Tag Archives: home improvement

Our Winter

Today is the last day of winter! To celebrate, I have a little (or kinda long) winter recap of what we’ve been up to. Thanks to El Niño, it was short and sweet, requiring not too many walk-shoveling days.

It’ll take it all the way back to Christmas, I suppose. It was spent in BC with family, as per usual. First we headed to Nanaimo for Christmas with Tim’s family, which was an adventure with 10 adults, 3 kids, and a dog in a house undergoing an extensive kitchen renovation. Then it was back to the mainland for time with my own family! A little less crazy, but just as fun! While we were in BC, Tim and I (along with my personal tag-along) were able to get away for a couple nights to Squamish. We spent a couple hours in Whistler, and did the Peak 2 Peak gondola. As expected, it was so beautiful! And then it was back home. I’m finding every time we do the drive between Edmonton and the Coast, the boys require less and less to make them happy. It’s great! When we arrived home, one of my Christmas presents was waiting for me…Michelle and Mark had painted our living room! It was quite a great gift. You can see a little before and after below. Other household changes in January were that we got Calvin a twin bed and moved him into his own room! The first week was a rough go for him, but the change was no sweat off Victor’s brow. Honestly, I was very surprised. Victor is our child who has to have things a specific way, and doesn’t take too kindly to change. But, he IS the introvert, so having Calvin away from him probably brought him great joy. Calvin, the extrovert, thought differently. This change also meant that Patrick could move out of our room and now sleeps in the crib in Victor’s room. It’s nice having our entire room back for ourselves. It feels so much less cluttered.This winter, there was an ice castle here in Edmonton. We went with our friends and it was really neat! A bit crowded, but Calvin had lots of fun roaming and finding little holes in the walls and such.
Of course we spend a fair amount of time inside during the winter. This is what it looks like: In February, I made a quick trip back to BC to celebrate the marriage of a close friend! This was Patrick’s first flight and he did great! A little sad at takeoff, because it was past his bedtime, but he soon fell fast asleep once we were cruising. It was nice to have a weekend away with just one son. A little break from the demands of the older two. And Tim had a good time with them at home! The wedding (or reception really, because they had already been married in Africa) was beautiful, and I’m so glad I could be there to support them. And then it was back to winter once again.But spring came quick! And the kids are definitely not strangers to mud these days. I think our patio is going to have to have a good power-washing one day soon. Oh, and just because we may still be in our jammies, doesn’t mean we haven’t left the house. I love warm winter days!
In the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed the company of three different parties. First Tim’s parents came through, then my friend Anna and her son Parker (who is just a couple months older that Patrick), and finally Jordan and Amy. We love having company, and are happy they all took the time to come visit.These days Calvin is as energetic as ever, never stopping until he is 100% asleep. We have him signed up for soccer this spring, and I think he will enjoy is a lot. It’s going to be so great for him, being around other kids doing team sports. That’s kind of what makes his world go around. He is also testing our patience these days, with bouts of anger and attitude. It’s so hard to know how to handle their emotions that they don’t even completely understand.

Victor is still mostly his sweet, cute self. His mannerisms are so endearing and often have us smiling or laughing. He loves playing Star Wars, and if he gets you with his light sabre or “pewer”, you must “fall gown on yo back!” He’s also a good sport at falling down himself, when you get him. He plays fair! He’s also still awesome at playing on his own, which is especially great these days because he is not guaranteed to nap every day. I think he actually naps less than Calvin, who also is no longer a regular. But on days that they don’t nap, if we go somewhere in the evening (like 2 hours before bedtime), they can be out in 3 minutes. They still need to nap! I’m trying to have a better attitude about this. Please pray for me.

