HIATUS...

Just a small heads up for the rest of the month, and the start of August...I'm going to be on hiatus from this blog. Not that many of you read it (yet!) but I figured it would be worth while atleast posting something to explain where I have been lately.

Our house has been sold...YAY!...and now we pack and have to move on the 1st. It is crazy, and just my Mom and I to pack up the whole house, filled with 7 years of junk, memories and my brother's stuff he didn't take with him when he moved out. Ugh.

So, I need to try and be good, and focus on packing up and helping out as much as I can.

Once we are moved, I will try and take pictures of all the mini-renovations we do, so I will have loads of stuff to share once I get back to this Blog.

See you all soon!

SOLD!

That's right, we finally sold this house! And with only two weeks left on the realtor contract.

Wow.

I'm still stunned and just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They offered a good price and no conditions. We do, however, have to move August 1st which is VERY soon, and kind of daunting to consider packing this all up by then. But, a fair amount of what we once had has been packed in a POD, or thrown out, or put elsewhere, so it shouldn't be too horrible an experience.

None of it matters, though. We are sold. Life can now move on.

Kitchens That Kick Butt

It's been too long since I have updated on here. The house still hasn't sold and I'm starting to think it never will. I'm trying to accept this, and move on but it's really quite hard when everything has been put on hold to sell this house, and now all our plans have to stay on hold too.

I'm all sad and gloomy about it, but feel more like posting some beautiful pictures to be enjoyed and oogled.

KITCHENS!

I have some rather odd plans for my own one day, including tangerine wall paint above plain white tiles...gives me goose bumps of glee just thinking about it.

Beautiful Bedrooms

I thought I would make a pretty post to try abd break up some of the more "verbal" posts I have been doing lately. Since we can't move or really plan for our new house too much, I have been compiling images I have seen on-line of rooms that really inspire me.

None of these photographs are by me.

Open House News

We had yet another open house yesturday afternoon and we were told it went moderately well. There was one young woman in particular who showed a lot of interest, and was just awe struck by the house (to use the Realtor's words). So, hopefully we can find out more about her and see if she is planning on coming again or not. As well, we had a showing on Saturday afternoon and that couple wants to come back either today or tomorrow for a second visit.

A weird, eery sort of calm has come over all of us; we are hoping it's maybe a sign of reassurance that we WILL sell soon.

I will keep everyone updated!

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I also have some pictures from yesturday afternoon. A wholr group of my friends and I went to the park nearby and ate snacks, threw frisbees and even tried flying a kite. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind to be had, but the enthusiasm on my friend Sarah's face while she raced around with that flag was priceless! I will try and update later.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

Dogs In the Sun

The weather here has been very unusual and record breaking lately. Though Winnipeg is known for freezing cold, HORRIBLE winters, our summers are usually very hot and sunny and beautiful and nothing but blue skies. Lately, though, we have had torrential downpours (causing a minor flooding in our basement) and nothing but grey skies and black clouds.

However, we had a very small window of the promise of summer on Sunday. And so, as we had an open house, my Mom and I went over to her partner's house so we had somewhere to let the dogs run wild.

My Mom's partner, J, has a humongous back yard. His dog Baxter, a 100+ pound mutt loves our two girls (Norwegian Elkhound litter sisters) and so there is nothing nicer than watching them all frolic and go crazy with so much grass and space.

Sadly, one of our dogs, Skye, has primary glaucoma. One of her eye's has been removed and the other is blind. She is a little more timid, and usually spends her time inside Js house than running around. I'll need to find more pictures of her to share!

Below are pictures of Ginger, our dog, and Baxter.

Enjoy!

Before & After: Painting

The painting is complete (has been for a few days now) and the muscles in my back are still in mild protest! It was annoying to be painting so many rooms in a house that we don't even want to live in anymore, but we were happy to do it if it meant selling this place and finally moving on - and out.

No such luck, yet, but we're still hopeful.

I think the hardest thing to swallow about all of this is that had we been told by our first Realtor to stage and clear everything out, we would have. But he didn't say anything, and was so confident that we would sell...we didn't.

Below are the after & before pictures. Keep in mind, it's very rainy and grey here so I did all I could do in Photoshop (quickly). They're not artfully taken, as they're going in the MLS listing for the house, so I tried to keep them as plain and simple as I could.


Front foyer AFTER:


BEFORE



Living room AFTER:


BEFORE:



Second bedroom AFTER


BEFORE



Third bedroom AFTER:


BEFORE:



My bedroom AFTER:


BEFORE:

Never Knew How Much...

...I HATE PAINTING!

Honestly, if you asked me two days ago, I would have told you I really didn't mind it at all and enjoyed the zen-like quiet that happens while painting. Well, I would be lying, apparently. My entire back and shoulder region is sore (must think of it as exercise) and my arms are tingling. Plus, I have huge amounts of paint in my hair.

