Moving Forward.

Our old house is officially on the market, and has been for just over a week now. We've had two showings, but no offers have come in. We'll probably do an open house in a little while, but for now we're in a "wait and see" holding pattern. We've had several people call it a "unique" property (I guess because it isn't your typical subdivision house? and it still needs some work?), so I suppose the right person just needs to come along.

I have so many ideas for the new house and for my life, and I want to jump head first into everything and do it all at once, but the reality is I need to pace myself and choose maybe one or two decent sized projects to tackle in a year or so. But I am a millenial and having to choose frustrates me. I WANT IT ALL. AND I WANT IT NOW.

Because I want to do so much, and I don't know which few projects to choose for this year, I'm probably going to end up doing very little. I tend to plan, plan, plan, plan something, and then...never do anything with that plan.

That being said, I feel completely different this year than I have in the past few years. Without major renovations looming over us, or having too much stuff in a too small house, I feel like I can breath, and my mood and outlook are vastly improved. So in completely cliche fashion, maybe this year will be different?

And just in case it is, here's a look at a few of the things gnawing at the back of my mind.

CHICKENS.

I've been talking about getting chickens since we moved into the old house. Enough talking about it, it's time to get some feathered friends. This spring. Mike and I were throwing the idea around again a few weekends ago, and there's still a lot of figuring out to do (where exactly do we house them? will they freeze to death in the winter? how many do we get? dual purpose or straight up egg layers? day old chicks, started birds, or ready to lay?). I'm good at research and planning, so this part of the process doesn't freak me out. When it comes time to order actual birds is when I'll start procrastinating...

VEGETABLE GARDENS.

We have seeds. We have cedar to build raised beds. But, we probably won't take this on this summer. There has been discussion about moving the fence that's by the horse barn, because the way it's situated right now results in a lot of 90 degree angles in a short distance and it's a pain in the arse for my father-in-law and brother-in-law when they're running tractors and other machines in that field. Currently there's a great open space behind the horse barn that would be perfect for gardening, but if the fence is moved this space goes away. Which is obviously fine because the farm is the priority. So even though we have most of the supplies needed to get this project going, it's on hold for now until we determime exactly where the garden beds will go.

THE BATHROOM.

Mike and I both really dislike this bathroom - both it's functionality and it's appearance. A renovation of the room isn't in the cards, but I would like to spruce it up in the looks department. It'll take a bit more than just paint and swapping hardware to get it to be more tolerable, and I'm sort of dreading the idea of turning our only bathroom into a work zone. But, I've been gathering ideas and sources over the past few weeks, so it's actually something I might tackle relatively soon. Fingers crossed?

FRONT & BACK PORCH.

Both the front and back porch need a little bit of attention. At the very least they need to be pressure washed and restained/painted, but the stairs on both could use some work too - they're a little bouncy.

THE BASEMENT.

I wrote a post awhile back about there being water in our basement. Putting in a proper sump pit and running an outlet pipe from the basement is a must. There is a ton of room for storage down there, but we aren't using it right now because of there being such a high chance of things getting ruined. So hopefully we'll get to this when things start to warm up. Which probably won't be for a million years based on how flipping cold this winter has been so far.

In addition to all of that, there are a few small things here and there that need done. Like fixing up the oval window that I started in the fall. And re-attaching some metal flashing around one of the posts on the front porch. And recaulking all of the windows on the exterior, because oh my goodness when the wind gets blowing, does the bay window ever howl.

One thing at a time, right?

Obligatory Christmas Decorating Post

I had planned to do very little decorating this year. At first I found myself saying I wasn't going to be decorating at all, but then real me laughed at attempting-to-be-practical me and ended up buying a whole bunch of new Christmas stuff. Mike and I won't be here for Christmas (we're heading to BC on the 21st to spend time with my family!), so even though it's my favourite part of this festive time of year, getting a tree would be a bigger pain in the arse than it's worth. Coming home to a gazillion dried out pine needles isn't my idea of a good time.

But, we're lucky to have a GIGANTIC (propane) fireplace in this house, and it happens to be in my favourite room, so I was pretty excited to throw some stuff at it all in the name of some jolly guy in a red suit.



I made the stockings myself, and they're really for decorative use only (we have special ones that were handmade by family that we actually use). If someone wanted to turn them into the real deal, they'd probably want to line them with something soft because burlap is pretty much the worst. Also, don't wash burlap unless you want to panic and think that a small furry animal somehow managed to get into your washing machine and then it's entire being except it's hair dissolved into nothingness.

Carpet and Underfloor Heating

Our house has wall to wall carpeting - even in the kitchen. And while I'd like to find the original hardwood underneath it all on the main floor, having carpet in the bedrooms upstairs is actually pretty nice. Even though we're not even into winter yet, it's nice stepping out of bed onto something cozy instead of cold hardwood floors.

But (there's always a but), the carpet that's upstairs right now isn't quite what I'm interested in long-term. It's a little stiff, definitely not something you can sink your toes into. I'd love soft, plushy carpet in a neutral colour.

