Down from Mount Crumpet...

The Grinch Load

 Michael and his uncle Jim having just arrived from Ottawa.  Jim is 69!  Get OUT!! (he's the one standing in the garage in case you were confused).

 Michael drove the Volvo.  Volvo is Swedish for 'A Grinch Load'.
The entire village of Whoville can fit in the back of a Volvo wagon.

If you're the kind of person who really looks closely at pictures, you will see rocks in the back of the Uhaul, and a black Dodge pick up truck in the yard.  That is the REALLY REALLY used truck that we bought to replace my REALLY REALLY nice Toyota Tacoma - which caught on fire during the first move from Ottawa.
Oh, and the best part was, because we had cancelled our apartment insurance, and weren't parked in the yard at the new house when it happened (because Michael was driving the truck when it caught fire) everything that wasn't covered by insurance, but expensive?  Gone.  Burt to a blistering mess.  My Miele vacuum cleaner that could suck Satan up from hell?  Poof.  The jogger stroller?  Toast.  All of my jewlery, pygamas, and shoes?
Yeah... The badly shorn singers in Whoville wouldn't have sung a single g.d. peep if it had been them!

The important thing of course is that Michael was fine.  A few burns on his arm from trying to rescue said penultimate vacuum.  The only two things that survived?  Michael's rock nerd books, and my fathers wedding ring.
I know.  I KNOW!

So!  Five years ago, I finished renovating a century home in Ottawa, Ontario.  I swore up and down, sideways and backwards - to the next event horizon and back - that 'I would NEVER renovate another century home!'  NEVER!!

What would have been a regular reno for most, was a television show for me.  The show was called 'Me My House & I'.  It aired WTN.  Three years ago, I had my first baby - Naiomi.  Two years ago, I had my second baby, Clementine. One year ago, my new husband Michael, his mother, our two young daughters, the dog Torchy and the cat Mrs. bought ..... a century home.

Sigh....

And so, the renovations begin anew.  Michael's mum, Judy, is an artist.  We convinced her that she should live with us.  Well, okay, I convinced her that she should live with us.  Well, okay, she agreed to live with us.

The house we bought together is a century home, on the banks of The Gull River, in Minden, Ontario.  The wish-list is pretty big.  Not gonna lie.  In no particular order, here is is:
Judy will have her own apartment and studio.
Michael will have a garage/studio to do his photography and rock nerd thing.
I will have a garden and an office.
The girls will have a room to share and a yard big enough to play in.
Michael and I will have a kitchen big enough to cook in without sticking a fork in the other's eyebrow.
We will have a living room big enough to 'live' in without... sticking a fork in our guests eyebrows.
And Torchy the dog and Mrs. the cat will... dream dreams of bones and mice - in someone else's house.

Let the festivities begin!