Dinner around the Table....

Since we have been living together we have never been able to properly host a family dinner with both of our parents and siblings/significant others. The reason being is our current place is small. Our dining table only seats 4 people with no chance of squeezing in a 5th or 6th person. 

So when the decision to buy a new home was in the works every-time we looked at a home I always made sure that the dining area was large enough to fit a table of 6 comfortably but can squeeze in 8 if need be. 

Once we bought the new place the dining table search was on, we ended up finding local craftsmen who were very talented in carpentry.  

Not only were they talented their pricing was amazing and affordable. 

On Saturday before heading out to the wedding we stopped in the see the table since they called and said he is close the staining process and if we would like we could come in to see how it looked so far. 

Ohhhhhhhh the anticipation before we got there! 

Safe to say we very impressed, actually beyond impressed!!! 

We love the table! The size, the boldness, the sturdy legs. 

This table will be around for a long, long time and I am really looking forward to family dinners around it! 

On a side note you should all know that I had an epic crying fit at our new house on Sunday....that husband of mine he does crazy things that scare the shit out of me. 

All I can say I can not wait till we are done cutting all of the trees down......Seriously it will make my daily life much easier knowing the chainsaw has been put to rest. 

Oh and almost forgot we went to wedding and got all snazzy...this is a hard thing for Branko to do...he was a tad grumpy most of the night. 

Chainsaw safety 101....

 I thought it would be fun to share chain saw safety after our weekend experience. 

We had big plans for the weekend as usual. The area where the garage is going to go needed to be cleared fully since Branko had set up for somebody to come and level the land on Friday. 

We were doing great! Saturday Branko worked all day with our neighbour and cleared almost 75% of what needed to be done. On Sunday we made sure to get there bright and early to ensure we had a good start to the day...things were going along nicely and had we worked all day we probably would have finished. 

Then this happened....

Yup....Branko hacked is leg with the chainsaw...and yes he was unsafely working in running shoes and shorts. He was trying to be tough in this picture ;)

He was very lucky. He cut is leg above the knee in a very fatty area and did not hit any arteries or nerves. Oddly enough it barely even bled. But...it was about 3inches wide and 1inch deep and he needed stitches. 

We jumped in the car and drove to the hospital...after a 3 hour wait he was all stitched up. 

The rest of the day was clearly a write off.. 

He learned his lesson. 

New purchases after this bad experience:

Safe to say he already picked up the pants and gloves. He will be stopping to purchase new work boots and eye safety gear this week so that once he heals he is prepared to get back to work. 

It's times like these that remind you to take a moment, breath and realize how short life is. This situation could have been much much worse and I am very thankful and happy that he will be OK. 

Harvest Table Update!

Some time ago I talked about my Harvest Table that we are having made for the dining room. 

On Saturday we made a visit to the little shop in Cookstown where the table is being made. 

Doesn't she look fabulous! Ok, ok I know much hasn't been done other then putting the 2 pieces together but still! The 2 end pieces will actually be cut differently so they are not straight edged. You can see the pencil drawings on what he was thinking about doing. Also, the live edges will be made more prominent. 

The leg standing beside it was a mock leg that he made so he can test out the shape of the leg, there will be some inserts cut into the leg to give them some character. 

Sort of like this:

We also picked out a colour, decided to go with a walnut stain. This was tough one also, because the wood was so old it just soaked up the colour and it was initially really dark. I didn't like it but the owner was able to water the colour down and it looked much better. 

They also had this coffee table that Branko has been eyeing since the first time we went in there, I told him no way it was going upstairs but if he wanted it for the basement I would be ok with that. He debated and debated, every time we went in it would still be sitting there. 

Finally he bought it on Saturday! Haha only because another customer came in and said "oh my coffee table is still here". Branko quickly pulled James in the back and said please go tell that guy that table is sold here is the deposit! LOL. 

So $400 bucks later, we have a new coffee table for the basement. It would have been originally $600 but he sells most of his floor stuff cheaper to make room for the small shop they have. 

If anybody has been following along they are fully aware that I am considering painting one wall navy blue...the other day I found this picture on pinterest and felt like the picture was made for me! It even had a harvest table setting feature! 

Picture via Dining Room Makeover 

It was love at first site! 

For now I will dream....

Tell me have you had a Harvest Table made...any advice? 

No Going Back.....

We have decided that the flooring in the new home must go. The original plan was to use this as a sub floor and just put new hardwood on top. 

Who wants creaking floors.....not us. 

We had a good plan in place. 

Branko would rip out the hardwood...

I would launch them off of the deck towards the fire...

It was going great until he had to rip out the cardboard stuff they had under the hardwood...

This stuff was a real b**tch to take out and will probably be the hardest part of the job. 

