep Panuke project

2009-08-28T14:52:00.007-06:00

Most people know I've spend almost 6 months in Nova Scotia for the Deep Panuke pipeline and landfall project. I got home last Friday! The project is finished and Canada has a new gas pipeline!
I had a great time over there and met some wonderful people (aka the MacIntosh family and their friends ;)) I will visit them for sure next summer!
Not sure where my next project will be, it will be either Newfoundland or Mexico. I'll keep you updated!!
Another big update of our house is coming tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Peggy's cove, a small village on the south shore
of Nova Scotia and only 35 minutes from Halifax

Whalewatching trip, too bad we only saw pilot whales

The pipe pull of the Deep Panuke gas pipeline

The winch setup. First a steel wire is laid. The pipelay vessel
"Allseas Lorelay" picks up the end of the wire and connects the pipe.
Then the big yellow linear winch starts pulling on that wire and then
the wire goes on a drum winch wile the pipe is being pulled.

Allseas Lorelay. If you look really good you see the
pipe coming out of the end of the ship (the stinger)

And the pipe finally arrives onshore!

The Deep Panuke gas pipeline!

And to finish off: a sunset in Country Harbour

First offical walk through today!

2009-08-19T21:18:00.013-06:00

Today I had my first official walk through of the house.
I was happy to see that the whole house has been insulated! It's crazy how fast it all goes. So I asked my questions about some concerns I had but everything turned out to be normal. So nothing to worry about. The only thing we all saw (with all I mean: me, Tim remember he is the head of construction and a guy named Peter, who is the boss of all the trades men or something) is that the bottom of the windows are kind of 'bubbly'. It's like the foam that they have sprayed underneath the windows (to fill the holes) has expanded too much. This is of course an issue. Tim reassured me that it's not a huge issue but something that they need to fix before dry walling begins. The two windows downstairs have this problem. And all the big windows upstairs. Really weird.
On the outside the supports for the deck were in. And some trades men (and a women) were busy painting the trim. The dark gray really looks stunning!
The garage has been insulated and in the basement the supports for the walls were in too.
Tim told me that tomorrow all the siding is arriving on site and on Friday they start the siding process. The siders will work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get the job done. And then next week dry walling is scheduled to start! Whoopie
For a change I've tried to make 360 panoramas. Just click inside a movie and drag your pointer around. There are some mistakes in the panoramas but it's my first time doing this :)
I hope that this way everybody gets a better sense of the place!!!

BASEMENT (click and drag mouse)

MAIN FLOOR (click and drag mouse)

SECOND FLOOR (click and drag mouse)

Basement is poured and the deck is taking shape too

2009-08-16T16:55:00.006-06:00

So yeah another update eh? I went to the house on Saturday. Although I was there last Thursday, I was surprised by the amount of work put in again.
So what happened. Well, our basement floor has been poured. The slab is just perfect. It's silky smooth! Hopefully the garage is the same way. I didn't go into the garage yet because the garage door is closed and I don't want to jump a meter or so down from the entrance hallway (I know I'm lazy).
Also the deck is taking shape. The support beams were in. I think on Monday this deck will be finished so by the time I go there on Wednesday, I will be able to stand on it. That will be rewarding! Maybe I bring a beer and enjoy a cold one while watching the sunset or something. Hahahaha :)
On the second floor there was some progress too. They constructed a roof underneath the real roof. You can barely see it on the shots but it is there! This is merely for heating and insulation purposes. It will make the space above the ceiling a lot smaller. Well you get the point when you see it.
ON the outside that column has been further refined and they are continuing to put up the trim. This trim is white for now. But it will be painted in a dark gray.
I can't wait until Wednesday! To see the deck and hopefully the siders are putting up the sidings! :) fingers crossed!

A story about a house, Perseids and the Vans Warped Tour

2009-08-13T23:08:00.011-06:00

SO, ready for a little update on the house again?
I'm going to make this quick. Garage floor is poured! JIHAA :)
The basement floor is prepped for pouring too. The basement has been filled with gravel and on top of that there is a plastic foil that will – hopefully – keep water out! This means that the rough-in is almost complete. Also some graffiti adores the basement walls. No idea what they mean.
I got word on that water main (see previous post) in the basement too. This is a temporary hook-up. The plumbers want to check everything first (when everything is installed like bath, shower, kitchen, ...) before they install it the proper way. I don't know why. Seams like a double job to me but I'm no plumber.
Upstairs the electricians were busy with some blue electrical cords. I don't know what the change in colours mean. But these cords are power outlets for what I can see.
Also upstairs there is some weird baffle installed in the roof of the front bedroom. I don't know what that is for either.
On the main floor nothing major happened. Except that they are starting to outline the stairs a bit better.
The outside is getting ready for sidings. I noticed (it was always their though) a new little 'roof' on the backside of the house (where the deck will be). It's so funny, the more I see the house, the more new – old – things I notice.
The trim is being put up for the moment and in the entrance our column has been installed too. The house that's a step in front of us (you know, down the hill) is almost fully sided. So I know we are next. I guess we are waiting for the weather to clear because guess what, it's been pouring again today!!! And it was like 12 degrees again. WHOOPIE summer time!

Yesterday I went to the Vans Warped Tour! Normally Sarah would have joined me, but something at her job decided to break (some inclinometer or something). SO she wasn't allowed to fly in. We were really looking forward on spending that one day together and enjoy the music we like. But it wasn't supposed to be I guess. I made the best of it and I saw some great things. I was happy that I DID go.
* MESSAGE FOR OUR BELGIAN FRIENDS * If you EVER planning on coming here, please do so when the Warped Tour is in town! SO MUCH BETTER THAN GROEZROCK!!!

Anyway, what else. Oh on Tuesday night I was in the middle of nowhere again to photograph the Perseids meteor shower. I looked at the clear sky forecast and decided on a dark spot about 2 hours SSW of Calgary. It was great. Saw like 50 meteors in 3 hours or so but photo-wise, I was only able to capture 5. I was fighting moonlight, clouds, moisture and so on. I left the camera going until the battery died on me. But I enjoyed it.

Ok I guess that's all for now.

Ready to pour!

2009-08-08T18:27:00.006-06:00

Just a little update on the house.
The garage floor is finally prepped for concrete pouring. The rebar is in so next week we will have a garage floor I hope. Also, the garage door is in! On the inside of the house everything is still going steady. Every time I go in I notice subtle differences and things that I didn't see last time. Today I noticed that the rough-in vacuum system has been installed (the white tubes on the pics). It was in last Wednesday but now its definitely finished!
The last picture shows you have fast everything dries up here. It's been a day and a half since the rain stopped, et voila, the soil is bone dry again. Amazing

Pot lights galore!

