February Storm Day #3

"So...how's it coming on those New Year's Resolutions, eh?"

I know that's what everyone is thinking. Well guess what? WE COMPLETED ONE. Maybe even two.

January and February have been slow and snow-filled. We've been very content to cuddle up and do mostly nothing as we watch the snow cover the car and driveway, forcing us to stay in pyjamas and sink deeper into the couch. I've been hard at work on Resolution Three, which was to not ruin the coffee anymore, and I'm happy to say that all desires to perk up the coffee with a little cinnamon have been subdued. However, I'm still allowed to add things to my own cup, like eggnog, once the brewing is complete.

Every once in a while, however, there's a nice day and we (well, TJ...) hop out of our jammies and start doing things like chopping wood and being lumberjacks.

Luckily, Shane and his crew don't seem to be pyjama people and they've also been busy at work. They took care of New Year's Resolution Two, which was NO MORE HOLES IN THE WALL. That's right, our balcony off of the upstairs bathroom now has a door. Now TJ is one step closer to his dream of putting a barbeque up there so he can step out of the shower and directly towards a hot dog. As soon as we scrape off all the paint, put up a new railing, repaint and he's able to convince me to pull a barbeque up the staircase, his dream will become reality. I'm thinking it will probably be somewhere between never, and still never. I am a firm believer in the rule of no barbeques on the second storey. Unless he can get it there by himself.

So now we have to work on Resolution One: Fix the back hall. It's still looking as terrible as ever, if not even more, because that's where we just toss everything that currently does not have a place.

"Where does this empty box go?"
"Dunno....back hall?"

"Where do I put the leftover dry wall?"
"Dunno....back hall."

"Where is this dresser going to go?"
"Erm....back hall...."

"Where will your parents stay when they come to visit?"
"Back hall."

(Just kidding parents, we now have two guest rooms...with beds!)



So. Anyone out there willing to help us accomplish Resolution One? I'll bake you cookies....or chili!

(I took multiple photos of the chili and this is as appetizing as it gets....)

New Year's Resolutions

TJ and I aren't really the resolutiony type. Anything we've said we'd do, agreed to try, promised - it never happens. And we're okay with that. Usually. TJ's okay with that. Sometimes I am not. Anyway, the point is - we have to make some house resolutions for the New Year, and this is maybe a safe thing to do, because it's stuff that we NEED to make happen. If not, well....we'll be forced to live a certain way. You know, with giant holes in the bathroom wall, and windows that make whistling sounds because they're not really finished properly. So these are safe resolutions. Ones that will probably happen. Maybe.

Resolution One: 

FIX THE HALLWAY

Our house has a giant secret. It's called the BACK HALLWAY. And also THE PORCHES. These are the areas we keep hidden, because we've done absolutely nothing to fix them up. Well...maybe a little. The sunporch has a new refinished hardwood floor. The guest entry has a new laminate floor. The back middle hallway has a new laminate floor. The reading porch has...boxes. Anyway, aside from the floors, nothing has been done in terms of making these hallways and porches into livable and usable areas. We try not to let people look at them. Except it's sort of difficult, because these are all the entries into our house, so if you come to visit, you have to go through at least one of them in order to enter our home. So again, we ask that if you come to visit, you do the polite thing: pretend you don't notice.

Our resolution for these areas is to GET THEM FIXED. Starting with the back middle hallway. Currently, it looks like this:

L: The view looking out from the kitchen
Center: Looking around the corner from the red dresser
R: The view out to the laundry room

As you can see, it's a mess. But some day it won't be! Because of the resolution: Fix the back hall! Our plan is to move everything out, tear off all of the tile board, pegboard and other undesirables, then cover it all up with the same wooden boards that we have in our laundry room. If you click on the picture and make it larger, you can see the wooden boards in the last photo. Then, we'll paint the boards (including those in the laundry room) with a greyish wash and all the trim will be painted with the Silkworm paint used for the trim in the rest of the house. Then we'll be able to move in a freezer and a bed for our someday puppy.

