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!