2009-08-05T21:16:00.005-06:00

Ready for another update?
First of all... SUMMER IS GONE in Calgary. For the last 2 days it's been cold (today's high was 11, yesterday it was a whooping 9)! It's been raining almost non stop. Close to 30L/m2, but anyway. It feels like fall in Belgium.
Last weekend Sarah was finally back for a few days! We went to an awesome Blink 182 concert (childhood heroes). And bought some very nice pots and pans.
Last Saturday, Sarah finally got the chance to see and feel the house. At first she wasn't too excited because she's is missing everything. But when she saw the house and went inside things changed! She was very pleased. :) She had that 'it feels so huge'-feeling too.
Anyway let's talk some more about the progress. Progress is steady. The rough-in is almost complete. Gas lines are in, water mains are all in, heating is in. And today I had the feeling the electricity is almost done as well. The one thing I noticed is that we have a lot of pot lights! Yeaaaaah that's a good thing! This way we keep cleaner lines along the ceilings and stuff. On the outside we have pot lights in front of the garage, and in front of the front door. Inside, a lot of pot lights too. Kitchen, hallway, living room, stairway. On the second floor we have 3 of them in the hallway. Really neat.

So when the weather finally clears, the sidings will go on. That will be exciting to see. Because when that's finished, the house will look really like a house instead of a wooden box. :) At the same time the insulation will go in too.
There is one small issue with the way one water main is running through the basement. I'm pretty sure that it is temporary hooked up. But we will have a walk through once the rough-in is completely done. I will address the issue with the foreman. This needs to be fixed. I'm sure they'll do that.

This is going fast!

2009-07-30T06:53:00.004-06:00

Hello everybody. Ready for your weekly update?
So yesterday I went past the house and the roof shingles were already finished. They started installing these on Monday and two days later those guys are finished. Amazing.
Also all our plumbing is done! Again I was astonished! This is some crazy stuff! The heater is in, all the heating ducts are in, water mains and plumbing ALL DONE. And I must say, connections between all the hoses are simply immaculate. The trades men know what they are doing!!!
Also both baths are in and in the master bathroom the shower is up too. Venting ducts are installed and the laundry room has 2 water mains and a drainage.
So when this is finished we will have a walk through again.
O and funny thing is our fire place is in too. And when I came home I noticed on the pictures that we have a front door as well. I walked right by it.
On another note, SARAH IS BACK for the weekend! Jihaa. Today we will choose our new floor tile. THe 'old' one has been discontinued. Too bad because we really liked it. So fingers crossed for this afternoon!

Windows are in

2009-07-25T20:33:00.003-06:00

This is just a small little update because I can not tell you a whole lot. The windows are in. This was done last Thursday. We are now in a transition period if you remember all the different stages. Now the rough-in stage will begin.
The roof shingles are on the roofs ready to be installed. THere is already a very small section of these shingles on the roof. The rest will happen on Monday. The basement stairs are in (yeaaaaah no ladder anymore). And when I went downstairs I say what was the beginning of the whole electrical system. The electrical board was on the wall and the ground wire and main wire were connected. So next week I guess the electrical wires will go in together with all the plumbing and the water and gas mains.

A blanket of smoke

2009-07-23T11:42:00.003-06:00

When I got out of the apartment this morning I noticed that the sun wasn't out. The first thing that went through my mind was 'Hey wasn't it supposed to be sunny today?'. When I looked at the sun I noticed she was behind a thick cloud. But then I noticed the colour of the cloud was reddish gray. I immediately made the connection with those wild fires in Kelowna, BC. I wasn't completely sure because these clouds were in the east and Kelowna is over the Rockies in the West.
I spent most of my morning – in between jobs at work of course – searching for a satellite picture that could confirm my suspicions. Turned out I was right!
The clouds have diminished now but the sun isn't at full strength yet. I think we will have a spectacular sunset tonight. I better go out tonight and find a good spot!

X marks the spot were Calgary is located.

We have a roof!

2009-07-22T21:44:00.017-06:00

So framing is about finished. It looks like a real house now! We have a roof and all of the interior walls are in. Well at least the support frame for the walls that is.
So let's start on the outside. This is what you would see if you were here. ;)

Also on the lot were the steps for the entrance. As you can see, everything is pre-fabricated to cut down on building time of course.

Last time around, I told you guys that our windows were in the garage. But I never showed you a detailed picture. Well here it is.

So let's go inside the house. The entrance will look like this. On the left you see the build in closet. On the right, the entrance to the basement.

Going past that basement entrance you come to the garage door and the downstairs half bath (the toilet). Again a build in closet on the left (this is for the owners, I guess).

When you enter the house through the garage you'll see this view.

Ok now we are looking at the big ass kitchen and giant pantry. Sarah loves grocery shopping so we better got ourselves some big storage space.

Next the living room. That niche in the wall is actually our fire place.

And this is the dining room with the door to our patio.

Lets's go upstairs. This is the bedroom above the garage.

Computer niche and laundry room.

The view upstairs.

OK ready for the most important part of the house? The master bedroom and ensuite.

OK we are almost at the end of our little tour. What else? Well another room, the view from outside the master suite and THANK GOD the trades people use the actual plans!!!

Sorry about all of these pictures. But now you guys have a clear view on how the house actually looks like on the inside. On Friday, the rough-in starts. Windows etc. get installed. On Monday the Roof shingles go on.
It should be, yet again, an exciting week!!!
I'm off. While I'm writing this, I'm enjoying a Bud Light Lime. OK OK it's not Stella (that's in the fridge) but it's a darn fine light summer lager!!! :)

O my F'ing GOD!

2009-07-18T17:52:00.006-06:00

When I go to see the house, I always drive by the house first before I enter the show home to tell the sales people I'm going to take a look. When I rounded the corner this time I was SHOCKED! I was prepared to see some progress. I thought that the garage and the main floor would be framed or something. But what I saw – after only 5 days of active framing – blew me away. The house is almost completely up! It is crazy!!!
So when I entered the show home I was in a bit of a daze. I still couldn't believe what I just saw. Courtney (the sales girl) said that framing should be done by Tuesday. BY TUESDAY?! Are these guys insane?!
So Courtney showed me around the house and we went inside too. The space is unbelievable. Big is an understatement. I am sooooo happy. The kitchen is huge, the master bedroom has the best view ever. The deck will be amazing (I can't wait to spend an evening on that deck with Sarah, enjoying a cool beer and a nice sunset). We will be enjoying this place so much. The garage is insane, the pantry is, well euhm, big. I'm running out of words to describe my excitement.
The windows and outer doors are sitting in the garage and ready to be installed next week.
Then Courtney took me to see the house that's one step ahead of us. That house was fully framed. The inside was done too. And you really got a sense for the grandness of the design. Walking through that house was, euhm enlightening I guess. Feeling the house in staid of looking at a 2D plan is so much different.
We came back to the show home and apparently, one block up the hill of our house, maybe in 5 years, there will be an elementary school, a baseball pitch, 2 soccer fields and a water feature. Now isn't that nice for our, euh, kids I guess later. :s
Let's start this tour on the top floor and work our way down. :)

This IS the view out of our master bedroom window. Nobody will take this away from us!

