Picking Up the Pace

This has been a SLOW house tour - sorry about that.  We had company this weekend, so I didn't have time to blog.  My Mom and Aunt came to visit, so they got a real tour of the house on Friday, and then we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing around the house and enjoying my mom's cooking.  Yes, she was a guest in my house and she still did the cooking - completely her choice, she just loves to be in the kitchen which is a great bonus for Curt and I!

So, in an effort to get the 'before' posts completed before the house is ours and we start knocking down walls (which is THIS FRIDAY!), I figure I better pick up the pace and maybe do more than one room at a time.  In this post I'm going to try to cover the last two rooms on the main floor - rooms that were being used as a dining room and a kitchen, but that will change!

Their Dining Room - Our Kitchen

In my previous post, the last picture was of the wall to the left of the fireplace, I explained that we would be taking that wall down and opening it up to the kitchen.  So, here we are on the other side of that wall.  There has been a significant change in the plans since that last post, and it's been decided that the fireplace I talked about, and showed pictures of, is getting taken out.  That will allow us to make an larger opening and we can use part of the front room in the kitchen layout as well.

Wow, I forgot how much stuff was in this room!  Thankfully it's almost empty now, but I don't have any pictures of it like that.  Anyway, that is the wall that will be knocked down, opening the kitchen up to the front room from the previous post.

This door currently leads into the hallway - we're getting rid of it though.  Once that wall is gone and the two rooms are open to each other, there won't be much use for this door.  And, getting rid of it allows us have that extra wall space for cupboards.

And in this picture, I'm standing at the door in the above picture, looking into the room.  That window overlooks the driveway, the west side of the house. 

There is a big change coming in the area above - right where that shelf is sitting, that is going to become a hallway/mudroom.  We're putting a door there, making a entrance from the driveway - the opening on the left side of the picture will stay there, it opens into the next room I'm going to talk about.

Their Kitchen - Our Family Room

This room is at the back of the house, so it has potential for great views of the water.  Curt had the great idea of turning this room into our family room, and immediately I could picture us enjoying the room year round - in the summer, with the patio doors open, enjoying the boats go by AND in the winter, curled up with a blanket and a warm fire.  Now, there isn't a fireplace in this room right now, but we'll be adding one - we're still debating between putting a wood stove in here, or, moving the fireplace from the front room back here.

Maybe it doesn't look that bad in the picture, but this is a pretty pathetic kitchen!  It's not a bad size, but these were the only cupboards in the whole room...and, I'm pretty sure those are the same cupboards I had in my dorm at Redeemer University College. 

This picture shows a pretty cool feature of the house, the back staircase.  These stairs actually lead up to the old maids quarters!  At least I'd like to think it would have been the maids quarters?  The main part of the house is old enough for that type of thing, but this part is actually an addition, so I'm not really sure.  I'm going to stick to saying it's maids quarters though, because that's cool history :)  There is a bedroom and bathroom, and they can be completely closed off from the rest of the house by simply closing a door. 

Unfortunately, these stairs are going to be taken out...and although I'm a little sad about that, I know that it makes the most sense and things will look great.  Taking them out gives us a little more space in this room, and the corner where the landing is an ideal spot for the fireplace.

So, this is the last of the space on the main floor, we'll head upstairs in a post tomorrow (hopefully!).   

The Dining Room

I have to start this post with a quick house update - we were able to do another tour of the house today, and I am very happy (and relieved) to report that the current owners have done an amazing job of clearing out their junk!  It's not all gone, but I'd say about eighty percent of it is gone...and, the stuff that is still there is the bigger stuff, so maybe they're just waiting for a chance to borrow/rent a larger trailer or something to transport it all?  After seeing it today, mostly empty, it seems that much more real!

OK, now back to the house tour...the next room I'm going to show you is another large room at the front of the house (when standing at the front door looking into the house, this room is on the right).  The thought is that this may have been a second living room type area; but, we are going to change that - we are going to make this room our dining room.  It's pretty big for a dining room, but, it makes the most sense.

I have discovered that I don't have great pictures of this room...I took a lot of pictures of the small details in here, like the baseboard and window trim, but didn't really get anything to give you an idea of the overall layout/shape.  This is the best I have...

