DIY Toy Planter

I made these little guys for my husbands office. I just bought toy plastic dinosaurs from the thrift store, cut a whole in the top (actually a little but difficult), spray painted, put in dirt and plant and done!

I used hens and chicks type of plants (or succulents) because they thrive on little water.

Down House Down!

So much has happened, house wise. The photo above is when we had set up the forms for pouring the basement walls. You can see the two huge beams that are holding up our house... the opening is where our addition will be.
We poured the walls, the house was put back down and the beams have been taking out. The floor has been added onto the addition space, and the walls have been framed in the addition. The trusses (roof frame) have been put up too. The front porch was completely taken away and re-framed. It's awesome to see it all take shape... I can see where the window and doors will be and walk in the space and dream that one day I will being sitting at my dinning room table here.
Next step is completely gutting the main floor, it is about half done right now. Also, inclosing the addition space, then pouring the concrete for the floor in the basement.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with an inspector from the Secondary Suites Program. This is a governement program that gives money to people making secondary suites for low income families. We are really hoping this will work out for us.... but for some reason I am very leery that it will work out. I guess I will just wait and see.

Button bowl!

I made these with my cousins Kendra and Cailey, when they came for a visit in summer.  We took a small bowl turned it upside down, covered it with parchment paper and hot glued buttons, making sure to use lots of hot glue. They are pretty cute!

Entertainment for the Commute

Today on the CBC facebook page they had this photo with the caption:

Do You Know Your Winnipeg? This caught my eye this morning because, you know, it's a house up in the air, so I thought why not see if it caught anyone else's eye. Do you know what street I was on?

To my surprise many people had the correct answer! I think it must be kind of fun for people that commute past out house to watch the progress. Also they talked about the house for a bit on the radio show too. Sadly I didn't get to hear it, but I think that's so cool!

Character Windows

We are just finalizing our window order right now... and I am so excited about it! I wanted the windows to have the character of on older house, so we decided to do most of the windows single hung (which means they slide up to open) with a grid pattern on the top half. (Like the second inspiration photo) We are also doing a skinny top window with the one diamond in the middle. (Pretty much exactly like my first inspiration photo above) These skinny upper windows are custom, so they add a little to the cost, but we tried to always go with standard size windows so that helped. Also, single hung windows are way cheaper then awning windows... which is great because I love the look of single or double hung better!

Up in the air!

I picked up our foundation permits last wednesday and Saturday our house was lifted! We were so worried about tons of cracking upstairs, since we already renovated that area, but there were only two little cracks! There may be a few more when it comes back down, but these cracks will be easy to fix.
Things are moving so fast now, I am currently looking at windows because we have to order them by next week. (They take 5 weeks to arrive)

While He Sleeps...

Max is sleeping so I thought I'd give an update. We are still waiting for permits... and we also have to apply to have a secondary suite, so yesterday I went downtown to get the last of the 5 documents I needed to apply. They told us 6 weeks to get the permits, it's been 4 and a half, so we are getting close!
We had a little (have) a little bump with our insurance, apparently they wont cover us during renovations, so we are looking into a different company.
I am now working on disconnecting everything that is connected to the house... which is a lot of things: electric, natural gas, water, air conditioner, furnace, hot water tank and of course the brick chimney! Jonas actually did the chimney yesterday and the electric was just cut. Natural gas was going to be the same day as electric, but I am pretty sure they forgot about us... so they said they would call this week. It's thursday. No call yet. I have also learned that air conditioners are SO expensive to deal with! I have gotten 3 quotes, the average is 500$ to disconnect and then reconnect it.
Other then all the secretarial work I have been pulling off trim. We are planning to reuse the oak trim, so I take it off and remove the nails. Later we will sand them down and re-stain them.
That's all for now. I will have to take some demo picture and post them. soon I promise! (famous last words)

My Son is One!

Bump Avoided!

We applied for our permits a week ago. Yesterday I got a call from the water and waste department saying we needed a lot grade survey and a service plan. These two things cost 2000$ and would halt the permit processing until we got them. I was so disappointed, but I called around getting some quotes. (2000$ was the cheapest) but when I explained what we were doing to one of the surveying companies they thought that we wouldnt really need these surveys. So I thought I would just double check based on this guy's comment. I sent an email to the permits guy... and this morning he called me and said we didnt need them! I am so happy! I told him he saved me two grand. I know there will be bumps along the way... I am just glad to have avoided this one : )

Leather and Beaded Wrap Bracelet

I am totally into bracelets this summer. I made these a few months ago and forgot to post them! All you need is leather cord, beads and thread. I made up my own way to do this craft... there might be an easier way out there, but I had two needles going at the same time and they criss-crossed each other. The last picture kind of shows this.
I need to figure out a good way to do the fastener.... and also how to become a better hand model!  I am such a dork... feel free to laugh at my "artsy" bracelet display picture : )