My Ben makes me laugh more in a day than I ever though possible - even when he's sleeping he can entertain me like no one I've ever known!
My Ben is a sleep talking man. It doesn't happen every night (that I'm aware of) but now and then I just happen to be awake enough to catch the hilarity, and at times I'm even the cause of some of his sleepy banter, which was the case the other night.
Ben can fall asleep at the drop of a hat - where as it takes me a good 15-45 minutes to fall asleep. Part of the reason for this, is Ben's unfortunate ability to wake up at 6:40am every single morning, no matter where we are, and how late we stayed up the night before - where as, until something wakes me, I will sleep solid. So on weekends when Ben gets up to play video games at 7am I snooze until 9am - thus making it easier for him to sleep in the evening, and me, not so much. So on those "falling asleep" occasions I often bring my lap top to bed with me to kill some time before I start feeling sleepy, while Ben snoozes beside me. This often means I also have my bedside table lamp on - which can interupt Ben's sleep patterns.
The other night I was on my lap top, and Ben had been fast asleep on his side facing away from me for a good 20 minutes when suddenly he started trying to get up and wildly reaching at something - I watched him for a minute, and heard him say "I can't reach it" "I can't grasp it, it's too far" "I can't get my hand around it" in which he then turned over to find another solution, and saw me, and instantly realized he had been talking in his sleep and added "I'm not making any sense, I'm sleeping - Don't laugh at me" Which made me erupt into a fit of giggles. And then I promptly re-told the scenario in my Facebook Status update - I'm a such a good wife!
In my old phone I actually had a note called "Things Ben says in his sleep". Unfortunately my old phone is no where near me, but I'll see if I can try to remember some of the gems.
B: "You win pooper!"
H: "What?"
B: "You win! You win the prize!"
H: "uh... are you sleeping?"
B *deep breathing*
B: "You are a fabo wife!"
B: "mumble.... YEP.... OKAY.... CHEVY!"
H: hahahahahaha
B: (wakes up) Don't laugh at me, I know what I said... I said Chevy"
... that's all I can remember right now, But I'm going to dig out my old phone, and add to this list later on.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
One Hell of a weekend!
Okay, so let's recap shall we?
Ben and I sold our Condo, and were now in the process of trying to find a home for us to move into. On Wednesday we met up with our Realtor, Steve, and went to see 5 houses:
House #1 - Decent looking - Tiny Kitchen (I'm talking one person stands in the middle, and has countertops all around them - I think they would have to back out of the kitchen to open the oven door), Tiny Closets, Large Yard, nice Solarium. It was a nice looking house, but not what we're looking for.
House #2 - Very nice, Hardwood floors, brand new kitchen, large bedrooms with large closets, basement needs a little work, yard is decent but on the smaller side, garage is small, and the price for this one is a little on the high side. All in all though, the best one we saw that day.
House #3 - I dont even want to talk about it... It was a decent size, on a gigantic pie shaped yard, furnished by the 50-60's and reminded me of my Baba and Gideo's farm house. Not a thing was done to the inside of the house since the day it was built, which was evident by the large cracks in the walls and across the ceiling. Within seconds I was done looking, and wanted to leave. It was also WAY too expensive for what they were showing.... and it was an estate house, which means there was a very good chance the previous owner passed away there. .... yeah, no thanks, I'm good.
House #4 - Seemed promising at first - you walk in to a large living room, with engineered hardwood with a large fireplace on one end. and a decent sized kitchen on the other. Unfortunately, there was no dining room nook - and the light hanging from the ceiling suggesting where to put the table put it directly in front of your front door. The basement was decent, but we weren't feeling it - especially because the house had clearly shifted, and there were large cracks running along the floor of the basement, and the sidewalk was so broken up in the backyard there was a good six inches height difference between chunks of cement sticking up.
House #5 - Not great. This house seemed to be put together by a contestant on Canada's Worst Handyman. Now I don't want to toot my own horn, but I worked in flooring for years, and taught tile and laminate seminars - the guy who put down the flooring probably could have stood to attend one or two. The tile running through-out the main floor was put down badly - it was clear they laid it directly over vinyl rather than putting down a plywood sub floor. And since the mortar can't cure properly on vinyl, the tiles didn't have a firm foundation - causing rocking back and forth, and cracking. As well on the stairs, they did not finish the edges with any sort of stair nosing, so on each stair there was a thin piece of vinyl, a blob of mortar sticking out, and then the jagged edge of the tile. In the basement it wasn't much better as the laminate was laid without using proper spacing and was being pulled apart in several parts. The owners were throwing in $1000 for a flooring allowance, but that was a $20,000 flooring job. No thank you.
At the end of the day, Ben and I were a little down, and since seeing all that crap, we couldn't stop thinking about House #2, and requested a second showing for Thursday.
But after waking up to a huge snow storm Thursday morning, which resulted in car accidents everywhere you look, we canceled the viewing, and resolved to take a look on Sunday when we did another 5 viewings.
With canceling all our plans on Thursday, Ben and I had time to think, and decided that we needed to be more agressive about viewing these properties - Each time we make a list, by the time we see the houses two days later, half of our list is either sold or pending. So we talked to Steve (our realtor) and came up with a better system of going right at the time houses were listed so we could be some of the first people to see the property, the thus get some better options.
Which brings us to Friday. We were enjoying a Beer Friday (now and then on Friday's our boss gets a six pack and a bottle of wine, and we get together in a board room, and de-stress from the week), I left the room to set up one of my call center employee's. Before returning to the board room, I checked my email, and noticed we were sent a new listing from MLS. It was nice, a large lot, relatively open concept, finished basement, large bedrooms, deck, garage - the whole bit. So I went to the board room, and got Ben. Who agreed that we needed to see this house, and called Steve right away to see if we could go tonight.
There was only one problem, the possession date was July 15th 2011. JULY?!? Why would you list your place now, if you don't want to move for 3 months? We talked to Steve about it, and asked if there was anyway that was negotiable. He called up the Realtor representing the property, who then talked to the owners, and went back to Steve saying "If you bring me an offer for the asking price, we can give you a possession of 30 days" Awesome! So we drove right over and saw it - unfortunately pulling Steve away from a dinner party he and his girl friend were hosting (luckily most of their friends are Realtors, so they understood).
The House was beautiful! When you first walk it, there is laminate running through out, and big new windows everywhere. The living room is large, and connects with the kitchen with a sort of open peek-a-boo window. In the kitchen they have more large windows, and a large cooking area. Heading down the hallway from the living room there was 3 bedrooms - the two smaller bedrooms they knocked down the wall between, and made it a huge master bedroom, and the original master bedroom was now converted into a large office. There was also a large bathroom off the main hallway.
Heading downstairs from the kitchen there is the back door that leads to a deck. Continuing down the stairs you are in a completely finished basement with a large TV area on one side, and a bar set up on the other, as well there are two more bedrooms - one very large room with a walk in closet, and the other room -smaller - but still a decent size.
Across from the TV area there is a large bathroom with a shower stall, a bright laundry "room" (it's more of a walk in closet, but with plenty of space to move around and empty and fill the washer and dryer), and a storage room with furnace and hot water tank.
