Weekend Surprises…

What a weekend!! Our annual theme park adventure was indeed a success.. but after spending an amazing 3 days in Montreal with friends, it was really nice to be back home and sleep in our own bed. But before heading home to catch up on our ZZzzZZZzz, we swung by the better half's parents to pick up Rufus, who spent the weekend, and some well deserved coffees. It was a long drive back, so coffee was appreciated.

After the coffees, we said our goodbyes, packed the dog and bolted home. We walked in the house and headed towards the kitchen.. And there it was..



The Dream fridge…

Turns out the in-laws had a little fun breaking into our place on Saturday. I almost had a heart attack when I first saw it. We had been saving for weeks/months to replace old betsy and in one day our in-laws swooped in there and replaced her with the MAC daddy of all fridges..

We were floored, overwhelmed and extremely happy to have such an amazing family that wouldn't have a doubt in their minds to do this for us. For that, we are so thankful!!! We couldn't be happier to finally be able to eat at home..

Just think.. We haven't done a grocery run in 8 weeks…

wow.

Just our luck..

Old Betsy...

We haven't been having the best of weeks lately..

After doing one of the biggest loads of groceries we have ever done in the history of living in our house, our fridge kicked the bucket while we were away at the cottage. Over $350 in produce/meat/condiments, gone. Seriously, down in the dumps right now.

We were already thinking of getting rid of the appliances we had (which weren't that old to start with) to upgrade to stainless. But I think old Betsy got a feeling something was going on and bailed on us early as payback. We were looking at replacing them early next year. wonderful.

We had some money saved up for a few projects around the house.. but to our disappointment, they will have to wait. (unless we win the local lottery of course)

This brings us to the other dilemma. Where do we start? What do we do?

the dream fridge...

Home Renos: kitchen floors

I'm not gonna lie to you, we were conned big when we bought the house. The first time we saw the house we were awe stricken. The hardwood and ceramic floors were just done and everything was shiny and brand new. (I get distracted by shiny things.. ) The red flag should have gone up when the guy selling the place told us his friend finished the ceramic himself. We should have looked really hard at the baseboards.. it would have been a dead give away. Grout eeeeeeeeeverywhere.

When the guy told us his friend installed the ceramic, he didn't tell us the tiles were installed over Linoleum flooring. Big nono. (we didn't bother to ask either.. so that was partly our fault). Fast forward 2 years.. the cracks are starting to show. Not only is it problematic in the kitchen there is tile located in the main entrance, powder room and landing leading to the basement; all on the main floor. Everything tiled over Linoleum and both tiles and grout are cracking. wonderful.

Instead of buying a new house, we decided to stick with this one for another 6-7 years. We'd like to invest in durable materials to get this problem nipped in the butt as soon as can be. It would also be nice if it were done as cheap as possible, but after 2 years of picking up bits of grout It needs to last and it needs to be done properly. This is why we've decided to pull all of the stops and go granite. It's crazy expensive and we would need to hire a professional to install it (add on more $$$) but looking at it from a long term perspective, It'll be worth the cost. It is very durable and resilient to anything you throw at it.

After that, all we'd have to do is paint the walls, change the hardware on the cupboards, and it'll look as good as new!! (easier said than done right?)

How did you re-finish your kitchen floors?

Home Renos - Kitchen Edition

We purchased our wonderful townhouse a little over 2 years ago. At the time we weren't seriously looking for a home, we didn't really see anything that was remotely close to what we wanted in a home.. until we saw this one. The second we set foot in the house, we were in total awe and in love. Within a few hours of it being posted online, we put an offer in. It was ours the next day.

We did quite a bit of work to it when we first moved in; The walls looked like they were drenched in pepto-bismol.. but flashy pink. It took around 15 cans of paint and several garbage loads of wall paper to finally be able to call it home. If I were to do it all again, I would have waited and done my research on a few things before taking the plunge on a few projects we did. I don't regret doing them when we did, I just wish we would have waited a little longer. (Geminis are known for being hard-headed.. this wasn't an exception)

The reason we bought the house pretty much rests on the kitchen. It's open concept, with lots of cabinet and counter space and you can sit 8 comfortably at the kitchen table while still having some room to maneuver around. We didn't want to set up a formal dinning room, so this was pretty important for us.

Here are a few shots before-during-after the reno/ face lift..

{Before - Pepto bismol pink}

{Before - breakfast area}

{During painting}

{After, home sweet home}

The first phase was pretty much cosmetic. Now that we've been here 2 years, it's time to get some kind of big project going. The next phase is going to be a little drastic.. here's what we planned on doing in the next year..

Back splash, walls re-painted (softer green), counter tops, new ceramic floors & maybe new appliances (budget pending - looking for stainless ) We aren't looking to spend more than $2500 (appliances, materials and labour included) It might be doable...

We're going to take this on as a long term project.. hopefully this time around next year things will be looking good..

Can't wait!!