Congrats Vance and Sue!!!

Winery the fruit of couple's labour...

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/Winery+fruit+couple+labour/2600799/story.html

Congratulations guys! Wish we were back in Saskatoon to help you celebrate... and taste-test! We' ll have some duck-farts here in Fredericton to toast your success.

;)

Packing Addiction

My sister-in-law, Amanda, was such a great help with packing and getting ready for the move. But she has a packing addiction. If I wouldn't have walked in at that moment, she would have packed my kids!!!

Cuisiner avec Mémére

Pendant que Mémére (Sandra, la mère à Jean-Michel) était chez nous la semaine passée (pour nous aider à enlever toute la tapisserie dans la maison!) elle et Louis-Pascal en on profité pour cuisiner ensemble. Voici quelques photos de Louis-Pascal qui aide à faire les fameuses tartes à Mémére.
Un petit cuisinier en devenir, il a adoré!

Jan-Sébastien

Ça grandit vite hein? 6 semaines déjà le petit bonhomme...

À la maison avec maman / Home with Maman

Well, this week is the first week where LP started to spend 2 of 5 days at home with me. I was kind of scared. Looking forward to it very much, I miss LP a lot, but scared as well. Don't know why. What if BOTH of them cry at the same time? ah! I can't take crying.

The day was fine, it was actually very nice to just enjoy the boys for a full day and not think of work or the house. There was minimal crying by the way... JS was quiet the entire time and the only time LP cried was totally my fault: I bonked the car door on his foorhead while opening it. Yes, I suck. In my defence, I did have the car seat and 3 bags on me though.

We spent 2 hours this morning at a francophone playgroup at the Family Resource Centre... awesome little place to meet other parents. LP got to play with about a dozen other kids 5 and under. He loved it. And I loved it too... I love watching him interact with other kids. After that, we headed to the library to pick a few books for the week... which is the highlight of his day. We headed home for lunch and I am pooped. I never thought such activities would run me down like it does. I'm not a super mom that's for sure. How do teachers do it??? I would start pulling my hair out. I need a nap...

Anyways, after lunch, I managed to get BOTH of them down for their nap at the same time!! SCORE! (Yes, this sort fo stuff is the higlight of your day when you are a stay at home mom!! And it's ok.) I wish I had stopped cleaning during that time so I could have taken a nap... I was up 4 times with JS for the past few nights.

Anyways, here are the two princes sleeping this afternoon...
LP fell asleep in our bed watching the movie Clifford - or Bertrand for those who know it by the french version - he found at the library, which he was thouroughly impressed with as it followed the book he already had... the one he's holding.JS is already 6 weeks old. At his one-month old appointment with our family doctor, he already weighed 10 and half pounds! Both his height and size of his head are in the 50th percentile, just like his brother was, but he's over the 75th percentile in weight... I guess he likes feeding. I should have realized it when the second chin started to grow. Just like when we weighed him at 4 days old and he was already over his birth weight, from 7,9 to 7,12 (babies loose weight after birth for a few days). But man, the past few nights have been back to how it was when he was first born! He was pretty good before that, at 1 feeding a night at around 2am. I can take 1 feeding, but 3-4? Especially when you KNOW they can make it with just one... and it's different with baby number 2, you don't want to let them cry too long so not to wake up number 1!

LP, has been the sweetheart of sweethearts. He has adjusted to change with JS and the new house far better than I could have ever imagined. He is very proud of his new baby brother. His duty is applying the butt cream at diaper time... very funny. And he is very proud of his new room. He doesn't call the house "home" yet, he calls it the "blue house", but has not asked about the previous house at all.

Tache is back to being a city dog, like in Saskatoon... she remembers the cats. So out with the squirrels and rabbits from the woods and in with the city cats. Although I'm sure she craves being able to run loose in the woods... JM does. ;)

Visit from the Energy Advisor

On day 2 of owning the house, an energy advisor came to review the property. Pretty neat process, I highly encourage you to do it and it's not very costly. Even though we were aware of many things we needed to do to make it more efficient based on the inspector's report, the advisor had great tips and confirmations of other things that made us more confident about upgrading. So here is the air-blower test thingamajig.

