A 10x10 Life

Perhaps I should catch up with old news before I delve into the current.   Ericka and I both wrote down our interpretations of the final month before our return to Tokyo.  What follows is hers first, then mine.

ERICKA:  Hmm…what should I say in 100 words?

We had 7 min. to spare before catching our ferry.  But let’s back up…

It started about a month ago.  List-making, phone calls to change billing addresses, taxes, closing of accounts, the ads for home furnishings for sale, the car for sale on Used Nanaimo.  It seemed too early to get rid of the couch and the car… To put things in storage.  Travis and I worked full-time for a month prior to categorize, sort thru, weed out, donate, sell, pleadingly give, send, store and pack all that wasn’t nailed down.  The biggest highlights and also the scariest were selling our trustworthy Subaru and with one week left to go, renting our house.  But stop for a moment.  We couldn’t neglect our children.  We had to play, love, feed, bathe, teach, sleep and drive Miki to school.  Hurry back and pack some more!

 

Our dear friend Hayley did round 1 in the kitchen, packing pottery, dishes, etc…, not entirely convincing me to get rid of Miki’s beloved popsicle molds.  It took at least 4 more “once overs” to get the kitchen alone bare.  Appliances, drawers, clean the oven, spices (who needs over 50 different bags and jars of spices?!), fridge, freezers, cans, ugghh! 

We started in earnest about 4 nights before our departure date.  By that I mean ‘late nights’:  12:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30am!  Thank heavens Sam’s second tooth didn’t keep her up and she actually stayed down (by herself) at 8:30pm.  Her way of helping us out. 

Everyone was so helpful; Neil, Kxx, Art, Hayley, Patrick, Anthony, Veronica and Ms. Lima.  All the last minute service men who came to do rental-home touch ups.  Our friends became carpenters, baby-sitters, packers, storage unit movers, support, venting outlets and idea-producers.  Thanks, for every bit helped.  Without all that we may not have had those 7 minutes to spare.  Time enough for Papa to get one last tea…

TRAVIS:　The packing process of a home of 7 years occupied by a family of 4 was grueling to say the least. In the 2 weeks leading up to our departure Ericka and I had to sort, organize and pack our belongings into a 10x10 storage unit.  Luckily, we managed to sell off the bigger items (beds, couch, dining table) but a large majority had to be boxed, labled and stored for future use.  I did occasionally have help from friends and neighbors however the bulk of the work fell to me.  With 2 children these tasks were made all the more difficult and unfortunately access to the storage unit was limited to 7am - 9pm.  It proved especially difficult to keep enough daily-use items handy while at the same time trying to reduce those deemed non-essential.  On the night before our departure I was packing until 3:30am, slept for 2 hours and then woke again to deliver the last load to the storage unit at 7am and then catch a 10am ferry to Vancouver.  We needed to leave our home at 9:30am to get a place in line and in fact at 9:30 exactly that day I was locking the door to the house and jumping into a very crowded rental van.  We did not have 1 minute to spare.

In light of it all, I learned this: every family should be required to move every 3-5 years simply to reduce their "stuff".  It's quite a sobering way to realize just how much we as humans acquire over a period of time.  Embarassing really.  Thoughts of Ghandi frequently came to mind thru it all.  

Anyway, here are a few photos of the house as it became more echo-prone and the box our North American selves now resides in.