Busy with this and that...

I have been "working" hard to build up my Swagbucks again as it's an easy way of earning at least $25 a month by being on the computer.  And who doesn't love being on the computer?  If you decide to join I would love it if you use my referral link, pretty please.

As we are moving to a modern house a number of our furniture pieces in this house will be so out of place.  So I have been busy posting things on Kijiji.  So far I have the futon from the attic, the dresser/drawers from the spare bedroom and the dining table and chairs we bought to stage the house.  There have been no bites yet for them, but I am hopeful.

Here is an article on how NOT to sell your house, quite funny.  

I was out and about with dd and Miss Nora on Thursday.  Dd and I were at the ATM machine as I needed some money and I was telling dd about how good of a drive I had, had that morning.  The guy at the next machine then says, had we heard about the bad accident on HWY 400.  I had just driven down that highway.  Just north of where I get on the highway there had been a 96 car collision due to white out conditions.  Read more about it here: Collision  That must have been ever so frightening.  Both dh and I had to blow out the driveway on Thursday and due to the overnight winds it will be to do again today.

Miss Nora

I thought Miss Nora looked very "French" in her outfit the other day, don't you?

 Dd put Miss Nora down on the bed next to Olive......don't worry she is never left alone with the cats.

In fact Rhubarb has no interest what so ever in Miss Nora.  Olive will go outside her bedroom door if she is crying and want to be in to have a look and make sure dd is looking after her.  She will walk past her and take a look at her while she is in her seat or swing.

Dd was painting the other day when Rhubarb accidentally walked into the paint tray full of paint.  What happened next was like a comedy of errors.  Poor Rhubarb had a total melt down.  Luckily dd was able to catch her before she went upstairs and walk over all the hardwood floors and carpet.  Dd and her hubby, put her in the laundry tub and for some reason shut the door behind them.  Rhubarb made such a  carry on you would have thought they were killing her.  Meanwhile Olive is on the other side of the door making as much noise, so they had to let Olive in to shut her up.

All in all it was a stressful time for poor Rhubarb, but she survived and as dd said she will no doubt do it again the daft cat!!  The only thing that was damaged was dd pants she was wearing as Rhubarb got paint all over them.

New House plans

Now that we have sold our house I feel a bit more comfortable talking about our new house.  Below is a photo what it will look like, except ours will have a double garage.  If you click on this link it will take you to a tour of the model home.  That home has now sold; our home will be similar, but there are a few changes.

 

Below are the plans to the home, I hope you can see them.  When we first looked at the house, all the walls were up, although not bricked yet, the windows were in and the roof was shingled.  The builder had made some changes that we can't undo.  So the fireplace is where the window to the left of the fireplace and he moved the window to where the fireplace was.  Basically there is a window either side of the fireplace.  Also there are no doors or the wall facing the living room where the second bedroom/den is.  That will now be a dining room.

We are only getting a bedroom, the bathroom and a linen closet finished in the basement, we are going to do the rest ourselves to save a lot of money.  They charge $55,000 to finish the basement which is just ridiculous.

We have a corner lot on the bottom of the hill, and the back will be very private.  The back faces north and the living room windows on the side face west.  Although we neither have a golf course view or a walkout basement we are pretty happy with what we have got.

We have an appointment on Sunday to firm up the deal and give them another cheque.  I have also requested a tour of the house to see how they are getting on as we haven't been up in a couple of weeks.  So I'll take more photos then.

Sold sign will be going up today..............

Will fill everyone in tomorrow...........went up for sale on February 8th, was confirmed sold last night 24th.  Not bad for a country property.

Signs that Spring is on the doorstep.

Had to get the hand held vac to hoover up cluster flies, as there was more than the usual couple out.

I can see something outside that isn't white; it's a dirty looking colour......yep, that could be bare ground.

There are buds on the maple trees.

The lights don't need to be turned on until nearly 6pm.

