Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Soon to be a memory...

I waited eight years, living in what you could call a 2 bedroom apartment.  We enjoyed our life, counted our blessings...2 of them little girls to cherish.  The third blessing was on it's way...over due... and we were honestly thinking her little basinet could fit between the sink and the microwave.  My dear hubby was in school with a heavy course load, then we looked at one house.  We put an offer in, trust me, I was very surprised my hubby even went that far!  They took the offer on my birthday!  We could get the keys in 2 weeks...now hold off little baby, if you're not coming now, just wait until we are moved in ok?  Possession date was Sept. 16th...so we ran (or waddled) over to the house with our dear realtor and took a quick picture with the SOLD sign.  By this time, I wasn't feeling well and thought "this little one is going to pick tonight aren't they?"  Sure enough, our story was one for our realtor to repeat many a time.  We went to the hospital in the evening and at 00:55 we were blessed with our 3rd precious daughter.  Went home that same day to finish up packing (thankfully our church group came in and tossed everything over the balcony and carted it to our new home)...and moved in on Sept 18th, 2003.  Oh what a beautiful day!  Friends brought buns, cheese and chilli.  We slept on our mattress in the middle of the living room while they "quickly" moved a wall, made a closet and painted our bedroom.  What sheer bliss...sitting there, watching my earthly belonging carted into a new home by all our loved ones.  Maybe not the most recommended timing, but it was God's timing.  How I waited for, prayed for and longed for that home.  How we loved every weird little part of it.  Ok, we didn't love the 70's carpet, but we loved waving goodbye to it!
These pictures were taken after we had been away from our home in Manitoba for 1 year.  Not quite the same anymore, and now we will be revisiting this home to make into less ours, and very much more someone else's.  This is part 2 of my letting go.  Part 1 was actually leaving it and renting it out as we moved to BC.
I will go from East to West, these are the 2 sheds we would see from the kitchen window
Moving south of the sheds, into garden...yes, that was strawberries and flowers...ha ha
And yes, that was an outhouse, we turned it into my garden shed :)

Further south, the garden, row of red raspberries, red currant, gooseberry and a yellow raspberry.  There is a back alley on the right, so our property goes from street to back alley, to the other street.  3 lots in all on a corner by the last street in town on the west.

View of the south side of the house, the ripped up deck (to get the piano in).  The tree and deck will disappear and we'll put a new deck on.  The lean-to on the right is the kitchen, with the main entrance.
My computer is not loading anymore pictures, so I will update more later.  If you can, try to leave a comment and if you can't, email me or facebook me and I'll try to change whatever it is that I need to change.


Back yard, lined with big willow trees, sandbox....and....

Tree fort we started

Inside the West sunroom

Shelving in sunroom, door to living room area

Staircase up, of course, the walls will get painted
What color do you think?

Kate's old room, we're not going to bother repainting it...way too time consuming.  Painted floor in this room with a top coat.  The little knob on the left is for a little door for the crawl space AKA "secret passageways"

Ruth and Mei had requested a pink and purple room. They thought it was very beautiful...what color do you suggest for the repainting?  The floor is all orginal wood, so we'll re-do it.  It ends up a light color.

Other side of this room, they have lots of neat little corners, etc... but hard to photography unless you are a monkey!

Mainfloor livingroom projector screen, in wall speakers, etc.  The speakers are coming out and the wall repainted...hoping we have enough of the original color left!

When our renter was in, this is the living room, on the right is the projector wall.  We had completely gutted these rooms.  Put insillation in, vapor barrier, painted, redid the floor, etc.  Definately made the room warmer and less breezy.  There are pictures of that transformation on my link to an old fotopage on her.

Mainfloor masterbedroom, can't see the whole thing, but that is the color.  It has a small closet our neighbour friend put in for us the day Mei was born :)
There is another smaller room painted a pale yellow that we used as a baby room/office.  It shared a wall with the master bed and has a gross carpet.  Underneath is wood we think, so both these rooms will get the flooring redone.  Then the whole house will have NO carpet!

