Lots of Changes...

Things have been a roller coaster in our lives. When I last updated we had just finished the basement and celebrated our first wedding anniversary. What has changed or what I didn't say last time is...

1) The basement was rented out to some friends of ours, things were good, not prefect but good. And most of all we were happy. It was also nice to see the rent cheques coming in, instead of payment to contractor cheques going out. Since then (as of this weekend) we have moved into the basement. I am thrilled that we can do this and be back in our house, but it will be hard to keep the budget in the green.

2) What I didn't say about our anniversary trip is that we also found out we are expecting our first baby! Yup, nothing classier than peeing on a stick in a campground outhouse. But that is our story! I am now about 31 weeks and it's a.... Boy! We are very happy, pregnancy has gone very well but I am beginning to get very tired. I guess I should get used to it, so everyone says :)

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.

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!

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!

The sun is out

Well I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was pretty down for a while about the prospect of leaving our house and I was pretty screaming mad at our ex-contractor for putting us in this horrible financial situation! I am still mad, but I am  getting over it. We have a plan now. I am impaitient to get things moving and I really want to start seeing some progress, but at least I know hat direction we are going in. PJ's parents have been great and really helped us get some much needed yard clean up done, my mom has been kind enough to offer us her house while we get things sorted.

In the mean time I am looking forward to enjoying our house for Christmas and enjoying this season of joy and thankfulness. Despite all the the other "stuff", we have a lot to be happy about this year. We got married, we are still very happy about being together, we are tired but healthy, we have good jobs and families who are there for us. It is really not so bad.

I am looking forward to the holiday parties (5th one this weekend) and relaxing on my holidays! One more week before back to work!

To move or to move farther...

We have decided that in order to complete our reno faster, we need to move and rent out the upper floor of our house. It isn't really something I want to do, in fact it is the thing I least want to do. It feels so much like a step backwards. If I were really honest it is because it means letting go of the dream life where everything goes according to plan. I get my house, we get married, we have babies and I have money to buy them things and decorate a room for them and I happily have fun lunch dates with friends while on maternity leave.

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My brain seems to work in extremes, so because of the money situation that is requiring us to move out of our house means my brain thinks we will never have enough money to have a child, it will always be hard and blah blah blah. I need a money tree!

Right, Back to reality! It is not the end of the world. We are very fortunate that both PJ's parents and my mother  have offered to have us in their homes while we get things sorted out in the basement. Logistically my mother has more space and privacy to offer, and we have already lived there so we know it works. I also am willing to let go of the dream and realize things may not be how I planned but it will all work out.

Advice for first time renovators

Like every other first time homeowner, we bought a house and dreamed about its possibilities. Our house has a full basement that we thought we could turn into a basement apartment and then in later years reclaim as extra living space as our family grew. We took about eight months to live in the house and get a feel for it before we made the decision to start the renovation. We thought we did everything right, We got quotes from at least four different contractors and recommendations from family. We decided on one contractor and looked at some his work in person and photos. We signed a contract with him and thought we good because we "had it  in writing". So, we were well on our way to having a fully finished basement in about 3 months.WRONG!
About four months into the project is where things started to go sideways and where our lack of experience was our downfall. The following are the things I think we will try to remember when moving forward with our project or in attempting other projects.

1) A contract is not good enough. You need to understand what is in the contract and it needs to include everything. We had a contract but the breakdown of work was so vague that we didn't know what tasks were included in each section and how much each of those items was going to cost. It was so general, that we didn't actually understand the steps in completing our project.

2) Keeping up with the job as it goes. We were not able to be there because we both work full time but mostly we just blindly trusted the contractor to know what he was doing and relied on the building inspector to catch anything not done correctly.There will always be things that are unexpected in a renovation and you need to be responsible in dealing with those changes. We should have educated ourselves as the project moved forward with proper techniques, talked to the building inspectors ourselves about building codes and permits that were required. Don't just trust the contractor because as it turns out ours lied and did not get the permits he was supposed to and the building inspectors are only there as a last backup after the work is completed.

3)Check your contractor's qualifications, we checked that ours was a member of the better business bureau but didn't know about professional associations that exsisted to govern builders. We also didn't know that there are different types of contractors, finishing contractors do finishing work etc.

