Little Missy and houses

As many (if not all) of the people who read this blog know, our little Missy hit a big snag last week.
She has lived with kidney failure for more than 4.5 years, and has remained relatively stable and complication free.
But last week, that ended.
She developed a blood clot due to an enlarged heart. Her heart is likely enlarged because of high blood pressure that in turn is caused by her kidney failure.

I cannot say I am not worried about her every minute. She is still not entirely herself. She is eating more than she was but it's still not a ton and it's not the specially formulated kidney food. Our little fuss pot turned her nose up at both offerings so now she's eating basically junk food for cats. But it's food and she is so skinny any calories are good.

My criteria for her are that she is eating, and that I can get her to purr and give me kisses. So far it seems those are still happening but not the way they used to be. Her front paw, which was affected by the clot, I think has improved but is still not working properly. Watching her limp her way around the house is very difficult.
She has no trouble jumping around, and can get on and off the bed and on and off her favourite nap spots.

During the day, when we are at work, she is relegated to the upstairs in part to keep her from tackling the stairs, and in part to keep Leo from eating her food.

For now we wait and hope for the medications she is on to do their thing and hopefully keep her with us for some time to come. And I am desperately trying not to think how near the end is for my little girl.

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Amid all of this we had our first sanctioned tour of the new house. It was the pre-drywall electrical and framing tour.
Of course it was the coldest day of the freaking year! I think it was -18 when we left home. Today it's 12 above. Go figure.
Oh well. It was still fun.

We walked around once with a guy marking down locations for phone jacks, cable and data outlets, and central vac outlets and built in speakers. A second, longer walk through was with the electrical guy where we pointed out locations for light switches, wall plugs and ceiling lights.
Finally we got to warm up by the propane-powered heater in the basement while we went over our interior finish selections with the site manager. He was awesome, and the house is way ahead of schedule. It's very likely we might get in in July!

I'm going to try again to post some photos. Blogger has not been cooperating lately so we shall see if I can load any of them.

Our street

                                                                Master bedroom

Third bedroom

Ensuite bath

Basement

Kitchen/Breakfast room

Great room

 

Guest room

 

 Main bath

Shh. . .don't tell

Chad and I had our final appointment at the design centre yesterday and signed off on all our choices for the interior finishes of our new house.

Floors, wall colours, door styls, cabinet hardware, you name it! There are about 100 things on the list - some are upgrades and extra costs, many are not.

Our biggest splurges are to add hardwood floors to the kitchen and breakfast room, up the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. Our quartz countertops in the kitchen were pretty pricey but worth it IMO. Beyond that most of the upgrades are small but add up fast! Some decorative tile in the ensuite shower bath. A better tile for the kitchen backsplash. Some extra pot lights and electrical outlets and capped outlets for future lights where there weren't supposed to be any.

On Monday we went to visit the house and with it being a holiday here there were no workers and we got to sneak inside for a peak. It is pretty cool seeing it taking shape inside now as well. They have many of the plumbing rough-ins completed, the ductwork is starting to go in, and you can definitely tell where all the rooms are going to be. When you look up to the second floor all you see is a maze of wooden beams! We did not climb the ladder to walk around on the second floor. We won't do that until the staircase is in.

We will get a chance to do a walk-through with the electrical team before the drywall goes up to point to the specific locations we'd like light switches and electrical outlets etc. So we'll get to go upstairs at that point as I expect that won't be scheduled until there are stairs both up and down.

But here are some of the photos we took on Monday.

Houses and Guitars

We had a 40th birthday party to go to on the weekend. It was the fourth 40th in four months. Sort of odd to be attending 40th birthdays for our friends! I still sort of feel like my parents should be only 40.

I've still got a few years to go but Chad's high school friends are all turning 40 this year so the march of parties continues. The next one is Feb. 24.

I made the birthday boy (can you still be a boy when you're 40?) his cake. It was a surprise party so he had no say in the matter. His wife said his favourite cake is chocolate so I went with a Devil's Food Cake. It actually turned out way moister than I anticipated. Have to say it was pretty darn good!



To ensure there was enough dessert I also added in two dozen cupcakes.

Poor Chad spent the entire day doing dishes. There was icing from one end of the kitchen to the other. I am happy to say though that the teal food dye stain on my favourite sweatshirt actually came out. I was quite surprised.

Today was house visiting day. In a week they've now wrapped the entire house with Tyvec house wrap paper. There are still shingles to go onto the garage roof but the rest of the roof is now shingled. We walked around to the back for the first time in over a month and we can now really get a sense of how big our backyard is going to be. Which is actually not very big at all. But will have enough space for a deck and a small garden so that's all I need!

I was feeling quite domestic after that so I bought the fixings for a real Sunday dinner and when Chad got home from the office (he had to work on a Sunday) there was roast beef with gravy, whipped cauliflower, asparagus, baked sweet potato fries and garlic bread waiting for him. And leftover cupcakes for dessert. Not really a weight Watchers meal but yummy nonetheless.

Six months of marital bliss

Can it really already be six months since the wedding?

Can it really only be six months since the wedding?

I am still gobsmacked sometimes to think that I am in fact, married, and that the wedding wasn't just a dream.

But the glow that continues to surround us proves it was all real.

Last year at this time we were just getting into the nitty gritty of wedding planning - the flowers and the invitations and the cake. The wedding itself seemed so far away. But the time flew by as have the six months since.

Time really does fly when you are having fun.

