Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

J PLUS N VERSION 2.0

n has been on a six month hiatus from posting but i will be back somewhat regularly ... lots of changes have happened with the lovely house and time has been in short supply which = no postings

since getting back from our fantastic london adventure i jumped back into working full time, having an actual commute to work (40 minute drive compared to 15 minutes before), taking an online master's course (which no word of a lie is waaaaay more work than attending in person), writing two 5000 word research papers and prepping to do another 5000 word paper this summer and starting to think about my upcoming 20 000 word dissertation (which isn't worrying me at all)

with hand over my heart i do hereby promise to become a somewhat regular blogger again

see ya soon(ish)

cheers~n

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

JUST A WALK IN THE PARK

so far living in london has been A-MAZ-ING! we seriously cannot get enough of this city ... j and n are a couple of suckers for history and it is truly an absolute dream to live in a place that is so rich with history, beautiful architecture and so full of life ... completely opposite of our small city in canada

well it is october and there is no snow here, it is still green and sunny and surprisingly warm ... j jokes that we are living in tropical london :)

we ventured out and decided to go for a picnic in a park ... so many beautiful spaces to choose from but we went for the biggest in london town ... hyde park ... what a fantastically lazy afternoon to lose the books and get lost right in the middle of the city ... enjoy










cheers ~n

Monday, August 9, 2010

LOVE YOU J!

on a certain friday in august ... the 9th day to be precise in the year 2002 at approximately 5:30 pm j and n were married under a big white tent in a beautiful outdoor location and celebrated with a small group of family and friends ... there was lots of candles, ribbons, lights and flowers, a string quartet, an hors d'oeuvre reception immediately after the ceremony, no program with speeches or toasts just an opportunity to share in light hearted conversation with out special guests ... happy 8 years ... love you j

xoxo ~n

Saturday, July 31, 2010

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

Friday, July 30, 2010

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

Saturday, June 26, 2010

SO MUCH TO DO ...

here is the gigantic to do list for both home and work ... aaah not even enough time to write this ... must get back to work

project 109

master floor
... build 2 dormers ... 1 for the bed area and 1 for the library ... that means cutting out two gigantic holes and building the gable dormers and putting in the windows
... plumbing for the master ensuite and put in bathroom fixtures ... shower, tub, toilet, sink, faucets, and mirror
... electrical and lighting
... insulation and drywall and taping and mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding :)
... paint walls, trim and doors and door handles
... carpet the floor and stairs, tile the bathroom
... baseboards, window casings and doors

main floor
... finish painting the guest bedroom and j's office closets
... finish painting all the baseboards and window casings
... tile the kitchen back splash
... edging for all tiled areas
... door trim and handles
... electrical and lighting for the dining room lights and over the cabinet lighting
... re-drywall and paint the main floor bathroom ... built in shelving for towels in the bathroom
... assemble the railing for the stairwell
... finish capping for kitchen wall

basement
... finish tiling laundry room and bathroom
... carpet the basement and stairs
... baseboards and doors
... paint trim and doors and handles
... finish bathroom fixtures ... shower, sink, toilet, faucets, and mirrors
... shelving for laundry, bathroom and bedroom

exterior
... re-shingle the roof, soffits, facia and trim
... eaves trough and drain pipes
... railing for the covered deck and stairs
... lighting for covered deck
... build the lower deck
... build a new fence
... finish landscaping ... build flower boxes and of course always adding more pretty flowers and shrubs
... build a front porch
... siding or stucco for the house
... exterior lighting, address and mailbox
... potentially build a double garage with a rental suite up top and new driveway

whew this list is monstrous and the crazy part is this list is actually getting smaller and more manageable ... i guess that's what happens when you reno a house from top to bottom ...

and now moving on to the work list that has just been completed in the last few days

... finished report cards ... wrote comments and proofed for 42 students and proofed other's report cards
... finished individualized program plans ... in the past years i've only had 1 to write in past 3 years and this year i had 11 ... i was drowning in paper work
... finished files and notes for consultants
... planned for the last week of school activities and sports days
... attended a multitude of staff meetings

and the available timeline for finishing the house is getting much smaller because london will be calling in no time

cheers ~n

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

IT'S NICE TO COME HOME TO THIS ...

in real life j gets props for being such an amazing, helpful husband ... in the blogger world not so much because he wants to be a silent invisible entity on this blog but today he can't get away with that ... while n is going through the year in busy teacher land j always steps up offers a helping hand wherever possible ... he cooks breakfast and dinners for n, if he has spare time he gets the groceries, he drives n to her workouts (because parking is scarce) and he always goes above and beyond and does the little extras ... case in point j loves to go golfing and this week he was going twice and j and n were so super busy that they wouldn't get to hang out for very long ...

so n came home to relaxing on the deck with these ...

homemade strawberry lemonade

and having the most delicious salad ready to mix ...

mmm spinach salad with pecans, dried cranberries and goat chevre cheese all with a homemade honey mustard white wine vinaigrette dressing

and dinner to reheat whenever n was ready to eat ... n's fav homemade pita pizzas ...

on the left grilled chicken with spinach, red bell peppers, grape tomatoes, mozzarella and goat chevre cheese and on the right tomato based with ham, red bell pepper, mushrooms, mozzarella and goat chevre cheese and of course secret spices all on a whole wheat pita ... don't they look yummy ... well they sure were :)

n has said it many times in real life and n will say it in blogger world ... she is taken care of by the bestest boy ever ... love you j xoxo

cheers ~n

Thursday, June 10, 2010

IN MY HOUSE IT'S BLACK AND WHITE

anyone who knows n knows that she has a love to the point of obsession with black and white photographs, paintings, posters of buildings, cityscapes and landscapes and any other decorating ... now don't get me wrong i love an amazingly beautiful colored painting ... in someone else's house ... in my house it is black and white ... i actually had a really hard time debating with j about letting these into the house ... my reasoning to allow them was 1 - they were paris and london, 2 - they were a very dark brown and black with highlights of white and 3 - they were actual paintings instead of just a picture ... you may be laughing right now at how ridiculous that sounds but just ask j and little j (my youngest sis) ... we spent a good hour talking about these points in the store and now i am so glad that i caved and allowed a slight variation of color into our house

now just because i gave in once doesn't mean i'm willing to continue to do this ... i see lots of great colorful pieces but they still don't belong in my house ... i know putting this out in the internet world will bring criticism about how plain and boring my house is ... i know it will come ... i follow apartment therapy ... people's comments can be cruel

but i don't care i like my boring black and white obsession and here is the proof:
















cheers ~n

Saturday, May 22, 2010

BACK TO FRONT


so the back dormer has been in for quite sometime ... hoping this long weekend can bring some progress on the front of the house

on a side note ... wow this place looks just a bit disastrous ... one day some exterior finish will cover over the mess and it will be a distant memory ... one day

cheers ~n

update ... the weather so did not cooperate this weekend and the rain rain did not go away, the happy helpers stayed away and we will wait another day

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

IS THIS TOO MUCH?!?!

when your pile of junk pulled out of the house is higher than the fence ... is that a sign that there are too many renos going on?


this is probably about the sixth or seventh time in the last 4 years that this has happened to us ... time to call the junk removal truck yet again before the pile pushes the fence over

cheers ~n

Friday, May 7, 2010

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

so this was last week ...


this is it now ...


seriously?!?!?! what the what i thought it was supposed to be spring

cheers~n