new house!

Photo by my friend Walter.

(Today's Blatherpics were all taken at our new house. Click on any image for a larger version as well as comments. )

So the house is officially ours!

As petals from the crab apple tree branches above fell softly all around us, we had our last meeting with the previous owner on the back deck of the house, chatting about last-minute details.

And then she gave us the key.

Jeff sweeping our front walk.

While Jeff drove her to where she was staying with a friend, I found myself alone in our new house for the first time. I wandered from room to room, ecstatic in the luxury of being able to explore as much as I wanted to and for as long as I desired. When Jeff got back, it felt so strange (and wonderful) to greet him at the front door.

Jeff's dad and my sister and her family came to visit later in the day. we told our nieces that they were allowed to explore anywhere in the house, open any drawer and closet, and they didn't have to take their shoes off since messy renovations start Monday anyway. They were quite delighted.

On our back deck(!). Photo by Walter.

We ended up meeting almost ALL of our neighbors that first day because several happened to be around when we dropped off our note (introducing ourselves, letting them know about the upcoming renovations), or they came to visit us in our new house to welcome us, or saw us chatting on the street with other neighbours and came over to say hi. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.

Jeff and I slept over on an air mattress in our new bedroom that first evening, hanging some blankets over the window to block out the light. It was pretty comfy, at least until the air leaked out through a small hole sometime during the night and we found ourselves sleeping on the hard floor. We were too excited to care.

Forgot to mention: Jeff carried me across the threshold of our new house. It's the very first house we've owned, after all.

:-)

Walter and Jeff.

Quite a few friends came to visit on Saturday to offer their congrats, check out our new place, help out with some of the reno prep. It was heartwarming to see Walter start to hammer stuff down in my office right away, and also helped Jeff carry our washer and dryer from an upstairs cupboard to the basement. We're going to turn that upstairs space into a closet instead.

Seeing so many friends and family in our house made it seem far less empty. :-) Received some phonecalls and text messages of congrats from family and friends including my Dad, Dave Clement and Mark Osier (from Marcon). And we got our first piece of snailmail (!), a card from my mom-in-law.

Went out for dinner with Luisa and Reid.

Going back today, just for the day. Jeff's pulling up carpet (possibly with Walter's help) and I want to water some of the plants. Found out yesterday that we have a white lilac tree! (Karin told me) And lily of the valley! (Luisa told me, and warned me they spread like crazy)

I suspect the first year is going to be a year of discovery in the garden for me.

:-)

It's going to be SOOOOOO hard, not being able to move in right away, I can tell already. But at least it's ours, and we can drop by whenever we'd like. I plan on going at least several times a week, to check on mail and on the garden.

More new house pics and blather next week. You can see photos from this weekend in this Flickr photo set; I'll be adding to it later today, I'm sure.


YAY, WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!


Photo by Jeff.

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WE GET OUR HOUSE TODAY!

So the countdown is over ... we get our house TODAY.

Jeff and I met with our lawyer yesterday afternoon to sign the final papers. I asked him when the house would be legally ours, exactly. Midnight last night? Tonight? He told me it would depend when the seller's lawyer received and processed our payment, which would be couriered this morning. He said he would to call our cell phones when it was official.

And he promised to call my cell phone first. :-)

But even if he doesn't call yet, Jeff and I are meeting the current owner at noon today to get the key and say good-bye. Seemed too impersonal to do the final exchange through our lawyers, especially after we've gotten to know (and quite like) the owner over the past months; we plan to keep in touch.

Jeff and I have decided to sleep over tonight in the empty house, just because we have to. We've borrowed an air mattress and will also bring some bedding and other essentials. Like toilet paper! Champagne! Chocolate! No DSL or phone lines yet, so I will likely not be posting again until Sunday or early next week.

Renovations start on Monday morning and are expected to last about six weeks; Jeff and I will probably end up moving in somewhere around the middle of July. We'll be visiting the house pretty regularly before then, of course, to check on renovations, mail, the garden, etc.

