House Painted, Couch update, Harvest Table and Cougar sightings!!!

I realized something this weekend....that painting is not my number 1 task on a list! I took Friday off of work since we had a full weekend planned and felt like 2 days was just not enough time to have everything completed. 


I taped up all of the trim, baseboards and windows then headed to Home Depot to pick up some paint. I ended up going with Behrs Silver Grey. At first I was worried that it might be too light and look almost white but it turned out really nice. The space looks much brighter and colour suits well with the trim and baseboards which are all stained a deep red(Brankos idea, not mine :) I was very happy with the outcome and also very happy that we were able to scratch off another item off of our massive list for the old house. Just one step closer to the for sale sign! 

Here you can see a difference in the paint colours from the old one to the new:

Enough about painting and onto our Harvest Table adventure. My harvest table love started some time ago when I came across some pictures of tables in magazines. I knew that these would fit with our home perfectly so long as I could modernize the table with some funky chairs. Branko found a guy online who was selling some extra wood that he had purchased from Mennonites. His wife told him he had too many projects on the go and said he needed to get rid of some of his wood. We woke up early Sat. morning (5:30am) and headed on our way to Oakville. The guy was renting a barn on a piece of property that also had an art gallery. This was one super cool dude. He let us go through all of the pieces of wood that he had, he gave us a ton of suggestions for the stain type we should use. Then he gave us an entire tour of the re-built barn and the art gallery! It was seriously stunning! He is also saving one more piece of wood for us that we want to come back and pick up so we can make a bench for our mudroom. Once we were done chatting with him we thanked him kindly for his time and headed off back home...of course with a pit stop at Starbucks! 

We drove straight to the little town where we found our carpentry guys who are going to build the table for us. The little town is only about 25min from our home. We spent a good hour with them talking about how we would like to the table to look and which live edge sides want to save. It's safe to say we are pretty excited about the table! The guys told us to come back in about 3 weeks so we can have a look at the progress of the work that is completed.  

Here is a picture of our beautiful pieces of wood! 

Future table update will definitely be on the blog! Oh and we also left with this:

The wine rack was sitting in the shop and when I asked if he built it all from scratch he said "yes sure did". Branko asked me if I liked it and of course my answer was yes! We have been looking for something to hold our liquor. Branko asked how much he would like for it the and the guy said if you take it right now $100 cash.The wine rack will  be stained to match the table. It also has a backing and a bottom piece. 

I wanted to thank everybody for the feedback on couches! I made a visit to a local furniture store in Orangeville which was much larger then I expected. They had some pricey furniture but they also had a large selection of couches at very good prices. Oh and they have sale going on too till July 31st! 

With all of the days excitement including a stop at the Farmers Market for fresh bread once we got home Branko felt like he needed a nap! Haha he slept for 3 hrs! 

The rest of the weekend was filled with some fun times with the neighbours around a bon fire and cleaning out the basement at our new house so we can start storing stuff down there. 

Wow, this was a long one! But I must end it off with an article I read in the Orangeville news website! Cougar sightings in Orangeville!! You can read about it here if you live in the Orangeville area. 

http://www.orangeville.com/news/local/article/1381112--weekend-cougar-sightings-in-dufferin

This has left me a little freaked out since we are moving to 50 acres of land and plan on biking and walking the trails. Guess I will just have to google "how to fend off cougars" LOL 

With all that said hope everybody had a great weekend...if you have any tips on  warding off cougars please share! ;) 

Couch Thoughts...

I have been couch shopping for some time now. Well ever since we bought the  new house and realized that our old leather black couch was very outdated and did not belong in that beautiful open concept living space. I have been able to decide that I would like to go with a fabric material and not leather or suede(fake suede) or whatever you call it. Branko is just far too messy and would probably ruin something on that suede material plus I am just not a big fan of them. The leather couches are far too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. 


Here is the living space picture where sectional couch will go, it will be up against that back wall under those ugly lights that are now thankfully gone. 

The couch will be in a greyish tone since the walls will be white and flooring will be a walnut colour. I figure the grey tone with some colourful accents will look nice. I also plan to add 2 wing back chairs on the opposite side of the couch. I have to make sure the sectional piece on the end is not too long or sticking out too much because it will cover the French doors leading to the patio. The space looks really dark in the picture above but now that those walls are all gone and the panelling is gone it is much brighter already. 

Today I found a really great couch at Crate and Barrel. 

This couch would work really well for our living space. I like how I can take apart the entire couch and use individual pieces. I wouldn't have the extra piece on the end on the right side of the picture. 

The total costs of this couch would be with taxes $4500. Is that too much for a couch??? I know Branko's answer :). I am still couch shopping but I am just curious to know....what's the average price you would pay for a couch??? 