In the back yard you step out the back door onto a very large deck complete with a hot tub. The yard itself is large and rectangular with a brick path to the double garage, and landscaped flower beds lined with brick work. The garage is even a little bigger than a standard double garage.
All in all it was perfect. Ben and I both agreed that this was the one, so we wrote an offer. One of the best parts of this place, was the fact that they priced it to sell - which means it was under valued. So even though they wanted the asking price to give us 30 days notice, the asking price was still a good $20,000 lower than we would have valued the place, so we had no issues with giving them what they wanted. (plus the house was about $50,000 less than what we were aiming at spending anyway!)
As we drove home, we excitedly called both sets of parents and told them the good news! Then we heard back from Steve who said he talked to their realtor, and they both agreed that they wanted to just get this done tonight, and that he would give us a call when he heard the final word.
We then headed off to Ashton and Graham's place for some sweets and board games with Erik and Ashton. We were pretty distracted for the first little bit as we waited for Steve to call us, when finally we couldn't wait any longer and gave him a call. There was a problem.
It turns out, when Steve called their Realtor to ask about the possession date, and the realtor called the owners, he talked to the wife, who gave him the go-ahead, but apparently she didn't check with her husband, who was lamenting over where they were going to live (they were in the process of building a new home, which is why they originally had the July possession date). Then they mentioned that if we were so willing to pay the asking price within a couple hours of it being listed, maybe we would pay more... Steve told the realtor straight up "that's Bull Shit! I asked you what it would take, you told me, we gave it to you, and now you are wanting more money? Bull Shit". By the end of the conversation Steve had told us that the owners were in contact with a friend of theirs who had rental properties, and they were going to see if they could get a rental property for 3 months, but wouldn't know until the next morning.
Luckily Ben and I were with friends, because before long our mood was lifted, and we were laughing and playing games with them - and had completely forgot about the house. Until we left, that is.
Neither of us slept that well that night, we both kept thinking about the house, and woke up with knots in our stomachs. Ben actually woke up at twenty to seven (as usual), and told me that he was going to go have coffee with his parents and get some things of his mind, and would be back at 9am. I struggled to go back to sleep, and tossed and turned some more.
By 10 Ben called Steve to tell him that if that was the deciding factor, to let the other realtor know that we would agree to the July possesion date. We would just be living with Ben's parents for a couple months. It wasn't an ideal situation - but if it was the difference between getting the house, and not - than that was what we had to do. At 10:30 Steve called us, and said the Realtor was meeting with the owners at 2pm, and said "it looks good". So we waited.
In the meantime we decided to head over to Ben's parents place early for Easter Dinner, just so we weren't just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. Just before 2, as we were pulling into Ben's parents driveway, Steve called "Congratulations guys! They accepted!" FINALLY!!!
Steve told us that even the owners were getting to their own Realtor, and had mentioned to Steve "if this woman doesn't sign this offer I'm going to punch her" we said that if they came back and asked for more money we were going to request that Steve fax in a picture of his middle finger, he had a pretty good laugh about that. Oh - and they threw in the hot tub. Ben and I noticed it wasn't on the original offer, and we were fine with it, we didn't want the hot tub. We figured they were leaving it out as a bargaining chip, but when we didn't ask for it, they just threw it in because they didn't want it either!
When we got off the phone I squealed, which brought Mom out of the house, so we shared the good news with Mom and Dad. And after Hugs came Tequila shots (I love his parents), and then a day filled with lots of family and love. By the time 7:30 rolled around, I was dead tired, and ready for bed. We ended up falling asleep by 10:30pm and slept like babies! Talk about an emotional roller coaster!
The new owner of our Condo takes possession on May 25th, and we take possession of our house on May 27th - it couldn't work out more awesome than that! We pack our condo into the spare office at work, move in with mom and dad for a couple days, and then move into our new home. Enjoy a summer of BBQ's and Hot Tub nights, and then in the fall haul the hot tub out and sell it (we don't want the maintenance), and then build in a covered sitting area on our deck :)
Ben and I sold our Condo, and were now in the process of trying to find a home for us to move into. On Wednesday we met up with our Realtor, Steve, and went to see 5 houses:
House #1 - Decent looking - Tiny Kitchen (I'm talking one person stands in the middle, and has countertops all around them - I think they would have to back out of the kitchen to open the oven door), Tiny Closets, Large Yard, nice Solarium. It was a nice looking house, but not what we're looking for.
House #2 - Very nice, Hardwood floors, brand new kitchen, large bedrooms with large closets, basement needs a little work, yard is decent but on the smaller side, garage is small, and the price for this one is a little on the high side. All in all though, the best one we saw that day.
House #3 - I dont even want to talk about it... It was a decent size, on a gigantic pie shaped yard, furnished by the 50-60's and reminded me of my Baba and Gideo's farm house. Not a thing was done to the inside of the house since the day it was built, which was evident by the large cracks in the walls and across the ceiling. Within seconds I was done looking, and wanted to leave. It was also WAY too expensive for what they were showing.... and it was an estate house, which means there was a very good chance the previous owner passed away there. .... yeah, no thanks, I'm good.
House #4 - Seemed promising at first - you walk in to a large living room, with engineered hardwood with a large fireplace on one end. and a decent sized kitchen on the other. Unfortunately, there was no dining room nook - and the light hanging from the ceiling suggesting where to put the table put it directly in front of your front door. The basement was decent, but we weren't feeling it - especially because the house had clearly shifted, and there were large cracks running along the floor of the basement, and the sidewalk was so broken up in the backyard there was a good six inches height difference between chunks of cement sticking up.
House #5 - Not great. This house seemed to be put together by a contestant on Canada's Worst Handyman. Now I don't want to toot my own horn, but I worked in flooring for years, and taught tile and laminate seminars - the guy who put down the flooring probably could have stood to attend one or two. The tile running through-out the main floor was put down badly - it was clear they laid it directly over vinyl rather than putting down a plywood sub floor. And since the mortar can't cure properly on vinyl, the tiles didn't have a firm foundation - causing rocking back and forth, and cracking. As well on the stairs, they did not finish the edges with any sort of stair nosing, so on each stair there was a thin piece of vinyl, a blob of mortar sticking out, and then the jagged edge of the tile. In the basement it wasn't much better as the laminate was laid without using proper spacing and was being pulled apart in several parts. The owners were throwing in $1000 for a flooring allowance, but that was a $20,000 flooring job. No thank you.
At the end of the day, Ben and I were a little down, and since seeing all that crap, we couldn't stop thinking about House #2, and requested a second showing for Thursday.
But after waking up to a huge snow storm Thursday morning, which resulted in car accidents everywhere you look, we canceled the viewing, and resolved to take a look on Sunday when we did another 5 viewings.
With canceling all our plans on Thursday, Ben and I had time to think, and decided that we needed to be more agressive about viewing these properties - Each time we make a list, by the time we see the houses two days later, half of our list is either sold or pending. So we talked to Steve (our realtor) and came up with a better system of going right at the time houses were listed so we could be some of the first people to see the property, the thus get some better options.