The view overlooking the top floor. I'm standing in the master bedroom. If you look at the floor, on the left side, those two wooden rectangles. That's the bathroom and the walk in closet.

Next is an overview from the other side. You see the stairs and in the left bottom corner what will be the laundry room.

This will be the bedroom above the garage.

And this will be the view coming down the stairs. Huge windows, big kitchen on the right.

A closer look on the left window. Behind that wall will be our deck.

This is the other window.

View of the main floor. To the left is the kitchen and the enormous pantry in the back. I'm standing in the dining room and to the right is the 'great room'.

The stairs right?

The view from in front of the house. Nice big garage. :)

Another view.

And the other side of the house.

Meeting with the Construction Supervisor

2009-07-13T21:22:00.004-06:00

So today I had that meeting at 3PM. So how did it go? Well I'll tell you.
Tim (the Supervisor) is a nice, easy going, 50-something year old man. Very friendly and he knew the plan inside out.
I didn't learn a lot. Because we already went over the plans (that we secretly got from Courtney, the sales girl). The most important part was the building schedule. It goes a little something like this:
- The foundation stage: we already passed that. No need to explain any further.
- Framing stage. This is where we are now. Framing should be finished within the next 2 weeks. Weather permitting of course. Why do I say this? Well today it rained cats and dogs like they say here. It started this morning with a very heavy downpour. And it kept raining for the better part of the evening. So hopefully the rest of the week is kind of dry so framing can start. This will be exciting to see. When Tim went over the plans he said that our deck would not have stairs that lead into the yard. This issue was discussed before and Jayman promised us that there would be stairs on the deck. So I said that we NEED stairs! Otherwise there wouldn't be any logical entrance to our yard from the back side of the house. Imagine going through your garage, go round the house to enter your back yard. Euhm I don't think so! So Tim drew some steps on his plans with some exclamation marks next to it. So now we are sure, we are getting those steps. Of course I will remind them to build them when framing starts.
- Next fase will be the Rough-In stage. That means that all of the electrical, water and gas lines are installed. All of the outside finishing is on and the roof shingles are on. This is within 4 weeks after framing starts. When this is finished we have another meeting.
- After that there is the Insulation and Drywall fase. Pretty simple... Putting in Insulation and the inside walls.
- Then there is the Interior stage. This means that everything that needs to be in the house will be installed. Fridge, stove, furnace, etc.
- Next is the Construction Complete stage. This means that the house is basically finished. Then only thing that is done here are touch ups. Maybe there is some paint of the walls or a fridge with a scratch. Or maybe there were some parts that were on back order...
- After that its the Home Owner Orientation. They give us a walk through, through the house.
And then its Possession!!!!
Only bad news is. The house is on schedule to be finished on November 4th. *sigh*

We have a real floor!

2009-07-11T17:01:00.005-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a floor and therefor also a basement! :)
The construction crew has started our giant jig saw puzzle. All the wood is scattered across our lot and the lot next to us. I saw stairs, 2x6's, 2x4's and a bathtub a shower and a bath shower combo all ready to go in the house. I found that more then amusing. We don't have a house yet but at least we already have a shower!!! :) The reason for this is that it is more easily to build the house around a bathtub than the other way around.
I checked the quality of the craftsmanship so far and everything is simply outstanding. The floor is level! :) And yes I checked it on multiple points... with a level app on my iPhone. ;)
Framing should start any time. Maybe even today! But on Monday I'll know all the details. It felt so cool to walk on the floor and imagine being in the dining room looking at the view. The floor feels huge.... Of course the walls will make the space a little bit smaller but still, tons of room.

Almost done backfilling

2009-07-07T22:15:00.012-06:00

Another update?! YES another update.
I was early off work today and after diner I was a bit bored. And actually also excited to see what was going on with the house. So I went to Cochrane again. Yeah I know. Some people will think that I am over exaggerating with doing so much visits, BUT I really wished that Sarah was here so she too could feel how exciting this all is.
The backfilling is almost done. One wall left to do. They filled the space under the garage with dirt and gravel again. This will serve as a base for the concrete slab that eventually will be our driveway and garage floor. Also I posted a view that was made on eye level on what will be the first floor. The floor itself will be 30 cm or so higher then where I was but you get the picture. The house sits high above the ground so our view will be marvelous.
Also on our - would be - driveway, the wooden I-beams were ready to be installed. These will support the main floor and the first floor.
A bit down the hill, in the middle of the community, Jayman is building a similar house like ours. They are one step in front of us. You can see the house on the first panorama. It's the one with the excavator next to (it's on the left side of the picture). They started framing that house so ours isn't that far behind.
Also this Monday, I will sit down with the building manager Tim. Tim will explain the whole building process in detail. But sometimes even I think I could build this house myself. It's like playing with Lego. Everything is numbered... Could it be that difficult? ;)

View from what will be the rear right corner of the main floor. Our deck will be about 10 meters to the left. So we will look over our neighbours garden and that green space in between those fences.

Overlooking the basement floor.

Our driveway in progress.

Yes everything is numbered and ready to go.

Another view of the basement.

The rear of the house. This will be our little garden. This shot is taken from approximately the right rear corner of our lot.

Ready for the backfill!

2009-07-05T14:34:00.004-06:00

Hello everybody. Good news. All the ground works have been finished and the foundation is ready for backfilling. That will be done on Monday. Jihaaa
So what happened this week to the house. Well all of the weeping tile is covered in gravel now, including those 2 metal structures in front of the basement windows. The water main is installed. The main electrical wire is in together with the ground wire. Water meter is connected. And the gas pipe is installed. Also the black water repellent foil has been attached properly with special clips.

The apartment on the other hand is working out great. It really feels like home. Today (on a Sunday) Shaw came in to install the internet connection and the digital TV. I'm connected to the world again. ;)

Almost ready for the backfill!