The good thing is all of the dust and dirt will officially be gone. I don't think I could have ever cleaned enough between the cracks to remove all of the filth. 

Even though this will be a tough job it will be worth it in the long run. 

Here is a snap shot of the kitchen area we completed yesterday. 

 Any advice on removing that cardboard stuff??? 

Finding Treasures when Renovating...

We were determined to get back into the swing of things at the new house. We had a big schedule planned that we had hoped we could get accomplished over the weekend. 

First up the was Electrical...thankfully Branko's dad was able to help us with this which helped us save a lot of money. We were able to go over certain areas that needed new light fixtures and the spots where we wanted plugs. Most of the electrical got done other then in the 2 small bedrooms which we had not gutted out yet. 

You can  see in the below picture where we moved the sconce's around for lighting in the living room. The lighting was tricky because we don't want to cut into the ceiling so we had to determine where we can add lighting features in the walls. I am not a huge fan of sconce's in the living room but it was really our only option. 

On a side note notice how it looks like Branko doesn't have a head in the above picture! 

Next up was tearing up and removing the remaining drywall and panelling in the house. As you can see in the above picture you can now see from the living room into the bedroom. 

In doing this we discovered some things. 

We found out that for no reason they created a low ceiling in the hallway:

This ceiling was so low that I could reach up and touch it. Once we opened up the side part from the bedroom we realized that they did this just because. 

Now see the below picture with the arrow showing the ceiling and then the opening above. We plan to leave it completely open and put a light fixture up there. 

We also found this note on a piece of cardboard hidden in that spot! I might frame it and put it up on the wall somewhere! 

Once we finished with that I tackled all of the nails from the drywall that had to be pulled out. This was just from one room! 

Branko had to remove all of the drywall that they put up around the fireplace, why people would do that was beyond him but that's how it goes! 

I also tested out some blue paint on one of the walls that I knew we were scrapping:

What do you think??? I'm still at a loss and not sure what to do, but I will figure it out! Hopefully!!! LOL 

We did manage to squeeze in some fun over the weekend! Saturday night we walked over to the neighbours house and had a nice steak dinner and late night bonfire. They invited some of there other friends(one who lives in the area and we have already met). Then Sunday night we decided to have another bonfire at our place with them and the friend that lives in the area! 

Great way to end off the long weekend. Thank god the rain held off till today! 

How was everybody's long weekend??? Anybody heading out to Aberfoyle on Sat. Sept 22nd?? It's the big fall Antique Show and I am looking forward to it!! 

My Photography - Meet the Lucic Family

 Introducing to you my cousin and her family. A while ago she mentioned that maybe one day I can come and take some photos of the kids. Me being fairly new the to the photography world happily obliged.

Let me remind you I am not a professional photographer in any kind of way, it's just a hobby. I purchased a Canon T2i that came with 18mm - 55mm lens and recently I purchased the 50mm f1.8 lens so that I can attempt to take some better portrait photos.

I've also taken one small class in Orangeville just so that I could better understand some of the features on the camera. 

Any editing just came from playing around in Picasa/PicMonkey and reading a lot on Digital Camera World website. 

 Over 600 photos and 3hrs of editing here are my favorites:

 

 

So there you have it my first photo shoot. 

If you have any tips or super friendly websites for new photographers please drop a note below. 

Vacation Time!

I've been kind of MIA in regards to my blogging about our home renovating and with good reason! We are kind of on a break. We finally finished everything we needed to do in the old home and put it up for sale. We set a goal date of when we would start renovating the new home and that time has come! 

In between the waiting time Branko had a few things he needed to do around the house and I had busy weekends. Made a trip back to Aberfoyle to pick up our coffee table and bar stools. My mom and sister joined me this time, my mom seemed to really enjoy Aberfoyle but she is probably best going on her own or with my dad. She loves to inspect every booth and item available! 

The coffee table is set up in the old home as a TV stand for now, Branko and I both really love it! 

 I also picked up a little surprise gift for Branko's garage (he loves his coke):

 

I also saw a few other things that I would have liked to pick up like this copper bucket from pottery barn: 

 

This one is $259.84...ummm no thank you! The one's I saw at Aberfoyle were between $60 and $90. Next time we go I will be sure to pick one up so I can use it to store our wood for the fireplace like the picture above. 

I also saw a ton of old window frames and would love to do something like this one day:

 

Now that I conveniently killed some time on pinterest this morning I should probably get back to getting work done. I am off to the new house to clean out the basement and have everything prepared for more storing.

This weeks plan is for Branko and I to complete the electrical work, rip out the old flooring on the upper level and create a new sub-floor, build the walls for the new bath room and also start on the drywall. 

The exciting part starts NOW! Bring on home renovating for our dream home!