Cleaning, Re-Arranging and Renovating...

 With winter comes interior cleaning, re-arranging and sometimes renovations.  This year we decided to clean up, re-arrange (a little bit) and renovate our bathroom.

This is the only bathroom in the house so it gets a bit of use, and over time, the floor tile had worn away over specific spots enough that screws and cracks in the sub floor translated to the tile.  Granted it wasn't expensive tile to start with, and was probably laid in a hurry in an effort to spruce up the room and make it more attractive to potential purchasers.  The walls and ceiling had also been painted and though the colours are ok, they're not what I would have chosen. The whole room was not bad, but not great either and not my style.

So, when the cracks in the flooring tile began to appear, we decided it was time to "fix" the floor - by replacing the tile.  Found what I wanted at Home Hardware.

The tile was obtained.  Yay!

So...if we're going to do the floor, why not paint the walls and ceiling?!!?  Great idea!  Finally we'll get rid of the green ceiling and woodwork and have white instead, and choose a new colour other than lilac for the walls.  Home Hardware on sale again!

Got the paint!  Yay!

So, now we're looking at the rest of the room...Love the sink, but it's really too big for the space, maybe we can find something a little smaller.  Hmmmmmmmm. Canadian Tire has just the thing... and it's on SALE!!  Got that!  W00T!

Love the style of the sink, maybe we should see if we can find a toilet to match that has a lever instead of a push button for a flush mechanism...  wait!  Central has the exact one we want - ON SALE!!  W00T W00T!!

So after much trial and tribulation, the bathroom was finished.  The flooring is better, though has some issues that will have to wait until we are out of the busy planting season to fix, and there are a few touch ups to do paint wise, but the room is essentially finished.

These are the "before" photos.

 The infamous push button flushing toilet.  Nothing wrong with it and I love the style, but I hate that push button.

 The matching sink - very large basin, beautiful pedestal sink, just too big for the spot it's in.  The partition for the end of the tub just doesn't allow much wiggle room.  Much easier and less costly to replace the sink than the partition wall.  The light fixture is also dated and will be replaced. 

The window curtains.  They go with the room - all colour coordinated and all.  Good view of the colour of the wall - nice but not for me.

This is the corner on the other side of that tub partition wall - a linen closet.  The woodwork, ceiling and door are painted green.  Ugh.

So along the way we also replaced two of the three light fixtures and a couple of towel bars so now things have a bit more of a pulled together look...and just about everything was on sale!!  Go me!

Here is the new look!

 This is the new toilet - more efficient in use of water, smaller tank size and it has a lever on the side - no push button!  Also the seat and lid have a self closure so all you have to do is start it on it's way down and it closes itself silently.  No more toilet lid bangs in the middle of the night.  :-D

 Here is the new sink - much smaller from back to front, in a more updated style.  The mirror is also new - on sale at Winners.  Love it! 

Here's another view of the sink.  We'll probably move the glass shelf  because we've been bumping into it when we brush our teeth, but it's ok for now.  Note the dark floor - much richer looking.  And of course, the kitties had to get in on the action...

Here you can see the window, and the bench below it.  As much as I love my rocker, it really doesn't belong in the bathroom, and the bench was on sale at Canadian Tire.  Casey has adopted it as her new favourite place to snooze.  Also from Canadian Tire is the new light fixture over the sink complete with square shades. (on sale too!)  

I haven't decided whether or not to put a curtain on the window; the clean lines of the Roman blind kind of go with the rest of the room.  

The woodwork is now all white and provides a nice contrast to the green walls.

The bathroom sides of both doors are green - and they are framed by the white casings.  Looks great!

We are really happy at how this turned out.  Over the summer we will put the finishing touches on (fixing the floor, touching up the paint etc.) and enjoy it.

Next winter we'll attack the master bedroom...look out world, here we come!

And now for the inside.  Sometimes it's not so easy to photograph lighted scenes especially when your camera is on flash mode!

Here's an example...the tree lights are lit in both photos, but the bottom one is taken without flash.  Cool effects!  Our tree this year is silver, white and blue, and the lights are white and blue.  It is just gorgeous!

The staircase and hallway are also a little difficult to photograph, but here goes:

The doorway from the front hall to the living room.

 


The archway from Living Room to Office (formerly dining room)  The bells were hung outside last year.

The view from the front door through to the Kitchen.

At the top of the stairs are the Norwegian Father Christmas and his wife and child.

The Village has become a small town.  The street lights and the houses and the two large trees all light up.

Even the library has lights - these are the ones we got at the Light Exchange on the evening of the Christmas Parade.

Annnnnddddd the main event - Christmas Dinner!

Carving the Turkey

OK, lets eat!

Steve and I would like to wish all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  We hope for only the best for you and yours in 2013!

