Making room for Baby M

It's funny how well people know us, either from real life, this blog, or a combination of the two. When we announced on Facebook that we were pregnant, one of my friends commented that this must mean some more home renovations. Boy did she call it.

The plans for making room for Peanut included the following:
-removing the hideous wet bar in the basement
-capping all the completely unnecessary plumbing that was included with said wet bar
-scraping all the "popcorn" texture that was on the wall in this area (yes you read that correctly)
-repairing the walls, then priming, and finally painting the walls
-finding a suitable floor covering for the bare cement floor that the space the office would occupy
-finally move all the office furniture that is in the office on the 2nd floor down to the basement

There were days that this list would stress me out to no end. It just seemed like so much to do in our limited amount of free time (ie weekends). So we did what anyone in our situation would do. We asked for help. Mainly for the things that we just didn't have the knowledge to do which was the plumbing, and for the things that I just couldn't physically help with, which was the demolition.

We started the project in October with the demolition of the wet bar. To remind you all of the tackiness that was the bar here is a picture:

It's not the best picture, but the only one I have on this computer. It was the mid 1970's at it's best. We never used it. The only one in the house that regularly used this space is in the picture lounging around. So I asked my friend Pam if she could help us with demolition. She used to work for her uncle's construction company before becoming at SAHM, so she gladly came over and showed that bar who was boss.

 Here was what was left after she was finished:

She took out all of the bar that was not tied up with the plumbing. For that we had someone else come in to help. This is just a part of the garbage that we had to haul to the dump.

Then my friend Heather's husband Dave came in to fix one of the light switches that was not working in the basement, and cap all the plumbing for us. He also took out what was left with the bar. Once he was done this is what we were left with:

The mess on the wall is what happens when stupid old owners decide to glue plastic backing for glass shelving on the walls. In short you end up peeling part of the drywall off the wall. Major pain-in-the-ass!

And this is how the space just kind of sat pretty much until December when I decided that if we were going to finish the space the week after Christmas I really should get my butt in gear and scrape off that stupid popcorn texture, and repair the walls. Now for anyone who has read how to remove this texture which is typically on ceilings and not walls, you are suppose to spray with water, let sit for a few minutes then scrape off. Hahahahahahahaha. They make it sound so easy. What they don't tell you is that this does not work some of the time, ie. our basement. In short we were left with a freaking mess. A freaking mess that I spent hours trying to smooth out afterwards. It would have been easier to just have someone come in and re-drywall the space, but honestly, we were on a shoe string reno budget and that just was not going to happen.

So after hours of filling, drying, sanding, filling, drying, sanding, the walls were finally ready to prime and paint. This was a breeze compared to the prep work required. To go with our shoe string budget we opted for Rona's low VOC recycled paint. At about $15/gallon, we honestly couldn't go wrong. Friends of ours had used it and had been happy with their results, so we decided to go for it. They don't have a huge selection of colours, but in the end we're happy with the finished product. So here is the area right after paint:

For the floor we measured and thank goodness the area rug that was currently in our guestroom was just a touch too big, so we rolled the excess carpet along the wall where the desk would go, and voila! We have flooring. The best part is that is was neutral as well, so it all kind of ended up going together really well. We still need to go through the crap that is on those shelves so I can use them for scrap booking materials, but for now, it's okay.

Then came the fun, er, hard part, hauling all the contents from our office which is on the second floor all the way down to the basement. Thankfully Andre is amazing, and quite the trooper and did most of the grunt work. Aside from walking the really light stuff down stairs I really didn't do too much aside from walking up and down stairs.

We still don't have everything down from the office, and are going to need some help to haul the really heavy fire-proof filing cabinet down to the basement, but for now you can see that we have a functioning office at least:

So now at least the hard part is done. Now we can tackle the nursery!

We're at it again!

Redecorating that is! The next room on our hit list is the office! This room has been months in the making. It was the last room in the house to still have wallpaper left to remove. This was the main reason it has taken us so long to tackle it.

We're still not done yet, but I'll post some preliminary pictures. This is what we started with:

This room was the perfect blend of everything horrible from the 70's and 80's. It came complete with stained pale grey carpet (I swear it makes my skin crawl), pale lavender gloss paint, fabulous balloon valance, and you can't see from the picture, but the far right wall and two smaller walls were covered floor to ceiling in a pale pink wallpaper. The full wallpaper wasn't that hard to remove, but the border was a little more difficult.

This is what the room looked like after the wallpaper was removed:

We were left with each wall presenting us with a unique problem. Two walls had been wallpapered over without being painted first (GRRRR). One wall was a matte pink paint, and two others a glossy lilac-ish colour. :Le Sigh: Can nothing ever be easy? So to make our lives a little easier we decided to use Behr's new paint and primer in one. It has covered beautifully, and I'm very impressed so far.