Which brings us to Friday. We were enjoying a Beer Friday (now and then on Friday's our boss gets a six pack and a bottle of wine, and we get together in a board room, and de-stress from the week), I left the room to set up one of my call center employee's. Before returning to the board room, I checked my email, and noticed we were sent a new listing from MLS. It was nice, a large lot, relatively open concept, finished basement, large bedrooms, deck, garage - the whole bit. So I went to the board room, and got Ben. Who agreed that we needed to see this house, and called Steve right away to see if we could go tonight.
There was only one problem, the possession date was July 15th 2011. JULY?!? Why would you list your place now, if you don't want to move for 3 months? We talked to Steve about it, and asked if there was anyway that was negotiable. He called up the Realtor representing the property, who then talked to the owners, and went back to Steve saying "If you bring me an offer for the asking price, we can give you a possession of 30 days" Awesome! So we drove right over and saw it - unfortunately pulling Steve away from a dinner party he and his girl friend were hosting (luckily most of their friends are Realtors, so they understood).
The House was beautiful! When you first walk it, there is laminate running through out, and big new windows everywhere. The living room is large, and connects with the kitchen with a sort of open peek-a-boo window. In the kitchen they have more large windows, and a large cooking area. Heading down the hallway from the living room there was 3 bedrooms - the two smaller bedrooms they knocked down the wall between, and made it a huge master bedroom, and the original master bedroom was now converted into a large office. There was also a large bathroom off the main hallway.
Heading downstairs from the kitchen there is the back door that leads to a deck. Continuing down the stairs you are in a completely finished basement with a large TV area on one side, and a bar set up on the other, as well there are two more bedrooms - one very large room with a walk in closet, and the other room -smaller - but still a decent size.
Across from the TV area there is a large bathroom with a shower stall, a bright laundry "room" (it's more of a walk in closet, but with plenty of space to move around and empty and fill the washer and dryer), and a storage room with furnace and hot water tank.
In the back yard you step out the back door onto a very large deck complete with a hot tub. The yard itself is large and rectangular with a brick path to the double garage, and landscaped flower beds lined with brick work. The garage is even a little bigger than a standard double garage.
All in all it was perfect. Ben and I both agreed that this was the one, so we wrote an offer. One of the best parts of this place, was the fact that they priced it to sell - which means it was under valued. So even though they wanted the asking price to give us 30 days notice, the asking price was still a good $20,000 lower than we would have valued the place, so we had no issues with giving them what they wanted. (plus the house was about $50,000 less than what we were aiming at spending anyway!)
As we drove home, we excitedly called both sets of parents and told them the good news! Then we heard back from Steve who said he talked to their realtor, and they both agreed that they wanted to just get this done tonight, and that he would give us a call when he heard the final word.
We then headed off to Ashton and Graham's place for some sweets and board games with Erik and Ashton. We were pretty distracted for the first little bit as we waited for Steve to call us, when finally we couldn't wait any longer and gave him a call. There was a problem.
It turns out, when Steve called their Realtor to ask about the possession date, and the realtor called the owners, he talked to the wife, who gave him the go-ahead, but apparently she didn't check with her husband, who was lamenting over where they were going to live (they were in the process of building a new home, which is why they originally had the July possession date). Then they mentioned that if we were so willing to pay the asking price within a couple hours of it being listed, maybe we would pay more... Steve told the realtor straight up "that's Bull Shit! I asked you what it would take, you told me, we gave it to you, and now you are wanting more money? Bull Shit". By the end of the conversation Steve had told us that the owners were in contact with a friend of theirs who had rental properties, and they were going to see if they could get a rental property for 3 months, but wouldn't know until the next morning.
Luckily Ben and I were with friends, because before long our mood was lifted, and we were laughing and playing games with them - and had completely forgot about the house. Until we left, that is.
Neither of us slept that well that night, we both kept thinking about the house, and woke up with knots in our stomachs. Ben actually woke up at twenty to seven (as usual), and told me that he was going to go have coffee with his parents and get some things of his mind, and would be back at 9am. I struggled to go back to sleep, and tossed and turned some more.
By 10 Ben called Steve to tell him that if that was the deciding factor, to let the other realtor know that we would agree to the July possesion date. We would just be living with Ben's parents for a couple months. It wasn't an ideal situation - but if it was the difference between getting the house, and not - than that was what we had to do. At 10:30 Steve called us, and said the Realtor was meeting with the owners at 2pm, and said "it looks good". So we waited.
In the meantime we decided to head over to Ben's parents place early for Easter Dinner, just so we weren't just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. Just before 2, as we were pulling into Ben's parents driveway, Steve called "Congratulations guys! They accepted!" FINALLY!!!
Steve told us that even the owners were getting to their own Realtor, and had mentioned to Steve "if this woman doesn't sign this offer I'm going to punch her" we said that if they came back and asked for more money we were going to request that Steve fax in a picture of his middle finger, he had a pretty good laugh about that. Oh - and they threw in the hot tub. Ben and I noticed it wasn't on the original offer, and we were fine with it, we didn't want the hot tub. We figured they were leaving it out as a bargaining chip, but when we didn't ask for it, they just threw it in because they didn't want it either!
When we got off the phone I squealed, which brought Mom out of the house, so we shared the good news with Mom and Dad. And after Hugs came Tequila shots (I love his parents), and then a day filled with lots of family and love. By the time 7:30 rolled around, I was dead tired, and ready for bed. We ended up falling asleep by 10:30pm and slept like babies! Talk about an emotional roller coaster!
The new owner of our Condo takes possession on May 25th, and we take possession of our house on May 27th - it couldn't work out more awesome than that! We pack our condo into the spare office at work, move in with mom and dad for a couple days, and then move into our new home. Enjoy a summer of BBQ's and Hot Tub nights, and then in the fall haul the hot tub out and sell it (we don't want the maintenance), and then build in a covered sitting area on our deck :)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
First Wedding Anniversary
It's been a year already! ... okay not quite.
May 14th 2010 was our wedding day. We chose the 14th because the 12th is my mom's birthday, and the 13th is my grandmother's birthday and we wanted a day that was ours alone, and didn't conflict with anyone else's special days. However, when you celebrate a special day with other people, sometimes the celebration has to be scheduled on a weekend - which is what happened this year.
My mom is turning 65 on Thursday May 12th, and we are celebrating with her on Saturday, May 14th - our anniversary.
So not to have our own special day forgotten, we decided to celebrate a month early! And luckily I had just the thing for it!
Back in October I found a deal on Living Social Escapes for a 2 night stay in the Banff Caribou Lodge and Spa that comes complete with a bottle of wine in your room. I bought it thinking we could take off some weekend and have a nice little get away, but since it needed to be used by April 15th, we booked it for this last weekend, and then since our anniversary was going to be spent celebrating my mom's birthday, we decided we would make Banff our wedding anniversary celebration.
We left work on Friday at 4:30pm, swung by Ben's grandma's place to pick up Emmy (she had been cat-sitting while we had viewing's at our place) and headed to Calgary. We arrived there about 8pm and spent a nice evening visiting with my mom and brother before turning in early (party animals on a Friday night we are not).
