More Busy

The last 2 days, we've been busy around here. Moving stuff from room to room... unpacking, that sort of thing.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I remember...

-- Changed Jess's room all around... now her dresser is in the dormer area and the window is accessible, as well as the weird tiny closet... her white tables didn't fit into the new set up, but she has her desk and another wooden desk, so almost the same amount of table space. The head of her bed now is against the bathroom wall and the side against the other window. One table is in the funny space between the closets and the other is along the wall just as you come in the door. It works much better now and makes way more sense. Plus, if we ever had a cool breeze, she could likely get it with having both windows open. With the new configuration, we also set up her bed frame... now she has a bit of under bed storage and *I* gained a bunch of storage in the nursery not having all the bed frame pieces in there.. .win win win :)

-- Scrubbed the linen closet and unpacked linens... all the ones we use often were already out of course, but now all the lesser linens are accessible too!

-- Finished plumbing the sink in the downstairs bathroom / laundry room... we did the drain work last night... then hooked up the water supply lines tonight... we didn't want any water to go in the drain until the abs cement had cured, hence the delay.

-- The mudroom has been undergoing almost daily changes and is starting to really come along now... there's space and everything now. Still some more changes to happen there, though.

-- Today I tidied up the "nursery" room... still no plants or babies... dunno why its the nursery ;) The big monitor got moved out of there and into our bedroom to be set up at the desk... my big black tack box got moved up there, it'll get loaded when my tack comes home from the storage unit. Some of the boxes in there also got unpacked, some consolidated... the Christmas tree got moved from the living room up to this room.. nice to have it gone from the living room!!

-- A few boxes went down to the basement and put on the shelves we put down there on the weekend... more will follow.

-- I even hung a picture on the wall today.... it was a picture that was in a box with dresser mirrors and was the only thing left in the box... by hanging it up next to the front door, I covered the nasty ugly picture hook that was there AND emptied a box... yay :)

-- The other closet upstairs got reorganized a bit and piled up with more stuff.

-- Some stuff that was upstairs was brought back down to the living room where it belongs.

-- I found a box with my mats in it... now there's a mat in the bathroom/laundry room... one in the upstairs bathroom... and one at the kitchen sink... though the kitchen sink one is kinda slippy, so I may need to add a no slip pad or find a rubber backed mat for there or something.

-- We also did a big grocery shopping today... bought pop and water at blahblahs (Loblaws) and then groceries at Sobeys. Brought another beef tenderloin... it was still $9.99 per lb... it was $83! I'll cut that whole tenderloin into steaks tomorrow and freeze them. If you're coming to visit, lemme know and I'll pull a few out before you arrive! :)

Yesterday, after our big excursion into town, Jess and I were on the way home and saw a truck that said "Dan's Tree Service" on it. I was ahead of it so we pulled into the gas station and let it pass, while Jess wrote down their number. We have a tree in the side yard that isn't so good... it split some time ago and now there's even mushrooms growing on it! I've been trying to get someone out to give me an estimate on it... and have yet to succeed in getting them here. So when we got home yesterday, I called him and left all the info in a voicemail... then this morning, while I took Shawn to work, he called and left me voicemail saying that he's really busy and bear with him, he'll try to get to me later this week... to give me an estimate.

So great, no problem, at least sounds like he'll come here. Then about 3 hours later, his truck pulled into the driveway! I went out and showed him what I wanted done... he looked around and figured out a way to get his truck over to that side of the house without driving over the septic (yay!!) and gave me an estimate. Now, if I was at my parents house, it would be time to "play the game" and guess how much it'll cost... that game doesn't work near as well via a blog, lemme tell ya ;)

Anyhow, for $800 the guy will take down that big ugly rotting tree... remove some large branches off another tree, remove all the branches and leaves and cut the wood into 16 inch pieces, but not take the wood. For another $100, he'll dispose of the wood too! Tomorrow I will call him back and say YES YES YES, please make it happen. He said they are booking a couple weeks in advance right now, but that's fine... I just want it done by winter. Seems like a heck of a good deal to me!
-- LW

The Weekend In Review

First off, I have to apologize for this post. Most of the content is taken from an email I wrote to my parents. (Hi Hank & Toots!) It was a good review of our weekend and I'm really too lazy to rework it much. There IS some new content at the end.

The timeline is also all whacked and out of order and written in the order it came to me last night :)

Sunday, we went up the road and around the corner to a horse boarding facility that had an open house today. Its a gorgeous facility... their outbuildings (2 barns + arena) are even nicer than OUR outbuildings! haha... yeah... about a gazillion times nicer!! We're not really looking for boarding, but they also had all their building suppliers onsite advertising fencing and that sort of thing... kinda fun to see and hear about.