2009-07-01T22:28:00.002-06:00

So I went to see our house again today. I was happy to see some progress. I didn't expect to see anything that's why the pictures are crappy again... sorry.
So, Jayman is almost done installing that black water proofing plastic on the side of the foundation. This will keep the moisture out. Together with that tube you see it is an important part of a healthy foundation. The tube is what they call a 'weeping tile'. This tube actually has small slits in the sides of it (if you look closely, you will see them in that orange line on the side). This tube will be covered in gravel before 'the hole' is covered with dirt again.
Also what you have probably noticed, there are some metal 'things' surrounding our basement windows. Again this feature is part of the neat irrigation system. This too contains a tube on the inside (again a weeping tile). Later this whole section will be filled with gravel too.
So ones all that tubing is in (a little section is left to be done) and all of those plastic mats are on the foundation, backfilling can begin. The excavator was waiting on the lot next door so I think tomorrow afternoon everything will be covered again. I'll let you guys know on Saturday.
On another note. We moved out Chris & Nicole's basement today. We wanted to give our friends their space and privacy back. Carrie, that's another mutual friend of ours, has this neat little condo she wanted to rent out. So we went ahead and from now on, we'll have our own little place we can call home. It's strange to say this because this is the first day I'm in here, but it already feels like home. Seeing some of your own stuff again really sets you at ease. So yeah I was busy today moving everything over from the basement to here and back to the basement again. O and I want to thank Chris & Nicole AGAIN for taking those weird strangers from Belgium in for - what - six months?! Damn life moves fast!!! Our door will be always open for those guys no matter what. We are very lucky we can call those people our friends! Because without them, the whole process would have been a lot more difficult.

Foundation walls are up

2009-06-28T00:45:00.005-06:00

So yesterday (Saturday) I got an e-mail from Jayman saying that our foundation walls were up. And behold... they were! What a difference one week makes!
I was planning on driving there anyways because from now on, that will be my 'Saturday thing' to do. Framing – that is what they call the construction of the wooden skeleton of the house – will start next week. So hopefully by next weekend, we can maybe see the beginnings of something that looks like a house.
For now, it's – like I said – the foundation that is in and almost finished. The only thing to do (I think) is to attach that water repelling foil to the concrete. And to backfill the soil around the foundation.
It's neat to see and feel the size of our house. It is going to be huge!

We have a hole!

2009-06-24T07:59:00.003-06:00

Yes! Finally. Construction of our house has finally begun!
On Monday they dug a hole. And apparently yesterday Jayman already poured the bases of the foundations. Yeaaaaah!
So expect more and more frequent updates from now on.

Again a crappy panoramic through the eyes of my iPhone... I tend to forget to bring my good camera.

What is going on?

2009-06-20T17:24:00.008-06:00

Hi all! We know, it's been a while since we updated our blog. We're so sorry about that!
So what is going on with us? I've been really busy the last few weeks. The job is working out very well but it's busy as hell. Why? Well there's this little thing in town called 'The Calgary Stampede' (see their website here). And we do a lot of their artwork! Since it's almost 'Stampede time', our company is in crunch mode for the last weeks. But I still like what I'm doing and that's the most important thing. Took me a while to get 'transformed' to a 8-5 person but I finally did it. ;)
On the other hand, the construction of our house still hasn't started. Long story short. When we signed the contract in April, Jayman (the builder) promised us that they would start building in 10 days. Because we bought what they called 'a pre-planned spec home'. That basically means that Jayman SPECULATES that this house (in this configuration) will sell quickly and therefor they have already prepared all the paperwork and permits.
Long story short..... troubles began when we needed to put 20% down instead of a 5% down payment. On top of that, Jayman needed to do an elevation change. That means a total re-design of the front fascia of the house. Because there was a house in the vicinity that looked like ours. Then that new design needed to be approved by the developer of the community. Then the new blue prints of the house needed to be approved by the city of Cochrane and then Jayman got the permits. That took 2 months and lot's of angry phone calls of us!
BUT we are finally there. Construction will start very soon. Last Friday they staked out the house. That means that we now know where the house will be situated. Look at the picture attached to this update. You see those fluorescent pink poles? Those are the borders of our lot. On Monday the excavator will start digging our foundation hole! ;)
So yeah we were disappointed but still we can not wait until our house will be finished. IT will be awesome!!!

The picture is a stitch of some iPhone shots. And doing a fish-eye effect for drama! ;)

Long weekend photo update

2009-05-24T13:07:00.004-06:00

Mini vacation to the Rockies

2009-05-19T20:11:00.010-06:00

Because the 18th of May is a holiday in Canada (Victoria Day) everybody enjoys a long weekend. As assimilated as we are, we also decided to go for a mini vacation in the Rockies.
Friday afternoon I picked Olli up from work and off we were, straight ahead to Banff! We had a night booked at the Rundlestone Lodge. After a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning we started our first hike to the Sundance Canyon.

In the afternoon we took highway 93 through Kootenay National Park. We had never visited Marble Canyon on our other trips. So this destination was still on our little list. The canyon was closed for the public due to forest fires in 2003. (a hot summer in combination with some lightning strikes burned down 12% of Kootenay Park). Last year the Marble Canyon area was re-opened for the public.

We ended our day soaking in the Radium Hot Springs (where the water was 39 degrees). The Hot Springs are ‘powered’ by a thermal spring. Rain water seeps into the mountains and when it gets deeper and deeper it heats up. It builds up pressure and rises again. And so on and so fort and finally it reaches the surface into the pools of Radium.
We started the 2nd day of our trip with another hike in Radium Hot Springs. This time the Juniper Trail led us to the Sinclair Canyon and the Sinclair falls.

In the afternoon we drove to Yoho National Park stopping at the spectacular Wapta falls.

Our final stop of the day was Emerald Lake, one of the most admired destinations in Yoho National Park. We stayed overnight at the Emerald Lake lodge. A must stay! In the evening we enjoyed the Rocky Mountain Cuisine while overlooking the lake. Wow!
Our last day started with, yet another, hike. This time we hiked to the Hamilton falls and pushed on for nearby Hamilton Lake. The higher we went, the more snow we encountered. Eventually we had to turn back, because we couldn’t find the trail any more. But that doesn’t mean we give up! We will be back. Just another thing on our to do list for this summer!

Leaving Yoho National Park the weather was turning. We decided to take a drive up the Icefields Parkway where we encountered a snowstorm. After a quick stop at the Columbia Icefields we headed back to Calgary.

My pictures give you an idea of what we saw on our trip. The more professional pictures (Olli’s) will come later ;)

I’m going back to Nova Scotia next Monday (the 25th of May) and I will be returning by the end of July. I’ll keep you updated, this time with summer pictures of Nova Scotia. ☺

Ollie's got a job!

