I'm a little behind...

which is very different from "having a little behind"...

I have been lax of late in reporting the # and kind of items I am bringing home from school.  Let me clarify...I continue to bring 3 or more items home daily but have been a bit slow in taking photos and uploading those photos to my new laptop. And of course I excuse my neglect by pointing out, once again, that I am still learning how to use my Macbook Pro.

So, for the first time I have uploaded my photos and will post them in today's post! Yay!

If I were bi-polar, which I don't think I am, I could say that that explains the rather huge swings in my emotions of late, but since I don't have that claim I blame my mood swings on life in general - in one moment I feel higher than the loftiest of kites only to come crashing down into a tree like Charlie Brown's ill-fated kite.  One moment I feel on top of the world when the reality of my impending retirement hits home, only then to sink into the abyss when I realize the many challenges of my retirement journey.  That, in itself, is a complete series of posts!

For today I will stick with the decluttering of my work environment, the great things I nabbed at the recent silent auction held at my school and the results of my recent and continuing work around the house.

So...here goes...

A box my brother gave to me years ago... and some videotapes I just can't get rid of yet...

 videotapes of Kazi's favourite shows when she was about 4 or 5 years old... call me sentimental!

Inside that box...labels and sticky notes galore...will I still use sticky notes when I'm not a teacher any longer? My gut says yes!!

From the silent auction - a gorgeous book bag along with three books I haven't read yet...I am preparing my summer reading program...I think I paid about $13.00 in total - each of the books is labelled for a much higher price :)

Some CDs that I brought home this past week and there are still lots more at school. No wonder poor Kazi would get upset with me eh?  So many things around the house ended up in my classroom for some reason or other...though I promise you I never took anything that she was currently using...

 My Christmas CDs - won't be needing them at school any longer...

My thermometer...I think this will be very handy to have at Crofters Lane in PEI...

 We have more spices than the average household since I took this set to school...then I would have to buy duplicates to use at home!!

I won this gorgeous plate at the silent auction - I paid $12.00. Perhaps a bit pricey but it was instant attraction so I had to have it...

This lovely flower has a tea light in it - I am changing the powder room counter to a black/grey granite look (more about that later) so this candle holder will look fabulous! ($6.00)

Last but not least I purchased this tea mug for Kazi as I thought it suited her personality and she loves her tea! ($8.00)

I think I am still way ahead of my April challenge of bringing at least 3 items home per day.  I will be continuing this challenge for May and June as well as getting rid of obsolete materials so the classroom and my office will be ready for the incoming teacher. All teachers tend to hoard materials as we "never know when we might need something"!

OK, on to the renos & redecorating...

Last weekend my friend Julie spent a couple of days with me...she painted this shelf in the kitchen to match the wall colour so it looks like it's part of the wall...I love how bright the fruit looks now...

I tackled wallpapering the foyer and then putting up the mirror and the shelf underneath. I used to always have a table under the mirror piled with crap and making the foyer appear narrower than it is.

 The smaller wall shelf opens up the space while still leaving a spot for mail or keys. The wallpaper is just a textured beige colour and helps to cover up the hallways many bumps and bruises. This area is finished except for a piece of trim where the walls meet the ceiling.  I can handle that myself.

 The dining room is finished. I love the soft colour. The plate on the table I got at Winner's on sale for $7.00 and it matches the picture on the wall perfectly - a pop of colour from a spray of poppies.

 This little shelf was painted a burgundy colour so I repainted it white - it's near the front door and holds our keys.

This you may have already seen - I'm very proud of this room. The new curtains are a great match to the gorgeous area rug. The walls were a mess and it took me two days to repaint them. I had to add a coat of primer because the upper half of the walls were painted green while the lower half had wallpaper which I removed a few months ago. There had been many pictures on the walls along with a large mirror. Once all removed there were a couple of dozen holes to spackle, sand and then paint. Now you can't tell where any of the holes were - it looks amazing. The colour is called Swan White and is a nice soft and creamy colour.

