Office Update.

Not much has changed since my last

post. I go in just once a week and each

time, take in a few more items. Hope

to bring in a nice large unit in the next

week or so to house all my books and

items for my programs. I do have some

pictures I've decided on and curtains

as well. Another chair to create a tiny

counselling corner. And plants, once

it's safe to bring them from the store

into the car, then into the building. It

does look like super warm and sunny

weather all week so I may get a chance

to do this. Getting excited to get it done!

P.S. The sign on the wall outside my

door is wrong and a new one will be

in its place soon. It's supposed to say

"Director, Grief Support Programs."

My Executive Director isn't sure why

it doesn't. I didn't even notice this!

~ Chy

Dreamy Bath.

Isn't this the dreamiest bath you've ever seen? We had dreamed of a claw foot tub for our little cottage but as big as our bathroom is, the spot for the tub wasn't wide enough. We could have moved things around a bit but would have then ended up with either a smaller space in the bedroom, a smaller shower or losing the alcove in our master closet. It was the right decision to take that one item off our list, with the idea that down the road, when we build our final home, we'll ensure the space for the tub is sufficient. When building this home, I recall often answering questions about "the house" with "oh, you mean the art studio, with a house attached!" I can see in the future answering "oh, you mean the dreamy bath with a claw foot tub, with a house attached!" A feature I'd love one day, when the time is right.

Okay, enough dreaming. Now on to real life. Yesterday, it was warm and sunny, so we took advantage of that and once our work was finished for the day (office work, client work and homework for the homeschooling kid), we changed in to our "work clothes" and set up the saw to start working on our back porch. Our porch had been constructed with standard pressure treated wood but when we added on the two decks, we opted for cedar for those. At the time of the build, pressure treated wood was more economical, but when we did our decking, cedar ended up at that time, being the same price so we chose that. We bought extra with the idea at some point, we'd swap out the old wood with the cedar. Smells so heavenly and is just a nicer looking wood. We got about 3/4's of it done yesterday and hope to finish up today, though it's looking very gloomy outside. As long as the rain stays away, we'll be okay. We'll start staining next week.

While we worked away, our girls and the little guy played football, hockey and brought out the Nerf guns, at which point we stopped to take a few shots on each other. For the record, I was better at my aim and won .... just saying! We also had the first bbq of the season and while dh did  his radio broadcast last night, the girls and I caught up on "Good Girls" ~ we now are only one episode behind. Plans are to watch that one tonight when he's back on air. Such a good show. Funny, crazy and thought provoking. We are also watching "Ozark" and though I feel the need to finish the series to find out what happens, I find it very dark and a bit of anxiety creeps in. Once this series is done, we'll have to look for another to tap into for our down time at night. 

Hope all of you are doing well. We're coping and finding less anxiety as the weeks go on. I'm still fearful of becoming ill but at this point, we're doing everything we can to stay healthy. Work is going well, we've adjusted to no commute and being home, which we love, and the biggest two worries are getting groceries safely and hoping my mom will fare well through all of this. So far, her care home is free of the virus. We keep hoping and sending blessings that this good fortune continues. I'm not ready to say goodbye to her yet.

All for now my blogging buddies. I'm off to do my workout, then a conference call with my boss, several client counselling sessions and then a meeting with my crew this afternoon. Once all that is done, we'll hopefully be able to tackle the last bit of  the back porch. Once all the work is done on this project, I'll post pics. Next on the agenda will be putting our greenhouse together once it arrives and the gardening season will be in full swing then. Our seed order is ready and we'll be driving in to town tomorrow to pick that up. Can't wait to see if we can have a better veggie patch this Summer. Too much rain last year. Wishing you and your crew a beautiful, healthy, stay at home day!

~ Chy

Wallpaper Woes.

Years ago, our first home had some wallpaper in the nursery and the main floor 1/2 bath. We loved both and kept them in place. And then wallpapered our kitchen from corner to corner, with a sweet little border at the top. It was a tiny kitchen but so warm and welcoming with our "homey" wallpaper. 

Our next few homes were just painted walls but then we decided to add wallpaper to our 4th house. We started in the kitchen, then added a border in the living room and the dining room. We wallpapered our master bedroom with a border at the top. And for our two kids bedrooms, we wallpapered half way up and added a wood chair rail. Loved those spaces. Our 5th house, we did just borders and it was fun to change them out as our kids grew. When we decided to lease out our house to a sweet little family, we took down the borders and repainted all 3 levels so they could move into a fresh and neutral home. They were very appreciative of the new paint.

