Merry Christmas!

Well, once again, too much time has passed since I've posted. I've been really busy working (but tomorrow is my last shift! Phew!), and trying to finish up some things around the house as well. The living room is mostly finished, and is decorated for Christmas, complete with a tree!

We have Ian's family all coming for dinner on Christmas eve. We'll be celebrating a Mexican Christmas, with chili, enchiladas, fresh salsa, margaritas, etc! So we've been busy preparing for that. I spent one day making the chili and enchiladas, and freezing them. I spent yesterday doing some baking.

Meanwhile we've had a few more leaks, frozen windshield fluid, and our furnace died! Luckily, my father-in-law has been amazing, coming to our rescue on several occassions, and Ian has been very quick to learn how to fix things!!

Yesterday, while the furnace was out of commission, we borrowed electric heaters from Ian's parents. I was doing some baking in the kitchen, with one of the heaters on the floor, as much out of the way as I could get it, when I hopped over it. Somehow, I managed to kick the oven drawer with the side of my foot and have developed one heck of a nasty bruise on the side of my foot. It's swollen, looks like it might be blistering even, and the purple splotch wraps around, even under my foot! It's pretty gross. I'll include a picture in case you don't believe me!

Missing my friends and family incredibly right now. Can't say it's been a month free of break-downs, between that, work, the weather, the car, and the multitude of issues we've encountered around the house... It feels very overwhelming at times. But it passes. Life goes on. We've had a very exciting year, with a lot of big changes. It's a lot to adjust to I suppose. But we've been incredibly lucky and I am counting my blessings. Christmas is upon us and I am looking forward to spending it with my new husband, in our new home. We will be very lucky if the coming year brings even half as many blessings as this one has.
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year!! I hope it's everything you wish it to be!!

Blog?!

It suddenly dawned on me last night that I haven't posted anything in.. I didn't even know how long! I almost can't remember how to log in! I haven't updated pictures, or progress, or even logged in to complain, gripe, and whine!!

So I guess now for a quick update, and my excuses. We have completed the main bathroom, dining room, and are in the final stages of finishing off the living room! All that's left to do on the main floor is to finish the hall and kitchen, and do the two spare bedrooms. We also have some touch-ups to do in the living room, and finishing touches such as the quarter round on the floor and the crown moulding. I haven't actually taken many pictures of the progress as I've been too busy working on making progress. I have been busy all day every day. I guess that's the way it is with renovating. I get up in the morning, drink my coffee and eat my cereal while trying not to get too much drywall dust in it. I change into my dirty work clothes. I work until lunch time when I find I'm absolutely starving. I eat a peanut butter and banana wrap (pretty much the only thing I can fathom making at this point of low blood sugar and ravenous hunger!), I get back to work until Ian gets home. At this point the remainder of my evening is determined by how much more we can do (like you can't do anymore if you just painted and have to wait for it to dry, but if you're sanding and filling holes it's a never ending process). So if there's lots more to do and I'm filthy dirty, I usually plead with Ian to make dinner and I keep working, so I don't have to get cleaned up (shower, clean clothes, etc.) in order to keep our dinner somewhat free of renovation extras. Then I will keep working until dinner, stop to eat, then get right back to work after dinner. I will work until I'm too tired to work anymore at which time I'll shower and maybe watch tv for a bit before bed. If there's not much I can keep working on after dinner, I'll have a shower and get dinner on. Then I try to spend some time relaxing, although usually this time is used for getting groceries, making another trip to Home Depot, or in the past few days, wrapping Christmas presents.

Last weekend was my 30th birthday. Ian took me out to dinner, we stayed in a hotel room overlooking the falls, had a very yummy buffet breakfast, did some shopping, then came home and painted for a few hours before Ian made a delicious French toast dinner followed by chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.

On Tuesday I started my Christmas job. Tuesday was only yesterday. It feels like days and days ago already! I am completely exhausted. My legs hurt, my back hurts, my hands, wrists, arms, fingers... It all hurts. I had aches and pains every day from all the work I've been doing around here. My shins have become perma-bruised I think. But now I have standing around on concrete aches, and repetitive motion pains. They seem to be a bit different. So, it's now past the time I intended to go to bed, my eyes are slowly closing, and I will be working another 8 hour day tomorrow! I think I'll have to leave my whining at this for now and hopefully talk more about my job a little later, if I have time. I actually only have 3 days off between now and Christmas! Crazy!!!

Delays

I feel like it's been a while since I posted on the blog.

