"Shopping" for the new home

Yesterday I managed to convince my mom to drive all around the city with me to check out some stores that I don't get to visit too often. 

We met up at square one and did some quick shopping...(not really for the home but the rest below is!)

My mom bought me this beautiful coat from Zara for my birthday! I love Zara coats and I bought a grey one last year. They have some great sales on coats right now in case you are in the market for one.

(http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product/ca/en/zara-W2012-s/317502/924532/COAT%20WITH%20GATHERING%20ON%20THE%20SHOULDER)

 

Once we finished up at the mall we headed down to West Elm. I just love this store! So many things that I want to buy for the new home. It really took everything in me to walk out of the store empty handed. No need to have new stuff sitting around collecting dust! 

But....I really love this duvet cover and have been dreaming of a grey and white bedroom for a long time. I didn't want to buy the cover just yet because our current bed is a queen and in the new house it will be a king bed. Once we left I was talking to my mom about why I didn't buy it and she quickly reminded me that I already have a king duvet(she bought it for us 2 yrs ago) 

I will definetely be going back soon to buy this....

(http://www.westelm.com/products/organic-cotton-pintuck-duvet-cover-shams-white-s081/?pkey=cneutral-white-bedding)

We've always purchased the cheapest kettle when ours breaks but for the new home I have decided I am buying this kettle spotted at West Elm yesterday.....

(http://www.krups.ca/All+Products/Kettles/Products/BW+600/BW+600.htm)

I'm also thinking I want some dishes with colour...

  (http://www.westelm.com/products/crafted-dinnerware-ice-blue-d227/?pkey=cdinnerware&cm_src=dinnerware||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-)

Those are just a few items I saw that I really loved, we squeezed in some time for EQ3, Kitchen Stuff Plus, and Ikea. It was a full fun day of imaginary shopping(other then the coat!)

AND

Update on the old home! 

I started painting the windows..they were a cherry red colour(which I was never a fan) but Branko initially really wanted that. Now that we will have new windows in the new part of the house we need to paint them all white to match! YAY! 

The addition is in full swing....all the framing is up and the roof is half done. Pictures to come in the next post! 

Hope everybody had a great Christmas and a Wonderful New Years! 

Reflecting on 2012 & Thank you!

2012 has come and gone with so many amazing changes.  

We bought a new home Feb 7th, 2012. 

I became an aunt for the first time on June 2nd, 2012. 

I took my very first family photo shoot on Aug 28th, 2012. 

 Last but not least I started this blog Jan. 23rd, 2012

Through this blog I've had the chance of sharing our ups and downs, figuring things out and mostly talking about our home renovation journey. 

I have a feeling 2013 is going be an amazing year for Branko and I.  

A big shout out and Thanks to these amazing people who have inspired me to be healthier, to want to do better, to laugh, to enjoy every moment I have, and to be more daring:

Lynne Knowlton from http://www.lynneknowlton.com

Aleksandra Oleksak from http://www.realtyqueento.com/

Jeanette from http://www.thisdustyhouse.com/

Abby from http://www.crabbyfox.com/

Lisa Mackay from http://www.wickedandweird.com/

Brittney Stager from http://www.mydailyrandomness.com

Angela from http://ohsheglows.com/

Trissy from http://bringingfurmanhome.blogspot.ca

and to our friends and family who have been so supportive. 

Cheers to 2013 

&

Thank you. 

Life....

So life has been kind of crazy lately...

With everything that we have going on in our lives in between our 2 homes things have been kind of stressful. We have so many important decisions that will affect us greatly in the future. 

I feel like Christmas has just creeped up on us. 

Christmas has always been such a special time to me. I love buying gifts for people and watching the looks on their faces when they unwrap an unexpected gift. I love spending time with all of our family. I especially love decorating and putting up the Christmas tree.

With the devastating events that happened in Connecticut last week it really made me sit back and be very thankful that I have all these things to look forward to over the Christmas Holidays and even though LIFE has been stressful I still have my family by my side. 

Then I saw this tweet from Lindsay Stephenson from @littlehouseblog:

"Someone loaded a $100 gift card at @StarbucksCanada and told the barista to let it pay for everyone who was after him. No joke."

I turned to Branko and said "oh wow, isn't that so cool!"

Branko's response " you could that" 

I walked away thinking about all of those stories you hear from people doing just that, paying for the person behind them just "because" 

So today at work(we have a Starbucks in our office building) I loaded a Starbucks card with $30 and asked the barista to pay for everybody behind me in line until the card runs out. 

I really never thought that such a small gesture could make me feel so good. I didn't turn back to see the reactions (there were about 8 people in line behind me). I quickly walked away, put a lid on my coffee and walked out of there. 

Life goes by so quickly so try to sit back and soak it all in because you never know what can happen tomorrow.....

AND 

A teeny tiny update of what has started 

The calm before the storm....

Working on the new house over the entire weekend was sort of therapeutic I believe for Branko and myself. We know that starting (hopefully this weekend) on the old home addition will be chaotic.  

I only say this because we want to get it done in the best timely matter that we can which means working over the holidays during our time off. 

We will still do our family dinners and my traditional shopping day in Buffalo for my birthday (Dec. 27th) but other then that it will be all home reno's. 

Yup, those are our floor plans that we designed ourself. Big risk...maybe....only time will tell. The master bedroom will have the back of the current brick fireplace which we have now decided to paint white. We are moving the laundry room to that extra room beside the wash room that way it will be removed from the current spot which is beside the kitchen. 

It's a fairly simple addition but will attract such a better buyer's market. Every single person we have talked to has said it's the best decision we could go with. 

If all goes well we will start this weekend. 

NOW....NEW HOME! 

Longest post every maybe but I couldn't let the changes of our new home go missed! 

We worked there all weekend finishing up small drywall pieces. 

Here are a few photos...(sorry for the spots on the camera!) 

This is a snapshot of what it looks like when you enter the house. The kitchen is to the right and the dining area to the left. That upper peak still needs to have drywall put up. You can also see the side of the fireplace. 

The Hallway:

 We opened up that ceiling to make a peak and also moved one of the doors to the bedroom on the right of the picture. If you look closely you can see the entrance to the house in the back ground. 

The hallway that currently leads to nowhere! Eventually an addition will be added to make this hall way extend into the master bedroom. 

And last but not least - The closest we added to the smallest bedroom: 

So that's it for now boys and girls! The fireplace full update is hopefully going to come next week. Once it's installed and fulling working I will take some nice photos of that area all cleaned up. 

Hope everybody had a great weekend!