Here are some Instagram pictures from the past year of him (as I still have yet to recover my hard drive!)
I looked back to see that though I did a post for Adam in 2012, I did not in 2013. Sorry little brother! Wishing you a great birthday! I love you, despite your annoying habit of buying everything you want and having absolutely no ideas for birthday presents, and despite the fact that every time you give ME a present, it is sealed with hot glue and impossible to open without using my teeth like a savage. Here are some Instagram pictures from the past year of him (as I still have yet to recover my hard drive!) Our joint birthday/Olympic party celebration a few weeks ago This past Christmas Eating smoked meat in Montreal this past summer A bit tipsy with balloons in April Plus some older ones... Oh his wedding day in July 2012 UOIT grad (him commerce, me education) in 2007 His prom! 2003? Haha, Halloween...probably 2003 or 2004? Birthday...not sure what year. 2006? Punta Cana in Spring 2004 Last gem - Fall 2001. First day of school. I did that to his hair...
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Many people lately have commented "Wow! Do you guys ever just relax?" I know it seems like we never rest and are constantly doing projects, but really, the last time we did anything major was December 2012, when we did the upstairs stair guard and stairs. Matt travelled a lot this past year and I'm not versed well enough in tools to do a reno on my own. Plus we love doing projects together. This was the first Christmas where we didn't have any new home project to "show off" to our family which got us itching to do some projects in the new year. So, we just finished the stairs on Family Day last Monday, and we decided yesterday (Saturday) to start on the storage, was the second half of the basement project. The first thing we had to do was unpack all the cupboards. We also went through everything and threw out stuff we didn't need, moved a few things to new locations, and found temporary spots for everything else. The before. Tidy work area from the stair project. Even all the extra wood is organized!!! The first cupboard held all our paint, stain, patching and sealing supplies, drop sheets, and then random stuff like bug killers, a few strong cleaners and light bulbs. Here is their new temporary home in the laundry room. The closet was next up. It contained coats, extra scarves, hats and gloves, old shoes, and golf and snowboard stuff Since the golf clubs and snowboard were already moved here when we removed the stuff from under the stairs, I just decided to keep everything together. That duffle bag is filled with all the coats. We obviously use this bathtub a lot...hmmm...maybe we should the bathroom as basement project round 3??? Another cupboard had a shelf of extra baking supplies and spices. This is where they live now, haha. I plan on making myself a lovely ombre layer cake with some fancy icing for my birthday over March Break. All the serving stuff that doesn't fit in the sideboard upstairs was in another cupboard. Here it all is (plus a lot of stuff from under the stairs that was already hanging out here, preventing me from doing Wii Zumba). Of course there was a shelf filled with different liquors and whisky, plus a whole lot of empties. That conversation went like this: Kat: "I thought I asked you to take those back at Christmas!" Matt: "Yep, and I've been ignoring you since Halloween!" Then he dropped some and made a mess - sweet retribution!!! Are now back to the Beer Store and a tidy sum in Matt's pocket. *Sigh* So much stuff. Our second step to this project was to actually remove the cupboards from the wall and take them apart. This actually only took just over an hour. As long as you have a power drill it makes life easier. By hand would be very annoying, but still possible. We had three big shelving cupboards and one closet system. Who knows what the walls would be like behind them! I was hoping for the original exposed brick!!! Removing the doors Hmmmm were they even bolted to the wall? The answer is NO! A sweet surprise! A note from the owners who did the basement reno. There is more but it's the name of the owners. I won't show the whole message to protect their privacy. I do intend, however, to photograph and frame the note so I don't feel as bad painting over it! No luck with the brick - it was painted white behind. Looks so empty now! Since we don't have extra tile, it is lucky that our new cupboards will be a bit deeper than the original ones, and will be build right over top and beyond the edge of tile. It's pretty gross, though! The next step will decide how exactly we want to organize the new system. Roughly we will have cupboards on the bottom half, similar to the sideboard in the dining room. The top half will be open shelving. The triangle under the stairs will be all shelves. It will all probably be painted white, and we'll use Ikea doors on the bottom half, but build the cupboards ourselves. We want to make sure we will have a long closet on the end for all our extra coats and shoes (as we don't have a main floor closet), and we also have to be able to store our suitcases, golf clubs, snowboard, Matt's guitar, all our Christmas and holiday decorations, and all the random house stuff you've seen spread around my basement!!!
