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.