Ignore the desk...remember, the previous owners were storing stuff here.  I wish I had taken my camera today, I could have taken some new pictures that would show the house, not the owners stuff.

I also took a lot of pictures of the main 'feature' of this room, the fireplace!

As you can see, the mantle is...elaborate!  I have a picture just like this on my phone, and when I show people, they all ask if we're going to leave this as it is.  I don't really have an answer though, I just can't decide...I mean, it's beautiful - all the intricate woodworking - but, not sure it's our style?  Take a closer look and let me know what you think...

There is a big change planned for this room...

Now, look past the random wire hanging there...and, if you're seeing the plastic on the ceiling, ignore that too.  As you can see, this is right beside the fireplace; and, to the left of those suitcases is the french doors leading into the room.  This is a horrible picture, but I'm showing you this because that wall is going to change - we're going to create a doorway or opening of some sort there - and, it will lead into the new kitchen. 

So, the next room on the tour will be the future kitchen.  I've also been busy looking at pictures of kitchens to get some ideas, so I think I'll include some of those too - it might be interesting to have 'before', 'maybe' and 'after' pictures :)

Note: We were at the house today with a co-worker of Curt's who is going to do the work on the boiler and fireplaces for us.  One of the conditions we included in the purchase was that we could have three more visits to the house before it closes; this has been very helpful because it has allowed Curt to go in and take measurements and then to arrange trades to come in to do estimates.  We get the house in two weeks, and have one visit left...we've saved that for when my Mom and Aunt come to visit next weekend!

Come On In

I've been trying to figure out the best way to do a blog tour of our 'new' house...I still haven't figured it out, but I'm going to go ahead and give it a try.  At the end of my last post, I said that I was going to start with the kitchen...change in plans, I'm going to start at the front door (makes sense, right?), and go from there.

So, here is the view from the front door...

This is one of my favourite parts of the house - I have a lot of 'favourite parts', so get used to me saying that! :)  I made my first purchase for the house last week, and it is something for the staircase - I bought two sets of picture frames from Winners (14 frames in total)...I can't wait to decorate that wall on the left!  I brought them home and I think Curt was even a little excited about the purchase...I guess I'm not the only who felt like that wall was calling out for pictures, lots of pictures!

Another view with better lighting...

So, the wallpaper and carpet will obviously be torn down/out!  And, the stairs and bannister will be refinished - not sure if we'll go with the same finishes on the stairs (white with dark brown), or if we'll change that? 

OK, from here we'll take a look at the living room - in the pictures above, you can see a small part of the living room door frame on the left side of the picture.

First, you walk through these beautiful French doors!  Yup, you got it, another 'favourite part'!

I think I mentioned in my last post that the current owners have been using the house as a bit of a storage unit - the cabinets and furniture you'll see in these next pictures all belong to them, but it's in our contract that they empty the house before our closing date, so just picture the room without the 'extras'. 

This room is DARK right now, so a coat of paint (or three!) will be necessary, for sure! 

North wall...

East wall...

South wall...

Behind that couch is a set of doors, right now they lead out to that horrible cinder block 'deck' that I talked about in my last post.  But, in the future they will lead out to a screened in porch!  As you can see, this room also has a fireplace - this is the first of three fireplaces you'll see on your tour! 

So there you have it, the tour has officially started and you've seen the first room...there's plenty more to come, I just need to find the time to create the posts...I'll try my best to get another post a two up this week.

Moving On with Big News

I have been horrible about blogging lately...I've been weeks, or months, behind all summer.  It's not that I didn't have anything to blog about, it was the opposite actually - I had too much to blog about.  So, although I've missed blogging about some fun weekend events, I feel like I need to move ahead on the blog or else I will never get caught up.  Plus, Curt and I have some big news...we bought a new (to us) HOUSE!!!

Although it all seems to have happened fast, there is a bit of a history to the story, so I'm going to start there.

