Hard(decision)wood flooring

Mat and I are ready to put down hardwood floors on the main level of our house, but we (I’m) having a really tough time deciding what to put down.

I love the look of dark floors, but there are a couple of reasons why we don’t want to put them down:

• Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) has said dark-stained floors are a pain in the ass to keep clean. Dust and foot prints are never-ending. Not to mention we have not one, but TWO white dogs (extra paw prints, extra dirt and EXTRA white fur)

• Scratches are easier to see especially if the scratch is deep and takes off the stain (see 2 dogs above)

• Dark wood is so popular right now and I’m worried that it will be the dated honey-coloured floors you see today…I wonder if I like it so much because it’s so trendy - ?

Of course we have a budget (not big, but comfortable) and we found a great place that carries “leftovers” if you will, which means what they have is what you get. No ordering and if you wait too long to decide, there’s a good chance it will be scooped up.

Mat and I don’t like a lot of things: We don’t like “colours” so nothing with a red tone to it, or anything too yellow. We don’t want a bowling alley either…

Again we like the look of dark, but not the high-maintenance of it. We like “different” like tiger wood ($$$, hahaha ya right) and wood with character.

Last night we found this:

It’s hickory which is extremely durable (quite a bit harder than maple). It’s got character and I’m pretty sure that dirt, scratches etc. aren’t going to show up.

Not to mention that this particular one we found is solid (not engineered) and is 3 ¼” wide – both of which usually add a lot of cost per square foot but is within our budget because of this warehouse.

I really really like the look of this, but I’m really concerned that it will look “country”.

I’ve scoured the internet and found pics that support that it will look country, and other pics that show that it can look very – modern – if you will.

Here are the pics that confirm the flooring looks country:

And here are the pics that show it can look warm but modern:

And here are some (really) dated pics of our house, but it gives you an idea, anyway:



(this picture was from the listing when we bought the house - we now have stainless steel appliances and much nicer stainless steel light fixtures)

wall colour is now a bit lighter (still grey) tile will not change (kind of a burgundy)

Thoughts? Thoughts?? Thoughts???

Not everything is black and white (but this time it is!)

Ok, i didn't realize it had been THAT long since the last time i wrote. *Sowwy*!

hmm, let's see...what have i been up to lately?

Well for starters, it was damn busy at work last month. Don't get me started, but i was all "HOLY HELL I CAN'T SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!".

Of course, i made it through alive, and have added a few more battle scars to my collection.

I've also been deep into the Twilight Saga (be still my heart) and i'm almost done the last book. Most of my free time has been (happily) occupied with this.

Of course i still spend a lot of time puttering around the house.

Just a few weeks ago, i decided to paint the bannisters in my house. Here's some pics of what it looked like before i started:

And then as i started to paint:

Here's an *almost* finished pic. I later painted the 2 end posts black.

So as i was finishing up the LAST COAT of black paint on the upstairs handrail, i DROPPED the can of paint.

Did you notice the colour of my carpet? It's white.

Yes, i dropped a can of BLACK PAINT down my staris.

My WHITE. CARPET. stairs.

I sat there in shock for a few minutes. Not believing what just happened and not sure what to do about it either. I finally stood up and ran to the kitchen (because of course, i too was covered in black paint) and grabbed armloads of paper towel. I tried to wipe the paint off my legs but i just pushed it around and made a bigger mess. I all but climbed into the kitchen sink to get the paint off my legs which by this time had a burning sensation - grrrreat!

I still didn't know exactly what to do, so i went outside to where Mat was vaccuming my car. I tried not to make eye contact with him as i stuttered something about him needing to go back and rent the steam cleaner again.

Pardon? Oh, did i forget to mention that Mat had just steam-cleaned the carpets the DAY BEFORE?

Well HA HA wouldn't you know it that his wife decided to spill paint on the stairs after instead of before he cleaned them.

Anyway, he asked me why and i said "there's no time to explain, just go". He didn't bite and asked "what happened?"

"i spilled paint" i replied in the smallest voice ever

"where?" Mat asked

by this point, Mat had started to walk towards the house with me walking backwards in front of him.

"on the stairs! Please don't go in there!!" i pleaded. "IT'S EVERYWHERE" i excalimed as i burst into tears.