We worked really hard all weekend... replaced the light fixtures in the laundry room (which we had to do before the sink gets plumbed so the ladder would still fit... its very bright in there now... went from a total of 75 watts in those 2 old fixtures to.... 360 watts!! Its nice to have a bright laundry room though... you know, where you're dealing with dirt and stuff :) We also cut the plywood piece to sit under the laundry room sink, its not fastened down yet... but maybe tomorrow night.

We moved some stuff out to the red shed and brought some stuff in from the red shed... 3 of the shelf units we carried down to the basement to use for rubbermaid box storage, when I finally get around to bringing stuff home from the storage unit.

We installed a light in the kitchen over my sink so I have a chance of SEEING while doing dishes now... its a big improvement!!

We brought in another shelf unit into the mudroom and I organized all the tools onto that unit... brought in the big red toolbox on wheels and set it up in the mudroom too with the smaller red toolbox on top.

Yesterday we went outside for a while and looked around more outbuildings a bit... I took the lawn tractor to go out to some of the farther ones... you know, just to be safe :) I was careful not to get trapped in any buildings with creepy things this time!!!

Of course, we had to make a a couple trips to Home Depot to get supplies for our projects... plumbing stuff... light fixtures etc etc. *whew*

We did ok for eating too... Saturday around noon we went to a place called Cora's for brunch... they serve breakfast and lunch and their big thing is crepes. Shawn and I both had ham and swiss and asparagus crepes... jess had a bacon and cheddar crepe... they were awesome... they also have non crepe foods... for those that don't DO crepes :)

Saturday supper was at the Eating Place... Shawn and I had turkey dinner... mashed potatoes, real pieces of turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry and corn... Jess had grilled cheese sandwich and tomato macaroni soup... very yummy!!

Sunday lunch was just eating stuff around here... nothing real good, I had a can of soup.. that sort of thing. For supper we had bbq tenderloin steaks, bbq'd potatoes and green beans (just frozen).

Sunday night, Jess was hungry for soft serve ice cream AGAIN so it was off to Dairy Queen for her fix!

** New Monday morning content starts***...
We still haven't heard anything about getting the dog across the street, though they are making all sorts of moving efforts... they have a huge pile of garbage at the side of the road this morning. The dog has been making unhappy noises all weekend while they've been doing moving stuff. She's been tied up in the yard, crying and barking... it bothers us to hear her unhappy... but I'm not going over to talk to him about her again... whatever will be, will be and I'm not going to push the issue. If he shows up with her, fine... if not... fine... just hope she ends up somewhere ok.

All the improvements we made to the mudroom this weekend look really nice... Shawn and I both admired them on our way out this morning... its nice when you work hard and then appreciate the changes after too... makes the work worthwhile :)

Things I want to work on this week....
-- wipe out linen closet shelves and put in linens
-- clean out kitchen base cabinets, put in new shelf liner and put kitchen stuff down there
-- finish cleaning up the mudroom
-- bring home some stuff from the storage unit and put it away
-- start cleaning up the living room which is also related to cleaning up the nursery/storage room upstairs
-- pick up the queen sized sheets I want for Kyle's (guest) room
-- finish plumbing bathroom / laundry room sink
-- search for curtains for Kyle's (guest) room
-- plus all the usual things like laundry... groceries... blah blah blah
Looks like a busy week ahead! :)

Its taken me a few weeks of living here to actually get ready to start putting stuff away.... generally, when we move, I have a pretty good idea of where things will go before we get there... this time that just didn't happen and I didn't want to try to force it to happen before I was ready... that usually just means you have to move the stuff more times.

This time I took a different tactic and put the things away where I was pretty sure they'd go, then just make piles in each room of somewhat related stuff. Now that we've been here about a month, things are starting to make sense in my head and I can cope with thinking about where stuff should go. I wonder how much of needing this time to sort it out had to do with being exhausted from all the house selling / house buying / living in a different city / general moving stress?!

With a big list of things I want to work on this week... I guess I should get at it!!

Ramblings... Beds... Bliss and BAD Things!!

The A/C in the house works decently, considering there are few vents to the 2nd floor (the only duct work going up there is in the master bedroom and the bathroom, none to the other rooms!) The main floor is very comfy and I set the commercial fan at the bottom of the stairs pointed up and its done a remarkable job of cooling the upstairs. Its still warmer up there, but tolerable. Jess's room and Kyle's room (aka the guest room) are warmer, as the cool air doesn't turn the corners and go there, but its *something*.

