Meet the Mrs.

I had some time to kill while waiting for Craig to pick me up after a work function, so I stopped in at Canadian Tire to try and find some bamboo blinds for the guest bedroom (foreshadowing...?).  I am trying to find woven bamboo roman blinds in a pretty ridiculous size (45.5 inches...seriously?!), but my search turned up empty.  While wandering aimlessly through the store, I finally ended up in the cleaning products aisle.  For those in the know, Canadian Tire is my go-to place for all of my eco-friendly cleaning products.  They've got the entire Method line and they sell them at a reasonable price.  Today, though, my eye was caught by the brand that has become my "Holy Grail" of cleaning products.  Allow me to introduce the Mrs.:

Mrs. Meyer, that is.  Yes, I nearly bought out their stock!  I'm a sucker for the dish soap (can you tell?) because it's the only one I've tried (and I've tried several) that lathers really well and smells even better.  Once upon a time, Superstore carried the Mrs. Meyer's brand, but it was pretty expensive.  I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of dish soap for almost $10.  I only ended up buying it when they were being sold at half price.  Since then, I haven't been able to find it anywhere in town.  Not anymore though.  At $4.99 a bottle, this is a steal of a deal.  I highly recommend that you run, not walk, to your nearest Canadian Tire and pick some up to try for yourself, otherwise I might just beat you to it!

Lazy Days

Sometimes on gloomy days, especially after a long day at work, we like to treat ourselves with something sweet:

{ Red Velvet Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting }

I wish I could say I made this, but I didn't.  One day though.  It's on my official baking bucket list.

Hope you're enjoying your Tuesday!

What a Difference a Year Makes

Remember what our poor little large lawn looked like when we blogged about it almost exactly this time last summer?  Here, let me remind you:

It was painful being "those" people in our cozy little cul-de-sac.  And of course, being right on the corner means that everyone who drives by the court gets an eyeful of what we've got going on out front.  We tried everything.  And by everything, I mean one thing only: PatchMaster.  This stuff is an all-in-one combo of mulch, fertilizer and grass seed.  We put all of our faith into this one product...and unfortunately, it let us down.  I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like insulation spread out over the lawn.  I think we were supposed to cover it with soil and, ahem, water it regularly, but by the time we figured that out, it was far too late.  By the fall of 2010, we had conceded defeat and eagerly waited for the snow to cover up our mess of a lawn.

Fast forward to July 2011.  We bought two giant bags of Turf Builder EZ Seed.  We figured we couldn't go wrong with a product with "EZ" in the name.  And this time, we decided to add a few bags of Enriched LawnSoil to our cart as well.  If we were going to spend the money, we may as well do it right the first, er, second time around.  After several applications of the soil-grass-soil lawn sandwich, we watered waited.  And watered waited.  And watered waited some more.  What can we say?  Water is expensive and I'm of the opinion that nature should do most of the work when it comes to watering.  Luckily for us, Mother Nature decided to take pity on us and has showered us (literally) with tons of rain this season.

Which brings us to this (drumroll please):

It's thick!  It's green!  And more importantly, it's actually there!  We're half expecting the neighbors to throw a party for us and hoist us up onto their shoulders while they parade us around the block chanting our names in a musical montage just for this great achievement!  There are still a couple of thin patches but nothing compared to the big ol' bald spot that was there last year.  The above picture was also taken right after Craig mowed.  It was actually pretty long when he got started:

{ Another project to add to the never-ending to-do list: camouflage that awful sump pump pipe. }

Oh how I love our little push mower.  Grasscycling forever!

But now that we've finally got some grass established, we're planning on cutting some of it out and replacing the rocks under the tree with some red mulch, adding a few spireas and maybe putting in a big rock.  I'll post some plans of what we're thinking of doing soon.

Have you guys ever failed miserably on a project the first time around?  How about being the eyesore of your neighborhood? 

{ PS: Um, when did this post become a HUGE ad for Scotts?!  I didn't even realize we've only been using Scotts products for our landscaping needs.  Nope, we weren't paid for the free plug.  They just have the shiniest bags at Home Depot and green is one of my favorite colours. }

Summer Lovin' 2011

Hey strangers!

