At least we know it works

Hi from Logan

How it all began

This morning I was thinking about how I got myself into theatre as a profession. Many people play around with it during high school. I went a little further than most being in a Musical Theatre Company outside of school. However, I had never thought that I would go on to do it as a career. I had dreamed that I would and was jealous of people that had gone on to do it, or were certain that they would make it. I had never been so sure. And in my Gr.12 year the director of the musical that I was a lead in told me, very straight forward, that "I would not make it as an actor but that I had the right personality and skill to be a stage manager and that I should give that a try." I walked away from that conversation hurt and didn't think much of the stage manager bit but of the insult.

Then Alexis and Aaron and I went away to England. No one thought that I would go through with it. I had many confessions upon my return of doubt in me following through with a trip of that magnitude. But it taught me that I can do scary things and succeed. I learned a lot about myself. And mostly that many people will tell you things are hard, or to difficult so don't bother trying. "Travel abroad, do you know how many tourists are killed everyday?" "It rains all the time in England" "Theatre, what are you going to do with a theatre degree?"

Then I had to go to school. And this is the part that I had forgotten. I had planned to get a Fine Arts Degree in General Theatre Studies and a Certificate in Admin - create my own Theatre Admin Degree. Three years in Theatre, transfer to Admin, and transfer back.

I think that plan petered out after one semester. In my second semester I was called upon to stage manager a show (which was unheard of for first years) and I guess I have not looked back since.

I wonder how different my life would be had I not made that leap into stage manager in that second semester and finished out a Theatre Admin degree?

Home decor

When I first moved from the room I shared with my sister into my basement bedroom my parents allowed me to paint the room what ever I wanted. We bought a blue bedspread with large, abstract flowers in purple, pink and green. My dad helped me sponge paint those colours onto the wall - at the tender age of twelve (?). Since then I have been involved in all of the home improvements in my family home. I was always told that it was practice for my own home.

We tried everything. We laid lino and vinyl tiles, painted bathroom tiles, painted cabinets, tiled a back splash, laid laminate and painted nearly every surface. Stencils, texture paint (the stuff with sand in it), a chair rail dividing two colours on one wall, a red feature wall, faux finishes, colour stripes and monochromatic matte and glossy stripes. I was always encouraged to go crazy when deciding what to do with the next room. (I was going to list my personal favorite in this bracket but can't choose.) I love the gold and navy that Stef and I chose when we redid Mom and Dad's room - chair rail with navy on the bottom in matte and glossy stripes, with a light gold/yellow on top, a great rich bedspread and home-made roman blind. I love the brush stroke technique of three blues we did in the upstairs bathroom and the difference painting the ugly 70s tile made. I love the painted cupboards, laminate and tiled backsplash of the kitchen and I love the rich colours of the living room with the red feature wall.

Because I have tried everything I don't know what to do now that I have my own home. I have sat on this computer night after night checking out web sites to discover what I want to do. My previous interior design endeavors were led by something mom and I had seen on TV and wanted to try. But I have nothing driving me right now except the knowledge that I have to paint over the stencils of the previous owners.

I have time. This is research I like to do.

Ah the boredom

Sometimes I have a very exciting job. I work in show business, and they do say there is no business like it. And they are right. The ups and downs are like no other. When people ask what I do they often respond with "how exciting". Well today...is not.

Remember sitting in a class like social studies and the teacher would talk on and on about the same thing for a really long time. Well, the beginning of the rehearsal process is a bit like that. We spent two days sitting at a table talking about the play. (The first I sat through with much enjoyment, the second day I spent most of my time doing other work elsewhere). Today is day 4. The actors in one scene (a 4 minute 46 second scene) are sitting on the set talking about everthing, their intentions, backgrounds, why they think the other person said that, and how it relates to the other scenes. It is a lot like class - excpet that you know there will never be a test and that the information in front of you is being spoken strickly for that person's benefit.

I have been excused from the hall by the stage manager to type out a piece of paperwork that is not pressing in the least. The note she passed to me was "you look bored. Wanna get out of here? I have busy work..."

I have been paged. Back to bordeom.

