And now I'm back- from outer space

Sup everyone?

Where have you been? I've missed you! Sorry for the extended absence, between planning the wedding, moving and getting our lives settled I've been crazy busy. Excuses aside, I was inspired and requested by someone to continue on with this blog. 

So what have you been up to? 

We've got our wedding all planned and ready to go for June. So you know, that's fun. And since this post where we had thought we made a decision to move to Fort Erie, well plans changed. Kinda drastically. We realized at this point we aren't financially prepared to be taking on a mortgage. Nor did we want to be that far away from our friends and family. And when we really sat down to discuss it, we wanted to be in Toronto. But downtown, none of this uptown business. Right in the thick of it. So we found a place in a great area where we are close to all shops and restaurants and most importantly, the subway is mere moments away. I's wonderfully convenient. So we're selling the car and doing the transit shuffle. I'm loving it! (sung to the tune of McDonald's similarly plagiarized jingle)

I've been here, with Hudson (whatup Hudson!), for about a month now and thriving. Working at a new store location, and currently working on getting my business up and running I'm thoroughly enjoying my new place. Not just the surroundings, but I'm really happy with the unit. Technically its a basement apartment, but it really doesnt feel much like a basement at all. 

Brandon is currently waiting for his work to transfer him to a store nearby, so he goes back and forth between our place in Toronto and his parrents'. It sucks and the nights can be lonely sometimes, but I know its only short term. It better only be short term. 'Cause I didn't sign up to be living alone. Get your butt down here, Brandon! 

Other than that, not much is new in our usual rockstar-inspired lives. We have a family vacation planned for the beginning of May- headed to Florida for some fun and sun. So we're looking forward to that and then it's basically just a month until the wedding. Things are flying by fast, but we have our seatbelts securely fastened and we're ready!

I'm hoping I can get back into the swing of writing posts on here, because I missed it- I missed y'all. (all 15 of you that read this, anyway) So stay tuned for some fun stories, Toronto living hijinxs and some rants about all these people downtown. You know I'm bound to run into some crazy people! :)

Wood Paneling, Brick Backsplash and Overly Decorated Homes

Where has the time gone?  Let me apologize to the 4 readers I have for the recent absence. Things have been busy with Brandon and I.

We have begun the house hunting process. We took a trip out to the Niagara region last week and toured around eight homes, ranging from total gut jobs to nearly done homes. We both had a favourite, until we found out a subdivision is being built right next door to it- which we are trying to get away from, not to mention the mess and noise that will go along with all that construction in the next 5-10 years. So, although the house is wonderful and ideal, it just wouldn't be the right location for us.

The first home we saw was 600 sq ft on half an acre of land, with a barn in the back. Yes... 600 sq ft. But we figured since it needed work (described in the listing), we could perhaps put an addition on and make it wonderful. Unfortunately the listing failed to mention the holes in the roof, the slanted floors and also the family of feral cats living in the barn. We decided the cats could stay.

The second was a very tiny, old farm house. OK, so it was bigger than the first, and finished and fairly liveable, but it really only had one bedroom...and then a very small room that would be better suited to a closet.

The third also needed a lot of work, but again was more like a fun house with the slanted floors and roof, the many different rooms with no definition as to what they were because some lacked doors where you thought it may be a bedroom, while others had doors where you may have guessed it was a living room. The land was amazing on this one, but just too much work for us to take on at this point.

(we didn't take pictures of those homes, mostly because we knew we wouldn't be getting into that much work)

Then we got into what I would say are more liveable homes. As in you could live in them while completing renos or upgrades. The yellow home we saw first was nice, decent yard (not like the ones we had seen, but still a good yard for Sarah & Hudson) and it had amazing wooden beams in the ceiling.

We love wooden beams and vaulted ceilings, and never considered a home in our price range to have such a feature. But this home was great. Except.... it didn't have a big enough Man Room space. Yes that's correct folks. We must have a space for all of Brandon's....toys collectibles. You remember them, right? If not, feel free to check out what I'm referring to here, here and here (and I'm sure many other areas within this blog!)

We moved on down the neighbourhood and saw one that had some great bones and space, with absolutely the best land space we ended up seeing all day.

This one was 1.25 acres of flat, wooded with some cleared land and had a decent sized fenced off area right off the kitchen so if we quickly had to let Hudson & Sarah outside they were contained, but if we wanted to let them run they had 1.25 acres. Another plus of the fenced in area, Brandon pointed out, was that we wouldn't have to wrangle poop. All poop would be contained within an area. Leave it to him to find those small positives in a situation :)  This home had a great Man Room area right off the kitchen and even had wood paneling. Oh, what's that? You don't like wood paneling? It's dark and out of date and everyone else in the world is trying to get rid of it and paint over it?  Yup- me too! But Brandon? No way! He loves it! That and brick backsplash in the kitchen. What?! Ewww! The things you learn about a person...  This one was probably higher in the running for a good part of the day, but Brandon really hated the car port and how it made the front of the house look. Even though it would be a simple fix to put in a garage and new front door, he wasn't so sure he liked the idea of it. So, goodbye to fantastic land. We moved on.