Last year, around this time, I mentioned to Curt that there was an old century house for sale, on the water, that peaked my interest (I drive by it everyday on my way to work).  Eventually, Curt had the chance to drive by it as well, and he agreed that it had potential.  So, in November 2012 we set up a viewing - it was for sale privately, so it was the owners father that showed us the house.  What we saw was a house that needed A LOT of work!  It hadn't been lived in in years, and apparently the last resident was renting, and he left a pretty big mess when he moved out.  But, it wasn't all the tenant, the owners had contributed to the mess - they gutted one of the bathrooms, and then just walked away...they bought a new house and re-did the kitchen there, and rather than getting rid of the old cupboards, they stored them in their old house?  It was weird, and such a shame, that they had let the house get into such poor condition.  At this point, they were asking $400,000 for the house - that alone is WAY more than we can afford, never mind all the money we would have to put into it to make it livable.  So, although we loved the potential of the house, we walked away from it.

Like I said, I drive by this house everyday on my way to work, so I obviously never really forgot about it.  And, when I saw a real estate agents sign on the front lawn on Monday, September 23rd, I was very curious to see the price.  Curt and I looked at the listing on Tuesday, September 24th and couldn't believe it was now listed for significantly less - obviously their agent sat them down and had a heart-to-heart with them about the value of the house given the condition it was in.  At it's new price, we couldn't help but take another look, so we set up a viewing with our agent during our lunch hour on Wednesday, September 25th.

Not much had changed with the house, it still needed A LOT of work :)  But, we still loved the potential we saw and knew that there was more good than bad.  So, before I left to go back to work, I was signing an offer!

The owners were out of town when we made our first offer, so we were forced to wait almost two days before we heard anything - that was a good test of patience!  Eventually, they countered and we ended up going back and forth a few times before settling on a number -  we ended up getting it for only $1500.00 less than their asking price, but it's still a great price!

The deal was finalized by the end of September, but we don't get the keys until November 15th.  A few weeks was required to get our finances in order, and, more importantly, one of the conditions is that the owners empty all of their JUNK, and that will take WEEKS!

During the weeks of waiting, we're busy making decisions - where to take out walls, where to add walls, what to do with the kitchen, where to place furniture, etc.

Once we get the keys, work will begin, but we won't be moving in right away - we can't move in right away.  The plan is to put our house up for sale in the early spring, and hopefully once it sells, the closing date will line up nicely with a move in date for the new house :).  If it doesn't quite work out that way, we have a back-up plan, but I'm not going to think about that right now.

So, prepare yourselves, the blog will probably take a slightly different focus over the next few months - it may look more like 'Gliding, Swinging and Renovating Through Life'!  We are very excited about the project ahead of us, and hope you will enjoy being part of it through this blog.

My plan over the next few weeks is to do separate blog posts for each room of the house - that way there is a nice layout of 'before' pictures, and it will be easy to compare to the 'after' pictures down the road.  But, if you've read this whole post, you might be interested in some pictures, so here you go...

Here it is...

Beautiful, right?  Look past the decrepit front porch, the ugly light post, the overgrown 'plants'...look at the potential!

From a different angle - the round part of the porch is my favourite!  It's just sad that anyone could let it get to such a state.  BUT, the good news is that my father-in-law already has a plan to restore it...he told me all about it, and made it sound quite simple?!?  I'm sure it won't be, but I love that he is excited about helping us work on the house!

The back of the house.  The door on the left, which you can hardly see because of the deck, leads into what is currently the 'kitchen' (if you can call it that - wait until you see the pictures of it?!?).  Our plan is to take this deck out and build a new smaller one at ground level.

This is the south east side of the house.  The door on the main level goes into a living room...the door above it is the master bedroom.  Right now, that 'deck' area is made out of cinder blocks?  It's horrible!  So, that will come out, and the plan is to do a two story deck there...the lower part will be screened it, and may tie right around to the front porch.

Same area, photo taken straight on...

The 'carriage house'.  This building has a large loft like space - we won't be doing anything to this space for a long time, but the thought is that it would make a cool office for Three Hills Engineering.  My mom has also suggested that she could live up there in the winter...and she'll live on the front porch in the summer :)

The view from the attic, looking out over the carriage house to the water. 

OK, and I have to show you this...it's weird.  Apparently the previous owners built this and then put one of those blow up above ground pools on it...you can see it sitting there in a heap...another thing they just left behind...who does that?  The pool has since been removed, so now it's just a random deck in the middle of the back yard.

So there's a little taste of the house, there is a lot more to come!  I'll be back soon, and I think I'll start the tour in the 'kitchen'.