2009-04-30T18:29:00.003-06:00

Yeaaaaaaaah! Finallyyyyy!!!!!!
So long story short. Last Tuesday I had my first job interview. All went super well. The company was impressed with my portfolio and today they offered me a job as a Graphic Designer! I am so happy. The waiting period (and the 'I feel so useless-period') is finally over! I start on Tuesday by the way.
So, the company is called LPi Communications. It's a 'small' Graphic Designers office but they deal with large companies like Coca Cola US & Canada, Kraft foods, The Calgary Stampede, etc etc. I will be replacing their most senior staff member and I will be responsible for creating all kinds of graphic stuff. Like banners, billboards, coupons, advertisements, and so on... (no newspapers for me anymore).
So yeah I'm excited!!! The long wait is over... BIG SMILEY FACE :)

We have bought a HOUSE!!!

2009-04-28T18:10:00.006-06:00

BIG NEWS EVERY ONE! Stop the presses (like I would say).
We have officialy bought our own place today! Whoooohoooo.
We bought a new house (it's still has to be build though) in Cochrane. A little town about 20 minutes West of Calgary (even closer to the mountains!). It will be build in a community a top of a hill called Sunset Ridge. And yes we will be able to see those sunsets. Our new adress will be 234 Sunset View. Now, isn't that nice huh?!
Needless to say we are very excited! And we can't wait untill Jayman (the building company) breaks ground. And ofcourse we will be updating our blog every week from now on so you can see the advancements in the building process. The buidling should be done somewhere by the end of August early September.

This is a sketch of what the front of the house will look like (except for the colours)

This is a picture of the lot we choose. Our lot is between the two yellow poles.

This is the view we will be getting all year round. Aaaaaagh those mountains.

A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

2009-04-22T23:13:00.010-06:00

I know, it’s been awhile since we have updated our blog but we have been pretty busy lately. More about that later!
So I returned to Calgary on the 8th of april. I’m home until the end of may, then I return back to Nova Scotia for 2 months. And in September I’m going to work in Mexico! So I have some good prospects!

Last Friday I went horseback riding with Ilse. Ilse is a friend of Martine (my Belgian horseback riding teacher) Ilse lives on the countryside, about 40 minutes from Calgary, and has 7 beautiful horses. I had the honor to ride with Boo(delicious), her daughter’s eventing horse. It was soooo nice to sit on the back of a horse again, after 3 months of “absence”. We went for a trail ride but there was still a lot of snow in the woods. At some places the horses were knee high in the snow. But I enjoyed it a lot! Next week we go for another ride!

This weekend I also go to the Mane Event in Red Deer. The mane event is comparable with the Horse Event in Deurne. 5 arenas with lots of different clinics so that will be fun!
http://www.maneeventexpo.com/ab/default.asp

Another interesting fact about Calgary. Yesterday it was 22 degrees. Today it’s -4 and snowing… It started snowing this afternoon and it’s still snowing. Spring in Canada, you never know what ya gonna get…

Boo(delicious)

Rocky Mountains from a horses back

Bay of Fundy and Cabot Trail (Cape Breton Island)

2009-03-20T09:24:00.008-06:00

Once in awhile (and lately pretty often) we have a day off on Sunday. Then me and my colleague explore Nova Scotia.
A few weeks ago we went to the Bay of Fundy, home to the world’s highest tides. (50 feet in height, that’s approximately 15m) We left early in the morning and we drove to Truro to see the tidal bore. But we forgot about one pretty important detail… They bay is frozen… So we didn’t see any tidal bore, we just saw a huge ice mass moving slowly.
In the afternoon we saw the effects of the vertical low tide. Fishing boats sat high and dry on the ground. At high tide, the same boats are floating alongside the top of the wharf.

A frozen Bay of Fundy

Last weekend we drove to Cape Breton Island. We took a drive on the Cabot Trail. The Cabot Trail, named one of the best road trips in the world by Lonely Planet, is a trail that winds through stunning landscapes, along the Margaree River, a Canadian Heritage Salmon River, and through spectacular rugged highlands of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada. The best season to visit is in fall because of the autumn colors. The trail is nice but I prefer the Icefields Parkway ;) We also saw a lot of wildlife last weekend. The deer are becoming suicidal… One almost hit the side of my car and they love to give you the creeps with suddenly jumping onto the road… We also saw a coyote and a seal. But unfortunately no moose.

And during the week I work (oh yeah sometimes I also work) I am here for almost 8 weeks. We finished dredging and are ready for the drill and blast. We encountered a few rock spots while dredging the trench so now we are going to blast them. Hopefully we will be finished within 3 weeks and then I return back to Calgary. (finally!)

Waking up early and staying up late

2009-03-13T12:41:00.007-06:00

Hello everybody!
What is going on, on the Canadian front? Well still not much to tell really.
I finally got my first, and positive reaction on my resume! So I guess things are looking beter but that doesn't mean I have a job already. I'm still sending resumes at an average pace of 3-5 every few days. Getting a job is harder than I thought. Friends of Chris told me that it's not so much the things that you can do that count, it's the people you know that is important. Hmmmm since I don't know other people besides Chris and Nicole and their friends, I guess I have to rely on them to get me the contacts I need. Anyway, I'll keep you guys posted.
On the other hand, that gives me a lot of spare time on my hands. And guess how I'm killing THAT?! Ofcourse by taking pictures.
Last week I got up at 04.30 (yes in the morning!) and went to the Vermillion Lakes around Banff. It was a beautiful but freaking coooold sunrise! I endured -30˚C just to get some shots I've wanted a few years to make. It was all worth it.

Then I drove to Castle Mountain. I wanted to see what early morning sunlight would do with this mountain. Again, I waited 2 years to do this!

Yesterday I made a new phototrip. This time in uncharted territory. Kananaskis Country. Well we've been to Kananaskis before but not on highway 40. So I left the house around 01.00PM (in the afternoon for you European guys) and went out on a discovery trip. I saw a lot of nice things (my first coyote for example). But a lot of nice landscapes were completely unreachable thanks to the thick snow. I endured wet feet, often I would stand to over my knees in snow, and massive winds (imagine beeing sand blasted by snow particles!). It wasn't fun. But then again, when the sun setted, it all payed off!!!

Farewell party pictures

2009-03-05T11:22:00.002-07:00

available here!
Thanks Tom for making these!!!!!

A little update

2009-02-26T15:59:00.006-07:00

Nothing much to tell really. I'm looking very hard to find a new job. Sended out already a dozen or so resumes. But nothing comes up really. I need to be patient though. But it's beginning to annoy me.
One good thing is that our new iMac has finally arrived!!! Whoopie!!! So I can finally begin to process some pictures I've been taking to fill my days.
Here are some of the first ones I've been processing today. Hope you like'em!!!