Harvest Table Dilemma

I have a serious dilemma in regards to the stain that I need to choose for the harvest table we are having made. Hopefully we can make a decision by the end of the week, the guy who is building the table for us also said if we could bring in some examples of the flooring and ceiling colour he can help us pick out a nice stain that would go appropriately with both. 




The below picture is what the ceiling and beam colours our. We plan on keeping those colours, all of the walls are being drywalled and will be painted some sort of off white/light greyish colour. 

Here is a picture of the table style we are having made, it's going to be a pine table with live edges to give it that rustic appeal. 

And here is a picture of what the flooring will be, we are gearing towards a hand scraped hard wood floor in a walnut tone. I don't want really dark hard wood flooring since most of it will be in sunlight all day.  

So now what colour do I stain the table?????????? Help!!!  

This past weekend our real estate agent made a visit to see the progress we have made and also provide us with some pointers on our old home in regards to what is the most important to get finished before we put it up for sale and where to move certain pieces of furniture. I think this visit gave us a nice motivation booster. We feel more confident that the tasks we need to get done will be finished in no time(2 weeks is our time frame). We also made a visit to our new home and guess what somebody (complete random stranger) graded our driveway. It was in rough shape and needed some new gravel. Whoever you are THANK YOU! 

DIY Mason Jar Fun

Yesterday at work I visited a co-worker who works in a different group and different floor. It's always fun having our casual talks and gets me away from the desk. Our conversations usually consist of talking about our husbands, home life, and decorating of course. We got onto the topic of Mason Jars, she is looking to create something for her sister's upcoming engagement party and  I am on a huge Mason Jar kick recently so any talk about Mason Jars is always fun. When I got back to my desk I of course pulled up pinterest and entered Mason Jars.....there were enough ideas to keep me busy for hours! Bust since I was at work and on lunch I didn't have hours for pinterest :(. But I did come across a very easy DIY Mason Jar Idea. From a previous post It's all in the biceps I mentioned the 2 boxes of 1930's/1940's mason jars that were left in our new house so I had lots to play with. The pinterest I found had painted mason jars of all different colours. Mostly light colours in pastel tones and white. I figured I would stick with the white for now until we decorate our house. 


So here it is easy peasy painted Mason Jars. I made a stop at Home Depot and picked up some white glossy paint. 

Went outside sprayed away! 

When Branko caught on that I was doing DIY/crafty things I don't think he was too impressed!! LOL. We do have so many more important tasks to complete but I was just too excited to try this out plus it was so easy! 

Sorry for the lack of lighting! I picked some flowers from the yard. I love the turnout! I also saw on pinterest the white mason jar with a candle inside. The light was able to illuminate through the white paint and looked pretty neat. I wanted to try it out this morning quickly but unfortunately I had to get ready to head out to work :( 

Here is a picture before it was painted...  

Do you prefer the before or after?? I am really liking the painted one and can't wait to use it as décor in our new home! 

Last night didn't just consist of crafty fun stuff, we finally changed one of the ceiling fans in our old house. We figured at a selling stand point it was a much better idea plus we got the fans on sale for $50 which was a great deal. 

Old hideous fan....

Newer modern fan....

Two Years ago today I said " I DO"...

Yes, that's correct today is our Wedding Anniversary! I've never been a big celebratory kind of person. I don't need a fancy dinner and expensive gifts. But I certainly do like to reflect on the past 2 years. 


It's been pretty crazy to say the least. In 2 years we had plans drawn up for our home to build an addition, an addition to the garage that was already pretty big was completed ;), we cleared and cut down at least 40 very ugly trees in our way on the front lawn,  we've gotten rid of 3 VW cars(we run our cars on vegetable oil so they have to be diesel cars from 2000-2003), we bought 2 more classic cars (classic cars page will be made soon!), then we randomly on a chilly December night decided that 2.5 acres was not enough so before we started our home addition that was scheduled to start April 2012 we went on a home hunt. In less then 2 months we found the perfect new home. 


That brings us to today, since Feb 7th we have been working very hard. Our old home was in no condition to sell because everything that needed to be fixed was planned for this year so we had been holding off on any repairs last year. I must say if it wasn't for Branko's determination I am not sure I would have lasted this long. We both have steady 9-5 jobs(more like 730am-4pm) and we both commute 1hr each way to work. Our weekends have consisted of work, work, and more work. Every time we become de-motivated we think about that beautiful new deck, the sunny mornings of being able to walk out in our bare feet and have our coffee and tea. Oh that day will come and hopefully soon. 


So with that said the past 2 years have been very exciting and the future looks even more promising. I am sure I will have enough to write about for a very very long time. 

Here are some pics from our big day :) 

"We love to Party"

We have a ton of work in-store for tonight. We need to mud the walls in the entry room. Repair a couple of pieces on the deck. Install one ceiling fan that is almost put together and ready to go. Once we finish that we will head to Home depot and buy paint for the entry room, baseboards, grout and return the slate tiles that we did not need. 