HOWEVER....with the amount of snow we do have, we have bets on that it will be May before the final snow melts and our driveway is now shot ice all the way down........that is so an accident waiting to happen for me!!

Lots of photos from the home show

We went to the GTA Home Show at the International Centre in Mississauga on Saturday.  I ordered the tickets online, so saved $3 per ticket.  The tickets cost $12 each instead of the $15 each.  In our humble opinion if we had paid $10 for the pair of tickets that would have been more than enough!! Yes it was that bad.  The one highlight of the show was we were given free tickets for the home show downtown Toronto in March. Fingers crossed that show is better.

The vendors were few and far between and mostly of no interest to us.  We walked through the show and did talk to a few vendors in under two hours.  This is the first home show that we have not had to line up to walk through the model home, and this was just before lunch time.  Normally the line ups are horrendous.  The model home though left a lot to be desired and there was probably as many representatives for the companies featured in the home as there were visitors going through it.

I did take a few photos though.  There was an area called Tablescapes- A Feast for the Eyes.  You can read more about it here.

It was the light fixture that caught my attention here.  This was designed by EQ3

It was the manikin that caught my attention here.  It was rather creepy!!

This blue and white display was by Bombay and was a lovely design.

Below is Kate from Kate's Garden; she is showing me a hanging display

Below is a bed I fell in love with, shame they only have it in grey.  It's from a company from Casalife in Toronto.

The photo below is of  a custom built in unit with an electric fire and a tv that raised up and down.  It was lovely and only cost $11,000!!!!  We decided to pass!

I spotted this from across the aisle!!!  Yes it's a bath tub.

It was sold though; yes someone actually bought it and paid $5,000.  Don't worry if it's something that you really have to have they have another one, as remember you have to buy shoes in pairs!!!  Here is their website.

Napoleon was there and I really liked these gas fires for outside.  Their factory is just north of Barrie, so close to us; sort of.

On the way out I spotted this bed and thought it was pretty stylish.

We did manage to find one water softener person in the whole show and they did give us some information.  Had wanted to see some tile booths; none to be seen; also hoped to see some lighting booths, again none.  Oh well due to us getting the free tickets we'll check out the show in March and see what we can find there.

Oops......

Are driveway is a thick layer of ice with snow packed on top of it.  On Friday we had a bit of a thaw which made a HUGE mess of the driveway, as all it did was make is slushy with a big layer of ice underneath it.  Suffice to say I got stuck half way up the driveway when coming back from grocery shopping {SIGH}

So after putting some ashes down and getting out our trusty snow blower I was able to get up the driveway.  Dh had no problem getting up the driveway in his truck.

We went out later and the wind was howling but the sky looked lovely.

The wind has howled overnight and is still blowing a gale this morning.  The temperature has dropped to way below freezing, so now we have a great big ice skating rink out side {{SIGH}}

We're off out to the GTA Home Show today; looking forward to it!!

Have a great Saturday, what are you up too?

I restrained myself quite well I think!!

On Thursday we went to the new home builders to pick out the finishes on the new home.  I should mention I know I haven't shown you plans, photo's etc of the new house; I am waiting until we have firmed up on it.

Our appointment was for three hours we were finished in under two hours.  We have been there and done that twice before so now know how this process all works.  As most of their standard items are really nice we had very few upgrades.  We also stuck to pretty neutral colours, as we can jazz things up with accessories; things that can be replaced at very little cost.

Below is the colour of the kitchen cabinets; we have chosen a slightly different door profile.  The granite is for the kitchen and directly underneath of it is the floor tiles for the kitchen, breakfast area, powder room and entrance hallway.  Plus the ensuite bathroom, with matching wall tiles for the shower and around the tub in the ensuite bathroom.  To the right is the sample of the hardwood floor which is going on the main floor and the stairs to the basement.  The two bedrooms will be carpeted in a beige colour.

 The light was terrible in the showroom, but this is the exact same kitchen and handles we have chosen.  Also those are the exact same appliances we are getting as well.