But then there's this:

The pantry area. This will be torn out and rebuilt. The back will be lined with bead board, the shelves rebuilt with a more usable design, and then doors added to close it all up so our someday puppy won't be able to break in and eat all the sugar, like what once happened with another puppy I know.

Someday I'm hoping it will look like this:

Pantry doors (courtesy of Cheri at http://www.iammommahearmeroar.net/) 

A beautifully organized interior (courtesy of Michelle and her blog Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust: www.michellelunt.com)

As you can see, I have high aspirations.

Resolution Two: 

NO MORE HOLES IN THE WALL

Our upstairs bathroom has a hole in the wall. It's supposed to be a door, but it's not. It's a hole. Covered by plywood and plastic and a little bit of insulation. I suspect there's something living in it. It could be a bird. It scratches around in the afternoons and I can hear it walking around the balcony sometimes. Aside from this, it hasn't been too bad living with a hole in our wall. It's not too cold, and it doesn't make too much noise when it's windy. But it looks awful. Particularly on the outside, which is the balcony that is in desperate need of repainting and a new railing (because as of now, there is no railing). I visited the neighbours one day before Christmas and looked across their yard to the side of our house, taking great note that the balcony/hole in the wall looked like something from a haunted house. What was once the nicest outdoor feature of our house is now the spookiest. To really let you in on our level of procrastination, I'll share this - the door has been in since the week before Christmas. It's sitting in a warehouse at the moment, ready to be picked up and installed. It's now January 12. So, resolution two: No more holes in the wall. Install the door. Sometime.

Resolution Three:

STOP BREAKING THE COFFEE

This isn't really a house resolution, more of a relationship resolution. I've ruined TJ's first Saturday morning back in Canada. He's been awake for about 5 minutes and I've done the unspeakable - I broke his coffee. I'm somewhat of a morning person - not in terms of having a lovely, personable quality when I first wake up, more of an "It's 7:30am on Saturday morning and I'm awake this is terrible" sort of thing. I am unable to sleep in. So I wake up and putter, and then eventually make coffee while TJ is still snuggled up in his nice warm bed.

I didn't drink coffee until I was 25. I know, I know, I missed some truly formative years in the coffee drinking lifestyle. I think this is maybe why I approach my coffee with the thought of "How can I make this extra delicious?" I like flavoured coffees. I like cream. I like vanilla bean sugar, and hazelnut syrups and basically anything that can be added to your basic coffee to make it EVEN BETTER. So that's what I was thinking this morning when I filled our stovetop percolator and began adding the coffee grinds. I had some leftover Kcups sitting in the cabinet, all different, wonderful, aromatic flavours. So I decided to add one: cinnamon pastry flavour. "Delicious!" I thought to myself.  Once it was finished, I poured it into my cupcake mug and began adding the extras: eggnog, vanilla bean sugar, and a dollop of whipped cream on the top. It was amazing. I invented Cinnamon Bun Coffee. 

Now here's something you need to know about TJ: he's not really a fan of cinnamon. I think he likes it a little bit, but my constant use and overindulgence when adding cinnamon to...well...everything I can....has just driven him over the line into having a somewhat negative attitude towards cinnamon for the last few years. I didn't think about this when gleefully adding my cinnamon Kcup into the coffee grinds. I only thought of this when I heard TJ coming down the stairs. I met him at the kitchen door and confessed to my crime - I broke his coffee. I made it into cinnamon coffee. I forgot about your cinnamon issue. I took your favourite thing about weekend mornings and BROKE IT. Sorry about that. On the bright side, I'll take one for the team and drink the rest of the coffee. I promise not to break your coffee anymore, I'll leave it alone to be regular coffee. So....resolution three: Stop breaking the coffee.