PGA Championships - Part 3

Saturday and Sunday were both great days at the course!  We figured out the whole parking situation - we parked at a nearby college and then took a shuttle to the main gate at the course - so getting in and out was much smoother (no more 45 minute lines).  The weather was great both days, and we saw LOTS of golf...too much to try to summarize, so I'll just show some of the random pictures I took around the course.

I mentioned in one of my posts about the Canadian Open, that no matter how many tournaments I go to, it is still such a thrill to walk through the main gate!  Walking through the main gate of the PGA Championships took that to a whole new level - it definitely had a special feel being a major and all!

Notice that large tent like building on the left side of the picture (you're only seeing half of it) - that is the merchandise tent!  It was HUGE, and had so many great souvenirs - much more than just the typical golf shirt or hat.

Another shot of the entrance...

I looked over at Curt at one point and laughed - I couldn't resist taking a picture of him with his binoculars and the PGA ear bud (American Express was giving these away, it played a live broadcast of the golf station on Sirius satellite radio - it was great being able to hear about play that was happening on other parts of the course), following the PGA leader board on his phone! 

While walking out one evening, we couldn't resist taking these pictures...

Turns out Rochester is a great city (actually, we only saw a small part of it, but it was great!).  As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory one night...dinner was great, but we didn't have room for cheesecake when we were done...so, the next night, we had Chipotle for dinner and then went back to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert - and we were so glad we did!

Just look at the size of those pieces!

Oh, and look who else was eating at the Cheesecake Factory...

It's Scott Piercy - he won the Canadian Open last year.  OK, so it's not a great picture - you have to be discreet when you're an adult taking pictures of a golfer while he's eating dinner...you don't want anyone thinking you're a creeper!

And as we got into the car, look who was loading his kids into his tournament vehicle...

It's Webb Simpson - he won the U.S. Open last year.  Another bad picture, and the fact that it's the second one like this means I probably am a creeper!

OK, back to the tournament...

We spent Sunday afternoon in the bleachers on the 17th hole - it wasn't as busy there as the 18th green, but still allowed us to watch all the groups as the finished. 

Here's the final group - Jason Dufner, who went on to win the tournament, and Jim Furyk...

And there you have it, three posts later, a summary of our weekend at the PGA Championships!  Curt and I both really enjoyed our time away, and are so thankful that we can take advantage of opportunities like this!

PGA Championships - Part 2

It was raining when we got up on Friday morning - if we had been in a hotel, we probably would have slept in...but, like I said, it was hard to sleep through the rain in our tent!  So, we got ready and then took our time getting to the course - stopping for breakfast and then doing a little shopping (we went to Target to get waterproof cases for our cell phones!).

We made our way back towards the course, and ended up parking at the same house and paying $20 again - but, we noticed that most of the other houses had increased their prices, so we were thinking we should look into other parking arrangements for Saturday and Sunday.  We knew for sure we had to find some where else to park when we ended up waiting in line, in the RAIN, for 45 minutes to get through the gate :(  Thankfully it wasn't raining too hard (golfers were still playing), we had umbrellas, and we had some friendly people around us to chat with (helped the time go by quicker).  

Once we made it in, we found Bubba's group so that we could walk with Amy and Ang again.  Unfortunately, when we said good-bye to them on Friday, we were saying good-bye for the tournament because Bubba didn't make the cut.        

And now for some pictures from throughout the day.  Spectators weren't supposed to take pictures...they even had volunteers, walking inside the ropes with each group, watching for people taking pictures - apparently the were confiscating phones (you were allowed to pick them up at guest services on your way out), but I only saw the volunteers tell people to put them away.  Anyway, I couldn't resist, so I discreetly took 64 pictures throughout the weekend!  :)

Rory McIlroy in the red shirt and white pants...

Phil Mickelson in the grey pants and Justin Rose in the khaki pants (with his arms folded across his chest)...

And, up close and personal with Adam Scott!!!

He went out of bounds and we were only a few feet away.  The same thing happened when we went to the 2007 President's Cup in Montreal - I was just getting into golf at that point, but Adam quickly became a favourite after that encounter (he's really good looking!).  When he won the Masters this year, I think a lot of women suddenly had a 'favourite golfer'!