Home Inspection...check

Yesterday Logan and I spent almost three hours roaming around our NEW HOUSE with a fella named Don. We learned about everything possible in this house, it was great. It got a really good review from the inspector. He felt that the house was really well build by people that knew what they were doing. That they didn't just slap it together - that they put in the details that experienced builders should. Things like moisture barrier under the foundation and a silent floor system. And there are some added features like really good insulation and the hardwood in the living room is 3/4" oak installed the old fashion way (not prefinished etc). Overall we are more excited now than we were before! The last hurdle (of the purchase I guess) is our financing - which shouldn't be a problem because it was all pre-approved.

The house is still far from being ours (time wise) but already we are planning. (Who are we kidding, we have been making plans on the house since we first saw it). You all may expect that of me, picking colours and making plans and tables and diagrams. You may not expect that of Logan - he was excited about looking at the faucets that were on sale at Canadian Tire.

We have a very exciting journey ahead. Besides waiting for the financing so we can remove the last condition on the offer, the next thing to worry about is possession date. They asked for 30 days in their listing. We offered 60 days (Feb 29) which would give us a month to get it ready and move in before our lease is up. They countered, surprisingly, with March 31 with the option to move forward 30 days upon mutual agreement. For our sake - we had better. I will be in Regina working on a Globe Theatre contract from March 20th. So fingered crossed that these guys find a house for themselves and can get out of ours!

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

At 9:37pm Wednesday night our offer on a house was accepted - but we had to wait out the 72 hour clause on a previous offer.

It has been a long 72 hours! But tonight we got a call saying the house is ours!

This is map from our new house (A) to Logan's district office (B)

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Double Payment

On January 2nd our apartment building took out two rent payments from our bank account. We live in downtown Calgary. As you may have heard Calgary is now the most expensive city in Canada - beating out Vancouver by $5. So, needless to say, taking out our ridiculous rent just once makes a huge dent in funds - taking two certainly put us in the red. Today is the 11th and is a Friday, the issue has not been resolved meaning the soonest we will get our rent reimbursed is Monday the 14th. Can you imagine what would happen if you didn't make your rent payment until the 14th? I believe that would be grounds to evict.

I am a little upset about this. At first I was just shocked when I saw the balance on our net banking. Then releived when we discovered it was a mistake and we will be able to get that cash back. Then I was a little pissed off when their first suggestion was "I guess you just don't have to pay next month". Yeah, cause we can afford to do that. When they said they would FedEx us a cheque and pay our overdraft charges I was happy - no big deal. That was a week ago!

In other news, 30 hours to go! The realtor told us that the other offer is not going to remove the condition at this time, they have an open house tomorrow and if they get an offer without time conditions they will be in a position to buy. If they don't get a solid offer they will back away from the sale. He felt this was very promising! So, we are still no closer than we were yesterday - but things are looking good.

Big news!

Today we had planned to look at 5 places. Three were conditionally sold yesterday. However, it seemed to matter not.

Remember our 2nd viewing. We were impressed by the listing, and the house showed the same - no surprises.

We were very impressed. After talking to the realtor (who felt good about the place too) he decided to talk to the realtor of the place and see what was going on.
You see, this place has a 72 hour special sale. That means that another couple put in an offer with the condition that they need to sell their place first. That was before Christmas. But there is a 72 hour clause. That means that if someone else puts an offer on the house the original offer has 72 hours to drop their conditions and buy - or say no and walk away and the second offer buys the house.

After talking to the other realtor he felt very positive about the situation and about how we should proceed if we wanted to make an offer... So we did! We put an offer in on a house.
I just wanna say that again - we put an offer in on a house.
And wait...
They accepted the offer (subject to financing, subject to home inspection and subject to the 72 house accept/reject of the other offer)!!!!!

So we may have bought a house today! We do have to wait to hear from the other people - if they say yes then it is over. But if they say no - it is also over, but we get the house!

We must be calm. There is still time for this to go out the window. So we will relax and let you know!

3rd viewing

This is the third of five houses we asked for a viewing on today.
This is a town house just around the corner from the other houses we wanted to see.

1999, 1283 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 4 level split
Unfinished basement and garage.



A very large kitchen that I liked alot - especially the walk in pantry.

