Last year we renovated half the basement, but left the other as we just did not know what to do with it. Well, the other day Chris had the great idea of turning one of the rooms into a home cinema room. We had considered this option before but never got around to it, so we are going to do it now.

We should get a lot of enjoyment out of it as we like watching films and if or when we do decide to sell it should be a selling feature to the buyer – particularly the man. The woman will hopefully like the kitchen and the man the home cinema – there’s marketing for you!

So, that is our new project – did I say “our”?

Currently the room looks like this…Stay tuned for updates!

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.

All the drywall has been done and primed. I have painted the sunroom in a nice sunny lemon, which looks really nice. We are going to put wood on the ceiling so that should really make he sunroom look nice.

Today I also bought some furniture to go in the sunroom, which can also be taken outside to the patio, so that room is near completion.

The fourth bedroom that we will be using as an office is also near completion. The walls have been painted; just the finishing touches to do and that room will be done.

The stairs were a nightmare to complete as the person who fitted the original stairs had offset them from the wall and they weren’t straight. We have had to completely redo the stairs and it has taken ages to get them to look decent. We are just about there now, so that is a relief.

The large room that you enter at the bottom of the stairs of which part will be a library (well a large bookcase anyway) just needs painting and finishing.

The huge family room will have to wait until after Christmas as we will not have time to complete before.

We had the carpet people out yesterday to quote for the stairs and the main room at the bottom and it will be fitted next week.

At the weekend we visited a fellow ex-pat who happens to live nearby. I won’t mention any names but we had a nice visit with him, his wife and two lovely children. The eldest little girl was a delight and wanted to show us the whole house, all her toys and read all her books to us. However, she soon got bored with us and went off to play on her computer. Thanks xxxx for your hospitality.

We had our septic tank pumped today – bet you wanted to know that! We had no idea when it was last done and were advised that it should be emptied about every 4-5 years. As the house was 4 years old, we figured if it hadn’t been done before it probably needed doing now. Better to be safe than sorry. It turned out it was pretty full, so a good job we called them out. It was rather stinky whilst they did it though!!!

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!

It has been cold and wet again this week. Last night we had snow flurries again, but not too much and it had disappeared as soon as the sun came up this morning.

We bought a new TV for the spare bedroom for when the kids come to visit next month (the kids, by the way are in their early 20’s). It is a 32” inch and looks so small compared with the 52” we have in the living room, but it is the same size as the main TV we had in the UK!

We also bought a PSP games thingy. In the UK we had a Playstation, but although we liked playing it, because it was part of the TV we rarely used it. We decided here to have a portable one as it is a simple case of turn it on and away we go.

I also got a new tabletop oven or toaster oven as they are called here. I mentioned before about not getting double ovens here and having to buy a separate grill. However this causes a lot of smoke and smells, so I decided I needed a toaster oven and it is brilliant. It is a large one, you can fit two 12” pizzas in it and worth every penny so far. It has a convection oven, so cooks many other things quicker than my big oven and will also broil (grill) bake and has a rotisserie too. I seem to be using it for everything and it does not smoke or smell, great.

Since having the snow shower last week we have finally got a generator which hubby now has to install – very technical and I have no idea, so will say no more about it! Hopefully the next time we are without power, we will be able to use the generator and hardly notice.

We have also been out a purchased some winter coats ready for the colder weather. I just need to get some warm boots and I think we will be kitted out for winter. Whilst looking we noticed come boots advertising that they were good for temperature down to -35C, I hope we won’t need them!

I forgot to mention that we received our medical cards a couple of weeks ago. They arrived a few days before our three-month anniversary of landing. This means we now have all our required paperwork and cards.

Hubby is still working on the basement and now has all the wall studding completed and has hung three French doors. It is amazing how different it looks, even with just that done. It should look great once the walls are completed and the carpet is laid.

Before

During

After

They simply adored her, which is very understandable as she is lovely and cute. Widget also seemed to like them and lapped up all the attention she was getting.

After spending about an hour with us going through everything we had done with her so far regarding vets, training, feeding etc they left with her.

We were very sad to see her go, however we are extremely confident that she has gone to a loving home and that she will continue to thrive there. They have promised to keep in touch and send the odd photo over as she grows. We are glad we turned the other people down, even though they were actually prepared to pay more for her.

Our house was very quiet once she had gone and it will take us a while to get used to her not being around anymore. We had got used to one or other of us being followed around the house by our little red shadow.

Anyway, the basement is progressing. Most of the structure for the walls is now in place, as is one set of French doors. Hubby spent most of yesterday working away and is doing an excellent job.

He is however; constantly bemused by the standard of electrical work he comes across. In a past life he was a qualified electrician, so knows his way around the subject, but stares in utter amazement at some of the ways the work is carried out in Canada. It has not been done wrong by Canadian standards, but apparently some of the techniques used were phased out in the UK fifteen years ago!

Today he aims to do some more to the basement, whilst I will do some baking, which I haven’t really done since being here. I also have to force myself to do some ironing – boring!

Firstly, Widget the puppy is going. We started to advertise her for sale late last week and immediately had a lady very interested. However, after talking to her it became apparent that she was a senior person, as they put it here and we were concerned that she would not be able to give her the exercise she would need in the years to come. The lady agreed that she did not want to be taking a dog for a walk for a couple of hours a day etc. In the end we made the decision that she should not have her, for the sake of the dog.

Then we had another couple wanting her, but were concerned that they worked long hours, however they seemed really nice so we were contemplating allowing them to buy her. However, just as we came to this decision we had another family contact us.

This family consists of a teenage daughter, mother and grandparents. The daughter is the one the dog is for, but her mother works from home so could be with the dog all day and the grandparents also live with them, so she would always have company. This made our decision very simple – they could have her.

I know some of you reading will think that we are mad turning down offers, but we want the right home for her as she is so affectionate and loves human company so much we could not bare the thought of sending her somewhere she would not get the attention she deserves.

The family are coming tonight to collect her. This is a very sad time for us as we have grown to love her so much. She is a delightful puppy and will be a fantastic pet for the family. But this is best for us to protect hubby’s health and for her to make a new start as early in her life as possible.

On to a more light-hearted subject, hubby is in the process of building some walls in the basement to divide the rooms. We are also installing some French doors to allow the light to get to as much of the basement as possible. We are also contemplating the idea of using one room as a hot tub room. We both like the idea of a hot tub, especially as we now don’t have a pool. So, once all the room dividing etc is done we will make the decision about the hot tub.

It is pouring of rain this morning and we had a thunderstorm early today, apparently the rain will be around for the rest of the week – great! Widget hates the rain; she is definitely a fair-weather dog. She takes one looks outside when we go to take her out and if it is raining tries to pull us back in, looking at us as if to say “no, it’s ok, I’ll cross my legs till it stops.” We will miss her.

This is the old stairs

And how they look now

We are also planning on semi-finishing the basement. At the moment the only room finished was set up as a fourth bedroom by the previous owners, but as we don’t need four bedrooms, we use it as an office.

Now the staircase is complete, we want to finish the sunroom area and the area leading from the stairs to the sunroom. We will but in French doors to the large family room and to the sunroom, so it keeps as much light in as possible.

Yesterday it rained heavily all day. According to the weatherman it is the tail end of the tropical storm that hit the US this week. Woke up this morning (Sun) and it is still raining.

Went down to the basement to do some measuring up for the above project and noticed a stream and pool in the main room. This led to one of the outside walls where water is seeping in somewhere.

Hubby is now in the process of pulling the insulation and other stuff off the wall to investigate further. Lets hope it isn’t anything too serious. Will keep you informed.