The spare bedroom and bathroom

Our second/spare bedroom is in the basement.  To have a completely finished basement was an extra $54,000.  We chose to only have the bedroom, bathroom, and a linen closet completed.  They also drywalled and taped/sanded the main room, which they weren't supposed to do.  So all we have to do to section off a couple of rooms, do the remainder of the electrics; think I know an electrician ;0) and do the finishing off, which believe me will cost less than the $40,000 the builder wanted from us to do it.  Already one of the drywall trades on site have handed me a card!!

This is what you see when you walk into the bedroom.  As you can see we have over sized basement windows.  I have no idea as yet what sort of window coverings I am planning on putting in there yet?

We have a queen sized bed in here and there is a full walk-in closet.

This is looking from the closet end of the bedroom. 

A view from the door. 

 Next door to the spare bedroom is the second bathroom in the house.  It's not huge but well appointed.   

 It has one of those all in one showers with a seat in it.  So ideal if we have older people to stay.  If we need to bath the kids they can have a bath in our bedroom.

The only upgrade we got was an upgrade in the linoleum flooring, as it was a heck of a price to put in ceramic tiles and we would like to put underfloor heating in this bathroom when we do put in tiles. 

Like all new houses we have had teething problems.  I am so grateful to have such a handy husband.  He spent part of Sunday morning, sorting out all the heating vents.  It was freezing cold in the basement and hot on the main floor.  Now the central air doesn't seem to be running 24/7 like it has been doing.  Thank you to my handy hubby!

Dd ordered a couple of top down/bottom up cellular shades from Blinds Galore a couple of weeks ago.  We were a bit wary about ordering blinds online, but we were there when they arrived and I even helped (sort off) dd put them up.  They were really good quality and a perfect fit.  So I ordered one for our bathroom on Sunday.  I will let you know more about them when I get the blind I ordered.

Me and my girls........

Our Little Munchkin and her boyfriend Owen, who is 14 months old.

 Our little Munchkin eating a banana, this was the after picture.  By the way those two bottom teeth are razor sharp; how do I know, she sunk her teeth into my foot, just because I wasn't paying enough attention to her the other day!

 Me and my girls on Saturday.  I take a dreadful photo this was the best of the bunch.......

We had a mini housewarming party and we were gifted 8 gorgeous water glasses and 4 red wine and 4 white wine glasses by the family.

Kitchen, Powder Room, Laundry Room and Front Porch Photos

The one thing I love about this house is the open plan layout.  Plus I have a huge kitchen with ample cupboard space, and I finally have granite counter tops and under cabinet lighting.  There are a couple of things on the counter tops that shouldn't be there, but I have decided to keep as little as possible on top of the counters and it looks so much cleaner.  Everything in the kitchen came as standard there were no upgrades here, other than the pot and pan drawer and a hinged door on the corner cupboard.

 This photo is not in true focus, sorry.  All appliances are Frigidaire Professional; just have to figure out how to use them.  We are going to do our own back splash, as what the builder offered was very expensive for what it was.

Oh there I am taking a photo of the microwave.  My one gripe about this, is I can't see what is happening in there, as the controls is on the bottom.  My last one's controls were on the side. 

 Fridge and pantry area.  It's a counter depth unit, so not as big as my last fridge/freezer.

 To the right of the photo is my catch all area.  If in doubt plop it on that counter top until I can figure out what to do with it.  I think everyone has one of those areas, right?

 Looking at the dishwasher, sink area, into the family room.

 Here I am standing in the breakfast area looking into the kitchen, then family room.  There are three pot lights over the breakfast bar, which again we got as standard.

 Here I am looking from the family room into the kitchen.  We paid extra for the matching panel under the breakfast bar.  It finishes it off nicely, don't you think?  I love how I can be in the kitchen and still be part of what is going on in the family room.

 Just off the hallway is the powder room.

 The two big doors in the powder room open into my laundry room.  Again I love the convenience of having everything on the one floor.  There is plenty of storage in there.

 I picked up these two chairs for the front porch on clearance from Canadian Tire.  I paid around $36 each with the taxes.  They even came with the two cushions on each chair.

 They are metal and I will have to bring the cushions in when the weather is bad.

Hoping to get some photos of Our Little Munchkin and Our Little Princess tomorrow as the family is coming over for lunch.

A few more photos from the new house.

I finally got the dining room put together today.  The room is only 10 feet by 15 feet, so it is a little bit of a squish, but overall it will work out just fine.  Our neighbours den/second bedroom looks into this room.

 We had the bottom of the Welsh Dresser refinished to update the look.  To see the before look at the fourth and fifth photo on this post.  I love the distressed look that they did and we will eventually replace the pine side chairs with black distressed ones to match the end chairs we bought when we bought the table.

This is the breakfast area.  Don't you love our view of the big front loader!!! 