The next morning, I went to see my old Chiropractor who re-aligned my back and neck, and got rid of the headache that had been plaguing me for the previous 3 days (one of the joys of car accidents, you get instant notification in the form of a headache when some thing needs aligning). Then Ben and I bid our freaked out cat goodbye, and headed to Banff. (Emmy will be staying with Mom and her dog Sadie until we move - Sadie is the first dog Emmy has met, so he's terrified and curious all at once)
Banff was amazing. Our room was cute, and was decorated with antlers everywhere you looked, from the light fixtures, to the headboards, everything had antlers - not my personal style preference, but it worked for what they were going for.
After we got settled in, we went for a walk into town, and settled on dinner at Athena pizza and Spaghetti, and then headed back to our Hotel room to watch several hours of Home and Garden television and share two bottles of wine (We typically don't drink, and we don't have cable, so as odd as this sounds we are actually doing two things we don't get to do back at home).
Then Ben was asleep by 10:30, and I followed soon after at 11pm... okay, maybe we're not party animals on a Saturday night either...
Sunday morning I was awoken at 6:40am by Ben crawling back into bed from using the bathroom - and then in an effort to pull the covers up over my shoulder I successfully punched myself in the eye (my grip was just a little too sleepy, and the blanket slipped out of my grasp). I actually saw stars - I understand why cartoons have stars now. I was suddenly wide awake- we both were, so we flipped on a little more HGTV. By 8:30 we were hungry and decided to venture out to find a place to eat breakfast. (Luckily my eye neither turned black, nor swelled that badly, it was slightly noticeable in a picture that night, but not too bad).
Just so you know - there are only 2 places to eat breakfast outside of the hotel restaurants in Banff- a place called Timbers a block back from the main strip, and a Phil's heading out of the downtown area and going toward the Banff Springs Hotel, in the residential area. It took us 40 minutes to find Timbers, and we were starting to feel our search was futile. After a delicious breakfast, we hit up starbucks to get our caffeine fix before heading to my surprise for Ben - a 1 hour couples massage.
For those of you who don't know - Banff is filled with Aussies! And Aussies clearly know their stuff when it comes to massage - my masseur, (is that the correct term?) was a tiny blond Aussie with a delightful accent in lulu's and flip flops - and she worked my back so hard I have bruises! At the moment I'm writing this, I'm wearing a strapless bra to avoid the pain from my bra straps sitting on the large bruises this cute little blond left on my shoulders. At the beginning of the massage I let her know that I had been involved in several car accidents and had lots of scar tissue through my back, neck and shoulders - and I think she made it her personal mission to break apart all of that scar tissue! It hurt, a lot - but I also felt amazing afterward!
Ben had a similar situation, he has a condition where his ligaments are super stretchy, so his joints are loose and can easily slide in and out of joint, which can cause a whole host of other issues, so in order to keep his shoulders in proper working order, he needs to keep the muscle around the joint strong to hold his limbs in place where the ligament normally would - which puts a lot of stress on the muscles in his back and shoulders. So he requested just a full work over on his back shoulders and neck - he too left with bruises. He said at one point he kept hearing a weird shhhhh sound so he opened his eyes, and saw it was the feet of his masseuse sliding on the floor as she pushed on his back with all her weight.
We're talking elbows and thumbs here - but we were both jello when we left. Hands down, the BEST massage either of us has ever received. If you are ever in Banff, and want to get a great massage, visit the Mountain Spa on the second floor of the Harmony Lane mall - you won't be disappointed (plus it's one of the better priced spa's in Banff).
Then we headed back to the Hotel to soak in the Hot Tub, and enjoy the steam room. Much to our dismay the promise of towels in the pool area was a lie, and we ended up toweling off with paper town found in the bathroom. (classy - I know).
Then we headed back to our room to hang out there for a bit before heading to the Keg in our hotel to split an appetizer and then take a drive around Banff for a bit. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Ben's surprise - a 5 star meal at a swank restaurant a block down from our hotel.
This place was unbelievable, and made me feel both classy and elegant, and awkward as hell all at once! I'm not used to the 5 star service, and almost made a couple "fancy dinner mistakes" (ie - refilling your own wine glass, stacking plates - etc).
To start our dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine, which was amazing, it was from Chili, and it was called Cono Sur 20 Barrels Pinot Noir. So good!
Then while we waited for our starter, we were given warm pieces of bread and a delicious olive sun dried tomato spread.
Then we started with the Chef's sample platter for two for appetizers, it had braised tuna, marinated artichoke hearts with olives, grilled mozzarella on vine ripe tomatoes, prosciutto, shrimp and avocado on a pastry that's name escapes me at the moment, and a couple things more that I can't remember the names of - all in all, super good!
Then we were given a pallet cleanser between our appie and dinner (that's how fancy this restaurant was), which consisted of an iced white wine/cinnamon concoction which was awesome!
For Dinner we ordered the Chef's Game Platter - which was three of the best wild game dishes - Roast Duck, Quebec Quail, and Elk, complete with all the sides that come with the individual dinner too - mashes potato, roasted veggies, mushroom risotto and a couple other things that were delicious but I couldn't exactly put my finger on the name of. The meal was amazing, my personal favorite was the Duck which melted in my mouth - with Ben passing his hunting course, I require more duck in my immediate future.
For dessert we each ordered the Orange Cardamom Crem Brulee, which was amazing! More things need to have cardamom in them! And combined with the orange, I just couldn't get enough of this dessert!
Even with the bill they brought us another little plate with two little chewy cookie like things with a triangle of chocolate filled with a light orange filling sitting on top. I just couldn't get enough of this restaurant!
We then waddled back to our room where within minutes were stripped of our dressy clothes, and back in our comfy comfy sweats. Then we went for a nice walk where we picked up some cigars and celebrated an almost year married :)
When we got back to our room, there was more wine, and more HGTV (we freakin' love home improvement shows! Plus the House Hunter shows are right up our alley these days). This time I was out shortly after 11, and I think Ben followed not long after because when I woke up at 12:30 he was fast asleep and the TV and all the lights were still on. I choose to believe it's the refreshing mountain air - not the "old married couple" that put us to bed so early each night.
Monday morning we managed to sleep in until 9am - which is a feat for us these days it seems. Then we packed up, checked out, and headed to the Phil's for breakfast. Then we went for a drive in and around Banff before starting our journey back home.
All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Everything we did echo'd our happy and in love attitude, and we laughed constantly the whole time. I'm so very lucky to have found Ben, we have fun in everything we do, and our personalities are so perfectly matched I couldn't have asked for a better partner. If I had known relationships could be this fun and easy, I would have moved to Edmonton and found Ben years sooner!
I love you Ben. I choose you, today, tomorrow, a month from now, ten years from now - as long as you will have me, I pick you. You are my everything, my life is better with you in it. <3
May 14th 2010 was our wedding day. We chose the 14th because the 12th is my mom's birthday, and the 13th is my grandmother's birthday and we wanted a day that was ours alone, and didn't conflict with anyone else's special days. However, when you celebrate a special day with other people, sometimes the celebration has to be scheduled on a weekend - which is what happened this year.
My mom is turning 65 on Thursday May 12th, and we are celebrating with her on Saturday, May 14th - our anniversary.
So not to have our own special day forgotten, we decided to celebrate a month early! And luckily I had just the thing for it!
