Bits and bobs

I didn't progress very far on the basement this week. It was a long week so I have given myself the grace to chill and rest this weekend. But I did sand the guest room/studio walls, doors and trim. I also added some sheet rock to the wall by the stairs - first time ever. Not sure I did it right but we will see. I also added a small piece of sheet rock on my bedroom wall where a piece has been missing since I moved in. And I need to mud both areas still - perhaps next weekend.

My attempt of sheet rock installation beside the basement stairs

My attempts to pull up the awful carpet were met with resistance because whoever installed the carpet super-glued it down to the plywood subfloor. I don't think that is normal but then again, I have never pulled carpet up before. And I thought the lino was going to be the difficult part.

The carpet may be permanent

In light of this challenge, I am not sure what I will do...may just clean the carpet well and perhaps with painted walls, it won't be too bad.

Today, I am doing lots of organizing...getting paperwork ready for the accountant, sorting through piles of magazines, partially re-organizing my kitchen cupboards. All inspired by Martha Stewart's new publication "Organizing." I am especially exciting about her new partnership with Avery Labels.

I love putting things in their place and finding that perfect container to hold my "treasures." This probably makes my mother laugh now because cleaning and organizing were not my strongest traits as a child. I remember the frequency of requests to tidy my room!

To wrap up, I am wondering if anyone can help me out...I am looking for the correct term for the latch above. Any ideas? I have a few of them and would like to replace them with non-paint coated ones.

Travel wall & demolition time

In my last post, I promised to show the wall where I have framed and hung my travel pictures, mementos and souvenirs. It is in my sun room...my absolute favorite room. Alas, it is also the only room not heated in the house so I have not used it so much recently due to the ridiculous cold snap we just experienced.

Well, without any further ado...here is the wall:

Now, I know that I should have created paper replicas of the frames and planned it better but I was feeling like a free spirit that day so there are some wonky lines but I justify it by saying it is a wonky space.

My favourite thing is having tea in this room and remembering all the travel adventures. Speaking of travel, I booked another trip to Paris for April. This time with the sisters and mom. My plans for shopping during my last trip were thwarted due to "incompatible" traveling styles.

In other magic house news, I have started my basement "reno's". Here are some before shots:

This is the wonderful current paint on the studio/guest room walls

The stairwell with the horrendous carpet

The basement hallway wall

View from the studio to the stairs

Here is the hole I created by trying to remove an old pipe. It wasn't connected to anything. Just sticking out into the room.

The floors with the lino removed..there were only 6 different lino patterns discovered in the excavation.

The pile of lino...my neighbours must love me.

Safety first! I also wore gloves and a face mask because I think there may be asbestos...eeek!

I realized there are tons of little steps to do just the art studio/guest room and the stairs/hallway. Here is my preliminary list of steps (in no particular order):
1) Sand basement hall wall and last layer of mud; then re-sand - DONE
2) Vacuum after sanding- DONE
3) Prep Studio walls (patch and sand) - IN PROGRESS
4) Fix hole in studio wall with drywall patch (mud, sand, repeat)
5) Buy better latch for studio window
6) Gyprock by stairs (mud, sand, repeat)
7) Pull up carpet (I think they glued the awful carpet down!!)
8) Pull up lino - DONE
9) Dust/vacuum Studio - DONE
10) Move stuff to guest bedroom part of studio before prep - DONE
11) Buy baseboard for walls
12) Rent saw to cut baseboards
13) Learn how to do baseboards
14) Sand door/closet trim
15) Prime trim
16) Paint trim
17) Prime basement hall& Studio walls
18) Paint basement hall wall & studio walls (using leftover blue paint from upstairs living room)
19) Decide floor treatment (I was just going to paint the floors white but there is a section (1 ft x 1 ft) that appears rotten so will need to replace). Maybe I will do black/white checker tiles for a retro look.
20) Do floors
21) Learn how to do flooring
22) Re-paint chimney brick (over awful green paint)
23) Paint door
24) Paint closets
25) Paint stairwell
26) Finish window casement
27) Buy new handrail & install so it is up to building code
28) Add bookshelves in hallway for built-in effect - TBD
29) Clean window wells
30) re-arrange furniture
31) Replace burned out light bulb
32) Fix door knob
33) Paint over vents?? (Can I do this?)
34) Put a door on the stairwell cubby....or perhaps built-ins because the space is not insulated.

I hope to be more active in my blog this year but life seems to keep going at a quick pace...no promises. Sorry

Time to catch up

I can't believe there is only two weeks until Christmas. I feel like I missed the fall season somehow...it probably had something to do with the fact I was away in France for most of October so missed Thanksgiving and Halloween...our typical holiday time markers. When I got back, Calgary was fully into the winter and all things Christmas.

