PRODUCT REVIEW

this weekend n had the task of drawing up floor plans for project 109 and one of our friends told us about google sketchup ... it is a tool to create 3d models and this program was definitely not used to its full potential as my sketches were 2d ... would love to play around with this at a later time

overall it was fairly straight forward to use ... i really like the measuring tool that gave exact measurements down to the inches when selecting 2 points ... it really helped keep the drawings true to scale ... and i liked adding the details of carpet, wood flooring, tile, shingles and water to make it so pretty :)

upper floor plan

main floor plan

basement floor plan

(even the black tile around the bathroom is there)

our house on paper from top to bottom

cheers ~n

MAKES SENSE FOR THE HOME

so j sent n on a mission to buy some towels for the house and she excitedly traveled to the local home sense store (for the discounted towels only) ... however a tip from an enthusiastic shopper informed her that friday mornings the new stock arrives and it would provide the most selection ... the only problem is that there were so many lovely things to pick that n did get the towels as shown below but she inflated the towel budget by 250% because the deals were just too good to pass up and it was truly things needed to furnish the house so here goes ... ooh and aah at the new purchases

lovely towels and the purpose of the trek

a new foaming soap pump for the kitchen and it's white :)

much needed wine glasses and place mats for the table

... can't wait to have people over and actually be able to eat at a dining room table

... soon very soon

well who doesn't want to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea

and dream of dreamy places like london, venice, new york and paris

matching plates

... the plan to put them above the cabinets for decoration

i spy a fancy place mat for zoe and new water and food dishes

a new cushy bed for zoe and it matches the house

zoe and froggy obviously approve :)

the reason why the budget jumped up so quickly

... new chairs for the sitting area in the front room

side note ... i really wanted to find white leather chairs that were open and had no arms well i found them and the cost of the 2 chairs was half the price of 1 chair i was recently checking out so it had to be bought of course

and i totally lucked out because there's not one

but two ... a matching set a somewhat rare find at home sense

... thanks for the shopping tip mom

cheers ~n

MORE STRIPES

the same time the laundry room was getting the stripes my mom and i were working on the basement bathroom as well

before all white bright and shiny

planning and painting the vertical stripes

wait a day to do the rest

invite mom over again and tape off the horizontal stripes

admire the work before painting

paint and wait

the finished product

really loving the finished effect

cheers ~n

IN 2 DAYS

as you can see the rain has finally stopped and given us a little break and the outdoor fun can begin again

what does the ladder against the house mean?

it's time to build another dormer :)

now those building fellows were super speedy (the very first dormer took 5 days to build, the second one 3 and 1/2 days and this third one only took 2 days ... i think these boys should go into business) ... and n was preoccupied with organizing projects and she didn't get any action pics so here's the final product

when i walk up the stairs this is what my eyes now see

... oh what a cozy library study area this will be

here's the before

(shortly after we first moved in 4 years ago and began to open up the loft space)

and now ... love the transformation

... so much room to walk around

and the street view

cheers ~n

IT'S RAINING IT'S POURING

well the weather is not cooperating and we aren't able to head out and work on the numerous outdoor projects

... so we will stay inside

so what does n have planned for today?

well it involves miles and miles of green tape

(and we were able to test out this brand frogtape and just regular green painters tape and honestly the frogtape was far superior in preventing bleeding under the paint)

take a bit of inspiration from this handy pamphlet from benjamin moore

lets add some interest and fun details to the least suspected place

... the laundry room

start by figuring out the spacing of the vertical stripes

... paint the different colors

... let dry and peel away the tape

admire up close ...

wait until the next day to finish the design

tape the horizontal lines ...

paint, peel away the tape and admire

look how fabulous is the laundry room now?

i love adding unexpected details to unexpected places ... stay tuned for a few more unexpected finishing reveals ... coming soon

cheers ~n

1-800-GOT-JUNK? WE DO! WE DO!

earlier i posted about how much junk is currently occupying the back patch of our yard and the latest projects have added even more ... we are so close to finishing the last big renos and want to wait until then to call for a bin ... you may think its crazy to not ditch the junk asap but it gets pretty pricey pretty quick to keep calling for a bin service and you can only have a certain number of bins in a year and then they cut you off ... so we will hold out until the last hole is cut in the roof and hope that no one calls to complain about the messy neighbors ... in the mean time feel free to judge the collection and j and n will go hang their heads in shame

cheers ~n

THIS MAKES ME SMILE

as mentioned before zoe really loves her froggy but there is one thing that she will ditch froggy for and that is a tennis ball ... well actually any ball will do :)

cheers ~n

SO CLOSE ... BIRTHDAY SURPRISE ... TAKE #2

so last year j surprised n with a hot air balloon ride for her birthday ... how romantic ... and we were so close to going but a nasty cloud covered swooped right in and shut that down pretty quickly ... so we decided to wait until the spring/summer to go again ... i mean who really wants to go up in the freezing air in an open basket in the middle of an alberta winter anyways

well today was supposed to be that day ... checked the weather ... gorgeous sunny not a cloud in the sky ... so at 5:30 am we got the phone call giving us the go ahead to drag our sleepy selves down to the launch site ... well i will let the pictures do the talking

6:06 am ready with tickets to catch our ride across the cityscape

pulling into the launch site ...

see absolutely gorgeous

unloading the balloon ...

see the competition in the background ...

they arrived 30 minutes before we did

still setting up and off they go

balloon stretched out, basket attached and ready to inflate

an inflating rainbow

holding steady to fill with all that air

and it just keeps getting bigger

j plus n ready for a hot air balloon ride

i think we are good to go

nope ... a gust of wind swoops in and covers the basket and vehicle

go j ... keep holding on

(side note ... the 1 crew member was holding the rope and the wind pulled him down and he was sliding across the field holding onto the rope for dear life ... j stepped in and helped hold the balloon down ... my hero)

unhooking the balloon from the basket

one of the burners caught the balloon and ripped a gigantic hole ... so it's a no go :(

time to deflated the balloon and pack up and try again

cheers ~n

update ... so we tried 2 more times since and have been unsuccessful in our attempts ... first time the west end of the city had a huge rain storm that night and soaked the launch site and the second time it was too cloudy ... next try will be august 10 ... take #5