The Mums

My Mum and G's Mum came over on Friday and did a bit of a cleaning blitz on the house. They wanted to get it ready and looking good for the shower. I think they could tell I'd been feeling a bit overwhelmed with trying to clean and deal with the renovation mess. It was a total treat to come home to a clean organized space. We don't know where anything is and I guarantee they threw out all kinds of stuff but I'm just gona go with it!
Thanks again ladies you are the absolute best!

Weekends are never long enough

We had an electrician friend over this weekend to help us with "a quick job".  We had been told by our home inspector that there was knob and tube going to one of our fixtures and that needed to be replaced.  Turns out that the home inspector missed that there was tons of other knob and tube so that quick job ended up taking 7 hours on Saturday.

[caption id="attachment_672" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our hallway looks like a scene from the show Dexter"][/caption]

Once again Garret taped up the plastic, which I think helped with the dust a bit, but lathe and plaster work = a crazy amount of dust no matter what you do!  As much as I hate to admit it, this job ended up being slightly easier because there were already holes in the ceiling (yay...I guess?)  So they only had to cut one hole above the front door.

[caption id="attachment_673" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Fishing Wire through to the kitchen"][/caption]

So a large part of Saturday was dedicated to finally fixing out this super fun part. Now G tells me we can move on to some of the prettying stuff.   My friend Meagan is coming for a visit next weekend and has specifically asked to be put to work.  I am going to have fun this week trying to figure out what snazzy task we can tackle.

Sunday we headed down to Toronto in the morning to have a long awaited Engagement photosession with the lovely and talented Tara Noelle. We were laughing because we have been engaged for a year and a half now so I guess these are more "pre wedding" photos?  It was really chilly but we braved the elements for some outdoor shots. I'm really looking forward to getting them back--she does a great job and we are excited to see how they turned out.  On our way back to Barrie we got hungry and decided to stop at our favourite Pho restaurant (across from the ROM) for a bite to eat.  After parking we realized that the restaurant was no longer there...all the businesses in that building have been closed as it is about to turn into Condos!  So we ran across the street and tried the restaurant at the ROM. C5.  Delicious with some nice views.

[caption id="attachment_677" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Very yummy. we had green tea to warm up from the photo session and shared an appie plate"][/caption]

So all is all it was a nice weekend. We got to spend some quality time together and accomplished a lot of stuff around the house which always makes me happy. But the highlight of the weekend came Sunday night around 730. ..and it requires some backstory. Once upon a time Nanny bought G and I  a video camera. And we loved it.  We took it on vacation and had a blast getting some really funny videos of the family with it. One day it disappeared, and we mourned.  There had been some break-ins at our old apartment building so we were concerned that maybe someone had come in and taken it?  But it has been gone for over a year now.  We discussed buying a new one which just seemed insane so we have been using our iPhones as video cameras ever since. We usually aren't careless with stuff like that so it bothered me to no end that it was missing.  I thought that it would have turned up when we moved, but I looked everywhere and it just had vanished.  Fast forward to last night.  Garret was *cough Finally *cough going through a bag of his random stuff that has been sitting beside the bed for ever.   Can you guess what was in that bag?

[caption id="attachment_678" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="and this is why it is good to stay organized and on top of things"][/caption]

I couldn't believe it!  It was definitely one way to end the weekend on a high note!

Not to be outdone

Ok ok, so Garret hung a door.  I felt like I needed to step up my game and contribute to our getting the house "shower ready"

Are you ready for this?

[caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Finally hung the cork board!"][/caption]

I bought these cork boards in the summer (eeek) and they have been propped up next to the stove since then.  So I used some double sided tape and hung them inside the cupboard. Great option to catch all those loose papers and recipes I tend to have cluttering my counters.

-->granted not as awesome as installing an entire door...but it's good to do my part, baby steps people!

Julia: 1  Clutter: 2

So I'm having a shower...

....A bridal shower (weeeeeeeeeeeeee....*insert various other excited brideish noises here)  Erin is throwing a bridal shower for yours truly on May 5th (yay)  and we decided to have it at my house.  (which if you recall from pics earlier this week looks like a bit of a construction site. eeeek)

This was JUST the motivation I think that G and I needed to get the place in shape.  I started a pretty extensive "honey do" list which G quickly shortened to a "priorities only please dear" list. SO, one of the main things I wanted to tackle before having a ton of the ladies I love in my home (most for the first time) was a real door on the bathroom.  We have lived with a pretty gross and impractical bifold door on our downstairs bathroom since we moved in.  It leaves little to the imagination when one of us is in there, and also, when the rinse cycle is on (laundry is also in that bathroom) it sounds like the house is about to lift off.  We (mostly G of course) managed to tackle this job on Saturday and Sunday and I can't believe the difference it makes in our kitchen.

[caption id="attachment_655" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Whatta ya know? It will fit in the back of the truck (phew)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_659" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Not smiling because I made him move the door back so I could get a picture"][/caption]

I skipped a head a bunch as we (again mostly G) figured out how to square up the existing door hole and get this installed nicely....I love having a handy man for an almost husband.

[caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="All framed in and ready for action"][/caption]

Now it just needs to be sanded a bit and painted white. ta-da!

