When oh when shall we move in

Well its getting down to crunch time.  We had originally hoped to have moved in by Christmas but I'm just not so sure anymore.  Progress is being made as we speak.  Hardwood is being layed, so is tile.  But there are just so many stages to everything and an order to do things in too.  But its getting there.  Phil has been working every day and every evening.  As he puts it, he is "perma-tired" and quite looking forward to January!  But he is still very much enjoying the process and seeing things come together.

So these posts have been pretty sporadic up until now but I am hoping they might be a bit more frequent in the next couple of weeks as all the visible completion happens.

Last week I had a wonderful night in Vancouver with my friend Anna (from Abbotsford).  She is one of my very best friends who I knew before I met Phil..........it just worked out pretty nicely that I ended up moving to her part of the world (we first met in South Africa!).  Anna treated me to a night in a swanky hotel in downtown Vancouver and in the hotel lobby there was the most amazing smelling Christmas tree ever!  Its not much to look at in the photo but if you could just smell it too you'd want to sniff it all the time too.

The next day, Phil and Sophia came over on the ferry and met us at IKEA.  Oh how I love IKEA.  Our aim was to buy our bathroom vanities, which we did.  We needed 3: one for the basement suite bathroom, one for the main bathroom upstairs and one for our master bedroom ensuite.  I dont have a photo but you'll see them later.  They're really cool and they were a lot cheaper (including the cost of taking the truck on the ferry) than buying anything here in Nanaimo.

On the way back to the ferry, Sophia decided that socks were over-rated and that she wanted to put her feet up - she found a convenient way to do it.  Oh and you cant really tell but there was a beautiful setting sun sky in the background which was gorgeous to watch as we drove through North Vancouver.

So times have been busy but we did manage a trip to the Christmas tree farm with Grandma and Grandad to pick their tree and seeing as they live just upstairs from us we havent bothered to put ours up.  I am considering putting one up in our new house in a couple of days once the hardwood is all layed.  Phil says it might get in the way and it will get dusty...............we'll just see about that.  We also made it out to the Bethlehem walk which was an amazing experience where you feel like you've gone back in time and you are walking in the streets of Bethlehem.

So Sophia's excitement for the week is the carpet that has been layed in what will be her new room.  We went for carpet in her room and the bedroom next to it (a future childs bedroom).  So soft!

Also this week we have Phil's cousin Matt over from Abbotsford.  Wow Abbotsford gets a second mention in one post!  Anyway, Matt is awesome and a skilled worker.  Phil and Matt have now installed the base cabinets in the kitchen.  Looks a bit strange right now but there's still a lot to do there.

And now Matt is laying hardwood and Phil is laying tile.

Pictures to come soon.

Over and out.

Getting there

So things are starting to look a little more like a home.  Upstairs, new drywall is up where it needed to be and things are starting to appear that are like a promise of things to come.  I arrived at the house this afternoon to see a framed in structure that will become what I am sure will be my beloved window seat in the living room.  This is something I've always wanted and was excited that this sort of bay window could allow for that.  We have some ocean view from there when you look down the road so it will be a wonderful place to put our feet up with a good book and watch the world.

Here it is!  And there is Sophia discovering the mandarin box and requesting her fourth one of the day.  Dont worry they're baby sized ones!

Drywall is back up and the mudder and taper is coming to start on the upstairs tomorrow.  So the wall and entry way over in the corner wasnt there before but it is now and its our entrance way to a laundry room/pantry.

The laundry room will host our lovely new frontloaders and goodness knows what else as its nice and deep. Ooops this pictures kind of blurry.

Next week the drywallers are coming back to do the basement - very exciting!!!  In the meantime, Phil will spend much of the weekend insulating..........fun stuff!!!  I on the other hand will spend it relaxing as much as possible - the semester just finished and I have 10 days till my one exam so I think I can afford to relax a bit.  Mmmm maybe a bath.

Talking of baths, this little munchkin loves hers.

A bunch of ugly images but you get the idea!

Its been a few days..........or a couple of weeks since my last post and I ask myself why?  Well maybe its because all the things going on at the house lately are all what I would call...........well..........frankly they're boring and ugly.  So much plumbing and electrical work is being done and I know that its all essential but the results are not so visible.  There has to be a life lesson on patience in there somewhere!!!

So if you were to walk in the house right now, particularly in the suite downstairs where everything is new, you might see such scenes as this

Watch out for those wires.............dont worry I dont think they're live!!

Or if you look up at the ceiling you might see this

To me its just a complicated missmash!  But I'm forever grateful I have a skilled husband that knows what he's doing.  This complicated missmash will probably ensure that right above this ceiling I will be able to relax in my soaker tub with candles lit all around me, not because the lights dont work but because I chose the ambiance of candle light!  Hmm maybe I need to request a dimmer switch for some mood lighting!  Good idea.  I think so.

The other thing I see as a visible sign of progress is some holes in the ceiling upstairs.  These holes are intensional of course, for pot lights.

