After four years of living 18 floors above the 
Burnaby skyline, with truly spectacular views of the winding Fraser River, Vancouver Island,the North Shore mountains, the city and Mt Baker, I'm trading it all for island living.
But that's for a later story.
It took a month's hard graft to get the flat into shape.There was the painting of rooms, skirting and doors; fixing all the little bits that needed fixing and changing the gawd awful brass fitting the previous owners had installed in the bathrooms & replacing them with nifty, less fussy brushed nickel ones.
And cleaning like I've never cleaned before.
Who knew there were special cleaners for every surface imaginable?
The wood surfaces needed lemon oil, the kitchen counters had to have a strong but fresh orange smelling cleaner, the stove top need a ceramic cleaner, the windors & mirrors had Windex and the floors required some evil smelling anti-bacterial glunk.
Thank goodness the spring flowers were already in the garden centres!The cheapskate in me reasoned that daffodils, primroses & pansies would last longer than cut flowers when we had our open house. so we just had to have them.
Especially if we had to have several open houses over the next couple of weeks with the property market being so depressed and all.
The colourful spring flowers really do add cheer and life to both the winter battered balconies.But, it looked like we didn't need the daffodils to last that long after all. In fact, they only needed to last a few days. Because Jeff Harrison, our super realtor worked a miracle.
It chuffes me to say that we got multiple offers the next day after the open house.
And less than a week later, today as it happens, there was confirmation that the apartment has been sold. At the asking price.
In a word...
YIPPPEEEEEE !!!!!
Looks like my years of hard slog as a journalist and stylist at Home & Decor Magazine wasn't wasted.All in all, I'd say that it paid off. In spades!
Have a look and tell me what you think.
