New Pantry at the Old House.

We asked our contractor to make an 

old book nook into a true pantry. 

This is what he's come up with so far. 

I love it and can't wait to see it completed.

Sweet Scent.

On this gloomy and frosty day, my hyacinth 

is looking grand and smelling so sweet. 

A bit of early spring ....

I am Strong, I am Woman.

Although we have contractors at our old

house doing some renos, we've been helping

out to keep our costs reasonable. Personally,

I love renovating so it was nice to do this.

On the weekend, I ripped up the old

laundry room floor. I've painted this room

and the contractors needed the floor

gone so they could install the trim. 

We'll be putting the same tile down that

we have in the front hall. Looking good.

Organizing the Pantry.

We've lived in our new house now for 8 months and I'm still thrilled each time I open up our pantry. It's such a treat to have a place to store food and to stock up when there's a good sale. But it can get messy at times and I've been searching for some nice bins to help create "zones" on the shelves. This will be a work in process. I finally found a system that I decided to try out and I love them.

See, it's getting messy again!

Too much stuff. But stuff we will consume.

The lovely bins, on sale, at HomeSense.

I took everything out and created my "zones" and

now look how sweet it all is. Nothing was thrown out.

Even a bin for hot chocolate mixes and popcorn packs.

And one for our teas, both hot and cold. I need more

and will be back to the store soon to pick up extras.

How do you keep your pantry organized?

Do you use bins or baskets or just stack items?

Light Changes.

Isn't this the ugliest chandelier? We were not

crazy about it when we lived in other house.

So we changed out the fixtures and wow, it's lovely

now. Best part? They were free!! You can never

beat free, especially if the item in question is in

perfect condition. Now our tenants will see well.

A Bit of Paint.

Always amazes me what a bit of paint can do.

This was our youngest daughters' bedroom.

Dark turning light. Can't wait for the end.

A nice patch job completed ~ much better!

Final coat. Love the light and the bright.

Do you enjoy the transformation that

takes place with painting a room?

Two Months of Mail!

This is what two months of mail looks like! Our centre suddenly wasn't getting our mail. We don't get a ton but we were getting NONE. So off to the post office I went, four different times. There excuse was that we didn't "exist" and therefore they had no where to deliver our mail. We weren't in the system and we had no mail box. Um, we've been in place for 20 years this year! And we've been collecting mail from the community mail box since the summer. Prior to that, the very kind mail lady would knock on our door and put it in our hands. But now we don't exist?? The final trip I got serious and said I was going to call the media if I didn't have our mail in my sweet little hand by 4:00 p.m. that day. 

Guess what showed up on our doorstep at 2:25 that afternoon?! And to date, we've had no issues since then. Ironically, I did call the media that morning and they were so eager to do a story. But in the end, we got our mail and an apology. It's still a mystery what happened. Someone was clearly hoarding our mail. But why is my question? Hope this never happens again!! What a mess it created. Thankful we have great records and could keep up with paying our bills and the government for payroll and taxes. Frustrated is definitely an understatement!

Frosty Free Day.

You may have heard the term "Free Day"

today as the last day of February, in this

Leap Year, has arrived. In our neck of

the woods, it's chilly and frosty outside.

I woke up with a cold that started a bit

yesterday. After taking my grandson to

school, I drove to our other house to meet

our contractors, then made a quick trip to

the bank, filled my tank with gas and

mailed some letters. Headed home down

an icy highway, spent some time doing

laundry, vacuumed the whole house and

then I washed all the floors. That was my

complete morning and it took my energy.

So on this cold and frosty day, I created

a soft little zone on the couch, turned on

the tv and the fireplace, and here I sit, 

warm, cozy and tired, achy but happy

to have a sweet home and time to recover.

Not my original plan but I'll take it for now.

What did you plan for this "Free Day"

that we have been gifted this year?

A Miracle!

At our old house, the upper hall had a railing

that had to come down to get the new tub upstairs.

Unfortunately, that meant it would have to go back up 

but we honestly couldn't find anyone to do this task.

But our construction crew set to work on it on

Thursday and look at it today! Back together,

sturdier than ever and now it just needs a nice

coat of paint. So impressed with this miracle!!

Classroom Guest.

Meet Lester the Gecko. He was our

classroom guest for the last two weeks.

He was sweet but I'm glad he's going

back to his real home. He eats worms!!

A Work in Progress.

This is our mantle in the master bedroom. It's not quite how we envision it to be but until we can install the mirror that will go above the mantle, it's kind of a catch place for loose items that still need a place to be settled. One day it will be all done! Soon, very soon.

