The Basement

When people walk into our basement their comments are usually about our carpet, the brick wall, the stove, and the brick arch (we usually have to point out the lovely carpeted bathroom though). We don't have much of a plan for the basement yet... we know the carpet could be of a bit better quality and a less busy look (likely something a little lighter too to help brighten up the basement). We aren't a fan of the brick wall (or the "stage" below it). In fact, the plan is to get rid of that wood burning stove to hopefully make the basement feel a bit bigger. Not sure what the plan is for the bricks though. Originally we thought we would get rid of them then it was recommended to us that we paint them white and keep them (probably a simpler solution but not sure how the bricks are going to look once we get rid of the "stage"... and we are definitely getting rid of that stage!).

The brick wall in all its glory!

So the stove is sitting on what people are deciding is our basement "stage". If you look closely you'll notice that it even has 2 lights pointed at it for "stage lighting".... perfect for concerts, plays, or saying important things while standing on.

Doors from left to right: bathroom, storage, laundry/furnace

A corner perfect for a drum set!

About the Carpet

We've got 5 different colours and kinds of carpets on our 2nd story... and all should really be replaced since I'm sure despite vacuuming them exactly 100 times they likely still have bits of the ceiling we scrapped stuck in them.

Anyways, take a look at our carpets

We've got white in the master bedroom

Across the hall we've got our "brown room"

Next to that is our "pink room"

And across from that is our "blue room"

And yes, because I know you're dying to know that is how we refer to the rooms on the 2nd floor... because why refer to the bedrooms as what we are using them for when we can refer to them based on the colour of the carpet.

I spoke a while ago about how we wanted to replace the carpet prior to moving in but since we didn't end up selling our condo we decided against it (and to be honest, when we were considering quickly putting in carpet we had less than a week before moving in)

The plan is to replace all the bedrooms with the same carpet... I'm not sure how we will refer to the rooms after that... probably according to their old carpet colours so that anyone new coming into our home will be super confused when they can't find our beloved "pink room".

And those 4 carpets aren't the only ones upstairs... we've got one last one for the hallway and stairs...

Can you believe that there is only 2 other types of carpet in our house?  Both of those are in the basement (one you already know is in our basement bathroom)

Our plan for the hallway is to continue whatever flooring we decide to use on our main floor (it won't be carpeted) up the stairs and onto the hallway.  It's a high traffic area and likely to get ruined faster so may as well put something durable down.

The plan is also to get rid of all that wood trim, baseboards, and doors and make it all white.

A Ranking of Bathrooms

In case you were wondering we have 4 bathrooms in our new house.

Were we looking for a house with 4 bathrooms?

No

But I'm not going to complain!... one day we might need all those bathrooms.

We haven't altered any of them... yet.  Some might need updating more than others though so today I'm ranking them from the best to the worst (based soley on the way they look... not function).

Enjoy!

1.  Copious counters and cupboards!

main floor half bath

This lovely bathroom is located on our main floor just off the kitchen (if you look close you can spy our oven in the mirror).  It's actually the bathroom with the most counter space which is why I ranked it in the #1 spot.  It's a bit much considering it's a half bath on the main floor.  But since it has all the counter space I'm using it as my "getting ready" bathroom.  My hair stuff, makeup, and at one point even my jewelry is in there.  There is even a spot for a chair if I really wanted (I don't think I need that chair in there yet though)

2.  The Ensuite

Ensuite

Never did I ever think I might have an ensuite.... this is the stuff dreams are made of (although, I don't really care about an ensuite currently since John and I could technically have 2 bathrooms each to ourselves).  It's nice enough and the only updating I would request would for it to one day include a shower... Although I'm not sure how that would work out since there currently isn't room for a shower... so if we are magically getting more room in our ensuite what I really want is a nice soaker tub with a separate shower, 2 sinks, and lots of counter space.  That's the stuff dreams are really made of.  Currently we use this bathroom for brushing our teeth... and that's pretty much it!

