A STUDENT AGAIN

just a really quick post to announce that i'm officially back in student mode and am consumed with loads of readings of academic papers, excerpts of textbooks and sitting in 3 hour lectures ... i still cannot believe that i'm actually in london working on my master's degree ... i am taking 2 modules this autumn term ... my first course is "planning for education and development" ... it is a practical course on education policies and different planning approaches developing nations and the international community use when delivering an education system and the various issues that are encountered ... my second course is "economic perspectives on education planning" ... the main focus is on efficiency and equity of education and how that relates to teacher training, incentives and education for all ... absolutely loving this ... will keep updating

cheers ~n

MISADVENTURES IN LIVING ABROAD

well the joys of being on holidays is that you get to enjoy a hotel stay and all the perks of eating out, sleeping in, visiting sights ... traveling to another city for school is a completely different story ...

j and i had to madly rush around london as we only had a few days in our hotel and with our trusty tourist map and tube travel card we set out to try and find a flat to let ...

well first day we wandered around some neighborhoods we thought we'd like to live in and were disappointed at the prospects ... too far away from school, too shady looking, too close to all the pubs and really loud touristy areas ... so we restructured our plan and decided to focus on the bloomsbury area as that is where my school is ... we emailed some letting agents in the area and tried to set up some appointments ...

second day woke up to some emails and tried to organize some viewings and many of them couldn't meet until the next day ... by fluke we found an ad and phoned the letting agent and we could meet them in 20 minutes ... we ran over in the rain and met our lady and had a look around ... all i can say is the photographer was amazing at making the studio flat appear deceptively spacious ... we looked at 3 in this cartwright gardens building and it wasn't too bad ... extremely secure buildings that are well taken care of, the flats are furnished, laundry on site and super clean ... 2 out of the 3 were in the basement and the third was on the 3rd floor overlooking the tennis courts and green space and about 2 feet larger than the others ... we considered putting a deposit down but as it was nonrefundable and it was our very first flat we looked at we went on our way and tried to find our next viewing down by hyde park in paddington area ...

we caught the wrong tube line and ended up on the opposite side of the park and we ran to the neighborhood in the pouring rain only to find that our letting agent wasn't even there and when we phoned him he said he was on his way to meet us and after waiting for 45 minutes he still didn't show so we left ... we phoned to secure the flat on the third floor at cartwright gardens and within the 45 minutes of leaving the place someone had already secured a lease on it ... we decided to put a deposit on the slightly larger basement flat and went home somewhat happily that we found a place that would work for me to walk to school ... i'll admit we still we a little unsure if that was the right thing to do ...

the next morning we went to put all the paperwork through and it was confirmed that this was the right spot to live because transport for london decided to have a tube strike and it really showed us the nightmare of trying to get around when one of the major routes of transport gets shut down ... i felt much better that i had a 10 minute walk to school and a quick trip around the neighborhood we found a beautiful grocery store and a shopping centre that has a market on the weekends ...

thinking we were good to move in the next day we tried to set up the money transfer with the bank and the nightmare began ... we could only transfer an amount that large if we were there in person (well obviously that was not going to happen) the next option was we could transfer up to $1000 a day over to the company and at that rate we would be moving in the following week ... so the next best solution was to get one of our parents to go down to their bank in canada and force them to transfer the money over as soon as possible ... it actually worked but of course we had to delay moving in by 2 days because of the slowness of this whole process ...

in the midst of all of this i had to go enroll in person at the institute of education ... stand in many queues and find out at the end of it all that my canada student loan didn't really count for my status as a sponsored student and i was expected to pay a third of my tuition right then and there ... i managed to talk them into signing my loan papers and granting me an extension though ...

no pictures yet of the interior of our spacious flat at cartwright gardens but a view of the exterior of our lovely building ...

yup that's our ground floor flat ... what a lovely view :)

our gigantic door and awesome tiled stairs

one of the best parts about walking home is the fantastic curved street completely lined with baskets of flowers and planter boxes ... it really does make the tight living quarters more bearable and a little more dreamy :)

cheers ~n

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

A FUN LITTLE PROJECT

j and i have lots of fantastic pictures in our house but it's always nice to add in your own things to make a place more homey ... enter one of n's many projects from the summer ... redoing and updating j's office

part 1 ... i took some of our travel pictures from our fantastic vacations in hawaii, london and new york ... i developed them in black and white, bought some frames and ta da ... instant personalized art

next i moved the paintings out of j's office, found a spot on the wall and put up the arrangement so it can remind him of happier more relaxing times if he's having a tough day at work :)

