Tag Archives: home ownership

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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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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We Are Homeowners

So, we bought a house!

I’m just as surprised as you are! Two weeks ago we were in Manitoba, thinking we would start hitting up Kijiji to find a place to rent for August. However, before we got home on Monday night, we revisited the offer from a family member to help us buy. Having always been a ~~very small~~ single income family (mine for the first year of our marriage while Tim finished his Masters Degree, and his for the past year after Calvin came along), we weren’t in a position to do it on our own. But when we thought about it, it only made sense to get into the market now instead of paying rent for a few more years to come.

So on Tuesday, just shy of two weeks ago, I called a realtor and we set up a meeting for the following evening. We saw our first two homes on the Thursday night. After seeing those two, I was left feeling a little discouraged. One was too far gone for us to move into right away, and as you all know, we were wanted out of our current place at the end of the month. The second place was in good shape, but it was way on the north side of town and I felt somewhat isolated out there, away from the small handful of people I know, and the areas I am familiar with.

We booked an appointment to see more places on Sunday afternoon, one week ago. I had prayed that morning that we would feel more optimistic after seeing these homes than the last time we went out, and the sermon that morning was on God’s provision, which was a good reminder, although something I have never forgotten. We had about half a dozen homes scheduled to see. After leaving the first one, I felt better already. I remember saying to Tim, “I would be happy living here.” And none of the other places quite measured up to that one.

We called the realtor to book another appointment to see the house for a second time on Tuesday evening, then followed up with an offer after that! We had an accepted offer by Wednesday afternoon, and booked an inspection for this afternoon. We weren’t expecting any major surprises, since the house seemed well taken care of, and we were right.

One bonus of this house is that it is vacant, so we are able to have the really quick possession date of July 31! I don’t think we could be in a more perfect situation in regards to timing. The majority of the other houses had either a thirty day possession date or 90 days for the homes with tenants in them (because that is the right way to do things).

And that’s another thing…we could only afford a home if it had a suite, so we are not only becoming home owners, we are also becoming landlords!

We are very excited for this next adventure, and are so thankful to God for all he has provided us with in his perfect timing!

And if you don’t hear from me in the next two weeks, it’s because I got buried by boxes.

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