unexpected gifts

our new, smaller home has brought with it a number of logistical challenges and minor and not so minor annoyances (freezing windows, quirky electrical, lack of fans in bathroom AND kitchen).

But it has also brought a number of little gifts. Gifts that at first masquerade as major annoyances.

Some of the unexpected gifts:

1. No dishwasher. For the first time in 8.5 years, we have no dishwasher. As we like to joke that our first dishwasher saved our marriage, this hardly seems like a gift. But it is...we are rediscovering the zen-like relaxation of doing the dishes by hand. And we are discovering that we have grown up a lot in the last 8.5 years--instead of arguing over who will do them and making large passive-aggressive piles of dirty dishes, we just get them done and move on.
   
2. No TV. We do have Netflix on our desktop so we are not completely screen free but the lack of tv means we have to be a lot more conscious about our viewing. No channel surfing, no turning on the tv just because. And as a result, more time spent reading, baking and doing all those wonderful TV free activities.
3. No need to drive the car everywhere. This is more obviously a gift, but we are all appreciating the ability to walk many more places we need to go and get lots more exercise along the way. We love not using our car every day!
4. One bedroom & two kids...we worried this would be a disaster, especially with our 5 yo who likes to have things exactly to her specifications and likes her space. But they seem to really enjoy sharing a room , lots of giggling, fort building and two sisters who are growing closer every day is the result!
   

What unexpected gifts have you received lately?

our new place

so a few people have been asking me about our new place.

Some great things about it:

-It is not as small as I feared
-our bedroom is huge, and our king size bed fits in easily
-the attic playroom is delightful and features a secret floorboard for hiding cool things (hopefully nothing valuable...)
-the kitchen is workable, especially with the generous loan of a lovely butcher block topped island from some great friends!
-there is LOTS of storage space in the basement.
-the bathroom is freshly redone.
-we back on to a pretty ravine with a train track running through it. The girls, especially our youngest, LOVE watching the trains go by. Which they do at roughly 10 min. intervals during rush hour.
-wonderful neighbourhood & dream location!

Some not so great things about the place:

-it is FREEZING...windows need replacing, some spots need caulking. Overall I feel like wrapping the whole place in shrink wrap for the winter. I shudder to think of our heating bill. Actually I just shudder.
-the kitchen counters were designed at a time when the height of the average Torontonian was about 5'
-the fridge light is broken & hence is always off.
-the window in the playroom is lexan, not glass, and half of it is an air conditioner. I'm sure that's great in the summer....
-we're right beside a train track, and the whole house rattles each time one goes by.
-it's an older home, hence it does not have enough plugs. And about half of these plugs don't work. And when my LW (*lovely wife) tried to change an ancient fuse, sparks flew. We are calling an electrician.
-the previous tenants had 3 large hairy dogs. The place was not properly cleaned after they left. The dogs scratched up the floors and either the dogs or the tenants punched a hole in the bedroom wall.
-someone painted the lovely exposed brick wall in the living room white. I mean really??!!

Overall, I'm feeling conflicted on the whole home ownership thing. After owning our own place for 7 years, it's kind of nice to look around and think that all the maintenance on this place is NOT my responsibility. But I also love this little place and kinda wish it was ours so we could take it in hand & whip it into shape...if we ever got around to it!

So far, I have been here for 8 days, and I have not, I repeat NOT gone to IKEA. Aren't you impressed?

No wire hangers ever!

Or plastic ones, or wooden ones. Sheesh. This new house has one useable closet for adult size hangers, plus a smallish closet for the girls' special dresses and a kid-size dress up closet in the attic playroom. Our last house had...hmm...5 full closets ready to be filled with hangers. I have unpacked roughly 25 hangers today alone. The last straw...coming across a box marked 'hangers and clothes'

No. more. hangers.

Oh and I should mention we love our new place...it's not quite as tiny as I had thought based on my first impression. More on the new place, its quirks, and the previous tenants who were smokers with three LARGE dogs, in a later post.

Aren't you glad I have access to the internet again? I will do my best to catch up on my many days arrears of Nablopomo.

upcoming posts:
-10 things I won't miss (as promised)
-Moving day
-Annie's tribute to our old house
-The trials and tribulations of our new house
-I love Toronto....but....

stay tuned and apologies for the hiatus.

holy crap

this new house is small!
but we made it, all our stuff made it, and we are safe & sound.
More later!

taking the smaller the better to the extreme!

Not a real post, but a friend linked me to this incredible website of a house designer who designs truly tiny homes, anywhere from 89 to 800+ sq. ft.


Now there's some inspiration!

Regrets, I've had a few...

Time for another list. Is all this list-making a form of cheating in the national blog posting month unverse? yeah? Too bad, I don't care, I'm moving in 4 days.

So despite our general jubilation about our upcoming move, there are things we will miss about the locale we are in right now. So I decided to list them, in no particular order, I swear.

