Good Bye 2016

I have never been a big fan of farewells. Wrapping up the year and welcoming a new year has also been a bitter sweet time for me, which has certainly occupied my mind all day.

Packing up in the last few weeks has given me the opportunity to also sort through some happy and sad memories. I found a few items that took me back to my childhood; a different era that seems too far away yet close enough for me to feel the scent of the house I grew up in. Some memories made me laugh and some brought tears into my eyes. I have had to say goodbye to many people in my life,  some of them I will never see again.

As we are turning the page and starting a new chapter, let's appreciate one another more and cherish every moment we are spending with our loved ones.

Let’s welcome 2017, I am positive the new year will bring new opportunities for many  improvement (including home renovations of course.... I have to stick to the blog's theme, I guess!!)

May the new year bring lots of laughter,  peace, health and prosperity for all of us!!

Happy New Year!🍾🍾🍸🍸🎊🎊🎉🎉

P.S. Today I got the confirmation that our rental place is available any time on the 2nd. Our plan is to get the key in the morning as we will probably have to make a couple of trips in order to take all our personal belongings. Although, I don't know if the place is big enough for all the stuff we are taking there! 

Echooo.... chooo....ooo

We had to say goodbye to our kitchen table today! The echo in the house is getting louder now that most of our furniture is either sold or moved to the basement.

I have to admit, the dimensions also seem to be off these days, I find some rooms to be smaller and some bigger now that they are empty.... or am I just losing my mind!?

So far it has been a frustrating experience,  although we are excited to remodel the house and turn it into a more modern and practical space for ourselves,
The de-cluttering and packing process do not seem to end.....are we there yet?! Sigh...

P.S. we went to see the "Potted Potter" show today,  it was hilarious and very entertaining! If only my parents had sent me to Hogwart's when I was 11, I could use a little magic with this renovation...

One more week

I was just thinking where we would be next week at this time....  In someone else's basement! For some reason that had never made it to my Bucket list but now I am going to add it just so I can cross it off! !

The never ending packing process is still under way. By the time we move everything to the basement, it will be almost full, which makes me wonder how we were originally thinking about living there while they're renovating the house. I guess staying in someone else's basement is not that bad after all!

Xmas Morning

Looks like Santa got away last night... although his hat was caught in the trap!
There was also a note from him thanking us for the milk and cookies.  He left a mess with the cookie crumbles!

Merry Christmas.... HO HO HO🎅

Xmas Eve

.... and the packing continues....

We are also setting up a Trap for Santa, poor guy, I hope he is not caught or he would fail to deliver all the toys tonight.

With all the food allergies around these days, I think we should be leaving him a glass of lactose free milk with some gluten and nut free cookies. Considering everything is already packed up and we no longer have a spare bed, I would not be able to look after the good old Saint Nick, if he got sick!

P.S. I glad the floors are about to be replaced, the bell hanging off the trap is making serious scratches on the hardwood floor every time it falls!

Let the chaos begin...

My Christmas holiday has officially started as of today as I had to use up my last few vacation days; although I have a feeling it will not be a relaxing vacation this time.

I am trying to sell a few more pieces of furniture through Kijiji, which is another story, especially when people ask whether I would deliver for them or send them a picture of the mattress cover, seriously?!

On a more positive note, all the furniture in the master bedroom was sold today, which means we will have to move to the guest bedroom as of tonight.... And we had to empty all the drawers into a couple of plastic bags, which made it difficult for me to find a pair of socks earlier today, so maybe this was only semi positive.

The whole house is a disaster and this is just the beginning... The sad part is that I cannot complain too much about my life being turned upsides down as it was all self inflicted!

By the way, we decided to turn down the quote from the Doc, it ended up being higher than the first quote and truth be told I am still not quite sure if he understood what we were trying to do!

T-16

Are we there yet? !😩😩

Appliances

Yes, we will need new appliances, as well!

Well, you can't have a fancy brand new kitchen with old appliances that also happen to be white, can you? The thought of that would give any home designer and my pocket a heart attack,  for different reasons of course!

We were off on Friday and decided to go shopping. M&M had given us the name and address of a place that they usually use to order appliances for their clients, so we decided to start there. The sizes of the the microwave, stove and dishwasher were standard so that part was a no brainer! The problem was the fridge.... finding a good quality 30" counter depth in stainless steel is like finding a fresh pineapple in North Pole... Good Luck! After 1/2 hour of discussions with the owner of the store and 12 calls to my dear Mahnaz, we came to the conclusion that the 30" was out of the question and upgraded to 33".... not that it made a huge difference, but it sure was a stepping stone. 