We've had a few delays in our plans this past week, as can be expected with these sorts of projects. But as a result, I've been grumpy and very wrapped up in what I'm doing. I've been stripping wall paper. Well, it started with stripping wall paper, but the paint started coming off too. So I've been stripping paint really. It started very easy! It always does, doesn't it? Then came the tough spots. There are a number of spots where the plaster walls have been patched, or sanded, or are rougher than the rest of the wall for some unknown reason. The paint DOES NOT want to be separated from these spots. Unfortunately, the back of the wall paper doesn't want to be separated from the paint either. So we've been scratching, and picking, and chipping, and scraping these spots off. I think, it retrospect, a bit of water might have helped do the trick, but I suppose that would have to be scrubbed at too. Ahhhh, retrospect..

Anyways, I have been working on that for 8 days now! But finally, the walls are bare (almost!) Honestly, there are a few spots to go, but the dining room is finished and ready to be patched, and then sanded. I will be doing that tomorrow.

Earlier today, as I was trying to finish the scraping of the walls in the dining room I realized that there were some bare patches in the ceiling where Ian had removed the crown molding and chips of paint had come off. I poked one at one, the paint around it seemed loose. Don't ever do that. It fell off. The paint across the whole ceiling of the dining room could be picked off. We couldn't paint it like that. So we had to chip it all off! The floor was a disaster! I'll try to post pictures of what this looks like later, when I have more energy. Maybe I'll make a post on DIY disasters! We were hoping to have all the scraping finished, and the walls washed tonight. Also, Ian has a few other projects I was hoping he'd finish off this weekend, but we've been tied up with other things. So this additional delay was NOT a welcome one. I'm sure you can imagine what I was thinking as I started knocking chunks of paint off. But maybe in every disaster, good things can be found if you just look hard enough. We had no light fixture in the dining room, and no attic access to install something, so we couldn't figure out what we were going to do to light that room appropriately. But underneath all that paint we chipped off, in the center of the ceiling, Ian found a perfectly round patch that wouldn't come off! Could it be..? Hmmm, there is also a small rectangular patch on the wall beside the kitchen door! Is it..? How do we find out for sure? We chip them out! (Another delay, but at this point I'm starting to think this annoyance may have been quite worth while!) So we did that, starting with the wall, and sure enough, the rectangular patch contained a metal switch box, complete with live wires! So Ian knocked out the circle in the ceiling, and sure enough, there was a ceiling box, also complete with live wires! (The wires were marretted, BTW!) And now, because the paint on the dining room ceiling was chipping off, we get to shop for a new lighting fixture, and we will have light when we eat!

The Master's Suite

After nearly four months separated, we have finally been able to sleep in our own bed! It took us 9 days to prime (2 coats), paint the trim (2 coats), paint the walls (2 coats), pull out the carpet, scrub and scratch the old spilled paint off of the floor, etc.. We still haven't finished the closet, we need to hang a picture above the bed, and we need bedside lamps, but it's close enough to being complete that it feels like home!

The first 2 nights back in our own bed were the best nights sleep I've had in the past 4 months, and much needed! After a week and a half of sleeping on twin beds, it was nice to cuddle up to my husband again, and fall asleep with my head on his chest.

Before.

After. Before.

After.

Next project is the main floor bathroom.

Hard work

I don't think I've ever worked quite so hard in my life. We got the keys to our place Friday evening. We came over then and I started cleaning the kitchen while Ian and his dad went to Sears to pick up our new couch and chair.
We began the "big move" Saturday morning. We brought our first load, from the in-laws house, by 10:30 that morning. By 1PM we had picked up most of the stuff in our storage room also. I stayed here and started cleaning, while Ian and his dad went back for the bed and mattress. I sorted boxes and cleaned for several hours I think. Ian and I also started washing the walls in the bedroom. We took a little break around dinner time to go to J's. J is my sister-in-law's mother-in-law. She lives at their place in a basement suite. She made a lovely roast beef and mashed potato dinner for us all, complete with chocolate cake and pumpkin pie! It was very generous of her. Then we worked until midnight that night, Ian in the bedroom washing walls and the ceiling, and me in the kitchen unpacking boxes. Those stinking walls in the bedroom were washed with TSP and rinsed 4 times and the water was STILL coming out a disgusting orangey-brown colour from all the smoke!

