We are finding the main floor is a bit drafty.
The rear door into the kitchen has quite a gap at the bottom which I believe is fixed now. Anything to avoid using the electric heat!
I think we have some poor insulation on the outer walls, as well. It's not a strike issue, but we'll have to get it dealt with before next year. Apparently you can get an inspector for about $200 who will tell you were your most significant gains are in heating efficiency. It might be worth it before the weather turns so we can budget and do the work over the summer/fall.
Comments?
Monday, February 27, 2006
Starting to feel like home
We have finally started to put out the nick-nacks and hang a few things. What a tremendous difference that makes!
The place has been great, but it's starting to feel 'homey'.
The place has been great, but it's starting to feel 'homey'.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Just Say No! to Pottery Barn
Ok,
So the big concern right now is curtains. Like I said, I'm feeling rather exposed and I just want to get the windows covered. BUT we don't want to start holes in the wall without being sure about what we want.
Since we've currently got "shears" and opaque curtains for the living room that have the fabric hook things (does that make sense??) at the top, we need to have nice rods for both. We saw a double rod set at Pottery Barn, and figured, well, this must be a pretty standard thing. I'm sire we can pick some nice ones up pretty much anywhere.
So today, we head out to Home Depot to pick up a ton of stuff. (Our list just keeps growing!) You know, vacuum cleaner, weather stripping, socket covers, door locks, and double rod curtain rods.
Well, it turns out Home Depot (at least the one at Gerrard Square) is not the place to buy curtain rods if you are looking for any sort of selection. So we give up on that idea. We decide that, since we know that Pottery Barn has what we need, I might as well just pop over to the Eaton Center and pick them up. No problem.
Except, when we looked the other day, we didn't bother to look at the price. It turns out these fancy double "Pottery Barn Standard" curtain rods cost $200 a piece. $200. For curtain rods. Before tax. I'm not kidding! So for living room and dining room curtain rods, we'd be spending more than we've budgeted for a BBQ. I am NOT spending my BBQ budget on curtains rods, thank you very much, no matter how trendy they are!
So it seems like my trip down town has been a complete waste, and I'm still destined to have passers by looking in at my living room. At the last minute, on the way to the subway, I pop into the Bay. There they are, beautiful double rod curtain rods, for $54.99. Thank you Umbra.
It just goes to show: Just Say No! to Pottery Barn
So the big concern right now is curtains. Like I said, I'm feeling rather exposed and I just want to get the windows covered. BUT we don't want to start holes in the wall without being sure about what we want.
Since we've currently got "shears" and opaque curtains for the living room that have the fabric hook things (does that make sense??) at the top, we need to have nice rods for both. We saw a double rod set at Pottery Barn, and figured, well, this must be a pretty standard thing. I'm sire we can pick some nice ones up pretty much anywhere.
So today, we head out to Home Depot to pick up a ton of stuff. (Our list just keeps growing!) You know, vacuum cleaner, weather stripping, socket covers, door locks, and double rod curtain rods.
Well, it turns out Home Depot (at least the one at Gerrard Square) is not the place to buy curtain rods if you are looking for any sort of selection. So we give up on that idea. We decide that, since we know that Pottery Barn has what we need, I might as well just pop over to the Eaton Center and pick them up. No problem.
Except, when we looked the other day, we didn't bother to look at the price. It turns out these fancy double "Pottery Barn Standard" curtain rods cost $200 a piece. $200. For curtain rods. Before tax. I'm not kidding! So for living room and dining room curtain rods, we'd be spending more than we've budgeted for a BBQ. I am NOT spending my BBQ budget on curtains rods, thank you very much, no matter how trendy they are!
So it seems like my trip down town has been a complete waste, and I'm still destined to have passers by looking in at my living room. At the last minute, on the way to the subway, I pop into the Bay. There they are, beautiful double rod curtain rods, for $54.99. Thank you Umbra.
It just goes to show: Just Say No! to Pottery Barn
Our Sofa
I've found our Sofa
Well, actually, that's a picture of the Loveseat. I can't find the sofa. Anway, I saw it at Sears and I think that might be it! It said "choose from over 1500 fabrics" so I'm hoping we'll find some exciting red or purple that will really spice up the living room
Well, actually, that's a picture of the Loveseat. I can't find the sofa. Anway, I saw it at Sears and I think that might be it! It said "choose from over 1500 fabrics" so I'm hoping we'll find some exciting red or purple that will really spice up the living room
Thursday, February 16, 2006
I guess I should chime in
I've tried to dedicate a little time out each evening to unpacking without going overboard. I'm starting to feel like this will be a never-ending task. As CB pointed out, however, we only moved in on Saturday. I begin to suspect I may be obsessive/compulsive.
