Finally!

Finally, after about a month's delay - our refrigerator is here!!! The delivery guys brought it this morning! It took them a while to bring it in because it's so big - they had to remove the doors from the fridge to fit it in through our doorway. Then we were worried about them scratching the floor, but with some cardboard on the floor, it was no problem! It is beautiful! We do not have it installed yet because the water line has to be hooked up on Monday - but it's set just in front of it's new home. It even has an ice maker!!

Backsplash

Chris & Evan were here for the second day of the tiling job of the backsplash - it's 3/4 done. It looks really great! The dishwasher was installed today, but it doesn't look right and it doesn't work - so I'm not sure if they wired it wrong or what!! The refrigerator is suppose to come tomorrow - keep your fingers crossed.

New Look

I've decided to use a different template for my blog. I felt the old one was too blue - how does everyone like this one?

Kitchen Update - Getting there...

Well, it's been almost 3 months since we started our kitchen renovation. The end is nearing - it's all coming together - the kitchen is looking awesome! Chris (our carpenter) is back this week to finish off some projects. Today he finished the piece that Scott designed for the front hallway - he reframed an old antique mirror we bought and built a shelf to go underneath it. It looks really good - I've attached some photos. Tomorrow Chris and Evan are going to start the tiling of our backsplash. Still no sign of our fridge - we were told it was coming last Saturday - but then we got a call from them to say that they didn't have it. Arghhh!!

It's back!!!

We have some interesting neighbours on our street. Particularly, there are two brothers who live on the other side of the street a few houses from us. One of them is a collector of all things that people throw away. They like to ornament their property with various said found items. Anyhow, a few years ago they built this huge dove out of some kind of aluminum tubing which is outlined with strip lights. Above the dove it says Peace and below it says Only. It's quite the holiday decoration. The first year he hung it off of the second level of their house and there was a big stink about it because it was shining into the neighbour's window all night and they couldn't sleep - reminiscent of the Kenny Rogers chicken sign episode on Seinfeld! Also, they left it up long after Christmas which some neighbours were upset about - and were eventually forced to take it down. Well, it's back again for the holiday season - this time, just on their front lawn.

Counter tops Installed

Today our countertops were delivered and installed. They look pretty good - not the exact colour as the sample (which was a little greener), but still nice. We went with a Silestone (ground up quartz and resin polymer) in the Ivory Coast colour. Our sink was also installed, and holes were drilled for for the taps and a hole cut for the range top. Here is also a picture of Scott eating his first meal in the new kitchen.

Exploding Chestnuts!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....mmm roasted chestnuts, I love them. Gadhi brough some in ta few weeks ago - which got me thinking about how much I enjoy them. Then on the weekend I bought some already roasted ones in a cute paper bag from the TnT chinese store - they were really tasty. Last night after dinner, we stopped at our local IGA and I bought some more - these were raw and needed to be roasted. I thought what a great way to christen my brand new wall oven!! So, I turned on the oven to 350 degree, put the chestnuts on a cookie sheet and put them in. I had only scored about half of them before putting them in - you are suppose to score them so they don't expand too much and explode but I thought I would just keep an eye on them instead. Well, I forgot all about them!! I was upstairs on the computer when I started to smell something burning and then heard a loud pop. Crap I thought as a I ran downstairs to the kitchen to see that yes indeed, the chestnuts were exploding all inside my nice new, clean oven!! I immediately turned off the oven and opened the oven door and the outside door to let in some fresh air. However, this did not stop the chestnuts from bursting as another one burst, this time out onto the kitchen floor (which thankfully is still covered with cardboard). I was going to take the whole tray out of the oven and take it outside to the deck, but fearing having hot chestnuts blowup in my face, I decided it was not a good idea. So, I left them in the oven, with the door slightly ajar, hoping that it would cool down quickly and that they would stop exploding. Only a few more exploded.

Here is what my oven looks like:

Celebrity Foosball Tournament

Last night, we attend one of our neighbour's (Todd & Melu) infamous Foosball Tournaments. What everyone didn't know was that he had secretly taken everyone's photos, scanned them into a celebrity face recognition website, and found our celebrity look a likes. He made up name tags with our look a like and all night, that's how we had to refer to each other! So, Scott was Peter Fonda and I was Demi Moore! Some of the matches were so funny - you could see the uncanny resemblances! I have to admit I was a bit nervous about playing - because I really suck!! But at the end of the tournament at 2:30 a.m., Demi Moore and Minnie Driver (Melu) came in second place to Huge Grant (Todd) and Paula Abdul (aka Paula). Anyways, we met a lot of great people, had some excellent food and had a super fun time!

Pre-Christmas Shopping

Ken & Kelly came over after work to check out the kitchen reno. After a quick Illustrator lesson by Scott in cereal boxes lettering, we all headed up to the pre-christmas sale and open house at Moss and IQ Living on the Danforth. There were free snacks, draw prizes, and an urn decorating demonstation. It was my lucky day because I won a draw prize!!! I never win things! And then, when we went to IQ Living we made more purchases (Scott insisted that I buy a $30 toilet brush made by koziol - and it has a name - TOQ) - see the image below, it looks like cyclops) the sales guy gave me a free gift!! It was great - included lots of neat things. I think the only reason he gave it to me was because he liked Scott!

Anyhow, it was a fun evening out with some great friends! Can't wait to try the new toilet brush!!

Shiny Penny

This afternoon when I got home from work, I took Ginger out to the backyard so she could have a pee. I looked around to see if there were any poops to be picked up. Guess what I saw!! A shiny penny in one of her poops!! Of all things to eat, why would she think that was tasty. I'm pretty sure it's the second penny she's eaten - I'm surprised it actually came out and didn't get stuck in her belly! Here's a photo of Ginger looking pretty because she's begging for food!

Here are some photos from our renovations - there's one of the new wall colour for our living room - it's called Ranchwood, the pocket doors which have new glass panels (I'm not very fond of them), and the basement door which also have new glass panels (I like it).