Unexpected Project

A few nights ago, David and I were talking about our office, and what we could do to freshen it up. Our first thought, naturally, was paint. We contemplated many different colours, but couldn't settle on any one colour. Until David asked if we had paint in the basement. When I painted the craft/guest room when we first moved it, I bought a gallon of green paint as well as a gallon of blue paint (even though it turned out I only needed a quart of the blue). So, at 11pm we emptied out the office, I patched all the nail holes in the walls left by the previous owner, and then started cutting in. By the time I was finished it was 2am! Emily woke up at 5:30 for her feeding, and when she went back to sleep, I found myself wide awake. I tossed and turned for a little while before giving up. I figured, if I'm awake, I may as well get busy. By 11am, the main painting was done. We had to run out for some paint for the trim, and by supper time all the painting was finished.

We looked through office furniture at Ikea and finally settled on some pieces that will (eventually) work well in the room. Although, we can't afford to pick them up now, over the next few months our tiny office will have a new, organized look!

Before - the yellow was really intense...

After - A nice, cool, relaxing blue

The office furniture on our "to buy" list

Basement Update

Once the crew ripped up the sub-floor that they had exposed, they found that the water had stayed to one half of the basement. They set up a couple of fans and a de-humidifier (which means we now watch TV with the volume really high!) and let them run for a few days to get rid of the moisture. On Saturday, the supervisor came by to see how everything was drying out, check if the water had run any further into the basement, and to get us to choose our flooring.

The damage so far...

A sample of our new flooring!

 It turns out that the water went further than they originally thought, and the whole floor, including the craft/guest room, has to come up (squee!). They're going to start building everything back on the side they tore up this week (including laying the new laminate flooring), move everything to the finished side, then rip up the other half of the basement. So, we should have a "new" basement in a couple of weeks!

Another Room Makeover: Nursery!

After finding our we were pregnant, we got to work repainting the baby's room.

When we moved in, we installed shelves one of the walls with the intention of using them for books and teddy bears and other stuffies (at our last place). However, once I started putting some books on the shelves they started to pull away from the wall. I was not impressed, especially considering that at our last place these shelves lived in the kitchen and held a couple dozen large cookbooks with no complaints. Needless to say the books came off the shelf and were replaced with yet more stuffies. 

Before the room reno could start, I wanted to remove the shelves from the wall. Unfortunately we used metal plugs (which I really don't recommend!) and when they were removed they left a 1" hole in the wall. So I had lots of patching to do to repair the damage. Once the repairs were complete, it was time for paint. 

As much as I like the colour of the "blue room", I found the blue had a lot of grey in it and looked kind of dingy. I wanted a colour that had more life in it so we went with an aqua blue (Premier's Tahoe Blue from Canadian Tire). 

Before

Cutting In - You can see the difference in colour

Finished: View from the door

View from the window opposite the door

We still have to get some furniture to go in this room. Up until now it has been used as a guest room, and had 2 single beds in it. We removed one of the bed frames and put it's mattress under the bed in case we still needed the extra bed. We're hoping to pick up a bookshelf from Ikea in the next few weeks (the same one that we used here, and then we'll need a crib, change table and glider all before the end of February!

Painting!

I've been busy painting our bedroom these past couple of days. We liked all the colour choices the previous owners made and so we didn't have a lot of painting to do... except for the bedroom. We didn't know what colour we wanted, but we both agreed that we didn't like their choice. I think this may be the only 'before' photo of our bedroom.

And here are the after shots:

We went with a dusty purple for the two windowed walls, and a silver grey for the other two walls. We added cream curtains (that will need to be shortened) and eventually will replace our current mismatched furniture for a white set. We're both really happy with how it turned out!

Catching up...

We've been pretty busy these past few days...

Saturday morning we decided to head back to the store to pick up a new duvet cover we saw while curtain shopping. Next on the list will be some new paint for the walls, but that probably won't be until spring at the very earliest. New curtains and blinds are also on that shoppings list. The duvet cover wasn't on the bed long before Caesar decided it was time for a nap.

The guy who clears our driveway also came by, even though there wasn't too much snow. Usually we get up in the morning to a clean driveway, so it was nice to actually witness the snow clearing.

There was also some furious knitting on Saturday that lasted well into the wee hours of Sunday morning as I was trying to finish some knitwear for my cousin's baby shower Sunday afternoon. I've resisted posting any pictures earlier just in case!

