A Little Piece of Heaven on 19.76 Acres

Come February, I will be calling this place home...

Kevin and I have purchased a new home outside the city on nearly 20 acres of land. We've been looking at houses since the spring and came across this beauty in mid-August. Nothing else has quite measured up to this one for me. It checks off everything on our list and I can picture myelf living there very easily. I love the lot, it's well treed and has about 17 acres of trees and bush out back. Can't wait to make some trails out there for snowshoeing and walking. It has a pool, which at first I wasn't keen on, but may actually be quite nice. Not sure how much upkeep it will be and extra cost but we'll enjoy it for a few years and then can always get rid of it if needed. The deck is composite, which is a total plus. It also has a front porch, which has always been a dream of mine. The basement is 90% finished, just needs flooring and baseboards. It will give us a lot of extra space. The layout of the house is really nice and I can easily picture where all my furniture will fit and it's all very useable space. I can't wait to make this place into our home. I already have a bunch of plans for the place, particularily for the yard. Now I just have to wait another 3 1/2 months. Although I'm kind of glad I get one more Christmas in my old place. It has been a great home for me these past 3 years and it will be a little hard to say goodbye to.

 

The Lot... (Yes this is ALL ours!)
 

Here are some pictures of the new place:

Living Room

Kitchen and Dining Area

Master Bedroom

Basement

Back Deck and Pool

Front Porch

My Favourite View of the House (looks so inviting)

Can't wait to have you, Dan and Makenna over next summer Krista. ;)

Through My Window...

February

October

March

May

We Rock!

Spent most of the afternoon and into the evening shoveling rocks with my mom.  I think we did a pretty awesome job.  In between all of this we... dug weeds around my raspberry bushes, shoveled soil around the raspberry bushes and into my three raised gardens, stapled landscape fabric down around the raised gardens, removed the grates from my air conditioner, removed the rust from them and spray painted them black, planted hostess and some other perennials in my front gardens, helped my dad as he needed with adding flower boxes to the deck and wiring up three plugs around the deck, visited Home Depot twice to get wood and spray paint, barbecued dinner, got a wicked sun burn and walked to McDonalds at the end of the night for a much deserved treat.  I am exhausted but am so thankful it did not rain today.  Hopefully we are as lucky tomorrow and I can continue work in my yard.  I can't wait to have it finished and be able to enjoy my wonderful backyard!

Deck Building 2012 Update

It seems like I have been working towards building my deck and landscaping my backyard FOREVER already and I still have tonnes to do.  I am so lucky I have such an amazing family to help me out with this however.  My dad, mom and sister-in-law have come and helped me do work in my yard.  I am really enjoying learning from my dad as we do this and working with him.  It has been a great bonding experience.  Here are some pictures of the journey so far.  Hopefully this weekend it won't rain and we can get a lot more finished up.

My Favourite Shoes

They may not be super cute or stylish but I LOVE my rubber boots, as they allow me to get out in my yard and get started on my summer plans for it.  You can see the start of my work on getting ready for my new deck.  I have been out pulling up the sod so I will be ready for when my dad can come bring some stones and we can start putting piles in, leveling everything and start building this deck.  I am also planning on putting in some raised vegetable gardens in my yard and separating off my raspberry bush area that is alongside my house.  I know it might be dorky, but I am SUPER excited that I have been able to start on building my deck and can't wait for it to be complete.  I know a few people might be annoyed from all my "deck talk".  Just so you know we are on Version 4 of the deck and the plans may still change once more before it is actually built.  There has definitely been a lot of discussion among my dad, brother and I in planning it all out.  I'm so lucky to have them be so willing to give me a hand with this project. 

My Home

So I know this is totally late but I figured I will take you up on your April Photo Challenge, Krista.  Be prepared for a lot of posts over the weekend so I can catch up.  Here is what I decided to do for "My Home."  These are before and after shots of my house from before I bought it and fairly recently.  There are some things that have been changed but I didn't have time to take pictures so you will have to do with some from a few months back.  Sorry. (The Before is always first in case you can't tell)

Basement (to the left)

  

Basement (to the right)

Dining Room:

Living Room:

Bedroom:

 My Office:

My Kitchen:

Vases and Flowers

So unfortunately tomorrow is the last day of Spring Break, however I must say that this has been the most relaxing Spring Break I have had thus far.  I got a bit of stuff done around the house, did some planning and had a fair bit of time to go out with family and friends while still finding time to relax and just enjoy having some time off.  

A couple weeks ago I finally used up a Home Sense gift card I received as a house warming present.  I thought I'd share a couple pictures of two of the vases I purchased with the gift card.  It was a lot of fun picking stuff out for my home, not having to worry too much about cost.  I must say I really enjoy all my purchases I made that day.

The Vase under the yellow Gerber Daisy picture

I was down in my basement thinking I haven't posted new pictures of it in a while.  Christine came into a sofa set and TV recently and it has made our basement a lot more inviting, homey and practical for us.  I set up my Wii down there and must say I use it a lot more than I did when it was upstairs (in front of a large window and on some very creaky hardwood floors).  I thought I would share some pictures.

My sister-in-law also picked up the vase I painted when we did pottery for her birthday the other weekend.  There is a bit of a glare in the picture but you get the general idea.  I had decided on a black and pink flower theme to match my basement decor.

Words of Inspiration

Here are some wall quotes and decals I picked up at Dollarama.  It's amazing what you can find there for a dollar sometimes.  I really liked these three quotes.  The top picture is above the door in my bedroom.  The other two pictures are from my basement.  Thought I would share.