All in a weekend's work

I can spend hours daydreaming and imagining what we will do in our new home (many of these hours involve pinterest.com!) I think about what colour we will paint the walls, how we will arrange the rooms, how good our basement would look if we could afford all the storage solutions in the world and so on and so forth.  However, at this point, we have to scale back the dreaming and ground ourselves in reality. We have a lot of work to do before March 31st, and none of it justifies any time spent on pinterest.

When we moved in, we found out that there was zero insulation in this 101 year old baby.  This was not revealed to us in the home inspection since there was no attic hatch. We found out upon tearing down a wall and cutting an attic hatch.  We can understand that a house built a century ago would lack insulation, after all, wood was plentiful and heat was cheap. What we can't wrap our heads around is how none of the previous owners went about insulating the place. Heating bills must have been through the roof! (Pun intended).

The uninsulated attic

Our fancy new attic hatch

So away we went to insulate the attic (after setting up wiring to put in overhead lights in the bedrooms) and the one corner of first floor attic space.  Afterwards, we found out that the government is offering grants for home upgrades that increase efficiency, only available until March 31st. Although we missed out on the attic grant, there are still grants for insulating the basement, exterior walls, replacing doors etc. We booked an audit and, as predicted, it revealed there were many ways we could upgrade the efficiency of our home.  Apparently, the air in our house changes completely 15 times per hour, with an ideal number being closer to 7.  At least we're breathing fresh air? Also, the auditor said that if we added up all the tiny hole and leaks in our home, we would have a gaping hole equivalent to 1.6 square meters. Do you get what I mean when I say we aren't even thinking about paint at this point? 

Hose man

The cotton candy insulation blower machine

Part way through insulating

These upgrades have been keeping us busy, and the time crunch has been leaving us with a (healthy?) level of stress to get it all done.  Andrew's Dad, Craig, spent a weekend with us in December getting all the work done that is seen in the previous photos, as well as tearing down a wall in our bedroom! For some reason, and probably against his better judgment, he decided to come back again this weekend to help insulate some of the remaining first floor attic spaces. I guess we didn't wear him out enough the first weekend! We couldn't feel more grateful for all the hard work he has done, and the knowledge he has brought to our home renovation adventure. 

Clothes moved out to make space to venture into the closet

Dad/Craig ready to insulate

I can't wait for this home to be insulated, warm, and cozy! For now, I will continue to spend most of my time beside the fire...

 a&a

Visitors are always welcome...

...especially when they bring food!

Last Thursday we were pleasantly surprised when our good friends Katie and Ryan (& daughter Tricia) called us up and asked if it would be okay for them to come for dinner with Katie's parents, Andy and Melanie.  They also offered to bring cheese, salad, shepherd's pie, and dessert! Who could say no to that?! So they arrived and we munched on some delicious cheeses and chicken liver mousse, and even popped open a bottle of champagne that had been in our fridge waiting for the perfect occasion.

The Bubbly

A very ticklish Tricia

While the adults were downstairs, Tricia ventured upstairs and would return talking about the 'froggy' upstairs.  Not sure to what she was referring, I followed her upstairs (without her knowing) and was led right into our bedroom.  She had found our frog-shaped dehumidifier and was telling it to "stay here! don't move! go night night!" 

I don't know what is more hilarious, the sight of Tricia talking to our frog-shaped dehumidifier, the fact that I am admitting we have a frog-shaped dehumidifier, or Tricia's innocently inappropriate pronunciation of the word 'frog'...

A good night was had by all, and again, we were left feeling so blessed to be living this life.

a&a

Guestbook

When we moved into our new home, we decided to start a guest book for our visitors.  A few friends of ours have had a guest book in their own home and we really liked the idea of having our visitors leave a little note or jot down an experience they had while in our home.  At our rental house, we continued to use the guestbook from our wedding that consisted of cue cards. 

Cue Card Guestbook

As much as we loved the cue card guestbook, it was hard to keep track/know what to do with all of the loose cards, and we wanted something a little more cohesive.  For this house, we are starting fresh with a bound guestbook, which was actually a birthday present from my best friends Erin and Tess.  It's from Ten Thousand Villages. All of their journals are so beautiful and I love the textured paper. 

Paisley Home Guestbook

Already starting to fill up with entries...

 I can't wait to have more people over and sign our guestbook! So, if you are reading this, please stop in for a visit! Unless we don't know you, that would be weird...but if you're nice, we will probably let you in.

a&a

The First Post

We have been reading several blogs for a while, following the adventures and stories of friends and strangers, and had a feeling it wouldn't be long until we started our own.... So, here it is!  Our Paisley Home will document our journey of house ownership, as well as the family, friends, and food we enjoy within these four walls (and the backyard I guess...)

Our Home

We just bought our first home in mid-December.  It is a charming story-and-a-half, red brick, at the ripe old age of 101!  It was built before any of our Grandparents were even born.  It's located in Guelph, Ontario - a city we have fallen in love with over the past three years.  We had been looking on and off for a house over the past year, had put two offers on two different houses, and found that the third time was a charm when it came to the one that became ours.

We love the charm of older houses, and realize that with that old-charm comes plenty of insulating work to be done!  But, at this point, we are so excited to get started! We know that not every step along the way will be fun, but we hope to face each challenge and task joyfully, fully recognizing how blessed we are to have a home of our own!

a&a