Hotel Living

The last two days we spent in a hotel in Regina (which is really kind of weird to stay in a hotel in our own hometown). The pets thoroughly enjoyed hotel living. Jax got a little weirded out by the activity in the hallways but quickly got used to it.  Nikki loved looking out the window at the activity in the swimming area below.

 

Jax has gone on trips with us before and is a pretty good traveller but Nikki not so much. Surprisingly she has been doing pretty good so far but the long trip to Airdrie will really  be the test.

 

Leaving the Old House

Sept 28, 2017

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Twenty five years is a long time living in one house. So many good memories, family gatherings, picnics with the kids on the deck, Christmas, crazy halloween parties! It was a good house filled with family, friends and lots of love.

Sad to see it go but it will be a great home for the new young family to enjoy and build  memories in too.

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Fall on the Prairies

The move is not far away now, we are renting a sea can from Big Steel Box, it’s arriving Friday Sept 22nd (next weekend) and will be picked up again Monday Sept 25th. We have to be ready with everything packed and all the loose ends tied off! Jim and I are working frantically to accomplish this.

One of the things which we needed to do is take the Harley out to storage. It’s too late for Jim to ride it out to the island (we don’t have enough time and there is already snow in the mountains in BC) so we need to store it in Saskatchewan until next summer.

On Wednesday we took the bike out to our storage unit in Lumsden.  On the way decided to take in the fall views and stop by Lincoln Gardens Farmers Market.  Checking out the market is something we have done in the fall for years and we won’t get much opportunity to do it again before we leave for the coast. As usual it was a lovely day!

Sept 13, 2017

We picked up a few veggies and then on to the storage unit. I will miss this for sure. A nice day and now Jim’s bike is tucked in for the winter.

 

 

Big Week!

Selling the House/Journalizing the Build

August 24 to September 2, 2017

This was a big week! A week of beginnings and a week of endings.

On Thursday August 25th (after a year or more of renos, packing and staging) we put the house on the market.  We had our first showing on Friday and an offer to purchase on Saturday which we accepted. By Sept 1, all the conditions were met, waived by the buyer and the sale finalized. We certainly did not expect to sell so quickly but are delighted that we did!

The house was purchased by a family with two boys under 6.  I’m so glad our home went to a young family who will hopefully bring with them as much love and happiness as we had during our time in the house on Maple Wood Crescent.

I understand the new family fell in love with the house. The couple’s mother who also visited the house was immediately drawn to my workroom upstairs. I guess she also has a small jewelry business. Apparently she and I met at one of the MacKenzie Art Gallery sales which we both attended as vendors. Small world!

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Excavation Begins!

Also on August 24th excavation began on the new house. Our builder has been sending us updates which I will try to share once a week.

There was a lot of fill on the property as it was being used as a dump site by other home builders in the subdivision. Our builder is very enterprising as he put the word out that free fill could be had to those who would be willing to pick it up. It worked! The fill was gone over a few days to other construction sites in the area. With little cost to us. Good job Dan!

 

Once the extra fill was removed the surveyors could come in and actual excavation for the house could begin. When we hit rock (a seam near the back of the lot) blasting techs were brought in to determine how much blasting will be required and of course the cost. The rock is quite shale like and they expect there will be no problems so here’s hoping!

The back wall in the small courtyard area will need a retaining wall but I am hoping that if there is enough natural rock there (and if it structurally sound) it can be used as a wall instead of using concrete. We’ll know more over the next week or so.

It’s all happening pretty fast. The next few weeks will be all about arranging for movers, packing and saying goodbye to the family home we’ve lived in for the past 25 years.

Project: Fireplace

Anyone who has been at our house on Maple Wood knows that our fireplace was always pretty “plain Jane”.  When we had the house built we needed to cut costs, so the fireplace was never really finished the way we had planned. Now this is kind of a good and bad scenario.

The bad – we never were able to enjoy a finished fireplace 😦

The good – finishing it now has allowed us to update to a more contemporary look. 🙂

Thanks again to Andre and Jim for a job well done. I could not have wished for a more beautiful finished project and we are now very close to the end of our renos. We just need to do some: painting and baseboard work in the master bedroom, outside yard clean up, finishing up with some odds and ends and a major clean up (including a purge). We are almost there!

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More Renos!

Posted by Wanda

Working hard to get the “Regina” house ready for sale!  Andre and Jim tackled the big job of refinishing the carpeted stairs with wood. Gone are the white spindles; replaced by wrought iron and maple and it looks beautiful!  The guys did an amazing job!

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“Renos”

Posted by Wanda

A year or more out from our anticipated move and we are working on getting the house ready for sale. Started with the kitchen.

Before and after

The work begins

Building a kitchenette in the basement.

(Six to eight weeks without a kitchen is a long time!)

Gettin’ er done!

The finished kitchen

Thanks to Andre Longtin and of course Jim for getting this massive job done. It looks amazing! (Nikki likes it too)

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