One Final Tour of Our Old House (with Before & Afters)

We've been in our new house for a month now. With the combination of Christmas and snowstorms and all those daily, little chores that steal away your time, we haven't done more than a few superficial repairs and changes so far - things like installing some temporary strip lighting in the closet (instead of using a flashlight to find matching clothes in the morning) and putting up a shelter to keep the snow off my precious car.

It's difficult not to compare this new house with our last one - we had spent seven years making changes and improvements, making it ours. Just like a fitness journey, "You can't compare your beginning to someone else's middle", I have to keep reminding myself that the new house will be beautiful some day and the joy is in getting it there.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to take one last look at our old house, the before & after, and highlight some of our favourite projects.

When we moved in, the house was mostly decorated in green, yellow, and orange. We thought it was perfect and didn't change a thing. It took about two years before it started feeling a little too Southwestern for our tastes. We slowly brought in some neutrals, starting with the living room and foyer.

Before:

After (BM Ranchwood):

Once you change the walls though, suddenly your kitchen cabinets no longer match. I'd originally planned to strip the green and stain them a dark brown, but in the end went with a clean white. It instantly lightened up the whole room, especially since there was no window to bring in extra light.

We also added undercounter lighting (touchless!), and changed out all of the appliances. We kept the terracotta-coloured tiles and I think they go just as well with taupe and white as they did with yellow and green.

Before:

After:

Upstairs, the front room was our "computer room", aka the office. It had a huge bay window and received the most sunshine of the whole house. It was the dogs' favourite hangout for sure. We changed it from a deep cranberry to a light blue, and accented with white picture frames and a grey loveseat.

Before:

After (BM Nimbus Grey):

The custom-made glass front bookcases have been with me for over 15 years - from my apartment in Toronto to three houses now - I'll never let them go.

We turned one of the bedrooms into a craft room. It really became an everything room - gift wrapping, sewing, photography studio, and crafting of course. It started out midnight blue with little stars stickers all over the walls. Big change!

Before:

After:

My favourite (I say that a lot) project in here is the wrapping paper and ribbon station. Tom and I designed it together using ideas we saw online and then tweaking it along the way until we had what worked for us. It was wonderful having all of my wrapping supplies right on hand whenever I needed them.

The guest room was the first room I painted here. It started out as a bright, bright yellow. I painted it one weekend while Tom was away. He didn't even notice it had changed until I told him about a month later. I just went to the paint store and grabbed a colour that I liked. I didn't like it for long but never got around to changing it either. So this room ended up being a mishmash of leftover decorating items. We even stored all of our extra artwork under the bed! It does contain my first piece of refinished furniture though - the  stained & waxed dresser from Goodwill. This is when I fell in love with finishing a piece with furniture wax instead of polyurethane.

Smaller projects were the main bathroom, the powder room, and the linen closet in the upstairs hallway. In the main bathroom, beyond paint, we replaced the medicine cabinet and mirror with custom-made pieces we did ourselves. Tom has become an old hand at building mirror frames. The ones in the powder room and ensuite were built by him as well.

The linen closet received all new shelving, a more streamlined laundry chute (I miss that so much!), and framed bi-fold doors. We also framed out and added bi-fold doors to the front foyer coat closet.

Before:

After:

The two biggest changes upstairs were the master bedroom and the ensuite bathroom. The top half of the bedroom walls were done in a textured plaster with a brown glaze over yellow paint. I wasn't a fan, but I thought it would be too much work to scrape it all down and repair the walls. So I just painted it all one colour - first a dark grey (BM Arctic Seal) that was way too dark (think prison cell) - and then a lighter grey that was much more soothing.

Before:

1st Change (BM Stormy Monday):

I got a hankering for more though, so I installed faux board and batten wainscoting all around the bottom half of the room. This project was all mine. I learned so much about using different power tools that week. And my body paid the price for all that crawling around on the floor. There's something I adore about grey and white together. The room felt like a suite at a fancy hotel. One covered in dog hair of course.