But he wouldn't listen and opened the door to the house and saw the carnage.

"You have got to be kidding me" was all he said.

i just looked at the floor.

"well, the carpet is ruined. we'll need to replace it" he said.

Now, although i was upset about spilling paint everywhere, the thought of getting new carpets cheered me up a bit. I have wanted new carpets since we moved in, but didn't want to spend the dough. I still really didn't want to spend the money, but at least i'd have pretty new carpets!

Mat went upstairs (i thought he was mad and couldn't stand to be around me and the mess) so i started to try and mop of the mess with some more paper towels. It made things worse because apparently paper towels will absorb anything BUT PAINT. ugh.

Mat came back downstairs and like a doctor to a nurse started to make demands.

"ok, we need the shop vac, a bucket of water and some vinegar. You get the water, and i'll get the shop vac".

I stared at him blankly because i didn't know what he was thinking

"i looked it up on google and apparently this is how you get paint out of carpet" he explained.

i did as i was told and we started diluting the puddles of paint with water and vinegar and sucked it up with the shop vac. over and over and over again. We spent about an hour doing this and wouldn't you know it? the paint was GONE. i swear. you would not know that i had spilled black paint all down the stairs.

When it was all cleaned up, Mat stood up and said "please don't ever do that again".

I still can't believe that it actually happened and that it's actually gone.

So, what have you been up to lately?

Come On In!

Welcome to my home. It's not completely finished yet, but i thought i'd give you a sneak preview. I know it took a while for us to let you in, so we thank you for your patience.


Welcome!


Oh, if you don't mind closing the door so the doggies don't get out...thanks.


So what do you think of the colour? I think it goes well with my Lawren Harris print.


That door leads to the powder room and the stairs go up to the second floor and down to the finished basement


If you turn to your left a bit, you'll see the door to the garage. I'm glad i painted the doors a darker colour than the walls and the trim white...what do you think? It was really hard trying to get a colour to look good with those tiles. The previous owner painted the walls a peachy-brown (yuck) and painted one of the doors the same red / purple as the tile *shudder* she painted the garage door and trim all the same peachy-brown...it looked really really bad, but now i don't mind the tile at all with the gray :)


And then right in front of you is the closet. Go ahead, open it...



Surprise! Baby Bonnie likes to nap in little corners :)


Oh, and just before we leave the foyer, take a peek in the powder room and let me know what you think of the colour. It's a greeny-gray. Yes, i love the group of seven...



Ok, i'll run you upstairs to see the 2 spare rooms we painted. First, the guest room...
It's hard to see in this light, but it's a pale gray-blue...i think it'll look nice once i get all the white and tan furniture and accessories in here.


And here's the office. It's a steely-blue colour. That desk will be gone soon as well...


The colour looks more gray from this angle...


Alright, we haven't done anything with the other rooms so i won't show you those yet.
For now, let's go sit outside on the patio. Pull up a chair with me...we'll bbq!




Oscar loves his yard :)


He loves watching the people and dogs who walk by occasionaly.


So thanks for stopping by my house. It's been hard work these last 2 weeks. Come back again soon!

Saturday BBQ

Edited to add pics of our prezzies :)

Our Saturday bbq was great. It was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth the effort.

Saturday started with me rising at 6:30 am (it's hard for me to sleep in with a crappy mattress and the sun beaming in the window). I made my way downstairs and instinctively made coffee (thank god i worked at Second Cup for 6 years because i can actually make coffee with my eyes closed which comes in handy at 6:30 am). Sat outside with the doggies while i drank my coffee and planned my day. Mat eventually made his way downstairs and helped himself to a cup of joe and sat outside with me. We discussed our plan of attack and i was out the door to get groceries and booze before 8:30 am. I quickly realized there was a problem: the stores didn't open until 9 am...crap!

I eventually got all of the groceries but had to run them home before i could get the beer and wine, especially since i was risking the frozen burgers (which turned out to be a good decision after all) and ice cream bars melting since the woman in front of me in line was arguing about a price of an item. For chrissake lady...i have 2 boxes of ICE CREAM BARS sitting here and it's already 25 degrees outside and it's 9:30 am!!

