JUST A FEW NEW THINGS

as i type this a lot has happened in the past few weeks ... so many changes everywhere in the jplusn house

first off we worked our butts off for months and finally made progress in the finishing of major parts of the house ... still didn't get all of it finished but that's what our happy helpers are for (thanks again guys we really couldn't have done this if it wasn't for you)

as you can see all of our doors now have handles and it is so lovely to hear a click as the door smoothly closes

my attempt to grow a herb garden this year fell short and i ran out of time and patience trying to get those seeds to sprout ... so it will have to wait for next spring until i am back in the country ... they are tucked away safely in the garage and my photobooks that i made of j and my trip to new york now occupy the shelf

we finally found a light at the home depot to fill the entrance way ... we got to enjoy it for about a day and then we were gone ... something to enjoy when we get back

our master ensuite has all it bits and pieces in place ... i didn't get a chance to snap a pic of the drywall progress but oh well

you get the idea of what it's going to look like when it's done

of course one of the biggest changes was the exterior of the house ... j's uncle strapped the house and got it ready for it's extreme makeover

then we filled the spaces with blue styrofoam boards to help up the insulation factor on the house ... it already feels warm and cozy

next some amazing james hardie board siding to amp up the drama on the house ... we hadn't heard of it until about 3 weeks ago and i must say it is gorgeous ... the perfect color, the most amazing grain to it and the beauty of this is it looks like wood but it's cement board so no maintenance ... yeah!

the start of something beautiful ... the dormers are going to be the same siding as the bottom of the house and then the triangle parts are going to get a lighter tan color and some vertical pieces to give it a nice contrast ... i'm sure it will look great when it's finished ... this is where j and n exhaustedly left canada, boarded a plane ...

and as i type this ... this is what is now outside my hotel room window ... we are in london for some time while n gets to start her master's in education and international development at the institute of education

it's noisy, it's busy and it's going to be a welcome break to take an extended working vacation ... can't wait to start my classes, find a flat, tour london and of course travel around in europe

cheers ~n

LOOKING SO FANCY

near the beginning of n's summer vacation she had an ambitious idea to dig up a bunch of grass and build some lower tiered flower boxes in the front yard ... well as n's extended summer vacation comes to a close ... n and her fabulous mom have had a couple weekends to sneak away from the never ending house finishing list and step out in the sunshine that finally came and build the planter boxes and finally fill them up with cedar mulch and i must say they are looking so lovely

with the addition of our spacious and lovely veranda came the challenge of trying to salvage the skinny walkway and make it appear larger than it really is ... enter some gravel from the backyard used to make the teeny tiny sidewalk appear bigger

the flowers now reach all the way to the sidewalk

who doesn't love symmetry? it was a little tricky to get this but i think it looks fab

side profile ... so nice to have the front almost done

i am pleased with the end result

cheers ~n

MAJOR BLOG SECRET

so we had to decide what to do with out puzzling front entrance and come up with a solution that would work for our little house ... we wanted something covered to protect the entrance way from the elements and something to add a little space to ... on a friday night j and his trusted happy helpers came up with this grand plan to build a covered veranda and they worked exceedingly fast and this massive project was completed in 2 weekends

here's our little hut before all the dormer additions

house completed with the bedroom dormers

our new and lovely two tiered deck

it's wonderful to have all this space

what the house looks like now ...

i can't wait to get some chairs and a table out front ...

and some pots and flowers ...

and the house numbers ...

and the mailbox ...

cheers ~n

SOMEONE'S TURNED 30

well as each year passes it is inevitable that you get older ... well this day of september 4th n hit a milestone ... i turned 30 ... my lovely parents brought over some of my favorite flowers to commemorate the day

i received many birthday cards of course poking fun at how old i am getting ...

oh the joys of being the oldest

another look at the beautiful flowers sitting in my dining room

cheers ~n

update - j also arranged a fantastic surprise breakfast brunch at the hotel macdonald in the empire ballroom on the sunday ... all of my family and j's family were there ... it was an amazing atmosphere to be dressed up sitting in a fancy ballroom and enjoying a buffet that cannot be described ... the food ranged from salads to custom made omelets to an entire dessert station ... absolutely fantastic and an amazing way to turn 30