Tube Tops & Turtlenecks

As you have probably gleaned from the recent posts, I have been a little down. Well, yesterday I got much needed boost. My grandkids came for a visit!! As I was painting the basement wall, I knew that these little gaffers were on their way so I made sure that I left some lower rolling available because I thought it might be fun to give my 3.5 year old grandson a chance to help oma. YES - I am an OMA and Bernie is an OPA! I don't remember lots about my own oma and opa but I remember things like: orange tang in the clear glass container with red pouring spout, peppermint cookies, playing with a wodden top on the rubber mat at the sink, a wooden marble 'roller coaster' made by opa, books in the

I don't know what it is about holidays, but it always takes me a while to get back into a normal groove. It amazes me that it takes about oh, let's say, 1 hour to get into holiday mode. I have no problem adapting to sleeping in a little longer, wearing my sweats well into the late morning, no make-up, not thinking about work AT ALL! But when I come off holidays it takes about oh, let's say 1 week to get back into work mode. Then during that week I get all nostalgic about the holiday that I had and wish I had done this or wish I had done that. And then I start to get sad about how long it will be until the next holiday. This is not healthy nor is it helpful as my husband looks at me meanderi

As you can see, tile has been laid down in our main bathroom by my dad. The tile is actually a peel and stick product that we picked up at Home Depot. What was unique about it was 1) Thickness: The tile was a fairly thick peel and stick with flexibility 2) you could grout between the tiles which helps with the seal. So the old linoleum was torn out and then my daughters painted the floor to give it a smoother finish. There will usually be glue segments left behind by linoleum so dad did some sanding before it was painted with a hand held sander. For peel and stick you want the floor as smooth/clean as possible. The paint was to make sure the dust was seeled in FOREVER!! We separated the tile

We are back from the Black Hills! And yesterday, Saturday, we were back at Bryn Mawr to continue renovations. This is the last holiday we want to make without being able to return to our actual home! 'Morty', as you can see in the picture, was one big BISON or TATOCKA that we met on our trip. That's his girlfriend beside him. It was a pretty amazing animal to see that close up. But... that is done and we are back at work. Yesterday was one of those days that made me discouraged. Can't say what it was exactly. Perhaps it was coming off a vacation high and going back to personal work and work work that was getting to me. Perhaps it was that I thought we had accomplished more than we had before

Forgot to show you the wall that is no longer a wall! NOR does it need support. And I forgot to take a picture of my ensuite - but the colour is all over my skin if that helps at all. It's a grey purple. Here is the last RENO video until we return. PERhaps, however, you will get some fun Black Hills adventure pics though. We will see. Have a fantastic weekend.

Tomorrow we AWAY to the south! Where our dollar is a bottom dweller, where our passports are scrutinized (at the border - just look them directly in the eyes. - but not creepy like or 'come-on' like or too syurpy sweet - just direct with a slight twinkle - not too twinkly they will think your high -directly JUST right), where they say crick instead of creek and rufe instead of roof, where our friends are waiting to whoop it up with us! Tomorrow we are taking a break and heading to South Dakota with two other couples to have a hoot and hollering good time. I'm kind of looking forward to it. Seriously though - TOTALLY looking forward to it. It's shocking that we have only be renovating for jus

So things are progressing AND my videos have caught up!! Here is a tour of the house... if you get motion sick - look away when I talk about going downstairs and Ray and I start to run! (However, there is a glitch and you don't get the entire basement - so I will add videos after this first one to show you that!) GOTTA love cell phone technology! Entering lower level with Bernie as videographer... More lovely lower level... So there you have it!! Our lovely house that will be a lovely home. SOME BIG NEWS!!! WE DO NOT NEED A BEAM IN OUR KITCHEN - WHOO HOO! So we can go forward with our kitchen plans. ALSO, we are getting a steal of a deal from my son Judson who works at Duxton Windows here in

So I have a couple of fun videos of our renos that i really want to post for you - but can we transfer them from other iphones to my email? NO!! Yes. That is how high end we are. We are video blogging with whomevers phone has the most battery power and storage room at the end of each day. So Bernie's phone has footage from a few days ago and Ray's from last night. Last night was a grand tour of the whole house! How exciting is that? Well, now you have to wait with baited breath. Here are few photos to wet your appetite. This is Jozee's room on the left. Looks yellow but is a soft white. This is Ray's room with the raspberry wall and same soft white walls and new Espresso trim Bottom left: Th

