RIP Little Tigger

Sadly, before we headed south in January we had to put our dear little Tigger down. He was a precious little fellow who found us nineteen years ago on a cold March night! After hanging around our house for two nights it was apparent that he was homeless so we took him in. He matched the king of our house, Cheetah. Both were tan coloured, long haired tabbies. A few years apart meant that they were not BEST friends but they tolerated each other and often were found snuggling up together. Tigger's hair caused him some grief. It often became matted so we had to have him shaved a couple of times a year. He looked a lot like a lion after each shave. Less fur in the house, no matts and much cooler for him in the summer. Putting a long time friend down is very hard to do. Tigger went into kidney failure in July and did not want to take medication and would not eat the recommended food so he lost weight very quickly. This is the picture I took of Tiggs the night before he went to The Rainbow Bridge! We miss this wonderful little man!!!

Phoenix Feb/Mar 2013

Long time ...no write. We are here in Phoenix and have been for the past couple of months. Our condo is looking good!! I love shopping for nic naks at the Goodwill store here. It is absolutely amazing what you can find. Our vases and artwork have all come from there at a price that is next to nothing. Take a peek at some of our finds.

 

The furniture is mostly new. We got the coffee table at a consignment store and the rust chair is from home. Even the lamp is Goodwill....with a new shade. I love shopping for those extra special finds!    

Been a Long Time!

I think it has been almost a year since I have posted! Lots has happened. Our middle son is engaged and has built a beautiful new home. Our youngest daughter is looking for a new home and our oldest is settling into her condo. We are the proud owners of a condo in Phoenix Arizona. We usually spend some time in the winter there but have always rented. This summer we went down to purchase. We had a realtor, Diane Olson Home Smart, and our agent was Stephanie. We had done a lot of research online and in talking to others who had bought and were pretty confident that this was the right time to buy as the market had bottomed out. We did not have to look for long....one week...before we found just the right condo. It is a one bed/one bath second story condo in a gated community in north Phoenix. It has fifteen foot ceilings, corner unit, huge windows, large patio with outside storage, racquetball court, gym, two pools, spa, meeting and media room, in suite laundry room and stainless steel appliances. Our parking spot is covered and steps from our condo. We took possession on September11th. In November we went back for the month to golf and furnish our new place. We worked fast and it is pretty well set up for our minimal needs. It is really just a golf getaway place. We are leaving again for the month of March. It will be nice this time to just go and golf. No repairs or shopping needed....I hope. It is a little scary having property so far away but we do have a property watch company keeping an eye on the place. Fore!!!!

Mr. Goodwill Hunting

Wow....just watched this man on The Nate Berkus Show! He has some amazing ideas for those of us on a budget. As you know .....our home renos have gone anything but smoothly. Finally we have the biggest part of our our house painted. We have vaulted ceilings so I petered out after the kitchen and family room. Wall paper removal was the worst. I made a mess of the walls. Anyway.....we found some fantastic painters who fixed my mistakes and did the entire main hall, living room, dining room, stairway, loft and upstairs hall. It looks beautiful! The color is Behr, mushroom bisque. It adds such warmth to the house. Now I have to do the trim and the bedrooms. This year we have the upstairs windows and the shingles that are the priority. Keep you posted!

Today is Christmas Eve!

Can't sleep again! This is fun to do though! Not much in the way of renos lately....except for painting. I started in the kitchen and family room. The kitchen and family room each have two coats of paint and the family room has the trim done as well. I got one coat of paint in the back hall and then put it all on hold for two reasons. One was that I have been working a lot. I subbed several days this past two months and just did not have the energy to paint when I got home from school. The other is that our oldest daughter finally bought a condo in downtown Edmonton and we have been busy helping her move. We painted her condo first and it is still far from finished. She has had all the flooring done and then two weekends ago she rented a U-Haul and we loaded up her things and moved her in. Finally, we can fit a car in the garage after two years of storing her possessions!!! She has a lot to do and I will help her next week after the Christmas Celebrations are over.
I have the whole family over on all holidays but this year it will only be 17 of us. Cabbage rolls, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables and salad for the main course. Lots of desserts. I have lots of help as everyone brings something to contribute to the meal. We love having these celebrations at our house and have done this for the last thirty years.
Tonight we will go to church....then come home and have snacks. When our kids were small they got to open one present on Christmas Eve. Jim and I wish that we had followed my Dad's Norwegian tradition of opening all of the gifts on Christmas Eve and then we could sleep in on Christmas morning. Oh, well....I have to get up to put in the large turkey anyway.
What is it with turkeys?? You have a really hard time getting the 25 pounders these days. It is the most stressful part of any holiday for me. I think we will now be ahead of the game however.......we have a 28 pounder bought for Easter already. We found it at Save On Foods today. It would be useless for anyone for Christmas.....it would never thaw in time and you couldn't fit it in a microwave! Now we are set!
I have enjoyed getting ready for Christmas this year! Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011!!!

Kitten in a Tree {Eddy}

Window Reno

Just as all things have gone so  far. The installer for our new main floor windows did not call as he was supposed to have. I called Durabuilt and hopefully they will be able to light a fire under the installer as we are going on a holiday September 30th. The measurements need to be taken before we leave as it takes several weeks to build the windows and we want them in the first week of October. Yet another stumbling block. I will continue this week to attempt to get the cabinet installers out to finish their job. I hope that the Home Depot install coordinator is back from holidays this week to give me some assistance in this area!!!!! Today I was really lazy. Did a little laundry, cooked supper and did some dishes. I am so tired from lack of sleep last night......hopefully tonight early to bed. But I really do want to watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada. It is the finals from Toronto and there is usually lots of drama!!! That's it for today..........unless I can't SLEEP!!!!!

The First Post! Kitchen Reno Gone Bad!

It is 2:22 am and I am up and awake.......as usual. No sense staying in bed and tossing and turning so I just get up. This is going to give me something to do when everyone else is sound asleep. It is quiet and won't wake anyone up.
I have been in the home reno mode now for two months. It all started with Kitchen Cabinets. The decision to get all new cabinets or reface the ones that we had was not an easy one. The cost ended up being almost the same but........I didn't feel right about getting rid of the old cabinets when they were still structurally sound. We finally decided to get the new ones and took the old ones to Habitat For Humanity. What a process!!! We purchased the cabinets at Home Depot and they linked us to the installers. We started the process in March and the cabinets were installed on July 5th!! We are now waiting on the installers to come back and finish up what they did not in July. We have a drawer that needs to be fixed and the last of the toe kicks need to be installed. It is the end of August!!! I have phoned the installers three times and they have still not set a date to come out. All in all I would never do another big reno like this through Home Depot. But I love the cupboards!