Home Makeover

We've been moved in for about a month now and things are slowly coming together the way we want them to be. We've sort of decided in our month of reno's that I stick to the details like painting and Chris sticks to the handy man stuff like installing and that has worked out well. We've finished two bedrooms upstairs and the bathroom downstairs, fixed up a corner in the family room and repainted, I painted many doors and trim and Chris put new handles and knobs on doors, new light fixtures on the ceilings and new closet organizers in two closets. I think we're on a good pace for getting it all done by Christmas but we shall see. Things have been pretty busy doing stuff with the house but we've also had some time to enjoy it with having friends over to watch Riders games and to just hang out. Having a ping pong table and the Wii definitely draws people to our house too but that's alright with us. I haven't been getting too much work these days, I guess people aren't getting very sick anymore but I've been using my time to fix the house up so that's working out okay. Although I would like to have some more work just to keep me on my toes with teaching. Chris is busy these days coaching the Grade 9 boys basketball team but is really enjoying the group of guys that he has to work with. He also put up our first set of Christmas lights the other day, let's just say they're Rider green, gotta bring a little bit of SK to BC. Not much else is new around here, pretty much our house consumes our life at this point but hopefully by Christmas we'll be able to relax a little more and just enjoy all the hard work we put into it. Now for some pictures, the first is the last wedding I did this year, it was on Chris' birthday but I didn't have to do the reception so we were still able to have a party in the evening. They turned out well and the fall colours definitely made some of the pictures even better. Then what you've all be waiting for... the before and after shots of some of our finished rooms. You'll have to wait and see for more to come.

William and Jessica: October 17, 2009


Our stuff all packed up and ready to move

The first thing Chris was concerned with, setting up the TV

THE BEDROOM
The bedroom before, a nice pinkish tone

The painting is finished

New queen bed is set up

So much more room to sleep!

Another view


Facing the bathroom and closet

Closet before, this nice yellow tinge was the original colour of all the walls in the house

Setting up the new organizer

The finished product, this colour will be the colour of our hallway too

THE OFFICE
Before: Mint green and white walls, with a lovely floral wallpaper border on the top (which I ripped down before the picture)

Handyman at work putting in new door handles

Dad putting up the new chair rail, which used to be in our bedroom

Room is ready to be moved into


Our new desk and drawers

Bookshelf and new closet

Another look

THE BATHROOM
Before: Nice blue tiles and pink paint over flowered wallpaper


Tiles are ripped off, time to mud the walls

Plumbing time

Freshly painted walls, the same colour our living/dining room will be

New light fixture and tap

Refinished cupboard doors with new handles

So there you have it, all the work we've done so far. Well, we've also finished our family room but I'm waiting for some prints to come in so I can hang them up so pictures will have to wait on that room. But we're pretty happy with the results of what we've done so far, now just three more parts of the house to go!

Working Woman

I think fall has finally arrived. It's getting darker and cooler at night and a little more nippy outside. That's okay though because that means we're getting closer to moving! Things are coming together for moving, my mom seems to be almost all packed up and we'll start packing maybe next week. I went over there last weekend and even started ripping wallpaper and moulding down from rooms that we want to paint. Another exciting thing that has happened lately is I have been working! I've worked the past four school days at two different Christian schools, one in Chilliwack and one in Abbotsford. Not being on the public district TOC list doesn't seem to be a problem so far. It's been really great to actually get back into a class and do what I got an education to do. I've even had one kid tell me that I was a great substitute teacher so that's a good sign.

A few weeks ago we went out to Cultus to see my brother and his new dog Keila. She is part border collie and part lab and very full of energy. We may help take care of her once we have a house that she can come to when my brother is at work. We also took some family pictures while we were at his house seeing as how the last one was at our wedding.





Last weekend a bunch of us headed to Vancouver for the Riders vs. Lions football game. It was fun being there with everyone but not such an exciting game to watch. The last two minutes were great but other than that, not worth paying money to see.


Another thing that I have been working on is my website. I wanted to update it for a while and since I had a whole bunch of time before I started working that's just what I did. There may be a few kinks to work out still, like some pictures that show up blurry, but it's pretty much how I want it to be. Go check it out, you may even be on it somewhere!

Square One Photography

Weddings Galore

I only have one more wedding shoot this year and have finished editing until then. Coming back from Europe I started editing Ryan and Randi's pictures so they would be done before my next wedding. I got them edited and mailed off the day before my next wedding. I wanted to make sure that they got to see them first before putting them up here but now that they've seen them the rest of you can too. I was really happy with how they turned out and I think they were too.

Ryan and Randi - July 25, 2009

My last wedding I did was on the brink of rain all day but it held off and we were able to get some great photos. I spent the whole day with this couple from the morning into the night at the reception. They also turned out good which is great both for me and them.

Justin and Janice - September 5, 2009

Other than weddings I have been trying to get my foot in the door at schools to TOC. Since the public school districts are taking their sweet time to interview and hire I went out to some Christian schools and got on their TOC lists. I've gotten on Unity Christian in Chilliwack and MEI in Abbotsford but I can't officially TOC there until my certificate comes in which is also taking longer than I hoped. So basically I'm waiting around hoping to put my education to use. Pretty frustrating to not be able to work when I'm done everything and ready to teach. Hopefully they'll be more progress next week and I'll be getting some work.

As for moving news, my mom has started to pack up her house, listed things for sale and bought new things for their condo. Trying to get rid of 28 years worth of stuff can be a bit tricky. As for us, we haven't been too busy with thinking about that yet since we don't have as much stuff to move or get rid of. We're pretty excited though to move into the house and fix it up to make it our own.