Resolution Four:

TJ'S RESOLUTION

After the coffee situation, I asked TJ what resolution he would like to make. This is what he said:

"I'm going to do everything exactly the same as I did last year - but a little bit slower. Because I'm getting old."

"Is that it?" I asked him.

"Yep."

Actually, it sounded more like "Yhehp" because of the accent and all. But it seemed pretty final. This resolution concerns me a little, mostly because the first two resolutions I made will involve TJ fixing things while I stand around pretending to supervise. It might take longer than I initially thought. I suppose the one silver lining is that if he is planning on moving slower this year, it will give me more time on weekend mornings to make an extra pot of coffee if I sort of "forget" about resolution #3.

Christmas in Pictures

Just a few pictures taken over the last couple of days. Apologies for the blurry/dark/noisy shots, this Christmas I've ignored all the settings on the camera and decided to just shoot away.

First of all, mum and dad's Christmas present showed up a few days early:

Mocha! An 8 week old Labradoodle, who won't stop growing.

Dad loves her, and woke her up early on Christmas morning to build her a fire to keep her cozy.

Also, a few small photos of the living room at our place all decorated for Christmas:

And to wrap it all up, the perfect use for those cast iron rads? Drying mittens!

It Snowed

So I'm up earlier than usual for a Christmas vacation day...although let's be honest, the latest I ever sleep in on any vacation is about 9am. I was shocked that the snowplow didn't wake me up at 4:30am. This first year in our house will be a constant learning experience. A few days ago I learned that the snowplow comes at 4:30am. And when it scrapes the snow from the concrete and then tries to back out of our little dead end street by doing some kind of three point turn (that is really more like a 17 point the turn by the time it actually gets out), it sounds like the world is ending. When I heard it for the first time I thought perhaps the Mayans had miscalculated by a few days and it was actually the 23rd of December that the world would end. Our bedroom overlooks the street, and as you have seen from the pictures, our house is practically ON the street. I half expect the snowplow operator to just knock on my window and say good morning. Anyway, this proximity means that the sound is magnified 500x. So, something to look forward to this winter. Another thing I have learned is that we will have to shovel. Those who currently live in apartments, do not take snow removal for granted. I know I know, at first, it seems kind of fun. You're shovelling snow! You're in the outdoors! All the neighbours are out, shovelling their snow. There's comradery, you're all in this together. And you're all wearing toques! (That's right, I bought myself a snow shovelling toque. It has a pom pom.) But here's the reality: Those comrades? They've been doing this longer than you have. They don't appreciate your cheerful "Isn't this great? SNOW!" sort of attitude. No, they already understand just how awful snow shovelling is, and they approach it with a different sort of demeanour. There's no prancing through the freshly fallen snow, no, they just GET IT DONE. And you know what? Halfway through shovelling your little path to your vehicle, you realize that this is serious business. Snow shovelling is no joke. It's sweaty, and the snow is heavy, and your shovel is ridiculously awful and in no condition to shovel this snow, what were you thinking? You need one of those push shovels that can shovel ALL THE SNOW. You're going to get one straight away. Except you can't get out of your driveway, because there's snow in the way. And then you learn this: neighbours are awesome. They will help you shovel your snow. They'll bring their own push shovels and shovel your driveway in less than 3 minutes (partly because your driveway is kind of small and partly because those push shovels are AMAZING). And then during the next snowfall, when you awake and throw a coat over your pyjamas and shove your feet into your rubber boots, you'll notice that good old Wayne has gotten up even earlier than you and already shovelled off your deck and made you a path to your car. Neighbours are the best. Especially the neighbours on Chestnut Street. Which is great, because we're supposed to get another snowstorm on Sunday. Just kidding neighbours, stay in your homes. I've bought a push shovel. And now I leave you with a little song:

 

Winter's Night

Our blog has been severely neglected this month. I was thinking it was due to all the preparations for the Christmas season and other things, like laundry and running from school to school for sub days, but you know what I've realized?

