Before and After :: Kitchen Floor

Kitchen

These pictures of the kitchen are from the listing. The old owners stuff. But you get the idea of the before.

Then you may remember the updates we did when we first moved in. Mostly new paint.

Before

We pulled everything apart (at what seems like the same time - note the toilet in the kitchen from the bathroom flooring). We reinstalled the toilet and sink and then started on the floor one Monday.
I thought for a long time that we would tile. We brought home samples of Dura-Ceramic and I asked your opinion on what looked the best. We brought home samples of other tile as well. But I think I put off the decision because I really didn't want tile. It's cold and hard and the tile we had in the last apartment was terrible. It has left a bad taste in my mouth. It was always dirty and stained terribly. So we decided on hard wood. I couldn't be happier with it. It is an engineered wood, so it should work well in the kitchen. It is designed to stand up to water better than solid wood and is treated with a polymer top coat to protect from scratches.

The first row.

You can see all of the dishes from the China Cabinet all over the counter. Renovation is messy work.

Glamorous picture. Me in pajama pants and knee pads, recycling bins on the counter and Christmas tree in the background with all the boxes of wood laid out.

Charlie didn't seem to mind all the commotion. He really wanted to help, he had his nose in everything.

Here is Logan returned from the basement. We had set up the mitre saw downstairs because the temperature had dropped and it was too cold outside (like the tile saw on the deck several days earlier). He kept track of his trips, I think it was 104 round trips.

After

Before the new baseboards

Complete
I love the new baseboards.

Before and After :: Powder Room

Powder Room

In preparation for Christmas we did a number of home renovations. One of the first places we have really conquered (more than just paint) was the main floor powder room.

Before

You may remember what it looked for before. 10 year old lino, stained wood crown molding as a chair rail, wood toilet seat, toilet paper holder and towel bar.

We decided to tile. 16"x16" porcelain tile. Logan put down the mortar and I laid the tile.

After 24 hours of jumping from the kitchen to the living room Logan did the grout.
The toilet and the sink were in the kitchen for what felt like forever. We even had Dan stay over night for a job interview with the new fixtures in the kitchen.

After 48 hours we sealed it and the floor was done.

After the floor was ready we started painting. I figured that with the dark colour already on the bottom we should probably do two different colours again. The bottom colour is two shades darker than the brown colour in the kitchen.

The top colour is the same as the brown in the kitchen.

Here it is finished. New towel holders, new faucet, nice chair rail.

I think it looks great. On the wall is the candle holder from the gift exchange.

Christmas Exchange

On the 15th we hosted our 2nd annual Christmas exchange. It was also the warm up to Christmas as we hosted 12 people for dinner.

Jason, (Charlie), Stef, Craig

Tyler, Jen, Logan

Jason, Megan, Jonathan

Raveigh

Cris

And myself

We did pot luck, I supplied the roast and everyone else brought the fixings. The food was delicious, the mood was festive and Charlie wore his Santa Hat.

We had a gift auction that was very tame this time around. Logan, the game hater, picked the only game in the pile.

And I walked away with a gift that we put in. A fun geometric, wall mounted candle holder. It was a coveted item as it was stolen three times. It stayed here and is now hung in our newly renovated bathroom.

One of the gifts (the other that we put in) was Twister. We had a rousing game.

Winter Weather

Yesterday winter really began. It was wild. Stef and I were out Christmas Shopping and it was snowing like crazy. There were winter storm warnings on the radio, "10-15 cm of snow". There was quite the snow drift in front of our door when we returned.

Logan worked at 5:00 and I had a show. So I dropped Logan off at work at about 4:15 and hit the Deerfoot. From Country Hills Blvd to Beddington (the very next ramp), it was regular winter driving. Not that bad, just snowy. That is where the driving ended. I didn't move faster than 20km the whole trip. The road was packed with people just rolling along. I was pretty relaxed, I had left myself an hour and a half to make my 25 minute drive. I started to get a bit angry when the three lane Deerfoot suddenly had four lanes. Okay, no one really knows where the lines are. But then the taxi pulled out of the "fourth" lane and created his own lane. That is when my temper started to rise.

