So much has happened in the last six weeks so I thought I’d provide a little life update. I’m 36 weeks pregnant right now, well into my third trimester, and officially off-work and on leave. I’ve been living in compression socks, shearling Birkenstocks, and these leggings. For most of my pregnancy I couldn’t wait to get to this point, but now that I’m so close to my due date I have so many competing feelings. I want her to come soon because it’s so challenging to be pregnant. Everything is achy and uncomfortable (on a good day), sleep only happens in short intervals, and I can only manage to check off maybe one thing off my to-do list each day. However, there’s still so much to get done, and it’s better for baby to stay inside a bit longer (36 weeks is not yet full term). Six (!) babies from my pregnancy class are already here. Everyday is a mental, emotional and physical balancing act.
Life Update 1: We moved….
An opportunity came up to live very close to my parents and it seemed like the perfect fit for us. It’s a much bigger space than our condo: it’s a 3 bedroom house plus a front and back yard. Even though we lived in a very spacious two-bedroom, I’ve always found it hard to envision space for the baby because our second bedroom was used as our home office. Having a third bedroom allows us to have a spacious home office and a nursery. But most importantly, being neighbours with my parents gives us a level of support that is a dream come true.
We moved at the end of February, and if you’re wondering how one goes about packing and moving at 7 months pregnant, have we got a tip for you! I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do any packing because I couldn’t bend over and had very limited energy. Damon was already taking on the majority of tasks at home on top of a crazy work load, so it didn’t make sense to leave everything to him. My parents offered to help but even that didn’t seem like a feasible solution given my very limited physical capacity.
Our realtor referred us to The Move Coach, a full-service moving consultant. The Move Coach and her team did all the packing, moving, cleaning, painting, and unpacking. She also did a floor plan and helped figure out where our furniture would go in the new place. We spent a luxurious four nights at the Sheraton Wall Centre downtown while the move happened, and at the end of it we drove to our new house which had all of our things organized. Clothes were folded and hung up in closets, dishes in cupboards, and food in pantries. The last time we moved we did everything, and I mean everything, ourselves. We did all the cleaning, packing, and moving and it was incredibly stressful. The difference between the last move and this move was night and day and I couldn’t be more thankful.
Our plan for the move was to stay here for just over a year until the completion of our house which brings me to my next update…
Life Update 2: We bought a house…
For the majority of last year and this year we’ve been in the process of designing and getting permits to build a house in Mount Pleasant. We purchased a cute older home with character merit and have had it tenanted while we worked with an architect to design a new house with the best and highest use while retaining the character of the original home. Our design involved lifting the house, digging a deeper basement, moving the house to a better location on the lot, and adding an upper floor. We submitted it to the City along with a landscape design for approvals to begin construction. Damon and I really enjoy the process of buying, selling, designing, renovating, and developing real estate. We were quite excited by the prospect of moving into our first custom detached house.
Our design meetings with our architect are among my fondest memories of the last year. We love working with him and the way he explains things to us really appeals to me as an engineer. I find that how a person explains things tells you a lot about how much they actually know and their confidence in the subject. Someone who can explain a difficult and complex concept clearly and simply is someone who knows the subject matter well. Conversely, someone who rushes through it and confuses the listener is possibly trying to hide a lack of understanding.
We learned so much through the process. Damon is an expert in real estate financing and we both have experience with condo renovations, but there’s nothing like the complexity of navigating building permits in the City of Vancouver. There are so many limitations, so many rules, and so much waiting. I found it interesting and comfortingly familiar in the similarities to the projects I manage at work. It involved a huge team of experts like geotechnical engineers, architects, financing experts, arborists, landscape designers, and construction companies all navigating government regulations.
To educate ourselves and prepare for our development projects, we started taking residential construction and real estate development courses at Langara a couple of years ago. If any of this sounds interesting to you, we highly recommend the Real Estate Development program at Langara. The courses we took were a lot of work – there are exams and projects – but they were very informative and valuable.
Life Update 3: We sold our condo
After we moved, we listed our condo and sold it. It has been quite a whirlwind of events and that’s not even everything. Here’s a tour of our condo that I shared recently. Here’s our last photo in our condo. The maternity leggings I’m wearing are amazing and only $30. Fabletics maternity leggings are also great.
Life Update 4: …aaaand we sold our house.
The house we were designing that I mentioned above? We sold that in the last month too. The market was quite heated with high demand and low supply, especially for detached homes in Mount Pleasant. Furthermore, our current situation (expecting a baby) is different than when we bought the house and did the design, and the house no longer felt like the perfect fit. So we put our house on the market just to see what the demand would be like, with the expectation that we might pull it off the market and continue with the construction. We were happy with the offers and ended up selling it less than a week after listing it. We’re excited to move on to our next project.
Before our tenants moved in we spent some lovely days hanging out on the porch, cutting roses from the rose bushes, and working on our worm bin (we got really into vermicomposting last year).
Life Update 5: It’s my due date month
I can’t believe we’re finally in April, my due date month! I also can’t believe I’m on maternity leave. Things feel so so real, not that I’m not constantly reminded of this by my giant belly haha. My days are all about energy management and doing what I can within my very limited capacity. I’m slowly making progress on the baby room and I love how the space looks and feels. I’ve been sharing little updates on Instagram and hope to do a full tour here soon.
Third Trimester Outfit Details:
MM.LaFleur Morandi Sweater (on sale) – it also comes in an adorable matching baby version; over-the-knee boots; similar sweater dress for under $40 (see more below); MAC lipstick in See Sheer
That’s it for my life update! Thanks for reading this far!