Matt and I don't really do a lot usually for Valentine's Day. We don't do cards or gifts. In the past we've gone to Leaf games, but mostly we just cook a good meal and enjoy each other's company. That's exactly what we did this year. I did a bit of prep work this time - I made a chocolate terrine for dessert (since I failed on New Years) on Thursday evening - it has to set 12-24 hours. I also made one for my work wife, Marta! Other than that, I just set the table when I got home on Friday, made a little garland (honestly took me 10 minutes) and Matt cooked dinner (pomegranate balsamic glazed sirloin steak with kale and tricolour quinoa). Cut strips of scrapbook paper, staple 2 ends together, pinch top of one and staple. Connect by the bottom staple of one heart with the top pinch of the other. Simple and quick! Heart napkin fold link HERE (there's is better than mine...) Dinner prep Final delicious product, along with a pinot noir! Chocolate terrine! Recipe from HERE.
Added some toasted almond slices around the edges, plus a dash of icing sugar and a pinch of sea salt. Served with fresh whipped cream. Let to cool in my grandmother's heart shaped baking pan. I cut the recipe in half as it served 12, and this did serve us 3 times, but with big pieces. It should be served in small doses - probably could have lasted 4-5 nights, haha, but it was just so good! Just as good as the one at our favourite restaurant, Goods and Provisions. So the ??? was actually until about Day 21. But really there were some drying time days in there too, but so far I've really only included days where we (who am I kidding, Matt) did work. Not all of them were full days, but again, with painting and staining, patience is key. Also balance and flexibility so you can take stairs two at a time holding a giant basket of laundry without falling down. Okay so I could go through all the painting and staining progress pictures FIRST, but we all know you just want to see the final product, so here's one for you before I launch into the details: Sorry it can't be any prettier. The tools are not disappearing any day soon! Step 13 - Priming & Painting the Stair Guard & Risers Day 10 - Basic priming of the stair guard, posts, and risers. Nothing crazy - just primer and paintbrush! Taping was very annoying...but necessary. Day 11/12 - 2 coats of paint on the same parts. We used the same paint that is on all of our trims, Benjamin Moore White Dove semi-gloss latex. Very pretty. There is also a big puddle of paint just out of sight that Matt spilled, haha. Step 14 - Gluing the Stairs Day 13/14 - We had to attach the stairs over two days because we wanted the glue (construction adhesive) to be completely dry before stepping on them. It was weird to step on them because with and without the stairs they were different levels - it really throws you off when walking down them! First Day Second Day Step 15 - Staining the Stairs Day 15-21. Since laundry and storage were in the basement, we had to do every other stair like we did upstairs when painting and staining. The stairs started with pre-stain to help the stain soak in, then we did 2 coats on stain using Minwax "Golden Pecan" and followed by 3 coats of glossy Minwax oil-modified (more water-based) polyurethane. There were some days where Matt did a coat in the morning and a coat at night, so it took 3 days for each half set of stairs, plus 24 hours to dry between. After the 24 hours we pulled off the tape and did some touch-ups on the paint. Zebra stripes of stain! With the polyurethane coats Allllllll done!!!!!!! Matches the rail perfectly Nice clean lines Now if only the tools could get put away...but no such luck - we're tackling those cupboards soon. So much better than the gross dingy carpet! After a bit of tidying just this morning - basement is very organized...in its own way. Gotta love the before and after! Project Done. So Next Up?
- take everything out of storage cupboards (actually did this this morning!) - tear down the cupboards (may do that later today or tomorrow - excited!!!) - paint (may possibly need to prime) the brick wall behind the stairs - plan the storage cupboards and open shelving system - build the storage system (and a million more details go into this) |
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