We saw a smaller cute home next, with a metal star on the front of it that we would surely be removing in fear of some people mistaking us as swingers. But as welcoming as we felt the major dip in the floor was, it just didn't make the cut.

Next came the amazing home, we both really liked.

We walked in and felt like we'd found it. It was 100% open, had a great Man Room, huge kitchen, vaulted ceilings, a basement for storage (the others up until this point, had no basement) and a great piece of land, which opened up nicely to a great 6 acres of wooded land. Actually, we even saw 2 deer frolicking through the woods while we were there. Unfortunately, that 6 acre parcel of land is the land that will be developed into 80 townhomes. Sigh. BIG sigh.

We moved on, feeling a bit defeated, to the only 2 storey home we saw. I'm not a big fan of 2 storeys, but Brandon really liked this place.

It was nice, and of course I was comparing it to the previous home I had basically already sold myself on, but it was mainly the land that blew it for me. The home had lots of wooden beams, much more rustic, with a great wood burning fireplace. It was fairly open concept, and double the size of the others we had seen. But let me tell you, the people/person who live(s) in this house LOVES Christmas! I love holidays- and love decorating my home for any holiday. But this was extreme.

My biggest issue with the 2 storey was the steep, open stairway that would be tricky for Hudson to navigate. As Brandon mentioned, the dog will only be around for so long and we obviously can't pick a house based on him and his physical abilities, but I just wasn't overly excited about the stairway myself. The upstairs had 3 bedrooms and a Man Room- which could also be a bedroom. The backyard had an above ground pool (we aren't swimmers, so this was a deterrent for us not a plus), a garage that was placed in the middle of the land and was very narrow at only 34' wide. Which is a typical width for a suburban home...exactly what we're trying to stay away from.

We felt like it was a pretty good day, and gave us an opportunity to see the things that are actually important to us and what features we can expect within our price range. I would consider us fairly simple first time buyers, because our expectations are low, we're willing to do work and renos and we're open to location. Our real estate agent may say otherwise, but being open to lots of different kinds of homes means we can see all sorts and find something that just feels right.

A New Home?

Last weekend Brandon and I went to Niagara Falls with my mother.  We were very lucky to be invited by my mom as a quick getaway from our daily life, expenses paid.  It was definitely a much needed and appreciated break.  Of course, we’ve all been to Niagara Falls before- being such a major Canadian attraction in our home province, but this was the first time Brandon and I went there together. We did the typical midway stuff: 4D moving theatre, Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, Niagara SkyWheel, mirror maze- where the woman running it thought I was a child!

My mother insisted we go on the SkyWheel- which is basically a large enclosed ferris wheel that overlooks the midway and the falls.  We were happy to do this one attraction she was so sure she wanted to do, even with her fear of heights and ferris wheels in general.  I double checked with her at least twice that it truly was something she wanted to do.  After insisting it was, we bought our ridiculously overpriced tickets and entered the little pod we were to ride around and around in.  The automated voice told us what all the buttons were for and while “he” was talking my mother was Barker babe-ing, ensuring to show us what each button did. 

However, her tune changed as soon as it started moving.  Immediately her face went white and she gripped the seat with a death grip I can only recall seeing as a child when we were in trouble.  The brave woman from before was gone and now replaced by a nearly panicked mother.  This of course, made the ride that much more fun for Brandon and I.  Who knew we’d get a show with the ticket price?  She peeped her eyes open every now and then to take a look at the view, but otherwise her eyes remained pretty tightly squeezed shut.  The funniest part (only because she too was laughing) was that each time we made it to the bottom she thought that was the end of the ride, but we’d go around another time.  Six excruciating go rounds before she was allowed to leave her capsule of terror.  Unfortunately, the photos taken don’t really represent her fear as well as we hoped- but we did get a decent one of us (taken ourselves because my mother was otherwise preoccupied).  Actually, you can see Brandon looking at my mom in this picture- that may be what his smile is about too.