4) Your contractor is not your friend. This doesn't mean you need to be mean to them, but you have a business relationship and you are the boss, so if they aren't doing the work or following your directions it is your job as the employer to ask why or question the reason. Don't nag but you are paying for the things you let slip by. In our case, we had some bad weather and the contractor said he couldn't work because of it (more so because the wet made our yard turn to quicksand and push a wheelbarrow through it would have been really hard).Turns out there was an easy fix to the problem, but we didn't find it until we actually looked it to ourselves much much later, about 2 months later. We excepted the excuse because we didn't want to be unreasonable and demanding and I wouldn't want to work outside in the rain and snow either. But  I choose an office job so I wouldn't have to, the contractor knew going into this career that they may need to get a bit wet or cold in order to finish the job.

 I think that is a start, I don't want to scare anyone away from renovating nor do I mean to imply that builders or contractors are bad people. I except that part to the reason for our situation is our fault. I just wanted to pass on what we had learned in the last year in the hopes that it will help someone else avoid what we are going through.
 In case you were wondering, we are now speaking with a lawyer and trying to borrow money from family to finish the house, but it will cost more because of the damage that was done because it has been sitting so long. There is also a possibility we won't get our money back as we know the the contractor does not have the money, the company will most likely go bankrupt and close, then they will re-open with a new name and carry on.

Boo! Take Two!

Well I made a few stops on the way home to try to up the spook content of our house this Halloween. I started with this and added a big furry spider and some crows to sit around the house

PJ and the 'Boys' even got in to the Halloween spirit.

Although Otis wasn't quite sure about the hat.

I also bought some mason jars for $6.79 and painted them all black except for some clear spaces in the shape of spooky eyes or jack-o-lantern faces to line our stairway. Also, just a tidbit, If you want the paint to come off afterwards so you can reuse the jar or whatever you are painting on, just add a little liquid dish soap, and the paint will slide off with water. However in all the rush, I forgot to take a picture of the jars and the outside set up, Opps!

And as for the trick or treaters? We had 8 in total! Boo Hoo. Not sure if we are in a neighbourhood with no kids or if the shopping centre trick or treating is taking over. I will keep trying and hopefully the candy scent with lure them in. Insert maniacal laughter here.

On a side note, I am looking for something to spice with the old window in the first picture. It is from our basement renovation and is original to our 1935 house, but it is kinda bland on our mantle. Anyone have any ideas? I can't leave the halloween and spider, the next holiday is just around the corner.

Boo!

It's Halloween! I love Halloween. Unfortunately, I have been able to decorate much of the house yet this year due to budgets and most of all a lack of time.
This is the start of the decorations, my family had a little pumkin carving/painting soiree on the weekend and this is what I came up with. $3.99 for the pumpkin, and the paint I had left over from other projects.
 But I do have a few plans and I have been stealing ideas from some very crafty and creative bloggers I follow. So I will head home after work to today and see what I can come up with. Last year we had a whooping 12 kids come to our house so maybe if I make to outside say "Halloween" loud and clear then a few more kids will stop by! Wish me luck!

Happy Birfday

 I recently celebrated my birthday by hitching a ride with my mom, sister and super cute niece to visit a dear friend who has moved away to another city. I had a great time visiting with her and we got a lot of catching up done. I rambled on about married life, basement renos and future bambinos (shhh, that last one isn't info ready for our families just yet). She told me about her life in the new city and the struggles she is having. We reflected on the fact that we are now into our early thirties and how things are so much  different than we imagined.

Here is what I thought my thirties would be like when I was 22:
1) I would be married to a great guy... Check
2) I would own a house....Check
3) That house would be nicely finished and beautifully decorated..... ummm, not so much
4) I would have at least one child...hmmm, working thinking on that one still
5) I would have a great job... Check

That is as far as I got in my planning when I was 22, I guess I am not doing too badly, but isn't it funny how things and priorities change as you enter the real grown up world.

These things are never more present in my thoughts as we are contemplating a move back in with my mother. Some how it feels like a huge step back to own a house but be living with you mom at 32 years old! Sigh, but at least we have a lot of other things going for us I am really not complaining.
I wonder, did anyone end up where they thought they would be at a younger age?