Alas blog land I do not have any after pictures to post. The room is painted, but I am not yet finished painting the trim, and we still have the carpet to rip out, and the new flooring to be installed. This last bit might take awhile since I think I may have lost the phone number to our flooring guy ::shakes head:: I really hope that we'll be able to find it or I might be begging all of our friends for numbers to flooring guys they know so we can get this job done.

A year ago today....

....Andre and I were finishing up the first week in our new home. The house was a mess of boxes, boxes, and more boxes. The living room floor was still old stained parquet wood flooring, the dining room was old stained threadbare carpeting littered with little bits of wallpaper from the walls. We still had a washer and dryer in the laundry room that was older than I am, and our "guest room" was more like a cemetery for boxes of stuff we had no home for.
Fast forward one year. We have hosted one Easter dinner, one Thanksgiving dinner, and one Christmas dinner (and to answer your question, we will not be hosting that many family dinners this year!). We've had our share of fights over who's way is the right way to paint a wall (the answer is my way). We've (okay I've) had a major breakdown over how to use the previously mentioned washing machine, then another breakdown when my brand new dryer cord doesn't reach the plug on the laundry room wall.
We've hosted countless friends, had our first (second, third...) BBQ in our own backyard, using our own BBQ! Opened our doors to family and friends who have needed a place to rest their weary head overnight. Best of all we have transformed a very outdated place that housed our belongings into our HOME. It has been an incredible ride filled with shouting and tears, and smiles and laughter. I have no clue what the next year holds but I know that together Andre and I will conquer it together.

"A house is made of walls and beams;

a home is built with love and dreams."

~Source Unknown

A little late I know...

I had promised earlier to post a little picture of some DIY holiday decor and I totally slacked off. So better late than never here it is!




The one in the middle is actually a square vase filled with seasonal potpourri that we had received as a gift. I had no idea what to do, so I went with the red and silver scheme in it and decided to make use of two other square vases that I had kicking around.

I went to Zellers and picked up some plastic red faceted Christmas balls and some small shiny and sparkly silver balls. I played around with them until they were where I wanted them, and Ta Da! Cheap Holiday Decor.

I have seen Christmas balls used as decor quite a bit this holiday season, but I didn't want to use glass balls as I didn't want them to break. I think that this looks just as good, and it's a little more guest and pet friendly. This way if my cat decided to play I wouldn't be cleaning up shards of glass everywhere! So keep it in mind for next year or this year when you're out shopping and see some decorations on clearance!

Guestroom makeover

I just want to start by saying I think this is my new favourite room in the house. I just love how it turned out. We had our doubts when we started let me tell you. To refresh your memory this is what we started with. It was less than fabulous.

First off we painted every surface of the room. We used the new Behr paint and primer in one, and let me tell you, I am in love. We have already bought the paint for the office makeover. We used "Simply Sage". I originally wanted a neutral colour for the room and just came across this colour and brought it home on a whim. Andre fell in love with it too and we went in a different direction.

We then had some oak coloured laminate installed to cover the horrible wood flooring we found under the carpet. Then we hung some curtains, assembled our Ikea sofa bed/futon, and threw down an area rug that we had lying around. This is what we ended up with:

We obviously still need to add some finishing touches and some art to the walls, but it still wows me every time I go into the room how far we've come from the horrible rust coloured carpet, and the beige semi-gloss everywhere. My mother came over this weekend and said she found it hard to believe it's the same room compared to how it looked the day we got the keys.

I hope that Andre's parents enjoy their new home away from home when they come to stay with us for Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

At least in our livingroom that is! Since we went from a small one bedroom apartment to a house, our decorations are limited. We really only have enough for some decorations on the table in the diningroom and in the livingroom. I was so happy this Christmas because I was finally able to have a 'grown up' tree! We had a pre-lit 4 foot tree that we had put out in the apartment, but I wanted a full sized tree.

Andre and I scowered through flyers, looked at the beautiful (but expensive!) trees at Costco, and were at a loss. I wanted pre-lit. After being spoiled by our little one, I was not willing to go back. I also wanted a nice looking tree. All this meant lots of $$. Something I wasn't really wanting to spend! I had almost given up hope when I was at a Card making Workshop and the host of the workshop mentioned that she was selling a 7 foot pre-lit tree. It was two years old, but it was too big for her space. They had bought it for $200, but she was willing to sell it for $60. Needless to say it didn't take me long to accept her offer! The only catch was that it was multi coloured lights, and I'm partial to white, but for $60 I was willing to live with it for a couple years.

So here is our bargain basement tree all decorated and lit up in our living room!