There is no zoom on this picture!  I'm generally not a fan of the long putter, but I've made an exception for Adam.

I think this picture might be from Saturday...Keegan Bradley teeing off the 10th hole.  That's Tiger Woods behind him (leaning on his golf bag).  I zoomed in quite a bit, so the quality isn't great - we were actually watching groups tee off the first hole, the tenth hole uses the same tee deck, so we could see groups there too.

I'm NOT a Tiger fan (quite the opposite actually), and can't believe the number of people that follow his group, especially when he's not even doing that well!  I could not handle rushing around the course in a mob like that, you'd wouldn't even get to see much golf because of the people in the way?!?

So, Friday was a great day at the course - once the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was nice and warm.  We covered a lot of ground on the course - watching from various different spots, and making sure to see as many players as possible (especially the ones that looked like they may not make the cut).

We ended our day with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory - I can't believe we've never eaten there while in the States?!? - and a little more shopping.

PGA Championships - Part 1

Two weeks after the Canadian Open, the PGA Championships were being held in Rochester, New York.  Rochester is only about 3 hours away, so months ago, I mentioned it to Curt and suggested that we try to get tickets.  Well, time went by and we didn't act on it...so, the week before the tournament, Curt contacted our friends Henk and Amy to see if we could get tickets through them...we heard back from them on Tuesday and found out that they were able to get us passes for the week!

We knew we wanted to try to get there Thursday morning so we could see all four days of tournament play - so, we made arrangements for time off work, and then started looking into hotels. Trying to book a hotel just a few days before the event was NOT a good idea - even the low end hotels/motels were going for $300/night!  We really tried to get creative to get around paying that much - I looked at Bed & Breakfasts (still too expensive), called a local college to see about renting a residence unit (only thing available was a townhouse, again, too expensive) and looked at 'Vacation Rentals by Owner' (not very many options in the area).  In the end, we booked a camp site at a nearby KOA!!!  If you know me, you're thinking 'NO WAY'!!!!   Believe me, that was my original thought too - when Curt suggested it, I just laughed it off...but, in the end, $30/night sold me...Curt also pointed out that if we saved that much on our 'accommodations', I would have more money to spend when we were shopping!  It ended up working out great, and I even admitted that I would do it again - we didn't spend a lot of time there, so it wasn't really like we were 'camping'...all we did was set up a tent with a foam mattress and sleeping bag, no other camping supplies. We got up early in the morning and after getting ready, left for the course (picking up breakfast on our way)...we were at the course all day and then went out for dinner and usually did some shopping before going back to the KOA...so, when we got back, we were tired and just went straight to bed.  Surprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of other people at the campground that were going to the tournament during the day, so we weren't the only redneck camping golf fans :).

Our awesome accommodations...

It did rain on Thursday night, so we didn't sleep great (just because rain on a tent is kinda loud), but we stayed dry, so I guess that's what matters!

Enough about our tent...on to the golf...

We left home bright and early Thursday morning and got to Rochester around noon. We weren't exactly clear on parking arrangements, so we followed signs and ended up parking on the front lawn of one of the houses in the neighbourhood right by the golf course - it was only $20, and minutes from a gate, so it worked out well.

The entrance we used put us right near the fourth hole...we grabbed a pairings sheet to try to get an idea of where different groups were at that point, and realized that Bubba had literally just teed of the fourth hole...it was perfect, we managed to find Amy and Ang right away (thankfully, Amy's sister/Bubba's wife, Ang, is really tall, so she's easy to spot!) so we walked with them until the 9th hole (Bubba's final hole - he started on the 10th that day).

After we said good-bye to Amy and Ang, we walked around the course a bit, watching various groups and trying to get a feel for the layout and where the best viewing spots would be for the rest of the weekend...eventually we decided to go to the grand stands on the 18th to watch groups come in - it was really hot and humid, so we were ready to sit down.

Our view of the leader board on the 18th green...

Unfortunately, not long after we sat down, they blew the horn because of an approaching storm.  Of course at this point, no one has any idea how long the players will be off the course, so we decided to head out and find a place for dinner.  Although the delay didn't last long, we didn't go back to the course - instead, we did a little shopping and then made our way to the KOA so we could set our tent up before it got dark :).