We celebrated today by meeting with a mortgage specialist to discuss some financing options for the new house. Which I am happy to report now has windows, a roof and a front door! They are rolling despite the snow and freezing rain we've been having.

We have made most of our selections for interior finishes, including the kitchen layout and design. Just some small details to finalize there. Next week we meet with the electricsl contractor to discuss wiring options and lighting and other such things. Not the sexiest of choices to make. It important ones nonetheless. Putting a light switch in the wrong spot can annoy you forever!

Winter blahs and miscellany

The end of January really blows.

I know this year winter was late but I'm already tired of it. The freezing rain cycle we seem to be in really sucks. The thick layers of snow and ice on the driveway and the front walk and the front steps are treachourous and annoying.

It makes me want to curl up in a ball under the covers and not come out until the daffodils do.

I did embrace winter a couple of times so far. We went skating twice - once on a neighbourhood rink near my sister-in-law's and once on the Rideau Canal. I felt incredibly Canadian to skate on the canal, chug some hot chocolate and indulge in a beaver tail.

But now I'm kind of over it. Ready for spring. And clear sidewalks. And not worrying about the car getting stuck in the driveway.

The groundhog gets to do his thing later this week. If he sees his shadow I might just burrow down into that hole with him for awhile.

*****

It seldom ceases to amaze me how some people can coast through the day as if nobody else has anywhere else to be.

There are occasionally really nice people who spot you in the grocery line with two items and let you sneak ahead of them with their two full carts of groceries. Those people are the yielders in life, the ones who make sure not to hog the whole sidewalk and wait their proper turn at a four-way stop.

Then there are the non-yielders. Often these are also just the truly clueless. The rest are simply rude.
This afternoon I snuck downstairs for a post-Question Period caffeine fix (yes it can and does put me into a coma - Question Period that is, not the caffeine), and was pleased to see only a small line at the Starbucks in our building. Sometimes the line is out the door. Today there were just three people ahead of me.

Plenty of time to decide what I wanted, read a few messages on my blackberry, check out the new coffee they have for sale.

Apparently the pony-tailed woman in front of me isn't used to using line-waiting time to determine her order. Who knows what the heck she was doing in the five minutes or so she waited but it wasn't deciding what she wanted to order nor was it getting her payment ready. No she saved those activities for when she got to the till. And hemmed and hawed over her drink purchase. Then proceeded to take several minutes to peruse the salad and sandwich offerings in the cooler.

When she finally decided, she then proceeded to want to pay with exact change. From the bottom of her humongous purse. It was like someone was pulling my nails out with tweezers as I watched her keep reaching into her big Prada bag (yes I stood there so long I even noted what kind of purse she was carrying!) and pull out another nickel and a dime and a penny. Oh and another penny.

I seriously wanted to dump her coffee on her head.

Building progress

We stopped by our house site this afternoon and my gosh what a surprise again!

Less than a month after the start of construction and they are already finished the framing for the main floor! We have windows in the basement, the partitions indicating where rooms are going to go on the main floor, even the visual of a front entrance!

It's so exciting to see it taking shape. It of course feels and looks much smaller than it will when it's finished, but it was definitely fun to see it today.

We followed our visit with a trip to the design centre to try and nail down some more choices for our interior finishes. We have another appointment with our designer next week and have to start making some decisions about the bathrooms and kitchen.

Here are photos of the progression.

The lot - September 2011

The foundation is in and curing - Dec. 18, 2011

Here comes the wood Dec. 22, 2011

Ladies and gentleman - we have walls - Jan. 8, 2011

In front of the garage.

View from the back.

These will be the family room windwos.

Outside what will be patio doors and the kitchen.

Happy New Year

It's probably not a great thing to start the new year off with indigestion.

A delicious Indian meal cooked by a friend followed by a performance at the NAC of Blue Man Group left both Chad and I reaching for the Rolaids last night. It was delicious food. A so-so show with some funny moments but many bizarre "I don't get it" moments for me. But I'm pretty sure the food and not the show were what upset my stomach. (Even if the use of a scope that went right into the body of one of the audience members in the front row made me queasy).

Regardless it was nice to start the new year with fun and friendship. We spent New Year's Eve with good friends playing games and eating great food. We should all be so lucky.

Now comes New Year's Resolution time. Which for me means jumping off the post-wedding gluttony train and jumping back on the diet and exercise train. Which means the bacon cheddar potato pie recipe I made for New year's Eve dinner is going back into the vault like a Disney movie which only makes and appearance once in a blue moon. It was delicious but was aptly nicknames "heart attack pie" by Sylvain.

A friend posted a Facebook suggestion on Saturday noting she was going to do a 30-day challenge to try and incorporate 30 minutes of activity every day for 30 days. I think it's immensely doable and I am going to follow suit.

Activity can be anything really. Yesterday I spent two hours cleaning the house. It counts. I need to spend at least two  more hours before I'm satisfied with the state of the house because it needs a good scrubbing and two hours yesterday didn't even finish the main floor. (Remind me again why we're building a bigger house?)

So day one of the 30-minutes a day challenge is complete.

Tonight we have a dance class so that is something but I'm hoping to fit in a Wii Active workout before then. Kick it up a notch.  And maybe get in some more cleaning. I'm actually working today so have some things to do there before any exercise and cleaning and dancing can commence. But it's a slow news day (so much so that I have received no emails for work since 6:14 a.m.) so it will be a research day and one I can mix in a little exercise at least.

Breaking the New Year's resolution on day one would definitely be worse than ringing in the New Year with indigestion.