Left to right, we have a sweet wooden Angel we found at the Antique Mall. Then a small picture featuring a quilt, followed by a larger framed mice picture. The large cross stitch picture in the middle was another thrifty find from the AM for a tidy $10. Beside it, a cream frame with a vintage print inside. Then a small gilded frame with a perfume bottle. On the end, a statue of a family that my kids gave to us one year from Christmas. Finally, in front of the large picture, we have two sets of angel wings, a small brown mouse and a tiny Brambly Hedge thimble. All great finds either at the AM or at our local thrift store. Love our sweet little treasures!

Breakfast in Bed.

A special treat on a cold, winter's morning.

And then it was gone!! Mmmm ....

New Linens.

We've now lived in our new house for a grand total of eight wonderful months. One of our promises to ourselves was to invest in a new set (or two) of good quality sheet set(s) for our bedroom. We even donated our old set as well as some extra pieces we rarely used, and an old quilt and some blankets. We knew if we kept what we had, we'd never get around to shopping. Old old linen closet was so tiny, but thankfully this one is a walk in and in our eyes, massive! Lots of room to store new linens. Over time, as we've been out and about shopping, we've scoured the aisles for just the right set (or two) with no luck. Not the right shade, not the right pattern and often, not the right price! Frugality is still key, despite a bigger house. How we got here isn't going to change our spending habits, so remaining thrifty is still the name of the game. 

Last week, I had an hour to use up between meeting a family for counselling and meeting an organization for a fundraiser they'll be doing for us. So off to HomeSense I went. And look what I found!!

At first, I decided to buy both so that we could choose one and take the other one back. I mean, really, who buys two sets of sheets? But we ended up not being able to choose just one as both are exactly the right colors. And then my daughter reminded me how much of a hassle it is to wash sheets and not be able to make the bed right away. "Keep both mom" she suggested. And after realizing that we were already saving because the cost of both of these add up to the cost of just one set at most stores in our region, it was a done deal! So now we have two and "sheet change day" will be much lovelier around here!

Do you collect linens for your home?

Do you have more than one set of sheets for your bed?

Cold and Cloudy.

After an incredible winter of very little snow and unseasonable warm temperatures, today, we have a cold snap. There is a cold wind, the clouds are low and gloomy, the sun has disappeared, and it's bitter out there. We leave in an hour to pick up some groceries and then watch our little guy play hockey. I've had a warm bath and am now waiting for my clothes to finish a "warm up" dry in the dryer. It's definitely a day to dress in layers. Tomorrow is supposed to be the coldest at -20. Then on Tuesday, it pops up to +2. No one wonder our community is so sick right now! Knock on wood today we're good. Stay away colds! Stay away flues!! No time for any illnesses now ....

How's the weather in your little corner of the world?

Warm and sunny or cold and windy?

Update on my Grand List.

My last post included a huge list of things that needed to be accomplished over the last few days. This post is my check in to see how we did. Proud of what we've done.

* Issue T4's to my staff. They are done but I have a discrepancy in the final numbers compared to budget, so I have to sort that that first before I issue. Small crew and no one is worried but to me, a deadline is a deadline. By law in Canada, they must be in hand on the last day of February. My goal is today. Completed all of this 4 days early. Ironically, I have staff that were not worried about due dates but I am very conscious of deadlines and am happy to have met this one, once again early!

* Meet the carpet company at the old house this morning to make arrangements for the stairs and upper hall to be re~carpeted before our tenants move in. The other company has neglected to follow through on the original appointment, then missed the second one! So a new company has offered to finish the job for us. Fingers crossed the figures fit into our budget. New quote was done on Thursday. I picked out the carpet later that afternoon. It will be installed this coming week. And the best part? It's almost $600 less than the other quote we received the day before. Crazy!

* Finish clearing out the garage at the old house with the items we set aside for the bin that will magically take them away. The bin arrived the other day. Now we have to fill it.The bin will leave our garage by Saturday, so we have just a few days to use it fully. We have a few small items to move and our bikes, which we are donating to an organization that will be providing those to refugee families in the city. Happy we are helping, even in this small way, to welcome new families to Canada.

* Call a local church that is looking for furniture and house hold items for new refugees who will be arriving soon in our community. We left these items at the old house, rather than move them to the new house and now it's time for someone else to love them. Fingers crossed the church will be able to take all the items so we don't have to find homes for anything left over.  The call should come early this week to schedule a pick up of items. Yeah!!

* Send in our medical receipts for reimbursement. Deadline is March 1st. I wrote it up yesterday and made copies and dh has left for work, with the packet in hand to scan and email to the benefits company. A cheque will  be deposited into our travel account in about ten days. These were sent in on the 25th - another win for the "beat the deadline" team!!