Maybe we will stop at Starbucks + Dairy Queen and have a quick date. I can get a tasty coffee frappaccino with some coconut and Branko will get his usual blizzard with strawberries and bananas. 

Anything you've been reflecting on lately?? I would love to hear some non-traditional anniversary celebratory stories ;) 

What!!! No Schedule!

It's Thurs and Branko has not sent me a schedule for the weekend! He must be confused or something and not realized the weekend is so close. 


We have about in exaggeration 3 million things to complete before the end of the month to stay on track and get the old house up for sale by June 30th. The list includes painting the house inside, replacing the vanity in the bathroom, painting the bathroom, replacing the carpet in the master bedroom, replacing some pieces of 2x6 wood pieces in the back deck and staining the deck, finish painting the window trims, finish the mudroom, and complete the second garage addition(yes we made a garage addition this was before we decided we were going to move). 


Did I forget anything??? Probably.... 


In between all of that I need time to visit my new little niece, attend my little sister's grad from UofT and start planning for the new house. 

I couldn't resist to add a picture, she's just too cute! 

So with all of that said do you normally create schedule's?? Sometimes they frustrate me and sometimes I love them. I told Branko going forward I would rather just see a list rather then a daily schedule and we will tackle it accordingly based on the weekend weather report. 

I'm sure once he reads this a "list" will arrive in my inbox. :) 

Welcome Christiane!!

I am very excited to announce the arrival of my little niece! My brother and his wife had their beautiful little girl this weekend. She was 7lbs and her name is Christiane. This is an exciting time for our family since it is the first grandchild for my parents. My mom is completely over the moon and full of excitement and joy. She has been waiting for this little bundle of joy for a long long time! 

How cute is she!!!! 

With all of the baby excitement and some visitors on Saturday we didn't get much done around the house. I spent the better part of the morning cleaning house and then off to the hospital for a visit. Once I got home Nick(brother-in-law) and his girlfriend stop by for a visit. We chatted for a while, had some coffee. Visits with them are always fun. You always hear horror stories about in-laws and getting along with your extended family. Well I am thankful that I have a great relationship with my extended family. I am looking forward to new memories in our new home! 

Sunday we made sure we had a plan and knew we had to get something done! We don't have much time to just sit around any more(or in my case spend casual days shopping!) We decided we needed to get started on the "mudroom" in our old house. It needed a complete makeover. We had planned to change the door to enter the house, change all of the tiles, paint the room entirely. We installed the door with a few snags and then headed off to Home Depot. 

Sneak peak of the new slate! 

We picked out this slate on a whim, once we started putting it down I wasn't so sure about it but the more we put down the better it started looking. Once we paint the room and add a nice bench it's going to look perfect.  

Next to me....

So here is the thing I came across this song today called Next to Me - Emeli Sande. The lyrics go like this:

you won't find him drinking at the tables

rolling dice and staying out til 3

you won't ever find him being unfaithful

you will find him, you'll find him next to me

you won't find him trying to chase the devil

for money, fame, for power, out of grief

you won't ever find him where the rest go

you will find, you'll find him next to me

I would like to say that I think about our new home probably on a daily basis. I sort through magazines, websites, other renovation bloggers looking for ideas for the decor for the house. I think about kitchen sink sizes, dining table style(I would like to get a harvest table made) living room accents and pretty much anything else that has to do with the new home. But the funny part to all of this which is something I never mentioned before is that the first time we went to look at this house I hated it. I actually loathed it,  I cried about it, I yelled about it. I hated the idea of driving down a dirt road(800meters) to be exact. I hated the old style on the inside, the wall paper covering every wall. I hated the size of the house and layout. I hated the old windows and the creepy stairs that were falling apart and on top of all that I hated all of the dead bugs. I just could not see pass this. So we moved on, we looked at more houses, we debated. We even put in some offers on different homes. One of which Branko woke up in the middle of the night and said out loud " I hate the shape of that land" and then went back to sleep. We knew in the morning that this was not the house for us especially if Branko was having nightmares about it. So after looking at least 10 houses Branko convinced me to go back to this "House on the Hill". To be more open minded to think pass the old décor and the bugs. To just give it another chance

Off we were another look at this house, our amazing real estate agent drove up to meet with us with her husband and son and we spent a good amount time at the house on this visit. Probably over an hour. We walked the first 1/4 of the land and we sat inside the house and discussed ways we could make this place our own. Branko promised that this could be our dream home and that he would do whatever it took to make it more special then it already had been. 

Here we are 3 months into owning the home and I am in love. The harder we work the more time we put into it and the time we get together working in the house has brought us much closer. Every time we are there we think about living in the new space. Sitting on our deck and having Sat morning coffee/tea. 


When I came across the song it reminded me of Branko and how he has always been "Next to Me".  


I don't go down this emotional road too often, I'm a tough girl who swears out loud and wears construction gloves now so don't get used to these kind of posts :)