This is the very nice sized living room with gas fireplace. It was very nice.
And the little window in the living room looks down onto the kitchen and eating area. Which is weird. Being a 4 level split is a little weird too.


You walk in the door beside the garage and can downstairs to unfinished space large enough for one room with the washer and dryer.
Or you can go up (the stairs on the right) straight into the kitchen - weird. Usually you walk into the living room. From the kitchen you go up (left stairs) to the living room and half bath. And then up to the three bedrooms (very large master with walk in closet) but two very small rooms and full bath.

Almost every feature of this place I liked except that it is so spread out with so many stairs and that it is a condo. You don't own the land. You don't have a yard. You have a small deck - that you can see into the others down the street and across onto the three floors of balconies in the apartment behind.

So needless to say - we passed.

2nd Viewing

We found a couple other places we wanted to take a look at, we planned to view 5 places tomorrow. But 2 places were conditionally sold and the listing had expired on the 3rd and so was off the market for the time being.

We are, however, excited to check out this other house.

This one is just around the corner from the other house I posted. They look very similar.

This one is a corner lot.


It seems to have a large yard. On the drive by we discovered that this is a very clever picture. Just out of the image on the left, straight behind the deck is a double gravel pad for parking. There are alot of garages in the area so it would be no problem to get a permit to build - but for the time being it is a bit ugly and unfinished.

Built in 1998. 1155 sq ft.

3 bedrooms
2 bathrooms

Hardwood in the living room, with a large bay window

Large kitchen with appliances included.

End dining room/eat in kitchen with a door to the deck out back.

It also has a full basement that is partially finished with drywall and electric throughout.

The houses are similar but each look good.

First Showing Request

We have made our first request for a showing. We are pretty excited about it too. There seems to be a ton of townhouses in our price range, which is good, but not a lot of house, which is to be expected. So when this listing hit our in box we jumped.
This is a home built in 1997, 1354 sq ft, three bedrooms and two baths.

It has new hardwood floors as well as ceramic tile and carpet.

Appliances are included (dishwasher and washer/dryer as well)

No garage and a full but unfinished basement (which we image is what is putting it within our reach)

But is has a yard and it is a house!
It is also very close to Logan's work, 1.5 km says Google maps.

Hopefully we hear from our realtor to check this out.
Wish us luck.

Our big news...

...we are house hunting.

We met with a Mortgage Broker shortly before Christmas and have been pre-approved for a handsome sum. With the help of Logan's Uncle Reg we were contacted by a very nice Realtor today and it has begun. With any luck we will be emailed potential properties by tomorrow.

We have still not decided on the location of our purchase. But we have decided to be open to the idea of both downtown by my work and NW by his work. If we take a look and find something that fits all of our requirements (including transportation time and ease included) we will go from there.

So far we know that we want to stay around the $300,000 mark for affordability. We will take nothing less than two bedrooms, it must have assigned parking and ample storage. We will see what the future brings. Wish us luck as we enter a new chapter.

Happy New Year

On the 30th Stef, Logan and I jumped into Stef's car and convoyed home with Uncle Gord and his gang. It is always a long drive but it gets done and is never as bad as you think it will be. But as soon as we got home (at 10pm) we brought our stuff upstairs and went to bed.

Last night was a very low key New Year's. Jason and Tyler Haughey, Cris and Jen and Stef and I all gathered at Stef's house for what I titled "Blended Drinks with Lulu". I felt pretty tired and knew that everyone wanted to take it easy, so I thought we all got Lululemon gear for Christmas so we could all dress comfortably and just hang out. We had plenty of food, made bellinis, watched the ball drop and played some games. Logan was working again. He was supposed to be done at 10pm but something rather large happened (that I am not allowed to speak about) so he didn't book off until 1am. He showed up shortly after, had some snacks and we were home by 3am.

It was a great holiday season and was glad to see all of the people I could. I hope that every one enjoyed themselves, that you got the gifts that you wanted, that you spent time with family and friends and above all let the spirit of the season fill your heart.

Auntie Brenda's Wedding

December 29th

The 29th was set aside for my Auntie Brenda's wedding to John Miller. The ceremony was held at the same church we were married at and the reception was at the new RCMP Heritage Building. We had a great time.