Back in October I found a deal on Living Social Escapes for a 2 night stay in the Banff Caribou Lodge and Spa that comes complete with a bottle of wine in your room. I bought it thinking we could take off some weekend and have a nice little get away, but since it needed to be used by April 15th, we booked it for this last weekend, and then since our anniversary was going to be spent celebrating my mom's birthday, we decided we would make Banff our wedding anniversary celebration.
We left work on Friday at 4:30pm, swung by Ben's grandma's place to pick up Emmy (she had been cat-sitting while we had viewing's at our place) and headed to Calgary. We arrived there about 8pm and spent a nice evening visiting with my mom and brother before turning in early (party animals on a Friday night we are not).
The next morning, I went to see my old Chiropractor who re-aligned my back and neck, and got rid of the headache that had been plaguing me for the previous 3 days (one of the joys of car accidents, you get instant notification in the form of a headache when some thing needs aligning). Then Ben and I bid our freaked out cat goodbye, and headed to Banff. (Emmy will be staying with Mom and her dog Sadie until we move - Sadie is the first dog Emmy has met, so he's terrified and curious all at once)
Banff was amazing. Our room was cute, and was decorated with antlers everywhere you looked, from the light fixtures, to the headboards, everything had antlers - not my personal style preference, but it worked for what they were going for.
After we got settled in, we went for a walk into town, and settled on dinner at Athena pizza and Spaghetti, and then headed back to our Hotel room to watch several hours of Home and Garden television and share two bottles of wine (We typically don't drink, and we don't have cable, so as odd as this sounds we are actually doing two things we don't get to do back at home).
Then Ben was asleep by 10:30, and I followed soon after at 11pm... okay, maybe we're not party animals on a Saturday night either...
Sunday morning I was awoken at 6:40am by Ben crawling back into bed from using the bathroom - and then in an effort to pull the covers up over my shoulder I successfully punched myself in the eye (my grip was just a little too sleepy, and the blanket slipped out of my grasp). I actually saw stars - I understand why cartoons have stars now. I was suddenly wide awake- we both were, so we flipped on a little more HGTV. By 8:30 we were hungry and decided to venture out to find a place to eat breakfast. (Luckily my eye neither turned black, nor swelled that badly, it was slightly noticeable in a picture that night, but not too bad).
Just so you know - there are only 2 places to eat breakfast outside of the hotel restaurants in Banff- a place called Timbers a block back from the main strip, and a Phil's heading out of the downtown area and going toward the Banff Springs Hotel, in the residential area. It took us 40 minutes to find Timbers, and we were starting to feel our search was futile. After a delicious breakfast, we hit up starbucks to get our caffeine fix before heading to my surprise for Ben - a 1 hour couples massage.
For those of you who don't know - Banff is filled with Aussies! And Aussies clearly know their stuff when it comes to massage - my masseur, (is that the correct term?) was a tiny blond Aussie with a delightful accent in lulu's and flip flops - and she worked my back so hard I have bruises! At the moment I'm writing this, I'm wearing a strapless bra to avoid the pain from my bra straps sitting on the large bruises this cute little blond left on my shoulders. At the beginning of the massage I let her know that I had been involved in several car accidents and had lots of scar tissue through my back, neck and shoulders - and I think she made it her personal mission to break apart all of that scar tissue! It hurt, a lot - but I also felt amazing afterward!
Ben had a similar situation, he has a condition where his ligaments are super stretchy, so his joints are loose and can easily slide in and out of joint, which can cause a whole host of other issues, so in order to keep his shoulders in proper working order, he needs to keep the muscle around the joint strong to hold his limbs in place where the ligament normally would - which puts a lot of stress on the muscles in his back and shoulders. So he requested just a full work over on his back shoulders and neck - he too left with bruises. He said at one point he kept hearing a weird shhhhh sound so he opened his eyes, and saw it was the feet of his masseuse sliding on the floor as she pushed on his back with all her weight.
We're talking elbows and thumbs here - but we were both jello when we left. Hands down, the BEST massage either of us has ever received. If you are ever in Banff, and want to get a great massage, visit the Mountain Spa on the second floor of the Harmony Lane mall - you won't be disappointed (plus it's one of the better priced spa's in Banff).
Then we headed back to the Hotel to soak in the Hot Tub, and enjoy the steam room. Much to our dismay the promise of towels in the pool area was a lie, and we ended up toweling off with paper town found in the bathroom. (classy - I know).
Then we headed back to our room to hang out there for a bit before heading to the Keg in our hotel to split an appetizer and then take a drive around Banff for a bit. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Ben's surprise - a 5 star meal at a swank restaurant a block down from our hotel.
This place was unbelievable, and made me feel both classy and elegant, and awkward as hell all at once! I'm not used to the 5 star service, and almost made a couple "fancy dinner mistakes" (ie - refilling your own wine glass, stacking plates - etc).
To start our dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine, which was amazing, it was from Chili, and it was called Cono Sur 20 Barrels Pinot Noir. So good!
Then while we waited for our starter, we were given warm pieces of bread and a delicious olive sun dried tomato spread.
Then we started with the Chef's sample platter for two for appetizers, it had braised tuna, marinated artichoke hearts with olives, grilled mozzarella on vine ripe tomatoes, prosciutto, shrimp and avocado on a pastry that's name escapes me at the moment, and a couple things more that I can't remember the names of - all in all, super good!
Then we were given a pallet cleanser between our appie and dinner (that's how fancy this restaurant was), which consisted of an iced white wine/cinnamon concoction which was awesome!
For Dinner we ordered the Chef's Game Platter - which was three of the best wild game dishes - Roast Duck, Quebec Quail, and Elk, complete with all the sides that come with the individual dinner too - mashes potato, roasted veggies, mushroom risotto and a couple other things that were delicious but I couldn't exactly put my finger on the name of. The meal was amazing, my personal favorite was the Duck which melted in my mouth - with Ben passing his hunting course, I require more duck in my immediate future.
For dessert we each ordered the Orange Cardamom Crem Brulee, which was amazing! More things need to have cardamom in them! And combined with the orange, I just couldn't get enough of this dessert!
Even with the bill they brought us another little plate with two little chewy cookie like things with a triangle of chocolate filled with a light orange filling sitting on top. I just couldn't get enough of this restaurant!
We then waddled back to our room where within minutes were stripped of our dressy clothes, and back in our comfy comfy sweats. Then we went for a nice walk where we picked up some cigars and celebrated an almost year married :)
When we got back to our room, there was more wine, and more HGTV (we freakin' love home improvement shows! Plus the House Hunter shows are right up our alley these days). This time I was out shortly after 11, and I think Ben followed not long after because when I woke up at 12:30 he was fast asleep and the TV and all the lights were still on. I choose to believe it's the refreshing mountain air - not the "old married couple" that put us to bed so early each night.
Monday morning we managed to sleep in until 9am - which is a feat for us these days it seems. Then we packed up, checked out, and headed to the Phil's for breakfast. Then we went for a drive in and around Banff before starting our journey back home.
All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Everything we did echo'd our happy and in love attitude, and we laughed constantly the whole time. I'm so very lucky to have found Ben, we have fun in everything we do, and our personalities are so perfectly matched I couldn't have asked for a better partner. If I had known relationships could be this fun and easy, I would have moved to Edmonton and found Ben years sooner!
