The elusive destination and the stress of uncertainty

I felt the stress headache coming on late in the day. We had been hoping for news of progress on the development permit side of things, especially the issue of tying into water and sewer. Stephen from SEED Homes sent me a quick status report by text message and a follow up phone call which confirmed the essence of what I was feeling. 

All of a sudden the window of when our house would be delivered to High River potentially grew by leaps and bounds. Everything is going to depend on the underground work that needs to happen. 

Heather and I were equally upset over another unexpected delay and had to go for a walk after dinner to clear our heads and figure out what we are going to do. We were as stressed as we have been through this entire process. 

On the one hand, Heather leaves in a couple of weeks for her month long 400 km walk in Italy. All of her trip supplies, including her passport, are buried in a storage pod. On the other hand, I have a growing list of painting commissions and live painting events. All of my art gear is also tucked away in a pod. We also have Ideal Protein clients patiently waiting for us to get set up again.

What we have decided to do is rent an AirBnB in the Okotoks area for a week, to get Heather ready for her trip and for me to gather my art supplies. After dropping off Heather at the airport on the 12th, I will hang my hat with family in northeast Calgary. Coco and Shay are going to stay behind at the farm near Sexsmith with my sister and brother-in-law. They love it out here and it will be way easier to pick them up and bring them to High River when everything is set up.

I had tears in my eyes as family stepped up with offers to help. Friends have also been so supportive. In many ways, how I felt yesterday was similar to how I felt during the hardest days of the evacuation from Fort McMurray during the fire of 2016. I felt powerless; I felt awful. 

Stephen and the team from SEED Homes have been walking alongside us this entire way. None of us could have predicted the issue of a downtown lot not being serviced. That came out of left field. None of us could have predicted a highly acclaimed window supplier who over promised and absolutely under delivered. At the same time, all of us had to navigate the development permit process. 

Meanwhile, after getting a few hours sleep, my stress headache has gone away and I'm feeling more level headed today. I'm so grateful to Corinne and Chris for allowing us to be with them for so long and for offering to look after our dogs while we sort things out down south. We are grateful to Mike and Kathryn for offering me a place to stay while Heather is in Italy. It was very helpful to talk to our friend and realtor Rob Kunz to get his advice. And we are grateful to the SEED Homes team for building our house and studio and assisting with all this other stuff that has popped up. 

It feels like we are on an epic hike on an overgrown path, anticipating the trailhead being just around the corner, but finding out we are nowhere near the end. We need to pause, take a deep breath, and keep moving forward, trusting that the destination will appear soon.