My son is going through an incredibly annoying stage where he is asserting his independence and wants to feed himself.  Even though his fine motor skills leave much to be desired.  Even though most of the applesauce seems to have ended up on the wall.  I ask you, how did he manage to get applesauce on the wall directly behind him?  And on the chair behind his head??? I do not understand the physics of this situation.  Oh, and if you’re wondering why the outlet covers don’t cover the whole electrical outlet, it’s because half the bloody outlets in this house have been installed upside down.  Not all. Just some.  In random locations. Just to make me lose my mind.  But I will continue on because I have good news, folks!  I finally took some pictures of the house.  I didn’t quite get everything so there will have to be a second part. Hopefully I will remember to do it before we move out.  I kinda forgot that I said I would post these pics for the last, oh, six weeks. But with a stern reprimand gentle reminder from my sister I am back on top of things!  And without further ado…

Here is a picture of our house from the outside.  Notice the small device on the front lawn. It appears to be connected to some kind of tubing through which water is being propelled across the yard.  Must be some strange prairie contraption.  I certainly haven’t seen any more of these objects around London.  There is a suite upstairs (entrance on the right side of the house) and a suite in the basement (entrance off the driveway). We have the whole main floor.  The yard is small compared to what we had in Saskatoon but we have been blessed with beautiful perennial flower beds that seem to be blooming with something different each week. I have really enjoyed it and am truly in awe of people who know enough to create these flower beds.  Our back yard is full of daylilies and roses right now.  It was a mess with the kids toys so I’ll post pics of that in Part II. We don’t actually have any really old trees in our yard but there are many big trees on our street. You can see the edge of one in the top right corner of the picture.  You can also enjoy the tonnes of wires that are hanging over the street.  I can’t remember if I mentioned before that when our moving van arrived it accidentally hit one of these wires that was hanging below it’s legally required height.  We called Bell or whoever was responsible for it that day. They said they’d send someone out next week. No one came. We called the city. They said they’d kick Bell’s ass. No one came.  We called Bell again. It eventually did get repaired after a month or so.  One of our moving crew actually taped up the wire with duct tape so it wouldn’t hang in the street.  In hindsight, we should have let it hang in the street. It would have probably been fixed much faster!

This is just inside the front porch.  It is actually much bigger than I thought it was from the pictures I originally saw.  Big enough to keep a bike in the winter and a nice area for putting on and taking off shoes. I’m trying to ignore the fact that about 40 percent of the little window panes are cracked.

Here is the dining room. Yes, you basically come straight into the dining room. But it’s hard to see in the picture that there actually is a bit of entrance space and there is a “closet” space to the left of the door. No door on the closet but some good shelving and such.  The most annoying feature in this room is of course the fact that there is carpet.  A yucky, old carpet that is getting yuckier by the moment because Kieran insists on throwing most of his meals on the floor.  I have just accepted the fact that we may have to have the carpets steam-cleaned every month all year.

My kitchen is all right. It looks better in the pictures than in person, in fact.  But I’m not whining.  It’s really nice to have that island.  I’m still adjusting to cooking on the gas stove/oven.  Yes, my fridge is kind of in a weird corner. That pillar? Although structurally necessary?  Is in the most awkward spot possible.  I’m starting to get used to it but I bump into it more than I’d like to admit.  I absolutely HATE the counters, however. They were a do-it-yourself project which is supposed to look like granite. It consisted of a sprayed-on layer and then some kind of a clear varnishy type finish.  Unfortunately, something did not go right with the varnish so there are a million little craters in the counter and they get filled up with crap and the counter is rough and uneven. You can’t slide a glass or bowl across it and the edges are reeeeally rough and I keep bumping my insulin pump into it and it’s getting all scratched up.  And there are no handles on the cupboards and drawers on the island.  That is very annoying.  But overall, as I said, it makes a good first impression.  It’s working for us.

Here’s our living room from both angles.  The french doors lead into the master bedroom.  It’s a nice room and there’s not much to whine about here….so…moving on…

The master bedroom here is having some serious decorative issues.  If there was a name for the theme of this room it would be “Paper Bag”.  Somehow everything ended up being this brown colour that is exactly the colour of paper lunch bags.  The curtains (which were here when we moved in), our bedspread, the walls, and the big carpet rolled up in the corner.  The wood all kind of blends in, too. I hung some pictures but it’s not enough. I need some really huge, colourful artwork which I cannot afford, or some other way to spice up the room.  Any suggestions?  Our bedroom always ends up as the last room to be “finished”.

And, finally, our bathroom.  It’s cozy tiny.  If it looks to you like that shelf above the toilet is hanging off the wall then you would be right.  It is mounted in such a way as to hang precariously over the toilet and it’s really heavy.  But we are so pressed for storage that I can’t afford to take it down. Plus it would leave some ugly looking holes in the wall!  There is some shelving to the right of the window in a little nook so that is totally saving my life.  I kind of miss having two bathrooms. But it’s something to look forward to in the next house.

So that’s half the house!  Coming soon, the kids bedroom, playroom and back yard.  I was too lazy to clean up the toys and the kids are sleeping.  Sorry if that ended up being too much whining.  Just chalk it up to my “prairie charm”.  It really is true that you become more of a native of your homeland when in a different place, whether that is a different province or a different country.  It’s really hard not to spend a lot of time pointing out the differences between Saskatchewan and Ontario.  Even though it’s not that I really feel that it is a big deal. It’s just that I’m getting used to a new place and it’s on my mind all the time.  I don’t want to offend my new Ontarian friends so I’ll just have to try and remind myself to keep it under control.  Sometimes it’s easier to distract myself from missing home if I dwell on trivial things.  Anyway, hope you enjoyed the tour.  Feel free to drop in any time!