Patrick is growing and learning, like all 7-month-olds do. He is able to sit on his own (since 5 months), and experiences what I call “accidental mobility”; the kind that has him falling off couches (yeah…I know…) and falling on his belly from a sitting position while reaching for something. He has recently displaced Calvin in the Costco buggy which has made shopping a different kind of experience. Calvin can either be happy or mad about not being in the buggy. It’s a gamble. Patrick has started eating food, as he’s a super star! Well, he doesn’t know how to open his mouth for food, but he keeps everything in, which is amazing! You have to remember my last child detested everything, and still does. So I’m happy with this little guy! I just have to work super hard at getting his mouth open. Making him smile usually does the trick, but it takes a fair amount of effort. Same with laughing. You have to prepared to expend a lot of energy trying to get him to laugh, and then all you’re rewarded with is some sort of grunt or throat spasm, like he is trying to hold his laugh in. He’s a happy boy, but keeps his emotions on the DL. His second tooth has broken ground, and I’m going to miss his lone one he had on the bottom. It was so cute!

A two last photos, because they were looking so cute for church one morning. :)You get seven points for reading to the end!

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A Fresh Hallway

Over two years of owning this house, and I finally painted another area! And it took about a month, but it’s done now, and it feel soooo good! It is so much lighter and brighter and I love it! Here are some before and afters for your enjoyment. Yes, we have mismatched doors.

I took these befores so long ago that Victor was still crawling!

Painting trim is not the most fun, and if you look at it closely, it could use one more coat, but I’m no perfectionist, so I’m not going to worry about it. I highly recommend not being a perfectionist. It makes life a lot easier.
I also did one wall in the living room. The one wall that was the same dark brown as all the trim. So glad to be gone with that brown!Next to be painted will be the rest of the living room and finally will be the master bedroom, and then that yellow and brown will be completely gone! But who knows when that will happen.

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Rearranging the House

A handful of months ago, Tim was able to turn a hobby of his into a paying job. In short, he collects stats and writes articles for professional eSports, for the game League of Legends. Because of this, we have been able to stop being landlords and have reign over our entire house! This has had a domino effect on a number of rooms in our house.

First of all, our main motivation, the living space of the suite has become our playroom!

pictured here, in its natural state

With three kids now, it is a huge blessing to be able to have this space, especially through the winter. And I am very happy that it was painted two summers ago. It’s a dark basement, but the light colours really help.

We have also gained a bedroom! The suite bedroom is almost 3 times the size of our old guest room, so we moved the guest room down there. Because of the space, we were able to upgrade the bed from a double to a queen. You’re welcome, guests!
The bedroom even provided space for a piano! Our friends who are moving were looking to get rid of theirs, so voila! I have pulled out some of my old music and played a tiny bit. I just have to say that muscle memory is an amazing thing. I haven’t had a piano in 7.5 years, and most of the music just comes right back. My fingers just know where to go. The next domino is the boys’ sleeping arrangements. Since the double bed was no longer a guest bed, I decided to tear down Victor’s crib and switch it, along with Calvin’s toddler bed, with the double mattress for them to share. It has been working okay. I mean, isn’t this the cutest? It was actually the most helpful for a couple days after the time change. They woke up at 5:30, but I crawled into their bed and they lay back down and slept for another hour with me! The cuddles possible in a big, shared bed are wonderful.

But it has actually proven to be kind of a bad idea. It has almost wrecked nap time. We have had to now have Calvin nap in our bed because they would just not fall asleep when they are together, and they both still need naps. And we’ve had to experiment with bedtime too, in order to get them settled and relaxed enough. So, my idea turned out not to be as brilliant as I thought. We are now trying to decide if we should get them bunk beds (will the physical separation help with the distractions?), or put Calvin in the old guest room, and get each boy a new twin sized bed? Unfortunately, if we decide the latter, we can’t do it right away because it currently looks like this: It contains the contents of our linen closet and entry closet because I am painting. And painting takes me a long time. Another factor in the decision is this guy:When he gets kicked out of our room, should he have his own space (if the boys continue to share a room), or should he share with Victor (if Calvin moves out)?

But the main question out of all of this is do we buy two single beds or a bunk bed?

I apologize for all the awful iPhone photos taken of dark rooms.