Oh yuck, a 6 foot something basement storage area...The basement will get a new south wall and some sort of fixing up.  Oak Lake battles water in the basement because it is built on an aquifer.  We only had water once...the pump usually keeps up!

This is the south wall on the right that will get replaced.  A cistern is on the left.  This was after a very wet spring.

Kitchen, this is unfortunately what you see immediately after entering the house.  I'd love to make an entry way on the deck area.  These cupboards will be painted, the floor laminate and that is about it.

Kitchen window, looking outside.  This was where we had our bench and table.  Wondering if putting in a new window would be worth it...time is important too.

looking from the kitchen, into fridge, storage and laundry room, on the left is the door to the bathroom.  The floor will get laminate, maybe some pantry shelving, but don't think we'll focus too much on this area.

To the right in the laundry room, the fridge goes on the right, the pantry shelving would go in this empty spot.

Oh ugly bathroom!  You shall be demolished and given a facelift!  Everything out, rearranged and happy!
So you can walk into our house, through the kitchen and laundry, into the bathroom, through the master bedroom, and into the living room.  Girls loved doing the circuit!

From the street, our house on the left, waiting for the Fair Parade to go by.  The house will be painted.  It has fake shutters ... Gregg wants them pulled off.  The house is white with black trim.  What COLOR do you suggest?

I'm up for suggestions...we want to do this fast, economically and with the most return of course...doesn't everyone?
We will be putting on a deck as well.  I was thinking white spindles like in the front of the other house we did in the previous post.  This house was built before the 1930's and added onto.
Thanks everyone!


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Stepping out

Last summer we stepped out...in faith...that God would provide and God would bless the fruits of our labors.  We felt leading to purchase a 1907 character home in Oak Lake Mb together with my husband's parents.  Yes, they are just plain ole' Mom and Dad to me, but some may want some clarification!  ha ha
So from April to Sept my hubby toiled, mom and dad toiled and I toiled as I could.  Separated from my husband for months at a time was not easy, but God was gracious and we thrived in ways that only God could orchestrate!
One of the first pictures, after demolition had started.


A few of the inbetweens

My trip out in late May/early June turned into stripping the stairs type of fun...

Mom and I had lots of fun, for lots of days too!

Even I can learn to do exposed aggregate sidewalk...when Dad is teaching that is!

Wouldn't that be nice!  50 pieces on wide baseboard for 4.10!!!

God thought Dad needed to have his achilles tendon fixed during this time as well...

Lots of sanding, tweeking out orginal flooring

Beautiful gingerbread detailing...yum yum

The almost finished product!

upstairs bath

main floor living/dining

upstairs staircase leading to bedrooms, etc

One side of the kitchen

I can't tell, but this may have been the picture that Kate took of us all for the Brandon Sun article.  We were also featured "on air" on CKX TV in Brandon on Sept 6/09.  That was on a link from http://www.ebrandon.ca/

So thankful God took care of us, no injuries and now the house will be going on the market soon, officially!
Check out our website at http://www.thiessenrenos.com/

Now onto the next...

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Cheap Family Fun ... so cheap, it's FREE!

We truly are blessed.  We are renting a little cabin/house on a ranch site within walking distance to a lake.  We meander through the pines, past an old "dump" site, over 3 fallen trees, right up to a creek.  So we roll down the creek bank or slide if we want.  Then we decided to shovel off the creek and try skating on it.  It was a little bumpy in a few spots, so we kept going...right out onto the frozen lake.  My hubby shovelled off a rectangle skating area.  I decided that paths were much more fun...and work is my type of fun!
All this for FREE, all this RIGHT HERE!  We are truly rich beyond measure!





Fresh white CLEAN snow is soooo yummy!



Getting up is difficult


TA DA!!!!



Planning the next move


Trying out some of the new pathways



Nana's dog just ran up at the right time to be included in the family photo!



Giddy up horsey!


This mama lynx and her cub were hiding so well, we walked right by them down the creek.  The night shot doesn't do it justice.  They hide cattails as meat for their baby lynx's and such.


