Some pics of our Neighbourhood

We still haven't sorted out the issues with our camera so I thought I would post up some pictures of our neighbourhood. After living in Oakville for the last 10 years it has been a bit of an adjustment to move to Hamilton but so far everything is working out pretty well. Living in a city we can walk to a lot of restaurants and bars and we are very close to the Escarpment trail and the stairs that go up the mountain (a great work out). I really enjoy discovering a new city on foot and seeing the architecture of the older homes and buildings.

I am loving my new teapot...

I found this Le Creuset tea kettle at Home Sense a few weeks back and it has already been put to a lot of good use. I am in my thirties and would you believe I have never owned a tea kettle before!!! That just seems so wrong. With most of our free time being spent split between the kids and reno's having a nice cup of tea at the end of the day just feels fantastic. It's amazing how sometimes the smallest things can make a huge impact...

A Wonderful Thanksgiving....

I really enjoyed making Thanksgiving dinner at our new house. The gas range was installed late Friday afternoon (talk about cutting it close) and it looks fantastic and cooks well too. We made a turkey and just some basic side dishes to keep it low stress. To make the weekend even better the washer and dryer were also installed along with two brand new toilets.

The house finally feels comfortable. There are still tons of reno projects and decorating to do but we sort of know where everything is and can take a bit of time to relax when needed, there is no better feeling.

We even started to clean out the basement (basement=dark and dingy, partial dirt crawlspace, super creepy, fit to be in a horror movie...I am secretly afraid to go down there alone but getting braver. This will be a HUGE HUGE project and one I didn't think we would get to so soon. Since we bought the house power of sale the basement is full of the previous owners stuff ..and the owner before that...and the owner before that. It is overwhelming, my guess is cleaning it out will involve about 7 trips to the dump and 5 days of work. We were rewarded with a few huge scores. Score #1: Finding an old cast iron heat register that should fit in our upstairs bathroom-the current one is badly broken. Score #2: Dark and dingy basement no more. Reno Hunk found a secret hidden light switch which turned on four flourecent light strips that flood the entire basement with light. Score #3: An old broken window which I will use on the second floor patio as a trellis.

What else do we really need to do....get internet access so we can post some pictures!!

Moving update and a few of my Pet Peeves

Reno Hunk (the name my significant other has chosen for himself) is moving the remainder of our belongings from apartment to house today. Why has this taken so long??? Sunday was a zero productivity day, we went out the night before and got home in the wee hours of the morning. This was a stupid decision but there was a huge need to blow off some steam. This week we have been paying for it as things are down to the wire with moving...which makes me stressed and has made me an evil girlfriend complete with numerous temper tantrums and episodes of extreme bad attitude directed at Reno Hunk...sorry love.

I really do love our house but I have two pet peeves that are monopolizing my thoughts:

1). Our Laundry Room is best described as totally yucky. The floor is chipped up linoleum, there are no baseboards, the wall is half done in drywall and the exposed part of the wall is packed with about 5 years of dryer lint....I'm hoping its just dryer lint...and the plumbing is sketchy. Having a tough time finding a plumber so when our new appliances arrive next week I will hook them up and wish for the best. The laundry room is on the second floor which I know can be an issue in an older home....will it shake the whole house??  Into the yucky laundry room will go the new washer and dryer that we purchased...they will be beautiful. My plan for the laundry room will be to lay ceramic tile on the floor, put in a new tub and cupboards, drywall, baseboards and I will splurge on some pretty backsplash. This project is a bit lower on the priority list but I would be happy if it could be done by January. I just can't wait to do laundry in my own house after living in a triplex with shared laundry that was always in use.

2). Storage: Our house is about 100 years old so I know closet space in older homes be an issue. In this house it is a huge issue. We have a storage closet in our foyer, the dining room (slotted for wine storage) and two of the upstairs bedrooms have a closet. Unfortunately I can't use any of these closets. The previous owners took all of the shelves and rods (who does this??). The one remaining hanging rod is in my daughter's bedroom but it is not easy to get to. Her closet is over an old staircase so in the morning I have to climb up into the closet to find something to wear. The main upstairs bathroom only has a pedestal sink and the laundry room cupboards are being ripped down. Basically I have no where to put any of our stuff. We were up until midnight last night moving our dresser upstairs. I went through Reno Hunk's wardrobe one by one and had him make a decision on which items to keep and which to donate...apparently now I'm supposed to do the same with my clothes (avoiding that as long as I can). Our summer gear has been packed up and is ready to be stored in the basement. The storage issue will need to be in the top 10 priorities...asap...like this weekend.

Ready to Move In

I just heard from Renochick that she loves to unpack.... umm do I have the place for her!  So far I have been running over loads of items and just placing them anywhere that I can find empty floors.  Luckily we are moving from a smaller apartment to the house so everything should fit easily.

Today I ordered my Dewalt DCK988X Drill / Impact Kit with a hard case (the new model gives you a bag instead) and also a Porter and Cable Floor Nailer.  My brother has a Brad nailer and air compressor which he is lending to me so that will save me some cash from buying my own.

Well time for me to pack up another load as we still have to move all the big stuff to the house.

Goodbye Apartment Hello House

This weekend we will be moving the rest of our belongings from the apartment to our new house. I secretly love moving, the packing and unpacking always yields stuff that I forgot I had...can't wait to see what treasures have been in storage for over a year.  Moving to a new place gives a new sense of perspective and some fresh energy. I just hope that nothing important gets broken. We have already moved a large portion of our belongings so I expect that we will be done by Saturday afternoon. This way we can check out the Supercrawl which is a art and music event in Hamilton.

My First Post...Finally

Life can certainly throw some curveballs and we have had our share of them lately. Why is it that everything always happens at once???  The house got bumped down on the priority list but it’s time for us to really get to work and get things done. I am super excited about the changes that we can make and realize that making this place home will use up a large chunk of our money and time. The electrical work gets started on Monday and then we can finally move in. This will give us some much needed time as we are currently spending too many hours travelling between our current apartment and the new house. I have so many thoughts floating around in my head so this weekend the priority will be to get organized with a game plan and finally get some pics of this house posted. Since we are both financial types we will be keeping a detailed account of our budget vs. actual expenses….and our budget will be tight so creative and inexpensive solutions will be key. Tonight’s agenda includes some tool and light fixture shopping....and hopefully a nice big glass of wine to end the day….