3.  Carpeted Commode

basement full bath

I know what you're thinking.... the bathroom has carpet in it?  Our realtors told us that would have been a luxury they paid extra for (along with the sparkles on the ceiling on the 2nd floor apparently).  You can't see the carpet in the bathroom because I put down our bath mat since this is the bathroom we were using to shower in at the time.  If you ignore the carpet and the yellow it's really not too bad though.  So I guess the only part of this bathroom that got it into the #3 spot is the fact that I don't mind the tiling in the tub.  Anywho, this is our basement bathroom.  Personally, I don't think we need a tub in the basement so I think the plans for this bathroom are to get rid of the tub and put a shower in instead and then make the bathroom smaller because it's actually quite large (or well larger than the main 4 piece bathroom upstairs).  John dreams of changing the location of this bathroom to the other side of the wall... we'll have to see the cost of moving basement plumbing before we commit to moving it over though.
Sidenote:  This bathroom also has the hot and cold water mixed up in the bath.  So, if you ever happen to be over and needing to shower in the basement turn it towards the cold water side to make it go hotter!

4.  Everything is Brown(ish)/Pinkish

Upstairs full bath

My cousin insists this is one of the finer bathrooms in the house.  She insists all you would have to do is change out the counter top and put in a few shells and you've got yourself a nice beachy bathroom.  To be honest, changing the counter top would probably do wonders for this bathroom but I'm still ranking it dead last.  Prior to moving in they had a pinkish shower curtain in there too... adding in our white and black one helped too.  As the main 4 piece bathroom (this one is located upstairs) it needs more counter space (we didn't have a whole lot of counter space at the condo but I think it was even more than this!) which I think we could get by switching out the toilet which is a little large and since we are swapping that out for a newer better one we may as well redo the tub too.

And there you have it folks... our bathrooms!

Which do you think is the worst?

Which is the best?

Prior to Renovations Kitchen

John and I had about a month in between purchasing our home and getting possession of it.  This gave us oodles of time to hum and haw about how we might change our kitchen to better suit us.

Currently, our kitchen is an eat in and to be honest functions better than I thought it might.  There is room for all of our stuff (which is surprising because I don't feel like we have much more cupboard space than in the condo).  But it isn't exactly what we want (plus we don't even have a table to put in the space!).  So it's the first bit of major renovations we are planning for.

view from dinning room

dinning room

A few things..

That is a door to the bathroom on our one kitchen wall

We don't currently have a dishwasher

The stove is original to the house (not that you can see it)!.... and I think we have officially learned how to use it!

Yes, that's carpet in the dinning room

Yes, there isn't a whole lot of counter space considering the space that we have.

So, how are we going to change it?

We've drawn diagrams and we've used apps but in the end the best thing we used to help us design our kitchen was to use the Ikea kitchen planner... mostly because I knew the stove and the sizes of everything actually existed (and as a nice bonus the chairs and table that we added to our design are actually the chairs and table that we own!)

Do we plan to actually make an Ikea kitchen?

Probably not

But it is a good tool for planning for right now.

Anyways.... here are 2 options that I've come up with for what might work in our space.

Ikea's kitchen planner

The option on the left has us swapping the current dinning room and kitchen and taking down the wall that separates them.  The 3 white boxes along the bottom would act us our pantry and coffee bar area.  Probably a bit more money than the option on the right but I feel like it is the better option.

Then there is the option on the right.  The kitchen stays relatively the same size as it currently is, however, the wall separating the dinning room and kitchen still comes down to make room for the peninsula.  Not a lot of room for upper cabinets because there are 2 windows that run along the wall where the sink is currently located. 

We don't currently have a backdoor to our house (well we do, you just have to go through the garage) and so with the option on the left it might also give us enough space to add in a backdoor of some kind... eventually.

Of course, we can sit here plopping things into Ikea's kitchen planner all day but it still doesn't tell us what's in the wall we want to take down, how much will it cost to move plumbing or if any of this is even possible.  

