Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Weekend in Review #1

We've noticed that as a result of having a very energetic dog, one side effect is that we walk around our neighbourhood much more than we would if we didn't have a dog.  We're blessed with an awesome dog park less than 2km away from our house, and during our hike, we were greeted by this very friendly tree:




Which boded quite well for the weekend.  Our neighbourhood friendly tree was featured on: http://blog.spontaneoussmiley.com/?p=9584 .  Way to go Ottawa!

On Saturday, our usual antics were enriched by the company of our friend Dan and his side kick Barclay.  Once again, we were off to our favourite park, but this time, with our cross country skis AND the dogs!



The car ride went rather smoothly, thanks to Barclay's supervision of the backseat passengers:


The cross country skiing went remarkably well, considering how much of a gong show it could have been with two energetic puppies, but they stayed near us, and were troopers despite the lack of treats being dolled out.  Our outdoor adventure was  cut short, due to the -20 degree weather, and the biting wind.  

On Sunday, we slept in for a whopping 30 minutes, and by the time we got downstairs, Poseidon left us a little reminder of why he doesn't let us sleep in.... In the afternoon, we realized that we had run out of dog food, so off we went to our local pet shop to pick up our usual 60lb bag of dog food.  You'll note in the picture, that the bag is so huge, Thomas couldn't even close off his backpack.



After solving the mystery of why the water in our dishwasher kept shutting off, and fixing it, we decided to make our new dishwasher more aesthetically pleasing by mounting a front on it (truth be told
I bet Ikea never thought of selling plywood as a cabinet door.  Shabby chic?


We had to replace our old ceiling lamp in the living room.  It had emphysema or something from the 30+ years of smoke that it had been exposed to.  We found this great replacement at the Home depot.  You can find a similar one here .


One more trip to the dog park with the cross country skis, (it was fairly dark out already, and Poseidon prefers not to be seen in his winter jacket) and that was our weekend.


Thursday, January 12, 2012

Things our dog knows #1 & early reno projects


We got a puppy in May, and since then, our days haven't really been the same.  I think we can finally say that we have successfully house trained him, and I think he can finally say that he's whipped us into much better and regular shape.  Symbiotic relationship?  

As we've finally got settled into our new home, we've been slowly wrapping our brains around fix it projects and we've been exploring our new surroundings.  To Poseidon's pleasure, we've discovered a new dog park, complete with a huge field, a cross country ski path that outlines the perimeter along with a gorgeous forested area.  I'm not sure who was more pleased with the discovery of our new local dog park.  It seems as though most of his new furry friends are very well behaved, and we haven't been too concerned about aggressive dogs (our concern about Poseidon's recall is another thing).  

We were surprised to see that our dog actually knew his way home after our third or fourth visit at the park.  We were walking down our street, and he stopped in front of the house as though to say, hey guys, I know what we're doing next - we're going home!  Our dog knows the way home.

Another thing that he knows is that sleeping on the (unplugged) circular saw is a great way to relax after supervising reno projects.



Apart from unpacking, there were very few pressing projects that we had to tackle immediately, but one we couldn't put off was our kitchen light.  Our old light fixture was from 1970, and barely made a difference when we turned it on.  It was time to go.  My favourite reno-man took to the project with the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning.  And just like Christmas morning, there were some unexpected surprises - electrical surprises!  Surprises which resulted in more trips to Rona for merrets, electrical boxes and electrical tape.  A larger hole in the ceiling later, and some drywall snow



and some supervision from our favourite canine pal,



the new kitchen light was installed!  




Granted, there IS a giant hole in ceiling, but we'll fix that after the electrical, insulation and kitchen reno are done!

Next up on the list was the dishwasher.  Our old one was dated, and in need of replacement.  We were worried that it would eat our dishes alive.  After a(nother) trip to Ikea, we picked out our dishwasher.  We know that eventually, when we do our full kitchen reno, we'd like to put a panel on the front, so we went ahead and bought a compatible dishwasher.  In the meantime, we're just using the front that it has - an ugly front, but a FUNCTIONAL dishwasher!  Everyone is happy!




Poseidon found a good use for the dishwasher box...

And last but not least, we figured that it was time to get a headboard, so once again, my favourite reno-man jumped to the occasion.  We went to Ikea and the As-Is section had the perfect returned plank of stained wood.  After some measuring, cutting, 2x4 assemblage, Chicago screws, and a wee bit of assembly, we had a new headboard!








More housing adventures to come!