I love you Ben. I choose you, today, tomorrow, a month from now, ten years from now - as long as you will have me, I pick you. You are my everything, my life is better with you in it. <3
Thursday, April 7, 2011
House #2
House #2 another day, another viewing:
http://www.realtor.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=10537029&PidKey=284820014
Ben and I just came back from viewing another potential property. It looked really good on paper - 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, large house, huge lot, over sized double garage - but wait, that's not all!... no, that was about it...
This house was really poorly designed. Like the owners just put up a wall to make a bedroom whenever they needed one, but there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it. Let me take you on a tour.
When you arrive at the house, as you can see from the pictures in the posting, there is a long driveway on the side, and a very cute house, with a front deck. It looks great from the outside, and you can tell the house is fairly new and well maintained.
When you step into the front door you are in a large room with vaulted ceilings - the living room is on your left, and the kitchen your right - just like that, you step into the kitchen from the front door. There are no walls put up to break up the space, you just have one large room with counter tops and cabinets on one side, and couches on the other. The kitchen itself was nice, with lots of storage and new cabinets and bright colors.
When you walk forward into the hallway the first door on your left is the main floor bath, which joins to another door which ends up being your walk in closet, which then joins to your master bedroom. That's right - right in the middle of the house is your bedroom, and guests can waltz right into your closet after going pee.
On the right side of the hallway was a tiny little room plenty big enough for an office, but not much else - perhaps a nursery? Then ahead of you was a staircase going upstairs, and around the corner from that stair case was the back door, and the stairs going downstairs. We went up first.
The stairs were very nice, with a bright window over looking the backyard halfway up. Once you reach the top there are two large bedrooms. When you walk into one, it's a room much bigger than the master bedroom, and off of that is a bathroom with tub, and off of that is the walk in closet for the next room, and off of that is the next room (they really like their combined rooms hey?). The second bedroom is also big, and they have a train that runs around the track near the ceiling between both rooms.
Heading to the basement is where things get really weird, up until there we could see potential.
When you reach the bottom of the stairs, to your right there is a small cold room under the stairs used for storage, the next room is a little "bedroom" no more than 8 x 8. Next to that is the furnace room with a large storage cabinet. across the hall is the laundry/bathroom (all in one room) and then at the end of the hall the floor slopes upward toward the last too rooms (and when I say slopes upward, I mean by about a foot - it's like a ramp for some odd reason). The room on the left was another small box, maybe 10 x 10, and the room on the right was a little bigger, maybe 12 X 10 - and I'm assuming was the "rec room" the listing spoke about. It's the room with the swing in the pictures.
The backyard was decent, the back door takes you outside on the right of the house at the back and a path leads you to a beautiful over sized double garage. To the right of the back door the concrete pad from the front extends almost to the garage (what a waste of grass!) but the grass on left side of the yard was decently sized.
All in all, another fixer upper. It was very oddly put together, and the basement calls for a "do-over" I dont understand why people don't have a Den/Man Cave in their basement? Where do you snuggle up and watch movies? Where do you put up your surround sound? Where do you put the wet bar?
Ben and I watch a lot of movies, and are very excited about having a corner of the house where we can put a big comfy sectional and curl up to watch movies with a mug of hot tea - not to mention, when we get the house, we are getting cable, which mean I can finally watch my team, and I need a place to do it damn it!
We're not discouraged, it just means we're one house closer to finding "the one"!
http://www.realtor.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=10537029&PidKey=284820014
Ben and I just came back from viewing another potential property. It looked really good on paper - 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, large house, huge lot, over sized double garage - but wait, that's not all!... no, that was about it...
This house was really poorly designed. Like the owners just put up a wall to make a bedroom whenever they needed one, but there wasn't much rhyme or reason to it. Let me take you on a tour.
When you arrive at the house, as you can see from the pictures in the posting, there is a long driveway on the side, and a very cute house, with a front deck. It looks great from the outside, and you can tell the house is fairly new and well maintained.
When you step into the front door you are in a large room with vaulted ceilings - the living room is on your left, and the kitchen your right - just like that, you step into the kitchen from the front door. There are no walls put up to break up the space, you just have one large room with counter tops and cabinets on one side, and couches on the other. The kitchen itself was nice, with lots of storage and new cabinets and bright colors.
When you walk forward into the hallway the first door on your left is the main floor bath, which joins to another door which ends up being your walk in closet, which then joins to your master bedroom. That's right - right in the middle of the house is your bedroom, and guests can waltz right into your closet after going pee.
On the right side of the hallway was a tiny little room plenty big enough for an office, but not much else - perhaps a nursery? Then ahead of you was a staircase going upstairs, and around the corner from that stair case was the back door, and the stairs going downstairs. We went up first.
The stairs were very nice, with a bright window over looking the backyard halfway up. Once you reach the top there are two large bedrooms. When you walk into one, it's a room much bigger than the master bedroom, and off of that is a bathroom with tub, and off of that is the walk in closet for the next room, and off of that is the next room (they really like their combined rooms hey?). The second bedroom is also big, and they have a train that runs around the track near the ceiling between both rooms.
Heading to the basement is where things get really weird, up until there we could see potential.
When you reach the bottom of the stairs, to your right there is a small cold room under the stairs used for storage, the next room is a little "bedroom" no more than 8 x 8. Next to that is the furnace room with a large storage cabinet. across the hall is the laundry/bathroom (all in one room) and then at the end of the hall the floor slopes upward toward the last too rooms (and when I say slopes upward, I mean by about a foot - it's like a ramp for some odd reason). The room on the left was another small box, maybe 10 x 10, and the room on the right was a little bigger, maybe 12 X 10 - and I'm assuming was the "rec room" the listing spoke about. It's the room with the swing in the pictures.
The backyard was decent, the back door takes you outside on the right of the house at the back and a path leads you to a beautiful over sized double garage. To the right of the back door the concrete pad from the front extends almost to the garage (what a waste of grass!) but the grass on left side of the yard was decently sized.
All in all, another fixer upper. It was very oddly put together, and the basement calls for a "do-over" I dont understand why people don't have a Den/Man Cave in their basement? Where do you snuggle up and watch movies? Where do you put up your surround sound? Where do you put the wet bar?
Ben and I watch a lot of movies, and are very excited about having a corner of the house where we can put a big comfy sectional and curl up to watch movies with a mug of hot tea - not to mention, when we get the house, we are getting cable, which mean I can finally watch my team, and I need a place to do it damn it!
We're not discouraged, it just means we're one house closer to finding "the one"!
The House Part Two
So we saw the house last night - finally! And now that we know, we know it's not one we are interested in living in. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, and we liked it - but it had really awkward uses of space, so we would have to do A LOT of work to make it workable, and for the price they were asking, combined with the renovations we would need to do, it was not at all in our budget.
Let me try to take you on a mental tour of the house.