 I found a place for my hall table.  I have had to throw out some of the flowers from the arrangement, but should get a few more days out of the rest.

 We found the perfect bench for the front hall as we are all getting too old and need to sit down to put our shoes on!!  Paid less than $150 for this leather look one out of Leon's.  Got the Union Jack cushion from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  They had other flag ones as well.  Thinking about getting a Canadian one to go on the bench as well.

 This is looking from the door to the garage to the breakfast area.  It's beginning to look like home with all the ornaments and pictures.

I did some baking today as well.  Had to read the instruction book first to figure out how to turn the oven on!!  I had mixed results with my baking, some of the cookies were over done and some under cooked.  I haven't cooked with a convection oven before.  So I guess it will take time to get used to it.

Honestly, I should have just gone back to bed...........

It was one of those days when I walked two steps forward and then one step back.  I had a list a mile long of what I wanted to do but barely got anything done all day.  I was in a grumpy mood all day and that mood affected everything I did.

One of the things that put me in a bad mood, was back in March we put down a deposit a central vacuum system to be picked up in June.  We were at the Toronto Home Show and saw a display for Beam Central Vacuum systems.  There were a number a guys at this stand and the guy we dealt with asked us for $100 cash deposit.  To cut a long annoying story short I ended up calling Beam Canada today and they no longer have an affiliation with this guy and his company; thankfully they will honour (eat up) our deposit and get a local dealer to sell us a system for the remainder of the amount.

So I am waiting for an email for them to see when we can pick up the system.

We kept getting interrupted this morning, so that put me behind.  On the plus side we went to the lawyers office to sign everything for the new house and to pick up our cheque.  On the downside, once I had allocated the money to what we owed for what, there was very little left :0(

The drapery situation in our bedroom is giving me a headache, I hope to make headway on that over the weekend, but am not holding my breath with it all.

I think overall we are tired and for me especially it is catching up with me.  Poor dh is back at work on Monday.  I did tell him to take an extra week off but he won't.  He has three weeks off in September, so fingers crossed he will be okay until then.

Mind you in the scheme of things we have nothing to complain about as we have a roof over our heads, unlike a lot of people 15 minutes away from us who got caught up in the tornado the other night, see more about it here.  Then a poor person was killed and another seriously injured in the town  overnight by a driver who was charged with impaired driving and leaving the scene of an accident.  More on that tragic story here.

Finally on a happier note our little Munchkin turned 7 months this past Monday.  Here is this months photo:

Then on Thursday she graduated from the Starfish level of swimming.  She will have to wait until she is a year old though to take the duck level!!

And yes she is turning blonder!

All moved in...............

It's been a long hard week so far.  The move went by okay but it was so hot and humid.  We finally got something to eat around 7 pm.  Came home and had a shower and was in bed by 9 pm.  

For people who are my friends on Facebook, this will be a repeat of information.  We have had two major minor issues, one was dealt with right away and the other is an ongoing problem.  Someone turned off the gas to the house, so after having a VERY cold shower on Tuesday morning I tracked down the site supervisor to come and figure out the situation.  Dh told him he thought the gas had been turned off and he was right.

The other more major issue is Bell Canada.  When we booked to have their services transferred to the new house I asked and was told we could keep our old telephone number.  On Tuesday when we got everything hooked up, we discovered that we have been assigned a new number.  THREE one hour telephone conversations too the call centre in the Philippines and I am "hoping" to have our old number back by this coming Monday.  I am NOT happy and this isn't finished with yet.

There are all sorts of niggling things happening and "stuff" you just have to get used to with a new house.  Overall though we love it.  It's been strange getting used to having neighbours right on your doorstep again.  Other than a couple of VERY nosy neighbours everything has been and is super friendly.

We are living on a building site and they are busy doing the finishing touches with stonework and landscaping outside.  The dust is just awful and it gets everywhere.  We have had a couple of days out of the house busy doing other things, so we got a break from the noise and the dust.

I am hoping to be unpacked by Christmas!!  On Friday we are going to hang drapery rods and draperies in our bedroom, as at the moment I have sheets and a blanket hanging over our windows.  I will post photos as we progress with everything.

I have taken a few quick photos just to show you some things, I will take more better photos when I have more time.

This is the breakfast area.  We bought the table and chairs from Leons and of course one of the seats was torn so had to take that back, but they replaced it without a problem, so that was good.  The light fixture is too sort out and the table is to centre underneath it.  The flowers were a gift from my mam and step-father, they arrived on Monday; which was a lovely surprise.  I need to hunt out a tablecloth that actually fits, that one was the first one I laid my hands on.

 One view of the kitchen, I need a degree on how to use the appliances!!

