Living Room: Finished (almost!)

After a lot of help from friends with the painting, our living room is just about complete. Tasha put a lot of work and ideas into this room especially. She picked the wall and ceiling colours, helped painted them, painted most of the gloss trim (baseboards, window frame, door frame, etc), scrubbed the floors, picked the hanging picture and had a say and a hand in moving all the furniture! Just like Tasha, I think the room glows!

I couldn't decide whether to use the flash or not. The first version shows what it looks like in daylight, but I like the yellow glow that shows up at night with the lamps on. Very pretty!


It seems like such a little thing, but I love the white column on the far wall. It's the same colour as the ceiling, which really just gives the wall something extra. Small but significant stuff like that makes me happy with the final result.


We picked a mirror for one of the side walls, in an attempt to try throw a little bit more light into the room. It seems to help, but more so in the daytime.


Sadly, we are still haunted by the evil door (see below). I don't know how to describe the DIY skills of the previous owners, but this "door frame" sums up the many "challenges" we have faced and have yet to face in this house. I'm not really looking forward to the weekend or two that I'll spend repairing it, but I'll be glad when it's gone. Note Tasha trying to look part of the furniture. Nice try!

Swimming...at last!

I officially have photographs of Gabriel swimming after many many months. He's been swimming at the pool twice a week since he was 3/4mos and I've never had the opportunity to take a photo. We were visiting a friend and her apartment building had a salt water pool which we all tried out and eventually the opportunity to capture one of his favourite pass times arrived. He also took his first steps (which I missed because I was in the kitchen at the time!) it was a bit of a fluke though because he hasn't done it since. And before you ask we didn't get it on camera! He's very close and much more confident as he runs around the furniture lately, he started pushing the ottoman (on wheels) around the living room this morning. Oh the fun is about to start I'm pretty sure!

Our in home pool...very nice

One of the first bubble baths...he wasn't really sure what to do with the bubbles so we decorated him with them!

So the first two pictures were just teasers, here's some proof he is a fish after all.

Dan, Jenn, Mum & Gabe enjoying the salt pool....tasty haha!

We even convinced Uncle Josh & Daddy to put their feet in the weird water.

Fun and games for everyone...even if it was two hours after bedtime!

New Ride

Gabe now has a new car seat, due to the fact that he's just growing so fast. The old seat was too small and the weight of Gabe - the heffalump - kept losing the belt holding it steady.
The law states that Gabe can't be in a forward-facing seat until he is one year old and weighs over 20 lbs. He's weighing in above that now, but he'll have to face the rear for another 7 or 8 weeks.
Here he is, showing off his new throne!

Gabe's Room

Our friend Dawn is awesome. There's no other way to describe her. Dawn spent the summer in London as part of her placement for her one year course at a Salvation Army college in Vancouver. Her main role was supporting the work that goes on at the Centre where I work, but she blessed us hugely in our home.
Aside from being a stellar babysitter, Dawn is a great artist. She generously gave a lot of time to planning, priming and painting Gabriel's bedroom. We can take no credit for how good it looks, although I did add the light/fan, which looks like a bumble-bee. I'll post some better pics soon.

Job Hunting ...Blah!

It's been a while since I blogged...simply because I have nothing interesting to say. I've been job hunting and sending resumes all over the place. No-one is interested though, I haven't heard back from anyone - literally. It seems you need a specific qualification for every job and I don't have any of them...nor am I allowed to study, or work in the areas I have experience and am trained in. Frustration and apathy are starting to set in, when I should be enjoying every minute of my freedom I'm worrying about how we'll cope if I can't find anything. We've been rejected for child care subsidy too, so we'll have to pay full price. It seems our non-resident status is more important to people handing out help and we'll just have to reapply when we become residents. I'm not bitter I'm just a little upset that Gabe may have to miss out on day care because his parents aren't Canadians.
I'm very sure that I will get a job, it's not like I've lost all hope, but I've come to the realisation that I'm not as desirable to potential employers as I'd hoped. I'm starting to think it unlikely that the job i get will pay well enough to fund Gabe's care.
I have hope because God has promised to look after me but I don't have enough foresight to see how. Is it big headed to think I should be looking for something more than McDonalds / Tim Hortons work? Or should I swallow my pride and apply for something in retail or catering? I'm really struggling with my own ambition, I thought I was lacking in ambition a few months back, but now I know I'm not. I've done some more extensive research into radiotherapy and found that I won't be able to do that for at least 2 years if not 3 (the waiting is due to applications for permanent residency the exam and registration).
I think the whole point of me writing this stuff down is to point out to anyone who is reading this that I'm looking for work. If any of you Canadians see something of interest you should totally contact me. The last job I did was recommended by a friend and it seems that is the best way to find fulfilling work, so I'm trusting it will happen again.
In His Hands

Big Progress

As you can see, I haven't blogged for a while. I've wanted to post an update so many times, but blogs without pictures are boring and I'm too lazy to go through the routine of setting up the camera and then resizing and transferring photos to the blog.