When you first walk up the front walk, there are perfectly manicured tree's on either side strategically placed in the yard - then just off the front door to the right is a round deck with room for a table and 4 chairs to sit and enjoy an afternoon tea. Once you go inside you are at the start of two long hallways, one heading straight ahead toward the kitchen, and one off to the left leading to the bedrooms and bathroom, and to the right is an opening that leads to a long narrow living room space - probably 12 feet wide, and 20 feet long. Turning to the left to go down one of the hallways, there is a bedroom on your first left - it's very small, an office, maybe 8 x 10. The next room, also on the left is a little bigger, but still only maybe 10 x 10. Then turning the corner in the hallway we reach the newly renovated large bathroom, that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the house - there is a floor to ceiling stone shower, and a bidet (which still weirds me out).
The next room, and last room in the hallway is the master bedroom, which couldn't be more than 12 x 12, and held a king sized bed in the middle, allowing only 2 feet all the way around the room to move (Ben and I want a King sized bed, but we also want a room that can properly fit it too). It also only had one small closet, no bigger than the one we share now - we already did our time with the tiny closet, our next house HAS to have a bigger space for us.
Then you go back down the hallway toward the front door again, and this time go straight toward the kitchen - the kitchen is very dated with flourescent pannels in the ceiling (I hate those), and a pink counter top, and built in bench nook. To the right of the kitchen is the back of the long hallway-like living room, which opens to the extension which the kitchen over looks. You take a couple steps down to get into the extension, and it's a warm room with a wood burning fireplace, and automatic blinds - about 15 X 15.
Going back up through the kitchen on the left hand side of the room is a set of steps that lead to the back door, and downstairs.
As you reach the bottom of the stairs, there is a large office to the right with built in shelving and book cases all around the room - the room is maybe 14 X 14. Then the next room is open to the rest of the basement and is about the same size and has a few pieces of exercise equipment. Off of that is a pantry/cold room. Across from the exercise space is a long narrow area with just a long cupboard built along the wall (similar in size to the living room upstairs). Once you reach the end of that, there is an open space with the laundry facilities and a bathroom with a shower. ... you know, come to think of it, this house did not have a tub!
The basement was like the mainfloor - a series of awkward spaces and hallways. There was no den, or lounge area in the basement, and not much of a place where one could be put in either.
Once we go out the back door, we are on a nice deck with a hot tub, and an extra large built in BBQ with room to cook 40 burgers (three grills), that was bolted to the deck. Then once you leave the deck there are 3 apple trees, a green house to one side, with a huge garage at the end, and a parking pad and shed to the right of that.
Inside the garage you see everything a man dreams about - floor to ceiling tools, built in storage with a second level on one side and a room to park 4 cars - PLUS a 6 foot by 22 foot work space at the front. We would have had no problem fitting Goldmember and our cars in there, plus all the camping, bikes and any other equipment we wanted to throw in there.
Unfortunately much to Ben's dismay, we can't buy a house based on the Garage :p
Like I said, it was a nice house, and had potential, but in order to make it something Ben and I want to live in for many years to come we would need to basically re-gut the whole house and move everything around. The Kitchen upstairs would have to go 10 feet to the right into the "living room hallway" and the Master bedroom would need to be expanded into where the kitchen was, and those renovations are just too much for Ben and I.
Oh well, now we know. First house down, many more to go!
Let me try to take you on a mental tour of the house.
When you first walk up the front walk, there are perfectly manicured tree's on either side strategically placed in the yard - then just off the front door to the right is a round deck with room for a table and 4 chairs to sit and enjoy an afternoon tea. Once you go inside you are at the start of two long hallways, one heading straight ahead toward the kitchen, and one off to the left leading to the bedrooms and bathroom, and to the right is an opening that leads to a long narrow living room space - probably 12 feet wide, and 20 feet long. Turning to the left to go down one of the hallways, there is a bedroom on your first left - it's very small, an office, maybe 8 x 10. The next room, also on the left is a little bigger, but still only maybe 10 x 10. Then turning the corner in the hallway we reach the newly renovated large bathroom, that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the house - there is a floor to ceiling stone shower, and a bidet (which still weirds me out).
The next room, and last room in the hallway is the master bedroom, which couldn't be more than 12 x 12, and held a king sized bed in the middle, allowing only 2 feet all the way around the room to move (Ben and I want a King sized bed, but we also want a room that can properly fit it too). It also only had one small closet, no bigger than the one we share now - we already did our time with the tiny closet, our next house HAS to have a bigger space for us.
Then you go back down the hallway toward the front door again, and this time go straight toward the kitchen - the kitchen is very dated with flourescent pannels in the ceiling (I hate those), and a pink counter top, and built in bench nook. To the right of the kitchen is the back of the long hallway-like living room, which opens to the extension which the kitchen over looks. You take a couple steps down to get into the extension, and it's a warm room with a wood burning fireplace, and automatic blinds - about 15 X 15.
Going back up through the kitchen on the left hand side of the room is a set of steps that lead to the back door, and downstairs.
As you reach the bottom of the stairs, there is a large office to the right with built in shelving and book cases all around the room - the room is maybe 14 X 14. Then the next room is open to the rest of the basement and is about the same size and has a few pieces of exercise equipment. Off of that is a pantry/cold room. Across from the exercise space is a long narrow area with just a long cupboard built along the wall (similar in size to the living room upstairs). Once you reach the end of that, there is an open space with the laundry facilities and a bathroom with a shower. ... you know, come to think of it, this house did not have a tub!
The basement was like the mainfloor - a series of awkward spaces and hallways. There was no den, or lounge area in the basement, and not much of a place where one could be put in either.
Once we go out the back door, we are on a nice deck with a hot tub, and an extra large built in BBQ with room to cook 40 burgers (three grills), that was bolted to the deck. Then once you leave the deck there are 3 apple trees, a green house to one side, with a huge garage at the end, and a parking pad and shed to the right of that.
Inside the garage you see everything a man dreams about - floor to ceiling tools, built in storage with a second level on one side and a room to park 4 cars - PLUS a 6 foot by 22 foot work space at the front. We would have had no problem fitting Goldmember and our cars in there, plus all the camping, bikes and any other equipment we wanted to throw in there.
Unfortunately much to Ben's dismay, we can't buy a house based on the Garage :p
Like I said, it was a nice house, and had potential, but in order to make it something Ben and I want to live in for many years to come we would need to basically re-gut the whole house and move everything around. The Kitchen upstairs would have to go 10 feet to the right into the "living room hallway" and the Master bedroom would need to be expanded into where the kitchen was, and those renovations are just too much for Ben and I.
Oh well, now we know. First house down, many more to go!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wee Wee Wee all the way...Home?
(Unofficially Part Two of "Good News Friends")
So yesterday I wrote a long blog entry, went to post it, and blogger glitched and not only error-ed in posting, but the "save draft" function cut out half way through my post. And with it being time to leave work, I quickly wrote the end of the "sold" story and posted. But there was a couple more pages tacked on to that entry, that I am re-writing today and giving it it's own post.
So with the sale of our Condo Ben and I celebrated, toasted with a glass of Grey Goose and Coke, and gave each other a kiss, before suddenly panicking that we don't have a place to move into. Then we got to work, and looked up the realtor who had represented the house we were interested in, and gave him a call.