More Nova Scotian pictures

2009-02-09T06:54:00.005-07:00

As promissed, more pictures!

My guesthouse

View from the guesthouse

Another view from the guesthouse

Deep Panuke

2009-02-06T04:37:00.017-07:00

As most people know I still work for Dredging International, even though I live in Canada. And I am lucky there is a project going on in Eastern Canada. So I only stayed 1 week in Calgary and on the 26th of January I left to Halifax, Nova Scotia. After a 7 hour flight and a hell of ride I finally arrived in Isaac’s Harbour. The village is in the middle of nowhere… Really! I have to drive 70km to buy some groceries. There is no bar, no restaurant, only houses and old people. I share a beautiful guesthouse in Drumhead (with oceanview!) with a dutch colleague.
When I first arrived here it was -25… Yesterday it snowed all day. But the past 2 weeks we had some beautiful days.
Here is some information about the project. So I am a surveyor on the Deep Panuke pipeline project. The Deep Panuke Pipeline Project involves the installation of facilities required to produce natural gas from the Deep Panuke field, located about 175 kilometres offshore Nova Scotia. Produced gas will be transported by subsea pipeline to Goldboro, N.S., where it will be transported via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NP) to markets in Eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States. First gas from the project is expected in 2010.
And my part of the job involves the subsea pipeline to Goldboro. With a pontoon (Canadian Argosy) equiped with an excavator they are dredging a trench to put in the pipeline. I survey the trench on regular basis with a multibeam and make crossprofiles and lengthprofiles to show results to the client. Probably Chinese for most people ;)
And of course some pictures. Not that much but it gives you an idea of where I am currently living. More pictures coming soon!

My 4WD

Canadian Argosy

Landfall site

All our stuff is here!

2009-02-03T09:07:00.005-07:00

So this morning the moving crew arrived right on time. Two strong men carried all of our stuff inside. I think everything is till in one piece. The boxes don't seem to be damaged so that's always a good sign. Ofcourse we'll know for sure when we move into our own house. I don't think that we'll be opening the boxes before then. It's just a bunch of household things that we don't need right now.

Yesterday evening I went downtown to take some night pictures of the city center. Waw what a sight. I will post'em as soon as I get my new iMac. Should be a damn fine panorama.
O another fun thing I need to tell you guys. I thought that I would be missing out on all of the great Belgian beers. Turns out I have my own little rack in the liquor store!!! I won't be feeling thirsty in a long time :)

Moving company vs. Canadian Customs

2009-01-31T10:47:00.006-07:00

Yesterday I went to Williams Moving & Storage Ltd to see if our stuff was in good hands. I mailed Williams this week and I got a positive reply back from a very nice lady called Dorothy. So yesterday I went up there to collect some paperwork. Dorothy was very helpfull. She gave me a document that I had to give to Customs. So I went to Customs. Everything went ok too overthere and I got the necesary stamps that our shipment was A-OK. So with that stamped form I went back to Williams et voila, everything was ready to deliver. Williams will deliver our shipment on Tuesday. I hope we can pull the boxes of the palets cause our sidewalk is fully covered with snow. So I think we will need to move the 17 boxes inside by hand (again).
I do hope that everything has made it in one piece. But more on that later.
So yesterday I took the new car out for a spin. Since we are in the SW district and Williams was in the NE, I had some 35min of playing time to do on the highway. Good lord does this car have power!!! It so much fun to drive with. You have instant power whenever you need it. Nicole by the way, decided that I should name the car. Well she did it for me, cause I couldn't make up a name. She named the car 'Ginger'. Well if you think about it, that is an appropriate name for a furious red head :))) So from now on, the car is called Ginger and that means she's a girl (again).
So Sarah is still on the East coast of Canada for work. Everything is fine, long days, beautiful place. She promised to send some pictures over and when she does, I'll post'em up here. (or she can do an update by her self) *hint*

Finally the CSRT4 is ours for real!

2009-01-29T18:31:00.007-07:00

Hi guys, I know it's been a while sinds we've updated. Everything is still going ok so far.
So yesterday I was going to get the new car registered and I was planning on picking her up too but red tape decided that that wasn't going to happen. Now what went wrong exactly...
Since we have bought the car in both of our names, I couldn't get the car registered at all cause Sarah had to be there too. That's too bad cause Sarah's on the east coast right now for work. And she won't be in Calgary till the end of February, beginning of March. So I got a consent form from the registry office that basicly said 'I, Sarah, give Ollie the right to register the car in both our names'> Stupid stuff if you ask me. But anyways, I've scanned the document in last night, sended it to Sarah and luckely the filled in form was in the mail this morning. Wooptiedooptie.
So this mornig, got rid of the rental (it was also a Caliber) and got the SRT4.
OH MY GOD! This car is awesome... Too bad it was really warm today (7C) so everywhere you looked there were puddles of brown dirty melting water. So drove the car home, had a little bit of fun on the highway. And needless to say, the car is already dirty. Damn.
So here are some pictures. ENJOY cause I am!!!

Caliber SRT-4 is ours!

2009-01-23T18:20:00.005-07:00

Today it was a big day for us. We bought the SRT-4!!!
The dealer wasn't to keen on selling it to us with a finance (cause we haven't been 'established fully', and we needed to have a co-signer) but when we said that we were willing to pay the whole price in cash, tables turned for the better.
So we are the proud owners of a Dodge Caliber SRT-4.

So with a new car, you need a new insurance. Back at home we went to our insurances and begged for a form of some sorts that prooved our driving record. But in Alberta that form doesn't count (or you have to be from the UK). So basicly, we have a very high insurance rate, cause, again, we haven't have the 'proof' we need (allthough I am driving for over 13 years now). We start from scratch, ouch!
Also we went to get our drivers licences. A simple swap, whohooo!!!
So the only things I have to do are: go to the bank for a certified cheque, go to the incurance company and wrap things up there, call the dealership, go and get our license plate and get the car!!!

iPhones and cars

2009-01-21T20:17:00.006-07:00

So a little update on our situation.

Today we went shopping for cars. Well, we knew what we wanted so we entered the Dodge dealership together with Chris and Nicole. Buying a car overhere is a LOT different then buying one in Belgium. We saw the salesperson, the head of sales, the financing guy, etc etc. Luckely, Chris was there to hassle a deal for us (he's the best with numbers) and he made a pretty good deal for us. (yes, Canadians do bargain for cars) So we almost bought a red Caliber SRT-4 today. The SRT-4 is the Caliber Sports model, full option, 285hp, turbo charged. We even got a fabulous test drive. Powerful car!!! Something else then my little Peugeot back home.
So now everything is in the dealerships hands. Hopefully our financing gets approved. We should give the guy a call tomorrow after 1pm.

