Rob and Hild's "bit of the web"
- Moving North of the Border -
Our move to Canada, December 2005
It was time. Four and a half years in the US and we were again ready to move on. How far we were going to move was - as always - anybody's guess, but who'd known that our new home was only going to be 4 hours away in yet another country! Canada here we come!!!
 The Team: Kristin with all our favourite helper 'Dolly', Rob assembling Ikea chairs, Hild also posing with 'Dolly'. |
Hild would like to add that she is most upset that she was unable to secure all-action photos of the helpers: Peter for picking us up at the airport, Peter and Nerys for making yummy chili and rice for hungry packers, Peter for helping pack and carry - and putting his back out for our sake (!), and Allan for planning the packing of the over-stuffed truck, packing, and carrying. Nerys for supplying old newspaper for packing material. Disclaimer for Rob: While it may look like Rob took the easy jobs he didn't. True, he did sneak out of packing up the house, cleaning the house and packing the first half of the truck - but he emptied the whole truck at the Ottawa end nearly all by his own self!! (there are no photos to prove it, that's all). This included guessing how on earth Kristin, Allan and Hild got a townhouse full of stuff into a 14-foot truck.... |
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In mid September 2005 it became official that we were indeed moving to Canada. On most people's scale 4 weeks from launch of moving-idea to implementation is pretty quick. Thank goodness the move itself was delayed till November/December. We were very excited that Rob had got a job offer and probably insulted some Ithaca-people by being way too excited about the move from country to city. But hey - that's who we are! So Hild started planning ahead the way we fear that only a Norwegian can. At one point in October Kristin uttered that this must be the most well-planned move ever to take place. Little did she or we know..... say no more... It all began one fateful night in early November when Hild booked a 14-foot moving truck in Ithaca. Ah, it seemed such an easy thing to do. We wanted to pick up the truck on Friday the 3rd of December with a couple of utility dollies (the kind that picks up your boxes and rolls them between house and truck). Then Rob and Hild went off on their whirl-wind let's-visit-the-whole-family-in-three-weeks trip. It was all carefully planned. Rob and Hild arrived back from the UK across the Atlantic to Detroit on the 29th and Kristin arrived to the same terminal on the same day from Denver. Fingers crossed. And guess what? It worked!!! All three hopped on the tiniest aeroplane to Ithaca and hit the mother-of-all turbulency, which by the way made the pilots cry out in joy and the rest of us reassess our lifestyles. Nothing much came of that so we are still enjoying much too much food and exercising way too little. In Ithaca we were picked up by Peter who owns the biggest car we know - three people and luggage was no problem at all. We all crashed in bed gathering strength for the packing-action to start the next day. |
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| Next day came with the greatest surprise of all. The truck rental company called and politely told us that our truck, that we wanted in two days, was not in Ithaca! We had to go to a neighbouring town 20 miles away!!! That is the reward for ordering a truck one month in advance, I guess. There was nothing much we could do at this stage. Rob was off to Ottawa in Yogi, our only car, so we bit the bullet and hired a car (shown on the right) so we could pick up the truck. Ah - the lovely mess was just starting. |
 Kristin clearing the snow off the rental car. |
 Taking in a meal while sitting on our 'krakks' (footstools)... notice the huge tub of popcorn - an excellent idea of Kristin's... |
While Rob went off to Ottawa/Merrickville to start work on the 1st, Kristin and Hild began the packing of everything into boxes. Rob and Hild had been throwing out redundant stuff for months already so we were down to packing everything in sight. Boxes on boxes on boxes - mainly books and kitchen ware for some reason.... After a whole day of packing we got the lovely chili shipped in from Ellis Hollow by Peter. It was a blessing indeed. Scrumptious, delicious and very energising for tired little packers. At this stage we had nowhere real to sit down for a meal. We were left to sit on our little footstools. We were also already tired at this stage and got many (none of them good) jokes out of the Norwegian translation "krakk". There we were sitting on our "krakks"..... Yes we know, you had to be there to find it funny! By the way, Hild was feeling as bad as she looks on the photo. She had just been at the doctor's and came out with a diagnosis of double sided-bronchitis (deja vu) and a handful of antibiotics and mucinex.... stand back those who are afraid of catching anything. After the fact we are very impressed by Kristin's resistance to anything contagious - she stayed fit and healthy through it all!!! Well done!!! |
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Then Friday rolled in with two tired Norwegians plodding off to pick up the rental truck. We found the village where the truck supposedly was sitting and after some searching we found the store, which doubled as a fitness centre. Yes, we were getting worried at this stage. And, yet, we had no idea what was coming our way!! One hour later (1 hour) we were still at the fitness centre counter watching the poor employee trying to type letters and numbers into that thing called a computer. Painful and frustrating but we approached it with humour and sat down to wait. * Finished? No, I need another credit card - for identification purposes. * Ready? No, can't have a Colorado-registered driver - too hard. * But, But... No, you can't have small dollies because I've just printed the agreement with big dollies. * This can't be right... No, you don't really need rear lights on your truck in Canada, do you?. * This can't be right, either.... No you don't need indicator lights in Canada, do you? ... so off we finally went to the main office in Ithaca to see what we could do - at least to be legal on the roads. Another hour later (1 hour) we were finally driving away with a legal truck and the correct sized dollies. We took it in our stride especially since we managed to fit in a delicious lunch at Ithaca's (locally) famous King Buffet (Chinese food - yum). A Norwegian is never as happy as she is with a full tummy... There were apologies all round from the rental-guy, and for all the hassle we got a brand new safety-check-sticker on the cab of the truck and a free padlock - and the phone number for the rental company to make our formal complaint! |
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Then the fun began. We followed the good advice from Rob and later from Allan on where to put big stuff and heavy stuff and small stuff and awkward stuff... and it all came together really nicely. Of course, knowing our luck, the snow kept falling filling our truck with flakes soon to become slush soon to become water. The joys of moving to Canada in December. Who's idea was this anyway?! |