So, now that we have the flowers shared, it's time to share the actual Christmas decoration photos!  Steve has outdone himself this year with some new colour schemes and more led lights.  Sadly the old incandescent lights are burning out and the old strings of lights are not working as well as they once did.  Over the next few years we will be switching over to led entirely as our old light sets cease to work.  For now, though, the decorations are a combination of both types.  It makes for an interesting effect!

This post will be the outside lights.  They will look better if you click on the image to enlarge it.

The back of the house with the deck lit.  You enter right into the kitchen.

The driveway side of the house.  The window at the back of the house is the kitchen.

This is the front of the house from both sides.  New this year are the three stars on the wall in the porch and the antique bells hanging over the stairs.

The other side of the house...living room window to the front and the office window (where the hoya hangs) to the back.

It's been a while.  Life has been very busy, and it seems the only time I get to add anything to the blog is when it's Christmas.

In a recent conversation I mentioned that all my plants are flowering, and I haven't been able to propagate my lovely Hoya because the darned thing is always blooming!!!  It's uncanny - the window ledges in the house seem to perfect for the violets and all the other plants. Here's proof:

These two are of the air plant in bloom.  We picked this up in Saint John at Rhoda's Christmas Craft Festival in November, and it was in bud.  Now it's in bloom!

These African Violets were given to us without a bud in sight - look at them now!

My Christmas Cactus is huge now.  Most of the time it is out in the unheated front porch where it gets indirect light (lots of it) and it gets watered when I think of it, and it's away from the cats' main focus (and they have no reason to leap up onto the little table it's on.  In this photo the blooms are almost done; a week ago it was covered in flowers.

Another basket of African violets - gifted to us.  This will make several when I split it up.

Even this little one in front is starting to bloom - for the first time.  These violets are all usually in the windows on the opposite side of the house from the driveway.

The big one in the back is in its usual place.  This summer it was absolutely plastered in blooms, and yet here it is blooming again.  There are at least two good sized plants in the pot and I'll be separating them too.

Here is my beautiful Hoya that I've had for 4 years.  Since I've kept it in the office window (again on the opposite side of the house from the driveway) it has always had at least one bloom.  You can see some buds in the second photo. 

This Violet is in the living room window.  There is another one on the other side of the window, but the Christmas Tree is in the way and I couldn't get a photo of it.

Even the spider plant upstairs is blooming!  Those white things are buds!  This one is usually on the window sill in the bathroom on the second floor facing the street.

This plant isn't blooming, but it is growing new leaves.  Its home is on the window sill in the library - second floor at the front of the house.

It's Christmas time again!

It's been a while since I blogged, but that's because I was busy with markets and Holiday Craft shows.  Then of course, the baking must be done, the shopping must be accomplished, wrapped and the boxes for family away must be sent.  And the house must be decorated.  And finally it is all done!  Yay!!

Here are the pictures for Christmas 2010.

We had a tiny bit of snow when these were taken.  Right now it's raining, and there isn't much snow in the forecast - in fact there are only flurries forecast for the next week.  It looks like a green Christmas at this point.:-(

This is as you approach the house from the centre of town.

And the Front of the house - you can see the tree through
 the living room window.

The  driveway side.  No flash to see how it worked.
Not so good!
Notice the one bulb out?

And the back of the house!  We don't even need the outside light...hahahahaha

 We've started to replace some of the outside lights with LED's.  The Power Commission had a light exchange on the night of the Christmas Parade, so we took advantage.  So, we have a bit fewer lights on the outside this year.  Some of the strings are quite old and it's harder to get them to work each time, so every year the patterns will be a little different.

Now for Inside!  The decorations are mostly the same - with a few little tweaks.

This is what you see when you come in the back door.
This is the door we use most of the time.
That's the Dining Room turned office through the door beside the fridge.

View from the office doorway beside the fridge.  That window
is on the driveway side of the house.  The hoya has been
moved to the window in the office as it is getting so long.  There
are flower buds everywhere on it!

This is the hall when viewed from the kitchen.
This doorway is opposite the
door to the outside.

Stairs from the front porch.

Steve added some coloured blinking lights to the clear garland lights this year.

Up we go to the second floor.

The village.  We hope to add to it in the future.

Library, complete with the Mabel-Cat!

And down we go again!  Entrance to the Living Room

 We made the most changes in the living room.  We took the stereo upstairs so we could have music up there, and changed the room around.  We put the china cabinet in the office (on the back wall, and no I'm not going to post pictures of that room - it's still a mess!)  We took a cabinet from the office and put it downstairs where we can use the extra shelf space.  It's amazing how much roomier the living room looks and feels now!

And, yes Sarah, that is one of the new lights on the ceiling in the living room.  :-)  We have replace all the old lights now, including the one in the hall (done today) and we just have to switch the chandelier in the office for the chandelier that was in the living room.

View from the hall.

View from the front corner opposite the hall entry.

From the corner in front of the desk.

View from the office doorway.

So that's it for this year.  I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Steve and I would like to wish you all a 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, 

and may 2011 be the best year ever for you!