After (BM Stormy Monday):

The ensuite bathroom was our pride and joy. It was a complete gut, right down to the studs. We even had to replace some studs because they were warped and weren't even connected to the drywall! We painstakingly chose all of the finishes, even driving to another town to get more tile when our local store ran out just as it was almost finished. We had the tile installed by a contractor as we knew it would take us months of evening and weekend work to get it done.

Before:

After:

Tom rerouted all of the plumbing himself so that we could have a wall-hung vanity. He also framed out the shower niche, built the mirror frame and shelves, and of course designed and built the inset toilet paper holder that he is so proud of.

The ensuite in our new house is a bit of a blank slate. We'll probably incorporate some of the same ideas - wood grain floor tile, inset toilet paper holder (as if that was in question!), wall-hung vanity - and we're going to have a go at doing it all ourselves. Cross your fingers for us!

The basement was fully finished when we moved in so there wasn't a lot to do. We rearranged some things like the washer/dryer and water heater, and installed a water softener, but most of the changes were cosmetic. We painted the entire basement a warm blue as we were going for a cottage/beachy feel. We changed out all of the lighting, hung some "beachy" artwork, and I painted a huge pallet sign. It's an homage to our favourite beach rental in Hawaii.

Before:

After:

We turned the cold storage into a regular storage area (it was still pretty cold) with wood paneled walls and strong wooden shelves. I always loved the smell of that room - I think I'm a carpenter at heart.

The backyard also got an overhaul. The house came with a tiny, tiny deck, actually two tiny decks attached to each other, but not on the same level. We raised up the second deck, enlarged it, and then added another lower deck off to the side where we hung our hammock. The plain wooden rail pickets were replaced with metal balusters.

The final project was to enclose the bottom of the deck, something we did just a month or so before we listed the house. It's too bad we didn't do it sooner as it really added to the appeal.

Before:

After:

Whew! That was a lot of change. We loved renovating this house. We made a few changes to our previous house (beyond paint), but this one was where we really got our groove on. I'm really going to miss it.

Here are a few more photos from the real estate listing that show it off like a model home.

(All real estate photos courtesy of West Blue Studio Services)

Christmas Baking Test Kitchen

Both my workplace and Tom's are having Christmas potluck lunches next week, so this weekend is going to be spent testing out some new recipes. I'm wavering between appetizers and squares (maybe both!) because there are always more than enough main dishes at these functions. Today I thought I'd share my favourites with you. If you have some tried and true recipes to share yourself, please do so in the comments - I'm open to anything!


These are white chocolate chip cranberry cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction. I think I might have all of the ingredients already. They seem pretty simple as well. Do you put dried cranberries in everything like I do?

The fancy truffle squares below are from Style at Home. I get emails from them every day (usually when I'm at work and hungry) and then I want to make everything. I like the extra touch of adding a ginger, sugared thyme, or orange marmalade garnish to the top.

These are Irish Cream chocolate brownies from Nicole at Wonky Wonderful. Irish Cream whiskey in the brownie and in the frosting. I think a trip to the liquor store is in my future.

These might be my first choice if they turn out in testing. They're chorizo asiago puffs from Style at Home again. I've had a package of puff pastry in the freezer for months just waiting for the perfect recipe. What are the chances they'll turn out this pretty?

This recipe looks simple and borders on being a main dish. They're crescent roll sausage bites from The Kitchen is My Playground. They appeal to my love of down-home cooking. This is feel-good food.

And I'm throwing in one salad. My friend Megan makes this all the time and it is amazing. I could deal with amazing, I think. ;-) There is a whole lot going on here, but you can just call it butternut squash and cranberry quinoa salad. The recipe is from Little Broken (I don't know if Megan uses this one but it's close.)

So what do you think? Do I stand a chance of replicating any of these? 

If you're looking for something new, check out my recipes for pumpkin cheesecake trifle, chocolate scotcheroos, or raspberry thumbprint cookies.

Hawaii Anniversary Trip Recap - October 2015

We're knee-deep in boxes right now (this weekend was the big move!) It feels like our 90-day closing just flew by. Partly because we took an 18-day vacation to Hawaii in the middle of October to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. Yes, in the midst of buying and selling houses, canine dental surgery, and fiscal year-end work responsibilities, we took off for nearly 3 weeks. In our defense this trip has been planned for a very long time, but it was a pretty hectic fall regardless.

