Blair's Blog

As of today at noon, we are the owners of a new place in southwest Calgary! Yep, after 15 years in Chestermere, we are moving into the city. There are a host of reasons for the move, but the bottom line really comes down to three things: time, community and education.

Time: Between Brenda and I, on a good week we are spending at least 30 hours behind the wheel getting to school, to work, shopping, kids activities, visiting friends and so on. A bad week can be closer to 50 hours. The cost is substantial financially (with gas at $1.20/L) as well as with respect to how tired we are at the end of the day.

Community: Chestermere never really matured into the vibrant town that we hoped for when we moved here. Despite growing from about 2000 people in 1998 when we moved in to somewhere around 17000 today, there is still only a limited commercial sector and essentially no business that isn’t retail. Basically every activity whether social, shopping, school, dentist, doctor, work or anything else involves a drive into Calgary. Chestermere is a bedroom suburb of Calgary and the constant line of SUVs and minivans between Calgary and Chestermere makes us think that we are not the only family in this situation.

Education: The kids have always attended school in Calgary, and as they get older we are finding that they are needing something different – an environment that will challenge them to not just learn the 3 R’s but to grow in independent thought and maturity. The educational choices are better in Calgary and living in the southwest will mean that the kids will be able to walk to school, rather than depending on us to drive them.

Beyond this, it will be nice to be a lot closer to family and it is giving us the perfect excuse to purge a bunch of junk treasured possessions that it would be nice to not have to take care of any longer.

It is tough to move after so long in a house that we have really made our own and enjoy, especially for the kids who haven’t known any other home. Really, if we could just move the house into the city, that would be good – but that’s not how it works!

Pictures to follow – it’s tough to handle the camera while hauling boxes of junk treasured possessions into the new place!

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