Renovation Pictures #2 - Living Room & Dining Room

Here are before and after pictures from the living room and dining room:

Dining Room and Living Room - Before

Dining Room - we did not keep this chandelier. It is a big space - big enough for the dining room furniture from our home.

Living Room before we reduced the size of the living room on the west side by building a fireplace/tv wall with a storage room accessible from the bedroom behind the fireplace wall.

 

Taken from west side of living room towards dining room.  We put in hardwood flooring and area rugs. 

 

Dining Room & Living Room - After

 

We have a new drum style chandelier

 

This is our existing living room furniture from the house, just all recovered and with new toss cushions

 

This shows the new fireplace/tv wall we built on the west side of the living room.  The new storage room is behind this wall and the master bedroom is beyond the storage room.

Settled into our New Home #1 - Renovations to Front Hall and Kitchen

It has been ten months now since we moved into our new condo home and we are loving it.  Renovations continued into the first two months after we moved in because of backorders for certain things, such as light fixtures, countertops, mirrors, shower glass, but we lived through it. Seemed like we had six sub-contractors there every day in August and September 2014.

As friends and family know, 2014 was a very difficult year for us, and I got behind on so many things including blogging.  But now we are feeling relaxed, have more time and are enjoying our new neighbourhood.

I want to share some before/after renovation pictures.  Here are some:

Front Entry Hall - before

Entrance - what we saw when we opened the front door of the suite

 

and after:

 

Kitchen & Eating Area - before

 

 

Left side of kitchen looking towards the dining room and living room.  We took out the old fridge and opened up that wall so you have a view into the dining room.

 

Left side of the kitchen looking towards the dining room and living room.

Kitchen eating area at the east end of the kitchen.  Small balcony here with sliding doors.

 

 

Kitchen & Eating Area - After

 

Taken from the dining room looking into the kitchen towards the east.  See eating area at the end.

 

Also taken from the dining room looking into the kitchen. We had a TV installed in the eating area - very convenient.

 

 

This is the eating area looking out onto the small balcony.

 

 

This is taken from the eating area, through the kitchen, towards the dining room (you can see the drum chandelier in the dining room)

 

 

More pictures to come in the next blog.

 

Cherry Trees in Bloom at St. Moritz

Our condo is surrounded by cherry trees in bloom - a gorgeous pink fluffy display! Have to enjoy them while they last.

Sold our Home of 33 Years

Yesterday, just four days after listing, we sold our home of over 33 years.  We expect to move to our Kerrisdale condo in June. Many, many wonderful memories of our life here: summer barbecues, our family enjoying the swimming pool and garden, parties to celebrate engagements, weddings and special birthdays. Plus all the redecorating, renovating and upgrading we did to make this our perfect home.

But we are getting older and it is time to move to another phase of our life, a more carefree one. Here are pictures of us putting up the "sold" sign.

Cheryl, our wonderful agent, who made this happen for us.

 

 

 

Dylan studying and socializing in Ottawa

Our nephew, Dylan, is studying at the University of Ottawa this year and is learning lots about political life.  Yesterday morning  he was in Parliament:

and in the evening he attended an event at the Russian Embassy.  Here is a picture of him with a special guest, former PM Jean Chretien, who just celebrated his 80th birthday:

Life is sure different for university students now than it was in my day!

New Year's Day Dinner

Had a great dinner tonight at Linda's home, with all the family there.  Linda ordered Chinese food which Ken picked up from the Peaceful Chinese Restaurant on West 4th Avenue, including their  noodles, Hot & Sour Soup, and several chicken and beef dishes, and their famous Beef Rolls (picture below).  Very good.

 

Great to have all the nephews together before Sam leaves tomorrow to go back to Oxford, Teddy goes back to engineering at UBC and Chris goes back to work with his Dad. Here they are:

 

Visiting Aunt Dorothy

This morning Neil and I went to visit my Aunt Dorothy (my father's sister) at Summerhill Retirement Residences in North Vancouver where she has lived for nearly a year.  We also joined her for lunch in the dining room. Aunt Dorothy turned 88 years old in 2013 and is still sharp and beautifully dressed. Here is Aunt Dorothy in the dining room:

 

It is a lovely retirement facility for independent living; she is very happy there.  The public areas of the residence were beautifully decorated for Christmas, making everything look festive for the residents.

