BIG Mistake!!

OK, not that big. Just seems like it this morning. I made the mistake of drinking a coffee after dinner last night. My rule is: NO COFFEE AFTER 5PM!! Even though I was extremely tired I tossed and turned for hours...groan...

But I had to drink it you see. BIG NEWS BRACE YOURSELVES!! Kazi has reunited with former beau Steve. I've always had a soft spot for Steve and when Kazi broke up with him last year I invited him in for a long talk. I felt soooooooo bad for him. He was (is) so in love with her. Anyhoo Kazi has realized that the grass isn't always greener on the other side, realized what she had lost (her best friend!) and now they are back together! YAY!  So, to make a long story short Steve brought me a coffee yesterday when he came to visit Kazi. Ergo, drink coffee I must...

I was hard at the reno/redo yesterday but then hit a snag...literally. As I moved the stepladder around the dining room I banged into a loose electrical outlet - big spark - loss of some electricity.

I TELL YOU NOW, IF YOU ARE SINGLE, MARRY AN ELECTRICIAN!! 

Not only will you have a very handy man around the house but you won't have to pay him $100 to do a 5 minute job. I had actually thought of trying to fix it myself but I'm a little scared of electricity ever since I pushed tweezers into a socket when I was a kid. So that's where an electrician is worth his weight in gold!! They're not scared of poking around in sockets!! You're a fortunate woman Gill!!

After that little delay I finished painting the dining room, except for the trim. The powder room is ready to paint as is the hallway. Next will be prepping the living room and if I'm really lucky I'll get the foyer wallpapered.....but better not count my chickens before they hatch.

Here's a few pics:

Back from the paint store - I had 7 gallons of paint tinted. Lots of white and beige! The young woman who helped me was wonderful carrying the paint to and from my truck. You can see my gorgeous dark bamboo floors.

In order to paint the dining room I moved as much furniture into the living room as I could.

 More paint waiting to be tinted plus 1 gallon of primer sitting by itself waiting to be slopped onto Kazi's coral pink walls :(

 The view from my recliner! Cozy eh?

 The dining room - getting ready to paint.

 Three walls painted...then I had to stop to wait for the electrician - I didn't want to paint the wall that had the damaged socket. You can see one of the gorgeous area rugs I've purchased. Don't worry, it's covered when I'm painting!

 Finished painting! Now in the process of filling the dining room with as much as I can move from the living room. The colour for the dining room is called "Meeting Room" - I really like it. The dining room table is ground zero for tools, spackle, painting supplies etc. And LOOK - wonder of all wonders I had my window and patio doors open all day - it was +4c which felt like about +20c since I'm now acclimatized to -30c!!! The fresh air was simply glorious!

I'm going to relax for a bit with my coffee then pitter patter let's get atter!!

Satisfying Sunday

I did all of my errands yesterday so that I could stay at home today and watch the final hockey game (YAY Canada!!) and closing ceremonies. The game started at 7am so I was up at 6:30am raring to go. What an awesome finish to the games for Canada. It wasn't really a nail biter of a game thankfully so I wasn't too stressed out :)

While I was out yesterday I stopped into my favorite store - HOME DEPOT!! I made a list recently of what I needed to get to finish my renos and I was able to knock a few things from the list - very satisfying! I bought 18 new handles for my kitchen cupboards, 4 for the downstairs bathroom and 6 for the upstairs bathroom.  I installed the kitchen cupboard handles but not the ones for the bathrooms as I plan to paint both vanities first.

Also crossed off the list is the wallpapering tray - I hope to get the wallpaper hung in the foyer over March break plus a whole bunch of painting so I am getting all the needed supplies in NOW so I won't be able to procrastinate once March break arrives. That's the plan anyways.