Sometimes little bursts of colour appear out of nowhere in the shape and form of the lovely Sophia.  Glad to see those reflectors on her jacket work!

Yup that's Phil holding her up.  I'm taking the picture from the living room and he's standing on the stairs.  If you can tell behind all that junk, thats a half wall that separates the stairs from the living area.  It used to be a full wall but we broke it down to let some more light in.

Sophia with her famous grin helping Daddy out.

Oh and here's all the snow we've been having.  The rain is currently washing it all away.  Oh well it was nice while it lasted.

Good riddance to you wallpaper

I didnt have class on Thursday morning and Phil's parents were off work too so while they looked after Sophia for the morning I jumped at the chance to get my hands on this reno project in some sort of way.  Our day started the way most days start for Phil..........a trip to Home Depot.  Phil is in the throws of framing so here he is loading some lumber into the truck.

We also headed to the tool rental department for a wall-paper steamer.............my favourite.  Having grown up in Scotland, I'm all to familiar with wallpaper.  My Mum and I spent many an hour steaming wallpaper off the walls.  Ah..............memories.  So with some experience under my belt, I set out to rid the house of any trace of wallpaper.  Thankfully there were only four walls - feature walls, I might add!!
Want some of this?

No?  I didnt think so!

So I did a bit of this.

And some cheese for the camera!

But I wont take all the credit because after lunch I switched places with Chris (my mother-in-law) and she kept stripping that nasty wallpaper.  But I didnt mind, cause I got to hang out with this angel who by-the-way has recently taken a keen interest in looking through my make-up bag.  Yesterday morning I found her under the dining room table applying blusher like a pro!

Colour colour on the wall, which is the greatest of them all?

Picking paint colours is an interesting process.  I mean, a room can look totally different when you paint it another colour.  And the fact that we have a whole house to paint means we have a lot of choices to make. Its a lot of fun but sometimes I wish we could afford an interior designer to give us a little guidance.  Probably not going to happen, so here's hoping we make some good choices.  One choice we will make is using Benjamin Moore paint.  Phil highly recommends it.  Having had to work with a variety of brands of paint in the past, depending on what his clients chose, Phil cant recommend Benjamin Moore enough.  He says its so good that if done well, you almost only need one good coat of it so even if it feels like you are spending slightly more in the first place, you're really not cause you dont need to use as much.  Once in a while Phil recalls the time he had to do seven coats of this bright reddish pink coloured paint in someones bedroom cause it was a cheap brand that just didnt work well.  I'm pretty sure he was sick of the colour by the time he was done.  Needless to say, we'll never have a hot pink bedroom.  No worries...........its not really my style.

Here's my hubby pondering over Benjamin Moore's 'Historical Collection'.  I think we've found a few winners here!

Demo Heaven

So we got the house last Friday and demolition started on Saturday!  On Saturday morning we had an energy audit done on the house.  The hope is that once we are done the renovations which include things like new insulation and windows then the guy will come back and do another energy audit and proof of our house being more energy efficient will help us to get some energy grants that the government offers.  Great!!!

So Phil has been busy pulling off trim, pulling up floors, and breaking down walls.  For example, what once looked like this

now looks like this

And now we get to do some dump runs!!!

Notice the red box in the foreground?  Yeah I got Phil an early birthday present so the he can groove to some tunes while he works.  Its a good heavy duty jobsite ghetto blaster and you can even hook up your ipod and store it inside!  Phil can be found working to the soothing sounds of Coldplay or 'shakin his thang' to some random hip hop on the radio!  Oh and let me tell you, when I arrived at the house this morning, there was country music playing on the radio.  Seriously what is this world coming to?

But for now let me leave you with a couple of pics of our cute little love bug

Itching to start

I've really noticed in the past few days how excited but also restless we are.  We are itching to get going with the renovations.  We get the house this Friday 29th but we probably wish it was today.  Phil cant wait to get in there and start the demolition!!!!  I cant wait either but I'm trying to figure out how I can be more involved with an 18 month old to occupy too...........maybe I'll put Sophia in the backpack and she can observe the demo from there.  She'd probably love it!  It'd be safer too!

Well until Friday, here is a picture of the house.  We walk/drive past once in a while just to remind ourselves and tried to take this picture inconspicuously when the house isnt actually ours yet!  Dont worry, the house is actually empty right now!

Hi! We're new here!!!

Literally, we're new here.  New to the world of blogging, template designs, adding pictures etc etc.  Here we go.

But we'll be saying "Hi!  We're new here" to our new neighbours too.  We get our house next week.  NEXT WEEK!  Yeah we're excited!!!  I hope they dont mind living with the noise of renos for the next couple of months!!!  Maybe I should bake them some banana bread as a peace offering!

Well our hope with this blog is to keep track of the reno process and beyond.  Also Phil is going to be offering some step by step processes for home renovating, what to do, where to buy the goods and get the best deals!  So watch this space.