So let me tell you about our vacation because, honestly, who doesn't want to think about a tropical island getaway when the weather outside is frightful dreary?

This was our third time to Hawaii - honeymoon and 5-year anniversary before - so we knew what we liked and what we didn't. We chose to stay in private residences rather than hotels, and made a point to eat at restaurants we'd never been to before (except Honolulu Burger, to which we will always return).

We started out on Kauai, renting a cottage across from Baby Beach in Kapaa.

The first time in Hawaii we only spent 3 days on Kauai (on misguided advice) and soon realized there was way too much to see and do in such a short time. This time we stayed for a week. I think both of us agree that we would have been content to just spend our entire vacation there - we have found our happy place. Kauai is so laid back - not like Oahu's North Shore surfer culture, but more like a small town. It just fit us.

We biked, hiked, went sightseeing, and laughed at the rooster next door (we named him Milo) who crowed at 2am, 4am, 6am, and 3pm every day. He was covering all his bases. He and his family would hang out on our lawn in the afternoon and we'd feed them crackers.

The highlight of our vacation was when we took two dogs from the Kauai Humane Society out for a "field trip". You sign out the dogs, pay a deposit (in case you don't come back), and then you can take them hiking or to the beach - wherever dogs are allowed. They wear these cute, little "adopt me" vests so that the public knows they're available for adoption.

We signed out "Ethan", a lab/pitbull mix, and "Cassidy", a hound mix. They were best friends and bunkmates. We planned to take them hiking up Sleeping Giant - we wanted to make sure they got a good workout before they had to go back to their kennel. Ethan chewed on my arm the whole way there (the only way to keep him from chewing on everything else in the car), while Cassidy stared out the window and chilled. But she was just fooling us because as soon as Tom opened the back door to get them out she took off at full speed. It was a terrifying 10 minute sprint up the road - Tom being dragged by Ethan, me running in flip flops - finally cornering her in someone's backyard. It's always the quiet ones.

 

 

Once everyone was back under control we had a fantastic hike up the mountain. These were two really good dogs. They walked nicely together, let me take hundreds of pictures of them, and let me smother them with hugs and kisses. After the hike we still had time to kill before their curfew so we took them to the beach for a walk along the pathway.

 

 

 

 
They both fell asleep on the way back to the shelter. I think they had a good day. I fell madly in love with Ethan. Madly. Unfortunately, pitbulls and pitbull mixes are banned in Ontario so we couldn't bring him home. I'll admit I cried when we dropped them off, and a couple of times during the week. I've kept in contact and they are both living it up on the mainland - Ethan has been adopted and Cassidy is with a foster family. I'm sure Chloe was happy that we didn't bring home another dog - she (pretends she) doesn't even like Sasha.

So what can top that? Nothing can, but I still have lots to share with you.

We went for a doors-off helicopter tour across the island and up the Na Pali coast with Jack Harter Helicopters. I was really looking forward to this tour - until they gave us our seating assignments. They position you on the helicopter according to weight so that the machine stays balanced. I was the lightest (by just 1 pound!) so I was squished into the tiny middle seat between the pilot and another passenger who had done the tour just the day before. I had no view except the instrument panel and the front windshield.

 

 
I did manage to get a couple of good pictures by hanging my arm way over but I was pretty disappointed. I guess I should have eaten a bigger breakfast.

We drove around the entire island throughout the week. Staying halfway up the coast made it easy to go north one day and south the next.

The last time we were there we discovered Polihale Beach on the final day and only had the chance to stay for a half hour or so before the sun went down. This time we spent an afternoon there and had the whole beach - miles and miles - to ourselves. It was crazy windy that day - every nook and cranny ended up with sand in it. The waves were too high to swim in safely, but it was magical watching them pound against the Na Pali coastline.

After Kauai we flew to Molokai. Molokai is a tiny island that doesn't see as much tourist activity as the other islands - and they like it that way. There are no traffic lights, no big box stores or chain restaurants, just locally owned businesses and miles of rolling hills.