It also didn't help that the cashier was the slowest ever!!

So i raced home, ran two bags of groceries in the door. Yelled upstairs to Mat to "help me with the groceries PLEASE" and then ran back outside trying to get all the groceries inside without them melting.

Finally got all of the frozen food into the freezer safely and all of the other perishable items into the fridge.

FYI: i bought 40 frozen hamburgers and 24 hotdogs. I also bought 50 ice cream bars. Yes, we ended up with waaaay too much food and we'll be eating burgs, dogs and ice cream bars until christmas...

Then i was off to the beer store and liquor store to buy 2 2-4's of beer and 5 bottles of wine. I wasn't exactly sure how much booze to buy for 30 people. We already had a 2-4 of beer at home and another bottle of wine. I hoped it was enough. (again, we won't need to buy beer or wine for a good, long time especially since we got a ton of wine as housewarming gifts AND people brought their own beer to drink even though i said we would provide...sheesh!)

The rest of the day for me was spent making veggie pizza, making humus, cutting up veggies, cutting up the condiments for the burgers, and then stuffing everything into the already full fridge like a crazy woman trying to go on vacation for 2 weeks with only one suitcase. The hardest thing to do on my list was cut all of the corn on the cob that i bought (and i bought 12), into discs for a recipe i found on Martha Stewart.com. Ok, cutting corn on the cob is NOT easy!

Finally and miraculosly, everything gets done....except that it's 4:30 and i'm supposed to pick someone up at 5 and it'll take me 30 minutes to get there and i'm sweating like a pig! So...i hope into the cold shower, towel off, pull my hair in to a pony-tail (not how i wanted to wear my hair) and drive like a maniac. I'm late, of course....

And then, the party starts. The doggies are clean and got their nails clipped. People start pouring in. I give everyone a 10 minute tour of the house. They oooo and ahhhh and then i offer them a drink and shuffle them outside where there's appetizers and chairs, and immedately greet the next group coming through the front door.

I'm fortunate to have such a great bunch of friends! Everyone got along great and thankfully needed very little of my attention to make sure they were talking.

It was great to see people whom i haven't seen in too long.

It was also very nice to get a bunch of bottles of wine ;) we also got a gift card and a "cleaning bible" and a serving platter. Our friends are great.

And before you ask....yes i did take pictures! But only of the gifts because i was too busy to take pictures of the party.

I was going to post them today, but realized that i left the usb cable for my camera at home. I promise to post them tonight.

Oh, and i also took some pictures of the house and the rooms we painted so stay tuned for those too.

Needless to say, i spent almost the whole day on Sunday sleeping. I didn't mean to, but after i got up again at 6:30, went to church, had breakfast and strolled around Westboro, i needed a nap. I immediately crashed on my bed around 1 pm and didn't wake up until 5:15!! eek. I immediately felt bad for having "wasted" the day, but i think my poor body really needed the rest. There's not much else we can do to the house anyway after the last 2 weeks of painting etc.!

Now our house feels livable having finished the majority of the painting and having our friends over to give it their blessing :)

All of our housewarming gifts (not present in photo: homemade cookies from Bonnie (my friend, not my doggy) and a bottle of wine from Meg and David which we were given the day we moved in and - of course - consumed)

Card from Meg and David

Bottle of wine from Bonnie and Garry (again, Bonnie also made dee-licious homemade cookies but most of them were devoured at the bbq and then Mat and i polished them off at breakfast Sunday morning...)

Bottle of wine from Shannon and Justin complete with beautiful and luxurious wine cozy

Bubbly from Eric and Christina

Bottle of wine from Mat's co-worker Veronica and Husband

Bottle of wine from Mireille and Nicolas

Bottle of wine from Mat's cousin, Jeff


The Cleaning Bible, also from Mireille and Nicolas

Gift card to HBC from Phil, Helen and Tuan. Gift card hold hand-made by Helen

And a close up of the beautiful hand-made holder

Serving platter from Yasmine and Camila

Updates

Sorry this isn't a "real" post, but i will slowly expand on my mini-updates when i get a few minutes from painting...

