A new Leaf

Once again lots of time has gone by, but here is the recap!

1) By far the most important thing that has happened is... the basement is done! We finished the inside enough o have people move in and best of all start paying rent! They moved in at the start of August 2012. And so far so good! There are still a few projects left around the outside but we are taking a much more relax approach to those as they don't affect the inside and daily activities of living in the basement.

2) We celebrated our first wedding anniversary. PJ surprised me with a wallet friendly, honeymoon inspired trip to an island nearby. He chartered a sailboat and we went on a private afternoon sail (we did a sailing cruise on our honeymoon in Maui), we camped on the beach ( we rented a condo on the beach on Maui) and he brought a pineapple that we were going to eat but the situation didn't work out, but he got good marks for effort.

3) We spend lots of time camping and visiting the recreational property that PJ's parent have on a local island. It was loads of fun. For one of the trips we invited some extra family and friends, so in total there were nine people and six dogs! I think everyone had a great time!

So that is about it for now, we are just getting back in to the swing of things and saying goodbye to the last days of summer.

Long Over Due

This post is way overdue, I have been busy but mostly just out of the habit. The basement is almost complete and we have new people moving in August 1! The final inspection was completed  last week and this means it is safe for habitation.

I have had a lot of mixed feelings about the project coming to completion. They range from thrilled to be getting on with my life to a little heart broken that all my hard work in going to to enjoyed by other people. I have spent hours and hours thinking about paint colours and finishes only to hand them over to someone else who may not even like my choices. I may change my mind when we cash the first rent cheque though.

We are planning a little vacation getaway in about a week and a half. We will spend half our days at my family's lake cottage and the other half on PJ's family's property on a nearby island. It will be some well deserved R&R. Most of all, the doggies will love it. They have been a bit put out by the evenings spent working on the basement. I am excited to try out the new bike trailer we got for Rhino so he can join us on some longer bike rides on the island. Summer... here we come!

Reno Update#3

I am happy to report some progress in the basement, despite a whole new set of issues (general contractor was hospitalized). Most of our developments are on the inside. Here is the the list of things that have happened:

1) Drywall is basically complete, there is still some touching up but it is less than a days work.

2) Primer paint on the walls

















3) Concrete floor is level, we had some crazyuneveness going on and no flooring would have looked good without this step. A word of advice: make sure to read the warranty info on your flooring product as some have unlevel subfloors as a reason to void the warranty.

4)Laminate floor installed

5) New window beside the french doors

So as you can see we still have a ways to go, but we are getting there and I am feeling good about the pace and progress we are seeing!

Is there an echo in here?

There might be and echo because I haven't been keeping up to date with the blogs so I bet no one else is visiting it anymore.
Things are still crazy but slowing down. Where I last left off it was PJ's birthday. Here is a quick list of things that have been going on since then:

• PJ's birthday surprise party was a success, thank goodness! I am not good at surprises so I was quite proud of myself for pulling it off
• We cancelled a trip to Calgary, but decided to take the time and go skiing instead. So worth it! We had one of the best days on the mountain.
• Everyone I know seems to be annoucing they are pregnant. I am thrilled for them and not so quietly wishing it were me. But alas, my time will come one day.
• Basement reno is two steps forward, one step back. We thought we were making progress and the drywall was up, then it took 2-3 weeks of politics and phone calls to get someone to mud and tape and sand. I think ( please don't let me jinx it) that is done and the painter is coming this week. Also our general contractor was in the hospital and might be back to work next week so we are dong it all by ourselves.
• Rhino our lovely old dog, has a lump :( Not just any lump, one in his nether regions, one that makes it uncomfortable for him to do a number two. He is done his blood work and is going in for the biopsy in 2 days. Get better soon Rhino
• My niece had her 3rd birthday, we had so much fun in the boucy castle, I think the kids had fun too!
• Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday PJ!

It's  PJ's Birthday this week! Unfortunately, he is in Europe so we won't get to spend the actual day together. He will be back tomorrow and I couldn't be happier. He travels for work and some trips are easier than others. This was a hard one. With everything going on in the basement it was tricky to make decisions and deal with things while he was away. Also the time difference was hard so we didn't really get much chance to talk, like ships passing in the night.

 We will be celebrating but I don't want to give anything away so I will let you know the details after it all happens. For now, let's just send him good birthday wishes and safe travels! Love you PJ!

The Wall

There has been a flurry of activity in our basement and as well as the upstairs of our house. Last week the following happened.

UPSTAIRS:

Loft bedroom got a wall. We decided to close it in and make a proper 3rd bedroom, when we lived there we noticed a few issues and while we liked the 'lofty' feel we felt the added bonus of calling the house a 3 bedroom as well as eliminating the sound and early morning/ late night issues was worth it.

Also the new tenents moved in so now wee are landlords! Yikes!



