The list

Well the reno’s are still a go-ing.. and what’s great is that we still don’t seem to have tired of them. We have accomplished a lot in the few months that we have been here; here’s the list

• Painted the living room, hallways, dining room, massage room, laundry room, kids rooms, house exterior.
• Replaced all the windows in the entire house.
• New garden door in dining room
• Replaced all outside light fixtures
• Replaced majority of interior light fixtures
• Um, yeah – took off and cleaned behind all baseboard trim. (I know, seems like this shouldn’t be on this list cause it’s just cleaning.. but if you only knew how disgusting it was behind those boards.. bleck, icky.. yuck – you’d understand that this was a major undertaking)
• Repainted cold air return grates
• New trim around windows and doorways
• Cut a 6 foot doorway into the dining room/hallway wall to create better flow/open floor plan.
• Built a coat rack
• Built a custom mirror
• Painted the kids room trim
• Installed new curtain rods & curtains upstairs.
• Yard work.. took out crappy woodpile & planted grass, pruned the mayday, the birch, the mountain ash, & the ornamental crab, extracted (by quad) the hedge of cedars, an enormous rose bush, and another mammoth cedar, cleaned up flower & garden beds, created new flower beds at the front of the house.
• Built & painted new gate to allow for quad width to drive through
• Organized the impressive cold storage room.. it’s about 5’ by 20’ ((NICE))+ (why do previous owners always leave old paint and canning? Like I want to eat the “who knows what” jam from 1997!)
• New main bathroom tap (this is phase 1 of the bath reno.. still to come!)

We still want to do the kitchen, the bathrooms, new attic insulation, new shingles and paint the basement walls – then perhaps we will relax.
Phew.. seems like so much when you write it down. We are now trying to focus on building the kids a playhouse. They have been so patient through all this.. they deserve a little something. We have the area all cleaned up and ready for building – we just need to get some supplies and get things started. I will try to take pictures along the way so that I can share them.
Hope all of you out there are doing well, I’d love to hear from you!!!!

A-hem..

Now would you just look at this:
I know, sometimes I can really be an activist.. a serious womans lib-er... but there is something to be said about 100% domesticated, fresh from the oven, I baked it myself, with my own two hands.. BREAD! And.. it's wheat free at that. And for any of you who have ever baked with flours that are non-wheat, you will appreciate that it's not the shape of a hockey puck!
It actually rose, and looks beautiful. (Well at least one looks beautiful) So the loaf on the left is a spelt bread (thanks to my gf gillian - and my ma, who kept the recipe all these years), and the loaf on the left is a mixed flour flaxy bread which (though ugly) tastes great and will make good toast.
I am so happy and MAN did my house ever smell great. Home cooking.. at it's best. OMA - you would be so proud!