Recently I was in Giant Tiger getting a few things for school and I noticed they now sell quite a wide range of window curtains/panels and yesterday I found just what I needed for around my patio doors. I  was soooooo happy about this because I needed panels longer than the standard 84" and I found ones that were 96" long - SCORE!!  I also scored a nice drapery rod for my dining room window on sale for $8 and hung a satiny beige curtain I bought 2nd hand at Talize. I'm trying to do my renos/redecorating on a small budget and since I went over budget on all of the flooring (which still isn't all complete) I've had to be more frugal in other areas. This morning I hung a "new to me" curtain in the laundry room - also a Talize purchase. I'm trying to get at least 1 little job done each day so that it doesn't seem too overwhelming. So far so good.

I think I have a solution for the basement floors. There is laminate flooring installed now but it's slightly damaged from getting damp when the hot water tank leaked - I don't want to spend a lot replacing it and found on youtube that cement floors can be painted so that's another goal though I don't think there will be time on March break for that too - I may need to hire someone.

Well, the laundry is done (during intermissions of the hockey game) so my last job for today is washing floors and vacuuming but wouldn't you know Kazi came home after watching the hockey game at her boyfriends's house and is now sound asleep - I guess the vacuuming will have to wait. I know many of you would just go ahead and vacuum anyways - after all it is 2pm - but I like having a handy excuse for procrastinating :)

  Happy Sunday everyone!

Winter Blahs - Trying not to Complain...

Well, not trying hard enough!

Doesn't look like much in these photos but our kitchen now has a new floor of ceramic tiles.  By noon today the grout will have set for 24 hours so we can start putting the kitchen back together. I know a big part of my winter blahs is caused by every room in this house being in an uproar! Just finding a pair of scissors this morning I felt like Roald Amundsen looking for the Northwest Passage!

Another crinkle in the reno plans because they wouldn't be reno plans if there weren't any crinkles (or is that wrinkle??)- where the floor of the foyer meets the hardwood - can't put ceramic tile there as planned because then the ceramic would be way above the hardwood (floor wasn't level BIG SURPRISE so had to be levelled) so having to make a change to vinyl flooring which is thinner - I am SO NOT happy about that!. We went across the city yesterday to return the ceramic tiles which we can't use now only to find out that we only had 30 days to replace them AND we can't return them anyways on a Saturday as THAT person doesn't work on Saturdays...WHAT???  On the bright side (gotta look for that bright side) we are hopeful we can return the leftover ceramic tile in exchange for vinyl and we found a piece of vinyl that is on for half-price that looks almost the same as the ceramic. Michael will have to make another trip there tomorrow to see if it can be worked out. Sigh.

So it doesn't look like this place is going to get decorated for Christmas this year, which is too bad as it will likely be our last Christmas here. Things are costing way more than I thought AND taking a lot longer to complete. I did some number juggling yesterday to see if we could afford to stay in the condo longer than anticipated if we need more time for the renos before listing for sale. It could be done though it would be tight. I'm also going to let Kazi know that she has until June 30th next year to live here rent-free, then I'll be charging her some rent. It's time to spread your wings, little birdie, and fly, dammit, fly!

Are some of you in the path of that nasty winter storm going on in the U.S.? Looks awful! Most of our big snow has melted away so the world looks grey and grubby. Not that I'm complaining - HAH! Ok, time to look for the positives:

• only the foyer, 2 bathrooms and basement steps left to "refloor", then the painting can begin
• only 2 weeks of school left, then 2 weeks of holidays (trying NOT to think of the UNPAID day our lovely schoolboard is giving us (yes an extra day of holidays!! Who needs that day of pay anyways...right before Christmas...with all the extra bills and expenses...
• taking a mini-holiday with Kazi to see Les Mis in Toronto :) (will NOT think about the money spent...will ONLY think about the great time we'll have!!!)
• at lease I don't have to deal with fir tree needles everywhere this year...I wonder if we still have the fake tree in the basement somewhere - will have to go exploring again!
• I feel healthy again though have a bunch of tests to complete for my physical and I have to start taking iron supplements as my iron is low (I don't eat much meat) so perhaps that will help with my feeling tired most of the time

Okay, time to wrap it up. I'm going on safari as my cup of coffee is cold and I'm going to try and find the microwave!

Keep warm!