Here is a list of upgraded things we are having to pay for:

Pots and Pan drawers in kitchen: $400
Hinged corner cupboard door: $400
Matching panel for breakfast bar (matches kitchen, instead of drywall) $1085
Jetted Tub: $1100
Vac Pan for central vac in kitchen: $145
Upgraded linoleum in basement bathroom: $175
Extra socket in bedroom: $110
3 x electrical boxes behind all bathroom lights @ $50 each = $150

We are getting a quote on tiling the ceiling in the ensuite shower.  Quotes also for granite counter tops on the vanities in the powder room and ensuite bathroom.  Also we may pay $350 for a rough in for the water softener.

So I think overall the total may come closer to $7,000 rather than the $5,000 I had budgeted.  However I am very happy with my choices of upgrades and here is why.

Pots and Pans drawer in kitchen, if you already have one you know why you would never do without them, they are great.  A hinged corner door gives you more access to a corner cupboard.  Matching panel for the breakfast bar, just finishes it off and makes it more custom looking.  Jetted tub, well that's a personal preference and I love it.

We will get a central vac at some point and the vac pan in the kitchen is great, had one in the last new house and used it.   It's also a heck of a lot easier to install when they are putting in the kitchen rather than later on.  In the bathroom in the basement for the builder to put in a ceramic tile floor it would have cost us close to $1000 which is ridiculous.  I do not like linoleum flooring; and the builders standard was not to my liking, so we went up one level and found one I could live with and at $175 it was a heck of a lot cheaper than the tile.  Down the road we can upgrade that bathroom if we so desire.

Dh is an electrician so he has a hissy fit at what builders charge for electrical upgrades, so we only get what is absolutely necessary.  The extra socket in the bedroom is high up the wall so we can install the tv on a bracket, we are getting the tv cable outlet at the same height.  The three electrical boxes behind the vanity lights in the bathroom are an extra as they don't normally put the boxes in.  So if we change the lights down the road this is an easier way of doing them.  By the way the boxes cost less than $3 each and will take the electricians all of a couple of minutes to install them.

A tiled ceiling in the shower is an extra but it's worth while and easier to do with the rest of the tiling.  The vanities all come with laminate counter tops, but I would prefer to have the granite ones as I know if I don't do it now it will never get done.

We are up in the air about the water softener as when asked we were told the water is semi-hard whatever that means.  When we were looking at resale houses in the same subdivision, some people had water softeners some people didn't.  We are heading to the GTA Home Show at the International Centre tomorrow to look into them, as I don't know enough about them to make an educated decision.

We have a water softener and UV light here, but we are on well water and it is as hard as heck the water.  If anyone is an expert with water softener's please educate me.  So we are not sure if we should get the rough-in for the water softener or not at this point.  Obviously we will buy our own water softener and install it ourselves if we go down that path.

So there you are another job more or less finished!!

Like a kid in a candy store.......

That is what I will be like this afternoon, as we are going to the new builders to pick out our fixtures and fittings for our new home.  I will say the whole process is a bit different as we haven't firmed up on the purchases of this house, but as the kitchen takes 90 days to order and if we want to close on June 16th, I guess they want us to get on with it.  

Now my goal is to spend as little as possible in upgrades.  We have already spent $1,100 on a jetted tub/bath in the ensuite, but to my mind that is a must with my back issues.  Dh said he may even have a bath and I know dd will have a bath when she comes over, as she loves the bath with jets in.

I do know I want a pots and pan set of drawers in the kitchen, so that will be an upgrade.  We are getting granite counter tops already as part of the deal.  I am not sure what else I will end up getting other than maybe more tiles in the bathroom around the tub???

I am trying to think back to the last new house we bought and what we had to upgrade then.  We spent close to $30,000 then but we did a lot of structural things that no one could really see, plus we had to pay for hardwood floors and we upgraded the tiles.  I am hoping to come in under $5,000 this time.  What upgrades would you choose in a house?

