Tales from the (Crawl Space)

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought it was fitting to give an update on the crawl space.

My crawl space is creepy - as you know it used to be filled with insulation (and we thought maybe mice), until Ed came to empty it out:

Gross right?

So the insulation was pulled out, and J and I went in to clean up all the bits and pieces that were on the floor, in preparation for the insulation to arrive:

Once all the insulation was out, we had to go back in to insulate the pipes - we used these foamy sleeves that feel like pool noodles (do you know what I mean?) and they were pretty easy to use. However while we were doing that, we found something that you never, EVER want to find in your crawl space.

I mean, we've found bones before - what looked like chicken bones or something weird. But this was different. As I was near the back of the crawlspace - closest to the basement wall, I saw what I thought was a white root of a tree - until I saw the teeth.

That's right - it was a dead....

CAT.

Ugh. Disgusting, I know. Stop scrolling now if you don't want to see a picture....

Yes, that is the poor little guy's paw.  I'm not showing the rest of the cat because that is just gross, but let me tell you that he is old. He probably was trapped in there years and years ago when they separated the crawlspace from the neighbours'. It is so sad (and GROSS) that now I have a friggin pet cemetery under my house!

Now, I'm not the first blogger to find a dead cat in their house (see the awesome blog of http://www.86nit.com/  - I think they found 2!) but I can't say I'm happy with the discovery.

We haven't moved it yet - I don't really want to touch it. It is lying on one of our heating ducts and every time I have to go back in that crawlspace, I feel bad that the poor guy just died there.

So when we had to go back in, I made J work at that end of the space!

We then laid plastic down to keep the moisture from seeping into the space:

And next Friday the spray foamers are coming! Hopefully I will have warmer feet this winter in the kitchen. If not, I guess I'll just have to stay out of it ;-)

I'm Still Here...

Just took an impromptu break. Will be back to regular posting next week!!

(PS - I noticed I lost a follower - hope you come back when I start posting again!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a happy Halloween!

Is anyone planning on dressing up?

We've Been Dwell-ing on This For a While...

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!! It was two gorgeous fall days in a row up here and we made the most of it by going on a motorcycle ride (him), shopping (me!), stuff around the house and some fabric shopping!!

I know I might be the last, but we finally went to InVu Drapery Co on Yonge Street. I know that Sarah Richardson goes there a lot in her shows, and when Designer Fabrics was closed today, we decided to pop by InVu. 

Seriously, I have been missing out! This was the most gorgeous store, filled with stunning fabric all beautifully displayed in all price ranges. I loved this range of fabrics:

The charcoal chevron on the bottom was 19.99 per yard so not too bad!

And I LOVED this grey/purple floral. Thinking either a re-do for the dressing room or maybe in the Master bedroom? Too feminine? Would add some necessary colour for sure!

They also had some great upholstered furniture (pricey though):

We were there looking for fabric for the Craigslist Chairs and came home with a few samples. We each had our favourite - what do you think?

The first two from the left are both Dwell Studio fabrics and the third is from another line that I can't remember.

InVu had a bench upholstered in #1:

Any thoughts? Think we should go in a different colour direction? Solids? Patterned? We'd really like to get these chairs done so we can finally check them off the list! Seems like we've been working on them forever!

Brace Yourselves

We finally hung a piece of art on the wall!!!

Of course, by "hung" I mean put a picture hanger in a preexisting hole that I didn't bother filling when I painted the family room/kitchen.




It is the print I ordered from www.20x200.com (thanks to an awesome friend who gave me a gift certificate). The print is "Jacks" by Katie Baum. Here it is up close and personal:

Now, I can't be the only person who agonizes about putting something up on the wall, right? I mean, we've been in the house a year already!




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Allez-Cuisine!

So hubs and I finally got to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary and celebrate we did!

The day started with a long motorcycle ride up north to check out the changing leaves (seriously gorgeous right now!).

I also organized a special dinner for hubs at the Victor Restaurant at Le Germaine hotel.

This wasn't just any dinner - it was IRON CHEF!

Like the tv show, we got to pick am ingredient and the chefs would each take a course and compete against one another in 4 categories.

Originality
Plating
Taste
Use of ingredient

Now, as a wide trying to surprise her husband, what do you think I picked?

BACON (of course!)

First course - bacon and chantrelle mushroom soup with bacon stuffed black cod.

Omg delicious!

Next up - spaghetti squash spaghetti with fried bacon and prosciutto. And candied pecans
I started eating before snapping a pic so this doesn't show plating.