• Had an extra long weekend. My boss gave us Friday off from work, and monday was a holiday...yippee

• Had my well-deserved massage on Friday. I helped my friends plan their wedding and the "deal" was that they would buy me a massage if i did a good job. It was time for a massage after all the wedding planning and then house moving. Also, an excellent start to a Friday-off.

• Bought paint for the new house. Originally, Mat and i decided that the first thing we're going to do is paint the two kiddie rooms which are bright pink and bright blue. However, as i mentioned before, i was having a hard time choosing colours. Somehow (still now sure how) i thought it would be a good idea if i "tested" a colour i had in mind in a small space like the downstairs powder room. I had envisioned this beautiful, creamy, off-white which had a hint of faint, faint yellow. I thought i chose a very classic, off-white, but by the time i had painted the powder room, it SCREAMED banana and i couldn't bear to look at it. I had to change the colour, but Mat was getting annoyed at the money i was spending at home depot. We re-painted it "squirrell" and it looks better. Still not the exact colour i had in mind, but it's much better than the banana.

• Also painted the foyer. This turned out better than the powder room, but when the first coat went up, i regretted the colour i chose. Our apartment was this beautiful grey. I know, it sounds dull and boring and gross, but it looked awesome with the white trim and doors and the black picture frames. I wanted to paint the hallway the exact same colour, but again, i chose wrong. It looked like cement. Cold, hard cement. I wanted to cry. After leaving it for a day, i decided that i actually didn't mind it. I decided that it had a blue tint in it, and that i was going to call it "slate blue" instead of cement. I think i would have preferred the grey with the brown tint like our apartment, but i'm convincing myself that it's much better to be different than boring like the "taupe" that was the apartment walls.

• When we bought the house i HATED the tiles in the foyer and powder room. They are purple-ish red / brown, and the woman who lived there before painted the powder room the same purpley-burgundy and painted the hallway a browny-peach. It looked horrible. However, now that i've changed the colours, i actually don't mind the tiles. Heck, i might even like them...

• We finished building the fence. Ok, my dad and Mat finished building the fence. It's awesome being able to let the doggies out free and not watch them or tie them up.

• I bought some hanging flower baskets for the front porch. I love them.

• We are having 20+ people over to our house on saturday for a bbq. I can't decide if i should make the hamburger patties from scratch or buy some frozen ones. My lazy self wants to buy the frozen ones, but my martha stewart self wants to make them from scratch

• We FINALLY bought a bed. Yesterday. We haggled the sales guy. i didn't think we had it in us. But we shopped around and got some prices and then took those prices back to the store where we wanted to buy the bed from (because of their warranties and deliveries etc. etc.) We got everything including delivery, taxes, frame, mattress protector, all for the cost of the mattress and box spring before taxes. We saved $700. I couldn't believe it. I will let you know how i like our new Natura mattress when it's delivered. I'm expecting to love it.

• This week i hope to have the two spare rooms painted...that is as soon as i can pick the colours...

• I promise to go into more details soon :)

I ain't complainin'...

But it's too hot to blog today....



you can find me here:






drinking this:

I'll be painting this long weekend and i plan on taking pics of the house and posting them...just hold your horses!

Oh, and tomorrow i have the day off work and i'm getting a massage....can't. wait.

I'll be thinking of all of you.

Home Sweet Home Redux

Sorry for all the house posts lately, but i'm sure you can understand that not only is it a huge deal for me, but it's also been consuming my every waking hour lately.

So...we're in. We're 90% unpacked. 4 of our 7 rooms have furniture. The dining room, living room and 2nd spare room will have to wait until we can scrounge up some money to fill them.

I actually love having lots of extra space. It feels so good to b-r-e-a-t-h-e.

The fence has been started. The dogs have tried to escape from the yard a few times. Hopefully Mat will be able to finish the fence tomorrow and if not then my dad will come back up next weekend to finish it.

The appliances are here....they look awesome in the kitchen. I haven't even tried the controversial smooth-top stove. Quite frankly, i'm not even going to let the thought of whether or not i made the right decision ruin my new-house-happiness.

I am loving going to bed and waking up to the sounds of crickets and birds chirping. Living downtown, all you go to bed to and wake up to are loud, intoxicated people and the overwhlemingly loud airconditioning system from Place Bell.

