Retro it is ...

The kitchen will be retro. A bit like that:

I am not sure yet though if the color will be the same. But I really want to go in the spirit of the time. So now I am peeling the classified ads hoping that I will find what I want. Not so easy.

Though, the kitchen is not the first place we will rebuilt. But I know that finding stuff for that won't be that easy, so I am starting now.

Wish me luck!

I've been a bad bad girl ...

And I haven't written in my blog for a while ...

Well well well ...

One of the lovely chatter of the place I hang a lot reminded me of my blog today.

Ok, recently I have been very sick. So it was a bit hard to get involved in the house. But things are going well.

Let say that we have worked more on our future social life here recently.

So I am now part of the CDFQ, which is a like a crafters' league. It's called, literally translated, Female Farmers' of Quebec. It's funny. I am like the youngest members of the circle, but the women there are so great. They know everything; knitting, weaving, embroidery, sewing ... they are machines!

Also, I get really friendly with my neighbour, the 89 years old lady. She brought me to parties and stuff ... well ... next step, I'll be the invite at the bingo (kidding but that might happen :-O

My best friend is absolutely in stitches seeing me in all this. But ...

That's about it. People get more and more used of my colorful clothes and all ...

See you soon! I hope ...

I am living you with that song by Sarah Mclachlan ...

oh yeah ...

and I now have a dryer and a stove to cook on ! :)

Stick to the Sticky Plan

It's done!
It's all fresh and full of eraser scrap.
We have the plan.
After days and weeks and months of trying to put everything to place, we've finally found a solution so everything can be there! :)

When done, if all goes to plan our lovely house will have

1 study (with a day bed that can become a guest bed easily!)
1 bathroom
1 studio master bedroom with walk-in (I know ... Clothes addict) and a bathroom
1 kitchen
1 Dining room
1 food storage room (uber important for the DIY foodies we are)
1 laundry room
1 super geeky palace room (well I am not only one having lil flaws, hubby has too)
(the super geeky palace can serve as a guest room too)


The room that are in bold caracter will be part of the extension we plan to do ... when we will have more money ...

After that we will probably build two workhouse outside, one for my soap and one for the food that would be sold.

That's the news.
Stay tuned for more!

The news and other desesperations

It's hard. Harder than I thought, well no not true, it's as tough as I expected it but the fact that the begining have been easier made me believe that the rest would be piece of cake.

I was wrong. Having a fragile health makes it more complicated. I knew the importance of heat on my body. The importance of taking hot baths each day. (well don't believe I don't bathe or shower, I do but in warmish water) The importance of having confortable seats and place to be.

My muscles are screaming in pain every day. I don't really tell Husband, 'cause I don't want him to be more pressured that he is already. Fighting the pain that is there makes my energy going lower and lower to a point it might be dangerous.

The fact that we have no kind of support, especially by my parents make it harder. Dad helped us of course, but it's easy to see they find us crazy to do what we are doing. They just don't understand that if I would have stayed in the place I was, no recovery would have been possible. Of course now I am feeling worst than worst but I know that in a year of two, maybe sooner, I will be way better than I was.

Moving from the other place took us plenty of time. It might seem crazy but moving an whole house to another is already something, imagine when you are moving a whole house to one that isn't ready yet.

The renters didn't help really too, like they were asking like every two hours when we will be done. Plus, they damaged things in the other house and tried to make us responsible. A lovely couple ... :-(

We sent the tractor to our neighbor so he can be repaired. The numbers of repairs to be done are considerable but knowing that the tractor would have cost us just 1000$ is great thinking that we will be able to mow the lawn (would have cost us more than 1000$ per summer) and clean out the snow this winter (would have cost us 300$ per season or so) so it is paying by itself.

Husband is trying to solve the water problem in the bathroom. There was water coming out from one of the pipes and it was going through the floors and walls.

This afternoon he plans to install the dryer, let's pray the electic wire will be ok. If not, that will be more tricky to manage.

I don't give up.

C.U.CT.