As the advisor is analysing his numbers, I ask jokingly "You probably haven't seen a house this bad in a while hun?" Haha, just breaking the ice, trying to chat. His reponse: "Actually, for a house this size, its probably about the worst I've seen." Thank goodness he was in his early 20s as I'm hoping that could mean he hasn't seen much!

Excellent. Lovely. Awesome. I knew it was bad, but THAT bad?

Well, at least it means anything we do will make it better. It just means the potential is even BIGGER! ...trying to stay positive here.

The main culprits are 4 smaller windows that are just the pits... you can actually see outside through cracks in the corners on top of being 40 year old slidders. I could hear them whistle when the advisor was conducting the test. And the AC installed in the master bedroom window was horrible (take a look at the prevous post's pics) but that is already out. To our surprise, the electrical outlets were pretty bad as well which is not a huge problem to address and JM is almost done. The attic will require more insulation, also not a major issue and turns out the chimney is fine. Ouf! A lot of other tiny items to address, but nothing too major... we just need to get rid of those windows soon. All in all, we are still very excited about this project and our new home.

Now to the picture of Max's ass coming up the stairs with one of the couches destined for the dump (anti-poverty didn't even want it...). Seconds later, the hide-a-bed popped out, which was a good laugh for Amanda and I since we weren't helping. And to fix it, Colin cut the electrical cord off a lamp (which was also destined for the dump) and used it to tie the bed back into the couch... only to find out that Max, on his end, did the same thing... oh the junk that was laying around. And I was SO concerned they were going to ruin our beautiful carpets and wallpaper on the way up.

Are you ready for this??

Are you ready for the pics of our "new" house?? Now, these pics were taken within the hour we took possession of the house, on February 1... so these are the most "before" pictures you can get... all nastyness included.

Warning: all furniture and "art" in the pictures are not ours. They were all the lovely items left behind by the previous owner (let's not talk about that)... which so far has meant 5 truck loads to the dump (thank you Colin), 2 anti-poverty truck loads and 1 Value Village load... and I calculate another 2 or 3 more loads to the dump and we have been selling and selling and giving away anything we can (for example, I had 3 fridges in this house!!! Thank you kijiji!)... so just getting this place ready to move into and renovate has been quite the job!

It's nice to look at these pictures, although it has only been 2 weeks, I realize that we have already done a shit load of work... so more pictures of the "in-between" stages will follow.

So please walk into our entry or mud room... paneling and pink carpet are very welcoming. We have purchased slate tiles for this room... and we will be getting rid of the panneling.
Master bedroom of your dreams. Shag carpet "art" on the wall included. But seriously, the brick wall and huge window is nice.

In the process of getting rid of the horrible AC in the window, Gi and Colin found a live wasps nest! eek! The curtains were horrible... the dust in this room was insane to clean.

This is JS's room. Very pink and lovely stains on the ceiling. Man, JM and Norm have done a lot of work here already. The after pics will come later. ;) Now the walls are windsurf blue, with cork flooring (I'm now in love with cork flooring) and new fixtures throughout make it look like a new room. And when I say new fictures, JM replaced all electrical outlets, light switches, thermostats in the house and is in the process of replacing the baseboard heaters and lighting on the first floor. Doors next...

This is LP's room which is much bigger than what he had before. Norm did tones of painting here, the ceiling was blue! This room has gone through a major transformation as well. We just need new windows and trim in the kids bedrooms now (we tackled the kids' bedrooms first) which we will do in the spring during warmer weather.

Ah, the kitchen. Colin, Gi's beau, has described the color of the stain on the cabinets as "dirty looney". You know, the color of the dirtiest looney you have found, green-brown-gold. Awesome. It goes really well with the yellow walls and the grey countertops.