I am lucky as dh is very handy so we will do a lot of stuff ourselves after we move in; for example the back splash in the kitchen.

No news from the people buying our house, but don't expect to hear anything until next week.

I have posted a couple of book reviews on my Book Review Blog if anyone is interested?  You can read about them here: http://thatbritishwomansbookreviewblog.blogspot.ca/

Oil prices, house sale, snow and wills!!!.

Forgot to tell you about the oil delivery last week.  They charged us nearly $1.22 a litre for oil.  So our bill was over $600 for the month????  We normally average around $1,800 a year for our oil.  So far this year it has cost us just over $1,100.  That's just bloody crazy.  We have been turning up the heating when people have been visiting the house but even so.

Got an email from Sarah to say that the home inspection went well on our house, YEAH for that.  Also the couple had an offer on their house subject to financing and home inspection.  So fingers, toes and everything else crossed that all goes well.

I had to blow out the driveway again yesterday, as did dh when he got home.  We have a couple of issues with our snow blower which has resulted in the shear pins being broken off one side of the blower and the plug is now broken, so no electric start {{{SIGH}}}  Fingers, toes and everything crossed again we don't get too much snow until dh can repair it.  As I find it really hard using the pull start, as does dh with his suspected torn rotator cuff.  He finally has an appointment for an MRI on the 24th of this month.

I also finally got around to contacting a lawyer in town to see what was what regarding the house sale and purchase.  I bet we don't see much change if any out of $5,000 when all is said and done.  What with the set fee's, taxes, disbursements, title insurance and Land Transfer Tax.  Also enquired about getting an updated will and power of attorney for us both and that is $600 plus taxes {{{SIGH}}}  We need to get that done though, so we may as well do it when we are at the lawyers office.  We would be getting what they call "Mirror Wills,"  plain, simple and straight forward.  If I die dh gets everything, if he dies I get everything.  If both of us die the kids split everything half and half...............wonder what they'll do with their $20...LOL

Do you have your will's prepared?

Our Little Princess

On Monday the people who have put in the offer on the house, scheduled their home inspection.  So we had to leave the house for the morning,  We had a trip down to Brampton to see Our Little Princess and her family.  She is such a cutie and is now walking great.  

She is now down to one afternoon nap a day and is growing up so fast.  The bib she has on is great I got a pack of two from Amazon.  we call it a Pelican Bib.  They were quite pricey but they will last a long time.  Here is the link to them.

The two cousins will be together again in March so I'll get some photos of them together then.

Open House, more light fixtures and someone was 3 months old on Sunday!

Despite mine and dh's reservations, the open house on Sunday was a success as Sarah said there were seven different families over.  All were positive, but none were able to make a firm offer, as all/some had properties to sell.  Sarah was pleased though so that was good. In a city property that would be normal, but in a country property that is unusual to have so many people at an open house.

We had to go out for the two hours, so I dragged dh to a couple of stores including Rafters Living Lighting Store to look at light fixtures.  As although the builder does put in light fixtures, I never like them!!  All the light photos below are to go over the dining room table.

This one was lovely in "real life," the photo doesn't do it justice.  This one was $740.......did I mention I have expensive tastes...LOL This light fixture was from this company.

 We loved this one and it was cheaper at $640.  

 Here is a close up of the light and here is the web site for the firm.

 Liked this one as well, but forgot to get the company information.

 Then here is Miss Nora at three months old.  The headband was soon off as it turns out she neither likes headbands nor shoes on her feet!!

Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks of hers!!  Just a head's up her 4 month photo will have a St. Patrick's Day theme I am told!!

Finally, if you enjoy looking at figures/statistics/graphs, here is a link for the numbers for people looking at our house photos online: 

http://tourstats.obeo.com/stats_main.cfm?ID=852110&year=2014

Customer service means a lot!