It's over, it's done. It's super over and super done.
We are not townsmen anymore! We have been packing things in a truck from 9 am yesterday to 11 pm and from 6 am to 8:45 pm today.

Thanks God, our good friend, the Grizzly bear was there. (I still can come to the point I'll name people here) Without him and the help of my father nothing of this would have been possible.

This morning, I kicked myself out of bed to be able to join them and help them. With my disease, sleep is a very important issue. I have to have enough sleep.

Well the house is full of things everywhere. But as everyone's says : Step by step.

Wish me luck guys!

crying is not an option ...

Geez!
Mamma mia!
Dios Mio!
- Insert anything like that here -

I don't have the possibility of posting a pic, but if I could, I would.
The house is now submerged by boxes. Everywhere. It looks like a maze!

Level of depression : High !

I'll get by, I'll get by.
Furniture arrives in 3 days.

Better work it girl !

Tic Tic Tic Tic Goes the Clock

9 days. That's the time remaining before we totally move here. To be honest, we already live here but let say, half of the stuff we have ain't the half of the stuff we own in this house. I am trying my best to put everything in order but this isn't easy according to the fact that everything has to be done.

As for the outside emergency renovation, that has been partly done. I'll say we have done 90%.
Winter is coming by and we will have to do something so we won't freeze during the season.

Husband took 4 days off from Oct 8 to Oct 12 and also from Oct 14 to Oct 17 that will help I am sure.

But I just wanted to tell you guys that I am fine, busy, tired, but fine.

Breath in, Breath out

Losing your temper in every moving is easy. Losing your temper in a very "adventurous" moving where everything has to be done and where no confort zone is kept is totally easy.
Right now, I am in a panic mode. I see the date of the eminent arrival of all that left in our house and I am freaking out. Where would I put all this.

Being a DYI maniac, we have tons of "material" from food to craft, we have everything. Where should I put all these?

I have to keep my cool, but it's not easy.

The Question on Everyone's lip

Why are you doing this?


- For the feeling of accomplishment : Most people don't get it but there is such a feeling of self-achievement in the DIY stuff. Each little step we go through is a bundle of joy for the next day.

- For the scenery: When I go out at day, I see the old houses surroundings mine and then when I face the Southeast side of my house, I see tons of trees and flowers that go on and on for around 4 acres. By night I look at the sky and see tons of stars.

-For the environment: My social one for one thing, I've spoken more to my neighbours here in 2 months than in 5 years at my former urban place. Also, husband is closer to his job. We will have a smaller carbon footprint.

- To be self-sufficient : That's the key point. We are giving ourselves around 5 years to be 80% self-sufficient in terms of food and many other things.

That worths every little sacrifice.

News Pack - September 24th 2011

No More Bloody Water!

We have our water softener installed! This is marvelous, no more baths that smell like blood! I mean Vampires' stuff is on the rise, but I am not very the one who likes to follow threads!

Who Wants to Laugh at us Now?

Let say we are the talk of the town now. Most of the people we've known (and some we don't!) came here to make us feel like fool for doing this. Among the best quotes I've had so far

"Well ... A young couple has to start somewhere!" (insert comtempt attitude here)

*rolleyes* Hey you Walmart Snob, we have two houses right now, can you tell the same? I think not!

"All this work so you can have more land that you'll become fed up to mow"

Of course, dumb ass, I bought land to mow the grass. We will see in a few years though, when you'll be eating chemical and GMO food coming straight from China for 3$ a can who is going to be laughing.

I respect your choice, why don't you respect mine?

Remember this scene from the Money Pit?

 

Well change the main door for a patio door and the same happened to us today. We had to change the whole patio door for garden doors (which is better IMO) 'cause all was rotten near the door. Good point though, we discovered that the original wooden floors in the dining room is still there and very very nice and the water infiltration problem is mainly corrected!

I leave you guys with that little flashback from 2000 with Live - Run to the Water

Random quotes

- Being in a very old house with almost nothing makes you really appreciate the little things in life.

