New Home Update

I thought it was time to show you what our home is beginning to look like now.

This is the living room, sorry it's a bit on the dark side. We repainted the walls a soft green, replacing the original blue. There is also new flooring. We had the dirty carpets and various other layers of flooring removed. Our furniture was on the large size so we had to purchase a love seat.

The dinning room. We have not changed any of the wall colours but the new flooring was continued into this room and then into the hall area. It still looks pretty cluttered as all our pictures are either on the table, piano or propped against the wall. We have yet to decide where to put what pictures.

The kitchen has new fridge and stove; we brought our portable dishwasher with us and still need to remove the old built in one as it leaks everywhere. We've added a white shelving unit (that isn't in this picture) by the side of the stove and several of our extra small appliances live there.

You will notice the new burgundy paint on the one wall we are going to continue this colour to the right of the stairs; this is the front door wall, there is also a window on this wall which is reflecting burgundy wall making the paint look a bit lighter there. You can't see the new flooring but it is also in this area. We have a small bookcase to place where the box and cat scratching post are, this will probably be the new home for the photo albums. The stairwell wall will be where the family pictures will hang.

This is the largest of the three bedrooms and as you can see we've taken it over as our study. This room needs lots of sorting out as there are still boxes to be emptied and small display shelves to be hung ready for my thimble collection. This will also be used as a guest room. We are considering buying a futon to put here which will double as a comfortable place to read.

If you remember from the original pictures of the house this room was a dirty orange colour. Before the furniture arrive the colour was changed to blue. I'm really happy with this room other than it needs pictures on the walls.

This is the other bedroom which we haven't done anything to other than place furniture in the room again it needs pictures on the walls.

Slowly the house is starting to look like our home. The picture hanging will take some time as we have more pictures than wall space; and of course we have to finish painting the hall area. All in all things are working out nicely by Spring the inside should be done for now and it will be time to work on the outside.

The Move Continued

Friday December 5th: we settled in at our Hosts home; which was our home away from our new home for the next four days. Determined to get some rest but also get our home ready for receiving our furniture. Basically this would mean painting a couple of the rooms. Lloyd from Redeemer Church would be helping us with the painting. Lloyd was one of many who had been helping with the various tasks that needed to be done at our new home before we could move in.

Saturday morning we headed out to do some shopping and then headed to our home to be. I was overwhelmed with how clean everywhere looked. If you remember from the pictures of the house it was in quite a sorry state. Several of the ladies from the church had been in a cleaned everywhere. The carpets had been removed and the floors ready to receive the laminated boards that we had chosen to replace the filthy carpets. The floors are lovely, the walnut colour looks very rich and was a great choice. As we went through the house we took note of all the wonderful work that the ladies and the men had done for us:
All the magnetic winter windows were in place.
The carpets steam cleaned.
Nails and screws and tacks etc. taken out of walls and walls patched.
Furnace and ducts cleaned.
Sink and faucet replaced in main floor washroom.
Appliances in their place from a Sears delivery.
I'm sure many other items of repair were all complete by the time we arrived.

All that was left for us to do was to paint the upstairs orange bedroom and the living room. We had gathered some colour chips and decided on the ones we liked ready to get paint the next day or Monday.

That was it for Saturday. Sunday afternoon we went to church. Monday with Lloyd's help we bought primer and began the job of painting the upstairs bedroom. In the afternoon we delivered the motor home to it's winter parking at a small farm south of PA. In the evening I headed to the Church for the LWML Christmas Dinner.

Tuesday Richard and I went to and bought the necessary paint for the two rooms. Lloyd was already working with the primer upstairs. We realized that a second coat would be required on the downstairs room. So off to supper we went, we had an invite from Neale and Janette. After supper we began with the second coat on the living room. Lloyd had finished the upstairs room which was now blue and had begun to help with the living room, which will be a mint green.

Tired but feeling well pleased with our work of the day we headed back to our hosts. Rowland greeted us at the door, he had been worried about us as they did not expect for us to return so late in the day. We had been given a key to their house and did not realise that they would be concerned about a late return. With many apologies we went to bed as the next day would be an early start the furniture was arriving the following day, Wednesday.

That is a whole new story.

The House is Ours

Our New Prince Albert Home

Front Door View

Our plans will be to remove the two ceders either side of the front door. Remove a lilac bush to the right of the house behind the spruce trees.

Side View

The spruce that is touching the house will be removed and also the elm on the side that has the power lines running through. All these trees have closed the house in and caused moss to grow on the roof. The flashing on the porch will have to be replaced with a flexible type of flashing so there is room for the porch to move during the cold weather.

Back view with shed and deck rails.

There is a lot of painting that has to be done outside but first the old paint needs to be scraped a sealant to be put on the wood then repainted.

This is the back Decks

There are some rotten boards to be replaced a set of steps also need replacing and more sealing and painting.

This is the living room

The fire place can not be used and has been closed up. We may eventually take the front tiles etc off and bring it back to the original fireplace but use a natural gas fire with a new flue placed up the chimney. The carpets will be removed in this room, the dining room and hall-way, it its place laminated boards in walnut colour will be layed.

The dining room

Other than the flooring this room we are going to leave as is. Unlike the living room the decor is livable and not too dirty.

Kitchen

Other than a good clean, the addition of appliances, repair or removal of the dishwasher as that one leaks, we will not be doing too much with the kitchen.

This is the porch.

There is no heat in this room so really a waste of space. As funds permit I would like to have this heated and open it up from the dinning room with french doors making it part of the house. For now it will just be a very large boot room.

The stairs to the second floor

The hallway will have the floor done and of course some fresh paint.

This is the upstairs landing

Again other than paint we will be living with this as it is, even the painting will not be done until next year.

One of the 3 bedrooms

All the bedrooms have this awful paneling on the walls and carpeting. For now we will live with this. The plan in the future is to remove the paneling and decide whether to repair the original plaster or put gyproc board on the walls, then paint. Remove all the carpets and replace with laminate board floors, using area rugs by the side of the beds.

So there you are, our new home. The ladies of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Prince Albert are going to clean the house, remove the carpets on the lower floor and arrange for the laminate boards to be laid. We should arrive the first week of December and take up residence.

We are really excited about our move but we still have all our packing yet to do. As I will be working up to November 28th most of the packing will fall on Richard's shoulders. We had one offer of help today from one of our church ladies here, I might just take her up on that offer.