I'm from the school that your tree should be a collection of all the things that remind you of the season, or mean something to you rather than something that is out of the pages of a magazine (not that there is anything wrong with that!). You will notice that in the picture. Every year I also pick out a Hallmark Collectable ornament. I'm hoping to find one that I like when I go Christmas shopping this coming Monday.

One other thing in our living room is my little Christmas Village. My grandmother decided to start buying me pieces for a village a couple years ago. I think she did this mainly because she loves them, and has always wanted one for herself. To be completely honest I was less than thrilled when I started receiving them. I think my exact words to my mother (when my grandmother was out of earshot of course) was "what the hell does she want me to do with these?". This because we had NO space for things like this in the apartment. Now that we do have the space, I am more than happy to put stuff like this on display.

So there is a little bit of the decorating that we have done for the holidays. I have a little DIY that I had done, but I haven't taken a picture, so that will just have to wait!

It arrived!

After over a month of waiting my very first etsy purchase arrived at the house. I was getting ready for work, and heard the screen door open, I went downstairs, opened the inside door and a package was waiting for me! I only had a few minutes until I had to leave, but I tore it open and was sooooo happy. The plaque is beautiful. Even nicer than I thought.


And here it is:

After it was on the wall I called my mother over to see it and she loved it. I think the next wedding she's invited to this will be a gift. Everyone that has been to the house too has loved it. I've even handed out one of the business cards that was shipped with the plaque out as well. I'd say this purchase was a success!

(oh, yeah, Andre liked it too ;o)

On a lighter note...

I have been anxiously awaiting the delivery of my very first Etsy purchase. I had started looking at something to hang on the one wall of our entry way shortly after we moved in. I thought about art, or vinyl decor, and then came across some "family name" plaques. I was on the search for the perfect one, and late one night I found it. I loved it, it was perfect (or well, perfect for me).

The link for the item can be found here . I immediately bellowed for Andre to get his butt up to the office so I could get his final approval (but who are we kidding, I would've ordered it anyway!!). So since August 11, I have been running up to the office every night to check if there has been any contact from the seller to see when the item had been shipped. To make matters worse the seller has been super busy lately, so I've had a longer than expected wait.

The good news is that I received word from the seller herself on Sept 2, assuring me that the plaque had been shipped and I would receive it sometime between Sept 11-17th. I'm hoping it gets here soon, I'm dying to see what it looks like with our colours!

Paint Review Part 2 (Including the Aura review)

Okay, I was going to wait till tomorrow to post part 2 of the review, but I won't be around, and I had some friends that are interested in the Aura review (who knew?), so here it goes. All about "specialty paints".

When I'm painting, I like to use a paint that is appropriate for the room that I'm painting. So when it came to painting the bathroom and the kitchen, that was no different. For the bathroom I chose another CIL paint, and for the kitchen, the much awaited Benjamin Moore Aura paint.

CIL Smart3 Wash & Wear (Satin finish):

Price: $38.97

Availability: All Home Depot stores.

Coverage: This stuff is pretty great as far as paint goes. When you're repainting a space, one of the things that is a pain, is filling in all the holes, and then having to prime all of those holes before painting. This is a 3-in-1 paint so that is not necessary! Just paint and you're done. Most spaces that I use this 2 coats are needed to get full coverage though. Overall coverage: A

Scent: Okay, I mentioned before about how much the Behr paint smells, this one is pretty high up there too. I will give this paint the benefit of the doubt being I was painting a very tiny bathroom with the door closed, but the room smelled like paint for a few days after we were done. Overall Scent: Strong

True to colour: It was true to the colour we had matched it to.

Scrubbable/Washable: For high traffic areas, or areas you just want to be able to scrub, this paint is great. You can wipe the walls with a clorox wipe, and not have a worry. Overall washability: A+

Use it again: For the price I would definitely use this again. It was a great product. I am willing to try a Low VOC version just to avoid the smell though. If anyone uses the new Aura bathroom paint, I'd be willing to find out what they thought!

Low/No VOC's: This paint does not fall under this category

Benjamin Moore Aura (Eggshell Finish)

Price: $66/gallon+tinting fee (ie. the deeper the colour the more the fee)*

Availability: Available only through a Benjamin Moore dealer.

Coverage: The company goes on and on about how you will only ever need 2 coats of paint when using their product regardless of the colour. I would be willing to test this theory with a nice deep wine colour if I had unlimited amounts of cash, and well a room that I wanted that dark. I had to use two coats of paint for the kitchen walls, I can't imagine anyone using less than one coat and getting the results that they are after.

Like the CIL Smart3 paint, this paint is also a 3-in-1 paint. It primes, as well as being able to use this over either oil or latex paint. This comes in very handy when having to paint walls that were last painted sometime in the 70's. I love this these features in a paint.

Overall coverage: A

True to colour: The colour on the walls is exactly the same as the chip.

Scent: One of BM's claims for this paint is that it is "scent free". I hate to break it to them, but they are lying. There is a scent. Was it as bad as the Behr paint, NO WAY! But there is still a scent. I didn't get a paint fume headache, nor did I smell the paint fumes from the second floor of the house while it was drying. You do still need to ventilate with a window and all traces of the smell will be gone by the next day. Overall Scent: Minimal

Scrubbable/Washable: The BM dealer that I worked with assured me that this paint was not only washable, but scrubbable. I'm taking her word on this since I only painted the kitchen a week ago, and we all know I have another week to three weeks before I can safely test this out. I can tell you that the paint does have a very hand print friendly finish, meaning I can touch the walls and not have those tell-tale marks on the wall.

Use it again: Yes I will definitely use this paint again! Now that I have done my test room, I have the tricks down to use this paint in a bigger space. Now I just have to save up my pennies!

Low/No VOC's: Yes! This is a Low VOC paint.

*I have been told by my grandmother (who uses only their paint) that the price of the BM paint varies dealer to dealer. So instead of going to the dealer just down the street, we had to drive 10 minutes to the cheaper dealer on the other side of the city. I'm thinking of calling the closer store, to see if this is really true. Does anyone know if this is true?

Note about the Aura paint: When I decided on the Aura paint my mother and I were given some pointers (she was painting her bedroom). First we were instructed that when using the Aura paint it was recommended that we "cut-in" the space first, followed by painting the walls. The Aura paint has an incredibly fast drying time, so by doing this you ensure that you are not "picking up" the paint if you do this order the other way.

The Aura paint dries very quickly allowing you to re-coat in just 1 hour. I started prepping the kitchen to paint around 11:30am, by the time Andre returned home from work at 7:30pm I had painted two coats on the wall, moved the furniture back, washed the floor, and cleaned up all the paint supplies. The only clue that remained was the fact the kitchen was a different colour.

There is a learning curve with the Aura paint though. With most other paints because they take so long to dry (approx 4 hours before you can re-coat) once you finish painting a wall if you notice there is a drip, or an area is too thick you can fix it and no one will be the wiser. You cannot do this with the Aura paint. It just dries too fast. You have to be very careful when using this paint, and be ready to catch any drips, or thick areas as soon as they occur. Or be willing to sand and fix later.

There is also a lot of paint pick up with this product. This was the biggest problem when applying the second coat. If you so much as hit the wall with the edge of the roller and catch the paint, it will peel off. A major pain in the ass. If you are a perfectionist, or a little clumsy, I would recommend waiting 2 or more hours before you re-coat. I think this would limit the chances of mucking up your paint job.

Overall even with the finickiness and the increased price of this product it was worth it. With no other paint would I have been able to paint two coats of paint in one afternoon and then have been able to cook dinner without wanting to be sick from the fumes. The finish of this paint is also fabulous, and very similar to the finish of the Behr paint surprisingly.

So that's it for the paint review. If anyone has any questions, just let me know!

Paint Review Part 1

Being a homeowner I have become very fussy about that type of paint I use. When you have to paint every. single. room in your home you become somewhat of a pro. I also have certain criteria for paint purchasing:

Price- The price has to be reasonable. This criteria becomes even more important considering the space that needs to be painted. If it is a smaller room, or if the room has certain needs that need to be considered (ie. bathroom humidity) then I will consider a higher price for paint.

Function of the space- Bathroom, kitchen, living room. You have to consider the function, and therefore the needs of every space. In your kitchen you need to have a paint with a scrubbable finish, especially if you actually say, cook in your kitchen. In your master bathroom you need a special bathroom paint. If you shower in there daily, there will be humidity.

Location of the paint- I do not want to be driving a half hour across town when I realize with half a wall left that I am running out of paint. The store needs to be close (r) to my home.

Low/No VOC- When we first started painting we were more interested in just getting the house painted. I had read about the Low/No VOC paints, but hadn't really researched it at all. As the bulk of the house has been painted, I have become more interested in this type of paint.

You may notice that quality of the paint is not on the list. I have omitted it for this reason: All paints will basically do the job. Regardless if it's from Home Depot, Home Hardware, Benjamin Moore, Glidden, anywhere. You put it on a roller and slap it on your walls it will do the job. Some are better than others, this is true, but it's all subjective. (And for the record I have worked with paint sold at each one of those stores over the years.)