BUT... since we are likely not going with an IKEA kitchen I also went to a store in our area to inquire about kitchen designs (and talk to someone who actually designs kitchens daily)

Here's what the girl at the store came up with:

swapping the kitchen and dining room

Pros: lots of counter and cupboard space, big fridge, lots of space in our new dining room

Cons: Those cupboards and counters that line the bottom of the top picture are only 12 inches deep... 12 inches!  That's the length of a ruler people... not too big

keeping the kitchen where it currently is

Pros: We don't have to move plumbing or anything, all cupboards are a regular depth, the kitchen looks very spacious.

Cons: small dining room, smaller fridge, 

I'm still learning towards the swapping of the dining room and kitchen if possible.

BUT, I'll definitely be visiting another store sometime and this time getting them to totally work their magic and come up with something they think would be best for the space we have.

Anyways, it might not be getting done any time soon... but hopefully within the next couple of years we'll have a kitchen that better suits our needs.

Anyone who has gone through a kitchen renovation and wants to chime in with their opinion is welcome to... we aren't married to either of the above 2 options yet.

Backyard

Welcome to our backyard!

Our patio area and shed

We have a decently sized backyard with a garden already in place... which is perfect because if there is one thing John wanted was for there to be space for a big garden (and if this garden space isn't enough for him there are some community gardens that we can rent space from about a 5 minute walk away from us)

What have we changed?

Not much

The day before we moved here there was an estate sale around the corner so we picked up some hose and a rake.  The following week I was at Dollar Tree and saw they had spray nozzles for the end of a hose and picked up one of those (which is actually holding up surprisingly well).

We took out a few bushy plants to transplant our strawberries that we had on our balcony.  Not knowing what exactly our plans are for the garden for next year we just chose a spot at the end and figured since we didn't really know what the plants were we wouldn't miss them.

There are however some plants that do seem more like keepers

This one is hard to see because apparently we are also using it to support a tomato plant that didn't fair too well during the move.  It's a small bushy little tree that I'm assuming will be around next year.

Also not sure what this one is but it had a flower on it (and there were the beginnings of more of them at the top) but it seems to be doing well... is it one that continues to bloom year after year?  I haven't a clue.

There are also a bunch of these in the garden.  I actually bought 2 of these a few years ago to keep on my balcony.  They require next to no work and have survived many a winter.  

One day I want to make a flower garden under our bay window at the front of the house... and maybe just maybe some (or all?) of these plants could be moved there... because although we may not have much planned for the garden I do know that all that space will likely be filled with fruit and veggies.

Psst.. the last couple of Friday's I've been posting about our [new to us] house... it's kind of a thing I'm doing now I guess.  Here is last week's post

Home Renovations - 4 days prior to move in

Last Friday I talked about how we had been scrapping the popcorn ceilings and the mess it was leaving... It's not the best picture (apparently I didn't think to turn on any lights for pictures this day) but here is a shot at the "messy room" (we designated one room as the messy room where we put tools, vacuums, curtains... just anything that was going to make a mess so that the others could be cleaned and this one would be the last to be cleaned).  Anyways, all that white stuff along the wall... that's all ceiling.

Our messy room

Last week I also mentioned how we had an arsenal of vacuums at our place... 

4 vacuums should clean up a room don't you think?

A variety of vacuums

It should be noted that the 2 red ones are both partially broken... they are also the two that John and I actually own.  Maybe the next time Dyson is on Sale at the Bay we'll use up all our wedding gift cards on a fancy new vacuum.

Here is our "messy room" all cleaned up 4 days before we officially move in!

Our clean "messy room"

On this day I also wiped down all the walls and above the doors and the door handles and hopefully everywhere that those little bits of ceiling got.  I'm not so naive that I think the ceiling scrapings are all gone... but I think 90% of them might be.  The other 10% we'll be slowing cleaning up over the next few months probably.