 Looking from front hall to living room.  All the shears/nets were from our house two houses ago I had kept them.  I may or may not change them eventually, but they will do just fine for the moment.  We get the sun in this room late afternoon to evening.  As the back wall faces north and the two side windows face west.

 This is the front of the house, they have been busy putting in the flower planter this week.

 Back of the house.  The deck has been built and all interlocked underneath it and behind it.  The rest of the shrubbery is to put in and the grass and trees.  It should be quite private once it's all done.......we hope!

 Side of the house. 

 Houses opposite us.  They all have walk out basements and they back onto a golf green and are up a height.  The one that is a two storey has been customized to the hilts so I was told, so it will be interesting to see who moves in.  There are two more houses to the left of that two storey house, both have people living in them.  On our little bit I think there are only five houses occupied, with more people moving in over the summer.

I will write more when I have more time.  I am hoping things will settle down over the next week or two.

Done like a toasted bun...........

Bit crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside.

That is how I felt after doing our errands on Thursday.

Met up with the lawyer to sign the paperwork for selling our house.  We are only putting down a deposit on the new house as the condo corp., won't be registered until the 25th of the month.  So we are "sort of renting" the house until then.  It's all very standard stuff, but a bit annoying. Have to pop into their office on Monday when they have prepared a couple of cheques for us to hand over to the new house lot.

Got a bit of a surprise though, to discover that our lawyer is also the lawyer for the people buying our house.  No one had bothered to tell us that.  So the lawyer wasn't happy.  On the plus side it may help us close a little faster......we hope.

We then had to deliver snow fences and posts to dh's boss' house.  He lives on 50 acres, and most of it is wooded.  I DID NOT get out of the car to help as I could see the mosquito's and between me and you they had been eating their spinach, as they were huge.  Dh didn't spend too long unloading the stuff either when he saw them!!

Did our civic duty and voted.  Our voting station is a good 20 minute drive from where we live......dead as a dormouse in that place, just walked straight in and voted.  Funny as come Monday we are in a different county.

As you may or may not know it's The World Cup, for those of you who are not sporty, it soccer/football.  Dh thinks he has died and gone to heaven for a month.  He is a huge soccer/football fan and of course he is rooting for England.  Me, well it's a bloody inconvenience as they have moved Coronation Street to 11am during the day {SIGH}  Missed it on Thursday because I thought it started at 12:30 pm.

Anyhow, back to the soccer.  Dh put on ESPN on the radio to listen to the Brazil vs Croatia game while we were driving around.  I couldn't stop laughing as they had an Irish commentator with a thick Irish accent.  I'm British so have a good handle on the accents from the British Isles, but even I was struggling to keep up with him.  At one point I am sure he said something about "stopping the bus."  I even said to dh what on earth is he talking about?  Buses have nothing to do with soccer/football, do they?

Dh didn't find it as amusing as I did, but then I am not a huge fan of soccer or any sports come to think of it.  We have the kids coming up on Saturday and dh has told me, if they are still here at 6pm when England is playing they either have to be quiet or go home......it's a serious business being an ardent soccer fan you know!!!

It's Friday the 13th today and I am going to embrace the day, rather than worry something bad could happen........hopefully I'll be back posting tomorrow!!

Donating bedding.........

I decided to have a good clear out of the linen closet and had a pile of sheets, towels and a couple of old blankets to donate.

I went to a charity shop in town and asked them if they wanted them.  She said yes as long as they weren't stained etc.  Looked at the pile they had and decided mine were a heck of a lot better, so went to unload them from the car.  Took the pile of sheets in first. 

Went back to the car and picked up the pile of towels. There was a lady walking up to the door, so I asked her if she could hold the door open for me.  She did just that and saw what was in my hands.  She said they would be perfect for the local humane society.  The conversation then went like this:

Charity Shop Lady, "No she said they were for us."

Humane Society Lady, "Yes but I know her."

(Me, thinking I have no clue who you are.)

Charity Shop Lady," But she said they were for us."

Humane Society Lady, "But as she knows me, I'll have them."

I am stood there in between the pair of them with my head going back and forward not knowing what to do.  So I say to the Charity Shop Worker, that the towels aren't the best and maybe they would be better for the Humane Society and she says fine.

I then go outside to get the two blankets and again we go through the same thing and again the Humane Society wins.  If they had been in a lot better condition I would have let the Charity Shop have them all.

At the end of the day I am just happy that they all went to good homes.  Also my linen closet is not full to the top with old linens I have no use for.

Do you donate to charity shops?

Photos of our new house and our little Munchkin and her new best friend Mango

Popped by the house to see if they had started on the grass or the deck; neither thing had happened and with the wet weather we are supposed to have over the next couple of days, there won't be any progress there I wouldn't think.

 The driveway and steps are all interlock.