I had to be at work at 5:30. At 5:28 I pulled off the Deerfoot onto Memorial and came to a stop. A solid stop for the first time my whole trip. It took me over 20 minutes to make it off the ramp. At this point I was attempting to call the theatre and let them know. Well, my phone rang busy and said "network busy". Great.

I finally pulled into the parking lot at 6:18. Two hours after I set out. Nearly an hour late.

A house upside down

As the days tick away toward Christmas we add more decorations and more cheer. I know that I haven't posted pictures of the newly painted living room. But that may not happen for a few more days. Everything is a bit upside down and a mess and we continue to spruce up the house.

We couldn't put up the Christmas Tree until we had painted. Now that that is done we moved onto Christmas in the living room. Tree first.

I picked up a barrel of ornaments from Michael's of red, green and silver. I love my cylinder vases and the ways it can change for the season.

We have had the outside Christmas lights up since Nov 1. We thought that with the weather still being nice we should take advantage.

You may have noticed the amount of snow in this picture. Sunday we had a bit of a blizzard. I believe we racked up somewhere between 5 and 10 cm of snow. It was quite the day.

Charlie enjoyed the snow. We let him out onto the untouched blanket on the deck.
He seems to like the snow. You may not be able to tell.

Christmas Party

Tonight was Logan's work Christmas Party. It was held at Aussie Rules, a great dueling piano bar. I was pretty sad 'cause it was a two show day for me and I was not able to join until after the evening show (10pm ish). The little time I was there was a hoot.

To add to the fun:

There were door prizes. Each of our tickets won.

First a Sony Blu-Ray Player!

And then Guitar Hero III for the Wii.
How Fun. Especially since we only paid for one ticket. The ticket included dinner. As I was not going to be joining till almost the very end of the night they just gave him my ticket for free. So a $40 ticket, good fun, and a couple hundred dollars worth of electronics.
And because we haven`t had a picture of Charlie in a while:

We have hardly any snow at all. This photo is a couple of weeks old. But he loved discovering snow! He really had a good time eating as much as he could. He was locked in the kitchen for many hours that week we had snow. He would stay out there till he was shaking from the wet snow and come in with his skin matted with snow.

A Christmas Carol

There are some very fun Video Links on the Theatre Calgary website that you should check out. Mainly the time lapse video of the set up of Christmas Carol. If you don't get a chance to get to Calgary to see the show it will give you an idea of the size of the show.

The show is huge. I know I have said it before. It is really causing me some back pain, and shin pain and forearm pain.

We painted the living room over the past few days. Behr Mother Nature Green. I will post photos once we are done. It is still a bit upside down. I wanted to paint so we could start decorating. You can't put up a Christmas tree in a room you want to paint before Christmas. So it is still being put together. Very soon.

Playing House

Today I got off the bus and walked onto our circle and approached our house. I could see the back of the house from the end of the circle as we are on the corner. As I clomped along in winter boots, mitts, scarf and back pack I felt like I was far to young to be playing this game. I had this flash that very soon we would have to pack up our over night bags and go home to our respective parents and get back to school. That is my house. Not just the house that I live in. Not my parents house. A house that I am responsible for.
Surely I feel that the bills are mine. That I go to work six days a week to scrape together a pay check for the bills to keep the place going. Those things are not lost on me. But I am sure you have all had those moments. How did I get here? I love it here. But for that short 2 minute walk it felt a bit surreal.
But soon enough I walked through the gate, up the steps of the deck, and into the kitchen where I was greeted by a puppy so happy to see me that he is almost flipping over and a big kiss from my loving husband.

