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things we can't afford - design "within" reach

Everything that is in Design Within Reach's catalog is on my list of things we can't afford.  The worst part is that the store is right around the corner from where I work, taunting me every day.  Every time I pick up one of their fliers, it reminds me how much wallet is out of reach with my taste.  The Arco Floor Lamp is probably Hayley's Holy Grail.  Mine is the Eames Lounge & Ottoman combo.  Loll's Adirondack chair is kinda within reach for $550.00 US, but that's still crazy for outdoor furniture.

-hai

it's official!!!

We finally got our firm starting date.  Saturday September 12 will be the official start of our renovation.  Let the fun begin.

things we can't afford - washbasin

I am starting a new category called "things we can't afford", it's self-explanatory. The first entry into this is the washbasin waschtisct 5.1 by roller GmbH. The cost for this is €593.00 (sink included) + €69.00 for shipping, so it's not too outrageous.  It is something I would love to have in our home...someday, but not today.

-hai

out of the old, but not yet into the new

We moved over out of Swansea dig over the weekend, hence the lack of post. Ideally, we would have moved straight into our new home, but that scheduling did not work out. So we are currently in limbo, but are trying to make best out of the situation. What the move did show us is the amount of things two people can accumulate over a two years period. We are also excited about moving into the new house and finally having everything we own in one cohesive place, and, purging our book collections. Note to self: hold back on the shoe and t-shirt purchases, and make some trips to the Goodwill donation centre. My parents are housing us in the meantime. Commuting out of Mississauga is not ideal, but Vietnamese-home-cooking is sure a good trade off.

-hai

a slow start, but a start none the less

In thursday night, we had the contractor and the electrician to come and take a look at the house. After much talking, we all decided that the best course of action is to tear down all the interior finishes of the exterior walls, the ceilings and most of the interior walls. Most of the exterior walls has no insulation what so ever and with the plumbungs and electrical needed to be replace, this is the quickest and best solution. All of this is not news to us, but is still hard to hear. Our plan of moving into the place quickly has been dimmed slightly. Because is the long weekend, we will not be able to begin demolition until the middle of next week. Even though we have the main bedroom and bathroom on the priority list, to make the house habitable asap, this is highly anticipated on how quickly the electricity and plumbing gets put in place. We are keeping our fingers crossed. We were hoping to get some of the demo started ourselves this weekend, but between shopping for tiles and packing to move out of our current place on Monday, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

our house got a failing grade

We had a person come and do an Eco audit of our house on thursday. An Eco audit is needed in order to take advantage of the EcoEnergy government grant, create to encourage home owners to improve the performance of their home. Ours got a failing grade almost all around. The good news in that is that the only way for the house to go is up. This is an image of a the contraption used to determine the amount of leakage in the house.

-hai

inspirational bathroom

This image is the inspiration for our bathroom. The bathtub is especially beautiful and simple. Strangely, simple usually means more money. I am finding that finding a cheap tile with that colour is proving to be difficult.

Bathroom Sink

Our limiting budget means that we will be basically shopping out of the Ikea Catalog. Fortunately, they have things that are easy on the eyes and wallet. For the upstairs bathroom, we are going to with the LILLÅNGEN Sink cabinet with 2 doors option. The stark white finish with the aluminum framed glass doors should contrast nicely with the floor tiles we picked for the room The downstairs powder room will have a similar setup but with only one door.

-hai

Bathroom Floor Tiles

There are a lot of details that will need to be decided for our home renovation. One of the first things that we decided on is the bathroom floor tiles. Because it is a smaller area, we were able to blow our budget slightly to indulge in a really interesting material. It is called WoodStone by Porcelain gres. The colour we are using is called "african wenge". We wanted to go for a woodsy rustic floor in the bathroom, but of course, wood is out of the question, so this is almost a better alternative. I think this will look great with the white bathroom fixtures. The image below gives a good taste on what the material is like.

-hai

The keys works

Yay!!! We officially entered our new domain. As you can see, Hayley is so excited that she didn't remove her bike helmet. Either that, or she left it on to protect herself from potential falling debris.

So close, yet so far

On Sunday, Hayley saw these eames chairs at a local antique store. She was trying to be good and not buy it on the spot, unfortunately, today, when she decided to go back and get it, someone was literally paying to them. You snooze you lose I supposed. I'm sure we will be able to get the same ones, or something better, eventually.

Front view

The front porch was a big selling point for us. We plan to spend a lot of time on there. Any suggestions on the perfect porch furniture besides Adirondack chairs?

and so it begins

Today, we are getting the keys to our new house. By new, I mean new to us. The house itself is anything but new, and will need a lot of TLC in order for it to be the comfortable home for us. Renovation is going to be tough, with both Hayley and myself being architects. Let the fun begin.