Wow, has it really been almost two whole months since I last posted?!  I guess time really does fly when you're having fun.  I hate to admit it, but the house projects have been somewhat on the back burner these last few weeks.  Since summer only lasts what seems like four months around these parts, we've got to get out there and enjoy it while we can!  The projects are lining up, but who knows when we'll get to them.  We're not the quickest when it comes to finishing projects anyway, and you already know we like to bite off way more than we can chew, but we're trying to find a healthy balance between fixing up this fixer-upper and just enjoying life maintaining our sanity.

But just because I've been severely neglecting the blog doesn't mean I've abandoned the whole thing.  I've actually been keeping busy trying to improve my photography skills (to give you guys way better eye candy).  I signed up for the Photo 101 class offered by Nicole's Classes.  I've been spending a lot of quality time with my camera over the last four weeks, and I'm excited to finally be able to use it properly after two years of pointing and shooting!

Here are a couple of my favorite shots that I submitted for my course:

Still have a lot to work on, but at least I finally know what f/5.6 means!

In totally unrelated news, notice anything different around here?  (You'll have to go to the site if you're viewing this post in Google Reader.)  What do you think of the semi-new look?  I changed it a while ago but am just bringing up now...

Laundry Room Bling

I'm not really a girly-girl, but when Craig asked me to pick out the hardware for the laundry room, I knew exactly what I wanted: crystal knobs and library drawer pulls.  As you might have guessed, we're really big buy-now-install-later* kind of people.  So as usual, we headed over to Home Depot a few weeks ago to buy the hardware and then ended up tossing them into a random bucket in the basement until installation day.

Well friends, that day was today.  Here's what the cabinets look like now that Craig is finished with them:

And few close-ups of the knobs and pulls since I love them so much (almost as much as the guy who installed them):

{ Don't mind the drywall dust making an appearance in this shot.  I'm serious when I say we have it all over the house. }

I wasn't sure how the library pulls would look on the Adel drawers, but they look pretty darn good:

And if you don't like where they're placed, "it's too late now" (as dad would say).

If you take a really close look at the picture above, you'll see a little more bling in upper right-hand corner.  Yes, the faucet and backsplash have  finally been installed!

We've had the sink in for a while, but I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of it yet.  It is the deepest sink I've ever seen.  I'm really looking forward to finally being able to handwash clothes (and future kiddos) in this thing.

I love this room: 

We only have a couple of things left on the to-do list:

• install a floor transition;
• install the window and door casing;
• install the baseboards;
• build a washer/dryer enclosure (like this minus the marble) and a hinged shelf to cover the taps above the washer;
• sew a cafe curtain;
• finish the fridge nook;
• hack an ironing board;
• build a drying rack;
• install the TV; and
• add some pretty accessories.

Yes, the list has grown a bit from before.  Our mission is to complete everything on this list by the end of May.  I may have to use up some more of my vacation days...


* We do not endorse doing this, but we had been burned in past by not buying something when we should have.  It turns out that although we are able to guarantee that we get what we want using this method, it's a heck of a lot more expensive to do it this way.  The faucet is now $50 less that what we paid, and the cabinet doors and drawer fronts are also cheaper now than when we got them.  Damned if you don't, damned if you do I guess.  Sigh.

Spring Has (Finally) Sprung

With above zero temperatures over the last few weeks, I think it's safe to say that spring in E-town has finally arrived.  We've been rocking the "cranberry wreath" from Canadian Tire every Christmas since we moved in (for a grand total of two Christmases):

And that very same wreath had been hanging proudly on our front door up until this past weekend as evidenced in the photo below:

{ Yes, this was up until Friday, May 6, 2011.  Oops, I really need to touch-up paint. }

I just wasn't ready to take it down until I was absolutely sure that we were done with the snow.  But since we were hosting a Mother's Day brunch for my mom yesterday, I thought it was about time to take it down.  But I really wanted to have something on the door for a bit of colour and after a quick Google search, I came up with this wreath as my inspiration.  After a stop at Michael's (with my trusty 25% off coupon) to gather up all of my supplies, I was raring to go:

We opted for a straw wreath form since the foam one was a bit pricey (and by pricey I mean $15).  The wreath we brought home wasn't actually wrapped like you see above.  It was just a big ol' circle of straw.  Craig came up with the idea of wrapping it up in plastic wrap to create a smooth surface since he knew I would be tearing my hair out while trying to keep the straw bits from showing through the yarn.  Just like in the inspiration wreath, we went with white yarn, and grey, pink and fuschia felt squares for the flowers.  In the end, we didn't end up using the embroidery floss or needles since I decided I didn't want it looking exactly like the inspiration wreath, so they'll be going back for a refund (more money saved...always a good thing!).