Following that experience, and calming ourselves from laughter, we headed back to the bus which would take us to our car.  The bus we grabbed took us on a roundabout tour of the area picking up and dropping off passengers as we went.  It also drove into MarineLand.  I’m not a fan of places like Marine Land which house wild animals (in this case specifically whales, dolphins and other marine animals) for the sole reason of human entertainment.  Living in cramped quarters, miniscule compared to their wide-open natural ocean habitat, these animals are “trained” to do tricks using sticks, discipline and farmed fish as reward.  None of this is healthy for the animal, but as humans we ignore these things and instead impose our own entertainment purposes above another living animals’ welfare.  I had heard there was a protest happening that weekend, and so as we drove in we saw all the concerned people with their signs trying to convince people not to go into the park.  I'm not sure if the protest was working, but the parking lot did seem rather sparse.  I would have like to have joined them, but we had places to be.  That, and I was stuck on the bus anyway.

When looking at the map Brandon spotted Fort Erie.  Not the place- but the actual fort.  History was calling his name, and admittedly I wasn't super excited about it at first.  But then we started driving through St. Catherine's and into small towns near Fort Erie (the town) and we fell in love.  With a small place called Stevensville.  So small, so cute, so pretty...so inexpensive.  We loved it!  And of course the actual fort is right nearby.  So that made it all the more pleasing for Brandon.  And I have to confess, the fort was quite interesting and pretty.  The tour was really interesting and informative, telling me information about the War of 1812 I never knew before.  That isn't saying much though, I don't know many details about history in general.  I mean, I know the basics: 2 countries are mad at each other and begin fighting, which then escalates to eventually include other countries thus becoming larger (history-making) wars.  But that's about the extent of it.  I took classes like English, Creative Writing, Modern Literature etc.

Anywhoozle, we fell in love with this little town.  So much so, when we saw some houses for sale I employed my savvy MLS skills and checked out prices.  Exactly in our house hunting price range!  It was meant to be!  So, new location plan: we're headed to Stevensville... in a year.  After we save more money for our down payment, that is. We're very excited that we can afford a decent home on some good sized land, perhaps even enough for my dear horse, Sophie.

See you soon, Stevensville!

Wake Up- Morning Glory!

Though I'm not a huge fan of getting up at 6am everyday for work, I must admit when I arrive to the office around 8:15ish and the place is quiet and there's no other people there- it's kinda nice. It gives me a chance to put on my happy face, get myself organized and of course read my favourite blogs. Often I write my own blog posts during this time too (like this one, for example).

While I wouldn't say I'm either a night owl or a morning glory (as various jobs have led me to be both), I'm really not a fan of the morning chatter. The polite hellos and "how're ya doin'?" are fine, but when I'm starting my day and reading emails, getting my breakfast prepared and just generally trying to pump myself up for yet another day of work... I don't want to chitter chatter about my night. Perhaps this makes me seem like less of a morning glory.

One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, I will be waking up (sans alarm clock), preparing a healthy breakfast and reading, and writing, my daily blog posts out on my beautfiul deck enjoying the weather. And I can enjoy any weather because, you see, my deck will be a covered and enclosed deck. So more of a sun room. I'll be working my dream job, working from home and keeping the house to a level of my own personal satisfaction. *sigh* Doesn't that just sound wonderful? I'm going to my happy place now...

An Evening Stroll

Almost every night, Brandon and I go out for a walk near our home(s). It’s a really nice chance to get away from the technology distractions and other people and pets, and just take some time for us to chat about the day we each had, any outstanding discussions from earlier or just to merely walk beside each other and be in each other’s company. I completely understand how cheesy this sounds, but I have to tell you, it is incredibly lovely. Though the weather has been quite muggy and hot during the days, the evenings cool down a bit enough to make the walk bearable. It’s amazing how many important things can be discussed and/or solved in an hour’s time when you have no other distractions except each other.

I’ll admit it: I am addicted to my computer and phone. I check Twitter incessantly, I try to manage two blogs, I’m researching various wedding details, and I read a lot of news and blogs online. Plus I’m going to be starting a new writing internship next week, which I am very excited about! (more details later). I lug my laptop around with me whenever I go and my phone is almost always close by. (Funny how it’s called a phone, yet I have less than 25 minutes total used this month on the actual phone. Check my text messages however, and you’ll see I’ve sent 2276 and received 2253. While my data usage isn’t very accurate because I tend to use WiFi. So I use the term, “phone”, loosely) My point is, it’s nice to leave our phones, computers, TVs and video games behind and just spend some nice one-on-one time together.

As we walk, I longingly stare at the houses I love. Brandon tells me I’m “house horny”. I’d agree with that. I want a home I can call my own (well ours) and decorate and renovate and do all the things we want without anyone saying no. If I want to do my laundry naked- I can do that! I don’t have to worry about listening to my music too loud, or dancing around in my underwear. In fact, Brandon would encourage that. His family may not feel the same way.

So, get out and walk with someone you enjoy spending time with. A significant other, a friend, family member, pet, or just yourself. We can get lots of thinking done when the daily distractions of our coveted technology isn’t there to…well, distract you.



I wish we looked half as cool as these people!