Yeah, you may have not known but I had moved from Brampton to Barrie. If you haven’t read the precursor to this please do. It’s been a pain in the ass trying to manage a crazy busy schedule at work, pre-packing for the move, maintaining websites and meetings with clients, all while trying to STILL do game design stuff AND sleep. Not to tall of an order most might agree, but when you have negative time in the day after crunching the numbers sanity seems to crumble over time.
“So why did you move?” you ask. Well, it was a combination of things. We were already living outside of Toronto and the commute to work for me was alright. I was driving into Mississauga every morning. For my wife, she had it bad. Driving to Orillia, which by the way is 1h 40m on average, was more than exhausting for her. Plus she would leave on a Wednesday morning and stay over nights until Friday, sometimes Saturday before coming home. I wouldn’t get to see my family for 3-4 days and then jam all the family time in on Sunday. Play with my son for 1hr on Monday and Tuesday evening, then he’s gone again for the week. This was putting a damper on the family fun and on my wife’s composure. Yes, I was free for those evenings but after a while sleeping in an empty bed and not hugging your son gets a bit too much. I had worked so hard to build and maintain a balance of creative solitude and family fun that when the pendulum swings too far in either direction I get anxiety.
Because of Reasons
Other reasons fell under the obvious guises of money and cost of living. The commute was going to be farther (but not necessarily longer, funny enough) and more room for the buck, plus cheaper EVERYTHING. Limited access to Toronto and Mississauga, but not too far that I couldn’t make plans to make trips to see friends and family, or go dining or entertainment venues. Plus, Barrie is a growing mini metropolis with a hometown feel to it. Moving there for me wasn’t going to be any type of culture shock. If anything it’s a little more laid back. I like that.
So now we’re in our new place. The month of July was filled with anxiety and frustration due to house upon house being sold in a day or not quite being what was proposed. Without getting into a long story about a place on Chieftain, as well as dealing with a real estate agent that passed us off on his sales associate who works primarily in Orillia and not Barrie, we ended our journey on a high note. Awesome home, oldish but comfy, private backyard, mature trees, cul de sac, two story with extension over garage, 4+1bdr, 3bth and finished basement. I’d say we made out like bandits. House needs updating though. Like, everything needs updating except the windows, furnace and A/C, and carpet upstairs. The previous owners did some hack-tastic updates to the home and I’m pretty much tearing it all up and doing it proper.
It’s Renovation Season
Reno again, and again, and again. It’s okay though. That’s the fun thing about moving into a new place. Customizing it to be your own. Can’t wait to get my office in order. And when we finally tackle the basement, setting up a little workshop for my more adventurous crafting.
Just thought I’d share with you guys a little about what’s been going on since July 5th (my last post). Still have a truck load of Drafts to proof and publish, and I’ve been thinking a lot and have a few more ideas to share here. Well, on with the renovations and on with the game designs. See you soon and thanks for reading.