To make things extra luxurious, I'd love to add underfloor heating. Which, by the way, I completely thought was only possible under tiles. Turns out you can use it under basically any flooring type. With our cold Ontario winters, I think it's a great idea...although admittedly a little extravagant for an entire second floor. Perhaps just the master bedroom, then?

We aren't doing anything substantial to this house for a looooong time (we're a bit reno'd out right now), but it's something to consider for the future.

This post is sponsored by Fab Flooring and Underfloor Trade Store.

There's a swamp in my basement.

On Saturday, I made my way down into the basement so I could check off something on my to-do list for the living room. I got about three quarters of the way down the stairs before giving the floor the side eye...soemthing didn't look right. I ventured just a bit further, and unfortunately, there was water all over the basement floor. The cat confirmed this when she stepped down and then buggered off in a hurry with wet little feet. I grabbed a piece of lumber that was nearby and poked at it just a bit. Turns out there was a good three inches or so of standing water.


Mike wasn't home, so I gave him a call. He seemed far too calm about the whole ordeal and said he'd be home in a bit to turn on the pump. We knew that this house had a "wet basement", and it turns out my understanding of what that means was WAY OFF. I was thinking damp. Small trickles of water, maybe. Not a freaking swamp.

So Mike comes home, and heads on down to the basement to set up the pump. The problem is, there isn't a proper sump pit, and the pump just sits on the basement floor. It doesn't turn on automatically when a certain water level is reached, which is most definitely not ideal when the basement is accessed very infrequently. I have no idea how long that water had been there already when I discovered it on Saturday.

Aside from not turning on automatically, the pump was limited in that it would only pump down to just under an inch. In a fairly big basement, that's a lot of water left to stand with no way out. We decided that we could stand to get a new pump, and ended up with this one from Lowe's.


So far it's been doing a pretty good job, but it can't quite keep up with the amount of water seeping in through our concrete foundation walls. This house was built in 1906 - there's no waterproofing membrane on the outside of the foundation walls, and inside there's just a scratch coat of cement covering the blocks. I knew concrete was porous, but that this much water could pass through it was a bit mind boggling.

There are some things we need to address around the exterior of the house, but it's likely they'll have to wait until next spring/summer. There are a few areas where the landscaping needs to be graded away from the house, the downspouts could be a little further from the foundation, but that will take some thinking because our driveway is pretty close and we can't be driving over downspouts all the live long day. This cedar tree near the back porch should be cut down, since it's trunk is only a few inches away from the house.


Our house sits on the edge of the largest intact wetland in southern Ontario (6,000 hectares!), so it's not all that surprising that we have ground water seeping in when heavy rains hit. Our last house had a bone dry basement despite also being in the wetlands, so we've been completely spoiled up until now in that regard. I doubt we'll ever have a completely dry basement here, but we can hopefully do some things that will improve the situation. I'm dreading spring, though. All that snow melt....ack.

Four Months In

We've been in the new house for four months now, and my mental well being has skyrocketed. Living in a small construction zone of a house was incredibly draining - I dreaded going home. But things are so much better now, although we still have the old house hanging over our heads (it's almost finished!). There's not much point to this post, I just wanted to jot down some observations.

1. Quiet country living is a thing of the past.

The new house sits on a fairly busy road - a two lane rural highway, which just happens to be part of the route between Toronto and Wasaga Beach & Collingwood (major tourist destinations for those not familiar with Ontario). Our setting and the surrounding property is beautiful, but it's loud here. Louder than when I lived in town back in BC, and so much louder than the bumpy dirt side road that our old house was plopped down on.

2. Wildlife diversity has plummeted.

At our old house, we were located pretty close to a well renowned wetland and swamp. We heard and saw coyotes often, and the number of different species of birds was awesome...and we were lucky to see some pretty rare ones. At the new house, we have crows, starlings, mourning doves, and barn swallows. All of these species of birds have adapted very well to living in places well populated with people, and they aren't very interesting. Except for the barn swallows. They're kind of funny when defending their hatchlings. They may or may not have dive bombed the dog some days when she did her business out in the yard.

3. Having more space feels amazing.

I don't even care that it's more upkeep and it takes longer to do anything - having a bigger house is liberating. And because this house isn't a constant project in progress, it's so much easier to keep reasonably clean and organized. And closets - we have five. Compared to the two we had in the last house, it's like winning the lottery. And with two living rooms, THERE'S SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!

4.The animals are so much happier here.

Meowzer hasn't had a single incidence of her idiopathic cystitis since we moved. I was really worried about moving into a fully carpeted place with her...but so far, so good. Tassy rolls around on the carpet like a lunatic, which makes more frequent vaccuuming necessary, but oh well. She also likes that I can throw her ball from my chair in the evenings and it doesn't hit a wall after 5 feet.

5. There is so. much. opportunity.

This is a place we can grow into, not grow out of. I'm not sure what all of this opportunity looks like yet, but I like the possibilities.