 - Ok so, you aren't interested in clothes, shoes, purses and hairstyles anymore ...

 - I've said "makes you appreciate things" not "turns you crazy" Duh!

My first farmer boots

I've just bought my first pairs of farmer boots. It's ugly but it will be handy in the mud/dirt/sh...

Yesterday we spent the night trying to maximize the place here. We also received our tractor that we bought for cheap from a guy nearby.

I've also spent the night killing mosquitos ... it's a mosquito fest here!!!

More to come ...


And before I go ... some "good" old Joe Dassin ... The Mosquito song!

The First Day of Forever (I hope)

Ladies and Gents, today is a great day. Not only it's the birthday of one of the best person on Earth, my great friend Keisha, but it's also the first day that I am blogging you from da house ... I didn't have internet access here before.

Well internet access ... that's quite funny 'cause to have internet access, I should go outside with my laptop and my keycard trying to get a signal *rolleyes* well that will get better. We are one of the first Videotron Clients in the area and tests still have to be performed. So patience for that too will be the key.

It's amazing all those things we take for granted. That move is so ... interesting for the spirit.

We found a very very very old newspapers here. From 1935. Too cool heh?

Well, I am back to my cleaning.

Take care!

News Pack - September 19th 2011

Bloody Water!

Our water is full of iron. This is well water of course and it's very disgusting. The water smells like blood! We gather some info and we figured out that treating it would cost us 2k. Recently though, we were lucky and part of the thing needed to treat was given to us (I found that on Kijiji), so we saved 1K. Which is good.
I will have to start doing a little thing counting the money we saved so far doing that kind of move with the choice we took of recycling as much as we can.

It's getting colder ...

And we need to heat the house that is not so well heaten. I also found 2 electric radiators on kijiji that has been given to us, Husband is going to put them in the crawlspace that will help a lot. I also bought myself a space heater that I put in the "living space" well, you know the only place in the house where we will live for as long as the renovation not over. It works well for now. I mean we hit a bottomlow of 3 Celsius... But I am sure it won't work at -30!

Harvesting garden but no time!

We harvested part of our garden that we had here at the former house. Well well well ... not so good to be honest. I was not ok with harvesting but my parents really wanted to. (Next year it won't be like that believe me!) so our potatoes done ok (they were due though), carrots were too small (I would have let them more time) and onion totally rotten in the garden (Thanks Irene!) So ... 50% happy let say.

The roof, the roof, the roof is one fire!

Well not literally, but poor Husband had to go there to put some pitch on it. But good point, we are now sure water won't come through it into the house!

Gasoline is in my head!

We just figured out that we will save near 1500$ per year just in gasoline 'cause we are closer of husband work ! Wooooohoooo !

And as I go ... some little reminescence of the good old day with Moist

 

House in mirror is closer that it appears ...

Ok, so the date is almost set. We might be in the new house on October 10th. Which is funny 'cause that will be exactly 5 years after we bought that one. I mean the one we are living in now.

3 weeks ago, or so, a couple phoned us telling us that they were looking for a house for rent 'cause they have that daycare center and they needed more space. Husband and I talked this over and we finally came to the decision that we can have both house at the same time especially if we have money from a rent.
So they came, they visited, fell in love and we signed two days ago.

Thing is ... they need the house soon ... pretty soon like Octoberish soon ... So am I freaking out? A bit.

But you guys knew already about this. I told you about.

Last Saturday husband cleaned up part of the crawlspace and put new beams in it. That makes the floors on the first floor a bit "harder" you know, no bumpy feeling.

Yesterday I did the sadness tasks ever, I decided which clothes I would keep for the year. I am clothes addicted and I can't have all those clothes now in the actual future house. We will be living in just one room of the house plus bathroom and some part kitchen. So I had to pack. Saying good bye to my lovely clothes was heartbreaking (yeah you can laugh at me now, no problem) LOL

Yesterday too I cooked some meals in advance that I froze, with all the things going on in the house that will be good not having to cook.

For the news, that's about it.

My oh My ...