There are a few more things on my immediate wish list but i'm hoping to get those in the next day or two. I also want to do some painting (of the walls) but for the first time ever, the colours are not popping into my head. It's always been that i will walk into a room and know what colour it should be painted. Not here. All of the rooms are neutral tones which look fine, and i normally paint in neutral tones. I think the problem is that they're the right colours, just not the right shade but i feel silly buying gallons of paint just one or two shades darker than what's already there. hmmm....

Other than that, there's nothing to complain about. It feels great.

Oh, and pictures will come once i've unpacked the camera....this might take a while.....

We got the keys

Somebody pinch me




Better yet, someone get me a beer.

Breathing a little easier

~PHEW~

I think the worst is over.

Mat and i met with the lawyer yesterday to pay her and sign our life away.

I was still overwhelmed, on edge, stressed, drained and maybe a tad crusty.

Not to mention that i drank nearly half a vial of rescue remedy (which has always helped me deal with stress in the past) only to have no effect on me yesterday. Yesterday was a whole other level of stress...

I was certainly not myself.

Earlier, i called our bank to tell them the dilemma of needing to make an extremely large purchase on our debit card that was exceeding the daily limit. She told us how we could go around it by maxing out our daily debit limit as well as making a cash withdrawl to compensate for the remaining amount that we couldn't cover on our debit. You see, with my bank there are 2 daily limits: one for your direct debit and one for cash withdrawl.

~phew~

Mat was able to buy all 4 money orders (because they too have a max), and we were off to the laywers.

While at the lawyers, she was running through all the papers with us. It's amazing the amount of trust i put in someone whom i've never met before. She told us to sign here, here, here and here. Here and here aaannnd here, and here and here and here and here. oh, and date it here and here......and here.

I did it all without reading it. (god i can be so naiive) but she would briefly tell us what it was we were signing "so this is for your title insurance" "so this one says that you agree for us to represent you" blah blah blah. I was so tired from being stressed yesterday that i couldn't even make myself care anymore or stress anymore. You see, it turns out that bank accounts aren't the only ones with daily limits...i had reached my stress limit for the day!

There was one part where i thought i should question some numbers (btw, when you're buying a house there are about, oh let's see, a million different numbers and figures). While she was flipping through all of the pages for us to sign, i thought i saw that our mortgage was for a total of 223,000. I asked her why our mortgage was less than the actual price of the house. She started to explain to me (in somewhat of a condescending tone - for which i couldn't blame her cause here i am, the property virgin and here she is the older, wiser, real estate lawyer) that the mortgage is never the total amount of the house because you have to have your own downpayment. I explained to her that we didn't make a downpayment because we got a 0% downpayment mortgage (a new Canadian mortgage product that just came out less than a year ago which was the only thing that made it posible for us to purchase a house). Anyway, turns out my eyes were playing tricks on me and the total mortgage amount was 233,000. I apologised and said i had mis-read it (how could i not when she was flipping through the papers like the office was on fire?). She looked at me and in a sarcastic tone asked "are we good now?". Then she felt the need to add "wow, you're a lovely shade of pink there Rosealind" (btw, my name is not pronounced Rosealind. it's ROZalind). Thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks for hitting me when i'm already down. Thanks for making me come thisclose to crying in your office. That's exactly what i needed today of all days when it seemed like nothing else could go wrong. Thanks. I would also like to add that this was not a pms day. It was just a really shitty day.

So, now we hold our breath and wait for the insurance broker to give us some insurance so that we can get the keys tomorrow.

Finally it happened. Today, at 3:00 pm...i received an email that we have insurance...or so i think...we'll find out for sure tomorrow when we get the keys or don't get the keys at 4:00...

In any case, the worst is over so i'm a wee bit more relaxed.

p.s. i called home depot and they said they called the warehouse and they promise that the stove will be delivered on saturday.

Deep Breath in, and exhale.....

*hhhhhUUUUUUUUhhhhhhhhh* *hhhhhhhAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh*

not helping a whole lot.

I thought i was ready. I thought i was super organized. I thought i was on top of it all.

"not until i'm done with you" said my first-time-homeowner devil sitting on my shoulder.