So far we've tackled the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the master bedroom, and the office. These are all liveable, but there is no art, no curtains, no knick-knacks and still a few strategically hidden boxes. It feels little bare.
I have no clue how we fit all of this stuff into a two bedroom apartment. As near as I can tell, we have filled a three bedroom house and almost filled the largely unused basement. I realize it's just 'cause things aren't organized, but it still feels bizarre.
So far we've tackled the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the master bedroom, and the office. These are all liveable, but there is no art, no curtains, no knick-knacks and still a few strategically hidden boxes. It feels little bare.
I have no clue how we fit all of this stuff into a two bedroom apartment. As near as I can tell, we have filled a three bedroom house and almost filled the largely unused basement. I realize it's just 'cause things aren't organized, but it still feels bizarre.
No Frills
The thing I hate about No Frills...well, there are No Frills!
No Deli, No Butcher, no 8 items or less line!
I really miss our Dominion.
No Deli, No Butcher, no 8 items or less line!
I really miss our Dominion.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
First day of work
Today is the first day I go to work from my new home. My route today: Walk to Chester Station (20 minutes), subway to Broadview (3 minutes), Bus to work, 18 minutes. Total travel time: 41 minutes.
Coming home it was the 25 Pape to Pape station and the 72 pape to (almost) my front door. Door to Door: 29 minutes.
I like the thought of walking daily, but, man that extra 10 minutes sure sounds nice!
Coming home it was the 25 Pape to Pape station and the 72 pape to (almost) my front door. Door to Door: 29 minutes.
I like the thought of walking daily, but, man that extra 10 minutes sure sounds nice!
Monday, February 13, 2006
A nice big kitchen
I had today off work and had planned on doing so much:
-Unpack, clean and organize the remainder of the kitchen
-Clean the bathroom
-Scrub down the upstairs and downstairs hallway
-Hang mops and brooms in the pantry
-Clean the laundry room
-Wash and hang curtains in the bedroom and living room
-Trip to Home Depot for all the odds and ends
What I actually did
-Unpack, clean and organize the remainder of the kitchen
-Quick trip to Zellers and Home Depot.
...
I actually thought I was doing really well on the kitchen. I had the whole thing sparking and organized by 12:00. Except that the battery on my clock had run out and it was really 2:00. Since I had to go to Karate at 5:30, that barely left me enough time for a home depot trip and to make myself dinner!
Oh well. It is nice to have a big kitchen you can move around in. It turns out we do have a lot more cupboard space than our old place, which is nice. I don't have to stack everything on top of each other, which is such a pain when actually want to use something. Just have to get the pantry organized now. That calls for another trip to home depot with G to buy shelves! Oooh can't wait! (how domestic!)
-Unpack, clean and organize the remainder of the kitchen
-Clean the bathroom
-Scrub down the upstairs and downstairs hallway
-Hang mops and brooms in the pantry
-Clean the laundry room
-Wash and hang curtains in the bedroom and living room
-Trip to Home Depot for all the odds and ends
What I actually did
-Unpack, clean and organize the remainder of the kitchen
-Quick trip to Zellers and Home Depot.
...
I actually thought I was doing really well on the kitchen. I had the whole thing sparking and organized by 12:00. Except that the battery on my clock had run out and it was really 2:00. Since I had to go to Karate at 5:30, that barely left me enough time for a home depot trip and to make myself dinner!
Oh well. It is nice to have a big kitchen you can move around in. It turns out we do have a lot more cupboard space than our old place, which is nice. I don't have to stack everything on top of each other, which is such a pain when actually want to use something. Just have to get the pantry organized now. That calls for another trip to home depot with G to buy shelves! Oooh can't wait! (how domestic!)
Laundry
We figured out today that our special energy efficient washer/dryer combo takes about 3.5 hours to do a load of wash and dry. Wow. We also don't have an owners manual for this one. So we looked it up on the web. We thought maybe we weren't using it right, but it really does take that long!
We do about 6 loads of laundry a week, at 3.5 hours each that's 21 hours!
Well, at least you don't have to wait to change it over to the dryer. Anyway, we may have to work in a new washer and dryer into the budget...I'd really like to know exactly how much energy this one saves.
Didn't this whole moving thing start over laundry anyway????
We do about 6 loads of laundry a week, at 3.5 hours each that's 21 hours!
Well, at least you don't have to wait to change it over to the dryer. Anyway, we may have to work in a new washer and dryer into the budget...I'd really like to know exactly how much energy this one saves.
Didn't this whole moving thing start over laundry anyway????
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Moving Day
G and L have spent the past 2 days speed paining (is that an Olympic sport?) after all the electrical and plaster work, pretty much every wall in the house needed to be repainted.