Standing in the 3rd bedroom looking down into the living room



Standing in the living room looking up at the bedrrom, you can see the start of the wall




Standing in the living room looking up, the finished wall



Standing at the top of the stairs looking into the bedrrom

BASEMENT:
We also had some progress in the basement. (Insert a squeal here) What a difference drywall makes! The rooms used to be so dark. Also, seeing the framing and exposed insulation was real getting me down because everyone kept saying " as soon as drywall goes in , it will all happen so fast!"Well after 3 months I was really getting sick of hearing that. So I have been waiting paitiently for the drywall stage so I can get on with the only good part, picking finishes. I have been planning and dreaming of paint colours and floor samples for a year and I just want to see my ideas come to life already! (not to mention move on with my life and stop renovation)


Basement Living room



Basement Kitchen- thise are the cabinets all waiting to be assembled

Basement Bathroom



Basement Hallway- looking into the basement bedrrom




French doors that will replace the old garage door



So now that we have drywall I hope the momentum continues and I will be updating a little more frequently. If anyone is still reading I hoping to get a few more posts in but in the mess of moving and managing the reno and new tenents all while PJ is a away has really taken it out of me so, hopefully with PJ back this week and the much anticipated drywall in place I will be a little more present. Thanks for sticking with me, all 3 of you!

Reno Update #2

Well it has been an embarrasingly long time since I have updated the progress at our house. This is mainly for two reasons:The first is that I have been a bit busy, with everything going on during the holidays I just didn't take that many pictures and who wants to read a renovation update with no pictures! The second reason is that there really wasn't a lot going on to make an update. Stuff has happened but it was mostly work that needed to be redone or fixed from the ex-contractor doing it poorly.

But it is now time so here are some udated photos!

The framing in of the wall for the master bedroom

New driveway in the back of the house

Wedding mulligans...

I had a lovely visit last night with a friend who is in the process of planning her own wedding and I got to thinking about our wedding and what I would have done differently. I will preface this with the statement "I really enjoyed our wedding and am thrilled with how it all turned out."

Having said that I would be lying if I said I wouldn't change anything or do anything different. There is only one biggy and and couple of minor things that are really fine tuning of any major event for smoothness and comfort.

Here is the Biggy! We did not hire a videographer and I am happy with that plan. However I do wish I had asked someone to videotape the ceremony. I am an auditory person and certain songs trigger strong emotions in me, with that in mind, I selected songs for our ceremony that really set a mood or embodied the way I feel about PJ. Lovely! Except, once the ceremony began I was in a different world all together and I didn't even hear the songs or the words the marriage commisionaire was saying. I couldn't look PJ in the eye for fear of losing my graceful teary eyed bride status for a blubbering mess of silk and tissues. So basically I have some beautiful pictures but nothing to take me back to the feeling of the day.

Some of the littles!

• Have PJ and I switch sides during the ceremony. No one could see my face because the side swept hairstyle I chose blocked my face.
• Asked the photographer to get more guest photos. We didn't give the photographer much guidance and let him do what him felt was right. What did we know, we've never done this before, but it did mean we have some guest photos, but they are mostly of a few specific people, one of which is the only person who neither PJ and I knew.
• I would have had a reception dress ready. I loved my wedding gown and didn't want to wear anything else, but being strapped in that thing for 10 hours and having been born in a century without corsets as daily wear meant my ribs were killing me by the end of the night. Having a nice little comfortable dress would have meant I could have enjoyed the party a little longer and eaten a little more of the wonderful food!

That is about it, so really not too much to regret. But I, like most brides am only planning to do this once so these are bit and pieces to pass on to other brides as things to consider. If you have planned a wedding, what would you do differently? If not I hope these thoughts are helpful to you.

Oh, in case you are wondering here are the songs I chose for our ceremony:

Bridal party walking down the isle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0uItd-nL6U

And me walking down the isle ( not quite this version, but you get the idea)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXPDnMnWF1k

Otis the oddball

Sometimes I take the boys with me to work on Wednesdays. We have a little hump day routine and friend to walk with at lunchtime. After work, I drove most of the way home with Otis sitting like this:

Safety first Otis!

Four Months!

I just wanted to say that PJ and I have now been married for 4 months! Yippee! I couldn't be happier about it. We have been through a lot in the last year. Somehow we managed to plan and host a wedding, deal with a house reno gone bad and make some pretty hard decisions, during that time not once have we fought, lost it on each other. We have not always wanted to deal with things in the same way but we have been able to get through together.

I am so happy to have found PJ and been welcomed into his family and have him welcomed into mine. I love him more now because I really do feel like I have a partner in life, someone to help me get through the lows in life and someone to celebrate the highs in life.

Holiday Happenings

We spent last year's holiday season in the UK, but this year I was really looking forward to a quiet holiday at home. In addition to begin at home, my niece is almost 3 years old! To me there is nothing that creates more christmas spirit than a child. It has been a while since there have been kids around for christmas, next to my niece I am the youngest in our family.

Helping her daddy hand out gifts

So excited about her "santa" gift she didn't know what to do



My niece, myself and my sister riding the mini trains at a local hertitage site



She was so much fun to have around, just watching her eyes light up with every new package and activity was really wonderful. And unfortunately for PJ, kicked my baby fever in high gear!