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Kristin and Hild packing up the truck with the help of a piece of string (?), two dollies, and Allan (who managed to avoid the camera...). |
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We were all very worried at this point in time. Allan said: "This truck is too small. It won't fit all your stuff". Peter said: "That is a very small truck". Rob didn't say much but turned a scary shade of grey. Kristin and Hild were selecting boxes for the staying-behind list - just in case... "Why didn't you just hire a company to do all this moving?", you might ask. To which we answer: "Now how many web pages could one write about that? and how much character-building would come out of it?". Not much on both counts so we pressed on. Then a whole heap of things happened that didn't get caught on camera either. Rob came back from Ottawa and helped finish packing the truck. Peter came and helped and put his back out. Rental car got delivered back to Avis. Kristin cleaned the entire house largely all on her own. The maintenance guys came to dry-lock the basement (great timing... not). Hild slipped in soap and hit the kitchen floor with a great big bang (and scared the maintenance guys). And last but not least - Rob took the cable modem back to TimeWarner and cancelled our internet connection (aarrggh we were cut off from the world!) |
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Finally, all the boxes and stuff were squeezed into the rental truck. Hild looking very smug or very relieved as the doubt that it would all fit had been haunting her for a couple of days. |
Rob and Hild performing the traditional closing ceremony - as initiated by Olav many years ago (Hild and Kristin's dad). Notice how the "krakk" snuck into the picture again... It has a life of its own. |
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We were then ready to hit the road. With a full tank of gas and heading north... and then we hit lake-effect snow storm. Nasty stuff that is. The upside is that it never lasts for very long and we popped out the other side to find the sun leading our way across the border to Canada. First we stopped at the US border station to export Yogi the car. It wasn't a big deal and we just accepted the fact that it probably says in your job-description as a border guard that: "Under no circumstances should you smile or show human emotions except the ones related to 'suspicion' and 'mistrust'." We got our forms and papers stamped and we pushed on the few miles to the Canadian border station. Rob felt big and lined up with the trucks. Upon answering "No" three times to the question "do you have any alchohol in your car and truck", they let us through to process our paperwork with the customs agent inside. No big dramas in there either. We signed some papers and paid some dollars and off we went. |
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Driving in lake-effect snow is no fun. |
Rob and Kristin heading down the lane to export Yogi the car from the US. |
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A slightly lop-sided truck. Now who packed this truck anyway?! |
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We had a great system for off-loading the truck when we arrived in Ottawa. Rob was in the truck and put everything (bit by bit) at the bottom outside the lift. Kristin moved stuff into the lift, took it to the third floor, and moved it outside the lift. Hild then picked up everything (bit by bit), walked what felt like 2 miles of corridor, and dumped the stuff inside our apartment. It functioned like finely-tuned clock-work. Maybe Peter was correct in saying that we were "like an SAS moving team ... tough, highly trained, resourceful..." - or maybe not... |
Kristin off-loading the lift on the third floor in Ottawa |
.... and the apartment kept filling up with boxes and boxes and stuff.... |
.... and yet more stuff .... |
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As soon as the truck was empty we went on our last adventure before settling in Canada: How to give back the rental truck during the weekend. The guy in Ithaca was unable to give us instructions on where to drop off the truck in Ottawa. In stead he gave us a telephone number in Toronto, and that person could only give an address without directions. The Ottawa office was closed all weekend and their web site showed where their shop was - 30 blocks off to the north... so we spent a good long while driving around. Then we drove for a another long while looking for petrol stations. As it turns out there are hardly any downtown Ottawa. In the end we took the female approach (not favoured by Hild or Rob) and asked for directions. 4 more blocks and we were there. The drop-off instructions were clear but included giving up our treasured free padlock to secure the dollies in the back of the truck! We returned home padlock-less and tired - time to start the real unpacking...
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Then the unpacking started. First things first - Hild in the kitchen. |
Livingroom taking shape in the unpacking. Note the summer wheels stored in the corner... not for much longer as we moved them to our storage area in the basement. |
There is always time for a break ... on a 'krakk' |
... especially when there is tea involved! ('krakk' peeping in again) |
Rob building Ikea chairs uttering "whoever designed this must be very sick and clever". |
Rob also built Ikea drawers for the shelving units in Hild's office ... while sitting on one 'krakk' next to yet another 'krakk'. |
Hild has carved a little space for her office - although it is late and she is in her pyjamas! |
Rob made sure that the internet connection was up and running as soon as possible - actually before we had a phone hookup!!! |
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Rob and Hild christening the new table with the first sit-down dinner. What is going on though? Hild is still in her pyjamas! |
Office is finished!! |
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Bedroom is finished - walk-in wardrobe and all!! ... with yet another 'krakk'... |
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Livingroom is finished with a little bit of Christmas thrown in. |
Diningroom is finished with the chairs Rob built and the drop-leaf table from Ikea (gift from Kristin and Alvaro) - and another 'krakk'!!! |
Kitchen is finished. |
Rob performs the opening ceremony from a 'krakk'. |
We're finally home!!!
Please come visit us! We've got a spare bed waiting.
Actually we have moved again - so please click here instead
Rob and Hild
December 2005
Please come visit us! We've got a spare bed waiting.
Actually we have moved again - so please click here instead
Rob and Hild
December 2005
Web design by
Hild Rygnestad
Last updated July 2010