Dd and her friend went to Build a Bear on Tuesday with the babies and made a teddy for each of them.  Our little Munchkins is called Mango.  Apparently she was fascinated by the machine that has the stuffing in it?  She watched that for ages.  The other baby is only three months old and he slept right through the whole process!!

 She is dribbling like crazy, her two bottom teeth came in, so expecting the two top ones to come in at some point.

Now back to more packing/sorting out.  Must remember to tell you the story of the towels and blankets I donated on Tuesday, I nearly caused a fight to break out!!!

They came to say goodbye...........

When I went to put out the garbage at the front this morning, there were two deer in our front yard.  I don't know who was more surprised, me or them.  They of course ran away, but then one of them came back and was wandering around the back and field area.

 

 

Please excuse the state of the grass, only the bits close to the house are getting cut!!!

Heading out to drop off some more things at the charity shop.  I am actually giving away my records, cassette tapes (music) and record player.  Plus all the VCR videos, as we don't have a VCR player anymore.  That is three big boxes of things not to have to move.  All have never been out of their boxes in years, so it's time to go.

Sick to death of tripping over boxes everywhere in the house.  However I feel as though I am 85% packed.  The last little bit is all last minute stuff.

Nice of the deer though to pop by and say goodbye, don't you think?

I don't normally talk about politics but.........

this week we have a provincial election and for the first time in many, many years I have no desire to vote.

Why; because I have no faith whatsoever in any of the leading parties.  I honestly don't believe a word that comes out of any of their mouths.

I will of course vote, as it is a privilege to be able to vote; in many countries throughout the world people are not able to vote.  I will however not be voting for one of the three main parties this time which will be a first.  I think it shows how bad our major political parties are when I am having to do this.

Just my opinion.......

One week to go and things are going sort of to plan........

Like with everything in life, there are little things that happen to throw you the odd curve ball.

We did our walk through on Friday night.  Took over three hours and we left the new place just after 10pm.  Must say it wasn't all business as we talked about a couple of things off topic, however it was the longest and thoroughest PDI we have ever been through.  Have to say nothing too major, mainly minor issues and one "major (to me)" issue.

It seems that I have ordered dark beige ceramic tiles in the ensuite bathroom...........couldn't remember!!!  Anyhoo, round by the bath they have sealed off the edges and corners of the tiles and it looks as though someone have used a magic marker/felt tip pen in dark brown to do it.  I was not happy.  However picture me sitting on the "royal throne (toilet)" displaying my displeasure with it all!!!  So not sure what they are going to do, but something will be done.  We are also finding that room dark?  So need to look into seeing how we can lighten the room up.

The other sort of major/minor thing is that they forgot to do the rough in for the water softener.  That it seems is no big deal???  We should have a back deck before we move in.  The rest of the landscaping may be in by the end of the month.

Pleased as punch with how the house looks overall and wait until you see the kitchen it's more or less perfect.  If I had one complaint it would be lack of electrical sockets.  "Only" have 4 double sockets in the kitchen, would have liked more, but never mind.  Caved in and paid $300 for the appliance guy to install the water on the fridge, install the above stove microwave oven and the dishwasher.  There are just too many other things for poor dh to do and all that would have taken dh (who is an electrician so knows what he is doing) close to all day to install.

On a positive note my laptop has arrived back home, so all is good in my little world again!!  However on the negative side my allergies are just horrible at the moment.  I so want to pull off my nose.  Is anyone else suffering with them?  I am on Reactine and that normally works just fine, but it doesn't feel as though it's working at the moment.

Finally here is our little Munchkin:

Two weeks to go....

and we still have not heard a thing from the lawyer.  I have emailed them a couple of times and they say everything is under control.  It had better be, we normally have a couple of meeting with him, but not with this lawyer???

The house must be finished inside as the final door handle and permanent lock is now on the door.  They are working on the outside and will hopefully get the interlock driveway and steps in this week.  Not sure if they will be finished the rest of the landscaping before we move in, but it will be close.

Went to Home Sense on the weekend and picked up some bathroom accessories, toilet roll holder, towel rail, hooks etc; for our bathroom.  All Umbra Eclipse ones and a fraction of the price of other ones we were looking at. The hooks were $6.99 a piece, the toilet roll holder $9.99 and the towel rail $19.99.

Finally got a truck organized for us to hire for moving the stuff in the garage.  We have booked movers to take everything from the house, but that truck was full with just the house things.  So we are moving the garage stuff ourselves; which will turn out to be a lot cheaper.

No sign of my laptop coming back any time soon, suffice to say I am NOT happy!!!  Had a chit-chat with Staples about it all....

Here are a couple of photos of our little munchkin and our little princess taken at the end of last week.

Our little munchkin looks so much older with her hair pinned back don't you think?  She will be 7 months old on June 16th.

 

Our Little Princess hates having her photo taken, so never looks at the camera, she will be 17 months old on June 12th.