1. Fabulous local french fry spot that our very allergic daughter can eat at. It's also supercheap.
2. Living 5 minutes walk from a big & very picturesque body of water, and a big sandy beach.
3. Fabulous local bakery with the best croissants ever. (a certain theme is emerging here).
4. Adorable local Santa Claus parade with lots of candy for the kiddies.
5. Wonderful neighbours, especially the ones next door, a sweet retired couple who have adopted our kids as honorary grandkids.
   
6. Very friendly network of moms--this has been the easiest place to meet people and we have made many friends.
   
7. The beautiful outdoors: summer, winter, spring or fall, we are always close to the great outdoors here and we love it--canoeing, hiking skiing etc..
8. Skating on the canal + Beaver Tails (mmmm....pastry!)
   
9. Strawberry picking, pumpkin picking etc. at the lovely farm just down the road.
10. Local organic market with free horse drawn wagon rides. Granted that we don't buy very much food there as it tends to blow our budget, but love the atmosphere and the kids love the wagon! Oh and the sausages are good too!
    

So there it is, my attempt to sum up 9 years of living in an area in a short list. I've left out many important things, but this is meant to be quick, fun & light. I'd love to hear from you if you think I've missed something important....


Better get back to packing!!
Next post: 10 things I will NOT miss.

selling stuff still sucks...but freecycling is fantastic

So I'm really way too tired to post tonight---this should be interesting.

But I did want to relate my views on the difference between selling stuff and freecycling:

Selling stuff:

Process:

• Wait foreeeeeeeeeever to get the tiniest bit of interest.
• Carefully coax slightly interested prospective customer, wooing them with attentive emails, flashy photos and flexible pick up times, or even offers to drop off the item.
• Exchange multiple phone calls and emails about why the item is so perfect and how you are available for them to pick it up

Outcome: About 10% of the time, they buy something and you get good money for getting rid of something you don't need. The other 90% they don't show up, give up on you, never get back to you and you are stuck with the item, which you eventually freecycle.

Freecycling:

Process:

• Post a quick two-line email about something giving the minimum of details and emphasizing the need for you to get rid of it as quickly & conveniently as possible.
• Sit back and wait for the dozens of responses to pour in, each one more polite than the last.
  
• Sift through sob story after obsequious sob story and pick out the one that either makes you feel most warm & fuzzy or the one that seems most likely to pick up the item within the required time frame.
• Feel a warm glow of benevolence as the person arrives, usually promptly, and gratefully picks up said item.

Outcome:

• Hope that the warm glow of benevolence compensates for the fact that you didn't actually earn any money. But hey, at least the item isn't in the landfill or clogging up your storage space!
  

honey, what do you think?

After 12 years together, and 10 years of marriage, you'd think there wouldn't be that many surprises left. And it's true, there aren't too many. But there are numerous instances of the same basic differences being played out in a multi-hued kaleidoscope of variations.

Packing and getting ready to downsize is one such variation that is a...hmm...I'm trying to figure out how to work Rorschach test into this sentence but I think I'm becoming much too pretentious and long winded. Moving right along...packing shows me yet again how my wife and I differ in one fundamental characteristic.

I need to think out loud, involve others in my thought process, bounce things off someone etc.

She, being more of the strong, silent type does not.

Which reminds me of yet another mystery of marriage: how come even I know this about her so well, it can still annoy me? I mean really, you'd think I'd be pretty zen about our differences at this point. But if you have been reading this blog for the past few weeks you've learned that I don't necessarily rock the zen.

Anyhow, back to packing. Our differences can be summed up as follows. Upon encountering an item that has some kind of sentimental/practical/monetary value, here's what happens:

(scenario A, I find the item)
Me: "Honey, do you think we should keep this? I kind of like it, and I could see us using it again?"
Her: "Mmmmm (or silence, insert chirping crickets here).

Me: "No, I need to know what you think about it, it' s more yours than mine. I'm kind of worried that if I throw it out we'll find out we really need it."

Her: "Just get rid of it, love, I'm sure it will be fine."

(scenario B, she finds the item)

***************silence except for the following sounds: crinkle of plastic as item is thrown out, screech of packing tape as yet another box is sealed, thud as item lands in our donation bin.

**with apologies to my wife for the gross exaggerations I have made and the artistic licence I have given myself for the sake of coming up with a post.

*************************************************************
For all those who were wondering, we did not manage to sell: the horse, the toddler bike seat, or the bassinet/playpen. Two of those three items have now found a happy home. Any guesses as to what we are still going to end up moving?