A long ramble to get to my story I've called "Wallpaper Woes." 

Though we are going for a true English Cottage look in our new home, we have chosen not to put wallpaper anywhere, except for our main floor half bathroom. This room, like all the rooms on our main level, has 9 foot ceilings, so the room feels very tall but is small. To combat this, we decided we would put wallpaper on the upper half, and then we were going to install a chair rail and some wainscotting. It took forever but I finally found a pattern I love and off we went to the store to order it. I measured, remeasured and measured again. And then took those measurements into the store. I asked to order more once they did their calculations but they insisted that I would have more than enough with extra left over. I trusted but am quickly learning in this building/decorating process that my gut feeling will always win. So I let them order it. And guess what. Part way through the install process, I could see we would be short. Off to the store once again. They were happy to order me more but now the sale was over and so not only would I be charged more but now the shipping charges would be double. Hell no! Not on my watch ....

I had to wait a few days for the store manager as he was away but finally he got back to me and placed the order at the same sale price, without any additional shipping charges. And the best part was he also agreed his staff should have ordered extra. So now I was back in business. But a new problem emerged. As I hung the first strip of the new order. it looked darker. At first we thought "it's just the water" and hoped once it dried, it would be the same shade. But no, it dried and for days I kept checking to see if the tone would lighten but it didn't. It was super disappointing and frustrating.

Contacted the store manager who confirmed that they should have tried to match the lot number with the second order but no one thought of that ..... yes, I promise I won't order wallpaper from this large company again. But for now, I had to get this fixed. I contacted the store manager but he had no solution, so I contacted the area manager who was shocked that we had this experience. I have to send pictures tomorrow to show them what the wallpaper looks like and my hope is that they will reimburse me so we can start all over again. I haven't checked yet to see if the pattern we picked is still available but have chosen another one (picture above) just in case it's not. It's super close to the original but a smaller pattern. Fingers crossed that the area manager comes back with what I want and we can start fresh with enough wallpaper to cover the walls as we envisioned. Can't wait for this whole ordeal, our "Wallpaper Woes" to be be all over with. Soon, very soon ....

Lavender Bunny.

The tiny lavender bunny that started our

color scheme for our new home. Love it.

Oval Love.

Four of these windows grace our home.

One in our garage, two in our master

bedroom and this one above our

front entrance. Love these windows.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

 Before we built our dream home, 

we stumbled across an old movie

from 1948, starring Cary Grant, called 

"Mr. Blandings Build His Dream House".

It was adapted from the book that

was written by Eric Hodgins in 1946.

A rainy day movie that gave us some giggles 

and a bit of a peek into the building process.

A journey that had high hopes and many

stumbling blocks along the way like any build.

But in the end, his house was complete and

the dream began, to live in comfort. That's

how I feel about our build. Lots of work and

thought but now the real dream has begun.

Have you seen this movie or read the book?

If so, did you enjoy the story?

Finished!

The siding is finished! The siding is finished!

A very long process is finally done. Now we just

have to wait for the eaves troughs to be completed.

One step closer to home sweet home ....

Building a New House on a Budget.

 That should be the name of my blog. As we are

new to the building process, one of our worries

was the cost. Especially after talking with friends

& family, & hearing how the budget starts at

one end (comfortable) & then ends up at the

complete opposite end (over budget). We vowed

to not fall into the trap of having to pay more for

what we wanted to create our dream home. And

our builder said he's never met a couple who was

so conscious of cost but in a good way. He's been

so good to work with & helped us stay in the

budget we're all working with. The two things we

went over we knew we would but still managed to

negotiate the additional fees into our comfort zone.

So how do you build a new house on a budget?

You make very frugal choices that look good!

Case in point, our fireplace mantels. These were

listed for $1,950 plus taxes & shipping from 

the manufacturer to our home, for both mantels. 

Made of stone and sealed, we love the look & 

chose two different styles to complement two 

different rooms in our home. The total would be,

in Canadian dollars a hefty $2,160 each, with a

grand total of $4,320. A big cost but we like them!

