She Said Yes, Now What

The parents are up from the south, and Mama and I've been shopping around already for fabric for DR chairs. As soon as we find the camera usb cable, I'll post some more pictures. We finally have hit the home stretch of unpacking, and it feels great. I tell myself it's the home stretch to make myself feel like we're making progress.

New Toy

The first serious purchase for the house was delivered today, with much fanfare.

 I suppose I should count the lovely new patio furniture ahead of the Big Green Egg.  But the folding umbrella didn't come with a training DVD. 

Our neighbors are very excited about the Egg.  The folks who moved out of the house next door had one on their porch, and they were very popular.  The owner loved his Egg so much, he had it packed and sent to Australia. Our immediate neighbor is considering cutting a swinging door in the shared fence which separates our two back decks.

3rd sleep in the house

We've been sleeping in the new place for a few days now. And I'm very happy with the bedroom paint. As soon as I find new batteries for the camera and tidy up enough to take a proper picture, I'll post a photo of the colour French Grey.   As it is, I've been documenting the move with the camera on my phone.  But I am incapable of transferring pics from berry to apple mac. (fruit to fruit.  ha ha.)   A few family members have received email updates and MMS from the phone.  Perhaps I can email myself the picture and download that way.   Must ask Craig.  

One of the best parts of the move this week: the brilliant Michiel was able to dissemble the 11.5 ft bookcase in the apt and move it to the new place.  It's now a 6.5 ft structure in the basement.  We don't know what to do with the ladder.  Again, pictures to follow.   

Painting the kitchen

Craig is dedicated to painting this house.  Exhibit #1:

He's lying on a floor he sanded, primed and painted, edging under the cabinets.  He's my hero.  Also, notice the colour on the brush. It's Hague Blue by Farrow & Ball.  This will be the lower kitchen cabinet colour.  It is the most beautiful, saturated dark blue I've even seen.  And I have it all over my hands today.  Look at his hands.  Clean.  He remembered to work in those disposable plastic gloves.  

In preparation for painting the cabinet doors, Craig removed the doors, drawer fronts and hardware. And courtesy of Bob Vila online, and an extra trip to Home Depot for 2x4s, he set up this in the living room:

We paint one side of a door horizontally, on the table resting on top of a paint can, and then hang it to do the other side.  Then they all can dry safely thanks to the little hooks Craig installed just for this purpose.  The hooks are on either the bottom of a lower cabinet door or on the top of an upper door, so they will not be seen when they're installed again.

Here is a partially finished kitchen : the floor with beautiful paint (F&B, Satin Slipper), walls done, ceiling done (F&B Light Blue).  Just the trim remaining (and one more coat of paint on the floor. Can't hurt to have 3.)

Tonight's project: finish coat 1 of French Grey on the bedroom wall. Below is the room before.  More postings after we get through the actual packing and moving this week.

 

 

Painting report

What is that word which describes finding a new -and originally unintended -- use for an object?  Surely it's something more glamorous than "repurposing".  I need Craig the wordsmith.  Help. 

Even without the word, my new favourite illustration of the dictum  "take pleasure in small things" is our use of the IKEA knife magnet holder in our house's kitchen.  Illustration provided.

 

Our Purdy paintbrushes have received a thorough breaking-in. How happy they look after a wash and a comb, with the putty knives to keep them company.   We can report that they are as reliable as both Bob Vila promised.  The brushes also received a subtle nod of endorsement from a professional painter in line at Home Depot.  Craig was pleased.

Paint colors and popcorn ceilings

We had a bit of professional advice today, and I think we'll be able to settle on colors for the walls tomorrow. The color impression that this house gives off right now is yellow yellow yellow.  In the floors the walls the cabinets and the countertops.  Our mantra (Craig's mantra) from the beginning has been "no yellow".  No one, on either side of the family, will be surprised to hear that white and blue are the basic palette.  On the walls I've painted 4 different whites, one kicky dark blue, a red, a green and a brown. (picture below is halfway through the sample paint odyssey).   I wish I could have all of them. But in the fairly open main floor, I know I need a unified look.  

I can report that my fancy $20 Purdy paintbrush is AWESOME.  Craig was good to remind me to clean it with warm water and the fancy little brush comb that looks an awful lot like a dog comb.  

The big realization for me is that one can actually rid oneself of a popcorn ceiling.  I dislike these ceilings so much. But I figured I had no immediate control over this because ours have been painted, and we couldn't remove with water and scraping.   We learned that we can plaster over them with a thin coat of what one puts onto dry wall.   I don't think we'll tackle this any time soon.  But it's nice to know that someday we could have lovely flat ceilings. 

