Refreshing and colourful

Nolan enjoyed a nice long weekend (he had today off due to Family Day, I had to work...), and decided that this was a good time to start painting. From the day we moved in, we've been saying that the one thing the house need, is some colour. The previous owners probably painted it just before they put it on the market, but a) the whole house is the same cream colour, and b) the paint job is terrible! We really wanted to add some (moderate) colour and make it feel like our own. A couple months before we moved out of the old house, we pained both our offices and we liked those colours so much that we picked those colours again for our offices in this house (Nolan is blue-grey, mine is more lavender). We picked a grey colour for the bathrooms, a lighter grey for our bedroom, and a brown tone for the guest bedroom. The colours are all from the same family, so they match nicely.
Nolan started on Saturday (OK, I admit, I might have been procrastinating a bit, by doing other things first, such as making date squares, which were delicious by the way!), and we (I did do my part as well) finished his office and the guest bedroom, and it looks so refreshing!! The ceilings are white again, and so are the trim and windows, and the walls more colourful. It's a huge change, but it looks great. We're both very happy with it. The guest bedroom is next, which Nolan will tackle next weekend when I'm in Peterborough running a half marathon.... We did take before pictures, and we'll take some after pictures as well, which I'll post once the rooms are all ready.
We do have a nice incentive to get it done: My parents are coming for a visit in July, so we want to make sure that at least the upstairs is ready by then.

So next week is my half marathon, which I'll be running with Candice. I hope the weather cooperates, although we've had enough opportunities to train in cold weather... As I mentioned before, I don't really care about a fast time, I just want to make sure I finish. Last time I started in this race I had to pull out around the 13k mark because of an injury. So there is some unfinished business here that I want to get out of the way! I'm in a way looking forward to the race, but also to the girls weekend we're planning around it. I guess we just have to be careful with the 'carbo loading' the night before, and make sure we don't count wine as carbs... Obviously, a report will follow next week...

On a side note, we have a cat, Murphy, that is absolutely obsessed with our humidifier in our bedroom. Really, it's a full blown love affair! It's funny to watch, since he won't leave it alone when it's running. We're not sure what sparked the affair, but think it might be the gurgling noises that come out of the water reservoir. I wonder how long this will last for, but he's losing sleep at night, that's for sure!

And finally, some people that have followed my previous blog, might know that I have a Orchid that is very dear to me. It receives no special treatments (except for a little bit of water 1-2 a week), but it is blooming for the fourth time now! Nolan gave it to me in the summer of 2008, just after we moved into our previous house and I kept it once the flowers were gone. After about 6 months, it flowered again, and the cycle repeated itself two more times, to flower for the fourth time. Pretty impressive, eh?! It's nice to see the bright coloured flowers when there is very little colour outside. Although it did feel spring-like on Friday, with temperatures jumping to +11, and melting a lot of snow, but that night it dipped to -15, and now we're back in the deep freeze. But hey, it is February after all!

Fall is in the air!

It is! The days are noticeably getting shorter, I have to turn the lights on now when I get up at 6 am; the leaves are starting to turn, and the amount of rain we've had in the past 2 weeks definitely makes up for the lack of rain earlier this year.  But I'm not complaining, not at all! This morning, when I finally rode my bike again to work (it's been too wet lately), the trails looked so appealing and beautiful. Time to get our trail running shoes out and hit the trails.  That is one major advantage of our new house, we'll be even closer to all the great trails we are surrounded by.  Love them!

And since some people asked, here are some photos of our new house (we're getting keys tomorrow night!). The furniture, obviously, is the previous owner's. But as soon as we are somewhat moved in, I'll addsome new pictures.

The front of the house.

The Kitchen

The deck :-)

Packing, packing and some more packing

Boxes, lots of boxes! We packed up most of our house now, which is a great feeling. The garage is completely full with boxes, it looks like we're pro hoarders at the moment, but it will be easier for the movers to quickly pick up the boxes, put them in the truck, and hopefully makes the whole move a bit easier and quicker. There are still a few items to pack: all our clothes and several loose items, but Nolan has tomorrow night to do some of that as well... I'm off to Renfrew for an Ontario Woodlot Council meeting.

Fertile decided to pack her own box...

And so did Murphy...

And Nolan...

And I helped as well...

We are taking Thursday and Friday off for the move, but this week is quite busy for the both of us at work as well. We sure know how to stay busy, but also happy! Oh, and we also signed up to run a half marathon Sunday morning, the Army Run here in Ottawa. Not sure how, and if, that will go.

We had a final look at the new house tonight, to make sure everything is ok, and we both felt a surge of excitement through our bodies! We realize there is quite a bit that needs to be done to make it our own, but that's mostly cosmetic. For example, it needs colour, all the walls are some cream colour, and also haven't been painted in 10 years; it still has the original light fixtures, which are absolutely hideous! Similar to the ones we all replaced in our current house, and once that was done, the difference was amazing. So we know what we can do, and will do, to make it our own. I guess we have our work cut out for us this winter, and the coming year(s)...