On Sunday we started priming the master bedroom. We worked until 10:30 or so that night. That was also Halloween and our first dinner in our new house. We only had about 11 trick-or-treaters. I was a bit disappointed.
On Monday, Ian went back to work. When I woke up, I sat in the dining room and had my coffee and oatmeal. I watched the birds chase eachother around the yard. They ate the berries from an overgrown bush outside my window. I was going to remove the bush, but the robins seem to really like it. Also, Ian's mom put out some birdseed on the weekend, so we had chickadees, red finches, and something else (I'm not sure what it was) all flitting around the bird feeder. They were an absolute joy to watch. I took some excellent pictures of them. Then I put a second coat of primer on in the bedroom, but ran out of primer about 3/4 of the way around the room, and I hadn' t done the closet or ensuite yet. So then I finished unpacking the kitchen and tidying up, making it look a little more like home and less like we "just moved in." On Monday night my very kind father-in-law came over and fixed the leaky plumbing under my kitchen sink, and extended the tap in my laundry tub for me! Oh how lucky we are to have a plumber in the family! Now if only we had an electrician... We can only plug small appliances into the stove it seems, as every time I try to make coffee or boil water plugged into the wall outlet, I blow the fuse. A painter would be good too...

On Tuesday Ian went to work. I finished the second coat of primer in the bedroom, and primed the ensuite and closet. My sister-in-law came over and put a second coat of primer on some of the trim, and my mother-in-law came over and showed me how to use the caulking gun to seal the gaps around the windows and between the baseboards and walls. My mother-in-law invited us over for perogies (how could I turn that down? I was planning grilled cheese...) so when Ian got home from work we went over there. Then we went to Home Depot (we've been there every single day so far...) and bought a can of white paint to go over the primer (to help cover the purple, rather than using all the expensive primer). Ian finished the second coat in the closet and bedroom, and his parents came over also. His dad removed the carpet tack around the walls, and his mom and I sanded the baseboard and trim. Ian and I didn't stay up much later after they left. By 10PM I was in bed, exhausted.
Today... Today is Wednesday. I would like to paint the ceiling today, but I'm not sure if I have the energy to do it myself. It's at an angle, and quite high on one half of the room so I can't reach it comfortably, even on the ladder. I'm not too good with heights, so it really depends on how I'm feeling, whether I can do it or not. So I haven't quite decided if I should even try. If I get all the paint and stuff out and decide I just can't do it, I'll have to clean it all up... I could also paint all the trim. But I'd really like to get the ceiling done! I think if I got started, we might be able to set our bedroom up this weekend! But if I can't do the ceiling, it won't get done until this weekend. Which means we won't be in our room until next week... At any rate, I have to finish priming the baseboard in the closet, and I could start priming the main floor bathroom as well. Seems like a heck of a lot of work. Harder than I expected. So this morning I've chosen to update my blog, and have a second cup of coffee, while sitting in the dining room. I caught a quick glimpse of the robins and a chickadee, but the bird food is all gone now so they didn't hang around for long. I will have to get some more. In a few minutes I suppose I wish wash my face, then put on my painting clothes again.

Our new couch and chair.

The spare bedroom, already set up for us. We pulled the sheets and blankets off and are sleeping in our sleeping bags.

Ian raking leaves in our backyard.

Our walls in the process of washing. If you look closely you can see a slight line above the door, on the right hand side where Ian had washed up to.

Priming.

First coat of primer.

Second coat of primer.

Neighbours.

Hungry, greedy neighbours. Didn't even offer me any.

Friendly little fellas.

Cute.

My favourite, a red finch?

Today is Key Day!

We get the keys around 5PM tonight. I have a million things to do today. On that note, I'm just going to copy the email I sent to my mother last night, giving you an overview of what the next few days are probably going to look like.

So Mom, you don't have to read this again.

Friday morning I work, and Ian works all day. Then I have a bunch of running around to do and things to buy... alarm clock, telephone, some more cleaning stuff, etc. Also have to do laundry, clean the bathroom at Ian's parents', and finish packing our stuff here...

Friday evening we should get the key, at 5. I guess we'll take a quick swing by the house to make sure everything's in order there. Then, we will take both vans (Ian's parents' new one, and their old one) to the mall in St. Catharines where our couch and chair are waiting. We'll bring those back to the house. Might leave them in the garage for now, so that they don't smell like smoke... but we'll see...

Then, providing it's not already too late and we're not already exhausted, I would like to get started on cleaning. Just a quick wipe down of the kitchen, appliances, and all three bathrooms in particular. The fridge in the kitchen is going to need some attention I think, we peeked in it last night and there appears to be some rust in the freezer, so we'll just have to see what we can do....

So then Saturday we'll get our stuff from storage, and bring it all to the house. Also, we have a load or two here at Ian's parents' I'm thinking... We're still debating if it will go into the basement, or into the garage... It depends on what kind of time-frame we're looking at to get everything done I suppose... Don't want to start putting stuff on the main floor because it will get in the way of cleaning, etc. But we do need to pick it up because there is a lot of stuff in there we'll need, like towels, dishes, some cleaning things, etc...