On Saturday dh and I spent a lot of the day out and about.  It was really nice not having to work on the house for a change.  Yes I did have to get it "viewing ready," and yes dh had to blow out the driveway, thanks to the oil truck coming and chewing up the snow with it's weight, but after that we were free to do what we wanted.

We went into town to a place called Brisco Appliances to check out their appliances.  We ended up buying all the new appliances for the new house from there, Frigidaire Professional in smudge proof stainless steel for the kitchen and Maytag washer and dryer in white for the laundry room.  Why?  Well first of all their prices may not be the cheapest out there, but they are VERY competitive and we got top of the line for a fairly decent price.  The customer service is excellent and if we run into a problem I know they will be more than happy to help out. 

They are the only store the builder will let into your house before your closing date to deliver and install your appliances for you.  Yes I know isn't that neat?  He was also going to pop over to the sales office with all our specs on the appliances for the girl who will be sorting out all the details of the house on Thursday.  You wouldn't get that kind of service in a big box store?  Also we were allowed to pay our deposit over two months; as between me and you, if anyone else asks us for money I am going to scream!!

We then spent a full two hours in Lowes checking out bits and pieces that we may or may not need in the new house.  It's been such a long time since we have had to buy window coverings as we don't need them in this house, that I had forgotten what was out there.  We met a great woman who went through all sorts of ideas in the window coverings section,  I will definitely go back there to buy some window coverings from them.  She was so knowledgeable and really took the time to show us what would or wouldn't work.  Again it's the customer service that won us over. 

 I was looking through the light fixtures and saw this light and fell in love with it.  It will be perfect over the dining room table.

 You can read more about it here.  The reviews are mixed but it looks stunning, and as I am married to an electrician, he will be able to figure the whole thing out.  Once again we talked to one of the guys in the department and he was super friendly.  We were in the Barrie, Ontario store and have to say we have found everyone very, very helpful in that store.

We also looked at some tiles for the back splash in the kitchen, as we are not getting the builder to do that, we will do that ourselves.  We found a couple that may be possibilities.

This one is really nice in "real life."

This one, it's the top one that interested us:

We bought the back splash tiles in our present kitchen from Lowes as well.  Pleased to say we walked out of Lowes not having spent a penny..........we didn't use the bathroom/toilets either....LOL  Spending a penny is a British term for having to go pee!

Sharing some more news......

So after spending the last few months going through open houses and even having Sarah show us some houses one afternoon we have decided to buy a brand spanking new home directly from the builder.  Sarah took the news very well, as we were very worried about telling her, as she doesn't earn any commission when we buy direct from the builder ourselves.

The reason we are going down the new home route is that we couldn't find anything we were totally happy with.  Each one had an issue, some were minor, some weren't.  So we bit the bullet and despite the fact that we swore we were never going through the new build saga again, we are.

This builder is different in the way he does things and is totally hands on.  The finishes are very high quality and are to our liking.  We haven't gone firm on it yet, as we can't until we have a firm offer on our house, but we have an appointment next week to go through what we do want and any extras we want to add.

When we finalized the price on Friday night, we even got to pick out the brick of the house, as it is all framed and windows are in etc.  I will admit it is all going way faster than we anticipated and today (Saturday) we are having to go out and figure out what appliances I want to put in the kitchen as they need the specifications so they will fit in the kitchen.

It is my 50th birthday next month and dh keeps bugging me about what I would like.  I don't want anything, but that's not good enough.  So I told him I want top of the line appliances in this house and this will do for my birthday.  I am very happy with that.  I am looking at the Frigidaire Professional Series of appliances in stainless steel in the kitchen and the Maytag Maxima series in white for the washer and dryer.  If anyone has any experience with either of these brands please share.

I will talk more and more about this as the months go on, but so far it's early days.  I will share pictures and house plans etc, in the following weeks.  Please say a few prayers that the folk who have the offer on our house sell theirs soon.

Sold......well sort of...........