Our house closes in 2 days....TWO days!!

we are aaaallll packed. we gave away a ton of stuff. i felt relieved to get things done. The only thing i was worrying about was money. We have enough but it's such a huge amount of money at once that it just scares me and there's nothing i can do to make myself feel better about it.

That was 2 days ago, and i was dealing ok with that amount of stress...

Yesterday: we get off the phone with the lawyer. She tells us the amount we owe her today. $3099.00 *GULP* ok, so it's more than i thought, but we're still in the black. Then she mentions at the end of her call haphazardly: "oh, and i need proof of insurance before i can hand over the keys".

HUH?

why am i learning about this today, at 5:30 pm 3 days before we close??

why didn't someone tell me insurance was a necessity before we can get the keys??

i was in the middle of getting insurance but there were questions i couldn't answer and thought i would submit it once we were moved in.

ok...so scramble.....desperately email my agent asking him all the questions i can't answer.

Desperately call my dad grilling him on all of the questions my agent can't answer.

finish filling out the form...fax to insurance company....and wait....

i can hear my heart pounding. I'm shaking. i can't concentrate. i'm worried and i'm about to throw up.

Then...mat goes today to get the money order and is told that the amount exceeds the daily limit....faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak

THEN....we get a call from the appliance delivery company saying they have our fridge but they don't have our stove, so we should follow up with home depot and check the status.....

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Finally, i called our mortgage lady at the bank just to talk and make sure i haven't missed anything else. everything is peachy according to her. I ask about the $2000 deposit that i made when we bought the house that i was told i would get back and she said that the amount would have been deducted from the lawyers fees. My ears perked "so you mean instead of $3099.00 it will be $1099.00??" The mortgage lady said: no, it would have been $5099.00 originally.

oh



my

god




HOW can the fees be so much???

I was counting on that $2000 like you wouldn't believe.

HOW CAN IT BE THAT MUCH??

that doesn't even include our first mortgage payment

are you f*king kidding me right now???


Deep breath in, deep breath in.....


still not working....my stomach is in knots

Life is good

This is going to be short and sweet.

I love life right now. I have so many wonderful things going on that most days i'm over-stimulated with excitement.

Mat and i have spent that last 2 weekends packing up our apartment. Although i can't believe how much STUFF we have, it feels awesome to give a bunch of it away. Packing has also forced me to do things that i've been putting off like: going though bags of papers that were on the desk, as well as the file folders and shredding old bills. We bought a cute little shredder that cross-cuts and also destroys credit cards and media...it took a while to shred all of the stuff we had (3 garbage bags later) but it felt amazing not having to take all that crap to our new house.

We've also filled the trunk of Mat's car full of stuff to giveaway to goodwill. That also feels good. Not necessarily because we're "donating", but because it's clearing our space and our heads of stuff we don't use and certainly don't need.

My philosophy of sorts for moving into the new house is to keep it clean and simple. I think we felt we had to move because our space was too small (which it is, when you have 2 adults and 2 dogs living in a one-bedroom apartment), but now i think if we had gone through all of our stuff and thrown out and given away as much as we have, we wouldn't have felt so rushed to buy a house. The fact is, when you're not forced to do something, then you rarely do it, which is the case with us.

I'm so excited that i will be able to enjoy summer mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights in my backyard on my new patio set.

I'm thrilled that i will be able to have people over to my place and not send mat into the bedroom to watch tv.

I'm ecstatic that visitors will be able to stay over at our place in comfort with their own rooms and beds.

I can't wait to host people for bbq's, and dinner parties.

I'm just so happy that the doggies will have their own space and freedom in our large-for-a-townhouse backyard.

Furthermore, it seems as though love is in the air. Maybe i'm just imagining things, or maybe it's just the beautiful summer days making everyone feel all lovey-dovey, but it seems like a ton of people i know are in love and loving life as well. It's...great.

