This update is for Jessica....Mostly.... I hadn't realized that I forgotten to inform her of something so huge in our lives until I wrote this simple update on my Facebook status:
"Mista is thankful for a second vehicle!"(I bet some of you thought I was going to say that I was pregnant... Ha! Yeah, no....)Which Jessica wrote on my wall:
"You got a second car?!"*LOL* Oh dear, I had forgotten to update her! AHHH!
So yes! We bought a second vehicle around midnight the day before our crazy Ward-Christmas-Breakfast-Christmas-Play-Emma's-4th-Birthday-Party-Sarah's-Birthday-Dinner day.
It's a 1997 Chevy Lumina. Power windows, Keyless entry, etc. Duel heating... And a 15.5 Cubic-Sq-Ft trunk! And it only had 78,000 km!So here's the story:
We had been looking for a reliable, safe second vehicle that could fit the whole family in it. This includes the car seats! At first Tyler thought about a truck so that he could haul things around (like when we get his welding business up and going) but I wouldn't allow him to get one unless it had the seats int he back.... Just in case my van craps out and I still need to get Emma to school, etc. It also had to be reliable enough for me to take my girls to and from Leduc on the highway in.
And it could cost no more than $5000.00!
I looked forever, calling people, e-mailing people, asking thousands of questions when finally there was guy selling his Cavalier.... We test drove it...
1) He smoked in it.
2) The engine was SO dirty! And rusting.... Because...
3) It was from Ontario. The difference in humidty, what we use on our groundin winter, etc. was creating rust... Already! (It wasn't that old!).....
Oh! And it was only a 2-door... Wich confirmed that we
needed a 4-door... Oh yes....
I got tired. It was mostly myself doing all of this as Tyler was working. He'd talk to guys at work and get the Auto Trader Magazine, but other then that it was hard for him to keep up.... And Conor even gave us a heads up on a vehicle he saw an ad about at school... (Thank you!)...
So I placed this in the Marketplace on Facebook:
HA! Take that Facebookers!
And then I sat back and waited for the replies to come... And they did!!!! Thank goodness!
One of the first replies I received was from a woman named Eva.... She informed me that she had bought this car for her daughter but she (daughter) could not pay her back so she was selling it! It only as 78,000km on it and had been kept in a garage its whole life.
You see.... And elderly man had bought it to drive to and from the grocery store. Yup. She bought it for $6000.00, paid for an inspection fee and had new brakes installed as that was all it needed. She was willing to sell it to us for $5000.00!
I made an appointment. So late one evening Tyler, the girls and I drove to the other side of the city to test drive the car. When we arrived, they weren't there. Huh. So we waited... And they arrived! (Not a big deal really)....
We test drove it.... Oh how smoothly it drove! It has the bench seat in the front so we can actually fit 6 in the car!!! Then we did all of our tests on it.... Signals------WORK! Engine------Clean! Trunk Space------HUGE!
We were sold.
Now for the dealing... My Mommy (yes, I said 'Mommy') kindly offered to help us out
*... So after many e-mails, photos, reports, etc. we all agreed that it was best to buy a car that was newer, clean, well taken care of with low km's for a high price then a run-down-barely-holding-in-there car that's cheap, cheap, cheap (price way).
So we're getting a car! *GEEEEEEEE!*
Many late night messages back and forth with Eva and we have it arranged. Friday, December 7th we were buying the car! Tyler did all of the calling with our Insurance guy (who is in Leduc...Funny, no??!).
Now for the fun part of the story...That Friday was a crazy one for us. You see that whole week was a last minute thing for Emma's birthday party. I'll write a blog about this later on but let's just say all hell was breaking loose! In the end we found a place to have the first part of her party at (thank you, thank you, thank you Grandma and Grandpa and Kevin!) and now I had to call everyone invited to let them know of the last minute change....
I also had a very important meeting with one of my favorite clients at 5:30pm with a Wedding Commissioner. This was at South Edmonton Common and included dinner.
Then at 9pm Tyler, the girls and I were to be at our Church decorating for the Ward Christmas Breakfast and Nativity Production (play). This is Westmount area.....
And then we're to be on the north side to buy the car.
Before all of this I was to be dressed, make-up'd and such for my meeting and at the bank to get a cheque for the car.....
All was going as planned until the weather turned to crap on my drive over to my dinner meeting.... And the roads got a bit....Umm...Unsafe.
Dinner meeting went really well. Comissioner signed. Food eaten.
Picked up the family, decorations and headed over to the Church. While there Zoë fell right off the stage (turned to crawl down the stirs from the stage) and bashed her head so hard I heard the 'CRACK!' noise at the back of the gymnasium. As well, Tyler started to feel not so great... Humm...
After this we drove to the north side to make our 10:30pm appointment to buy the car (Alright, we were late as there was just not enough time in the weather to get across the city in 20 minutes).
We waited so long that we left, filled the van with gas (which I did -the passenger- because Tyler was just that ill) and got some drinks and a snack to hold us over...
Just before midnight they showed up, emptied the car out (her daughter has a child so we actually got to see how a car seat would fit in the car) and we did the payment/paper work.
There we have it! We are now the proud owners of a second vehicle... Who needs more kids when you have car payments to make??!! *L*
I drove the van home; Tyler drove the car (I'm guessing you could have figured that one out on your own....).
That's all I'll tell you about for now since we'll start getting into Emma's Birthday weekend.... Maybe Friday night while my girls are at a sleepover I'll take the time to write an extremely long blog about that weekend and the week that lead up to it....
*We're paying my Mom back... Slowly as I made a deal with Tyler that I would pay for it with whatever I make from Weddings and my monthly cheque, etc..... Merry Christmas!!! (A car and a Drafting Table... Not a bad score! *L*)
And why does Blogger always seem to make the spaces in-between my paragraphs longer and longer? That's not how
I placed them! Grrr...
Posts