The store owner basically told us to stay away from Samsung, because their quality has subsided in the last 2 years. He also showed a few counter depth fridges vs. regular size to show us the difference and tried to convince us to go with the regular depth, which was strongly turned down by Mahnaz in one of those 12 phone calls! Honestly, the counter depth fridges reminded me of those TV commercials, where a good looking lady with a short skirt opens the fridge and the only things she has in there are a few Granny smith apples, a bottle of Perrier water and a container full of spinach... did I mentioned everything happen to be green? Oh So Gorgeous!!  I am not sure how practical the fridge would be, but then shame on me for wanting to have a fancy kitchen!

Anyway, at the end of our tour, the store owner took us to "the back" and showed us the latest and greatest model of the Whirlpool brand, that is to be released in 2017. I have to admit, it looked really nice and included the ice maker which was on our "must have" list. He said that it would also come in the size that we're interested in... so we decided it call it a day and come home.

We have been searching the internet since yesterday and have not been able to find that model. I have asked him to send me the model # so we can look it up, and so far no answer.... I hope he is right, otherwise we will have to go back to square one.... who knows, maybe we will end up with the Samsung after all...

Dr. Fireplace!

When I said the renovation would impact the entire house, I meant it; The fireplace would not be able to fly under the radar in this master plan!

Although we already had a quote to resurface and switch to a gas fireplace, we asked our designers (Maryam & Mahnaz, also known as M&M!)  to see if they could get us another quote....and they did.  They all came over this evening.

The house was a mess of course, there were boxes everywhere and the packing headquarter (i.e. the dining room) was like a war zone.... oh well, we have a great excuse.....so I guess it wouldn't matter!

There were two gentlemen who came over, one of them was calling the other one doctor! I thought it was awesome,  who would have thought this part of the renovation would require a PhD or maybe he was a medical doctor.... I guess I should have asked.

Anyway,  it was all under control until the number of questions started to go up.... you know when you are totally on the same page with someone. .. well, this was totally not the case!

It was rather funny, although I could see the M&M's blood pressure was gradually going up, but we were not too worried because the Doc was in the house.

I think the highlight of the conversation was when the Doc asked Maryam to confirm if we wanted to have a nice fireplace that also generated heat! While I was trying to analyze the question in my head,  she asked if we had missed any other criterias! I am pretty sure that was when I had to leave the room and find my cup of tea in the war zone!

We look forward to getting their quote.  Although we are not quite sure if we will get what we want... Who knows, maybe we will end up with another AC unit.

Snow Storm

Although winter is not officially starting until December 21st, which is next Wednesday, Mother Nature decided to dump the first pile of snow on us (about 15 cm).  Driving out of the indoor parking garage this morning  was another sad reminder that I would be losing this luxury starting January as I would have to park outside. ... Tis the season to be joly. ... la la la la la la la la....😭😭

This is how the story started...

I should have started this blog sometimes ago but I guess the reality is just kicking now that I am officially packing! 

So here is how this whole thing started...

We have been living in this house since 2001. It was our first home and when we moved in, we were excited to be a home owner at last!  The house had been built in 1985 and a little outdated,  but we were fine with it... it didn't matter that the back-splash in the kitchen had some ugly brown flowers, complimenting the old fashioned brown countertop, or our front door had a tiny window, covered with a lace curtain! 

We have been here for 15 years.... the front door have been replaced, the old fashioned light fixtures along with a bunch of other bizarre items have been thrown out in the garbage... but the house still has the 80's stamp all over it; there are walls here, there and everywhere. Truth be told, the ugly back splash along with the tiny kitchen and the narrow dining room started to bother us. I almost forgot to mention the shiny white tiles on the main floor, I am not sure who came up with that idea! It is hard to keep them shiny, one single drop of water, and you are pooched.... especially if you are a neat freak.Trust me, I know, I have been living with one over 20 years!

 

And then..... the discussions started... to renovate or not to renovate.... to move or not to move..... 

We talked about the kitchen renovation for so long it was turning into a joke! I guess deep down we knew that the kitchen was not the only issue after all, and the thought of a major renovation was scary enough for us to keep postponing. 

I don't know what happened earlier this year,  we must have hit our heads on one of the walls in the house, after all there in no shortage of walls in this house! 

So we contacted a Design firm (Bellavance Home Design) that was referred by a friend and asked them to come to the rescue. The discussion started with the kitchen of course and a couple of hours later, our wish list grew to 3 pages of things to do around the house... on all three levels.  Surprise! This was a 3 month project and way over the budget we originally had in mind. Now what?!

 

Let's not talk about how long it took us to figure out how to pay for this massive project and where to live during the renovation... and how many ads we have had on Kijiji to "try" and de-clutter the place. After all, when you live in a house for 15 years and have room to keep everything, well, you would end up keeping everything!

The official contract was signed on December 9th and the first payment has been made. We are officially doing it now... I think it is too late to say "I have changed my mind!"

Today, I spent the morning packing up the stuff in our "small" china cabinet. Although I had to stop because we ran out of boxes.... I am not sure how we had managed to squeeze in so many things in that "small" cabinet.