Lastly, i'm excited more and more each day about getting married. For those of you who know me, i can seee your eyes rolling into the back of your heads, but i am, ok? When Mat and i first got engaged, i was excited, but part of me was also very calm since the wedding is a year and a half away. Now we are approaching the one-year away mark which means i'll be able to start shopping for my dress and sending out save the date cards and all of the other wonderful, glorious things that wedding planning entails. AND...it's MY wedding...finally :)

Ok, a few more things to be happy for, and i'm done:

I can't wait to start some projects in our house like painting a few rooms, creating a dining room, putting down hardwood, installing a fireplace, creating a guest room and an office and a workout space and a sewing and knitting space.

I can't wait to start gardening and planning out the landscaping for both the front yard and the backyard.

I can't wait to buy potted plants for the entrance way and the walk way. I can't wait to buy hanging baskets for the porch and the garage and the side of the house.

I. just. can't. wait.

yay! life is good :)

(ok, sorry this wasn't "short" but it was sweet, don't you think :))

PLEASE Comment :)

Hi all,

I need your help and opionions on a very important and urgent matter.

I will try to make this as quick and painless as possible...

The lowdown:
We need to purchase a stove for our new home. Our price range is +/- $1200. It must be stainless steel. We can't decide between gas or electric.

The problem:
We were going to go with gas, but then had a salesman convince us to purchase an electric stove (no time to go through the whole story). We bought a smooth top electric stove and are now having second thoughts. We can change our mind by end of day tomorrow (Friday).

The pros and cons:
Gas

Pros:

• Gas is more efficient
• Gas is somewhat cheaper than electric
• Gas is easier to control in terms of temperature; instant heat, instant cold
• It would be an upgrade to our home = better resale
• Somewhat more utilitarian
• Can use any kinds of pots and pans

Cons:

• With our price range we will not be able to afford a gas stove with convection oven
• Will need to spend $300 to put gas line in kitchen (which is fine as we're considering it an investment for the house for future resale)
• Knobs for gas stoves are located on the front which makes me nervous when we have little kids running around the house = could turn knobs on and gas might be leaking into house without knowing or could turn flame on and hurt themselves and / or house
• More parts on cooktop might make cleaning more tedious (more parts to clean)
• Open flame could be dangerous with sleeves

Electric

Pros:

• We can afford a convection oven which is more efficient than baking without one as it reduces the amount of time in the oven and level of temperature
• Save $300 because no need to install gas line
• No open flame = safer for things like sleeves
• Knobs located at back of stove therefore no danger of small children turning on stove

Cons:

• Glass/ceramic smooth top has the potential to chip, scratch and break
• Glass/ceramic smooth top might be harder to clean since you have to be somewhat careful
• Pots and pans must be completely smooth or else risk scratching and might not cook properly
• Cooking surface stays hot / warm longer
• Not sure what heats up the ceramic top - is it a coil burner like the old stoves? If so, then I'm not convinced spending the extra $ for a smooth top is worthwhile. Also if it is a coil burner underneath, wouldn't that mean the ceramic top would make it heat up slower than the old coil burner stoves?
• Not sure if it is expensive or difficult to repair or replace an element if it burns out

Any other thoughts, comments, suggestions, pros, cons etc. are most welcome :)

Thank you!

zzzz

Yesterday, Mat and I went mattress shopping.

The bed we have now is, well, old...

I bought it 6 years ago when i was going into my second year of university.

I still remember shopping for it. I really wanted a double-sized mattress because i knew buying a mattress is somewhat of an investment (it's expensive, and you own it for several years at least), but also because i had a long-term boyfriend and there was no way we were going to try to squeeze ourselves into a single-sized mattress when he came to visit.

Even though i was purchasing this mattress with my own money, my dad came with me when i went shopping. I don't really remember why my dad came shopping with me, because back then i usually shopped with my mom. But now that i think about it, my mom had just decided to divorce my dad and so i was probably a) not on speaking terms with my mom, which happened often when i was that age (not just because of the divorce) and b) felt sorry for my dad and wanted to spend some time with him.

So dad and i went shopping for mattresses. Dad likes a "deal" and wanted to take me to the mattress warehouses around town. I like a deal every once in a while, but getting a "deal" on a mattress just felt kind of weird. I wanted a nice, new, clean and comfy mattress. So that was our first obstacle - Dad kept wanting to take me to all of these warehouses, and i kept wanting to go to sleep country and sears.

