Skip to main content

Our House

So as you can see a picture right below this post of our house on Washington Street, I should tell you what we've (and when I say "we", I mean Stefan has actually done the work, but I am the one directing, so I will continue to say "we") done throughout and outside of it. The front really hasn't changed. Other than there is no Easter flag waving proudly in the breeze. That was immediately removed. While we are on the subject of removing, I will tell you about our bathroom floor. We had the cutest retro floor on the planet: black and white checkerboard. I loved it when we first looked at the place, but I should have looked behind me at all the nasty footprints it likes to show just after it's been cleaned. The first year, I could tolerate it. I like to clean other peoples' houses and say to myself, "well, at least my house is cleaner than that!" but it wasn't true of our bathroom. The floor sparkled for close to a minute after I would sweep, mop, and bleach (I'm not kidding) all in vain once Stefan or I stepped foot inside it. So, I ended up just not cleaning it--to spite the room, of course! As the room has no feelings, I was the only one who was upset. I vowed this cute vinyl pattern would go! And so, a few weeks ago, it did. Stefan pulled it up "just to see what's under there..." and there is now a few layers of wood piled on top of one another, mixed with a hill of some sort of cementy-glue (that is the scientific name for it) and a few strips of duck tape (once again, I am not kidding). We have purchased some sea foam-colored tile from a garage sale--150 sq feet of it--for $30 (if any of you are cringing right now because you have tried to work with used tile, please keep your comments to yourself--you clearly never saw our vinyl) and it will look great in our bathroom--if it gets done before next Thanksgiving, which leads me to the next list of things we have updated in the house...

Last Thanksgiving break, Stefan and I painted the house, pretty much 1/2 of it. The dining room is now a blue titled, "Pool House", and the living room is "Ocean Breeze". For those of you in Canada who have never had the joy of stepping into our (somewhat dilapidated) sanctuary, the color themes are supposed to be oceanic: browns, tans, greens, blues. We did the entire living room until we got to the stairway. This stairway wall is quite visible in the living room as one obviously walks from the living room up the stairs and into the second story. There is one lonely stripe of "Ocean Breeze"...and then a white, dirty wall. You see, we ran out of paint. That was November 22nd, 2006. It is now nearing October 19th, 2007. We had a baby, so sue us for not finishing the job in almost a year (it is quite an eyesore)! For those of you reading this and also trying to remodel an old home, this excuse always works.

Oh yeah, and I guess Stefan has rebuilt our deck, painted it, finished shelving units in both his and my closets, and re-arranged our furniture until it looked just right...but I directed!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Home School Activities: Board Games We Love

My children have recently become enthralled in the world of board games. I was never a board game player. Sure, I remember long summer hours (days? it seemed like it..) spent around a Monopoly board, but I was never one to suggest to get out the cards, or a game. As my children have grown and they are now able to do activities with me, I started noticing that they really took to puzzles (when done all together) and the one or two board games I happened to have kept in the storage room. They were always asking to play Candy Land and so I figured I should branch off a bit. Over the course of the last year, I have found GREAT games, even ones that I love to play alongside them. The amount of 'teaching' they have gotten through games is jaw-dropping. Counting, team-playing, math related patterning, are just some of the skills I've watched develop. I asked before Christmas on facebook what my friends and their own kids loved and I was thrilled with the response. We have found ov

July Reads

Birch Bay Sunset, rainbow hues July has been hot out here. When you live in the top story of an apartment building, and there's no air conditioning, it can feel just over the needle of uncomfortably warm when the day is above 76 degrees. We've kept blinds shut, windows open, and a fan continually blowing as it's perched in our living room window well. Just about the only thing I feel like doing after a long day is laying on the couch straight in the fan's air circulation path, and read a good book. I had some unique picks this month. * #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso  This book was just plain fun to read. Amoruso developed the iconic ebay store NastyGal way back when vintage selling on ebay was a thing. Now she's a millionaire with a kicking website that she started from scratch and didn't owe a dime to anyone else for. It's a great 200 pager with stories on dumpster diving for daily food, entrepreneurship tips, and being the backwards kid that no one t

Top 10 Books of 2017

early sunset in Ft Langley  I love reading all these "Top 10" lists of favorite books read throughout the year, so I'm adding my two cents.  I'm involved in a Book Club that I love with women from our church, a small group that meets every week and goes through a book every few months, my own list, books I'm reading aloud to the kids and  books I'm reading for educational purposes (think professional development). I took a look at all of those combined and this is what I got, in no particular order:  *  The Problem of God  by Mark Clark - I loved going through this academic apologetic book with my friends from church. It led us to great discussion, and good food for thought. I listen to Clark's sermons every week and so knew I'd probably love his writing style, too. If you have objections to Christianity, or are feeling confused about what to believe, this is a great primer.  * You're Smarter Than You Think  by Dr. Thomas Armstron