Our New House

Written a few days ago, but waiting for internet access to post…

A huge bonus, and really what was the key to making this move happen, is this government staff house we are renting. It is owned by the territorial government, and is available for people working in Jeff’s department. The landlord is the Yukon Housing Corporation which also oversees the territory’s social housing, so the rules are the same. It is a great starting place for us, because the rent is really affordable (and comes directly off Jeff’s paycheque) which drastically lowers our stress level while our house in Nova Scotia hasn’t sold.

The one huge down side is that there is a strict one pet rule, which means our cat Sally is staying in Ontario, for now, with my sister Julie. As we get settled here, and after our house sells, we can figure out if we want to continue renting, or will look for a place for our own. Every day feels like we’re missing one of our family so I hope we can figure out a way to all be together again soon.

We’re not “town” people, by nature, but this town is so unlike other places we’ve lived. If you want to live outside of the town’s core, then you likely won’t have the basic ammenities, like electricity, water, sewer, or internet. I think I could hack it, if it weren’t for the no internet part. That is crucial to my employment.

Living in town here, though, means you can very easily walk anywhere in town. A vehicle is rarely needed. Which is also nice for winter, because starting your vehicle at -40°C (and sometimes colder) isn’t great for your engine, or any other parts that become brittle in the cold. Jeff’s new job is just a kilometre walk from our house, so he can walk there faster than his old 25 minute commute.

So back to our house….

It is a blue bungalow, lifted from the ground, as they all are here, to prevent the heating/thawing of the permafrost below. It is a big rectangle, with the long side facing the road. It has a front door in the centre that opens into the living room. A hallway goes left down the middle of the house to the 3 bedrooms and bathroom and straight ahead is the kitchen at the back of the house. In the right rear is the dining room that is open to the living room and the kitchen. The first right on the hallway leading to the bedrooms heads out past the oil furnace and to the back door, with a storage room to the left, behind the bathroom.

There isn’t an inch of drywall in the house. It is all painted panelling. Seems like it may have been a modular home that was shipped here, but I’m not certain. In many ways it is a typical rental house, with basic features, appliances, paint dripped on the floor, and easy mop laminate and linoleum flooring. The bedrooms do have newer carpet. Our bedroom is quite large and the front two bedrooms are smaller. All have big windows, in fact all of the house has nice large double paned windows with deep window ledges showing the thickness of the walls. There are blinds on every window, and double blinds in the bedrooms (surely to block out the midnight sun of the summer.)

There is just one little bathroom, one sink, one tub which is a big change since our house was so big we each had our own bathroom. There is a fridge and stove, but no dishwasher or microwave, or even laundry. There are laundry hook-ups though. I’m hoping that our house will sell soon so we can pay off our moving bills and afford a washer and hopefully dryer before winter. We’ve already been to the laundromat and hope we don’t have to do that every week forever. It would be better if they had wifi there, but free wifi isn’t a thing you find here in the north, so the time passes slowly at the laundryomat. At least they have a sofa though 😉

We’re going to start with my office in the dining room. I think we’re going to need both of the little bedrooms for storing our stuff since there isn’t a shed or a basement here and despite parting with so many of our belongings before we moved, we still have a lot of stuff en route. A dining room office also gives me a prime location, sunny (well in the summer months), I can see out the front window, and I won’t be tucked away in a back room. I’ll aim for working while Jeff is at his job so it should work okay.

OK, so photos!!

Living room – some sort of durable laminate floor.

Bathroom, small, nothing fancy, but all the basics are in place.

Bathroom sink, for two, we have to share a bathroom! Ahhhh! 🙂

Kitchen

Office (dining room) on left, living room on right.

Living room from office (dining room) and front door.

Front door and hall closet. Can’t pinpoint this odd paint colour, kinda brown, kinda tan, kinda pink, kinda peach.

Hallway, two spare bedrooms on left that we’ll use for storage, on right is hallway to back door, bathroom, and our bedroom at the far end.

Our bedroom, plenty big, two closets, a couple burgundy/red walls.

One of the two spare bedrooms.

Look how thick the walls are! I hope that means lots of warm insulation.

View from the street.

View from the front steps to the north.

View from the back deck to the north (and the Midnight Dome)