We are doing a complete overhaul of the kitchen... tearing down 2 walls, new cabinets, flooring, redesigning of the space... FUN!! As my sister-in-law Amanda put it, "if you close your eyes, you can imagine the potential." That's right, because it hurts too much keeping them open. Although new stianless steal appliances already makes the space a bit more livable. ;)

More shag-art anyone? And yes, that is an accordeon door back there in the hallway, and 2 different types of wall paper.

The windows and the view are amazing though. For a house close to downtown, the mature trees and view are really spectacular. We don't even need curtains, so those gorgeous green curtains were part of the Value Village truck load... as well as the shutters...

All these walls have wallpaper... and don't you love the personalized touch of scorch stains? This is the dinning room and living room. We have purchased gorgeous chocolate colored, 4.5 inch wide, hardwood floors for here. Again, we'll have to wait until spring for JM to install, and Chris starts painting next week... abit at a time. So in the meantime, just close your eyes and imagine...

MORE wallpaper, of a different color this time. But I am already happy to report that the house, as of 2 days ago, is wallpaper free thanks to Sandra's visit over the weekend. Thank you Sandra! A life saver! Although I'm not sure what is worse, the wallpaper or the horrible green-yellow color underneath. The paper in the livingroom was a b--ch to scrap off too. But wait until you see the wall paper in the basement...

There it is!!!! Have you ever seen crazier wallpaper? It was full of flowers and mini roosters. I was not sad to see it go. And nevermind the disturbing state of the furniture that goes with it. This is the basement and playroom, den. Out with the paneling and new floor will be needed here.

But again, a fireplace and nice windows for a basement!! And follow the lovely swinging doors (not missing those either) to the other side of the fireplace for the office. Let's do the close your eyes exercise again... new walls, paint, new flooring, flat screen tv over the fireplace...

There is soooooooooooo much paneling in the basement... where to start removing??

So there. That's our new pad. Or the state it was in when we bought it. Scary, I know. It is looking much better already... although the kitchen and bathroom will be horrible until we can get them done. The bedrooms are looking much better, and the living room as well. We still have so much crap in the garage (and it's a double!) that we still can't park our vehicles there, but we'll get there.

I'll post the what's-done-so-far pics later...

But thank yous are in order:

Thank you to Amanda, packer EXTRAORDINAIRE. Even when I was gone. That's right, I missed the moving weekend as I (and JS by default) had a 21inc. meeting in Moncton.

Thank you to Bert for helping me clean the old house to get it ready for the new owners... that was harder than I thought with a baby with me!

Thank you to Norm for painting and painting and painting... and doing little jobs here and there for 2 weeks!!

Thank you Cecile for babysitting her "joie de vivre" while Papa and Maman were moving or renovating and brining over muffins and sandwiches.

Thank you Sandra, wallpaper remover expert. Man, I hate wallpaper more then ever before (and I didn't think that was possible), after this weekend. You were already the best mother-in-law I could ask for, and now, well, I'm always thankful when you're around!

Thank you to Max for the lifting and moving. I have a lovely picture of your ass coming up the stairs with the second couch to go to the dump... it will make the blog soon. It was SO funny! Just as Colin and Max have this horrible, heavy couch half way up the stairs, the hide-a-bed in it pops out. Precious moment.

Thank you Colin for the dump runs. I think it's official, the fam likes you and was impressed by your muscles. rrrr.

Thanks for your truck and helping us move Mark and for checking out the properties.

Thank you Kevin and Noelle, Max and Amanda's friends, who just came to help us move without us asking them!

Thanks Beeb, for bringing in our new fridge...

Thanks Darrin, for keeping your cool when I was not. Those f----'in carpets got the best of me! And thank you for lifting that box, you muscle-man you.

Thank you Gi for being my company when mommy-world, or is it Chris-world mostly, is crazy.

More pics to come... JS is growing like a weed, can you believe he is a month old??

Shit this is a long post. time to quit.