We all had a great time at her shower! But, of course, I once again forgot the camera... that's one of my new years' resolutions... be sure to have always have the camera for those spontaneous (and those "it's been on the calendar for months!") photo ops!

We started back to work at the college yesterday and we've been busy getting everything ready for the beginning of the semester. Fortunately, we won't see students for another 2 weeks so there's still plenty of time to prepare. After work we spent the evening with my parents for my mom's birthday... it was a great evening!

So far today has been more of the same... cleaning, organizing, getting ready for labs to begin!

New Curtains!

We decided it was finally time to change the curtains. They were left here by the previous owner, and while they were nice they were not something we would have chosen.

Of course, the only photo I could find is from

the home inspection last March!

So, yesterday we finally decided on a colour for them, and went on a mission for curtains... and we came back with these:

and we love them! It makes such a huge difference to the living room, it actually feels bigger and more open =)

Making Jam

I hope everyone had a great Christmas... things have been really busy around here but today I finally have a chance to catch up!

This year we decided to gift everyone with homemade jam for christmas. Having never made jam before, it was quite an adventure... and I loved every minute of it!

Of course, I completely forgot to take pictures of most of the jam making experience... but I remembered to snap some of the marmalade!

Cut up fruit goes into the pot....

After boiling for 1 hour...

Strawberry Daiquiri, Marmalade, and Strawberry Mango

By the time I remembered to take some photos of the bottled jam, I had already gifted all the raspberry. Next time ;)

We have ignition!

After we brought some of the wood in to dry, David decided to get the fire going with some junks of wood that were fairly snow-free.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...

We received our first load of wood for the season... 4 cords of wood, and the pile is almost as big as our little Yaris!

We've been working on moving it in for the past hour or so, but it's slow going! Now to wait for the snow & ice to melt off our "dry" wood ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It was a beautiful day today so we decided it was time to put up the rest of our christmas lights and the snow fence.

We saw some brave chickadees too!

Early but oh, so pretty!

I think this is the earliest I've ever put our christmas tree up, but with all the snow on the ground and lots of free time I decided no time like the present!

Fire in the furnace...

We recently had our wood furnace repaired and today we started it up for the first time. Not only are we getting a nice heat that is a little less intense than oil heating, but the woodsmoke from our chimney smells great!

New Oil Tank!

One of the conditions of the sale of the house was that we would be responsible for replacing our oil tank. As it was 22 years old, it did need changing. I have been in a house where their oil tank leaked, and the smell of oil that remained for months after the cleanup was enough to prompt me to look into a double bottom tank with an alarm feature. If the oil breaches the first wall into the emergency reservoir, a whistle sounds to alert you. This way we don't have to worry about stinky oil, and have time to replace the tank.

Kite Flying

Today David decided to take advantage of our high winds and fly his kite!

All the cats were scared of the kite, except our fearless female Bella.

Craft Room - Before & After

For the longest time I have wanted a dedicated space in which to do crafts and store crafting supplies. In our last place I had everything scattered around our office, and some stuff in baskets in the living room as well. When we first visited this house, I knew that the spare room in the basement would become my craft room.

Here are a couple of before photos from our home inspection...

And here are the after pictures!

Housewarming!

Yesterday we were finally able to invite everyone over for a housewarming party. Of course, I completely forgot to take any photos! We had a great time showing everyone around the house & property... some even got to see a snake out by the far shed!

Moving Day!

After 2 weeks of cleaning and slowly moving small stuff into the house, we finally officially moved in and we were greeted with a rather unpleasant surprise...

Our sump pump failed and we had 3 inches of water in the basement!

Fortunately, because we hadn't yet moved everything into the house, we didn't have very much in the basement and what was there did not get damaged. The insurance is covering everything minus the deductible of course, which means we get a basement reno for a fraction of the price.No more dark, dingy carpet! You have to stay positive, right?

New Home!

On March 31st, 2010, we received the keys to our new home! We had been casually looking at homes for a couple of weeks, with no intention of buying for a couple of years, when we found this home. As soon as we walked in through the door we both knew it would be our new home.

We started our search with the intention of buying in the city, close to work. What we ended up with was a home on almost 3 acres of land in the country, and a 50 minute drive from work. Our inspiration to search in such a rural area were the cute and cuddly alpacas that we were introduced to last fall. It was love at first sight, and we started learning all that we could about these unique animals. Our goal is to one day have a small herd of alpacas grazing in our pasture.