Oh boy!
People, my house is rented. When should I move? October 15th! :-O
What does it mean? It means that I have to speed things, cause like you know, the house had no toilet until last Monday ... so just imagine the rest (and it also mean that I might be crying all night out of fear/joy/anguish/confusion/stress/relief) So for the next days, I will have to pack stuf, to get rid of stuff, to sell stuff and to find stuff ...

On the bright side though, things are getting clearer for some part of the house.

We bought a cast iron sink for the kitchen that cost us 40$, then we found a cupboard for 25$, a great one. I just bought two ceiling lamps for 2$ (I am the queen!) those will go in the bathroom, most likely. I found a ceiling lamp for the dining room for 20$. I found some ceramic tiles for the kitchen. But today was the best. We found an oven ... that one:

Ok I know, the image is tiny winy but the stove is huge, and old and authentic and it works!!

So that will be a blast in my "old-new kitchen" More over, husband, the lovable one, bought me a cast iron sink for the bathroom that is ......... PINK ! Like that ! And a very nice antique vanity cupboard.

So it's going well, fast, but well ... I guess ... We start the work tomorrow officially.

Wish us luck !

Running running running ...

Some part of our furniture is moved. We are now running to find construction material on the cheap. (We are actually pretty good for this) and this is where we are now.

Yesterday I bought ceramic tiles for the counter of the kitchen, 120$ for the whole place! That's 1,10$ per square feet, according that I've seen stuff at 10-12$ the square feet, I was super happy.
This is a message for a girl, she knows who she is, who wanted to know the color of my kitchen, well that tile is golden yellow ... ;)
So that's a first color.

For the rest I don't really know. The cupboards might be red, but I am still not sure.

It's raining like hell in our area these days. I hope water won't come into the house.

We are starting the renovation next Sunday!

Woah !

Signed, sealed, delivered - It's ours!

It's signed!
We went to the notary yesterday! It's signed!!!

Yesterday we went to plan the kitchen, obviously, since we didn't get the renovation loan, we won't do the super duper kitchen we were supposed to, but the one we will build ourself will be great too ...

I don't know the colors yet, but bright ones for sure!

Husband also bought a nice cast iron vintage sink for the kitchen - 40$! Hooray !

But I am a professional !

That is going from worse to worst ...

Really our finance advisor at the bank isn't going to win the Nobel Prize for extended rapidity.


Because of her, and her poor organizational skill we are late for our payment of the house and the paper work 'cause she "forgot" to send the paper by Thrusday ...

Geez ...

Me, Myself and Irene

Irene, lovely Irene.
What a joy to the have the tropical storm but the tropics!

We moved some furniture yesterday to the old house ... and what do we have today : IRENE !
The one and onky rainy bitch!

We went there, by winds around 60 km/h to put some plastic in the windows to try to prevent the water to come inside.
So far we had like 60 mm in 5 hours, this is very unusual for us. I just hope I haven't ruined some of my furniture that were in the barn.

That was too good to be true.

Last time I wrote, we were in the stair ... and the estimate.
Last Tuesday was D-Day, we went to the back to bring back the estimate and ask for a bigger mortgage to include the renovations.
The bank manager took everything, accepted the loan and pass it to the SCHL. The SCHL here is like the gestapo of construction (LOL) ... they make sure people are not taking money for renovation and put it down the drain ... well...

They thought we would 'cause they refuse us.

I went by all the stages of desappointment and depression, but my husband sees it differently to him that will help us to do things our way and with the time we have in our disposition.

He is not wrong.

Yesterday I met a guy who can help us with the work for a fair price.
I hope things will get better.

If all goes well, we will officially be the owner of the house by Monday.

The stair ... case

The guy for the stairs finally came tonight. Ummmm praise all those little steps 'cause costy they are!!
Well, not pricey pricey but you know ... it can cost you.

You know that scene fron the Money Pit ? Well the staircase part might happen to us if we don't do something about it.

