New Home!

Mike and I signed a lease agreement today for our new home! We are beyond thrilled and excited about our new location. It took awhile to figure out where we would like to live here on Vancouver Island, but we are certain we made the best possible choice!

We were sure we wanted to live in the Cowichan Valley, and a smaller town. We loved the Calgary city life, but we had both agreed that it was time for a change of pace.

Although I still think Shawnigan Lake would be a fantastic place to reside one day, we actually came to the conclusion that Crofton,BC would be a lot of fun. When I was younger I always thought -who would choose to live in Crofton?- but now I realize just how silly I was. I just didn't know how to appreciate the simpler things in life. Crofton is a gorgeous town. It is a forestry/mill town - but is also located on Osbourne Bay. Because Crofton is built on a big hill, most of the homes have an Ocean View.

Crofton is located off the Trans-Canada Highway 1, on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island, 5 miles (8 km) north of Maple Bay, and 7 miles (11 km) south of Chemainus. It is central to the larger cities on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo and Victoria. This is perfect for SNAP's new wedding clientele, as we hope to serve the entire island and are willing to meet with people wherever they may be located!

We actually didn't choose Crofton to live in because of it's location, as perfect as it may be - but because Crofton is the home of one of our favourite places in the entire world. Because *most* of you that read my blog have also been to this most amazing place, it is no shock that we would want to be close to Camp Qwanoes. Mike and I met at this Camp, and spent many of our summers by the Ocean meeting fantastic people from around the world. Mike also popped "the question" at Crofton's Osbourne Bay Park back in 2004. Although we don't plan to spend our summers at Qwanoes, we do hope to help out whenever we can - because "helping out" at Qwanoes is (usually) way more fun than it is work. ;)

Mike and I have some great friends that are all moving back to this area, and we are excited to be within walking distance of their houses! Kim and Jamie and their adorable baby Penny are moving back in July, and our friends Barb, Dave and their beautiful baby Sonia are searching for a good spot to settle too! There are too many fantastic people in this tiny town, it's basically an impossible awesome person:house ratio.

(population 2,500)

Although Crofton is a small town, it basically has everything you need. It is expanding too, and just got a cute pub/cafe/liquor store (all-in-one building!) The pub is great, and has that fantastic ocean view, AND there is a great server there too! Barb Blenkin! It may even have a Mike & Ashley one day? We are contemplating getting some shifts to keep ourselves occupied in the slower months...

Now for some photos - (I stole these from the Ad listing in usedcowichan.com, I'll take more when we move in! -obbbvvviously-)



The photo makes It looks tiny, but it's actually quite big! Much bigger than what we are used to. The washer and drier are in the corner.



I love the Kitchen, the tiling is great! The landlords did a great job with all of the details in this apartment. The Kitchen opens into the living room, everything is pretty open.



Living room. That door is the entrance, and has a great cedar 10x10 porch. It'll be perfect for a BBQ, and maybe even a herb garden.



There are two bedrooms that aren't pictured here. That would be two more bedrooms than we had in our last (studio-sized) apartment! We are most excited to be capable of having guests stay with us now that we have the room and privacy.

This spot is on ground level, so we don't actually get the ocean view from our window - BUT - if you take a 2 minute walk down the road you will find yourself at the Saltspring ferry. Which is so exciting for us, we are in LOVE with saltspring. They make fantastic coffee as most of you know, delicious Saltspring Cheese -specializing in MY personal favorite- goat and sheep cheese "Chevres" found all over Canada! Then there is the Saltspring Market where you can find all of the above and MORE! The Saltrspring market starts up next weekend. We will be there with bells on!

We hope to see you all soon in our new home! We will be moving in April 15th, and will be sure to invite all of you local folk over to celebrate with us!