 

As a young girl I have so many memories of my Aunt Dorothy - she lived with her mother (my grandmother) for a few years before she married Ed and moved to Vancouver in 1961.  When I visited my grandmother during summer vacations in the late 1950's, I remember being in awe of the racks of pierced earrings and rows and rows of high heeled shoes in Dorothy's bedroom.  She was so sophisticated and elegant!

 

Here is Aunt Dorothy as a young woman (holding me).

 

 

Treated Myself to Some New Books

Went to Buchan's, a small, but great, bookstore in Kerrisdale and bought four new books to read in the New Year:

First:  "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton, winner of the 2013 Man Booker prize, which has outstanding reviews. The story is based in New Zealand, so that should bring back memories of our trip there.  From the jacket cover:  "Richly atmospheric and brilliantly constructed, 'The Luminaries' is a fiendishly clever ghost story and a gripping page-turner in which readers will gladly lose themselves.  It confirms Eleanor Catton's reputation as one of the most exciting and boldly inventive writers at work today".

Second:  Bill Bryson's "At Home" - the illustrated edition.  I had borrowed it from the library about a year ago and started to read it but didn't have time to finish it.  I found the history fascinating, so decided to buy it to allow me a leisurely read, and then add it to my home library. From the book cover: "A fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home".

Third: "Unexploded" by Alison Macleod, which was long listed for the 2013 Man Booker prize. Based in May 1940 in Brighton in wartime Britain.

Fourth:  "The War that Ended Peace" - The Road to 1914, by Margaret MacMillan. From the jacket cover: "A masterpiece of narrative non-fiction, a fascinating portrait of Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I."  Margaret MacMillan also wrote "Paris, 1919".

 

Should be an interesting few months reading two novels and two non-fiction histories. Better than shopping for clothes during the Boxing Day Sales!

 

Turkey is done!

Turkey is cooked and looks gorgeous - hope it tastes wonderful.  Just going to carve it and then we are taking all the food to Linda's home for dinner.  I also made Pecan Oatmeal Crusted Yams, Mashed Potatoes & Turnip Fluff! 

 

 

 

Ken is doing the carrots and brussels sprouts and Linda has done lots of baking. Looking forward to being with family.

Fortunately my nephew Chris arrived just in time and carved the turkey for me:

Had a wonderful dinner!

Movie: "Philomena" with Judi Dench

Bonnie & I went to see the movie "Philomena" staring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan yesterday at the Park.  It had excellent, well deserved, reviews.

It was based on the true story of Philomena Lee as told in the book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee" by Martin Sixsmith.

 

It tells the story from the perspective of the older Philomena Lee with in flashbacks to her youth, when as an unmarried young woman she was placed into Roscrea, an Catholic convent in Ireland which "specialized" in taking in these women in need, helping them with the birth of their babies, and then finding adopted homes for them, in this case with Catholic families in the US.

She spent 50 years looking for her son, Anthony Lee, and with the help of Martin Sixsmith, a former journalist and former investigative reporter, traced him to Washington DC.  They discovered that he had been renamed "Michael Hess" by his adoptive family and had worked in the Reagan administration.  Unfortunately, Michael had died of AIDS but Martin was able to track down Michael's former partner, Peter, who met with them to talk about Michael and to show them a video.

This video revealed that Michael had gone back twice over the years as an adult to the convent n Ireland seeking information about his birth mother, which the nuns refused to give to him.  Little knowing that his mother and her new family lived not far away.

Michael chose to be buried at Roscrea in the hopes his birth mother would some day find him, which of course she did many years after his death.  His grave site:

 

A very powerful and moving movie revealing the many injustices inflicted on unwed mothers at that time.  I do recommend seeing it.