Another revelation: we're going to need a new sofa.   And all the track lighting has got to go. (This last one is not a recent revelation. We noted it at the open house.)
 

Paint Chips

Daphne here. 

Is believing you are a good decorator like thinking you're good looking? or are a good driver?

I have decided that we need some outside-the-family advice on paint colors. (oops. colours. I live in Canada now.)  We close on the house on Monday, July 12.   We need to start the painting process asap in order to move all the furniture in on July 28.   How many billion shades of what is basically the absence or presence of light can paint companies devise?   I like to think of myself as someone who can look at colour, know what she wants, and make  quick decisions.   But thinking about paint colours without having access to the physical walls of the house is beyond me. I admit it.   The first step in gaining some modicum of control is narrowing the field of choice.  We're thinking of going with Farrow and Ball paint. Super high quality paint, environmentally friendly, and here's the best part: very few choices.   One really doesn't need 87 shades of blue from which to choose.  Right?   Don't tell Benjamin Moore I'm thinking of breaking up.

This weekend we will buy a couple of sample pots, play with the paint on some fiber board (or something like that).  And then we're going to meet the lovely and brilliant Irene who will show us the way to a calm and peaceful household through sensible colour combinations.   Then it's off to the races.   Wash the walls, sand the walls, prime the walls, paint the walls, paint the walls.  Oh, right the baseboards.  We're replacing them too.  

Next post: Craig becomes Bob Vila du Nord.  He's already bought 3 of the best hand made paint brushes available.  I'm putting my initials on mine.

 

Countdown to Closing Date

Craig has given me license to contribute to his (our) blog(s).  Well, I have more or less hijacked the blog. I know that certain family members would love to follow along with every little step of our move into our first house.  We close on the new house on July 12.  And we must be out of our apartment by the end of July.  

Before the move, we'd like to paint just about every interior wall.  And the kitchen cabinets. We're going to do this ourselves. We believe that because we've painted small apartment walls before (and in my case one dorm room), we are equipped to take this on.   We are going to become handy.  Handymen.  

Job#1 - make a list of Jobs 2 through 422, and formulate some kind of work plan.   

I think we need a second lieutentent in order to get all this done in time.  Useful advice welcome. 

Next post: choosing paint colors (sorry, colours) without actually having access to the house.

--Daphne 

Wow, that was quick

So when I posted last week about starting the search for a house I thought I would be writing about a long search. The ups and downs. Making offers. Getting outbid. Seeing dumps. Mansions that were way beyond what we could afford. But this will not be the case.

We saw a total of three houses. Put an offer on the third one and after a little negotiating on price, we were done. All in a week. I know. Crazy huh? 

I'll admit I was pretty hesitant about putting an offer on only the third house we saw. I wanted to scout the market further. See more houses. Get a better sense of what we might be able to but. But, the reality of it is that the townhouse we have signed on for has everything we were looking for. It is in a location we want, enough space, two bathrooms, a decent size kitchen, parking, a fireplace and just enough outdoor space for a grill. Further searching would have been just for a house with the same characteristics. To realistically get any more than what we have, it was going to cost more and we just didn't want to spend the money.

So, now we're on to the next stage. Home inspection is scheduled for Tuesday. So, we haven't bought the house yet. I'm sure he'll freak us out and give us all sorts of excuses not to buy the house, but that's probably a good thing. It is important that we understand the risks we are taking on here. 

I'll keep posting about the process, but it looks like it will be more about the buying of the house, not the search for the house.

Now What?

I haven't posted anything here for more than a year. Not since I posted pictures up from the wedding. So there likely isn't anyone left reading this, but I thought I would start posting again. The name of the blog was and still is "She Said Yes, Now What" I'm hoping to focus on the "Now What" part. So, we're going to buy a house. Well, maybe not a house. Maybe a townhouse. Maybe a semi-detached house. But, you get the idea.

After a year of messing around on the MLS website and going to a handful of open houses, we decided to get serious about the idea. So, we've been to the bank and found a real estate agent and tomorrow we'll go see a couple of houses for real, with an agent to tell us why we're crazy in liking a spot or why we need to move quickly and make an offer.

So if you know of a nice house for sale in Ottawa that isn't too far from downtown and is a somewhat affordable, let me know. As they say, we're in the market.