Today Jess and I removed the other cupboard door on the left side of the sink. Its partner came loose soon after we moved in and was removed before it conked anyone on the head. This one has just been in the way since. A few minutes with a pry bar and all was good!!

We also mailed Kyle's pictures off to him that he forgot. They should arrive sometime next week with a bit of luck :)

After we picked Shawn up from work, we went to Mattress Mart in Kanata. After poor Kyle spent 3.5 weeks on the air mattress, we went and bought a new queen sized mattress set for the guest room (aka Kyle's room ;) ) It's not the top of the line set, but its way nicer than the bottom of the line sets, also. Its quite firm (in my opinion) but also has a pillow top for some "give" in the hip and shoulder area. Hopefully all our guests will find it acceptable.

We also bought one of their metal bed frames for it... no head board... we figure at some point in the future we'll build a head board for it and attach it to the frame... that'll take some time, I'm sure. The box spring is kinda neat, actually... with king sized beds, box springs always come in 2 pieces... well apparently you also get that option with queen sized beds now... which I didn't know... we opted for that, so their shouldn't be any issues getting it in the house and up the stairs, which is a nice relief! :)

The guest room is going to turn out nice, I think... nicer than any of the other rooms at this point! So next time my parents come to visit, I'm hoping they will save some $ and slum it here at Four Horse Haven with us. The other day, Jess and I went to Ikea and picked out a new duvet cover and got 2 pillows. On a previous trip there, I picked out a mirror I really liked and bought it thinking I might put it in the downstairs laundry room/bathroom, but I've now changed my mind and it'll go in the guest room.

Today Jess and I cleaned up that room, deflated the air mattress, took down the white folding table and vacuumed. Then I put in a small antique desk that my mom and Aunt Jude gave Jessica and set up the computer on it. I ordered a usb wireless networking device to plug into that computer so it'll have wireless internet capabilities, as well. They are remarkably cheap now!

I want to get some curtains for that room as well... its rather bright in there first thing in the morning, even with the blinds. I also want to see if we can squeak out enough space to install a ceiling fan in there or not... or at least change out the ugly fixture!

I'm gonna get some coordinating sheets and tada, it'll be pretty and useful! I may also use one of my newly stripped antique chairs as a bedside table, if space permits... to hold a lamp and a clock radio, perhaps.

I'm really enjoying the guest room project... its kinda fun to set up a "hotel" type room... more fun than I thought it would be, actually. And now that I'm just waiting for the bed to be delivered, it will happen fairly quickly and easily, which is also fun :)

And just before you think everything is blissful and wonderful and the gagging starts... tonight I saw a friggen snake. Ok, "friggen" was NOT the word I used... ok *screamed*, but you get the idea.

Here's how it happened...
So last night, we cut a bunch of grass... specifically, Shawn weed whacked around some of the outbuildings that I had never been in yet. I wasn't going to walk through the deep grass and into the scary building... Nope. But with the grass hacked back, I was willing to have a look around.

So, tonight I decide I'm going out to look in one of the buildings. Jess and Shawn came with me and we brought flashlights, even though it was still plenty light out. I made Shawn go on ahead and open the door... none of the doors on any of the outbuildings work well for whatever reason, so he banged away at it and got it about halfway open. He looked around inside but didn't go in... then I looked in... looked up... looked left... looked right... looked straight ahead... looked ok.... so I went in a bit... its a bit of a mess... there's some poop from some animal... maybe raccoon? but nothing *horrible*.

I'm standing just inside, then Shawn is in the doorway and Jess is kinda outside poking her head in. I'm standing there talking about how it doesn't seem so bad... that some sheeting could be put up on the studs... some ventilation added easily enough by doing this and that... how this board could be removed as its not serving any purpose, blah blah blah... then I start thinking that maybe I should see if the floor is structurally sound all around.... then I SEE it. A snake... a friggen snake!

And I immediately start screaming FRIGGEN SNAKE! FRIGGEN SNAKE! In all fairness, it DID have the decency to slither AWAY from me... fairly quickly even... but now remember my phobia... and most of all remember that Shawn and Jess are both blocking my exit!! As soon as Jess hears the screaming start, she runs... now its just Shawn in my way... and he friggen moves slowly!!

It was very lucky for him that he's big... because anyone smaller, I would've just pushed down and trampled on my way out. Unluckily for me, him being so big and slow just increases my panic... don't block my exit!!

In what seemed like hours, but was really just seconds, we're all back outside and I can start to breathe again now that I'm not trapped. I sent Shawn back to close the door and that was it for outbuilding tours for the night!

I'm ok now... I can even laugh about it (just a BIT!)... but man the panic was horrible! I hate that.

