Roasted Chicken from the grocery store.  That was our first dinner in our new kitche.  We didn't even have the time nor the energy to actually cook something :)  Well really, it's because we have yet to receive our stove which we ordered in June.  Apparently someone forgot to order the nice fancy stove from Italy!   But we are very pleased with the way our kitchen turned out  It is awesome!






September also marks the end of the Mo-West soccer season.  And since Gord is coaching both girls' teams, he is running from one park to the other!  Both girls had fun most especially on the last day when chips, juice and medals are given out.  Till next year!

 

After one week...

Of renos, I believe we've come a long way.  Everyone that was scheduled for the first day showed up.   I say this because often enough we you hire people especially in the construction world, they either don't show up on time or don't show up at all.  So for this, I am thankful!  Next week, floors...

Our kitchen was completely gutted in a matter of a couple of days.  Gone is 1970 and in is 2011!

All the celings have been painted and some rooms have already received a first coat of paint as you can see here in our living room.

Others, such as our stairway are still in patch up mode.

So is Cara-Li's room.

The girls' bathroom did get some new subway tiles, a last minute decision.

And one of the reasons we bought this house, the double doors with the stained glass windows.  Love them!

Without further ado...

Introducing our new home, lovingly referred to as 'The Money Pit'!  We took possession of it late this afternoon at which point Gord and I rushed over to check it out and drink champagne, of course!  What else do you do when you buy a new house?  Why go to watch your daughter compete in a swim meet, of course!  And we are proud to announce that she came in first in both her races.  Go Cara-Li go!

Cara-Li's BD Party

Finally, we got around to celebrating Cara-Li's 9th birthday and with her cast off!  Yay!  We decided to have a Mosaic Madness party.  This is where you hire someone, J, and she comes to your house with all the stuff necessary to make beautiful mosaic mirrors that the kids got to keep of course and hang in their rooms.  Truly beautiful pieces of works were created by these talented artists but it did not come easy.  They really had to work hard for their cake and ice cream sundae bar!  For the mommies, all we had to do was help out a little but that didn't stop us from going into the kitchen for a little sip of wine now and again!

After the party, a quick change and we were off to a potluck party that were invited to.  In fact, these are our new neighbors at our new house.  We didn't know who they were but our friends N and S do and they got us invited.  They figured that we should meet sooner than later!  Great idea.  Now we know who we will be sharing our garbage path with  :)  Great couple with  great daughters.  I smell some new babysitters....

On the road

We were on the road this weekend.  It had been planned for a while that we would go visit our friends V and J for a ski weekend along with our other friends N and S plus all our kids.  And it ended up being a good weekend to do so as this was the weekend that we would put our house up for sale officially.  We spent every night during the week preparing, cleaning, decluttering and staging.  This included buying some furniture and curtains for our front living room.  For the last 8 years, this room has been one giant playroom for the kids.  But prospective buyers may prefer to see it as a formal living room. 

Here is a before:

And here an after:

We left the house at 1:30PM on Saturday to make our way up North.  A little more than an hour into the journey, we get a call from our realtor announcing that he has taken photographs of our house, planted the FOR SALE sign outside and has already shown it to a couple.  Geez!  This guy is quick!  And, he proposed that we have an open house the following day since 2 other homes were having open houses.  We carried on merrily with our weekend, drinking, eating and having lots of fun with our friends.  What we did not notice was that an email had come in from our realtor.  We only noticed the next day that we already had an offer on our house!  We carried on with the open house with lots of interest but by the time we came back from our weekend, we accepted their offer!  Can you actually sell your house so quickly?  We'll see as a few things need to happen before it is completely official.


Here is a picture of 4 of the 6 kids present during our weekend away.  Check out the 2 older goof balls.  They are too cute!  They both come from the same orphanage in China.  Isn't it great that they can be friends here in Canada?

We did the unthinkable...

Well, actually... it's not so unthinkable.  Anyone who knows us knows we have been looking for a new house for a long time.  It's not like we're not happy here but it's just not THE house.  I knew when we first bought it 8 years ago.  But it was a stepping stone to THE house.  It was in the right neighborhood and the right size.  Gord has been very patient with me and would go to open houses and private visits every time a new house came up on the market.  Over the years, we have pretty much seen every house in the neighborhood!  He kept asking me what it is I am looking for.  I told him I would let him know when I see it.  Until one Monday evening, as we were visiting a house around the corner, my girlfriend calls me to tell me that a new house just went up for sale a couple of blocks away.  I immediately went to check it out online and felt that this house might be the one.  We made an appointment to visit it a few days later just before Gord left for a business trip.  As soon as we walked in, I knew this was THE house.  It was just what I was looking for and I let Gord know through sign language.  And the good thing is he felt the same way!  It's an old 3 story house built in 1921 that is extremely well kept.  It has such charm with all it's old 'stuff' such beautiful woodwork and stain glass windows.  Best of all, it has a laundry chute!  It needs a new kitchen sooner than later and a new roof too but hey, it's an old house.  That's what you get.  That's what I want.  So now Gord leaves for Florida and I start to get a little ansty over the weekend thinking that this house may sell before he gets back.  So we decide that after only one brief visit that we would make an offer on it.  I forgot to mention that this house was being sold by the owner so no agents.  I certainly did not feel confident on doing this all by myself so we called a friend of Gord's who happens to be a real estate agent for some advice on how to proceed.  He offered to come visit the house with me and the girls and helped me prepare and present an offer.  So while Gord was sipping marguaritas... er... working in Florida, I was buying a house!  What have I done??