Auntie Brenda, her two kids Mandy and Daniel

Auntie Brenda, her two kids Mandy and Daniel

Logan and I

Jason and Stef

At the Reception

Me and Janelle (John's daughter)

When was the last time you did the Macarena

And at the end of the night it was back to our house for more drinks, more food and for Jason's birthday another cake.

December 28th

Continuing this jam packed holiday we headed out shopping for some Boxing Week sales at Best Buy etc. No purchases made - and it is not my fault- the GPS we were looking at was out of stock. I didn't even say no.

At 4pm headed off to the Wedding Rehearsal of my Auntie Brenda to John. I was the reader of the 1st lesson from the Song of Solomon. The rehearsal went as most rehearsals do, and I headed home to the party planned for my parents house. This party started as my mom inviting the Kotlar's over for drinks. It escalated to an invite extended to everyone we know, both family and friends.

There were tons of people. Living room, kitchen and family room in the basement were all full of people. It was great. I saw both sides of my family and all of my bridal party in one place - we even had the ring bearer - we were only shy the two flower girls.

And on top of everything else, it was my cousin Jonathan's birthday.


So there were more snacks and more drinks. (are we noticing a theme)

Christmas #3

December 27th

Time for Christmas #3 - off to the Glass house. Both my Dad and Matt had to work this one day of our holiday so Logan and I spent the working hours with Mom and Stef. We snacked and played some games. We then decided that it was time to move away from traditional meals (that we had been eating for days straight) and order pizza. Dad was supposed to pick it up on the way home from work. It was taking him a long time and we were starting to wonder. When he finally showed up he told us that he was in an accident. Some lady rear ended him at an intersection. He wasn't hurt - but my first car, my little red sprint has some damage in the rear. This wouldn't me that big a deal except that they are trying to get vehicles older than '92 off the road and it is a '91. So if Dad makes the claim they will write off a car that is still in great working order. My poor little car.

After dinner we played a little Guitar Hero and then off to Grandma and Grandpa's.Cousin Kari and her family were also there to visit.

We had some snacks, some drinks and some games.

The boys played a little shuffle board

I am also proud to show off the gift that I created from my Grandparents for last Christmas. I crossed stitched these snow man, and with a little help from my family I mailed the fabric to, it was put behind glass on a tray. I am very proud.

This years crafted gift is a table runner of brown jacquard fabric with metallic thread embroidered swirls with red and green holly embroidered where the swirls cross, and fabric Christmas dinner napkins. I handed out three sets and kept one table runner for myself.

Travels home

Boxing Day
Christmas Day we stayed up until 2 am, Logan worked until 4 am and we were up again at 6 am to head off to the airport. We arrived in Regina at 10:18 am - and our whole family was there to greet us. We headed off to Kotlar's to have Christmas Day the second.

We opened some presents
had a few drinks
played a few games.

Plenty more great food and great times!

The holidays are busy time

Christmas Eve

Logan had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we stayed in Calgary for those days. We were taken in by my Uncle Gord and Auntie Shelley. We headed over in the afternoon for snacks and then off to church. Logan had to leave almost right away for work - but the rest of us had some dinner. As is German tradition, Christmas eve is the time you gather and open presents. With Logan at work, Uncle Gord, Auntie Shelley, Jonathan, Jason and I gathered around the tree and opened some presents.

Christmas Day

Logan returned to Uncle Gord's in the wee hours and was up again with us for breakfast. We moved into the living room with Mimosas and opened the rest of our gifts with Logan.

Logan's new "pook toque"
and new skates
Uncle Gord giving Logan style tips...

In the early afternoon Logan was back off to work, and the rest of us enjoyed a full Turkey dinner.
with My very first pie from scratch. I picked the apples, peeled sliced and seasoned and made the pastry all by myself from scratch. I was quite proud - and it tasted good!

Logan was able to return to the house for his dinner break around 10pm and partake in some turkey. But he needed to leave in a hurry and we didn't get our Christmas picture in front of the tree. So I texted him and told him he needed to pop by before we went to bed.

We enjoyed some good food, good times and good company.