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Posts from — January 2015

Yikes…….. It Has Been a Loooooooong Time

by Larry

Well,  it has been ages since the last post; actually it’s been over 4 months and lots has gone on. Some good and unfortunately some not so good.

September arrived and it was back to Bus Driving; except for the Teachers Strike, which delayed my return to work but gave Brenda and I a chance to take a short notice trip to Vancouver and spend a couple of days in Yaletown. We rented a Condo, lived the “lifestyle”, cooked some delicious dinners and dined out at a couple of trendy Yaletown hot spots. Weather was perfect and we got in lots of walking.

October was a very tough month. It started out great with both families from Princeton and Kelowna arriving for Thanksgiving. But then tragedy hit the family when we found out that Chris Van Meer (our brother George’s son) was tragically killed in a traffic accident near Texas Creek, which is located between Lytton and Lillooet.

Chris was such a great young man and it was such a tragedy to hear of his passing. Chris was a quiet person, but so “full of Life” and adventure. Chris loved all his family, friends and extended family. Their is a very large hole in our family. We truly miss Chris 🙁

In November as a family we also lost Arnold Desrocher, Lynda’s husband. Arnold passed away very quickly after a short stay in the hospital. We’ll miss Arnold for his quiet nature, his wealth of knowledge on world events and his amazing recollection of little known or unknown facts in  “Trivial Pursuit”.

November was also the date selected for a Memorial Celebration of Life for Chris Van Meer. It was held in Langley at Sirocco Farms. There were lots of tears, few smiles and a few laughs. At the end of the memorial balloons were released by the family and friends as each person came up to take a pair of scissors and snip the ribbon to let them fly away……… it was very emotional for everyone.

December arrived and so did Christmas. Oh and also both families complete with 2 dogs and 1 cat. It was hectic, it was busy and we loved every single minute of Christmas.  Kevin and Brenda went out and picked up GGPa and GGMa for Christmas dinner; so we had a table full. Food was delicious and lots of laughs, smiles and family times. We were so lucky and truly blessed to have had everyone here for the holiday season.

January started with us moving GGPa and GGMa from their home of almost 45 years. Dean and Judy drove down from Prince George and in one full week of work we cleared the house and got GGMa and GGPa set up on the north shore at The Shores Residence’s. Immediately following this we got the house listed and on the market. Whew!!!

The following Thursday they received their first offer. However that’s when the proverbial “ship hit the sand”. Their property was improperly zoned 45 years ago by the Regional Planning office at the time. What happened was, when they subdivided their land and sold part of it to the Jehovah Witness Church the Church portion was zoned P2. By a slip of the pen or a brain fart or lack of attention by someone in the planning office their house was also zoned P2 (Church Designation) and it should have been zoned R1 (residential single family).
Did I mention that because of this error in zoning designation someone purchasing their home and property cannot buy home insurance so effectively they can’t buy the property?
Now, as you can imagine somebody in City Hall made the mistake but guess who has to pay to have it rezoned to R1. Yes, you are correct the Home Owner. So, Brenda took both her parents down to the City Planning office, along with the real estate agent, they filled out numerous forms in triplicate and then handed over $1500 so the City Planner could correct their error……….. Oh! and it shouldn’t take anymore than 8 to 12 weeks which is quite fast since most times it takes 15 weeks. Oh and by the way the home owner is responsible to have a sign of very specific dimensions, colors, fonts, type, dates, DNA of the sign painter, etc. etc. to be placed on the property for a set period of time indicating the intent to rezone a residential house to R1. So off to Funk Signs; did we mention the Funk Signs handles this for the measly sum of $500.
The one good thing is that the City Planner understood Murray and Joan’s plight and offered to produce a “Letter of Intent” that will indicate that they are going to recommend that City Council pass this on first reading and that their should be no reason why a residential home be kept zoned P2 rather than R1 like it should be. So generous of them……… and a waste of City Council time:) By the way the “Letter of Intent” was an additional $75.
Grandkids Picture Update
 CIMG6302 CIMG6303
So, that’s about it from here.
With that information all caught up we are off to Hawaii for 1 month; so check out our blog for sporadic Hawaii updates.
Aloha!

January 23, 2015   No Comments