Route 301

Now that we live out in the sticks I cannot walk to my downtown theatre jobs any more. I get to take the bus. Good 'ole reliable public transportation. This really isn't a big deal. Especially since bus fare is $2.50 each direction and parking is $27 a day.

We happen to live right next to a major bus route. It is called the BRT, what is stands for I don't know, but it is the express bus to downtown. It takes me 25 min on the bus and 20 in a car. It stops almost right out side our little circle. It comes around every five minutes in peak times, every 10 minutes on the times surrounding peak times and every 15-30 minutes in the middle of the day and evening.

Yesterday was my first real example of how bad this could be. Yesterday was a holiday. So the buses were running on holiday hours. I called to see if parking was on holiday rates and it was not. That meant there were only buses every half hour, and about 10 minutes sooner than I am used to. So I hurried my butt out the door to make it for this earlier bus. I had 6ish minutes to walk about a minute and a half. As I stepped onto the main road from our circle I see the bus at the stop. So I run. (I forgot to mention that I have a tray full of cupcakes that I was volunteered to bring for the birthday of our Scrooge.) The bus waits for me. I hop on and it is already full. I guess lots of people took the holidays as Monday and we are all trying to fit on one bus that is usually one every five minutes. I put my cupcakes on the "my bag is too big" holder and stood. The bus was like a sauna. I had my coat off before the next stop. To make matters worse the driver had a very heavy foot, both on the gas and the brakes. We lurched out in the sauna for about 15 minutes before I had to start calculating my options.
-sit down, then I won't be able to see out the front window
-open a window, I am so far away from one I wouldn't feel it if I opened it
-get off at the next stop and wait for the next, half an hour later I would be late
-just breathe through it and hope for the best.

When we were rolling over the Center St Bridge I almost thought I couldn't make it those last couple blocks. As we pulled to a stop I grabbed my stuff and was off the bus so fast. I sat on the wet, granite steps of the building we stop in front for 10 minutes before the feeling of throwing up had passed.

I felt sick for the rest of the day. Then I had to get on the bus to get home. In comparison, the bus ride was much more pleasant. Except that I still felt that my stomach was upside down from the first ride. Seabands and all I still felt like I might just chuck on the good ole 301.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Today is Saturday. Day Five of Eight rehearsals for Christmas Carol. Eight days. Then we move onto the stage for another Five days of tech rehearsals. Then there is an audience. Speedy!

One of the things about working in theatre is that it is all consuming. Rehearsals are from 10-6 Tuesday to Sunday. I start one hour prior to rehearsal starting and am supposed to stay only a half hour after - but that rarely happens, it is usually longer. And Monday is my only day off. Then we move onto the stage and work five days for 12 hours. I feel like I drop off the face of the earth for a couple of weeks. The nice thing about theatre is that it balances itself out in the end. After an all consuming rehearsal period we move into a show state. Eight shows a week, six days a week (just like the big boys on Broadway) That means that there are two days a week that we do two shows, so are at the theatre for 12 hours. But the other four days are just four hours. Still only one day off but I feel like I have time to do stuff. Especially around Christmas time.

It has been going well. This is a show remounted for the third year and many of the players are returning. The Apprentice Stage Manager and the Stage Manager (thank God) are new. Being the only SM returning puts a lot of pressure on me. But I like the responsibility. The biggest theatre in Calgary is counting on me and my memory of what has happened over the last two years (having been here for both years). I feel like I know that show like the back of my hand. I also feel like it shows.

Yesterday I was introducing myself to the new wardrobe master. I walked confidently into his office and extended my hand in greeting. He greeted me with "Oh, you're Stacey. You're the one that knows everything." "Yup, that's me." "So when I am freaking out I should come find you. My new best friend." The conversation went on with some questions that he had and without thinking too hard I had all the answers that no one else could confidently give him over the last two weeks. I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I watched myself have a professional conversation in the field that I have studied, I was doing so confidently and I was the one supplying the answers. If only the little apprentice that worked on this show three years ago could have imagined this. I really felt like a grown up.