Unfortunately the timing of my shower do list coincides with the "things we need to fix to get a better rate on our homeowners insurance" list.  So this weekend we are either painting the stairs...or switching out some knob and tube electrical.  I super duper vote for the pretty selection as I can nearly guarantee that the electrical part is going to just equal more holes in my ceiling and walls that I hope shower guests dont notice.  I might amend the list to include "strategically hang artwork and photographs over all the holes"

Garret Shwalsh: Spider Hunter

*****Nat Fratia--Do not read any further*****

         I'm not sure if it is just a seasonal thing, or if it has something to do with the renovations G was working on in the basement, but we have some new tenants.  The 8 legged kind who try to attack me Psycho style in the shower.  shudder.  It is now at the point where I can almost hear Garret rolling his eyes when I screech from one room or another.  Yesterday he killed 6 for me and made up a song to the tune of  "I'm the Cash man" about being  a spider hunter.  We both agreed that "zombie hunter" sounded cooler, but I'd rather have a spider problem than a zombie problem to be honest.

I hate to say that I am scared of spiders, cause I feel like that sounds like I shouldn't be old enough to own my own home, but still....that's just life I guess.  I am fine that they exist, I would just like them to exist in places that I don't eat, sleep and shower. (so anywhere outside is fair game!)  G keeps telling me that now that all the spiders are dead (for now) that in a month I am going to start complaining about having a fly problem.  Honestly I don't like bugs of any sort, but I don't feel like a fly is going to creep up on me while I am showering or relaxing on my couch.

Anyone else having this issue this time of year?  Do you think they are just all ganging up on me cause of  the bathroom incident?

Life with my iPhone (or a photo essay of what's up)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="Mining in the basement"][/caption]

Today my friend Annie commented that I hadn't posted in a while. I realized it is because it was getting to the point of too many things to post about...so I went through my iPhone and have posted a few photos of what has been going on and I can catch you up!

Garret and Kevin (his Dad) spent some serious quality time in our basement a few weeks ago, insulating the crawl space under the kitchen. It is like an  oubliette down there complete with spiders and dirt and general grossness. The two of them dug  it out and insulated underneath to help make it a more efficient space.  Above is a pic of Garret showing off all his hard work to my Mum.  I threw the miners light on her that my brother Elliott got me for Christmas--useful in many applications that light!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="testing new fixtures"][/caption]

We spent several hours  looking for new lighting. I hated our old fixtures  so we installed these snazzy new ones. yay.  They look great and really add a nice somewhat industrial feel to the living room. So everything was going great! We painted, put up new lighting...then this happened:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="G and Kevin changed over some plumbing...which I originally thought would be one small hole. This is them taping up the sheet so dust didnt go everywhere (totally didnt work by the way)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="Ok, this is kinda scary, but totally fixable right? (also, how nice is our new paint?! way snazzier than gross beige right?)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="482" caption="Clearly it get's worse before it gets better. sigh"][/caption]

It's not the end of the world, but DEFINITELY not what I was expecting!  Hoping that we can work on getting that fixed soon. yikes. [ Side note: that show on the TV is "Happy Endings" I think its on ABC? We have become obsessed with it and marathoned through the first season recently. To sum it up in one word? Amah-zing.]

Garret and I have also been really lax with getting wedding stuff off the ground.  My Mum called and nicely yelled at me telling us to get on it since my shower is coming up. So I dragged Garret to The Bay thinking we would have a fun date night.....Wrong

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Wishing the zapper thing was a gun as this kind of shopping is apparently not the relationship builder I thought it would be."][/caption]

It seems we strongly disagree on our vision for the house. I want pretty things and he wants boring things. And I can say that since he never blogs on here so can't defend himself (HA!) I remind him I am the designer but he never goes along with it. crap.  I was complaining to a friend and she pointed out her philosophy is "she who washes the sheets can pick the sheets" and since a month ago Garret had to ask me where the detergent goes....I think that that means I WIN!  If that also stands true for she who cooks gets to pick everything for the kitchen, then my life is complete.

Moving on....Easter weekend we were the Travelling Wilburys. Barrie to North Bay to Meaford.  The Shwalsh's have adopted the Walsh tradition of always stopping at Webers when we are on HWY 11 north. And south too actually. In fact anytime we pass by we must stop in....10:00am is no match for our love of burgers. Gross? Maybe, but don't you judge us! We had our first stop of the season on Saturday, and also hit it up on the way back down on Sunday. (This is not a friend of the operation Wedding Dress diet. shhhhh)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="It's that time of year again!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="481" caption="While in North Bay we stopped in with Charlene to see Garret's Grandma. We wore bunny ears into her nursing home which was a big hit. I also won a free coffee on that Timmies cup I am tightly gripping there."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Crazy cool Jello dessert"][/caption]

We left North Bay mid day Sunday and headed to Meaford for my side's family dinner.  It was a long drive, but 100% worth it to get to spend some time together!  We have done our holiday dinners with close friends (who are at this point really just extended family) for the past 7 years or so. It's so nice to have a crowd of people you adore sitting around one table.  I didn't take any other photos with my iPhone of Easter dinner so for now this dessert pic represents an insane amount of delicious food, great laughs and the greatest people I know!