Canadian Tire Money, pennies and marbles

What do these three items have in common?
They are THE top three most annoying items to deal when you are moving.
Why? They are small, usually found in all kinds of random and aggravating locations (pockets, bottoms of grocery bags, bottoms of drawers) especially in a less than organized house like ours, and you can't. just. throw them out.
at least not without feeling major guilt about
a) wasting money that could some day be spent on motor oil or a gigantic inflatable motion and light activated Christmas snow globe.
b) wasting money that could be spent on penny candy.
c) wasting money by throwing out toys that your kids like and actually play with and really don't take up THAT much space

Rounding out my list of annoying things to run across when packing:

• Broken jewelry....I really used to like that earring/bracelet/necklace until my toddler ripped it up. Maybe someday my wife will fix it for me? Until then I will store it in a ziploc baggie with other broken jewelry until it turns into a hopelessly mangled Gordian knot.
• Half empty containers of stuff....ketchup, hand sanitizer, lotion etc. I don't want to waste it, but how many multiple half empty bottles of the same crap is it really worth moving? Especially hand sanitizer which seems to multiply like rabbits around here as we try to convince our handwashing hating kid to stop spreading germs (nope, doesn't work).
• screws/bolts/nuts and other little metal and plastic thingies that I cannot correctly label (see cordaround post)--these paralyze me. I mean what if I throw out the one thing that holds our shelves together, therefore requiring a trip to IKEA to stand in their miles long customer service line? And if my wife is not around to ask about them I have to save them in my pockets or little ziploc bags until I can find out if they're okay to throw out.
• Batteries. I can't throw them out or else the silent screams of fishies, bunnies and other wild creatures who will be maimed by their corroding acid echo in my head. I know of two places where they can be recycled in this area: 1-my office 2-IKEA . Neither of these places is convenient when I am packing. Enter ziploc bags, that eventually have to be taken somewhere else.

I'd write more, but I'd better pace myself for the rest of the month. If you don't hear from me, I may be underneath a pile of ziploc bags filled with tiny pieces of crap in my basement. Send help.

yeah okay, so far I kinda suck

I've already missed one day of Nablopomo. No excuses. I will do better. moving right along.

a few good things....

Life really hasn't been just one big ball of stress lately. I have in fact had a number of positive things happen, many of which have been a pleasant surprise, including:

• we got two offers on our house within 7 days....even our agent was surprised by this--apparently all our decluttering worked.
• Our older daughter has generally been coping much better than we expected with all the changes in our lives.
• We've found all the necessary paperwork for the house! something I certainly wouldn't have expected to be so easy given the state of said house a few months ago!
  
• I finish work in two days...not a surprise, but definitely a good thing. I've had to restrain myself from skipping through the hallways singing lately, which I suspect would not be appreciated.
• Other than a nasty cold that mainly hit my wife (sorry honey!) we've generally managed to keep sane, stress free, sickness free and even actually had a lot of fun.
• We've sold most of our big items! (with the notable exception of Pinkie Beauty, our beautiful spring horse, perfection in plastic horse form, only $50).
  

Letting things go

As we have been getting ready for this move and big change in our lives, I have a growing list in my head of things we have been letting go. Many of these things are things that I am letting go with a huge sense of relief, things that have been weighing me down, things that should go (my current job is probably topmost here).

There are other things that I find myself feeling more attached to, things I am having a harder time letting go of....

And then there are things that feel more like they are a sign of slipping standards and of, well
'letting things go'...down, letting things crumble etc.

So here is my list of things I've let go of:

• grad school papers, cause, really, I'm never going to do that PhD now, and even if I do! (sorry mom)
• our beautiful brown leather sofa...sigh.
• anything moldy. I don't care how valuable a photo/document/clothing item it was, if it got moldy in our basement, it's gone!
• lots and lots of books, even ones that I read....this is very hard for an anxious sometimes insomniac like me. Books = entertainment, security, something to do when I can't sleep. Many of them are like old friends....but sometimes, even old friends get moldy.
• some totally functional and even attractive dishes. We will not now, nor ever in future, need 6+ teacup saucers with no matching teacups, even if they were my grandma's.

And here's my other list, the things I've let go of that are more akin to slipping standards. We've let go of:

• rules about our youngest daughter's pacifier use. She gets it pretty much any damn time she pleases these days--with all the disruption in our lives, she can use all the comfort she can get!
  
• our usual virtually tv free parenting style. The girls have now memorized multiple episodes of Dora and Diego (did you know he's a very special child?) and we are discovering how easy it is to get things done when they are rotting their brains in front of the glowing box.
• our from scratch lifestyle-- a lot more things are being made from a mix around here lately (within the limitations of our youngest's crazy food sensitivities) and we've been frequenting our local pataterie a lot more too! (mmmm....fries cooked in lard are soy free!

What kinds of things have you let go of in order to simplify your life? Any regrets?

I must be completely crazy

Because in the midst of selling our house, leaving my job of 9 years, moving to a new city and starting a new job, I have now decided to sign up for National Blog Posting Month http://www.nablopomo.com
That's right. I have now committed to posting something every day for a month. Okay so it goes against the whole simplifying, decluttering, downshifting focus of this blog. Okay so it is probably going to be one of the most stressful months in my life and I am adding to the pressure.

But hey, I'm enjoying this whole blogging thing thus far, and if I want to get serious about it, no better way! Right? Right? right? right?

So, since it's already November 3rd, I'm now going to catch up by posting 3 posts in a row! whee!