Now on for the review! For the paint review I will review the paint on the following criteria: price, ease of purchase (availability), coverage, true to colour chip, scent, scrubbable/washable (regardless of what the paint claims), and lastly whether or not I would use the paint again. All the paints that I will review are paints that have been used in our home, some because we used them when we painted our previous apartment.

First off: Behr Premium Plus (Eggshell finish)

Price: $31.95/gallon

Availability: Purchased at any Home Depot

Coverage: This paint we chose when we painted the very first room in our house because we had used it in our entire apartment. Our master bedroom is painted with this paint, which was tinted a Debbie Travis colour.

Now before I want to get into the coverage of this paint I want to explain what we had to paint. The master bedroom was (no word of a lie) Fire Engine Red when we moved in. It was blinding. It took 2 coats of primer (also Behr paint in white) before we even attempted the wall colour. So after two coats of primer it took another 2 coats of the blue colour to achieve the results we wanted. The coverage was good, but it took alot of paint. Overall coverage: B

True to colour chip: The paint is a perfect match. The original colour is "Swan Lake" by Debbie Travis. I had never used her paint, so I had it colour matched at Home Depot. You would never know it was not the intended paint manufacturer. Overall match: A+

Scent: Being the primary painter in my home, the scent of a paint is very important to me. I am also asthmatic, so painting can be a little hard if the scent is really strong. I've been known to paint with the windows open in the dead of winter just for some fresh air.

The scent of the Behr paint is STRONG. There was many a paint high headache when using this product. Overall scent: STRONG

Scrubbable/Washable: This paint is incredible in this respect. The finish is a true eggshell finish, and washes like a charm. We had used this paint in our entire apartment before we bought the house and it was great. I scrubbed the kitchen walls many times, and ever lost any of the finish, or got any of those tell-tale wash marks that some paints get. This paint would be great in a high traffic area, or any room with children. Overall washability: A+

Would I use this again?: Yes, I would use this paint again. It was a great value for the money, and the finish is wonderful. We currently have about 2/3 of a gallon left from the bedroom that I'm thinking of lightening up when we paint the office.

Low/No VOC's: No. This paint does not fall under that category.

CIL Dulux (Eggshell finish)

Price: approx $34-38. I could not find the exact product on the Home Depot website.

Availability: Available at any Home Depot store.

Coverage: This paint claims "excellent" coverage, and it delivers on this claim. The consistency of the paint is a little thinner, but it covers so well. We used this paint for the entry way, dining room, living room, up the stairway, and the upstairs hallway. Even with some of the walls having to be primed, some walls being unpainted for 30+ years, it was a consistent, even coverage over everything. I found with this paint as well that even the walls that were less than perfect (almost every wall in the house) that the paint hid the imperfections really well.

I ended up with this paint by accident. I chose a CIL colour and the guy at Home Depot used the CIL paint instead of just tinting the Behr paint like they usually do. I decided to just go with it. Overall coverage: A+

True to colour chip: It was a CIL colour "Jefferson House" and a CIL colour. They did not recommend a tinted primer, and the colour still does not match the chip. The chip was slightly darker and richer. I'm still happy with the colour, but not a perfect match. Overall Match: Off

Scent: This had to be my favourite thing about this paint. After the stench of the Behr paint when painting the bedroom, the low odour of this paint (also claimed by the company) was a welcome surprise. No paint headaches with this product. Overall scent: Low

Scrubbable/Washable: This has to be my least favourite thing about this paint. The company claims "excellent washability" but they really didn't come through with this claim. I have tried to just wipe off fingerprints, marks, etc off the wall with just a cloth and water, and have ended up with tell-tale marks on the wall. Not good! Especially since I have this paint in some very high traffic areas. I haven't tried to re-wipe the walls in a couple months for this exact reason, so I don't know if this will lessen over time as the paint as cured. Overall Washability: B-/C

Would I use this again?: Undecided. This paint had so many great qualities for the price, but I hate not being able to wash a wall. I will see over time how it wears, and go from there.

Low/No VOC's: No, this paint does not fall under this category.

So this is the end of the Paint Review Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2 that will include "specialty" paints, including the new Benjamin Moore Aura paint!

Kitchen transformation

I finally got around to painting the kitchen this weekend. The weather on Saturday was craptastic, and Andre had to work all day which was also craptastic, so I decided to paint. I was using Benjamin Moore's low VOC paint 'Aura', so there was definitely a learning curve, but I am very pleased with the results. The colour that I chose with the help of their consultant works fabulously with the drapes that I had chosen, and compliments the counter, back splash and the main floor paint colour. The kitchen finally feels fresh, and bright now. A good thing in such a small kitchen.

To remind you all of what the kitchen looked like the first time we saw it:

It was blah and well...green, until I ripped off all that wallpaper:
Oh the wonderful orange paint that we found underneath. Along with about 25 nail holes that had to be refilled.

This is what the kitchen looks like at this exact moment in time:

I still have to paint all the baseboards and paint the trim around the window that has only been primed, but I'm just so happy with the kitchen I had to share. You can tell by all the added storage solutions that I am very short on cupboard space, and well prep space for that matter. Until we can afford a very necessary kitchen reno this will have to do. Until then my dreams consist of glossy subway tile back splashes, and neutral countertops...

Stay tuned for a paint review and comparison. Hopefully it won't be another two weeks in the making!!

Bye Bye Wallpaper!

For anyone that saw my house in all it's 70's/80's tackiness will know that quite a few rooms had wallpaper. The front hall, dining room, bathroom, kitchen and office all had wallpaper. After today the only room that is left with wallpaper is the office.

I had the day off today. After Andre left for work I was left wondering what to do with myself. I was very tempted to spend the day sitting around reading, but decided that I would tackle the kitchen. Sadly this room has been sitting half done for about 7 months. For some reason the fact that this room was incomplete didn't bother me as much as the others. That and I was completely undecided about colour to paint the room.

So after I kissed my honey good bye I got dressed, threw my hair in a ponytail and got to tackling the one remaining wall with wallpaper.

To refresh your memory, this is what the kitchen looked like when we saw the house for the first time:

(listing photos)

Unfortunately you can't see in much detail the wonderful green wallpaper and border that fully compliments the green trim, the green counter top, the green back splash, and the green knobs.

And this is what the kitchen looked like today after I finished taking down the wallpaper:

I know you all are so jealous of the now bright peach on the walls. (And complete lack of storage.)

The little bits of colour on either side of the window is the actual colour that I have chosen for the kitchen. I was at a total loss choosing the colour that would not only have to work with the green, but the new drapes on the window, and the colour that we have painted the entire main floor. After a fruitless trip to Home Depot I ended up at a local Benjamin Moore dealer. I needed help.

After about 15 minutes maximum, the wonderful consultant had helped me narrow down some colours and then I finally decided on "Desert Tan". I also chose their new Aura paint (I'm so not telling Andre that one gallon cost $70!). I had been thinking about trying a new low VOC paint, and not only does Aura fit the bill, but it's also a 3-in-1 paint, meaning it primes, can go over oil or latex paint, and it is scrubbable, which is much needed in a kitchen. The bonus is that apparently it dries super quickly, so it's ready for the next coat in only an hour!

So here are some close-ups of the new paint choice for the kitchen:

What do you think?

Unfortunately my work weeks are pretty busy, so I will not have any after shots for you all until I have a weekend free to paint. Hopefully that will be this Sunday, since Andre and I will be at my grandparents cottage for their annual summer BBQ all day Saturday.

Bargain Shopping!

My mother and I have a routine every Sunday for the most part. We go to Tim Horton's for breakfast, sometimes after church, sometimes instead of church (shhh don't tell!) and then do a little shopping to pick up some odds and ends that were in the sale flyers. Then I usually make sure to put everything away before Andre gets home from work that night!

So this Sunday my mother had to go and pick up a ring that she had repaired, and I had to get my wedding rings that I had re dipped. We arrived at the mall just before it opened, and the only store that was open was Bowrings. My mother and I love this store. It has everything. Gifty picture frames, candle holders, furniture, dishes, you name it, they probably have it.

I have been searching for something to put on the one wall in the dining room. I couldn't decide on whether I wanted a hutch, buffet, or console table. All I knew is that I needed something on that wall.

Then I spotted it. A beautiful console table, on sale (!). It was a floor model and had been loved, and was covered in other sale merchandise. It had a few little nicks and scratches, but it was so great. So I asked the saleswoman if it was on sale (knowing full well it was). She said that one had a few scratches, but she could order a new one for me if I wished. I told her I wanted this one, and the $399 table was mine for $150.

I'm so lucky Andre doesn't really bat an eye at my furniture buying. He got home from work and took it surprisingly well when I told him I went out and just bought a table from the dining room. I think he was hoping I had bought a piece of art for the wall instead.

So here are some pictures of the new table!

The table in it's new home in the dining room.

The table with the one side pulled out. Both sides fold out which will come in handy at family dinners.

Here is a picture of the entire dining room.

(before I unwrapped the table)

You can see from this picture what I mean about needing something for that one wall. It is so bare. The dining room table looked so bare in that room all alone. At least now it has some company. We have some family photos that we have picked out for the narrow wall on the opposite side of the doorway, we just need to buy some frames, since I want all the frames to be black. Now I just have to find something to put above the table. Something with green and neutral tones to flow with the living room.

Any suggestions?

