This week we managed to finish the kitchen. We now have a new backsplash, which looks really nice and new lights over the breakfast bar. So I think I can finally let hubby rest for a week or two.

In order to finish the basement area, we had ordered a large wall unit from Ikea here in Canada but what a palaver. I would urge anyone thinking of ordering anything from Ikea online, not to.

We placed the order via their website on Dec 27th. It said that someone would contact us within 24 and 48 hours to give us details of the shipping costs as the site could not provide this information.

We waited and waited and gave some leeway as it was New Year and then finally got a phone call on Tues 2nd Jan to say that they still did not have shipping costs and someone would call within 24 hours.

So again we waited. Then on Friday 5th when we still hadn’t heard anything I phoned their customer case line. After being on hold for quite some time I spoke to someone who said that they had got the shipping costs. I asked why no one had called and he couldn’t answer that. So I asked what the costs were and he replied $135. After I got back onto my chair I asked if I had heard correctly, he said yes $135. So I told him to cancel the order. He seemed very shocked that I would want to do this and suggested that I have the item delivered to a different town to cut down on the costs.

I couldn’t really understand what he was trying to suggest, but it turns out he was suggesting that the item was being delivered from Toronto and that if had it delivered, to say, Peterborough I would cost less and I could collect it from there. He was seriously suggesting that if I had it delivered to a place closer to Toronto I could collect it from there – but still pay a delivery fee, perhaps only $100. I told him that if I was going to collect it I would do so from the store itself and save all the shipping costs.

He then said gleefully that if I spent another $50, I would be entitled to a $50 discount on shipping costs, so it would be cheaper for me!!!!!!!!! I said, “So if I spend another $50, I will save $50, but not actually be any better off at the end, only have something extra that I didn’t really want.” He didn’t seem to understand the irony of that.

So the moral of this story is, if you want to buy something from Ikea, go to the store and collect it yourself.

So, sometime next week we will be off to Toronto – oh joy!

We have also been fascinated with the animal tracks in our garden, which we can see thanks to the snow. Most are the usual suspects – squirrels, raccoons, rabbits etc but it makes life interesting trying to guess what they are before looking them up on the Internet.

Also, this morning we opened the garage door, only to be confronted by a rather large bat flying around. It was much bigger that the ones we used to see in the UK, but didn’t stay around long enough to be identified.

We had to pop into town today to get some tiles for the backsplash in the kitchen and it was very cold. The thermometer in the car said -8C and that was at 11am, so not too early in the day. Apparently it had been -12 overnight – a tad chilly.

We feel we have done well so far with the weather as we have only had two major snowfalls so far, one on Dec 4th and Boxing Day.

On Wednesday the granite man came with his men to fit the granite worktop in my kitchen. They could not fit the backsplash at the same time as some of our cabinets sit on top of the worktop, so needed to be put back before the backsplash was installed. So once they had left for the day, hubby had to reassemble the kitchen.

On Thursday late morning the granite people were back to fit the backsplash and it looked great until I noticed one piece was not cut level, so we asked that it be redone, which means another visit today (Friday). Apart from that it looks great and really transforms the kitchen.

Even hubby thinks it looks great and he though it was a bit of a waste of money really! Now he agrees that it was worth doing. From a distance and certain angles it looks black, but closer up you see all the other colours in it, such as green, bronze, blue and it also has sparkly bits in it. I really love it and am really glad we had it done.

Before

After

We had finished the sunroom first and then completed the office. On Wednesday the carpet fitters came and fitted to carpet down the stairs and in the lobby part of the basement – we don’t know what to call this bit!

It really looks great now. On Saturday we went shopping and bought bits to finish everything off. Things like pictures, plants etc. We are going to order a large bookcase to put my collection of books. I have updated some pics in the album. We are really pleased with the whole thing. I have to say that my husband is quite brilliant at DIY and has done an excellent job. My painting skills obviously played a part too!

Today the granite man came to take our new sink away with him so he can get the hole cut out. We had got the fitting of the counter top in for 19th Dec, but he said he can fit us in on Tuesday afternoon, so I am getting my granite much sooner than anticipated.

We pick the girls up tomorrow for their two week visit, so we will be busy from now till Christmas. We have trips to Toronto and New York planned, so we hope the weather stays good.

A couple of nights ago we had another power outage for 1.5 hours from about 8.15pm. No idea why as there was no adverse weather or anything – the mind boggles!

Although we have been here for over four months and have had a phone line for about 3.5 months we had not had a bill from Bell Canada. Yesterday I called them as I suspected that we should have had the quarterly bill by now.

It turns out that we should actually have had a bill every month and had actually missed three. They looked into the account and saw that the address had been taken down wrong and that was why we had not received any bills.

They are now sending out the bills again so we can see them and I paid the balance, over $200 whilst on the phone. We have also been put on another tariff, which will hopefully reduce our future costs. We knew the initial bills would be high, as we had to use the phone a lot when we first got here, it should even out now.

Talking of phones, I called my aunt and uncle in Spain yesterday (using Skype – much cheaper!) They were sitting out on the patio in mid 20C temps! I don’t think they can understand why we want to live in Canada, but we could not stand to have really hot weather all the time, it would send us mad and I would end up resembling a lobster.

Also, Spain is really backward with certain things, they have lived there for almost two years and still do not have a home address and have to use a post office box, neither do they have a phone line, they have to use cells all the time.

We had our oil tank refilled (it was about half full) and it cost us $188, which we didn’t think was too bad. We will keep an eye on it to see how long it lasts and how much we pay over the winter.

I also decided that I would like to replace our laminate kitchen worktops for granite. We have such a lovely kitchen now – well I think so! So we thought it would do it justice to put granite in place.

This morning I drove to Kingston to see a guy I had been speaking to on the phone who gave me the best vibes after phoning several and getting really annoyed with Home Depot.

Home Depot advertises prices starting at $52 sq ft fully installed. The one I chose turned out to be nearly a $100 sq ft, not a problem – my choice. However it turns out that if I order it, they come out to measure up (at a cost of $100 which is refunded if you go ahead) and all existing countertops have to be removed first. Then you have to go to Toronto to choose your slab, then it takes them 8 weeks to fit. You once again have to remove the counter tops yourself. But that is not all. The edging you choose is also at an additional cost as is the sink cutout. They will not fit the sink, even if you buy it from them and will not plum. Total cost for my choice was nearly $7k. Goodbye home Depot.

The guy I went to see this morning quoted for fully installed, so I went over there to choose my granite – oh boy, what a choice. They had over 300 samples of colour alone. Eventually they let me take a few samples home so I could try them in situ. So I drove home with half a dozen granite samples.

When I got home, hubby and I laid them out in the kitchen and decided which to buy. Unfortunately, the one I really liked was the dearest – obviously, but it made it worse because that was the one hubby like best too.

When I looked at my email, the guy had sent me a message, saying that he could offer me a better rate on the one we liked as his stockist was closing down and needed to get rid of stock. So, in the end we are getting a much nicer granite than we thought we could afford for just over $5,300k, fully installed, with edging included and they fit the sink. Marvelous.

He is coming out in the next few days to measure up and will install in the next couple of weeks. Extra marvelous!