So to update you, the bathroom is looking ruddy marvelous! (compared to before anyway).

The drywalling was finished, primed and painted (with a stack of help from Dawn); a lovely cherry wood vanity sink (from Canadian Tire) was fitted by our generous plumber Steve. It came with a matching cherry wood mirror which looks pretty good. I still need to screw the vanity to the back wall to provide extra support and then add a tile backsplash, but it's looking nice already.

I also had my first try at installing a vanity light, which ended up working out okay. I did break code by not fitting a junction box, but the previous light didn't have one either and I wasn't close enough to the stud to just cut out and fit one. Maybe I'll be able to retro-fit one later, but for now it works and looks good.

My dad was over last week and together we cut, fit and caulked the baseboards, along with the door frame. In the end, I decided not to try correct the wonkiness of the door frame. It was too much work and despite still being obviously unlevel, the framing looks good and just needs glossing.

Another little job we completed was to tidy up the bath surround unevenness (mention a couple of blog posts ago). A small amount of trim did the trick.

Last week, we bought a linen cabinet (from Walmart), which Tasha lovingly stacked with all our toiletries and towels last night. It's white, which I initially thought would look wrong with the cherry wood vanity, but since the toilet, bath and trim is all white, it actually looks good. The only problem is that due to our house being so wonky, the unit leans into the room and needs shimming and attaching to the backwall.

The remaining jobs for the bathroom are as follows:

• Touch up caulking


• Shim and secure linen cabinet


• Paint (semi-gloss) baseboards and doorframe


• Fit vent cover


• Secure vanity unit to back wall


• Install backsplash


• Prime and paint door


• Fit new coat hook on door

Poorly Baby

Unfortunately Gabriel has been pretty sick this week he started off with a cold and that was fine but then he caught a stomach virus from somewhere...that wasn't so good! I've had to wash pretty much all his clothes and plenty of ours because he's been so sickly. I won't go into details because it's not fair on those squeamish readers. It's safe to say no one really wanted to hold him for any length of time this week. He's been sleeping for up to 3 hours during the day which is unheard of for Gabe so that's another sign he wasn't 100%. The poor little thing lost a bunch of weight too he was weighed on Monday at 20lb 15oz then on Friday at 20lb 4oz so he lost 11oz in four days. It's not surprising because his appetite was next to zero and he wasn't willing to drink much either for a while. He's almost back to himself now, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear. We're back at the doctors again tomorrow for another weigh and follow up. We've been giving him electrolyte juice for the last couple of days to help him rehydrate and he loves it...so much for avoiding sweet drinks until he's older!
Sorry no pictures - didn't think you'd enjoy them much!

Painting Party

So Saturday morning arrived and all our plans started to fall into place, it went a bit like this:

8.30am - put stuff on front lawn for yard sale and hang notices at ends of the street.
9am - post a sentry out in the front garden to guard / sell stuff
9.30am - start moving furniture inside the house away from the walls ready for painting
10am - start to despair over lack of yard sale customers
10.30am - reinforcements arrive to start work on the house and garden
11am - employ the mini babysitters to entertain the bambino
11.30am - start filling, sanding and priming the walls in the living room and Gabe's room
12noon - lunch break for the hard workers and realisation that the yard sale was a flop
12.30pm - front garden has started to look like someone else's property
1pm - hang on, so does the newly primed living room and hallway
2pm - realisation that the amount of work being done is phenomenal we have about 11/12 people working in extreme heat to make our place look brighter and smell less smoky.
3pm - colour is starting to creep onto the walls and ceilings
4pm - front garden is complete and the back one looks pretty good too, although Caroline got a real head start on Friday and she needed it, there was a jungle springing up before she arrived.
5pm - colour is spreading onto clothing and floors as well as walls but everyone seems to be having fun so it's all okay.
6pm - Organising all the food and building the BBQ is completed and ready to go
6.30pm - furniture from the front yard is recruited to let the workers rest while eating their well earned burgers in the beautiful back garden
8pm - "Happy Birthday" is sung to Jenn, followed by ice cream cake.
9pm - Some late night painting continues in Gabe's room as he snoozes in ours
10pm - much floor scrubbing and tidying up after the exodus of all our wonderful volunteers
12am - zzzzzzzzzzz

Disclaimer: The times used are a vague guess by someone who was too busy to take note of the actual time. Also all photos below were taken without permission from the people pretending not to pose for them.

Why can't I do what everyone else is doing?

Mini sitters!

clearly the paint fumes have affected Ian's ability to smile!

Bouncing on Pop's knee

To all our painters and helpers we just wanted to say thank you, our house is so much happier for the face lift!