My sheepish secret

A while ago I ripped off the band-aid that was my little blogging secret and told PJ about the blog. I not sure what made me keep quiet about it before, embarrassment, maybe? A desire to have something just for me, possibly? I think maybe a bit of both. Either way, I decided that we were about to be married and he should know about it, especially if I was going to talk about him in it.

Decision made! I was going to tell him. I told him. Unfortunately I didn't really think this decision through very well, because then he wanted to READ IT! After a few squirmy moments I handed over the address and waited while he read each post.  He was given the instructions he was not allowed to give feedback on my writing style (writing has historically been difficult for me so I have a little sensitivity to correction), content feedback was welcome.

The end of the story is a happy one, he thought it was good and was happy with some nice things I wrote about him. I don't think he has read it since that night, which is fine by me, it keeps it just for me. But I feel better knowing he knows.

I WUB YOU!

I count myself amongst the very lucky few people who can say I love my job.This doesn't mean that I  arrive early in the morning and leave much later than everyone else, I am human and I really like to sleep.  I do however feel like I found something I am meant to do. But I think most of all I do actually enjoy many parts of my job( read: everything but paperwork)

I am a pediatric speech language pathologist or speech therapist. I get to help preschool kids with their articulation, language and stuttering among other things. The two things I love most about my job are: the idea that I helped a child/ family to understand each other and gave the child a sense of pride the they achieved something after some hard work. I also love the mental puzzle that is involved with 'figuring out' each child and how to help them.  Not the mention that I get to work with kids who are at such a fun and interesting stage in their young lives, I mean, who doesn't get excited by play-doh.

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Now to be honest, they are not all little cherubs, some are poorly behaved, some have off days (don't we all) and some pick their noses, but those are rare. Most are happy and excited to see what game or activity I have to play that day.

This post is inspired by a little boy who I have been seeing since he was just under 2 years old. At that time he was a handful. He was not yet talking and he was very, very frustrated about not being able to communicate. He had a very short attention span and most of his appointments were spend with his mother and I chasing him and desperately trying to interpret what he wanted.

A couple years later and he is a happy little boy with a great sense of humour, who can walk into the office and announce " I'm FOUR" to anyone who will listen (we worked on the /f/ sound for months and months). After his appointment yesterday, as he was leaving my office, spiderman sticker proudly displayed on his t-shirt when he turned around and ran back to me and said "I wub you" and gave me a hug.  It is moments like these that make all the spit, vomit and stinky kids worth it.

The world outside the wedding bubble

I am fully immersed in the wedding bubble now. All I can do is think about the wedding while running through mental lists of things to do for the wedding. I can't focus at work, despite having reports to write while still seeing my regular clients. I can't get housework or yard work done. And the saddest of all is my poor little pooches are suffering from cabin fever. Here are the poor little guys

They get out to the backyard to roam around and do their business maybe chase a stick, but they are used to trips to the dog park a couple times a week and a whole lot more attention. Luckily, they will be spoiled in a few short days because my mother is looking after them while we are getting married and on our honeymoon. They LOOOOVE visiting her and playing with her dog in her giant back yard.

As for work, I am so glad my work grants marriage leave, that's right they are paying me to get married! I am using it to take the week before the wedding off, really I don't think I would be all that productive anyway, but I am grateful for the time to get ready and do last minute stuff, without the guilt of not focusing on work. Yay, only two days left of work, now I need to go, I have reports to write.

The story so far...

I spent a lot of my early adult life trying to do things faster and get on to the next thing coming. Although not much has changed, at some point I realized if you live life at that pace some things are sure to get forgotten. Due to the fact that I am now entering what many people tell me are "the best years of my life", I figured I better write some of this down, because my memory isn't likely to get better with age.

As of right now, I have roughly 74 days ( but who is counting) until I marry the most amazing, warm hearted man I have ever met. We are planning a small-ish casual wedding in our home town. While I am wading through the waters of wedding planning, I spend what little free time I have navigating through the ocean of a major home renovation, Yikes! We must be crazy!

PS. If anyone  other than me reads this, please remember I am new at this blogging thing.