We also painted the master bedroom this week!  We went with Benjamin Moore paint because I knew it would be the best out there but instead of using their very top level of paint I took the guy who worked at Benjamin Moore's advise and went with the Regal level (which I think turned out great!).  The gray colour is called Edgecomb Gray and the turquoise colour is San Jose Blue.  We also used their Waterborne Ceiling paint on our ceiling.  Our plan is to eventually paint or replace the wood around the window, the baseboards, and the door (which you obviously can't see in this picture) but we'll wait until our condo sells and we have a bit more money to do those updates.

Master Bedroom

I've been slowly emptying out the condo... everytime I go to the house I take a few boxes of things with me (and I send John to work with one since he passes the house on the way home to the condo).  When I came back to the condo on this day it was already looking so bare... nothing was left on the living room shelves!

Condo living room

We officially moved out of the condo and into the house a week ago... once our condo sells we have big plans for the house (new kitchen, new bathroom(s), the basement)... changes that will likely take a number of years to finish but slowly the house will be transformed into something that is more our style.

I'm Thinking White

It seems my eye is drawn to white as I browse through shops because I've got nothing else to do and why not consider things I could buy to put in our new home.  I haven't allowed myself to purchase anything... yet... why buy stuff just to move it right away.. right?  But once we get possession of the new house (ahem*today*ahem) I may be buying all the things I've found.  There's a teeny tiny chance that I MIGHT wait until we at least design our new kitchen before purchasing too much but that could be a while and I've got gift cards just waiting to be used!

The first things I found were from Marshalls... I can't confirm these are the same ones I saw at Marshalls but they are equally as nice (as far as I remember at least)

This may sound crazy as I'm not huge into coffee... I mean I'll enjoy it on occasion but I can't recall the last time I made it at home (mostly because John makes it and I'm not even sure how to use our fancy new coffee maker) but I want to make a bit of a coffee bar in the new kitchen/dining room.  Plus, by having a spot off the regular kitchen counters for the coffee maker will free up a tiny bit more counter space!  It's a win all around I'm sure.  I would use one of these to keep coffee in... because I don't want the oh so attractive Folgers can displayed on the counter either.  If I had a second one I might hide some tea bags in it.

Then I was at the mall getting my ring inspected and I was trying to leave my regular way when I walk to the mall (through the movie theatre) but it was blocked off.  So I went with the next best option and cut through Chapters.  Naturally I browsed a bit on my way through there and naturally one of my first stops in that store was the clearance rack.  That's where I spotted this little number

(ok there were actually 2 different ones and then when I went online to grab a picture I found out there are 3!).  I have no idea where I would put this and it serves zero purpose but come on... it was on CLEARANCE (and 76% off)!  Plus, I have a gift card for chapters that I've had for at least a couple of years that should really get used.

I also considered buying it for a certain girls Christmas party gift exchange but I didn't... yet.

Other things I've been looking at for the new house:

baskets... for blankets maybe?  

Curtains... I don't even remember what they look like in the house but I'm sure they need updating.

Pictures

Ovens (I was at Home Depot once looking for large storage containers)

New Kitchens (because I was at Home Depot)

Lights... because I'm sure the dining room one might need updating

Basically... I'm looking forward to being in our new home and how we will make it ours!  

Stay tuned for all the lovely details on how we update the place to our liking (if all is going according to plan I'm scraping ceilings today!)

DIY: Christmas Ornament Wreaths

Day 16

DIY Ornament Wreath

Welcome to Day 16 of Blogmas everyone!  Only 9 more days until Christmas!
I'm glad you're here!

Last week I took you on a little tour of my condo and some of the Christmas decorations I've put up (but not the stuff on my Christmas Tree) and I mentioned how my friend Jessica and I made Ornament Wreaths.  Well, today I'm here to walk you through that process.