Bathroom Face-lift

I had the morning off today, so I decided to make myself useful and finally post the pictures of our bathroom face-lift. Eventually our bathroom will have to be redone, but until we win the lottery, some paint was just going to have to do the trick!

The bathroom was horrible to start off with. Pink bathtub, beige and blue vinyl tub surround, grey trim, grey cabinets, grey/beige paint peeling off the walls, and the best, mouldy tacky ass boarder around the top of the wall to finish off the look. I can't decide whether the guy that lived here before us was just lazy, or just didn't see the shape that this room was in.

The room is incredibly tiny, so here are the before pictures to give you an idea of how everything looked when we started our little project on Monday:

This was what remained of the border since we've been slaving away at it. We had tried scoring it, soaking it, scraping it, and this is how we had left it. Let this be the warning of what happen when you put wallpaper in a master bath. Mould grows on the paper. So gross.

We got as much of the paper off as we could, then got to work on sanding the walls down, so the remaining paper was a smooth as possible.

Here is a picture of the walls after we got off as much wallpaper as we could and then sanded, and the ceiling after 1 coat of paint. The ceiling needed 3 coats to cover the grey/beige colour.

Here is what the cabinets looked like after 2 coats of paint. They are currently waiting their third coat of trim paint. (also a little peak at our gorgeous pink tub!)

And last but not least the much awaited after shot of the bathroom. We had some leftover kitchen/bathroom paint from when my mother painted her bathroom, so we used that. Not only did it match our shower curtain almost perfectly, but it was free. So the only thing we had to buy was a gallon of white kitchen/bathroom for the ceiling. We had some leftover regular ceiling paint, but considering how small the room is, I wanted the proper paint in here to reduce the likelihood of mould/mildew growth.

It's so much more calm, crisp, clean and bright looking now!

What a difference a year makes

I was making some organizational changes to my blog and reading through some old posts when I made it to July 2008, and came across this post about some problems we had while we were in the apartment.

It made me think about the frustration that we had been feeling, and how we wished for nothing more than to be homeowners, and not have to deal with the pain of renting anymore. Never in a million years did I think that just one year later I would be blogging from my very own home, never mind that we would've been living there for almost 7 months! It's crazy. Being homeowners hasn't been easy. There have been bumps, but it's been great, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we're here.

Our garden

While I was snapping some pictures of the new patio set I decided to get some pictures of the flowerbeds that I had planted this year. As per the rest of the house, the backyard had been sadly neglected as well. The grass is covered in dandelions and violets, and the (naked) flowerbeds were edged in railway ties. If you have no clue what they are, you will soon find out.

I spent many hours running to the windows on both sides of the house to see where the sun was at that particular time to judge what flowers need to be planted where. Unfortunately I do not have any before pictures of these flowerbeds, but just close your eyes and imagine a pile of dirt and weeds, that's pretty much the before. Here are the during:

The left side garden:
This flowerbed has sun for a good portion of the day, from dawn until 5pm. So there are 3 mini rose bushes, a clematis on the far right in the corner, a hydrangea in the middle, and then a border of sun impatiens to add a pop of colour this year while everything is getting established. The big leafy thing is the remaining bit of who-knows-what. It was on Andre's to-do list today to chop it down, but as of right now it's 5:16 and it has yet to be done. It's anyone's guess if this will happen! Remember what I said about railway ties? Well all that wood lining this flowerbed is railway ties. I want them ripped out on the outside and a scalloped border put in. That's next on the list.

Now for the far right garden:This garden gets absolutely no sun, so for over here, I chose a classic bleeding heart with white flowers, and some shade impatiens for a little bit of colour. Eventually the bleeding heart will take over most of the space, exactly what I want to happen. We will edge this garden with a scalloped border too, but I still have to decide if we will be widening the patio a bit more his way, so until that happens it will remain as is.

So there you have it! That's are garden as it looks today. As soon as I take some after pics of the front I will post the before, during and after.

The Patio set

Dum dada dummmmm....I know that you've all been waiting patiently on the edge of your seats since I told you all I would post the pictures. It's been busy. That's my reason and I'm sticking to it.
Thank goodness it was a sunny day so I was able to snap a few pictures this morning (the others coming soon) but for now here is the long awaited pic of the new patio set:

It's from Lowes. My mother had spotted the table when she was shopping with my grandmother, it was $60 for a 42x42" square table. Our patio isn't that big, as you can see from the picture, so that was the perfect size for us. Just yesterday morning I was looking through the latest Lowe's flyer and there was the entire set, on sale. Not impressed. One of the items on my to-do list is to call and see if I can be refunded the difference. Some companies do this, others don't. It never hurts to ask, especially when I could be refunded $40.

