Hygge.

A word many of you are already familiar with.

I am very intrigued and today received a note from

our local library that the copy of one of the books

on this very trendy subject is in and waiting for me. 

I'm excited to head off to the library tomorrow to

retrieve it and see if we are living a "Hygge" life.

Have you read any of the Hygge books?

If so, did you find your lifestyle fits already?

Call the Midwife.

I'm enjoying this week's episode of "Call the Midwife"

at the moment. But I'm also having a very hard time

concentrating on the show. One of our beloved midwife's

died just over a week ago. Sudden and unexpected. She

died from complications arising from a planned surgery. I

still don't know all the details but know that we are all

sad. I truly hope her dear family knows that she will be 

missed from our large birthing and parenting community.

ORC Challenge.

A quick update on the progress of our "One Room Challenge" that we started last week. You may recall in my last post that we had decided to make our half bath on our main floor more cozy and not so "echoey" by adding in wallpaper. Well the paper arrived last Saturday and we started working on this very small space right away. First we took out the vanity, the measured out the height of the wallpaper section  we wanted ~ in our case, we're only doing wallpaper on the upper half of each wall, with wainscotting on the lower half. In a few short hours, we had papered the walls and we're so happy with our choice. I've been dreaming about this since before we moved in.

Our wallpaper choice:

The next steps to complete this room include painting the vanity cabinet (I started this today), painting the lower walls, buying then installing the wood trim and the crown moulding, ordering the light fixture, reinstalling the vanity, hanging the light, hanging the mirror, hanging the towel rack and then a clean and we'll be all set to do our reveal. No pictures until then! But it's going well, so no need to worry. I can't wait to show this new space off. Hope you'll like it too. I promise it will be worth the long wait.

Rain and Ducks ....

It was fairly sunny here today, until later

this afternoon. Then the sky got dark, the

clouds moved in and the rain fell. Not a

lot, just enough to make things wet again.

Then, as quick as it started, the rain stopped

and the sun came out. The wind died down

and all was well again. After a busy day, we

decided to go to bed early. And guess what

came back? The rain, the wind and the dark

clouds. The sound of rain is so cozy feeling.

Tonight, however, the rain is being drowned

out by the sound of ducks quacking. It's very

loud and actually keeping us awake right

now. Real world problems, I know. My dh

said he much prefers the sound of ducks vs.

the sound of cars going up and down the

street. I totally agree. I will take this "noise"

any day when it comes from nature around us.

Booth Update.

We are so excited!! Our local Antique

Mall sent us a note this weekend that

a booth in the small size we have

requested would be available for us

for June 1st. Wow! We were expecting

to wait a year or more. It's not a done

deal yet as we have to go and see it but

it's a start. And it's on the main floor.

Wish us luck ....

Waiting ....

.... for our gates. I can now truly say that the building of our home was the easy part. The "after" stuff has been the challenge! We had to wait for our fridge doors, we're waiting for our builder to return to fix some small but truly needing attention deficiencies and now we are "patiently" waiting for our driveway gates to be finally installed. It was supposed to happen last week and then the snow/raincame. Now it's drying up and today was to be the day. But our gate guy's son fell and ended up in ER with a head injury, so it may not happen at all today. I feel so bad for him but am also frustrated that delay after delay is now filling the space that became empty after the fridge fiasco .... I hope that it will go in this week as we need to start our landscaping and this is holding things up a bit. Once they are in, I know we'll be happy and also feel extra secure with the added measure of locking gates. We may even take a holiday one day now that our country home will be super secure. I'll update soon, I hope, with a picture or two of our gates, with the fleurs de lis on top.

Tax Time.

In Canada, the deadline to file taxes is May 1st. Actually, it's April 30th but because this year, that day falls on a Sunday, they move it to the next business date. We filed last week and for the first time in our lives, we used a certified accountant. It was such an easy task to gather up all our documents and take them over. A week later, she called us with the results and then we went in to sign them off and they were sent. We should have our healthy refunds by next week in our bank account.

The reason we have switched to an accountant was because we ended up keeping our old house as an investment and now we are landlords. We were concerned about not doing our taxes right now that they are more complicated. And worried we'd have a big tax bill. Several people who also have rental properties have suggested to us that it's better not to report this income but we could not sleep at night if we did anything "under the table" so we sought out professional advice and are very happy with the end result. She worked her magic and not only do we not have to pay extra taxes but she got us both a healthy refund. Worth the time to visit with her and the fee to pay her to figure it all out. Way less stress. I do have the task today of reviewing my mom's return and pressing send and the same for our youngest son, both of whom asked if I could still do theirs this year. My mom I will continue to do her's for the rest of her life as it's simple. And my son is getting a lesson now on how to do his as he is the last of my kids to not yet do his own. It's time for him to finally learn and I'm happy to guide him so I can have this off my plate.

How was your Tax Season this year?

Did you have to pay or did you get a refund?

A Longer View.

Dh was having fun yesterday taking lots of

pictures around the house. He took this one

to show the fridge is done and I love the 

longer view of the shot. Relieved and happy.