We both gave into each other eventually - i let dad take me to the discount mattress warehouses, and dad quietly accompanied me to the pretty and bright clean stores. I think he was starting to learn that i knew what i wanted, and although i would listen to him and his ideas, i was still going to do what i wanted in the end. It was my money afterall.

Even though i felt weird shopping in the warehouses for mattresses, the most awkward part was trying to explain to my dad exactly why i needed a double mattress and not a single mattress. I couldn't tell him the most obvious reason (boyfriend) because what daughter wants to discuss her sex life with her dad??! The only answers i could come up with were that i was used to sleeping in a queen size bed at home (which is true because i took over the guest room as my own when i couldn't share a room with my sister anymore), and that this mattress wasn't just for university, but for later years as well and i didn't want to have a single-sized mattress when i'm 25 (which is also true).

But dad still couldn't comprehend. A double is more expensive than a single and my university room was almost too small for a double bed (which it was...it barely fit). Why couldn't i just buy a single bed - for now?

Now, i don't know if dad was playing dumb and trying to convince me to get a single bed because he KNEW i had a longterm boyfriend who would be visiting on occasion and knew that sleeping together in a single bed would be uncomfortable. I have to give my dad the benefit of the doubt and say that he probably did know, but didn't want to say for the same reason that i didn't want to say it either. My dad is a smart guy, you know.

So that was my first experience at buying a mattress. I did end up buying a double mattress for a whopping $700 (frame and box spring included). That almost broke the bank for me that summer.

Now buying a mattress is less awkward, but not necessarily easier. Now i have to fight discuss with Mat about what type, softness and price point we'll go with.

Stay tuned for the end result...

Home Sweet Home

So it's been a few weeks, since my last post...i'm still trying to get used to this whole thing. I much prefer to read other people's blogs rather than writing my own, cause i already know what's going on in my life. In my defense, however, there has been a lot going on in my life these last 3 or so weeks. Namely 2 deaths in my family, a new job job and....buying a house.

Ok, so those things actually only happened this past week, but still.

So buying a house...how crazy is that? It's such a weird feeling. Here we are looking at a ton of houses for months and knowing exactly what we want....or do we?

I had a list of things that I thought were a priority for me when looking for that perfect house. So as i was saying, we've looked at house after house after house, and none of them really jumped out at me (or "us" i guess you could say...) and quite frankly they all started to look the same after a while. Because we were pretty specific with what we were looking for our agent showed us a bunch of houses that were very similar.

I felt silly when our agent asked us what we thought of each house and i rhymed off what seemed to be trivial things i didn't like. For example:

agent: what do you think of this house?
me: i dunno, it's ok...

agent: this is the layout you said you liked
me: ya, i know, but this laminate flooring looks really cheap...
me: ya i know, but this yard feels really small
me: ya i know, but it doesn't have the nice roman tub
me: ya i know, but this is a middle unit
me: ya i know, but there's power lines behind us
me: ya i know, but it's not as new as i would like
me: ya i know, but the master bedroom is kind of small
me: ya i know, but it backs onto a busy street
me: ya i know, but but but....

After a while i started to wonder if our agent was thinking to himself that we were being spoiled little brats. I mean, how can any of those things be worse than living in an apartment when you have no ability to alter anything? I mean at least with a home, if there's something you don't like, you can do something...well for the most part...i guess it would be a bit difficult to move those power lines.

All this to say, we ended up buying a house that didnt' have all of my "wish list" items. But for some reason it just felt right. My heart was telling me to buy it, but my head was saying "WAIT!! this house doesn't have hardwood on the main level, or a fireplace, or the kitchen layout you want...what are you doing? those are the things you really wanted!!!"

But my heart kept saying, "i know, i know, but it feels right and it has other things that i really want like the corner lot with the big yard, and we have no immediate rear neighbours, and it's new, and the rooms are big..."

I still don't know why i thought it was a good idea to buy this house...maybe i was tired of looking at houses...maybe all of the houses started to look the same anyway...maybe it was mat telling me he loved the house so i felt bad not agreeing....

Nah! it was none of those things...i simply love the house and the hardwood and the fireplace i can add in later.

I'm really looking forward to my new crib...we move in July! Check out the pics :)