Next up was the Hangover Breakfast! Double thick smoked bacon with a poached egg, guacamole on an heirloom tomato and a deep fried dill pickle with violet sauce.








I LOVE deep fried dill pickles so this was seriously amazing!

Next was seared pork belly with a sea scallop, yam noodles and some fresh peas. There was some other stuff but I forget.

Again I started eating before taking a pic. Oops.









And finally. Dessert. What could they possibly do with bacon for dessert right?

THIS.















That's right. A bacon and riopelle cheese stuffed donut with maple bacon glaze. For real.

It was delicious. Even in our bacon comas, this was amazing. The clear winner.

Sure the soup was probably more complex and harder to make, but a delicious bacon stuffed donut? Had to win!

All of the courses had wines that were matched to the ingredients and we loved them all. So much that I left the restaurant without my coat. Classy eh?

Anyways - if you are in Toronto I highly recommend this restaurant and the Iron Chef experience. If not, try it in your house for a pot luck dinner party!

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A History Lesson...From the Crawlspace

So another weekend goes by and hubs and I spend a good chunk of it in our crawl space.  As you might recall, we had our buddy ED come and rip out the bagged insulation a few weeks ago, so now we had to get in there and clean up all the bits that were on the ground. 

And by bits I mean about 15 large garbage bags full of it. There was a LOT of insulation in there. Gross, disgusting insulation. 

But that isn't all we found down there. We found mouse poo (gross), bones (grosser) and THIS wrapped around our hot water pipes:

Can you read that? It says August 28, 1933!!! I guess when the addition was put on, this was the best way to insulate the pipes from freezing!!

I took lots of pictures - you have to check this stuff out!

Seriously. A house on KEEWATIN Ave for $6,750! Or what about a house at St. George and Prince Arthur for $6,000? For those who are not in Toronto - these are NICE streets/neighbourhoods.  No joke.

Stolen car - reward of $100!

19 Walmer for $28,000.

See now that is a shoe sale my husband would let me go for!

Purse for $1. Delicious luncheon at 35 cents? Splurge for 65 cents!

Here is a Gibbard dining set from the 1930s for (gulp) $2200!!

And some 25 cent bloomers. Life was good!

Anyways, we had such a great time finding this paper and reading through all of the ads and newspaper stories.  It was in pretty rough shape (basically could fall apart in your hand) but we were able to salvage a small piece of history from our home!

Now if only we could come across a stash of jewellery or some kind of valuable piece of art...guess I'm going to have to go back into the crawl space after all!!

A quick visit

So I've been in Windsor, Ontario since yesterday evening for work and am just waiting for my (late) flight to take me home.

I lived in Windsor for three years, and I LOVE coming back to visit. I am totally that person who reminisces about my time here and how amazing it was.

Tonight I was lucky enough to have dinner with a good friend and her beautiful daughters before coming to the airport and now I feel totally refreshed and have a renewed sense of happiness. Isn't it crazy how reconnecting with certain people can so that?

If you are wondering if this means that I missed celebrating my 2nd anniversary with my cute husband, you'd be right. We did make it out for a celebratory drink prior to departure though.



Home soon with a few posts up my sleeve. You'll never guess what we found in our crawl space on the weekend!

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Two Years!

So in the past few months, I've missed a few anniversaries - one year of blogging, one year of home ownership....

But I'm not going to miss this one!!

Two years ago today, I was doing this :

                                                            

Two years sure does fly by - I remember our wedding day so vividly.  I still get a little teary thinking about that day and how lucky I am to have married such an amazing person who gets me like no one else and pushes me to be a better and happier version of myself. I can't imagine my life without him.

And he also lets me take pictures of him for the blog. Even when I almost never put pictures of myself up (till today :-)

Like I said - I'm a lucky girl!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, cutie.  SMOOCH!

Friday Date Night - Yer Gonna Love My Nuts*!

Happy Friday everyone! This weekend will be filled with crawl space disgustingness. We have had a few quotes on having it sealed and insulated, and that should be done in the next few weeks so Hubs and I have a date on Saturday to clean it up (i.e. pick up the bits and pieces of insulation that was left behind by our saviour, Ed).

But tonight is date night! Thanks to Shannon at What's Up Whimsy, Hubs and I are heading out to the National Home Show tonight!!!

I've actually never been before - I'm hoping it is more of this:

Source

And less of this:

Will let you know!

*Please say someone out there gets my Nuts reference in the title!**
** Other than my husband who is forced to watch insane amounts of television with me
*** Click HERE if you don't know