On the other hand, we bought 2 iPhones today. So we both have new cell phone numbers.
Also we went to the registration office to swap our drivers licenses, but we have to go back tomorrow, because they need to see an official document (or documents) that state our new address. They want proof we live were we say we live (or something). Again very different then in Belgium. And we don't have to do any theoritical test or driving test!

Here are some pictures of our "basement appartment" ;)

O, and these are the flowers we recieved from Ann & Yves. Thanks a lot guys!!!

We have arrived in Calgary!

2009-01-20T21:11:00.009-07:00

We made it! We arrived in Calgary at 4.45pm after an excellent flight with Air Canada. We were a bit worried about immigration... They mostly ask difficult and annoying questions but not this time! Everything went smoothly and at 5.10pm we were officialy landed immigrants. Next step was getting through customs. And guess what, no problems at all! They didn't even search our bags. Luckily we had a very detailed list of the items we were bringing with us and items that will arrive later and the "custom lady"was happy.

Once we got out of the custom zone Nicole and Chris were waiting for us. What a surprise! Picking up the rental car was pretty funny. We reserved a car via the internet, we got a chevy impala but the keys didn't match with the car. So we ended up with a Dodge Caliber. Well actually we were allowed the choose another car and since we want to buy a Caliber we decided really quickly. No more testdrive for us!

We followed Chris & Nicole to their home but got stuck before a red traffic light. We didn't find them anymore but we are already real Calgarians and drove blindly to their house. And no, we have been there only once and there wasn't even a street.

Chris made us some excellent diner. Olli got his Alberta beef and was happy :)

Today we went to the bank to arrange new bank accounts, we got our social insurance number and explored all the good shops in Calgary. ( more about that later)

Oh, we forgot to mention a big thank you to Chris & Nicole. They arranged their basement for us. We have a tv-corner with sofa and accesories. We have a huge bed, closet,...

And today we received flowers from Belgium! Well, the flowers were canadian but the sender is Belgian. Thank you Yves & An for the beautiful flowers! And by the way Yves, happy birthday!!!

Geslaagde fuif!

2009-01-12T05:20:00.002-07:00

Maandag, en we zijn nog steeds aan het bekomen van de geslaagde fuif!

We waren en zijn nog steeds heel gelukkig dat het ons gelukt is om heel veel familie en heel veel vrienden samen te krijgen voor ons afscheid. Onze avond kon niet stuk!!! We hopen dat iedereen ervan genoten heeft. Want wij hebben dat alvast wél gedaan. Ook in 'den album' staan er vertederende woorden. Zo lief, we waren zondag, toen we het allemaal lazen, écht wel blij dat we zo'n goeie vrienden hebben.

Langs deze weg willen we dus NOGMAALS gemeende dankjewel's verspreiden aan iedereen die er was. Dankjewel om ook onze doos zwaar te vullen! Als we vriendschap konden vergelijken met de centjes die we hebben gekregen van iedereen, dan hebben we een heel pak goeie vrienden! Het geld zal heel goed besteed worden. We houden jullie uiteraard op de hoogte wat we er precies met aanvangen. Maar eerste kosten zullen uiteraard volgende dingen zijn: auto, mac, telefoon (iPhones? mmm maybe), en uitkijken naar ons eigen huis.

Straks gaan we nog onze rekening gaan vereffenen bij 'den brouwer', en de zaal gaan betalen. Deze morgen de lichtinstallatie al teruggedaan. En kijk zie, straks naar de belastingen om het formulier 'personenbelastingen SPECIAAL'. Ben eens benieuwd. O en naar de bank ook, ons centjes 'veilig gaan stellen'.

Ook nog een oproepje. Als je foto's hebt van de fuif. Gelieve die dan door te sturen naar ons mailadres!!!

1 day to go tot de fuif!

2009-01-09T03:23:00.003-07:00

Nog één dagje en de 'megafuif' kan beginnen!!! We kijken hier echt wel naar uit. De laatste weken waren toch wel druk te noemen. Dat is de reden waarom we de blog een beetje verwaarloosd hebben. Maar goed, daar komt nu verandering in.

Alles loopt vlotjes. De bewegwijzeringspijlen zijn gemaakt, de zaal wordt deze middag ingericht, fotoman is ook ok, DJ is in form, enz enz

Gisteren, dankzij het 'Canadese weer' hier, heb ik een sneeuw (en hopelijk ook ijs-) vrij baantje gemaakt in het steegje dat toegang geeft tot de zaal waar de megaparty zal doorgaan. Hels karwei. Maar het is toch gelukt. Beetje zware handenarbeid in dit vriesweer kan deugd doen om de zinnen te verzetten.

Voor de rest hebben we beide nie echt last van stress of zenuwen. Alles loopt zoals gezegd vlotjes. Bankzaken zijn zo goed als in orde, alles wat moet afgesloten worden is bijna allemaal afgesloten, enz enz

Soit, ik ga mijn schoonmoeder nog wa 'meehelpen' met soep maken (lees kijken hoe ze het doet)

Tot zaterdag! You better get your ass over there!!!!!

Bijna alles is mee

2008-12-18T06:14:00.010-07:00

Vandaag kwam de verhuisfirma langs. We hadden afgelopen dagen duchtig gesorteerd en nu viel het verdikt. Ging het er allemaal in gaan of moesten we dingen die ons 'dierbaar' zijn achterlaten.
Goed nieuws want alles is op een paar - niet cruciale - dingen mee!!!

Stipt 9h stond Pedro van de verhuisfirma 'Servaes' aan de deur. Dankzij deze meester-inpakker alias 'macguyver met den ducktape' is alles perfect in de dozen gepropt. Alles werd eerst heel deftig ingepakt vooralleer het de dozen inging.

Op het eind hadden we zo'n 17 dozen vol. Servaes had gegokt dat we er 20 zouden nodig hebben. Uiteindelijk bleek dit dus niet het geval. Hopelijk scheelt dit weer een beetje in de prijs.

Nog even lachen voor de foto Pedro en you are good to go! But be careful....
Onze spullen vertrekken nu naar het depot van Servaes om dan ingepakt te worden in houten - op maat gemaakte - kratten (of krat). En die worden op hun beurt volgende maand met het vliegtuig verzonden. Wat we nu nog moeten doen is het appartement opruimen. En nog een hele hoop spullen op eBay droppen.