WE'VE SETTLED IN. That's right. Weekday evenings and weekend afternoons were usually reserved for blogging, but this last month or so we've been putting the blog on hold and instead settling into the coziness of the kitchen and living room with extra cups of coffee and the Vinyl Cafe on the radio. "What blog?" we've said. "We don't blog. We drink coffee in our living room now. We bake things in the kitchen now. (me) We build things in the basement now. (TJ)"

I have to admit, it's been nice. But it also means that we've abandoned all of our little projects. Sometimes even in the middle of projecting. Like painting the furniture in the blue bedroom. Right now it has a coat of primer and a coat of paint, and is also sitting on top of plastic. Completely unfinished. But it's easy to forget that, especially when you can just close the door. Anyway, I'm thinking that the new year will revive us, and we'll get back to our projects in 2013 with a new energy. It will also help to have TJ back in the country, as at the moment he's at home in Ireland, celebrating Christmas with his family. I had to stay home to hold down the fort. It's not been too bad, although I won't lie, I've spent the majority of my time at my parents' house. It turns out that with TJ gone, our house is suddenly bigger and scarier, and there's new noises that I've never heard before.

Anyway, the point of this particular blog post is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and holiday season, and to thank you all for following along on one of our biggest adventures so far. We love hearing all the comments in the comment section, as well as in person. It always makes me happy when we go out and someone stops us to say how much they are enjoying the blog and seeing the progress we are making on this cute old house. I promise that we'll get back to it all in 2013. Until then, tuck yourselves into your own cozy homes, pour yourself a glass of something delicious, and enjoy the holidays with those you love!

We'll leave you with some of my favourite winter music:

From the Kitchen...

Just a quick blog post before heading out to my sister's house on this snowy day for meat pies and Christmas parades and cider at the Railway station.

Do you know how much I love my kitchen? So much. I love the farmhouse looking sink and the old fashioned taps, and the chef's table and the old meat grinder TJ saved from the antique dealer. I love it even more now that I have inherited my grammie's cookbook. And let it be known that this one has the good recipes inside, not the edited ones she would pass out to those who asked her for her tasty recipes. Also let it be known that she refers to recipes as "receipts" throughout the entire book, and has her receipt for salmon loaf included about three different times.

Today was the first day that I actually made a receipt from the book. Cranberry nut bread. It smells amazing, and it was the perfect thing to cook today. We have our Christmas decorations up in full, and it's been snowing lightly all morning. I put on a pot of german chocolate cake infused coffee, set the radio to the Stuart MacLean show and got started by chopping cranberries, pecans, and zesting an orange. I love baking already, but to be able to use my grammie's cookbook made it all the more special.

Love this book. It's an old scrapbook from what appears to be the 1950s, filled with construction paper pages that are covered in my grammie's beautiful handwriting. The recipes are in no particular order other than how she came across them (the salmon loaf must have occurred multiple times in her life...). Also included in here? The original recipe for the Frosty Treat's clam batter, invented by my grammie.

Chopped pecans, hazelnuts and cranberries....so pretty in one of the pottery bowls made by Joyce (the lady who lived here previously).

And the finished product, minus the lemon glaze. If only everyone could smell this....


By the way, remember my previous post wishing for snow? DOESN'T IT MAKE THE GARDEN LOOK SO MUCH BETTER?

Told you so.

Snowflakes and Silver Bells

It started to snow this afternoon - very light, sparkling, swirling snowflakes. I can see them collecting on the roof of my neighbour's house and as it's nearing the end of November I suddenly realized that Christmas is less than a month away. TJ is leaving for Ireland on the 15th of December, abandoning me for three weeks while he partakes in the Belfast Christmas market, family sessions at the Vintage and New Years Day at the Woodville. We want to have somewhat of a Christmas season together before he goes so I've started sorting through boxes, looking for decorations. Doing so, what I've come to realize is that what worked in our apartment is definitely not going to work in this house. What a great reason to go shopping for Christmas decorations, am I right?