We stayed at a condo about 13 miles from town. Our view was of Maui in one direction and Lanai in the other. It was really beautiful.

 

We went snorkeling on Thanksgiving and ate our lunch on Murphy's Beach (20 Mile Beach). The water is very shallow and there is coral for miles. We followed fish around with the GoPro; we even saw a few eels.

 

 After a post-lunch nap we drove the twisty scenic road to Halawa Valley and back.

Molokai is most known for being the location of a former leprosy colony (Hansen's Disease) beginning in the 19th century. The sick were shipped to the Kalaupapa Peninsula and left to survive on their own. Father Damien, a Catholic priest, came to help them - building houses, arranging medical services, and administering the faith. He succumbed to the disease himself many years later. The peninsula is still inhabited today by a few former patients who have chosen to stay. We didn't have an opportunity to tour the town, but did drive to the lookout and got a sense of the isolation they experienced. Read here for a more in-depth history of the area and Father Damien.

 

While we were on the island there was a huge outrigger canoe race taking place, the Molokai Hoe. People come from all over the world to participate in the race from Molokai to Oahu, a minimum 5 hour journey through gigantic ocean waves. We were driving around on the west side of the island the day before the race and stumbled onto the starting point. I'm so glad we did - the sight of hundreds of outriggers ready to go was amazing. We didn't see the actual race - you had to be up and on the road by 4am to get there in time - but we did watch a bit on-line.

From Molokai we flew to Oahu for the final 5 days of our vacation. Straight from the airport we drove to the aforementioned Honolulu Burger for lunch. Huge burgers on sweet rolls and a mountain of garlic fries.

We had booked a cottage up in the hills east of Waikiki this time (Hawaii Kai). The owners have built the cottage up above their house, and it has a stunning view across Hawaii Kai to the ocean, and over to Koko Head Mountain. This cottage was amazing. Lots of windows, a huge deck with a hot tub, and did I mention the view?

The owners had a little dog named Mochi who would come visit and make herself at home. I came out of the bathroom one day and she was laying on her back on the living room rug, waiting to have her tummy rubbed. If you were sitting on the couch on the deck, she would hop up and snuggle in beside you. Then when she was bored she would run back down the steps to her house. Loved her.

We drove all the way around Oahu, but we've been there twice before so we just hit our favourite spots. The last time we were there we rented a cottage on the North Shore, so we went back to revisit the area.

 

Sadly, Hale'iwa (the main town) has changed a lot in 5 years - it's become more commercialized and touristy. We only stayed long enough for lunch - at Opal Thai. This restaurant is famous and the food was so, so good. Opel, the owner, does a little shtick getting you to name your favourite Thai dishes, then he takes the menus away from you and brings what he thinks you'll like. He was right though, we loved everything.

We always hike Diamond Head Trail when we're on Oahu, but this time we also hiked Koko Head Crater Trail. Diamond Head has plenty of switchbacks, handrails, and safety fencing.

 

This trail is completely different. It's an old railway line that goes straight up the mountain, nearly vertical at the top. No handrails, just wide open. I'm so glad I punished myself with hours on the Stairmaster before the trip, because this hike was hard.

Once you make it about halfway, across the railroad tie bridge (with a huge beehive on it), and the trail starts to get steeper, you have to stop for breath every 10-20 steps. And these aren't stair steps, they are 12 inch+ steps. Poor Tom was still recovering from a chest cold and had a hard time with it. But we both made it to the top. It's a 360 degree view of Honolulu, the ocean, and the northeast side of the island. Just breathtaking. The climb down was just as tough. You had to go sideways to keep from tipping forward, and you had to remember to keep switching sides to give your leg muscles a break. As achy as I was the next day, I loved it and can't wait to do it again someday.

The days just flew by, but we were starting to get homesick for the dogs, so it was nice to pack up for home. We've now visited 4 Hawaiian islands and have decided that Kauai is the place we want to return to as often as we can. We even have the daydream of retiring there in the future.

But for now it's back to reality - moving boxes, 9-5, and 6 months of winter every year.