Nevertheless, it has been a fairly productive month since returning from the trip. I was able to cross a few things off my house to-do list and other items that crop up.

For starters, I finally chose a paint color for my bathroom. It has been a poo-brown for the last year (color chosen by past owners). I thought I could live with it but no, I am just not that kind of girl. So after 3 weeks of color swatches painted on the wall, I rolled the dice and chose Coventry Grey from Benjamin Moore. Lovely choice (bottom right hand corner of the swatch colors).

Painting a small space with 9 ft ceilings, a claw foot tub and full circle shower curtain rod created some challenges such as where to put the ladder to reach the ceiling.  Tada!

The bathroom mirror also didn't seem to fit but rather than buy a new mirror, I thought I would paint it. I found some "hammered silver" spray paint downstairs (again from the past owners) and did a little DIY on the mirror.

 

Now for the final reveal...

Doesn't the picture below look so wintery and lovely? It's my backyard after a recent snowfall.

It just gets you in the Christmas spirit...and that does require some decorating. But because I will be "home" for Christmas, decorating is minimal.

I didn't want to get a real tree because I will be away. So I reached deep into the "Martha Stewart" within to find a suitable alternative. I remembered that some cut branches from the apple tree and bushes were just "hanging out" in my garage. So I spray painted them white and decorated away. In my mind's eye, it was going to look more polished but I like the homemade look that resulted.

The season also requires some baking so I whipped up some goodies...love these cookies. See the recipe here.

I finally feel quite settled into my little house now. It has been just over a year and no complaints...best purchase ever. And it still feels magical. I will try to be more consistent on the magic house blog and I already have the next post planned...stay tuned for the travel art/collection pictures reveal. 

Techno etc

In recent years, I had a dream of connecting all my electronics and I am one step closer. I purchased Apple TV yesterday (as well as an ipad)...my love for all things Apple continues. But apple TV streams everything on your Itunes and iphone. With a netflix subscription and Itunes there is so much right at your finger tips. It also plays photos, podcasts and music you have on your phone or itunes library. I am truly in love. The only thing it doesn't have is browsing online from your TV screen but I am sure that will come soon!!!

As for other house things, last weekend, I used expanding foam to seal in a few holes in my siding. it looks horrendous but it will stop water leaking and birds nesting behind the siding for the winter. I hope to replace the siding and deck next year (spring). I forgot to take pictures but if I did, it would be pretty hilarious because I didn't know what I was doing. The one thing I did do right was to wear disposable gloves. That foam is viciously sticky. Now, all I need to do is cut the extra foam off now that it has cured so it isn't so obvious. Good thing the holes in the siding are at the back of the house.

My garden is starting to fade into the autumn colors. I am actually looking forward to the fall (and next spring). I now know what is in the garden and how I want to re-arrange and adjust for next year. I can really plan this winter.

I planned to attend a "How to Winter your Fish" seminar at a local fish/pond store last Wednesday but just before I left, I zipped down to switch my laundry loads and my front-loading washing machine had a "ND" error code and was full of water. It would not drain. After googling, I figured out how to open the door and dealt with the small flood because I really wanted to get the clothes out so they didn't sit in water for ages. Now I am waiting for Maytag...this week I hope. Of course, I don't have any proof-of-purchase so not sure if anything will be covered by warranty. Ahhh, the trials of a first-world home owner. I can't really complain. Just another expense to deal with as I am trying to save for my France adventure in a few weeks.

Speaking of France, I can't wait to visit some of the kitchen and home decor stores in Paris. So fun! J. doesn't know he will be shopping there yet but I have a few weeks to work on him :-)

Sorry I don't have pictures for this post but I guess the good news is that I found time to actually post.

Summer in the city

Is it really August 14? Just noticed that my last post was over a month ago. It's not that I haven't been doing things around the place and in the garden but there just been camping, festival attending and general summer enjoyment. Here's a smattering of updates from the last 4-5 weeks.

A wicked hail storm pelted my area of the city...my garden is still recovering.

Had to call an arborist because the apple tree is slowly dying

The apple tree has Fire Blight...the arborist cut the dead branches and treated the soil to try to stop the spread but it probably only has a couple years left. The good news is that the apples are still growing. As an aside, I chose the arborist based on the company name - "The Branch Manager". It probably doesn't speak to the quality but it was witty. The tree was treated on the same day as the hail storm so I am not really sure if it was the hail or arbor guys that created havoc in my garden.

