TGIF

In the corporate world they encourage you to celebrate success, no matter how insignificant it may be.

As I was wrapping up another work week earlier this afternoon, I reminded myself how fortunate I was to have a beautiful home to go to after work. There are still so many things missing or not in place, but when I got home, I decided to open a bottle of wine in honor of the house and everything that IS already in place.  This would the first glass of red since we moved back! Cheers and remember to always keep your glass half full!🍷

The Shopping Phase

I am probably one of the very few women who does not like shopping.  So this phase has been very painful (and of course costly) for me!

On a more positive, things are slowly coming together in the house which totally offsets the shopping challenges. The family room looks amazing and very welcoming,  special thanks goes to my dearest Maryam for spending over an hour rearranging various items on the shelves and buying the gorgeous clock!

Post Renovation Updates!

10 days later!

There is still a lot to be done around the house of course; our living room furniture will not be arriving for another month and we are still missing a lot of bits and pieces, from towels to coffee tables, BUT we are home!

Maryam and Mahnaz came over last week to review the expenses for the last time. I am pleased to announce that  despite all the adjustments and upgrades  that we had made throughout the project, our renovation not only finished early but also under budget! Thanks Ladies! Bellavance Home Design Rocks!

Stay tuned for the after pictures!

Home Sweet Home!

The day finally arrived! We were packed and ready to leave by around 10 am. After packing both cars and saying farewell to our lovely tenants,  we got on the road and came back "home" at last!

The house was a mess of course,  and it was hard to figure where to begin. We could not even unload the cars as we had no idea where to put everything.

A couple of hours into the clean up, I decided to sit down and take a break. I think the Tetley Green Tea that I had at that moment was the best thing I had ever had tasted in my life!

I picked up Samy from the school as I didn't want  him to get on the wrong bus and end up at the stop by the rental place where he had been picked up that morning.  He was also excited to come home.

Our contractor only had a few small things to do around the house and left around 6 pm;  Our renovation officially ended today, 3 days ahead of the schedule!

PS, the wallpaper turned out really well, afterall! 

One more sleep

We are moving back tomorrow! Our renovation will officially end tomorrow, as well; 3 days earlier than scheduled!

We have been cleaning, packing and unpacking for the last few days and it is just the beginning.  Despite the moutain of work that is ahead of us to get the house up and running again,  we are excited to move back after 3 months.

I will be posting my next blog at "home"! 😊

Spring Cleaning - Day 1

The first day of cleaning did not go as planned. When we got to the house this morning,  there were already 4 people working away. It was a little uncomfortable (for both parties I think!) to work in the same space.  We tried to stay away, but it was not an easy task,  as they were working on the stairs and we needed to have access to the second  floor. We decided to leave after about 2 hours, however we were told not come back until Sunday morning as they were going to stain the stairs. So we pretty much lost the whole day. 

This is the last weekend before we move back and I am extremely stressed out about the next few days...and how to even begin to sort out this mess...

9 More days....

We have less than 10 days to go, which is great and scary at the same time. We are very excited to move back next Friday, but there is still a lot to do. 

The basement is well underway, the walls have been painted, the floor has been laid and the sideboards are up. The bar cabinet is scheduled to arrive on Friday, we are expecting the basement to be 90% complete by the end of this week. 

The unpacking, organizing and cleaning process will start this weekend, a true spring cleaning! 

We have also ordered most of our large furniture, although some of the pieces will not be ready until May. I wonder how many pages our next credit card invoice will be! 

I am stressed out again, there is so much to coordinate while working full time. We are still missing so many things, it will take a while for our house to become a home again.

It has been an interesting ride so far, I am not going to say that it has been easy, but we are fortunate to have a house and to have the opportunity to renovate it, as Samy keeps reminding us. We have also been very lucky to work with Maryam and Mahnaz. Thank you for being so patient with us!