We accepted an offer on the house on Thursday night.  BUT and there is always a but, they have their own house to sell.  So the offer is conditional on the sale of their home.  They have until March 21st to sell their house and then firm up.  Their house should (in theory) be an easy sell but as with anything who knows?

Meanwhile we will still go ahead with an open house on Sunday as planned, as it is technically still for sale.  If someone comes in with a better offer the couple have 48 hours to either firm up on their offer or back away.

Are we pleased with all of this, yes and no.  The reality of the situation is that it does put people off when there is a conditional offer on a house.  However it's an offer and it's looking positive that they will sell their house, but as yet they don't have it on the market?  Both their agent and ours feel that this isn't a problem but that remains to be seen.  We are optimistic things will all work out.

The closing date on this transaction will/should be June 16th, 2014 which suits us just fine.  Why, because we are in the middle of negotiating on our new home.  I will fill you in more of that down the line.  Suffice the say I have a headache that fills my head from top to bottom {SIGH}

Finally Miss Nora wants to wish you all a Happy Valentines Day:

Just a couple of things........

Due to the fact that you can't see anything outside due to all the snow we have, I printed out a number of photos of the property in the Spring, Summer and Fall, and they are now laid out on the kitchen table for people to look at.  I may get one of those photo frames which holds multiple photos when we move and hang some of those in it.

Things are progressing well with the house sale.......can't say much more yet!!!

I also tackled the closet in our room and filled up two garbage bags to donate.  Both dh and I have been hanging onto clothes that we hope to fit into "one day."  Now as you know as well as I do, that will never happen, with me being "allergic" to exercise.  Again that could change in the future who knows!!!

So pleased to say I have exceeded my weekly getting 25 things out of the house for this week again.

More decluttering

I am still on the decluttering kick and yesterday took two bags of doggy supplies to the pet store to donate to the shelter.  I had bought things like a bed, toys and dishes etc. when we got Millie.  Do you remember Millie?  I wonder how she is doing?  My heart is not into getting a new dog any time soon, so some other animals may as well get the use of those things, plus it's two more garbage bags of things removed from our basement.  

We also sold another item on Kijiji which was a bonus and means another box removed from the basement. I would love to say that this means the basement is quite empty, of course it isn't but it is tidier than it was.  I still need to go through all the Christmas decorations yet.  I will definitely be doing that before we move that's for sure.

Our little Princess is 13 months old today and is walking now.  Took her a couple of weeks to figure out she can get around faster walking than crawling, but she got there in the end.

If you want to see more of our house, Sarah has published a post on her site here.  Look under the English Country Stone House section.

The saga of the Smart Phone continues........

I came in from blowing out the driveway {SIGH} and bringing in the firewood {{SIGH}} and heard what I thought was my cell phone ringing.  However thought that was very puzzling as it wasn't my usual ring tone?  Looked at my phone and it was a snooze alarm and it wouldn't bloody well stop???  So my first question to myself was who set an alarm and how do I switch it off?  After a few minutes, I figured where the alarm was; in where the clock thingy is.  Turns out on further investigation that the alarm has been set to go off at 8:30 am Monday through Friday and 9 am on the weekends.  Again, who set this bloody alarm???

I figure out how to delete the "programmed" alarm thingys, but for the life of my couldn't figure out how to stop the alarm ringing?  By now I am getting a tad irritated as the ringing is getting on my nerves.  So in the end I switched off the phone then turned it back on again.  I have interrogated number one suspect our dear darling son and he swears up and down he didn't set it last time he was here.  So it is a mystery how an alarm was set in my phone??? 

Once again this is another reason why I shouldn't own a phone that is smarter than me!

Today is the agents open house.  I have to run a number of errands so will not be about for it.  I just hope we have a lot of agents turning up to have a look and want to bring clients!!

Edited to add: We have two viewings later on today, quite surprised by that..........hope something comes of it.

What a difference ten weeks make.....

Miss Nora at two weeks old and nearly twelve weeks old.  Hard to believe those photos are of the same baby.

The photo below was taken around 5 pm on Sunday of a very weak and watery sun......

Finally it's my brother Pete's birthday today, he's my baby brother at a young age of 44 years today.

A question that will make you think.

As you know I am a member of Swagbucks and every day they have a Daily Poll which you get a Swagbuck for if you answer it.  Saturday's question was a very thought provoking question that I thought was a really good one.

If upon your death, you had to choose between re-experiencing your life with greater understanding or experiencing a completely different life...

I chose re-experiencing my life as that way I already had knowledge of my life but I could correct my mistakes as I go along.  If I chose a different life, although I would experience different adventures I may not meet my dh again or have my children again and I wouldn't want to miss that for the world.

Got a second viewing on the house this morning, so fingers crossed it goes well.

Meanwhile you can click here to see a virtual tour of our house.

One viewing down...

and it went well.  The only negative is the location, the couple would prefer to be further south/closer to the city (Toronto).  However the closer to the city the more expensive the property gets.  Only the lady came today but her partner is coming to have a look over the next few days, so all is not lost.

Of course the wind blew a gale so I had blow out the driveway twice.  One of the perks of putting the house up for sale is that there isn't as much to dust as all the knick knacks have been put away.  Not sure though I could live such a pared down life?

Dh is ready to throw out all the fancy cushions/pillows we have on the bed now.  It is a bit of a pain hauling everything the bed before we get in it.  Sarah says that we will have the house on MLS by the end of the weekend, so that is good.

Hopefully we will see this sooner than later:

This is a very boring blog post, but at the moment this house selling is consuming all our waking moments, and I am sure even my sleeping moments as well. 

Photo's done, first people viewing today.........

After a busy Thursday morning, the photographer came in along with Sarah and her assistant and they did their magic.  I did not hang about as I was stressed.  You wonder if you have done enough?  Is it clean enough?  Will it show well?  Sarah said we would be very pleased with the pictures.  I will share them with you all when I get them.  Sarah has clients viewing the property today, so that's a good start.

I went into town and sat in MacDonald's and had a coffee and a muffin and posted a couple of book reviews.  I also sat and people watched for a while.  It's always interesting to watch what other people do and say I think.  They have an employee working there who is mentally disabled, but what a good worker she is.  I was a bit thrown at first as I wondered who she was talking to.  She talks to herself all the time.  However that didn't matter as she worked so hard while I was there.

I also got talking to the lady at the next table and ended up giving her this book.  It turned out she had visited both Alaska and the Yukon and had very fond memories from there.  So the book was perfect.  Also turned out she lived in the subdivision that we are hoping to move into.  The community centre there has a library and so she was going to donate the book there when she had read it.

While I was in town I called in at the hairdressers for a trim.  While the hairdresser was cutting my hair I had a coughing attack.  I have them a few times a day.  She was saying this cough that is going around is being "named" the 100 day cough {{{SIGH}}}  I really don't want this cough hanging around for 100 days.

$50 oranges and a couple of other photos.......

Here they are and yes they cost me $50.85:

They are actually the size of grapefruit and they are ceramic.  You will see them better in photos to come.  As I have no idea how long the house will be up for sale I figured it was easier buying these than constantly buying fresh fruit.  I also couldn't find any plastic fruit.  I am going to change out the table runner as well I think.  Will use them in the next house.

Got this cute sign/picture out of the dreaded Wal-Mart (I find Wal-Mart a nightmare to shop in as I can never find anything) for $11.30 works perfectly in the laundry room.

Here is our strapping 12 lbs 11.25 oz Miss Nora.  She is going through the red hair phase like her mother did.  She will turn to blonde and you can already see some of the blonde underneath coming in.

I also got a photo of Our Little Princess on Wednesday, I haven't seen her in a month, so a visit is LONG overdue.  She still isn't walking but can stand on her own and can take the odd step, so it will be anytime.