Speaking of my garden, I have more raspberries than I know what to do with...friends have been popping over to help with the harvest. There are still so many in the early ripening stage. It's rather incredible. Apparently my friend Claire picked pounds of raspberries and I barely noticed that any were even picked.

Speaking of harvesting, there are a few nanking cherry trees throughout my garden so I am experimenting to see what could be done with them.  For now, I boiled some down into a syrup to add to drinks, salad dressing or for ice cream. Yummo!

Cherries on the tree

Cherries in the colander

Nanking cherry syrup (still need to add the sugar but lovely flavour)

 Speaking of cherries...

Fresh produce is one of my favorite things about summer...visits to Farmers Markets.

We are lucky to have a few great year-round markets like Kingsland FM and Calgary FM. Of course, there are still the seasonal ones like Millarville and I want to check out one close to my house - Sunnyside/Hillhurst. Maybe this Wednesday...

In other produce news, the vegetable garden has been a dismal failure...next year, there will be a fence of sorts around the produce. Have to look into a better solution. Claire suggested the book "Creative Vegetable Gardening". Here is a look at the only peas I could muster (actually there were a total of 5 pods but I ate 2). The carrots are not quite ready but I pulled one to see if it was even growing...There are only about 8 in the garden row. The spinach did not take and the zucchini tops were eaten so they did not grow either. In the onion row, there is about 2 still hanging on.

Like three peas in a pod

A pitiful carrot

I hung some of my herbs (oregano, thyme, mint & parsley) to dry...we will see how those turn out. 

A shot of my hollyhocks

What I thought was an invasion of hollyhocks this spring and summer ended up being an invasive species banned in Alberta. It is called "Himilayan Balsam" and its seeds are wicked and spread easily. I have probably pulled up more than 2000 this year. Here is a shot of my garbage full of them. I've filled more than 4 garbage cans with this weed alone. It is everywhere and can grow up to 8ft tall.

Spending lots of time in the garden!

Now for a few updates around the house:

Last week, I went to a "Swap-a-rama" party which takes place usually once a year. Guests bring things that are nice but just don't go with their home and/or wardrobe anymore. At the get-together, you put all the items in the centre and then everyone takes turns choosing treasure...basically, it is like free shopping. Anything left gets dropped off at a charity. I picked up the mirror below plus a great serving platter and a great tin for planting herbs.

 I also re-arranged my living room to see a different perspective. The jury is still out on this layout.

Still with the rearranging theme, I tidied up my laundry area downstairs. Basically, gave the area a good cleaning and lined up the appliances. Because the floor is cement, it was tricky to find an even place for the washing machine but to fix it, I stuck a lid under the leg and PRESTO! It was fixed.

I took this shot while camping a couple weeks ago. Campfires are so fascinating. However you are choosing to spend your summer, I hope you are all having a wonderful relaxing summer.  

dragonflies and such

Not much is happening on the house and garden front...does this normally happen in the dog days of summer? The fruits of the garden are coming along...loads of raspberries, macintosh apples, strawberries and my tomatoes are growing well. The carrots, zucchini and peas are coming along. The spinach and onions are a sad state of affairs...oh well.

Just a quick picture to share with you...saw this massive dragonfly on Jake's car wheel on the weekend. Stunning.

summer is here

The view looking up from the boat on the lake

With so much sun recently, we have been busy with summer living.  To celebrate Canada Day, we tried to go camping but all the sites were full by the time we got there. Disappointed, we headed home but I think the weekend turned out better. We went boating at Chain Lakes Provincial Park and antiquing in Nanton. We explored the newest city park and bought a bike for me - my first new bike in years....and 50% off.  It's just a basic bike from Zellers but it will do the trick.

Another view from the boat

The garden continues to grow and is rapidly becoming a jungle but there are pops of colour that daily surprise me. I am attempting to map the front and backyards but it is hard to capture everything. It begins to look all the same. Thank goodness for these massive poppies that are popping up everywhere...red, pink, orange. It is stunning.

Some sparrows took up residence behind my siding. The previous owners did not do a great job with installing the siding (it is on my project list for next year) and as a result the siding has holes in it big enough for a nest. Yesterday, I saw the babies for the first time. Fascinating but this fall, I will be rectifying the situation.

To keep busy and on top of my produce, I have been stewing, crisping and freezing the copious amounts of rhubarb. Yummo! The strawberries and raspberries are coming along as well. Can't wait.

And besides that, I am enjoying bbq recipes, the patio table (with bug spray) and the sunshine. By the way, have you tried grilled corn on the cob??? My new favourite summer side dish! Can't wait for Taber corn.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!