 The kitchen is finished...for now.  When I come back in the fall I am replacing the double sink, faucet and probably the countertop. What has been done? New ceramic tile floor and white subway tiles for the backsplash, new handles on all the cupboards and drawers, two coats of Extreme White on walls and ceiling, new light cover, a good cleaning and new shelf paper and the shelf painted to match the walls. Oh, and you can see I'm still making green drinks! Marjorie - I did explore the Omega juicers but went with a new Breville for now. However when the condo is sold I'm giving the Breville to Kazi and buying myself the Omega as it can also be used to make nut butters & milk, hummus and sorbet!!

 I am very happy with my dining room too. The table had been holding all of my reno and paint supplies the last couple of months but now I've moved all that to the basement where I will continue my redecorating efforts. Kazi, her boyfriend Steve, and myself had Easter dinner in our new dining room and it was FAB to have a nice place to eat once again. Kazi has influenced Steve's eating habits (formerly a strictly meat and potatoes kind of guy) and now he is enjoying her juicing efforts as well as eating tons of salad and other vegetables. A convert!!

It's a calm and beautiful room. Walls spackled and painted a soft colour called "Meeting Room" which sounded appropriate. New hardwood floors and baseboard, new area rug, new curtain & rod.

Here's a final shot of the foyer (look, there's Dougie the Dodge!!) and I'm happy how it's come together. New vinyl floor, new wallpaper, more spacious with the exchange of a shelf instead of a table which stuck out into the space.

I'll be doing whatever else I can fit into the last two months before I head to PEI for the summer and fall. When I return I can devote my whole days to finishing the basement and upstairs bedrooms and bathroom.  It will be wonderful to have nothing but FREE TIME to get things done. Then it'll be up for sale in early 2015.

My FIVE YEAR PLAN is coming together. Sometimes (most of the time) it doesn't feel real. Occasionally I feel a jolt of PURE JOY but mostly it still feels like a dream.

If you made it to the bottom of this lengthy photo-filled post you are a true friend :) I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday. The sun is shining here in London, Ontario although still cold. I have the recycling to get ready, two narrow strips of wallpaper to add to the foyer near the front door (then that's done!), leek soup to make, green drinks to make and I'm due to give myself a haircut later (I trim it myself every two weeks!)

Toodles!

Poor Piggy

Poor Piggy indeed. We are busy spending money right, left and centre! I set aside a certain amount of money to replace the lovely rose pink carpet that ran throughout the house not to mention the 1980's linoleum - how very chic! We got some pretty good flooring deals but there are a HEAP of other costs that I didn't take into account.

You need certain types of tools. You need people with know how or you have to pay someone to install it all. You have to pay someone to haul away the old carpet. You need those little felt pads to put on the bottom of chair and table legs because you're so paranoid about scratching up the new floor. You have to replace the kitchen counter top because SOMEONE (I don't know who) made a big scratch on it with some sort of tool during the hardwood installation. The tool!

I could go on and on, in fact, I think I will! I need new curtains, I think I'll have to replace the bathroom counter top too because I noticed a few burn marks from someone's hair straightener (not mine!!)  I may need a couple more cans of primer - that lovely shade of coral in my daughter's room (she of the hair straightener) is going to take a few coats to cover. I'm thinking of new toilets - who wants to buy a house with old toilets in it?? Not me! Might as well replace the sinks while I'm at it - I've notice a couple of minuscule dots of black - is the porcelain wearing thin??

Maybe I should just blow the place up and start over! One thing leads to ten more. I have to stop somewhere, but where?? When? When I run out of money??  Arrrrgh!

What was your worst reno experience?? Please make me feel better!

I already want to take a nap tomorrow....

 because I get tired just looking at these photos!  Above is Kazi's room, below is the cat's room, my former bedroom. (We have a 3rd bedroom in the basement which is where Michael and I sleep.) I wanted to show you a picture of the big desk in Kazi's room which Michael and his son Dane took apart on Friday...but it's kind of hard to see underneath the accumulation of stuff! If you look really hard in the upper right quadrant you can barely see it behind the mirror....well, anyways it's GONE!
It's hard to believe that in one more week her room will be empty. I just took a double dose of ibuprofin after yesterday's exertions left me with a sore shoulder - yes, the same one that was immobilized due to a pinched nerve in January, :( so I better get some help clearing out her room!