Now just to reitterate, we found a house that we fell in love with back in the fall in the neighborhood we wanted to live in. It was perfect on paper, but the pictures were lacking, so Ben and I took a couple drives past it to check it out from the outside. It looked good - I mean really good. The grass and front of the house had the type of charm that could only be maintained by retiree's - it was immaculate. There was only one problem - we weren't planning on moving at that point in time, and within a couple months the house was taken off MLS.
Meanwhile having been bit by the Home buyers bug we started looking into buying now rather than in 2 years (our original plan) and it turns out, it was a way better plan. Which brings us to today. Having just sold our condo, we were now onto phase two - finding a house.
Over the last several months that Dream house had been in the back of our minds, and having failed the "knock on the door" plan (home owners were not home) we decided just to throw caution to the wind and call up the home's previous realtor - who's kind of a dick to be honest.
When Ben called, he introduced himself, and let the realtor know our reason for our call - basically we wanted to know if there was any reason to keep the house on our list, or if we should move on with our house hunting. Ben politely asked if the realtor happened to know why the house was taken off the market - his response was "I sure do, but I"m not telling YOU! Heh heh heh" ...Smarmy Bastard. Apparently he's a relative of the home owners, awesome, there's no getting away from dealing with this guy. After a longer conversation in which this guy was pushy and cocky he finally got over himself and contacted the home owners and see if they would be interested in selling. He called us back a few minutes later, to talk about arranging a time for us to view the house - but not before offering to be our own realtor if we needed one, and inquiring about our intrest rate, and amount we have been approved for - yeah, like we trust this guy has our best interests in mind, hell no. Plus we already have a kick ass realtor who was recommended to us with very high regards! (and just to clarify we didn't disclose our approval amount or interest rate to the guy)
So then we contacted our own Realtor, who took over contact with Mr. Full of Himself so we didn't have to, did a bunch of research on the property in question, and booked us a time to see the property at 6:30pm Wednesday (that's right - Tonight!)
But here's even more good news! You remember in a previous post how I said that Ben and I were looking at the other listed houses so we didn't put all our eggs in one basket, and we were finding slim pickings? Well good news - there's a whole lot more baskets popping up every day! Along with that glowing orb in the sky "for Sale" signs are popping up everywhere! Just Monday alone 160 more houses were listed on MLS. So not only are we finally getting to see the house we have been dreaming about for 6 months, but we are coming armed with 11 more listings that we want to take a look at!
Moral of the Story - life is just better when the Sun Shines.
So yesterday I wrote a long blog entry, went to post it, and blogger glitched and not only error-ed in posting, but the "save draft" function cut out half way through my post. And with it being time to leave work, I quickly wrote the end of the "sold" story and posted. But there was a couple more pages tacked on to that entry, that I am re-writing today and giving it it's own post.
So with the sale of our Condo Ben and I celebrated, toasted with a glass of Grey Goose and Coke, and gave each other a kiss, before suddenly panicking that we don't have a place to move into. Then we got to work, and looked up the realtor who had represented the house we were interested in, and gave him a call.
Now just to reitterate, we found a house that we fell in love with back in the fall in the neighborhood we wanted to live in. It was perfect on paper, but the pictures were lacking, so Ben and I took a couple drives past it to check it out from the outside. It looked good - I mean really good. The grass and front of the house had the type of charm that could only be maintained by retiree's - it was immaculate. There was only one problem - we weren't planning on moving at that point in time, and within a couple months the house was taken off MLS.
Meanwhile having been bit by the Home buyers bug we started looking into buying now rather than in 2 years (our original plan) and it turns out, it was a way better plan. Which brings us to today. Having just sold our condo, we were now onto phase two - finding a house.
Over the last several months that Dream house had been in the back of our minds, and having failed the "knock on the door" plan (home owners were not home) we decided just to throw caution to the wind and call up the home's previous realtor - who's kind of a dick to be honest.
When Ben called, he introduced himself, and let the realtor know our reason for our call - basically we wanted to know if there was any reason to keep the house on our list, or if we should move on with our house hunting. Ben politely asked if the realtor happened to know why the house was taken off the market - his response was "I sure do, but I"m not telling YOU! Heh heh heh" ...Smarmy Bastard. Apparently he's a relative of the home owners, awesome, there's no getting away from dealing with this guy. After a longer conversation in which this guy was pushy and cocky he finally got over himself and contacted the home owners and see if they would be interested in selling. He called us back a few minutes later, to talk about arranging a time for us to view the house - but not before offering to be our own realtor if we needed one, and inquiring about our intrest rate, and amount we have been approved for - yeah, like we trust this guy has our best interests in mind, hell no. Plus we already have a kick ass realtor who was recommended to us with very high regards! (and just to clarify we didn't disclose our approval amount or interest rate to the guy)
So then we contacted our own Realtor, who took over contact with Mr. Full of Himself so we didn't have to, did a bunch of research on the property in question, and booked us a time to see the property at 6:30pm Wednesday (that's right - Tonight!)
But here's even more good news! You remember in a previous post how I said that Ben and I were looking at the other listed houses so we didn't put all our eggs in one basket, and we were finding slim pickings? Well good news - there's a whole lot more baskets popping up every day! Along with that glowing orb in the sky "for Sale" signs are popping up everywhere! Just Monday alone 160 more houses were listed on MLS. So not only are we finally getting to see the house we have been dreaming about for 6 months, but we are coming armed with 11 more listings that we want to take a look at!
Moral of the Story - life is just better when the Sun Shines.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Good News Friends!
We we listed our Condo on Thursday March 26th - officially posted on MLS.ca on Friday morning and suddenly our email was a buzz of activity from people booking viewings. It was awesome... at first. Then it became a bit of a nuisance.
You see when you have your house listed, you no longer get to make your own schedule - various Realtors and prospective buyers now have that privilege. You get an email to be out of the house within a specific time frame, and you make sure it happens. Unfortunately, out of the 10 viewings we went through, only ONE was booked while we were at work. Everyone else likes to do their house hunting during the evenings and especially weekends.
Know what I like to do on the weekends? SLEEP IN! Know what I haven't been able to do since we listed our Condo? ... yeah. On Friday I went to Hot Yoga with Ashton, and Ben picked me up afterward. When I got in the car he told me that we had another viewing for Saturday morning, when I inquired what time, and he told me 9:30am, my response was less than PG...
So after a fun night with friends Friday night, our alarm went off at 8:30am, and we dragged ourselves out of bed. On our way out to breakfast I changed my facebook status to:
You see when you have your house listed, you no longer get to make your own schedule - various Realtors and prospective buyers now have that privilege. You get an email to be out of the house within a specific time frame, and you make sure it happens. Unfortunately, out of the 10 viewings we went through, only ONE was booked while we were at work. Everyone else likes to do their house hunting during the evenings and especially weekends.
Know what I like to do on the weekends? SLEEP IN! Know what I haven't been able to do since we listed our Condo? ... yeah. On Friday I went to Hot Yoga with Ashton, and Ben picked me up afterward. When I got in the car he told me that we had another viewing for Saturday morning, when I inquired what time, and he told me 9:30am, my response was less than PG...
So after a fun night with friends Friday night, our alarm went off at 8:30am, and we dragged ourselves out of bed. On our way out to breakfast I changed my facebook status to:
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