* Ensure my administrator has completed tax receipts for donations made to our charity before the end of the month. I have two to write up and submitted the letters I wrote to each family to her last night. Now she just needs to add the receipts and mail them off. Fingers crossed with her busy week she gets it done before Monday.  Just chatted with her and these will be completed by this afternoon. She'll bring them to our centre tomorrow.

* Meet the plumber at the old house on Thursday morning. We have a few small items that need attention. I don't expect any surprises but know it won't be cheap! Done but he does have to come back because a part had to be ordered. He's meeting me there tomorrow.

* Finished the last bit of wall painting at the old house. Begin painting the windows and doors inside. We have the contractor back on the weekend to install the new trim so I need to make sure the rest is done first. I'm painting tonight and tomorrow morning and they start on Friday.  Not all finished but we did quite a bit. We had to stop as the contractors still need to finish up and will be on site tomorrow. So more painting tomorrow and then touch ups once they are done.

* Do a big clean once the contractor is done before our tenants move in on Tuesday. As the house is empty, it's a bit easier. And the floors are new and the walls freshly painted, so it's just scrubbing appliances, washing the floors, dusting the light fixtures and washing the windows. Easy peasy but still time. My goal is to have this done by Sunday but Monday is my day off, so if I need some extra time, it's there. Can't do this until they are completely done but we have time now, so the rush is not as critical. A blog post will explain later.

* Switch out our utilities to new family then do a walk through on Monday to hand over the keys for Tuesday. Then it will be another big job of our shoulders and more time on our own hands to truly enjoy this house and start to plan our spring landscaping. New blog post soon!

So that is the status of our grand list. Mostly done, with a few minor outstanding items. Thanks for reading such a boring post, but it really helps me stay on track to record what needs to be done and then have accountability to show where we're at. Today, a day of rest, sleeping in, a leisurely soak in the tub, a grocery list written and off to watch our little guy play hockey. Home for the Oscars and then bed so we're well rested for the last tasks to be completed tomorrow. Have a great day!

Only Six Days Left.

In just six days, this very busy but productive but oh so busy month will be done. And the next six days are so action packed, I have two lists running just to be sure I don't miss anything. Life is busy at the best of times but right now, it's literally crazy with everything that needs to be accomplished before March 1st. I know that we will get every last item done but I'm still today filled with a feeling of anxiousness as I realize the time is truly, minute by minute, ticking down. I cannot stand failure and have never really figured out why, when I know it will get done, I do get riled up that things won't happen. Here I am again, list in hand, feeling doomed. A time for a pep talk on my way in to town today I think!

The grand list:

* Issue T4's to my staff. They are done but I have a discrepancy in the final numbers compared to budget, so I have to sort that that first before I issue. Small crew and no one is worried but to me, a deadline is a deadline. By law in Canada, they must be in hand on the last day of February. My goal is today. 

* Meet the carpet company at the old house this morning to make arrangements for the stairs and upper hall to be re~carpeted before our tenants move in. The other company has neglected to follow through on the original appointment, then missed the second one! So a new company has offered to finish the job for us. Fingers crossed the figures fit into our budget. 

* Finish clearing out the garage at the old house with the items we set aside for the bin that will magically take them away. The bin arrived the other day. Now we have to fill it.The bin will leave our garage by Saturday, so we have just a few days to use it fully.

* Call a local church that is looking for furniture and house hold items for new refugees who will be arriving soon in our community. We left these items at the old house, rather than move them to the new house and now it's time for someone else to love them. Fingers crossed the church will be able to take all the items so we don't have to find homes for anything left over. 

* Send in our medical receipts for reimbursement. Deadline is March 1st. I wrote it up yesterday and made copies and dh has left for work, with the packet in hand to scan and email to the benefits company. A cheque will  be deposited into our travel account in about ten days. 

* Ensure my administrator has completed tax receipts for donations made to our charity before the end of the month. I have two to write up and submitted the letters I wrote to each family to her last night. Now she just needs to add the receipts and mail them off. Fingers crossed with her busy week she gets it done before Monday. 

* Meet the plumber at the old house on Thursday morning. We have a few small items that need attention. I don't expect any surprises but know it won't be cheap!

* Finished the last bit of wall painting at the old house. Begin painting the windows and doors inside. We have the contractor back on the weekend to install the new trim so I need to make sure the rest is done first. I'm painting tonight and tomorrow morning and they start on Friday. 

* Do a big clean once the contractor is done before our tenants move in on Tuesday. As the house is empty, it's a bit easier. And the floors are new and the walls freshly painted, so it's just scrubbing appliances, washing the floors, dusting the light fixtures and washing the windows. Easy peasy but still time. My goal is to have this done by Sunday but Monday is my day off, so if I need some extra time, it's there.

