Friday 13 January 2012

A Recap

2011 has been such an amazing year...probably the best year of my life. The amount of stuff fun life that I was able to pack into this past year was astounding. If 2012 is only half as good, I know I will still be lucky. Now that we're back from the trip, and fully in the house, and able to figure a few things out, I could finally get to the few resolutions I have, and to do a bit of a recap of the past year. I've seen many "year in review" type things going around, and I've never actually done one, so I thought it would be fun.

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
       Well, lets see, I moved out of my parents house to live with Jase, got married, left the country 3 times, left the continent, bought a house...there was a lot of firsts for 2011

2. Did you keep any New Years resolutions, did you make any this year?
         Well I didnt set any resolutions in stone at the beginning of last year, I had "planned" to lose weight, which clearly I failed at haha. There are a few resolutions this year that I plan on keeping. (Lost weight is one of them hehe)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
        YES! A lot of people I know. Ones I got to spend the most time with were Lisa and Hayden (who was both the youngest and best dressed guest at my wedding) and Kristy and Lacey. Two cousins on Jason's side of the family also gave birth to adorable little girls.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
         Thankfully, there was no one.

5. What countries did you visit?
          We visited Peru on our honeymoon, Cuba in October, and the States again at the end of the year

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
         A baby in my arms...although I would settle for at least in my belly.

7.  What date from 2011 will remain etched in your memory?
          Pretty easy...May 21! Because I had the funnest wedding around!

8. What was your biggest acheivement of 2011?
          Hands down, petting a baby llama...that was seriously on my bucket list!

9. What was the best thing you bought?
           The house for sure...but the beautiful apron front sink (that we got for a CRAZY deal) is a close second haha.

10. Where did most of your money go?
         The wedding and honeymoon...then just when we thought we were in the clear, to the house market we went! This year I know most of our money will go into renos haha.

11. Compared to this time last year, are you:
        a) happier or sadder? happier (although I was also pretty happy this time last year)
        b) thinner or fatter? umm...about the same, although the plan was to be thinner
        c) richer or poorer? again, about the same...although if I don't find a job soon we may very well be poorer.

12. What do you wish you'd done more of?
          I wish I'd done more with trying to start up my Dancing Llama stationery business (that's another resolution for this year)

13. What do you wish you'd done less of?
         Making excuses - for losing weight, for doing more with my business, for making projects, for cleaning the house...I always seemed to have some sort of inner dialogue of excuses running around in my head.

14.  Where did you begin 2011, and where did you end it?
          2011 began at a party at the "manor"...and it ended under a shower of balloons on the cruise ship in the Mississippi river!

15. What was your favourite book you read?
           Since I don't really remember many of the book, I suppose it'd have to be The Help

16. What was your favourite movie you saw?
          Harry Potter hands down...Meredith and I cried through pretty much the entire movie, such a mixture of emotions. Very sad to see my childhood have to finally come to an end. Harry and the gang has been with me since grade 6!

17. What did you do for your birthday, and how old did you turn?
        I turned 24, and Jason and I went to New Market for the weekend. We had some fun winter engagement shots by my friend (and fabulous photog) Laura. We also got to visit with Ruth! (I miss you Ruth)

18. What one thing would have made your year immesurably more satisfying?
         Getting pregnant

19. What kept you sane?
         Haha...I'm not sane! But probably the fact that we always had so much going on that there wasn't really a chance to think about things!

20. Who did you miss?
          A lot of people!  A lot friends moved away...doesn't hurt my feelings or anything. Breanne (who moved to BC), Kristin (who lives in Edmonton), Sam, Ruth, Laura. Come on guys...I don't really have many girl friends, you guys have to stop moving away!

21. Who was the best new person you met?
          It's a tie...between Hayden and Lacey...becuase well, they're new haha. And they're super cute, and I got to see them a lot

22. What's a valuable life lesson you learned?
          That things happen for a reason, and there is some sort of plan. Even though you think you want something, or you think you're ready for something doesn't neccesarily mean it's the right time. but at the same time, don't let an opportunity pass you buy.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Row Row Row Your...Washer?