Still to go Saturday morning: Hallways (the colour we had turned out to be NO GOOD), Master Bedroom (we hadn't planned on painting this one but it turns out to have needed it), one coat in guest bedroom and touch ups in the office.
We got up at 6:45 and over to the house by 7:45. C runs to the paint store to get bedroom paint and new hardware. L start touching up the office and putting the last coat on the guest bedroom.
9:30 - L starts first coat on the master bedroom, C starts washing up the main floor in prep for the movers10:30 - movers arrive - L and C are madly washing up the floors and baseboards – trying not to get in the way of those guys carrying big heavy pieces of furniture
11:00 - L and G start the second coat in the bedroom.-Turns out the couch won't go up the stairs. The couch almost gets sent to Good Will until we finally figure out the geometry to get it into the living room (darn!).The couch, shelf and chair together completely overwhelm the living room, so we decide to put the big shelf upstairs. The living room still doesn’t look great, but at least it’s livable. I can't wait to get a new couch!
12:30 - the movers move the last of the master bedroom furniture into the living room (careful not to touch the wet paint on the walls!) and pack up.
I spend the rest of the afternoon unpacking while G runs around the city getting L to the ballet school for the kids, bringing E and L back to help for a few more hours.
L unpacks the kitchen while Es helps me in the bedroom. Boy, G's dresser has never been so organized. The girl certainly has an eye ...
Finally at about 5:30 we call it quits. We invite D^2 over for some post moving beverages and takeout. The cat lady shows up with our lovely Ash Cat (we haven't seen our baby for almost 2 months!). Suddenly we realize we can’t find the litter box! So C runs around the neighborhood looking for a pet store open past 6pm! NO litter box, but I found litter at the grocery store. We have to improvise with an old Tupperware container.
Ash Cat seems to like the new digs, although the stairs seem more of a challenge than we had hoped. Within about 2 minutes, she has figured out where the forced air vents are and is curled up in front of one in the living room.
D^2 show up with some beer (and a very hard to get bottle of scotch!! Thank you!) and we hang around, admiring the fabulous paint and trying to believe the furniture doesn't look quite so bad with it.
D1 and I head out for Vietnamese take out (we've heard on good authority that Mimi's is fabulous) while the guys relax with another beer.
Excellent food, good conversation, a great way to start living in our new home, dreaming about back yard bbq's and dinner parties.
We finally head to bed, exhausted at 10:30. Our first *real* night living in our new home.
Still to go Saturday morning: Hallways (the colour we had turned out to be NO GOOD), Master Bedroom (we hadn't planned on painting this one but it turns out to have needed it), one coat in guest bedroom and touch ups in the office.
We got up at 6:45 and over to the house by 7:45. C runs to the paint store to get bedroom paint and new hardware. L start touching up the office and putting the last coat on the guest bedroom.
9:30 - L starts first coat on the master bedroom, C starts washing up the main floor in prep for the movers10:30 - movers arrive - L and C are madly washing up the floors and baseboards – trying not to get in the way of those guys carrying big heavy pieces of furniture
11:00 - L and G start the second coat in the bedroom.-Turns out the couch won't go up the stairs. The couch almost gets sent to Good Will until we finally figure out the geometry to get it into the living room (darn!).The couch, shelf and chair together completely overwhelm the living room, so we decide to put the big shelf upstairs. The living room still doesn’t look great, but at least it’s livable. I can't wait to get a new couch!
12:30 - the movers move the last of the master bedroom furniture into the living room (careful not to touch the wet paint on the walls!) and pack up.
I spend the rest of the afternoon unpacking while G runs around the city getting L to the ballet school for the kids, bringing E and L back to help for a few more hours.
L unpacks the kitchen while Es helps me in the bedroom. Boy, G's dresser has never been so organized. The girl certainly has an eye ...
Finally at about 5:30 we call it quits. We invite D^2 over for some post moving beverages and takeout. The cat lady shows up with our lovely Ash Cat (we haven't seen our baby for almost 2 months!). Suddenly we realize we can’t find the litter box! So C runs around the neighborhood looking for a pet store open past 6pm! NO litter box, but I found litter at the grocery store. We have to improvise with an old Tupperware container.
Ash Cat seems to like the new digs, although the stairs seem more of a challenge than we had hoped. Within about 2 minutes, she has figured out where the forced air vents are and is curled up in front of one in the living room.
D^2 show up with some beer (and a very hard to get bottle of scotch!! Thank you!) and we hang around, admiring the fabulous paint and trying to believe the furniture doesn't look quite so bad with it.
D1 and I head out for Vietnamese take out (we've heard on good authority that Mimi's is fabulous) while the guys relax with another beer.
Excellent food, good conversation, a great way to start living in our new home, dreaming about back yard bbq's and dinner parties.
We finally head to bed, exhausted at 10:30. Our first *real* night living in our new home.
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