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My New Desk

If you have a superb memory, you may recall this old post in which I tell you about a corner of our house and my big plans for it. Basically, it was to fix this mess:

If you clicked on the link, you can see just how different a space can be after living in it for nearly 2 years.

The very few and small shelves made it quite impractical and not useful for anything other than a dumping ground for all the junk. Not a good use of space at all.

When my brother and sister-in-law, Nathan and Katie, mentioned wanting to come out for a visit, I immediately thought I could put my handy brother to use! After all, two years of sitting on dreams this small is too long! He agreed to do it (or probably just felt like he couldn’t say “no”), and so my first order of business was to paint the walls in the dining area of the kitchen where this nook is. I was happy to get rid of this weird yellow-brown in yet another room of the house. So we went from this:

to this:

A keen eye will also notice I finally painted over the bottom half that had been primed since the fall.

Then our visitors came and we got right to work, heading out to Home Depot just a couple hours after their arrival! It was my first time buying something from the lumber section of Home Depot which of course made me feel like a legit DIYer, even though I was doing none of the building myself. Nathan worked hard, and did such a good job working with my ideas, even adding a few of his own to enhance it.

Nathan hard at work on his vacation. And his completed project, ready for me to put the final touches on.

So from here it was all me. I wanted to paint the shelves and stain the desk part. So I did that. And then I added some cork board details to the wall above the pencil shelf. I originally wanted to just have a solid sheet of it, but these circles were cheaper at Michaels, and I love the way it turned out! The shelves hold so much more! I was able to empty all my craft stuff out of our bedroom and now I have space in there to put baby clothes, which means I can start nesting, but that’s another post I suppose. I also put all Calvin’s puzzles (which is his current love) up there to enforce a “one puzzle at a time” rule. Ideally, one day I will also get some sort of stacked drawer unit to fit underneath too, but that can wait until I find the perfect piece. I also need to staple all these annoying cables into place. But for now I will just sit right here and enjoy all our hard work. Thank you so much, Nathan!

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Our New Windows

It’s been a few weeks now since we’ve gotten our new windows installed, and I am so happy with them! They make me feel like our house is cleaner. If you have a house with old windows (ours was built in 1979), you know what I mean. So much condensation due to improper sealing, which leads to too much mold to keep on top of. Yuck. Plus, whenever it was -5 degrees or colder, which is most of November to March, a lot of the windows would completely frost over. It made it feel like we were living in a bathroom. And sometime in the winter one of the living room windows developed a huge crack. Not safe!

When you go from this… …to that, you can’t help but feel good about the place you and your children are living in.

And then of course you can’t put old window coverings on new windows (especially since all the blinds that were there before didn’t fit over the new mouldings), I was given Tim’s blessing to get all new curtains and drapes for the house! It just adds that much more homeyness to our home and makes it feel a lot more cozy (before there were just brown, dusty blinds).

And also a lot more inviting for those who find themselves in our guest room!

One of the biggest changes was the living room, AKA toy corner. The house came with boring brown curtains which I never liked because it matches the colour palette of this house which I don’t like: brown with brownish-yellow. As soon as I looked out the front of our house through the new windows, I was so struck by how clear the view was! And we all know, if you can see out, you can see in (when the lighting is right), so I knew sheers, to let in the light but keep out the gazes, were a must, since we live on a fairly busy road.

So much better, right? And the new drapes make birthday party decorations look that much better too!

I won’t deny that I have cleaned these windows more in the past few weeks than I have in the past almost two years that we have lived here. Condensation hides so much!

I have to say, I really love IKEA’s curtain rods. So easy to make the double layer, and they even have a corner connection piece so you don’t have bare ends sticking into each other! Brilliant!

Another huge change, and maybe my favourite, has been the dining nook in the kitchen. This is what it looked like before. The window isn’t the only new thing in here. Back in the fall I did a little painting of the icky brown paneling (which is actually still just primer; I won’t know what colour I want it to be until I know what colour I eventually want to paint the cabinets). And we also got a new table and chairs!

So much better!

