Housing!

I have secured housing for the coming winter, through the Olympics. Excellent!

Things were looking a bit rough for me, as lots of places I had lines on fell through. Looking through the Pique, Whistler's weekly paper, brought dispair. Here are some sample ads. You can find them here, just be sure to scroll down a bit.

White Gold/Spruce Grove

1 Bedroom mainfloor suite, n/s, n/p, max 2ppl, no car permitted, $2000/mo.

Blueberry Hill

1 bdrm to share in 3 bdrm furn suite, cls to bus and valley trail, w/d, n/parties, n/pets,avail long term, $700mo incl utils.

Whistler Cay

2 Bdrm Suite, easy walk to village and trails, n/s, n/p, in-suite laundry, furn, $2300 incl heat, hydro, parking.

Rm in executive home, share with 2 other ppl, n/p, n/s, n/cpls, no shrd rms,very private and quiet, suits professional person, ref's req'd, $1200/mo.

Creekside

Semi shrd 1bdrm w/curtain privacy, I'm away 1wk/mo, peaceful place w plants, avail 1Nov, $650/mo.

Alpine Meadows

1 Bedroom in 2 bdrm town house, beautifully reno'd, 1.5 bath, 2 decks, stone fire place, d/w, w/d, parking, near bus sports centre, n/s, n/p, $1600/mo cpl, incl cable.

Shared room, fully furnished, internet, cable, avail immed, $700mo incl utilities.

Granted, those are some of the most unfortunate ones. There are a few that are OK. A quick count reavealed only three ads for all of Whistler that had a private room for $700 or less. I had called and tried to get in touch with them, but never received a call or email back. Since there are lots of people looking, they're probably drowning under a deluge of phone calls.

I decided to put an ad in the Seeking Accomodations section. I think I ended up paying just under $25 for two weeks. Here's my ad. It used to be longer, but I realized I could save money by chopping it down a bit.

28yr old Canadian, looking for room between BlackTusk and Pemberton, been living & working here for 3yrs, quiet, mature, like books and board games.

It doesn't read so well, but it has worked! I got a call on Thursday from a guy in Pemberton, a village 30mins north of here. He had a room available for 550/mo +, and I made plans to see it on Sunday, the only time our schedules matched up.

Today I got a call from someone in Alpine, a neighbourhood about five minutes driving from the village. He had a room for 600/mo +, and was wondering if I was interested. I was, so I went and saw it right away. It has a single bed in it, and a washer and dryer. It's a 2-bedroom place, and he and his wife share one room. I'll be in the other one.

He was looking for a quiet person, and I fit the bill. I toured the place, and said I was interested. I asked if I could go to the bank and give him a deposit, and he said OK. So I drove to the bank, got out a damage deposit, and gave it to him to secure my spot before someone else heard about it!

He called me at about 12:45pm, and I had seen the room, spoken with him about details, and given him a deposit by 2pm. I knew I had to act quickly because the market is tight! Now, if his friend says suddenly wants in, he'll have to say that I already gave him money.

So now I've got a place to stay, and a job to work. I'm very thankful that it has all worked out. I'll continue to look for more challenging and stimulating work, but until I find it, I'll keep gathering nuts and saving them up in my newly-found shelter.

Gathering nuts and finding shelter. That's what one of my co-workers says it all comes down to, when we talk about what to do for work. So, I'll continue to gather my nuts, and will continue to search out more engaging employment. I'm happy I can do that all with a house to live in now.