London Bridges

Stucco and trees are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Stucco and trees are falling down, my fair renos!

We had to take down an oak tree so we can move the house off the foundation and we are planning on doing new siding, so it made sense for us* to take the stucco down now... while we* have time and energy.

*means jonas, jonny T, nick and will.... not really me at all : )
Thanks guys! and thanks for Jesse, Mike and my dad for helping take down the tree!

We've been stamped!

Our plans have been stamped by an engineer! Now I just have to get all the paper work done and then go apply for a permit!

main floor plans

 

This is our main floor plans.  They have a changed a little since this was done... but it is pretty close. What do you think?

The front of the house is on the right, we are building a bay window in the dinning room which looks into our backyard. (It is a flipped view from the last plans I posted)

This is our plan for the basement. We are making a three bedroom secondary suite..... oh and it's going to be sweet!

Their will be a seperate enterance on the side of the house (which is the top of the picture). The tenants would then go down the stairs to their home. We will have a door on the main floor that can access these stairs too. Once you are down stairs there will be two doors, one will lead into the suite and the other into a large space. The large open space at the top of the page, in the middle, will be where the furnace and hot water tank will be. This will also be a space for my husband to screen print tshirts. (One of his hobbies)
When you enter the suite there is a closet and then you are in the livingroom, dinning room and kitchen space. The hallway has laundry and then the 4 piece bathroom. The bedrooms are all at the back of the suite.
To have a secondary suite you have to apply for a variance. A variance is something you have to get from the city if you are doing anything that is against the norm. (That's my definition anyway) We are hoping to apply for this soon. I hope this will go over smoothly.

plans

Plans, plans, plans... and planning for plans. This word "plan" has been a huge part of my vocabulary this past year while we having been planning for our upcoming renovations. I know I didn't give any heads up on my blog... so I have lots of catching up to do.
Our plan is to lift up our house, move it into the backyard, take out our old foundation, and pour a new one (adding 16 feet going into the backyard) and put the house back down. If this sounds crazy to you that's because it is! We have been thinking about this plan for a year now and it still sounds crazy to me. We are currently in the process of applying for all the permits. This week we will be getting our  plans stamped by an engineer... which is the last piece of the puzzle needed to apply for our document. Making our blue prints has been so fun. I wished I blogged about it... I'll try to find some of our older designs so you can see how they changed.
I am going to drag out releasing the blue prints throughout this week. So I will start with the basic house outline. The dotted outline is our current home, the double lined outline is our renovated home. We are moving it closer to one side of our yard so that we will have a bigger side yard.

Round Two: FIGHT!

In this corner we have the ambitious couple, equipped with experience from the first go around and excitement for this round. In the opponents corner, at 93 years and weighing in at a gazillion tons, we have the 1 and 3/4 story home. This battle will be way more intense then the first one. Let me just say our house will be lifted up and placed in the backyard at one point! Crazy.
This is going to get interesting....
Ding Ding Ding
FIGHT!

Outdoor Party Decorating

I just had my birthday party this past weekend and it was just perfect (minus a few good friends that couldnt make it)... an evening surrounded by friends, food, fire and fun! (It was a bon fire and croquet themed party) I wasn't planning on decorating... but then I spent a little too much time on pinterest and got inspired. This is what the drink table looked like:I learnt how to do the tissue pom poms from this site.
The old door and window are from our house... and the bunting banner is made from vintage sheet fabric.

Mmm... Did I Need That?

I bought a couch! ... I bought a project, really. I just saw it on kijiji and really wanted it... although I really don't need it... I dont even really have a space for it (but I will make space). I can't wait to find the fabric for it! I dream about it!

Below is what it is looking like right now.

Pineapple Flower Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my family gatherings this Easter. They went over really well... they look super impressive (I think), but they were relatively easy to make.
I used Humming Bird Cake for my cupcake recipe. This recipe combines bananas and pineapples... and with the coconut I added I got to combine three of my favorite flavors! The pineapple on top was pretty easy to make, I followed instructions from here.
The nest and birds were made from chow mein noodles, chocolate and peanut butter, put into a muffin tin.

Baby Shower Game

I got to be in charge of doing a little game for the baby shower, so I did a baby food guessing game. I choose mostly fruit purees, but I did through in a beef, spaghetti and veggies mix. (Poor babies!... I mean the ones that really have to eat that)
If you are wanting to do this a little tip, I provided pretzels for the tasters.