Back home down the creek

After days like these I think how rich I am.  Not bank account rich.  Rich in all that really matters.  To have our own creek/lake within walking distance and beautiful weather to enjoy activities outside.  I have never wanted one of those fancy pants houses with granite and all the trimmings.  I like the little 2 storey cozy homes with character/charm that tell stories of the people who live there.  I like this life no matter how crazy it is or may seem.  This moment is perfect ~ my children are happy, healthy and learning new things everyday!


Saturday, December 19, 2009

2009 Christmas play

We live near(ish) to a small town that has a community supper every Christmas.  We had done a quick nativity play last year and a couple songs.  It had been a "hit" with the crowd, so they asked to do "a little more next year".  There were 4 homeschool families involved by now in our little weekly gatherings, so we went to work adding some more songs to our nativity play.  This year we even had some music to accompany us via stereo! 
My girls, Kate was a shepherd, Ruth was Mary and Mei was a sheep.  They did a spectacular job, despite the butterflies in the stomach before hand.  Ruth's biggest concern was being able to discreetly remove the baby Jesus from inside her robe to put him into the manger.  Joseph was a big help, dropped the stick horse and grabbed Jesus, returned Jesus to Mary and they turned around to place him into the manger.  Needless to say, the crowd enjoyed that!  Thankfully we had prewarned the girls they MAY laugh, but because they are loving the entertainment.

We received many compliments on the children's behaviour, the play and the singing.  One man had been in Canada for 40 years and this was the first year he "felt what Christmas was really about".  That was what Christmas was about for us, and why we put on the play.  The children are already thinking about what to do for next year, their confidence is soaring!  yeah for educational fun and community service!


They always have a few door prizes as well as a lovely free meal served to you.  Ruth and Mei both received porcelain dolls. 


Mei's looks like her Nana did when she was a girl.



Ruth's is a blondie, who looks like Nellie Olsen



Can you tell this was one of our "wise men"?



My hubby was still in Calgary, but I ended off my evening with "some sugar" anyhow!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Missing Christmas in Manitoba

How can tears come so unexpectantly just by talking about carolling and baking dainties?  I find myself overwhelmed by a feeling of loneliness and sadness of missing out on the festivities I used to so enjoy.  A bible study potluck lunch windup, school concerts, carolling and baking and hot apple cider with friends.

I promised myself to make this Christmas special in the Cariboo, but I am still so lonely for things of the past.  Maybe it is in realizing that is gone and will never be the same.  Those same feelings come when your child takes their first step, when someone gets married, when someone moves...life is about changes!

I will invent a tele porting machine and just POOF be somewhere else for a day or two and then POOF back again.  Tonight calls for hot apple cider.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Smart Canadians

Well, you can imagine my delight that a few weeks ago while waiting for my hubby to renew our car insurance....I found...yes, oh yes, I found....a whole shelf at the library of FINANCAL books!  So I decided to make my way through them this winter!  The first I picked for the "read out loud to your hubby as you drive to Calgary" book was

Smart Canadian's Guide to Building Wealth by Pat Foran from CTV's Consumer Alert

We have in the past read "The Wealthy Barber", "the Millionaire Next Door", "Rich Dad Poor Dad".  This book actually talks about those briefly and interviews the authors some 10-20 years later.  VERY nice, it summarizes everything.

I am loving the straight forward, easy approach to basic daily financial decisions everyone makes.  It is not a "you are so stupid" book or a get rich quick scheme. 

The first thing we are putting into practice is something to better our credit score...mind you, it is not in the toilet or anything, but we realized something through this book.  Having a credit card we NEVER use just makes the bank think "oh, they COULD use another $10,000" because that is the credit limit, so to them, we are already in DEBT that much.  I am cancelling a bunch of cards we never even use...that means phoning them and actually cancelling, not just getting rid of the cards.

It is very exciting.  He said our credit score should go up and that is good!  Yeah for us!

Sorry, this is me and this stuff really makes my world go around.  Also just found another website that looks good too.  Tells you how to make your own cleaners, budget worksheets, recipes, gifts etc.  Only found it tonight.

http://www.momsbudget.com/