We maken vorderingen

2008-12-17T08:44:00.007-07:00

Fieeeeeuw. We zijn er bijna. Vandaag twee 'hopen' gemaakt. Een hoop 'wat gaat zeker mee' (links op de fot) en een hoop met 'als we eventueel plaats hebben' (uiterst rechts op de foto).
Morgen is dus 'the big day', dan komt de verhuisfirma. Ik hoop allen dat die mensen hun geen hoedje gaan schrikken als ze zien hoeveel 'brol' ze in 2m3 moeten zien te persen. :) Ik zie het alvast nie zitten. Nen mens heeft toch veel brol zenne. We'll keep you updated.

Ik ging deze middag ook eens onze mac onderhande nemen. Gisteren een extra harde schijf gaan halen en gisterenavond nog duchtig zitten kopiëren. Files hier, files daar, iCal, iTunes, .... En dus deze middag eerste werkje, het toetsenbord schoonmaken. Ik weer 'den slimmen'. Ik neem foto's van het klavier (a ja om achteraf alle toetsen terug op zijn plaats te krijgen), en doe er alle toetsen af. Lekker sopje gemaakt, beetje wijven op de knopjes. Traalalallalala. Afdrogen, maar hier wrong dus het schoentje, dat ging veel te traag. Dus 'slimme ollie' dacht: 'doe dat in een potje, handdoek erover, haardroger erop (ja wij hebben dat) ét presto. WRONG! Wat blijkt nu? Die toetsen worden redelijk zacht als ze in aanraking komen met warme lucht. F13, krom, linker control, krom, rechter appletje, krom..... en nog nen nest toetsen. Letter 'd' zit nu onder mijn 'paste' functie. Soit, ben dus echt kwaad op mezelf.

Laatste werkdag!

2008-12-14T03:42:00.003-07:00

Vandaag beleef ik mijn laatste werkdag op Het Nieuwsblad. Tis gedaan, finito, the end!
Ik weet nie echt of ik er triestig moet door worden of dat ik opgelucht en tevreden de deur achter mij mag dichttrekken. Ik laat een hoop toffe collega's/vrienden achter.
Vrijdag (mijnen voorlaatsten dus) hebben de collega's van Het Nieuwsblad mij dik verrast. Plots stond iedereen rond mijn bureau en kreeg ik een 'speciale editie' onder de neus geschoven. Een voorpagina speciaal voor mij?! Subliem. Grappige tekstjes in de zin van '10 tips om door de douane te geraken', 'Canadezen dragen alleen maar stomme moonboots' en 'kom gauw terug Olliken'. Aaaaagh zo lief. Had het ff moeilijk. Dan nog een kaartje met een centje tussen. Waw, needless to say, I was stunned.
Dus vandaag mijn laatste werkdag. Op de sport én tot middernacht. Vandeneersten keer FULL OPTION. Allé ik ga letterlijk het licht en de deur dicht kunnen doen straks.

De grote verhuis is gestart...

2008-12-05T12:34:00.003-07:00

Jaja, het is zo ver. Vanaf morgen verhuizen we terug naar Casa Van den Hende in Sint-Lievens-Esse. Vaarwel appartementje in Herzele, na 4 jaar trouwe dienst.

Ik (Saartje dus) ben tot de conclusie gekomen dat ik verhuizen haat. Vooral met het sorteren van wat wel en niet meegaat heb ik het nogal moeilijk... We hebben al kuis gehouden in onze kleerkast. In de gang staan er 9 vuilniszakken voor spullenhulp... En onze kast zit nog tamelijk vol!

18 december komt de verhuisfirma langs met 20 dozen. We hebben ons zelf een limiet opgelegd van 2m3 dus hopelijk kunnen al onze spulletjes mee. Op 19 januari vertrekken ze met het vliegtuig en een weekje later komen ze aan in Calgary.

Ook mijn reistas staat al klaar. Het is moeilijk om te kiezen welke kleren ik de volgende maand nog ga dragen. Maar het is gelukt! Er is zelfs nog plaats over! Ook mijn snowboardzak staat al ongeduldig te wachten. We zijn er helemaal klaar voor!

Uitnodigingen bijna allemaal weg!

2008-12-01T05:34:00.002-07:00

We zijn bijna door de genodigden heen. Hier en daar nog een paar invites opsturen en dan kunnen we starten aan de voorbereidingen voor deze grote party.

Ook is vandaag mijn autootje de deur uit. Velen van jullie weten dat ze jarenlang trouw dienst heeft gedaan. Maar nu moest ze buiten. We vertrekken nu eenmaal naar het buitenland. En Peugeot in Canada is zo goed als onbestaand. Dus out with the old and in with the new. Alleen hebben we nog geen nieuwe, maar wel een goed idee wat we in Calgary willen aanschaffen. Maar daarover misschien meer in Januari! ;)

C you all at our party!!!

Uitnodigingen

2008-11-24T11:40:00.002-07:00

Zo, eindelijk zijn de uitnodigingen voor ons afscheidsfeestje afgeraakt én afgehaald bij de drukker. We zijn superblij met het resultaat (uiteraard heb ik ze zélf ontworpen, ik ben niet voor niks een vormgever).
Nu zitten we in de stage van ze één voor één uit te delen of op de post te doen. Spannend allemaal. Komt een hoop bij kijken én er staat ons nog een hele hoop te wachten.
Ons meubels geraken maar niet verkocht. Voldoende kopers, maar ze geven altijd belachelijk lage bedragen. Pfff tis nie de moment om stuff te verkopen blijkbaar.

Verhuisfirma

2008-11-10T07:15:00.002-07:00

Eventjes een korte post. Daarnet is de vertegenwoordiger van de verhuisfirma Putters eventjes poolshoogte komen nemen. We nemen niks van meubels mee. Alleen maar 'kleinen brol' en kleren. Alleen diene 'kleinen brol' zal ook rap veel plaats innemen! Deze week nog, of tenlaatste begin volgende week mogen we een offerte in onze mailbox verwachten. We zijn benieuwd hoeveel ons dit gaat kosten. Putters komt wel zélf alles inpakken en ze laden ook zélf alles in. Dus we zullen een coördinerende functie vervullen dan die dag :)
Alles zal ook per boot worden verscheept en zal vermoedelijk 5 weken onderweg zijn. Geen probleem aangezien ze toch een maand op voorhand komen om te verhuizen.
We'll keep you informed

Welkom!

2008-11-08T06:21:00.001-07:00

Welkom bij deze eerste post. Op deze blog zullen we jullie op de hoogte houden van osn Canada avontuur.
Eerst en vooral nog even dit vermelden. Al onze meubels MOETEN ASAP weg!
Check http://user.telenet.be/olivierdutre/meubels/index.html
Zie je iets dat je aanstaat, mail dan als de bliksem naar oli4.saartje.canada@gmail.com