First, Jessica and I planned to make these a year in advance.  Yes, I said a year.  But that's because we are Mennonite and didn't want to pay full price for ornaments.  If you don't mind paying full price for ornaments there is still plenty of time for you to make your ornament wreath this season.  If you want to save a few dollars than read on to find out what you will need and you can gather it all up at the end of this Christmas season.

Now that we both knew we would be making these lovely ornament wreaths it was time to get inspired.  A quick image search on google turns up TONS of pictures.

After my perusal of what other people had done I was originally thinking of doing a very colourful one that would include pinks and purples and well... every colour!  So I was buying lots of ornaments in all kinds of colours.

After a little more searching and thinking about what I already have in the living room (my plan was always to put this above my fireplace and my Christmas tree is right beside it) I started to think that a silver and gold ornament wreath would look elegant there

Then I thought about my love for turquoise... and even if it doesn't go with the tree decorations I likely won't be living in this condo for forever.  And so I considered a blue, turquoise, and silver one

For the record, when looking up turquoise wreaths I did stumble on a peacock one that I did consider making... but then I thought maybe Christmas was a season that I didn't need a peacock thing in my living room.

I think Jessica and I ended up making ours around mid November 2014.  After being inspired online I knew that I wanted a blue, turquoise, silver, and green one.  I didn't care that it wasn't matchy matchy with my tree.  I cared that I would love it when it was done (and I do).

This meant that I had to go out and get more ornaments now that I knew exactly what colours I wanted.

Some I found at Goodwill 

But most of the "new" ones (the ones that I got during Christmas season 2014 and not end of the previous Christmas season) came on sale from either Target or Walmart (this was back in the day when we still had Target up here in Canada... *sigh* those were the days)

I knew I wanted a variety of looks and sizes and my friend and I had agreed that we would swap ornaments with each other for different colours (so remember those pink ones that I got at the end of the previous Christmas season.. my friend used them and I used some of her extra silver and white ones).

Get LOTS of ornaments.  You're going to think you have enough but you need LOTS... I'm willing to bet I have about 100 on mine or so (but I also wanted mine to be loaded with them).

Other than the ornaments you'll also need a foam wreath.  I got mine from Michaels because they always have those 40% off coupons and I made sure mine was white (not green) so that it would blend more if you saw it through the gaps in the ornaments. I believe I purchased the largest size they had.

Then get yourself a glue gun if you don't already have one.  I bought mine at Michaels a long time ago when I was doing some crayon art) and it was the cheapest one they sold... it works fine (most of the time).

You can find the glue sticks for glue guns at dollar stores (you can also often find the glue guns there too).

I had my friend bring over some newspapers and we spread them out over the table.  We plugged in an extension cord and power bar and heated up our glue guns.

My friend wrapped some sparkly garland around her ornament wreath and I left mine plain.

When putting on the ornaments you need to take out the metal thing at the top that you would put a hook or string through to put it on your tree.  Well... I guess you don't have to but we did.  I also tried to put that part of the ornament away from the front so that you would see the round ball part.  Use whatever you need to in order to yank that metal thing out... we used some precision screw drivers and pliers.

The first thing I started with was to put ornaments around the outside of the wreath... trying to make sure that the ornaments would sit flat for when I put up on the wall.  Then I did the inside ring.  I didn't want there to being any pattern to my wreath... I just wanted it to be random.  After I finished both of those I used some more of my bigger ornaments in the middle sections and then started filling in spaces with some of the smaller ones.  I think it likely took an hour or 2 but my friend and I are both happy with how ours turned out (she even has other people asking her to make them... maybe we can start up a little business).

My finished product:

TIPS

Make sure you have LOTS of ornaments... I can't stress this enough.  You'll be sad and frustrated and possibly never get back to it if you have to go out and get more midway through.  If you are worried that you'll have lots of extra ornaments you can do what I did and put them in a basket for some Christmas Decor or in a large vase.

Make sure you have LOTS of glue for your glue gun.