part 2 ... do you ever save tickets, brochures or postcards from your travels and never know what to do with them besides storing them in a box? me either ... until now ... i had an idea to get some deeper frames and arrange the leftover reminders of our trips into collages ... i made 2 for our new york vacation and 2 for our london travels

here they sit on the table awaiting a spot on the wall in j's office ... it took a bit of time but i decided to go with a color theme for each frame

new york new york ... aah the memories of staying at the landmark waldorf astoria hotel, going by accident to the museum of modern art (moma) instead of the met, our new york city pass which was so helpful to explore the city sights at a fraction of the price, sightseeing at the empire state building and traveling on the circle line ferry to see lady liberty and ellis island ... all those fond memories in one little box

more new york ... this box includes tickets to yankee stadium during the second last season before they moved ... where we got to see a-rod, jeter, posada, clemens, matsui, the legend that is riveraas they played the tigers with pudge and the chance to boo sheffield, using the metro card to ride the subway to the game and having some super friendly homeless subway guy take our money, disappear for awhile and actually return with our card loaded up for our ride to the bronx (for a small donation of course), our second row broadway tickets to phantom of the opera, and remembering the city all lit up at night

moving onto london ... no stop to london is complete without riding the tube and making sure to please mind the gap, our travels included stopping by the national gallery in trafalgar square to admire way too many paintings, finding the iconic red telephone booths that line the streets, and the double decker buses that are everywhere, cruising the thames on a river boat and admiring the many bridges that we walked over again and again and also a stop to shakespeare's outdoor globe theatre

london and pieces of england ... this box has memories of our one day trip out of the city to soak in the history of the mysterious stonehenge, the city of bath and the amazing windsor castle, of course just like new york this london trip also used the city pass which opened up exploring the sights at an exceptional price, tours of the majestic st. paul's cathedral and the surreal westminister abbey and remembering big ben the official time keeper of the city

i found the perfect spot for these on the wall beside the closet door in the corner ... offset them to make it not so straight and boring

part 3 ... i added in another picture of a street map of new york city (courtesy of ikea), moved j's desk and angled it against the corner, and slid one of his filing cabinets over beside it

i think these two projects found a perfect spot in j's office and remind us of all the fun that we've had over the years

cheers ~n

FINISHING DETAILS

it took about 4 years to finally finish all of the major changes in this front room ... there is still a few finishing details like painting all of the trim, putting up a window covering that isn't a stapled together sheet held up with alligator clips and nails (the result of j's fabulous "sewing skills"), adding an area rug for the sitting area, an end table possibly with a lamp and few more decorations to make the place more homey but that can wait until a later date and at this moment in time i am proud to show off what has been accomplished ... we have a sitting area, an entrance closet and a dining room with a table and chairs! we can actually have people over to sit down for a home cooked meal and they don't have to balance their plates on lawn furniture ... so i hope you enjoy the transformation ... i know we certainly are :)

here is a before picture ... i unfortunately do not have very many before pictures as i didn't document the changes happening in the beginning ... as you can see the room is primed and ready for paint ... before it was yellow on 2 opposite walls and a rust color on the others ... it was beautiful ... so beautiful that we immediately broke out the primer and turned the room a powdery white ... there was a door and tiled entrance on the left hand side (which you cannot see) and the window was over closer towards the corner ... the floor was yellow skinny hardwood that we would liked to have saved and resanded and stained but it has pieces missing and "repairs" done to fill in the massive holes from the old octopus gravity furnace ... so we went right over top with a dark laminate floor

fast forward a bit of time (well actually about 2 plus years) and the door and window switched spots (during the coldest time of the year one december when it was -35 degrees celcius plus the freezing wind ... everyone thought we were crazy but when you are doing the work yourselves you make the time whenever the happy helpers are available to lend a hand even in the dead of winter), a tiled entrance migrated across the room and it stood painted with its new floor for awhile awaiting the changes to come

next add in some important pieces to pull the room together ... like an actual closet plus simultaneously finish the basement and move the leather furniture downstairs for the living room

find some much smaller chairs for the sitting area ... and finding 2 of them makes it even better

buy a table for the dining room area that's not too big and not too small but just right ... and of course it should fit the criteria of being modern in design

next find some dining room chairs ... i like the contrast of the white table with the black chairs and leather is easy to clean ... and i like how they kinda match the detailing of the white sitting chairs

find a few things for the empty corner ... anything to do with the eiffel tower and flowers will do nicely

put it all together and admire that the idea from 4 years ago is actually almost complete :)

add some lighting, a few more decorations and now the room is ready for company to come over and visit and feast

reuse some previous decorations and pieces and people can come over to sit and talk or enjoy a book

hope you enjoyed the tour of our little front room ... can't wait to finish off the room but that will wait until we get back from our overseas adventure :)

cheers ~n