So the outbuilding isn't huge... maybe 10 x 10? maybe a bit more? its fairly tall... 8 ft ish...the roof seems to be in ok shape... the walls look like they could be easily fixed up... I'm not sure about the floor... but at this point, with a bit of work, I think the building could house a mini donkey and a goat during bad weather and overnight. Of course, fencing is still required and all that, but if I have a place to put a couple small animals, that does solve a few issues.

With all the coyote yips and songs I hear at night, I'm a little hesitant about leaving such little animals out without decent protection. Big strong healthy horses I wouldn't worry about... but goats... well they are bait ;) The little building would also probably house rabbits just fine, if such a thing was desired :)

Next to this outbuilding there's another... and its a drive shed... there was an ancient tractor in that building when we first saw the house, in fact. I haven't looked it over carefully, but while mowing there yesterday, I thought it looked like it had a somewhat uneven concrete floor or maybe just partially? Having not walked in it, I cant visualize how tall it is, but depending on what kind of shape it is in, it may make an ok run in shelter... maybe I'm just overly hopeful? We'll see.

I have to work up my nerve to go back out there at some point and poke around. I might wait and let Shawn clear away more grass with the weed whacker and get it a bit more civilized and less hospitable to creatures first.

And I'll definitely be wearing my rubber boots again!!

A Few New Pics

I finally posted a few more pics, some from our drive into Quebec and on the Quyon Ferry... some from my parents visit last weekend and some of the kids playing in the big puddle that was left after the huge rainfall last week. (about 65mm in 24 hours!)

I'm starting to feel better today... not quite as sick as I was... Shawn and I cut some grass last night... I mostly did "lawn" cutting, while Shawn used the new weed whacker to clear away the long grass from the outbuildings. Some of them have been cleared enough for me to actually go SEE the outbuildings finally! Yay :)

It's rather hot and humid today... I finally put on the AC and its quite comfortable downstairs now.. the upstairs will just be unbearable, but at least we have a decent place to sit and keep cool.

Thanks For The Help and Visit!!

Today, Jess and I took her boyfriend Kyle to the Ottawa airport so he could fly into Toronto and have his mom pick him up. We were very fortunate to have him help us move out here... I'm not so sure all us old folks could've done it without him... we certainly couldn't have gotten our king size mattress up the stairs without him... so we are very grateful!!

It was a very fun 3.5 weeks that he stayed with us and we are very hopeful that he will get a chance to come back out here at some point again! We really enjoyed his company ... things like watching how much Nutella could be consumed in only 3.5 weeks... the "Sea Gull" dance (which I am not going into detail about!) ... running barefoot through the big puddle in the yard after the big rain while we shot foam rockets at him.... The entertainment was endless :)

Its been a hard and teary day for many of us in the house today... especially for my girl!

I have very few words of wisdom... but having just gone through living in a different city than my husband, I certainly understand the pain. Hang in there both of you!

Come back and visit again soon, Mr. Big! ;)

Mmmm Mmmm Good

The new BBQ does a great job on steaks, we found out!! They were very yummy!! Slowly but surely it feels more like home :)

BBQ Time

Our new natural gas BBQ arrived this morning... the installer is here now... assuming all goes well, I think there will be a BBQ tonight!! Yay :)

Today's Thoughts...

I got a chance to chat on the phone with my parents last night... Twas a good chat and nice to touch base again! (Hi Guys!!) Was excited and thrilled to find out they are trying to arrange to come back here this summer to visit us again!! Yay :)

It's been an "adjustment" (to say the least) for all of us... We've always been very close to my parents and have seen them often over the years, usually a couple times a week. I know I am going through withdrawal these days!!

My mom said on the phone last night that Sunday supper just isn't the same... well no kidding!! I haven't had any decent Sunday meals in what seems like AGES now!! I think I may be in steak withdrawal!!

So anyhow, the point is... I was glad to hear from them last night and find out all is well with them... and that they may come to visit! Hopefully the logistics of such a trip can be easily worked out :)

I know I'll be heading back out that way at the end of August / beginning of September to get Jess settled at University... (but we are NOT discussing THAT just yet!! uh uh, no way!) and figured that would be the next time I got to see them... but now I'm excited and feel I should get a bunch of stuff done around here so they can see the (small) improvements around the house when they come :)

I'm also hopeful that there will be other company this summer... I invited my sister to take a (small) detour during her car trip to and from the east coast... I know there may not be time or energy for such a detour, but you never know :) I'm also hopeful that perhaps a favourite Aunt of mine might make it out here at some point before September.