We haven't had a chance to actually sit down and eat at the table as the weather here in Steeltown has not been conducive to outdoor dining, but the set has two features that I feel are very important: comfortable chairs that are also stackable. It was also a great price for all 4 chairs, the umbrella and the table.

So there you have it, our new patio set.

Big purchase weekend

You'd think we were made of money the way we were spending it this weekend!

Well the one purchase is something that we had budgeted for. We bought ourselves a brand new patio set! I tried to find pictures online from the Lowes website, but no such luck. I will have to try and snap one tomorrow. When Andre and I were living at my grandmother's house the one thing we loved was sitting out in the backyard in the summer enjoying our meal. We're really looking forward to being able to do this in our own home this coming summer.

Our second purchase was a total want of mine, this was a "treat":

For those of you that have been living under a rock for an extremely long time this is the Nintendo Wii. I thought that it might get Andre and I out of the sit-down-and-watch-tv-till-bedtime-rut that we have been in for what seems like forever. It's worked at least one night.

Tonight we played two games of bowling before I tried my hand at boxing, and won! The fun lasted until I came back into the rec room from the changing over the laundry to find Mikey our cat sprawled out on a table sleeping and Andre sleeping on the couch. Oh how I wish I could've taken a picture!

So we'll see how often Andre uses it. I think the boxing alone will serve as wonderful therapy after a frustrating day at work for me. He has been talking about checking out the different types of games they have, so I think that the Wii will grow on him eventually over time.

Finally Home!

It's been extremely busy since the last time I blogged. We got the keys to our house on Monday earlier than we expected. Everyone (the lawyer included) warned us that it could be as late as 5/5:30pm before we got the keys, but they were in our hot little hands by 2:30. We were down at their office signing our life away at 9:30 that morning, then we did some running around getting some errands done before they called us.

What a whirlwind this week has been. I'm almost excited to go back to work tomorrow just for a little break. It's been so busy trying to get everything done before the big move on Saturday, and then trying to get everything live able since then. We started the painting Monday afternoon, and then it only got busier from there. Andre had Tuesday and Thursday off last week (thank God!) so he was able to help me by bringing the boxes and some of the furniture over during the week while I painted and ripped wallpaper.

Here are some pictures from last Tuesday as we started the work to the house:

The view from the living room into the dining room and front hall.

View from the dining room to the kitchen.

One side of living room, notice the divider or the "stripper poles" as Andre called them.
The other side of the living room, all those white marks are holes that were covered after the cedar shakes were removed. I hated sanding those walls.

So much more open after the stripper poles were removed.

What the dingy carpet was covering. Those nail strips were a bitch to take off the floor.

I don't have any current pictures simply because the house still looks like a bomb went off. Andre wanted to host Easter, so our goal is to have the house live able by then. We have 2 months. I'm also hoping to host a housewarming/birthday party (my 30th is in March), so I have some work to do. I won't have to worry about being bored at all, there is still a ton of work to keep me going!

One condition left and it is ours!

So much has happened in such a short time! Here's a timeline of all that has happened (and is to come).

Monday Dec 1- Put offer in for our townhouse. Agent says he'll call us before 11pm if there is word of counter offer. Nothing that night

Tuesday Dec 2- Our agent calls us at 9am. The seller countered our offer at just $1900 above what we wanted to pay. He suggests that we try and get him to lower it a little bit. We let our agent know that we will take the sellers offer, but want some work done in return.

Noon- Our agent meets us and we sign back.

5:15pm- They met us in the middle! They knocked off $900 and will take down the cedar shingles (pics to follow) and repair the walls for us.

7pm- Meet our agent at home, sign the final offer. It's ours (conditionally, of course)

Thursday Dec 4- Our mortgage broker calls to let us know that our mortgage was approved. We have our money! Recommends lawyer and I make some calls.

Saturday Dec 6- Make appointment for our home inspection.

After Mondays home inspection, we're just waiting on the certificate from the Condominium Corporation, and then all of the conditions of our offer have been met. SOLD sign can go up!

It's been such a whirlwind these last few days. It's been so hard for Andre and I because work has been so busy the last few days which means I'm madly trying to make phone calls during my spare moments at work. Needless to say we've had "words" with each other. Because Andre is always driving at work he can't make all the calls that I can, so I am stuck doing a lot of the leg work myself and have been feeling very overwhelmed.

Hopefully that will all be over come early next week.

Now for what you've all been waiting for...house pictures! Here are a few of the pictures that were on the MLS listing. I cannot wait to close on the house so we can get in there and make it ours!

(the view from our front door)

(the living room)
(dining room)

(basement--wet bar)

(basement--family room)

(kitchen)

(kitchen)

(master bedroom)