the floor - continued.......

I posted a few weeks ago about the big job that was ahead of us in that we were going to be tiling several areas in our house. Something that we have never done, but Kelly took the workshop at Home Depot and read books and she was good to go. Oh, and I should mention that her dad was only a phone call away on the west coast and he had tiled an entire home before! I read over that post again and could feel the excitement that I was experiencing with all of this and how "ready, set, go!!" we were with it all. My excitement remains but it is tempered with the fact that it is taking us much longer than we had anticipated and are so ready for it to be done. We have worked tirelessly at this project and it has turned out to be so much more than we thought it would be. Although maybe it is a good thing that we were naive in what we were undertaking because if we had known we might have given up on the whole project which would not have been good. We wanted to save some money by doing the work ourselves and that is a good thing, but we have had to make sure that the cost of our physical and mental health is not impacted too. Kelly also loves doing reno work so she was just itching to get at it.
Oh gosh, we have each had our 'moments', but we have been supportive of each other and spurred each other on as needed. Our 2 weeks off seemed to go quickly and now finishing the work is left to our weekends off which are very precious to the both of us. Kelly is off every weekend but I do work every other one and this makes it a bit harder since it is easier to do the job when we can both help out. We have learned so much from this renovation experience and I'm sure there will be more to learn before we complete the job. We are already so proud of what we have accomplished and can only imagine how awesome it will look when we are all done!

Here is a photo of the dining room in it's almost complete state. We are leaving all  the grout work until the end so still more to do with this room.

Here's hoping my next blog will show you just how much farther we have come!! 

Maggie

the floor we walk on.......

Kelly and I have been working on renovations to the house for over a year now. It has taken us this long because there has been so much to do. I have lived here for 20 years and over time the house has become dated and some things that needed attention just didn't take priority. When Kelly and I decided to live together it was a perfect opportunity for us redecorate and renovate and renew! I was thrilled in that Kelly is very handy and can do a lot of the work herself. I don't have those kind of skills but am able to help out with whatever else might be needed. Once the renovations are completed the house will only resemble itself from its basic structure. Pretty much everything else has been transformed with paint, carpeting, light fixtures, vanity, counters, window coverings and even a new garden bed in the front yard. The next and biggest project for us to undertake is the tile flooring that we are going to be putting in this week. This is seriously a big job and it makes me a bit nervous when I think about the enormity of it! It's ironic that we both admit that we are becoming a bit weary of all the renovations and here we are now with the biggest job of all. Did we save the best for last?? Well, it could be that we did! It has been a challenge right from the start of making the decision to having tile flooring. The colour choice ended up being so different from what we thought we wanted but we feel now we have made the right choice. We had a lot to take into account as the tile will be in three rooms and the hallway so it had to look right everywhere. Then the measure and the ordering. When we signed on the dotted line it was a done deal and there was no turning back! It was ordered and the call came in that it was ready for pick up..... all 475 sq. feet of it! My back will never forget the day we unloaded all those boxes from the truck and stacked them in the garage. It was the heaviest lifting I have ever done, but we did it together and after it was all done I said that it was now coming in the house just one tile at a time! lol!! It took all of yesterday for my back to feel normal again. So now the fun begins and we start with our biggest project ever! I will post photos as we move along in the process!

Here is a pic of all the tiles on the skids at the hardware store ready to be loaded into the truck. It was a back breaking job but we managed to get it all stacked in the garage and now it's ready for the floors!  

And here's a picture of the small bathroom downstairs that will be for my Reiki clients when they come for treatment. It has been completely transformed and I think looks beautiful! 

More pictures will follow to let you see how the tile floor turns out. I can't wait to get started! 

Maggie

catching up......

Ok so it's been almost 2 weeks since I have posted anything here. There has been lots going on and time to sit and blog has been minimal but today maybe a little time can be set aside to share. I have been continuing to do my preserving and as much as the last several days I have not, I will be making some pear vanilla jam today. I was blessed to be able to visit a friends home and she has a pear tree that is filled with pears! I managed to snag 2 small bushels and will make the jam hopefully today and then plan to can pear halves with the rest. This year so far my root cellar is filled with strawberry and  blueberry jam along with blueberry syrup, pickled garlic scapes and pickled beets, spicy honey mustard, peach jam, peach chutney and peach halves, red onion relish, whole tomatoes and tomato sauce. It's always a lot of work but the rewards in the cold winter months is well worth the effort put forth in harvest time.

my root cellar so far.....

I have also been drying some herbs in my new herb dryer from Lee Valley which is exciting for me. I haven't dried herbs before so as much as I'm doing it very simply it's still fun to do. So far I have only done sage, lemon verbena and rosemary but it's a start. I have some more to dry and will try to make time for that today too along with also those pears halves if I can squeeze that in! And maybe walk the dog and some yoga for me.....and I have an appointment at 1! I can see that my day is filling up as I write!

We have been continuing with our house renos and are picking out tile flooring this week. We have holidays in October and our main goal is going to be laying the tile! Yikes! It's a big job but I have confidence in my partner that she can do it and I will help wherever I can. It is going to transform our space and is going to look amazing! Our goal is to somewhat have the renos completed so that we can start entertaining our friends by the holiday season. It's been a long haul but so well worth it. I have lived in my home for 20 years and it needed much updating and now I can be proud of it once again. I can say it fell into a deep sleep for a while and now has been awakened not unlike so many other areas of my life. It has been a year of transformation.

Blessings to all,

Maggie