Don't buy glass ornaments... we ended up breaking at least a couple.

Start by pulling lots of those metal things off the tops of your ornaments... I just think it might go a little quicker.

If you want to wrap a ribbon around the wreath so that you are able to hang it with that later on you need to do that before you put the ornaments on.  I didn't think of this... so I just hang mine without one... it still works but I do worry that one day I will come home to find it on the floor because it just isn't as stable.

Christmas Decor

Day 10

Christmas Decor

Hello and welcome to another day of Blogmas... I figured we are likely all setting up for Christmas now so I should get all of my decorating blogs posted sooner rather than later.  So here is what my place is looking like for Christmas (you can see my Christmas tree here).

I'll start by saying that I am not one of those people that feels the need to decorate every room of their house.  Even though my condo is only 5 rooms (2 bedrooms, a bathroom, living/dining room, and kitchen) and I likely could decorate every room... I choose not to over do it.

The first thing goes above my fireplace and I made it last year with my friend Jessica.  Come back next week to see how Jessica and I made them!

Speaking of my fireplace I put some garland over it and string some lights through it.  I also make sure to hang all the stockings that I own (sadly, they never get filled).  My aunt passed away a number of years ago and one of the things that she collected were these little holiday houses.  When we were splitting up her stuff each of her nieces and sister in laws took a house (you can find it in the bottom left corner).  Like I said... I'm not into crazy Christmas decorating and don't want to make a winter village scene like many other people I know... but I put the house out by my fireplace in memory of her.  The star on the left of my fireplace mantle is from one of my students.

I usually keep a basket of those premade and sealed up logs by my fireplace... I just buy a couple boxes when they go on sale. I'm running low this year because I forgot to get at the end of season last year (or I never saw them go on sale).  You can spy one real log in the bottom right corner... the basket is just beside it but my couch is hiding it in this picture.

Any ornaments that didn't get used on my Christmas tree or didn't get glued onto my ornament wreath I place in this plate/basket thing with some other Christmas/winter decor items.  I try to keep everything in here "wintery" and will leave it out until February/March (so blues, whites, greens, and silvers).  The basket sits at the end of my dinning room table... If the basket were a little smaller (or my table a little larger) I would put it in the middle.. and sometimes I put it there but I just end up having to move it whenever I have people over for food or games.

To also use up some extra ornaments I put a bunch of them in this giant vase that once held my birthday roses.  Well, actually, John did most of the work on this... even rearranging some of the ornaments to make sure it looked nice.

I'm not super into any holiday scents like pine tree or cinnamon so I just put out a red or white candle instead.  This one I got at Bath and Body Works last summer (shh... I'm hiding the label).  I figured it is red so it works!  The candle sits on my coffee table.

The last thing I did was something new for this year!  I like to display my own artwork in my living and dinning room (they are actually one room).  In fact, I didn't purchase a single piece of the artwork in those rooms!  I guess I can't really call this my own artwork but I like that I've changed it up for the season and made it just a little more festive.

Stay tuned because in a couple weeks a Blogmas post will be going up for how I made these!

Want more Blogmas?

Here is my Christmas Tree

Sushi

Confession:  I had a pet

That's right... had

I regret to inform everyone that my beloved Sushi has passed away to be with those great fish in the sky.

He will be lovingly missed by his owner... me

We will all remember him for his delightful home and his tree.

The fact that he didn't eat his food fast enough which made his water slightly dirty and me slightly angry

And that he loved to bury his head in his rocks.

He was probably always a little crazy.

There will be no memorial service because... he was just a fish.

My apologies... I never took a better picture of him.

Maybe, when I get a job for next year I'll get a new fish.  

His name shall be Sushi 2 (but I won't say 2) because Sushi is still a great name for a fish.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll actually bring him to my classroom.

Seriously though, I'm not too broken up about this.

As in I'm not at all.

I'm not sitting here with tears in my eyes and a pile of kleenex by my side.