So it has been a few days. Where are we at? Further than we were last time - although at times it felt like we were walking through quicksand. We have progressed to the point that three bedrooms have two coats of paint. Lots of trim has been painted but we have a long way to go. Whose crazy idea was it to paint the trim that gorgeous, rich Espresso colour? Very excited about how things are looking - it's just some tedious work. OH before I forget - AIR CONDITIONER IS WORKING AGAIN!! THanks to Neil Thiessen from LaSalle Mechanical. Very nice feature in this incredibly humid zone we are in. Dad is still working on putting his electrical back together. Poor guy. Very frustrating work indeed. Mo

HEY _ I AM BACK I am behind because: 1) I'm tired 2) Bernie is having trouble forwarding video to me 3) I'm still tired 4) yeah... SO let me catch you up. We took it easy Sunday morning and hung out with our 'daughter', Victoria. It was nice to chat and enjoy coffee (after coffee after coffee) and watch the big fat squirrel eat out of the bird feeder. OK - this is blog is totally off the reno road. Let's chat about The big fat squirrel problem at Frank's (my dad's) house. This is a perpetual problem and a source of some joy for those who don't live there. (sorry dad, but it is). So this big fat squirrel, let's call him Echo, is the poster child for all squirrels who have dared to sit in the

Plus 30+ and we won't even start talking about the humidity! Oh, Winnipeg, you delight so! It's like my dad said today, people pay thousands to feel this weather in January - and here we are getting this weather for free. Sleeping in never felt so good as it did this morning. Ah. Relief. But that did't last too long and off we headed to the Brady dump. Let me tell you that i have watched a lot of Home Renovations Shows on HGTV. I have watched Property Brothers and many others and never do you see behind the scenes. We don't see the trailers heading off to the dump to drop off some of the remains from the demolition. Facts are: DIY's have to take care of their own garbage. So for $11 dad, Ber

Friday after a day at work. A day, by the way, that included a lovely lunch in the sun and a terrific ice cream coffee break with some lovely co-workers! Once again we head to our house to work. We are all getting tired and it is only three nights in. Once again mom and dad were working and Bernie beat me there. Well, progress had been made. All the 2x4 supports had been removed and so it looked fantastic - you could start to see the future forming! however, there was a bit of an oops. Dad cut the wires that were in the studs but forgot to mark them so we didn't know where they were going to AND we had no lights in a chunk of the main floor. So... a project was in the making. Glad I wasn't t

So we made it through day 2. I should actually reword that to say 'evening' 2. Bernie and I still work full-time jobs all day and then head out after work to work!! So evening 2 DONE. It was strange coming to this new house tonight because although I entered into the house alone, there were already people inside. Yesterday the echoes had become quieter and today the echoes were simply voices chatting from a back bedroom. My parents were already there and already working hard. My mom had brought supper. Dad was removing baseboards. Things were moving along. Yesterday my sister brought supper. My sister and daughter cleaned bathrooms. My boys came to visit and affirm our house. Wow. Family. It

So there you have our first visit to our new abode. Let me tell you... we do have our work cut out for us. Whew. So after work I headed over to the house with a single key in hand. (A key that my mom generously took time to pick up for me at the lawyer's - thanks, mom.) When I arrived I was greeted by my sister sitting on the stoop outside the house waiting for me. I must say, it was really nice to not have to take that first step inside all by myself. I took a breath and turned the key and we walked in. Now, an empty house is a weird place. Devoid of; anything personal, anything to sit on or at, anything to muffle the empty echo. An empty house is quick to point out all its flaws: nothing h

It's been a long time since I have posted anything! Well, life happens and it just happened to get crazy! We decided to sell our house this winter and hope that we could find new digs within the time frame of us selling and possession date. Well.... First let me just say that we have looked at well over 100 homes since last Fall!! We have seen bilevels, bungalows, two stories, rentals, dated, updated, clean, not so clean, with the owners, without the owners, with renters, without renters! We have seen a lot of different styles and tastes. It is amazing how diverse our tastes as house owners are! We bid on at least seven of those and didn't succeed. BUT we sold our house - which was great unt