I think the issue is that I live on our third floor, so my room is all angled walls, windows, too many door frames. So, when I'm painting the angled walls, I need to lean back quite a bit as I move up and down. Blarg!

Anyways, my room is done, two other rooms are done and we just need to finish the "accent" wall of our staircase. The stagers gave us a colour swatch to buy and it's looking awfully bubblegum pink.

Yup.

So, now we need to buy MORE paint and finish that accent wall with a different colour. Any suggestions?

Paint and Staging and Furniture Borrowing...oh my!

Just had a very long chat with my Mom about what the plans are now and we have decided to take the Stagers suggestions and try and do them ourselves. I'm pretty creative and very visual, so I understand what needs to be done.

There will be paint waiting for me tonight when I get home from work, and that is ALL I am going to be focusing on for the next few days. We are thinking and very neutral light grey will be good for all the dark rooms (including my bedroom) and I am dreading the days to come and the amount of painting and sore arms I am going to have to deal with!

But, as I must always remind myself, it is ALL worth it in the end as long as we can sell.

Right?

Fall Through

The deal has fallen through. The people pulled out after the inspection and that is that. I have to admit that even though we knew they would pull out from the offer, a small part of me still hoped that everything would work out this time.

Guess not!

So, now we have more decisions to make and things to do around the house. We need to decide if we are going to hire the home stagers we spoke with, or if we are going to try and do this all ourselves.

Oh Duplex, My Duplex

So, the weather here the last three days has been record-breaking. We have had torrential downpours and horrible winds and the rain hadn't stopped for 2 whole days. And, of course, the day the home inspector came our basement started to flood. Nothing too bad, but a few giant puddles of water doesn't do much to persuade someone to buy a house...right?

Right.

So, we think the deal is off and that they are going to pull out of the offer, but we won't know for sure until tomorrow. We've had a few showings as well, but what with the very poor weather and our even poorer basement, we're not holding our breaths.

Life just keeps kicking us in the pants lately!

But, I decided it was time to show some pictures of the Duplex that we are suffering like this for. I have some shots from the day we first looked at the place, and just from my floor (the second floor) but the lower unit is almost identical in layout but with better cabinets in the kitchen, and less one very teeny room.

I must stress that this is how the tenants live, NOT us.

The Kitchen. Not the nicest cupboards in the world, but it's a good size, with a beautiful set of windows and tons of natural light. I think a good lick of paint (to the cupboards AND wheat theme tiles) and some bright paint to the wall would really make it look better. Until, that is, I can afford all new cupboards. But there is a ton of storage space, and that's always nice.






The Living/Dining room. Not too large, but I don't need all that much space and I have 2 large size bedrooms (no pictures, sorry) and one weirdly small room. I LOVE the mantle, even without a fireplace, but I will save up to get a gas or cute electric one to put in there. There are BIG windows, and a trace ceiling and tons of light. Heavenly.



The living/dining in relation to the kitchen and the puny little room to the right. There is a lovely mini-hallway, which is more like a small room, that connect the two bedrooms, kitchen, living area and bathroom doorways. It even has a teeny phone knock carved into the wall.




Bathroom. Not large or anything special, but a decent sized bath/shower and a nice window. I would paint it a light colour and maybe incorporate some beadboard in here to make it more quaint and warm.




And my favourite room...the super teeny 7x7 "bedroom" with closet and big window. Again, please ignore the mess and try and see beyond the tenants junk. Picture the wall lined with book shelves and a big, oversized armchair in the middle of the room with ample lighting. Yup, I'm making myself a mini library. I have hundreds, if not thousands of books and I never have enough space to showcase them. I read like a fiend and feel a space like this would be me. Completely and totally ME.




I'm still hoping everything with our house gets worked out so I can start planning and collecting furniture.

The down side is when we move into the house, I'm actually going to be living in the finished basement for a while as I pay off student debt. It's a nice HUGE room, so I should be fine. I don't have any pictures but it's a good space.

No Surprise Here

It looks like the offer is going to fall through.

I'm devastated and yet not surprised; I've become quite cynical, which isn't like me most of the time.

Here's hope some divine miracle happens and we can move on with our life.

Will keep updating as this progresses...maybe I will have some good news soon?

Nothing Ever Goes Easy

We have had an offer that we accepted. Now we just need a home inspection and to wait for everything to go through. The inspection was supposed to happen this afternoon, but our realtor might not be able to come here to oversee it...yup. So, now we wait. Again.

In other news, work went well! It was crazy busy, more so than usual I was told, and I enjoyed it. I do admit to finding it difficult to work in the evenings; I find myself sitting around and counting down the hours. I just don't know about it. I'm happy to have a job (any job!) but it's very part-time and it's night's and it's hard to get around to doing anything in the day when I know I have a timeline.