I believe Shawn's Mom is planning to make a stop in the area this summer as well. That will also be fun to see her again... but I wonder if this time there will be a little less running and trying to "do everything"? :) We don't even really know what all there IS to see here, so its harder to play tour guide.

On to house updates... last night we bought a gas powered weed whacker... its a Husqvarna and it can use either string to cut or a rotating blade (for tougher grass and thistles, etc). Shawn used it last night and it worked excellently! He used the blade and it whacked down really tough stuff along the fence line.

We bought it at the same place that fixed our gas push mower that Shawn busted up the other day. The recoil ... it failed to... recoil :) (For those of you like me... the rope thingy you pull to start the mower didn't go back in). They changed the oil, replaced the spark plug, air filter, fixed the recoil, sharpened the blade AND added a discharge chute (so it wouldn't have to mulch and bag all the time!!) all for $125.62. We thought that was a pretty good deal... the mower is 3 years old and never had any real maintenance done to it yet... it also never hardly did any work.... so it seems good. I gave it a pull last night to fire it up and it started real easily! yay :)

This past weekend we got some stuff done. We installed two closet organizers... one in the mudroom closet and one in the master bedroom closet. They are so nice... we used the Rubbermaid Configurations system again, just like in the last house. I finally got my big wardrobe box unpacked and my clothes hung up which was nice! The mudroom closet organizer made a huge difference too! We bought the show rack add on for it and now all the shoes have places to be... plus room for coats and even a shelf for things like flashlights and dog poop bags :)

Shawn also got some hooks installed, one behind the mudroom door for dog leashes. Nice to have them accessible.

We also started to install the laundry tub in the bathroom/laundry room. We just bought a big plastic laundry tub at home depot which is CHEAP (around $30) and then I bought a really nice faucet that's technically a kitchen faucet. The faucets they sell for laundry rooms are always so ugly and not as useful as I'd like. Obviously the sink isn't made for this setup so we had to customize it a bit... only drilled out 1 hole, instead of 2 and made that hole a bit bigger than normal. The faucet I picked out has a very tall spout and the end of it comes off to be a sprayer... something I think will be very useful in a laundry tub. Its also nice enough looking to be part of the bathroom, I think. I took a couple pics and I'll try to get them posted ASAP.

The water supply lines are ready to hook up but we do need to buy all the pieces to do the drain work yet, but one (probably two!!) trips to home depot should resolve that ;) Maybe we'll stop at HD after work tonight and try to get what we need to make it work. Would be really nice to be able to wash your hands after using the bathroom without walking all the way to the kitchen... such luxury ;)
-- LW

Funny The Things That Make a House A Home

You might think it would be having your family, your dogs all under one roof. Maybe food in the cupboards and fridge... or maybe clothes hung in closets and put away in dressers.

The thing for me that happened last night that made this new house start to feel like home.... a new shower head... the SAME make and model shower head as we had in our last house... and the house before that and actually the house before THAT.

It doesn't solve the "rural water pressure issues" but it did improve that issue to an acceptable level. We still might look into adjusting the pressure tank and see what can be improved.. but for now, I can at least get the shampoo outta my hair!! Yay :)

Posted some new pics

6 new photo albums today. http://picasaweb.google.com/fourhorsehaven

--LW

Tired

It's been a good weekend.

Tonight the kids had a water fight, and Lisa and I joined in. :-) Everybody ended soaked and exhausted. It was pretty cool.

We also got a Rubbermaid garbage shed and closet organizers for the new house. The master closet is pretty much useless right now, and needs something, and the mud room closet needs some work as well. The organizers will help a lot.

Tomorrow Rogers is coming to hook up cable (yay for real internet!) and the toilet people are coming to replace our toilets, so we'll finally have two of them. It should be nice to get that all worked out.

The living room is starting to get useful: Lisa moved the couch to the other end of the room: it makes a lot more sense now. At some point we'll set up the projector and stuff, but for now, it's nice to have some space, and enough seats for everybody to sit. :-)

We finally got a handle for the freezer door that worked, so that seems like luxury. :-)

Lisa organized the upstairs bathroom, so we don't have toiletries all over the place. Emptied some boxes, put some boxes away, and I did a bit of organization of the Garage used for Storage Needs Some work. Things are starting, slowly, to look a little more like home.

Closed!

We closed on the old house today! Yay :) I've been too busy for updates... but that's a major one... will try for something more complete in days to come... like my new JD lawn tractor that was delivered for instance! :)

We're mostly moved in!

We brought the Big Truck out last weekend with most of our stuff.

Lisa's in Kitchener right now, talking to lawyers, cleaning up the old place, getting ready for closing tomorrow.

The rest of us are living out here in Four Horse Haven. It's pretty sweet.

Here we go!