Arrived safely but barely installed

We landed in TO on Monday only to find that the electrical renos were not so advanced as we had hoped - especially the clean-up bit. Not a single room was liveable (check out the dust in some photos), so we had to camp out in a hotel for two nights. A nice hotel fortunately; we were right over the tracks leading into Union station, so both kids were fascinated by the trains.

On Tuesday, the city inspector visited our street and fined us (and several of our neighbours) $125 for failing to clear our sidewalk of snow. We showed him the moving boxes and he said we should get off on appeal. Hey, that will be a great way to spend a day with 2 small kids! But M turned it into a story by calling the news into his assignment editor and the next day it was the LEAD item on the morning local news. Not us, but the street getting fined without the usual warning. The feeling is that the city is desperate for ways to recoup money that it has overspent on its cleanup of near record snowfalls. Only problem is that they seem to have failed to plow our tiny street.

Then, we got dinged with a $3000 overrun on the electrical work. Needless to say, it was not the smoothest of arrivals.

But we are in and well - even though I have yet to sleep well here (might be the lack of curtains and getting re-used to a city sky that never fades to black). Sophie has a new tooth. George even made it here in our decrepit car and has been a "brick" according to my mum. Seb has started his Y membership and gone skating - proudly sporting a helmet. We have shopped at the tiny but lovely organic market at Dufferin Grove park, plus the inevitable visits to Ikea and Home depot (whoever knew that toilets came in so many styles..).

Seb went up the CN tower today (which we could see straight up from the hotel pool window!) with Gramps. And had an ice cream, hot chocolate, candy and taxi ride... He was so genuinely happy to be reunited with toys; he treated them like old friends. He seems really happy here, and is so eager to get to the ROM to see the new dinosaur exhibit. Ever nervous, we are waiting with bated breath to see if the proverbial penny will drop after Gramps leave tomorrow.

We are assembling our new pantry tomorrow and getting the kitchen organised (plus going to Kensington Market). The electrical work is pretty much over; as you can imagine Sebby loved the workers and filled their ears (while wearing his exact replica mini-tool belt). The plumbing starts on Wednesday. It's a race against time to get completed before our contractor's baby makes his arrival in early April. We live in hope.