Two different popular home renovation stores carry

these mantels online. I've been watching these mantels 

since we first found them last spring. Recently, the one 

store reduced the price. It was time to order! We were

going to order from the one we often shop at but only 

one was available immediately. The other is back 

ordered & when I pressed order today, it came up 

with a note that there was an issue & the back order

was "indefinite". So I went on to the competitor's 

website, only to discover the fee was higher but they

had them in stock. Then I noticed the disclaimer

that they will match prices. I called the listed number

& just a few minutes later, we had an order # in

hand. So here's the best part. Our price, you wonder?

A lovely $1,890. Isn't that sweet. Before you start to

do some calculations, I want to clarify that price is

for both units, with taxes & including shipping.

We saved $2,430 for the same products, same sku

numbers, same colors, nothing had changed. And 

all it took was a few minutes of being online to

check out our options. Then picking up the phone

to ask for the matching price deal, which was granted

to us, without hesitation, argument or negativity.

Easy peasy and we get exactly what we want, at a

very frugal price from what we originally budgeted.

We keep coming up with deal after deal for the items

we'd like to include & feel so good about taking

the time to investigate what our best price will be.

Time consuming but in the grand scheme of things,

so worth it! And I have fun getting my "deals"!

Have you ever built a home on a budget?

Or renovated and stayed within your funds?

A trip to the Country.

Hi everyone!

We're off for a quick trip out to the Country, to see how our new house looks now that the snow has arrived. Our builder and his family left last weekend for a well deserved vacation and are back home today. So we've had not notices about what has taken place this week. He did tell us before he left what was planned, with a caution of course that schedules sometimes change with weather and deliveries. The one hope this week was to have our siding installed. At the time he had left, the bundles of material had not yet arrived but they were expected. Then we had a snowfall and a short deep freeze, so even if the siding did arrive, we're not sure that it would have been installed. Dh and our girls are so anxious to see it. Me? I've got butterflies in my stomach! 

I'm so nervous because we have steered away from the typical material that all houses are wrapped in around this part of the world. What is normal is a basic, straight vinyl siding, as shown below. Kind of boring, don't you agree?

Our budget for this house was set for straight vinyl in muted tones. Darker tones are more money. Of course, upon learning this, we both wanted a darker color. Our builder priced it out and we started to see where in our budget we could make it work. But I really wrestled with the look.

We discovered, with the new siding budget, we could have a second color, at no additional charge. So we chose the green for the body of the house and the grey for the peaks and the gabled end where the art studio is. But it still wasn't right. Something was off. Then one night, I figured it out!

The whole issue with the siding was staring right at us! The straight look of the vinyl was wrong, oh so wrong, because we aren't building a modern, contemporary house. In fact, we're trying to build a house that actually looks like it's 100 years old! Vinyl siding was not going to do it!! We found the shingled siding from the same supplier and although it boosted our budget a bit more, it was still comfortable and a look we really want. And the bonus? Dark colors are not extra. And it's a thicker material, which will continue to help us achieve our goal of an energy efficient, cozy home. 

As with the original plan, the body of our home will be in the darker green shingled siding and the peaks and gabled end will be covered with the grey color. So excited that we made this decision. But now that we're driving out today, I'm scared! What if it's installed and we hate it? Ahhhh!

Wish us luck it looks good. 

I'm hope we've made the right choice. 

Do you ever agonize over big decisions?

Agh, more decisions!!

Hi everyone!

One of the fun parts of building a new house is the chance to pick out all the things we want in our space. It's been exciting so far but the decisions can also be daunting. So many things to think of. If we choose an interior door, will it look good with the kitchen cabinets? Will the shade of wood floors we've chosen go well with the paint color? What if the windows we chose give too much light? Or not enough! Did we choose the correct weight of carpet? Can you see the mutin bars in the new windows well enough or are is the width of each too small? Wow! My head is totally spinning with too many ideas. 

Here's our newest decision: we need to choose our front door. Because we're building a Victorian styled home, we want to keep to the style as much as possible. One of the designs we've looked at is similar to this true Victorian door above. Simple and colorful.

But we also love this Craftsman styled door above, even though our home is not a Craftsman one. Can't you just see a lovely, wispy, colorful wreath hanging from that front door? Solid but filled with character. 

Which is your favorite? And why?

Ah, now it's going to happen!!

We bought our little slice of heaven 14 years ago. 

Six months ago we designed our new home. 

Today, the building permits were approved. 

Signed, sealed, delivered, all ours.

This dream is now on the horizon .... scary!!