Maybe I'm just being silly, and complaining about something I should be thankful for.

I just want this whole house mess to be over with!

Decorating Inspirations

So, we MAY have an offer coming in on the house today. May. No word yet, and our Realtor has left a message with the people. It was a crazy day last night! We had Stagers come to the house, offer suggestions, etc., do what they do. The minute we left, my Mom and I started cleaning up and arranging to have some furniture stored at a friends house. Then, in the usual way that things seem to be happening to us, we got a late-night call from the Realtor saying a client of hers MIGHT be making an offer.

Not a yes or no. A maybe. Ugh.

So, we stopped the cleaning and I had a good cry of frustration, and then made some tea and went to be frustrated and nervous. Now I'm waiting down the hours for my first day at the new job, hoping to get a phone call saying we have an offer...and not getting one yet.

So, in spite of all this upheaval and uncertainty, I thought I start posting some beautiful, inspirational images I've gathered over the last few months from the Internet. Now, NONE of these are my pictures, and I don't have all the links for them, but they're gorgeous, and I hope you enjoy them.

(NONE of these were taken by me.)

Living Rooms:

Is My Luck Changing?

I certainly hope my luck IS changing. I got back from the interview and the minute I walked in the door, let the dogs outside, and the phone rang. I ran to catch it and it was one of the women who interviewed me just moments before. They offered me a job with more hours that I had applied for, and assured me that if I found a full-time job, they would be happy to lessen my hours to work around it. WOW.

Did I mention I start tomorrow around this time? SHEESH.

But, I can't complain, money is money. Plus, I see myself being really happy with this job and I have learned how important that is. Often more important than money.

On a different matter, we had a showing of the house earlier this afternoon, and another one tonight. Maybe the luck has changed and we will get an offer?

Here's hoping.

Wish Me Luck!

Afternoon, Darlings!

It's not that big of a deal in the LARGE scheme of things, but I finally got a call back for a part-time job I applied for. I have an interview tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 and am hoping to get it. It's a VERY part-time job only adding up to about 21 hours a month, but it's something, and beggars can't be choosers...right?

Anyways, the exciting part is that it is at the Humane Society as an Adoption Counsellor! YAY! I really do love animals, and have had so many different kinds of species throughout my life. I think it would be an interesting place to work, and I would feel like I was helping out in some small way.

Maybe.

Just phoned my Mom to tell her the good news, and her comment was "DO NOT bring a dog home with you!"

Yup. She knows me so well!

(I'll try my best not to bring anything living home with me!)

Wish me luck!

The Welcome Post

Morning, Darlings!

I suppose any good (new) blog should begin with a short introduction; one to hopefully reel you in and keep you interested. Well, don't expect that...or if you do, prepare to be appauled and disappointed. Kidding, I swear! Hopefully my naturally sarcastic and hilarious nature comes across in my meandering blog posts.

Hopefully.

Well, lets begin with a short tale of where I am right now in life. I believe many people in their twenties are probably experiencing similar life issues as I am, and I am not ashamed about anything. I must first explain that my mother and I are insanely close. For some reason, it seems people get uncomfortable when people claim they are close with their parents; curious, or revolted or put off. I never quite understood that. I realize how lucky I am to have the mother that I have, and we love and respect each other and really are great friends.

So, with that said, we have been talking for years about purchasing a duplex together, in the hopes that I would eventually be able to get one of the suites as my own, and help pay towards half of the mortgage. I don't believe in renting, and I have lived in an apartment before and I just feel like I'm throwing money away at something that will never be mine! So, we looked for several months (just for research at first) and then came across the perfect Duplex within our beloved neighbourhood. We put an offer in the next day...and got rejected. Yup. Talk about a heart breaking.

But, as so often happens in fairy tales, our bad luck quickly turned around and one week later we got "the" call. The previous offer fell through and were we still interested? YES! Oh, but we have to pay more than we offered the first time? ... Fine. And so we did. And it's been a rollercoaster of emotional upheavals every momeny since.

I will spare you all from the trials and tribulations in this post (expect much rambling and verbal diarrhea to come) and say that we own this wonderful Duplex, but can't seem to sell our own house. Woe is me! If we had even, for a second, thought we wouldn't be able to sell this house, trust me when I say we wouldn't have ever offered on the other one.

We luckily have happy renters in the Duplex, so we're not drowning too badly in debt (yet!) and we've been on the market to sell this house for over 3 months. I swear, we have some kind of curse on us when it comes to selling houses!

So that's where I am now. Torn, confused, sad, and yet hopeful of one day selling and getting into that darn Duplex we love so much.

Here's hoping things turn around for us soon!