Our almost 20 year old cat Tisky did a great job of cleaning up her room...har har har! Just a few pieces of furniture to move out in preparation for new carpet laying taking place on Nov. 4th. Little does Tisky know however, that she will be moving to the laundry room - I'm not allowing one cat hair on the new carpet! Morbid as it sounds, I honestly, truly thought she would be in "kitty heaven" by now, buried out back with our 4 hamsters. I've had 3 other cats over my adult life with none of them living past the age of 11. Tisky will be 20 next June...who knew??

Ever wondered what was under your flooring?  Well, don't...it ain't pretty! I spent 2 hours yesterday vacuuming up the dust and dirt - YUCK!!

There isn't much living going on in the living room! It's been turned into a repository for the upstairs furniture while it gets newly carpeted.

Under the dining room table are the boxes of bamboo hardwood which we'll do after the carpet is installed - we'll move all the furniture upstairs and/or outside on the patio if the weather is ok.

The staircases look particularly ugly with the carpet ripped off of them. The one set below will be recarpeted as it flows from the bedrooms upstairs but the one to the basement...well, let's just say we haven't figured that one out yet.

So that's this week's update on the renos...hopefully the next update will show some completed work. I still have some wallpaper and border to remove but I'll either have to do it with my left hand/arm or wait til my right one feels better.

In other news...my daughter is planning a trip to Australia after Christmas! Yes, she wants to see a bit of the world and perhaps work there for awhile. Her best friend is there for the next two years in law school so Kazi is taking this opportunity to visit her and explore job prospects and a different part of the world. I'm excited for her - this is the time to do it and I hope her horizons will be broadened by seeing how other people live.

To Do Lists

So many of us are avid list makers. See Carla's angsty post about her list making habits HERE!  I used to feel like Carla does when she doesn't get every item done on her list. But a few years ago I somehow managed to shift my mindset about my impossible to complete list. Whatever doesn't get done I put at the top of the next day's list. It'll all get done (or not) eventually.

At this time of year I usually have several lists going at the same time: one for school (not working on that one at present), one for home and one for PEI. Today I was feeling a little panicked about all of the things I need to do over the next few years to get my PEI home just the way I want it. The panicked feeling was about how to fund all of the things I need to get done, for example:

• new septic system - the current septic system is OLD, no one really knows how old. It still works as can be evidenced by the very lush green lawn in a certain area of our acreage but a septic system is not something you want to replace AFTER it breaks down so that's at the top of the list. Once a new system is in place I'll likely never have to replace it in MY lifetime.
• install a woodstove and all that goes along with that such as tiling the floor where it will be sitting, install a steel liner in the chimney and check to make sure the chimney is in good repair, perhaps remove a wall or partial wall
• purchase several cords of hardwood
• build a deck
• level the driveway: this involves removing topsoil, inserting shale, covering with pea gravel and probably a few other things I'm not familiar with!
• lots of items to purchase like a riding lawn mower, furniture, washer/dryer, freezer etc
• hardwood ceiling on the front porch
• plants: native trees, shrubs, perennials
• tankless water heater (solar?)
• new fence

There are also a couple of larger items I want/need to do: renovate the tiny kitchen and build a barn/wood shed/gardening shed. THAT money will come from what I can save over the next two years.  But I wasn't sure how to fund all of the smaller projects.....then I remembered my RSPs! Once I retire I will stop contributing and start withdrawing to the tune of $5,000 per year. I will have to deduct $500 from that (10%) for income tax leaving me with $4500 per year to complete all of my "extra but necessary" projects. 

I am SO glad I've got that figured out. It means I can't do everything at once but how could I anyways? The first two plus the tankless water heater are the most important, then we'll work away at the rest. 

I think I can do this...