The totally idiotic and moronic previous owner (well not the person who sold us the house, another owner before) took away the support part of the house to put her washing machine there! Bravo ! A Nobel prize winner! So the staircase has to be redone. Well, we planned that already but you know ... Just the fact that we could have the option not to ... Anyways.

I've been packing all day. It's amazing the tons of stuff I have. I might be getting rid of many many things. But being a "DIY" addict, I need a lot of supplies and supplies are a total pain to pack !

That's about it.
Stay tuned!

How many plans must a girl plan down, before you call her a builder ...

Plans!
I've never thought I would get bored of making plans.
We made something like 7 editions of the house plan. The more we do, the more I panic. Yeah I know I should not panic, but geez ... that's something.

So we planned the extention of the house, realising that the laundry room should be in the new part and not in the old part of the home. Doing this, we now have a lounge room which is super neat 'cause that girl has plenty of books ... ;)

Tonight we meet the woodworker for the staircases and the guy for the foundation that has to be worked on.

I plan to make some more boxes and some laundry...

Stay tuned!
And if you pass by, leave me some comments, I crave for them!

We've just made some friends ...

Yesterday, my husband and I decided to hit the road to go to the antiques stores. That was great and we found heaven on the 20! :)

We found that place called : Antique 3A It's a marvelous place. The owner reproduces Quebec traditional furniture like a pro and he is around my age, which makes it cooler.

We will probably buy a lot of stuff from him, our kitchen cabinets, a kitchen counter. I am sooooo happy, 'cause the prices aren't that bad. That will be affordable for us.

That will make it easier for the kitchen 'cause we wanted to have it late 1800's early 1900's country style but the fact that americans (no offenses) Monique Shay leading them, took everything that was in the Quebec's barns 30 years or so ago, makes it so hard and so expensive to have antiques in a kitchen. I must confess I find this an outrage that part not to say all of our cultures have been taken away from us for probably pennies but that's how it went.

We will probably hire the same guy to make the floor covering. He can make them out of pine wood that he will then "make look old". So that will be great too.

That's a bit about it.

Still more to come! :)

The bathroom, the neighbor, and the rest

Well well well ...
Those are a couple of hard days. But I am sure it will worth every minute spend.
I completed the plan for the bathroom. It will be great.
I'll put white ceramic everywhere and wooden furniture. I want to go into the country style look all the way.

That will be great.

I've met my future neighbor, a lovely lady of 89 years old. She is going to show me how to weave. I've been saying that I want to learn that since like 10 years and now ... it is going to be true! I am so happy.

I am still thinking about a little boutique, like a country store to earn a bit money.
But that's just a project.

Our current neighbour came to see us yesterday - read came to pick up tomatoes. - But he told me that his friend might be interested in buying our house. That's a good thing but that will make the things very very crazy.
But that would be a good thing.

That's about it.

And that's the plan ...

So the contractor came, and I guess that the renovation of the house will cost us, an arm, a leg, and maybe a kidney! (kidding)

Of course, it's expensive, but it will be so nice when done.

We have to check for the bathroom ... right now it looks like this

Yes of course, the term "ewwww" is appropriate ...

But we will work on it. I have tons of ideas...

Now back to the drawing board!

Step by step ... (oh baby?)

Woah! This is totally crazy.
Just this week.
On Monday (yesterday) we went to the house to calculate the amount of feet between our house and the land of the neighbour. It should have been a standard 2 meters between us and the neighbour or we wouldn't be able to work on the old garage to make it part of our house.

Tonight, we have to meet with the contractor to check the work to be done.
Then tomorrow, at 7 am (poor husband) has to go to check for the ventilation system evaluation.
Then at 5pm tomorrow too, the evaluator comes to evaluate the house we have in town (so long Joneses!)
Then on Thursday it's the electricity and the plumber...
So much things to do ... but so great things to do!

A first step in the right direction

It's done, it's ours.
I still can't believe it.

We bought that 1880 house, with almost 4 acres of land on the countryside.
It's full of promises. It's full of what we wanted.

That will be long, there will be blood and tears, but we will have it.

Here is our story.