* Switch out our utilities to new family then do a walk through on Monday to hand over the keys for Tuesday. Then it will be another big job of our shoulders and more time on our own hands to truly enjoy this house and start to plan our spring landscaping. 

Can't wait for that moment when I know that it is all 

done and relaxing can begin. So looking forward to that!!

Not a restful weekend ....

.... but a very productive one. We spent lots of time getting our income property ready for the new family. We still have more to do and I'm thankful there is one more weekend before March 1st. It's hard to work on the house during the week so we have to create time on the weekends. All day today, as we worked our fingers to the bone, I kept thinking "two weeks from now, we'll be able to enjoy our weekends again" and that's what kept me going. This will truly be worth all the work, the aches, the pains and the weariness. Tonight, I feel like this sweet puppy!

Wouldn't it be lovely to have one day 

in between Saturday and Sunday??

Phew!!

You know when you have a worry that is so big, it affects your sleep, your mood, your every day life and it feels like there is nothing you can do, except face it head on? Yup, that kind of worry! Well, that was me with a particular worry. But today, some relief and a collective "phew" was part of our vocabulary today. The worry was real, the solution out of our hands but today, in our favor. While waiting for a couple of guests today to arrive at our house to go over the worry and see what could be done, I kept very busy. Cleaning the house from top to bottom, spending time on some projects for work, paying bills, writing, setting aside some sewing that needs to be completed, washing tiles in the kitchen, making lists, reorganizing the pantry, starting some laundry, cleaning out the fridge, answering emails and calls, deciding what to make for dinner and finally, taking some time just for me to unwind after our worry became full of hope and promise. A great ending to a very stressful time. 

Have you had any big worries lately?

What do you do to cope with the stress?

Sparkles.

When we went in to town yesterday,

it was quite gloomy and cold out.

So we decided at the last minute

to leave our bedroom blinds closed.

Part way through the day, the sun came

out and the chilly air became very warm.

When we came home, I decided to go up

to have a bath to ease my aching body. And

look what was greeting me in our bedroom!

Pretty sparkles from the sunlight streaming

through the closed but airy blinds, hitting

the crystals on the chandelier, making this

sweet design all over the wall and ceiling.

Isn't it pretty?

The Path to the Studio.

 The hallway to our Art Studio is

very long and potentially dark.

But we chose these sweet lights 

and surprisingly, it's not dark at all.

We have to plan some art work for

the walls but I'm really happy this

import path to our studio has so far

turned out to be a beautiful walk.

Finally ....

.... we found just the right family

to lease out our former home.

A lovely young couple with two little children. A mom who can work from home. A dad starting a new career. We've all met, checked out references, had many long conversations and are so excited that the relief we feel is real. They will move in at the end of this month, right after the last little renovations to the house are completed. They'd love to be able to stay for several years and we are thankful for that as our eldest would like to buy our former home but needs several years to finish up school and save some funds. Win win all around. Fingers crossed this turns out okay. But for now, we're excited and already feeling a huge burden lifting off our shoulders. We're off to finish up some painting today and meeting the  next contractor for the next little bit to be completed. Soon we'll officially be landlords. A new adventure.

Have a great Sunday!!

Love Day.

From me to you!! Wishing you a day filled with 

Love and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate!!

Dollhouse Update: Landscaping.

Now that the outside of the dollhouse

is finished being painted, it was time

to think about the landscaping. My dh

bought the wood base for the "grass".

Careful measuring and cutting took 

place and then it was time to glue.

We had enough grass but it did have to 

be cut up into sections to fit all around.

I wish the landscaping we'll be doing in the 

spring and summer at this house could be as easy!

Looks so lovely against the pale

yellow straw color of the house.

After all the pieces were set, we

then placed the stone walk way.

Once we decide on a fence, then

we'll glue down the stones.

We added a couple of the

green shutters to the window.

Really loving the colors we chose. It's such

a difficult task to try and imagine the look.

Have you been working on any projects this winter?

Or do you have projects you'd like to be tackling?

Tony the Tiler.

Such a great guy. We truly 

lucked out in booking the best. 

Even though he was paid through

our building fund, we enjoyed him

so much and he added some great

ideas to our design, a tip was in order!

A thank you and a gift card to

take his lovely and patient wife

out for a lovely evening after a

job well done. He was thrilled!

Now we wait for the rest of the

trades to finish up. Can't wait.

If you've built or renovated, did you enjoy

the process or couldn't wait for the end?

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Hyacinth.