Next on the agenda is to pull down all the light fixtures, and wash those. Also the heat registers, they looked like they could use a good scrubbing... We want to take a look under the carpet in the master bedroom, and see how that floor looks for starters. We may pull that carpet up right away, if it looks pretty good, so that we don't get our bed and matress smelling like smoke, and we can set it up right away... Anyways, then we'll get on to removing all of the ten zillion nails and picture hooks in the walls, and stripping wallpaper. Then washing walls, and filling holes. Then priming. And have to do the ceiling too.

That should pretty much take us into mid November I'm afraid, and that hasn't included actually unpacking ;)

No, hopefully within a few days we can feel somewhat settled... But I guess we'll see!!

Phone, cable, and internet will be installed on Monday evening.

Mom's response?
Whew, thankfully I'm here when you're moving! LOL
(Here being Kamloops, not in NF where we are.)

On that note, I doubt I'll have time to update until we're in there. Maybe Monday night or Tuesday. I can imagine I'll be anxious to check my email and Facebook. Pathetic, I know.

Point being, I'll try to remember to take lots of pictures, and will update as soon as I can.

5 Days! 4 days?

Well it's nearly 4pm on Monday afternoon... Does that mean only five days until we get possession, or 4 days? I'm not going to count the rest of today because it's mostly over, right? But I will count Friday as a day because we don't get the key until around 5pm that day... But if I didn't count Friday it would be 3 days!! How exciting is this? Actually, I'm a bit tired just thinking about it, and the breakouts on my face suggest that I'm more than just a little stressed about the whole thing..

We did, however, find a couch, along with a multitude of other items we'd been hunting for. Here's the couch, only we got it in a really pretty green colour. We also got this coordinating chair in a limey-green leather... It probably doesn't sound as nice as I think it is. It seems to be a very trendy colour this year and will be very easy to accessorize with, I hope. I love the chair. I think that's what sold me. And the price, we got floor models for 50% off the regular prices (which is not the prices listed, by the way) and then the salesperson knocked an additional $60 off the total. Good deal I think.

We also got this set of dishes at Canadian Tire, but now that I am reading the reviews of them, I'm not sure if we should keep them. It says many of the plates have broken. But I guess that's okay for now, we can get dishes we like better at a later date. Or something.

Other items purchased include a new coffee maker, a toaster, a cheap paint tray with cheap rollers and brushes to get us started with priming, a jumbo carton of TSP, a duvet (for a really great deal at The Bay!), numerous cleaning supplies (spounges, Vim, bleach, scrub brush, dust pan, etc.), a full-length mirror, a laundry basket, aaand... Oh yeah, a few things from Costco (a set of knives, and some groceries we'll need this week and when we move in.)

I'm getting tired. Shopping made me tired. Sometimes I tear up for no reason at all. I just get sad and my eyes get all watery. For some reason I was thinking the other day about our drive out here and I can't remember what I said about it. I might have to go back and read it. But it was sad. I think I cried most of the way from Kamloops to Salmon Arm, and probably the only reason I stopped at that point was I had to drive.

I'm starting to anticipate my birthday. It's a big one coming up. Someone told me we don't celebrate adult birthdays here, we just go for dinner... I'm not sure I'll do anything and that makes me sad. I'm really missing my friends and family these days. When we were shopping the other day I came to a realization that made me very sad. I was looking at big tables and shying away from the smaller ones. I thought I wanted a big table for when we have all our friends over for Waffle Sundays, or maybe hockey games, or barbeques, or whatever... But then I realized we don't have that many friends here. In fact, I have none and we've only spent any real amount of time with one of Ian's friends here. He's starting to think maybe there are no others left. He's starting to feel a bit sad, too. So what's the point of having a big table for just the two of us, to remind us that we don't really have any friends here? He was hoping to make some friends at work, but finds himself working with people who are much older than him, and he's struggling to connect or to find anything in common with them. I'm not a "friend maker." I don't make friends easily. I do make friends, but sometimes it takes time. I don't think this two weeks is going to cut it. I haven't met anyone I really connect with, or feel I have much in common with. When I make friends, it may take longer, but I like to keep them close when I do. I like to think I make friends for life. Obviously not all friends, but I guess the point is I have a few very close friends, rather than a whole lot of acquintances or quasi-friends.

I know we're lucky. People keep reminding me. I keep reminding myself. We're very lucky we got a house. We're very lucky Ian's parents have supported us these past three months. But I can't help but think we'd be luckier still if I had a job. Or if Ian was making more money. Or if we were surrounded by our old group of friends...

So please come visit? I have one booking tentatively for April... Anyone else?? Accomodation with us is free! We will even let you eat with us! ;)