Let me tell you about the table for a second. I found it on Kijiji for $25! It only had three chairs, but you really can’t beat $25, especially when it was the exact shape and size we wanted. I couldn’t have found a more perfect table. It came with lighter wood top, but I stained it (horribly, so don’t look too close) so it looks better. And if the boys happen to climb on top of it, I have zero worries of it collapsing, like I did with the old drop leaf table (which we kept because I still love it; it now just serves as an end table in our living room with the sides dropped).

Now let me tell you about the curtains themselves, because I am proud of myself. The drapes in the living room and bedroom are from IKEA (the floral sheers in the bedroom were a donation from a friend who didn’t want them in their house; thanks Anna!). But the floral print curtains in the guest room and kitchen I made! Aren’t they great? I think IKEA doesn’t sell short curtains, so then I was looking at their fabric, and HAD to get the floral prints. I love them!

And then of course we have the outside.It’s a subtle difference, but there will be a ton more impact once we get the stucco redone in the coming month!

I love being able to make these big changes to our home. Last year our big project was the backyard. Being a home-body, it is wonderful to be comfortable in the space I am living.

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The Painted Suite

For the past two weeks, all of my spare time (except for the hours I somehow fit in the entire season one of Suites – thanks for the recommendation, Catherine and Nikki!) has been spent painting and painting and painting.

Our tenant moved out right before we went to Alaska, and we decided not to look for another one until we returned. We had time to list it, show it, and paint it, allowing for a September move-in.

We really wanted to paint because there are only two little windows in the place (bedroom and kitchen), and the dark colours accentuated how cave-like it was. It also happens to be all the same colours that I am slowly working on eradicating upstairs – weird yellow and cheap-chocolate brown. Not too appetizing. So I changed that!

Take a look at the before and afters!

What you see when you walk through the entry door.
Moving forward and turning right, you enter the kitchen! Turning around and looking back to where you entered (the entry door is the brown one; we are still going to change that out and that’s why it’s not painted). Before reaching the bedroom, we have the bathroom on the left-hand side. And then the bedroom. Besides the entry door, there are a couple other things to take care of, such as a few pieces of trim and hanging some shelves to get the microwave off the counter in the kitchen. But I am kind of proud of this suite of ours, and it makes me so excited to see the difference just colour can make. One day our upstairs will be changed too!

I want to say a little thank you to Nikki and John who helped with the painting, and I hope and pray that this space is a blessing to our new tenant, who moves in today!

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Our New Backyard

This WAS our yard. Somewhat small with a dingy fence. We knew when we bought the place last summer that we wanted to fix it up because we have kids that need to run around! Pretty flowery bush though!Behind the yard, beside the driveway was this space. In the listing it was advertised as RV parking, but not only do we not have an RV, there were too many mounds of broken concrete and rock and debris to park anything there.

So we made plans to expand the lawn! Tim’s dad was instrumental in getting it done. He ripped up the old fence, and then we had the landscaper come in and level it all out. We had lumber delivered to build the new fence, and the boys got right to work!

Okay, so we know people with an RV. In addition, we have this side part of our house that I wanted to do something with. We had the landscaper scrape that part even as well, since he had the cat there and he could easily get back there without a fence present. It is south facing, so I am going to build a couple garden boxes there next spring.
Backyard (7) We then had a rather long hiatus, due to rain, between Tim’s parents leaving and getting more done. It took a while to get the top soil, and then a while longer to get the sod delivered. But yesterday the grass came, and this morning Tim finished the job! backyard after 4 So here is the completed fence from the back lane. Doesn’t that fence just invite you to see what’s going on on the other side? Well wait no longer! Here is our yard, more than doubled in size! It will look better yet once we get a weed whacker. Next summer we will probably seal the wood. Or paint? I don’t know yet. I would like to paint over the older, darker brown part.

Along the back portion, it is a little wider, for just a bit extra running around room.
We have to water it like mad over the next week, and we can’t fully use it until after that. We are leaving on vacation in a week, so once we get home in July, then we can put to to full use for the rest of the summer!

Here is a side by side before and after: