We’re NOT settling down.

But we are renting a home base for 2 years.

It’s a long story.

Son #2 and his family, which includes our only grandchildren, was relocated from Ontario to British Columbia effective October 1st, for what is likely a 2 to 4 year posting to a new job within the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force), which came with a well-deserved promotion to Sergeant.

For the past 5 years, since selling all our stuff, when we returned to Ontario we’d rent a fully furnished condo within about half an hour’s drive from them. Son #1 also lives in Ontario, but their family is all adults, so we simple visit back and forth without feeling the need for the same physical proximity. We’ve had 4 different Ontario landlords over the past 5 years since becoming nomadic, including during Covid, and stayed in comfortable, well-equipped places that felt like “home” for us. Home really is simply wherever Ted and I are together after all.

So, B.C.

We don’t “need” to relocate. We already have firm travel plans outside Canada until the end of April 2023, and after that there are airplanes. We might even choose to own a car again. Who knows? Plus, all our documentation is in Ontario, although without a car or house, there’s not much more than health cards and rental agreements.

But. On their military house hunting trip, the “kids” fell in love with a perfect 5 bedroom rental in Coquitlam. The family who own it are also on a temporary work transfer, and the “fit” seemed predestined. The only glitch was something that is very common in an area of large homes: the lower level (at ground floor – there are no basements) is designed as a separate 2-bedroom apartment, which was being offered as a separate self-contained rental unit.

You can see where this is going, right?

I/we have always maintained that while we love being close to our kids, we don’t want to live with them. Family decisions, dynamics, and dramas need space to unfold and be resolved. It turns out I talk a good line, but when it comes to crunch time, I cave. And Ted? Ted is the absolute master of “as you wish”. He is my Westley.

So when son #2 took us on a video tour of their potential “perfect” house, and grandson #3 (who was along on the trip) started being featured in videos of the backyard fruit trees, followed up by descriptions of the lower level “in-law apartment” and #3’s big brown 6-year-old eyes staring into the Messenger screen as he hinted “Gramma, you could live here”…. followed by daughter-in-law #2 expressing that her “only” doubt about the perfect house is that they wouldn’t know who might end up living downstairs, with access to the boys playing in the yard…

We have a 2 year home base in B.C.

Lease signed.

Rent payments set up.

We arrive via plane from Toronto today for our first, short, stay.