Little Free Library

                     

          As I have discovered, this little free library is made to promote literacy by having these book exchange libraries speckled about the world. This one I couldn't find on the Little Free Library site when I looked it up.  I found it by chance :)  what a fun little gem to discover!

This one is on Ridley Gardens 

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/

HBC blanket

                 I've loved the green, red, yellow and blue stripes from HBC since I was a little girl and saw it at my grandparents house.  It reminds me of comfort, simplicity and love.  I'm a true fan of anything iconically Canadian and love to decorate our house in a Canadiana modern style. So one of the things on my 'must get' list is a Hudsons Bay Blanket.  I love the coats and bags but I think more than one item would make me a bit of an advertisment.  To me it would be the perfect addition to our home, helping to create a welcoming and homey atmosphere.

                                                           

      http://www.thebay.com/eng/hbccollections-blankets-Multistripe_Point_Blanket-thebay/156989

  

High and Low

I was thinking about our whole reno process now that we are through to the other end and was trying to think what my High and Low of the whole process were. So here they are...

HIGH-  Getting the kitchen backsplash done.  We hired a professional to finish this part for us because we didnt want to try tiling for the first time in such an important part of the house.  The reason this was a high for me was because at this point our list of things to complete in the house was under a page long. When starting with a book full of lists over a page long per room to be down to such a small number of tasks felt so easy and not stressfull in the least. The end was fully in sight and that would make anyone happy.

LOW-  There were many lol.  The obvious one for me was the only time I cried during this whole reno and it wasnt the worst thing to happen during the whole process by far but at the time I felt beaten.  Not to worry though because now it is one of our funny stories about the whole thing.  It was somewhere near the end of Phase 1 as we called it, the house had been gutted, drywall put up, mudded, sanded, primed...I was about a little under a month away from giving birth to Daniel and I was trying to get everything painted since I wouldnt be painting once he was here and renos would be at a standstill for a few months so I wanted to have all of the painting done. I had taken the time to have a shower and straighten my hair for the first time in a while since I was getting a little tired of the reno film over everything and had gotten everything completed except for the awkward part of the stairwell where one of us needed to prop a ladder on the stairs to reach the far part of the wall.  It was about 10 at night and we were both exhausted.  It making the most sense my husband was the one to climb the ladder to do the awkward part and I held the ladder just in case.  First thing to happen of course was a huge glob of paint fell from his brush and landed square on my head. I burst into silent tears with my husband staring down at me unable to see my face. A few moments later I get the question...are you laughing or crying?  Unable to even answer I looked up at him with tears streaming down my face and managed to get out,"keep painting".  Not a minute later another glob of paint falls.  It wasnt an angry moment, or one of the moments we felt we were in over our heads, it was pure exhaustion finally making its way to the surface.

Our First House!!

Well, our first house we bought a little under 3 years ago about 3 months after we moved back from England.    The plan was to live downtown somewhere that JM could get to and from work easily so he could see the boys in the morning and at dinner time. With our limited budget we basically had our choice of two houses one on Victoria Park just two blocks south of the station there or this one.

front of our house after the burgandy siding was taken off and the yellow and white porch was painted (for some reason I cant find a pic of it before, I will update it once it shows up somewhere)

The back of the house next to our garage neighbour. the front was covered in the same siding as the back. This was mid backyard fix up. we removed a shack from the middle of the property so there would be some yard.

So with an 8 month old and myself 2 months pregnant with Daniel we took possession of this little gem :)










The hole we made in the master bedroom to fix the ductwork


JM taking out the old railing that wasnt going to save anyone from falling down


pretty new railing




sill success

our backyard mid reno with our former huge tree that fell on the house mid reno during a big storm (thats right it fell on the house smashing our landscaping tearing off siding, damaging windows, roof and part of our completed kitchen)

old front with some new planting

our old steps, one of the last things to get completed during the reno

mouse ridden, leaking old kitchen with some new floor

door to "the hole" as we referred to the basement

my lovely papa helping gut the kitchen


There are many stories related to this whole experience of renovating with babies while living in the project and many learning curves since we did most of it ourselves (professionals did the wiring, roof and some assistance on some of the plumbing) It all pulled together in the very end.  We took a little over 2 1/2 years to finish it all getting the final portion of the siding on the front finished 2 weeks before we put it up for sale.




























It took 4 days to sell and we now have a little over a month to find somewhere else to live :)

Have you ever been through a reno?  any advice for us second time around?