We were introduced to the “joys” of homeownership early on. Christmas Eve day we moved everything into the house – again the boys moved amazingly fast and had everything moved in one trip! Once we had everything somewhat sorted and were finally alone, we thought, “what better to do now that we’re alone than…laundry!” We had to test the washing machine to make sure it worked. Neither of us were overly confident that the machine straight out of 1960 could handle much...so we picked a sheet that needed washing (and that we didn’t really care what happened too) and a few of Jason’s work shirts for our maiden voyage with it. Everything started out great. The water was pouring in, and it sudsed up fine…that’s about when things started going wrong. When it was agitating the clothes it was making a not so great sound. Jason checked on it, and it wasn’t jumping around or anything so we figured it’d be ok. Then it sounded like it was draining all over the floor – but it wasn’t, so again we thought it was ok. I went in to check on things…and it smelled like burnt rubber, and a little bit like fire. GREAT! Jason opens the window and turns on the fan. At this point the washer was on its final “dry” cycle and it’s filled, literally to the brim with water. Jason tried a few more times to get it to drain out, but to no avail. So we had to ring out the clothes. Did I mention that the water was FREEZING! Our hands were all red, and like little ice blocks. Jason’s ring kept falling off…I told him (for about the 100th time) that it’s because it’s too big. He says it’s only because his hand has shriveled up…sheesh. He tried again, this time with no clothes, to see if it would drain…nope, nothin’. Then we had fun using pots to bail it out, pretending we were in a sinking ship.




We knew we were going to need to replace the washer and dryer sooner rather than later, but we were hoping it would at least last us until the end of the kitchen reno. Luckily Brent says they have an extra one they can spare to tied us over until we can get a new set. It was pretty eventful, and hilarious, and in terms of things that could go wrong; a washer we didn’t expect to last more than a couple months dying isn’t that big of a deal. Here’s hoping things going wrong doesn’t become a weekly occurrence or anything though.
 

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Cha Cha Cha Changes

We didn't even technically own the house for 8 hours before we had the kitchen completely demoed. Seven men, wielding sledge hammers, and bats, and sawzalls who are itching to break things, make short work of something a insignificant of a wall. Or a solid plywood bulk head.

I brought out most of our clothes in suitcases intending to hang them when I got there, but it still smelled too much of stale old person, so I didn't want the smell to seep into our clothes. Not to mention they would've been totally covered in dust. We had every intention to cordon off the kitchen to make it a dust zone...to close the doors to the rest of the house...we planned on taking precautions to try and contain most of the dust in one space...then testosterone took over and all the plans for mess containment was steamrolled.



Once Brent kicked a hole in the wrong wall, there was nothing I could do but get out of their way. After of course, I gave the inaugural sledge swing!





There were punching contests...Jase didn't wind up at all, Brent wound up, and Brad kind of did a running sort of punch.


Movie impressions....


And just a barrel full of shenanegans...




The boys had so much fun that they decided we should buy a house every week, so they can demo stuff. Don't worry guys, there's plenty of demo that will have to happen in the house. MY plan is to space them out enough that all the work still seems fun!



I couldn't believe how quickly they managed to get everything out, and bare looking! when Steph and I left to go on a Timmy's run they were still working on getting out the bulk head and the built in hutch thing. We were gone maybe 10 minutes, and when we got back, they had everything out! No cupboards, no bulk head, not even any floor! I was a bit ridiculous. I was even more impressed with how well they were cleaning up after themselves.



It was fun to be the "forman" and tell them when they could and couldn't do haha. They were still rarin' to go, so I "let" (you know, not wanting to ruin their momentum or anything) them take out the dining room carpet...


and also cut a few bigger holes in the kitchen drywall, and take the carpet from the hallway out...and take the stupid ramp/step thing out. I did have to stop them from taking ALL the drywall off the kitchen walls though, had to draw the line somewhere haha. Favourite part of the whole night had to be when the cute little old next door neighbours came home with all their shopping, seeing all the trucks, and hearing all the noise to exclaim, "oh my goodness, what is going on over there!?" Teehee...if only you knew cute little old man.

Now that we're left with just the bare bones it's much easier to get a better view on the space. I want to template out the cabinets, because I'm still not 100% sure on the exact sizes and pieces that I want. So we'll draw them out on the floor and walls to figure out the best. Jason laughed at me wanting to template them out with paper...but it's easier for me to see when there's an actual paper (or something) on the wall to show the heights, and the spaces and what not...how am I supposed to know how much space will be between the counter and the bottom of the uppers, to best decide which sized uppers to go with. I say, shut-y Jason...I'll do as I please!

So thats' where we're at as of right now. We talked about electrical stuff, and got it all sorted, so now we basically just have to get home from our trip to start banging stuff out!