I won't bore you with the details, but basically I spent a few hours wrapping the wreath form with the white yarn and making felt flowers a la this tutorial.  Here's what I finally ended up with:

It turned out a lot better than I had expected!  I have a feeling I'll be making a few more of these over the next few months...

Revealed: Dining Room

Now that the chandelier is finally done, it's time to show a good before-and-after in progress.  Here's what the dining room looked like when we were getting our inspection done:

We'd still like to get a hutch/china cabinet for this room (preferably something super ugly that we can redo), but for now, we like it just the way it is.  And yes, we are vinyl tablecloth people.  At least until the kids are able to eat without spillage. 

PS: How awesome is the previous owner's dining room set?  A cabinet like that would be perfect to fix up!  And I love the chair backs too.  Hopefully I can score something similar on Kijiji.

Laundry Room Flooring

We're on a roll with ticking off items on our to-do list!  Craig was busy tonight finishing up the flooring in the laundry room.  I think he did a fantastic job:

The room is really starting to come together!  We still have to do some touch up painting, finish off the trim work, add the backsplash, install the faucet and attach the hardware.  Then we I get to do the fun stuff: sew a curtain, hack an ironing board, make a drying rack, add some fun accessories, and build a top with a shelf to hide the knobs above the washer and dryer.

What do you think of the rugs?  They really add some warmth to the room (and are great for keeping our feet warm!).

Now that I'm officially on Pinterest, I'll have to start collecting some inspiration photos for this space!

No. More. Circles.

Tonight I was determined to finish at least one project.  So after exactly three weeks, two boxes of wax paper, seven sheets of parchment paper, two spools of thread and a lot of patience, we finally finished the chandelier!  Here it is:

And now with a bit more detail:

They're not the greatest pictures since I'm taking them in the evening (plus we use a blasted CFL light which makes my white balance all wonky but ensures that our house doesn't burn down), but you get the idea.  We probably made over 3,000 circles (seriously).  And I honestly thought we would only need 300.  We definitely became more efficient in the whole iron-cut-punch-sew-hang process at the end.  I've got some good tips on how to make it less frustrating if you plan on tackling this project yourself!

More Progress: Laundry Room

And we're back to the laundry room!  After finishing the final coats of paint on the walls and ceiling, and installing the light fixtures, it was time to move onto the flooring.  The end is almost in sight!

We went with our secret weapon once again:

Armstrong Alterna vinyl tiles are the best thing since unsliced bread.  All you need to work with them is a utility knife.  The look of ceramic without the wet saw?  For us, it was a no-brainer.

After an hour of cutting tiles and laying them out, this is what the room is starting to look like:

(It doesn't actually take that long to do, but Craig was cutting the tiles while watching the hockey game and The Office.)

We love how realistic this stuff looks. Did I mention it can be grouted?  We really like the dark colour, so we'll be using the coordinating grout (Shale).  Yes, the colour should look familiar since it's the same as what we used in both of the renovated bathrooms (Mesa Stone - Charcoal).  Love love love.

We're installing this tile directly on the concrete, so it's a bit cooler on the feetsies than we'd like.  But it's a lot warmer than slate or ceramic tiles would be.  Plus, the jute runners should hopefully help to keep any bare feet warm.

Each tile is 16 x 16, but the "runway" area is a bit wider than two tiles.  We decided to keep the whole pieces on the side you can see (i.e. the left-hand side) and tuck the narrow pieces under the cabinetry where it is easier to camouflage:

 

 

Any leftover tiles will be used in the front foyer (yep, we can't get enough of this stuff), but I don't think we'll have too many remnants.  Anything that can't be used elsewhere will be brought to the Eco Centre.

I promise to have a picture of the finished flooring (hopefully with baseboards!) by Monday.  But now it's time for bed!

{ We weren't paid to use this product.  In fact, we paid quite a bit for this stuff.  But we think it was worth every penny. }