Thursday, May 30, 2013

Baby Approved Smoothies

WARNING: HIDDEN VEGGIES!!!


How do you make both mommy and baby happy? You hide yo green in there! I had to write it like that because I couldn't help but think of this old SNL skit....You put yo weed in there!  It came out just when I was at the age to think weed was hip and cool but I hadn't actually seen it really knew anything about it.  Fast forward to today.....

WHAAA?!?

Penny is usually a great eater but can be picky about veggies so this is a fuss free way of getting them in her. The secret is to just add spinach or kale to any fruit smoothie but the recipe that Penny seems to enjoy best is:

1c Frozen Mango Chunks
1/4cVanilla Greek Yogurt
1/2 Banana
Handful of Greens (Spinach or Kale) 
Big Splash of OJ for easy blending


I love our Magic Bullet for these single serving smoothies and the clean up is super easy.
Now have fun tricking your baby or even yourself into eating those extra needed veggies!

The BEFORE House Tour

Before I can start showing you all the progress we made I have to first set up the before situation.  The following pictures are from the listing so the owners had the place in clean selling condition but when we viewed the house it was everything but clean and orderly as it was occupied by renters for we're not sure how long.  There were toys, dishes, underwear(!) and dog mess everywhere, they obviously didn't give two shits if the house sold.  It was probably better for them if the house didn't sell so they didn't have to move out.  We did end up giving them some time because buying a house takes time!  We had a little bit of financial problems because of our Fort McMurray house not selling and it is not as easy to buy a house like it used to be with all the new CMHC rules.  We also had an inspection which got us a little worried resulting in us having a contractor come in to assess some of the issues brought up in the report.  Things turned out to be  not as bad as we expected just normal for an older home but we ended up negotiating for a small sum off the purchase price anyways.  We knew we would need new shingles this year since they in cupping and in generally rough shape and eventually we will have to replace the 20% of windows that are not updated but we ended up negotiating over a few things like attic insulation(we were told the R rating was higher than what was really there) and "Stryker's room", a little addition which was built on the ground without foundation - in the long term it could pull away from the house causing quite a bit of damage.
Exterior
Need to Replace Shingles, Grass in area where they drove and create walkway.

*The kitchen, dining room and living room is all one room**
Kitchen
Paint cabinets and walls



Dining Room
Paint walls, door and remove blinds.
Living room - view facing entry 
Living room
Paint walls
Master Bedroom
Paint, Replace Flooring
Penny's Room
Paint, Change Flooring
Basement Bedroom
Lots of work-update later
Master Bath
GUT!
Entry
Paint, Change Flooring


Bedroom 1 (Smaller one of the three upstairs)
Paint, Change Flooring

Garage
Lighting, Shingles, Flower Boxes, Maybe Paint
Back Exterior showing Stryker's room - the section of the house to the right jutting out from the house.

So that's it! Just like most listings the basement wasn't shown because of the horrific state it's in...kidding it's not that bad to the trained eye anyways.  It is just unfinished - in the main room just drywall, flooring and a drop ceiling is needed and the rest of it....well it could use a bit more! I will update pictures of the basement closer to when we decide to tackle it.

In the picture captions I included the very basic plan of what is needed to be done but like every reno there is quite a bit more to it.  Let the projects begin!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

We've Moved!


We moved......from my hometown (Fort McMurray) to Mr.Loonie's hometown (Fort Saskatchewan) - close to it anyways.  It has been our plan for a few years now to move south once we were established financially and had some careless baby-less fun. So since little Pen Pen was baking in the oven, Mr.Loonie has been on the job hunt.  Our luck finally came quite a few months back but because of the lengthy big company interview and testing process, our move was only official recently.  Our house hunt started all over the place....it covered Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan and NE Edmonton with anything meeting our search criteria of an older bungalow in the minor renovation category backing onto green space.  You wouldn't think this would be so hard but it was.  After a month there was nothing, we weren't in a big rush as Mr.Loonie's company would have supplied accommodations for 3 months but I did not want to live in a condo during the summer with a baby, a cat and a dog.  Then a house came up.  We were going back to what we dreamt of years ago...an acreage.  But the house is the best of both worlds....country and city living.  We are 5 minutes from the Fort, 15 from Edmonton but our front yard is a river and the backyard is a farmers field.....it's amazing.



Remember the part where I said we were willing to do minor renos....HA! Scratch that, looks like we have abit of a project on our hands and I will be chronicling every step of it for ya'll.

So a bit of history....our house is an old school! Apparently we housed the classrooms for grades 5-8.  The main room was for grades 5 and 6 and the bedroom end of the house was for the 7 and 8's.  Now as for the basement, we are unsure of.  From the little bit of information we have, the school was turned into a house sometime in the 50s and then renovated in the 90s such as the windows, insulation, shingles and garage construction.  We hope to learn more as we get to know our neighbors.

Our move has been pretty smooth since Mr.Loonie's employer covers most moving expenses including the packing and transport of our belongings, Realtor fees (our Fort McMurray house is still for sale but fortunately 3 months of our mortgage is also covered by the employer) and house hunting trips.  What hasn't been easy is poor Penny's sleeping habits, which we have finally got back on track after 3 weeks of a pretty tough time - I guess she just didn't feel comfortable with her new surroundings. Also, our trip down with the animal farm was hell.  What should take us 4 hours took 6.5 hours due to a blown trailer tire and a crying baby.  The moving company wouldn't take liquids due to their terrorist policy (?) so our tent trailer was packed full of cooking liquids, bathroom and garage liquids...I guess liquids add up because our little old tent trailer tires couldn't handle the excess weight.  The cat was meowing, the dog was pacing and whining and the baby was crying all while the parents were calm....HA!


What matters is we made it and we have been working our asses off to make this old school our own.  Lots of updates to come....stay tuned!

P.S. And for those friends at "home"...I miss you tons!!