Right busy morning ahead of me getting the house looking tip-top before everyone arrives.  I am going out when they are here as I will just get in the way; plus I am already stressed enough with it all without participating in this!!!

Such a softie.........

Sitting here writing this on Tuesday night in tears.  Why?  Watching Coronation Street and it's Haley's last day.  It's funny I know what is going to happen but it doesn't make it any easier.  Feel so sorry for Roy; all this sadness and crying for a flipping soap opera that's not even real.

Had Sarah around today (Tuesday) to make sure we are ready to have the photos taken to put the house up for sale.  Due to another winter storm coming in Tuesday night through Wednesday (that's nice!!) the photos won't be taken until Thursday but it will be on the market late Friday/Saturday.

As I said to Sarah on Tuesday I have ran out of steam.  Enough of all this cleaning and trying to make the house perfect.  We have done as much as we can now and it is what it is.

Sarah has a couple of websites that may be of interest to you www.homeinstyle.ca and www.sarahlunn.com  Sarah is going to do a blog post of the "photo shoot" so that should be interesting also as it will highlight some of the things we did. 

Oh and finally our Miss Nora got her two month shots (better later than never) and would you believe she is up to 12 lbs 11.25 oz.  That girl enjoys her food!!!

I don't think so............

The white bits on the photo is snow..........that's nice!!!  Went to town to run a couple of errands and saw this on the Alliston Home Hardware sign.  Didn't know whether to laugh or cry truth be told???

We were super busy on Saturday getting things tidied up around the house.  I have finished the varnishing on the new baseboard thank goodness, as the whole house stinks of varnish.  My mam suggested putting some cut lemons in the room to see if that would tone down the smell; that does not work.  

Posted some more stuff on Kijiji.  I don't know why I bother as there are some strange and unusual people on there.  I have put up a Bose surround sound for $100.  One of the replies was "Would you take $50?"  My reply, "NO!!"  Haven't heard back from them!  
Oh well it could be worse I guess?

All I really need to do is give the place a good clean through and I think we are ready for the photos.  Waiting for Sarah to get back from her vacation and then she can tell me what we still need to do.

Got the kids coming for a turkey dinner today, as I had a small turkey in the freezer.  Granddad will get plenty of cuddles with his favourite little girl that's for sure!!

No whining today I promise!!

I am one of these people who can never figure who a baby looks like.  I never see any resemblance between so and so.  I was no different with Miss Nora, until I got a photo of her the other day.  On the left is a photo of dd when she was probably 4 or 5 months old.  I remember holding her up underneath her dress.  Dd went through three hair colours, she was dark when she was born, then went red, then went and still is blonde.  Miss Nora is at the red stage at the moment.  Do you think mother and daughter look alike?

On Thursday we had to go into the Pandora store as dd had to exchange something.  This was the light fixture in the middle of the store.  It's from Denmark and was bloody awful.  It looked as though it was covered in cobwebs, or packing material.  Even the guys that unpacked it from the box, thought that was a packing cover on it.  Dd got this ring from there.  It is gorgeous, even I like it!

 A friend's son and daughter-in-law are having a little boy this week.  He will be at least five weeks early and isn't 100%.  Now I am not sure what exactly wrong or how ill he may or may not be, but regardless I wanted to get something for the little man.  This is my bill for what I bought.

 This is what I got for just over $10.  Isn't that crazy?  There are three body suits all for babies up to 7 lbs, and three sleeper type outfits.  Plus I got another two sleeper type outfits at Carter's and a pair of shoes for Miss Nora and spent well under $20 there.  So all in all the little man will have five sleepers and 3 bodysuits, all in new born and 0-3 month sizes.  Did find though it's not as much fun shopping for little boys as it is for girls.

So there you go no whining today, hope that keeps everyone happy!!  Thanks for all your comments yesterday.  It was fun reading everyone's comments.