Speaking of mail, I've opened up a P.O. Box. for several reasons, not the least of which is security (e.g. public domain WHOIS info, etc.). Anyway, I'm also going to start a Flickr postcard set as well as putting some postcards up in my New Office...so if you find yourself near a postcard rack sometime in the future, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd consider sending one my way:

Debbie Ridpath Ohi
34 Eglinton Ave. West
PO Box 189
Toronto, ON M4R 2H6
Canada

Only four and a half hours until we get the key to our new house! I had trouble sleeping last night; I was too hyped.

We get our house TODAY, woohoo!

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one day more!

The photo above was taken back in March, posted in a Blatherings entry one day before we found The House. The papers are all printouts of listings that Jeff and I were going to be looking at that weekend with our immensely patient real estate agent goddess, Kathy Gordon. As you can read in the above entry, I was starting to get a bit down about how long the process seemed to be taking. The experience was so worth the stress and hassle, though.

The house we ended up with was the first house that Jeff and I both fell in love with right away, and I liked the location more than any of the houses we had seen so far (including the ones we looked at several years ago).

I can't believe we get our house tomorrow.

TOMORROW.

I'm seeing Jodi and Allison tonight; I am going to try very very hard not to talk about the house too much.

Recently received a fun housewarming gift in e-mail from Gary McGath, which I'm posting below with Gary's permission:

ONE WEEK!

Quince tree blossoms, in our (future) NEW GARDEN.

Jeff and I had our last official house visit yesterday, along with (for varying intervals) our real estate agent, Jeff's mom, contractor and his assistant, carpet measure guy from Elte, bank assessment guy. I spent a great deal of time standing in what will be my basement office, mentally planning the layout.

Japanese maple beside our house.

The garden has changed so much since I saw it a few weeks ago. The big Japanese maple beside the house was a gorgeous red, and several of the flowers in the garden were blooming.

I'm pretty hyped about doing gardening again but I'm also realizing we have ZERO gardening gear except for the gloves and other items that Allison gave me for my birthday back in March (thanks, Allison!). Definitely need things like a shovel, rake, watering can, etc.

Bleeding heart flower.

Only SEVEN DAYS until we get possession of our new house. One week. I can't believe it. Seems like ages since we put our condo up for sale, then the whole househunting process. It's been five months since I packed up most of my home office. Driving me crazy, having to buy office supplies I KNOW are packed in our storage locker.

We won't be officially moving in until after the renovations are completed, but will be going over to the house quite frequently.

Obsessively, more like it. :-)

SEVEN DAYS.

I'm trying very hard not to gush here. Fact is, I'm so excited that my head might explode. Really. I'm not kidding. I'm thinking about spreading out a tarp just in case. But of course I can't let my head explode, because then I wouldn't be around for when we get possession of our new house.

In one week.

Okay, I'll stop now.

Not sure what kind of flower this is, but it's in our NEW GARDEN.

Going to see Revenge of the Sith later this afternoon with Ruth and my nieces, then hanging out with Allison in the evening. Yes, I know ROTS will likely be mediocre at best...but I'm excited anyway! As Allison said in her blog, "you only get to see a new Star Wars movie in the theatre six times in your life :-)."

I'll probably be offline for the next few days (it's a long weekend in Canada, eh?). Have a great weekend, everyone!

Photo below: I took this through one of my favourite windows in our new house; you can see the Japanese maple outside. I love how this looks like a painting:

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Internet and productivity

Collab entry for Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Nutrition"
(What can I say? I felt like drawing a robot. :-) )

Thanks so much to Walter for pointing me to various maps of Toronto Parks and Trails as well as the Discovery Walks in response to yesterday's Blathering. And thanks to Kate for explaining how to get to Edwards Gardens from our new house via the trails; I realize now where I took a wrong turn.

Made Gingered Shrimp with Soba last night, a recipe from one of the Moosewood Cookbooks. Turned out pretty well; so far I have yet to try a Moosewood recipe I haven't liked. I found the recipe online, if anyone's interested.

I recently posted a poll asking how people with constant Internet access stayed productive and minimized their time online. I've been experimenting with a 5-minute timer, and so far it's been working well. Whenever I take a break to check e-mail or "just check a fact", the timer keeps me aware of how much time is passing.

Anyway, here are some of the responses to my poll: