Bye Bye February

I didn't get a good shot of the mountain of snow in our yard - but I guarantee the kids that wait for the bus there will love it tomorrow. Happy last day of February! No ride today, I walked home:


Admit it, my house looks awesome in the snow:


Here's an angle I've never photographed before!

Checking out Cohen and Cohen in Ottawa

As it is near one of the local reStores, I occasionally check out Cohen and Cohen - their stock comes in waves, sometimes there is so much and sometimes there is not a lot. It's always fun, especially in the summer when you can cruise their outdoor area.

A nice big pile of antique tin ceiling tiles -


Container of hardware (I bought some of these!)


A pile of desks in the style my hub covets...

And finally, the new eaves

So after all that painting and prepping and stuccoing - we finally had our eaves installed by Joel Daniels Eavestroughs in the fall of 2010. They turned out beautifully - they blended in so well that neighbors actually came up and asked me, "I know you did something but I'm not really sure what it was..." Not all changes can be dramatic (or should be, right?) - but for me, this was a big one! You really have to click to get a good look - we had two colours installed, one for the eaves and another for the downspouts. I think they blended really well.



Here they stand out - I plan on putting a rain barrel in right here to water the front gardens. Maybe an old whiskey keg?



Last year we noticed huge piles of snow coming off the roof at high speeds, I was a little concerned that a small avalanche would hit our car. Joel offered up these beautiful snow breakers, replicas of antiques and wrought iron. Expensive but really attractive and they blend right into our roof. So far, no avalanches to report ;)



Of course, we took the time to have the whole house done - and were smart about where we placed the downspouts to ensure that they wouldn't interfere with any deck or fence plans.



The hub really paid attention as well - he actually painted out the white vinyl on the new window in the kitchen as well as the basement window to match. Nice! Next year, the trim around the garage door will get painted out and all of the doors will be done out in a charcoal gray. Should look hot.

That Leather Sofa

The office sofa has been hiding a secret -


This tear, right in the middle. A big one, around ten inches long. I was a bit intimidated by the repair job. Here I stretch out the length, you can see it's also at an angle and involves a button.


My hub ordered a repair kit offline, it arrived with a two inch patch. That wasn't going to work - so I went to thrifting and scored this:


A friend kindly modeled it for me - I went to work harvesting the leather.


Once I had a decent piece, I compared it to the sofa in case I would need to recolour it. The results? A mighty fine match, if I do say so myself. I have to admit that my friend Adria actually spotted the purse ;)


I lightly sanded the purse leather to help bind the glue to the older, more fragile leather.


Adding the glue -


You can see the different patches used to bring it all together. You can see that the patches are sizable, I decided to make them bigger to really strengthen the original leather.


Positioning the patch after gluing


All glued up, you can barely see where the massive rip used to be.


The final shot, perfect! So far, the patch is really holding up. I'm actually impressed by what a little glue can do.


Of course I have a pile of leather from the purse to deal with future wear and tear. This sofa is one of the most admired pieces of furniture in our house and it is so comfy, I have a feeling it will be in our house for a very long time.

FYI - Ottawa Blogs

Just to let you know, I've added a blog list focused on local sites that I follow. Enjoy!

Art Deco Bathroom Design by Robin Muto

I was cruising the internet recently and came across this beautiful bathroom design by Robin Muto in Rochester, New York. I love the bold use of glossy black, the delicate tile line details, the right shade of green, the wonderful vanity lights. All the modern amenities and beautiful period inspired details. Lovely!


There is a detailed blog post about the space here.

Our front path improvement strategy

After our deck got finished, people were quick to comment on how much they liked it. And on the path. Did we notice that the path now went under the deck? Yes, yes we did. I thought there was some sort of master plan between the hub and the builder. Apparently there was, it involved a grinder.


I had my eye on a new path strategy but just no idea on what I wanted it to look like or how it was going to come together (or better yet, how I was going to pay for it...). That said, the path disappearing under the deck got old real fast. So for $30, I went to Lowes and bought some sod -

Voila! Problem solved! Of course, it was a bit of work but in the end it turned out much better than expected.


Lush, pretty new grass. So fast and easy and cheap! I wonder how it will look this spring.


I think my vintage style ghosts for halloween were also pretty awesome.

Toronto visit

In the fall, we took a quick trip to TO to catch up with some friends. On our usual walk abouts, I noticed a number of planters with decorative cabbage:


Nice touch! We also ended up at some random restaurant on Queen Street that had the most amazing doors tucked into the back...


I wish I had taken a picture of the bathrooms, they were amazing.

The cat door

I like houses to be a bit quirky - and of course, when we decided to put a door down to the basement I was faced with the classic cat owner dilema...what to do with the litter box? Put it in the entry? Hide it in the sunroom? To be honest, I still wanted it in the basement, hidden away somewhere. Of course I wasn't thinking about this when I picked the door to the basement - when I was door shopping, I wanted something that would let light in yet provide some level of privacy. So a door with glass - not ideal to add a pet door to. With that in mind, I really had two choices - leave the door open (then why have a door?) or put in a cat door on the wall.

So we put it in the wall! Our new cat door, tucked under our kitchen table:


Interestingly enough, this new 'feature' of our kitchen has been a hit with friends. Especially their small children, who love to chase our cat around and watch him disappear through this door. That and our dog - who also doesn't understand why she can't also use the cat door (she is always trying to stick her head through it). Who knew it would be so amusing?

We were limited in our options of where we could put the door - really, there was only one place. So the hub punched a hole in the wall and trimmed it out:


It's still a bit rough around the edges but we're getting there.


Sunny had never used a cat door before, he wasn't so keen so we bribed him.


And of course that worked like a charm.

The tulip table hunt

A few years ago, I was shopping it up at Mobilia and I noticed a hot tulip table knock-off for $300 (Canadian). Apparently Canadian made...

Now I wasn't ready to buy it, I waited it out - recently, I went back and discovered that they had discontinued it. AHH! I had them search their entire inventory to no avail, it was lame. Long story short, I started an active hunt for this Canadian-made Knock-off. I knew it had to be out there and for that price...

Last night, I was walking through the market with some friends and noticed the SAME TABLE in the window of Zone. It made my whole day - the price? $299. We went back this AM and bought it, I will post pictures.

Anyway! All that to say - I want to post the manufacturing info, in case anyone else out there wants to find an affordable knock-off.

According to the box, it came to Zone via Chair-Tech, a company based in Toronto.

Prepin for New Eaves

So after the garage situation, we realized we needed to do something to deal with the elements coming off of the steep slop of our roof. We decided to finish up the work on the exterior of our house by adding eavestroughs. We called up someone we had seen around the neighborhood, Joel of Joel Daniels Eavestroughs to quote us up. He helped us pick the perfect colour and the right style for our home - and encouraged us to paint out the trim in advance of the install.

We went with his recommendation - Terra Cota Bronze - and started painting at the back:


Right away, I could see that his recommendation was spot in. It was in the same colour grouping as our sunroom and helped bring everything together.

Another indicator that we had a problem was this water stain above our garage:


Not being so great with heights, I was relegated to the ground. My hub did all the painting himself, it was amazing watching him at work.

Of course, the best part was when he had to reach the high spots. He did it with a paint brush extender, well worth the cash we shelled out. The neighbors were also super impressed ;) I think he gained quite the fan club during this activity with neighbors stopping to comment throughout the whole transition.


Without being able to tape off around the trim, it's amazing how great it all turned out...


Now the trim blends and unifies -


Now we're struck trying to figure out what to do about the stain left by the old awning - any suggestions?


It's amazing what a difference it made - now the trim is subtle.

Those awnings, pt 2

So after the new deck was in, the supports for the door awning were gone. We knew that for safety, it had to come down. The hub tried to pull the screws out, we assumed it would be easy to come down. Yeah, no. So I suggested that we cut it off and the hub started a-cuttin. About half way through, I realized that it was kind of awkward to manage - thankfully a neighbor walked by just in time!


Becky saves the day, in her work clothes no less! With her help, the awning was finally off. We left it in the middle of our lawn for days, just because we could. The hub was stuck with the tedious job of getting what was left off.

He managed - but of course, it left a mark. Any suggestions on how to eliminate??


We also took this opportunity to take down the remaining awnings:


With the awnings gone, the red trim really started to disappear.