so much for November

okay so clearly the one post a day in November thing was a complete and utter failure. Life happens, okay? sheesh.
Moving right along!

I have two deep, dark secrets to share with you today, dear readers. One is the dark, rotten, moldy kind, that should be kept out of sight....one is the kind that looks bright and shiny and clean but inside...well, it's more like the first one. Are you ready for this? These secrets are important, they are the secrets to our downsizing success.

1) The basement of our new house. This is truly one of the most horrific basements I have ever encountered. The walls are crumbling in various places, have been ripped out in others, and speckled with black mold in many others. I have a mold allergy and I can't spend more than 15 minutes down there without starting to wheeze. Evidence of the previous tenants abounds, from someone's sad attempt to texture paint one of the rooms (note: swamp green rag rolling does not improve a dark, dank room), to the *ahem* evidence left behind in another: tinfoil covered window, pile of soil in the corner and stack upon stack of shipping boxes. We hate our basement because it is moldy, lacks a proper door, and feels like the kind of place that makes a happy home for rodents or serial killers in movies starring Jodie Foster. But we also love our basement because it is holding ALL OUR CRAP. All the boxes, and boxes, and boxes of stuff that won't fit in our house and we might want and we don't know what to do with. And as a result we are saving thousands of dollars in storage fees while we figure out what we're doing. So we (or maybe Beth given my wheezing issues) are going to tackle the basement with mold spray, gloves and masks, and put all the stuff in boxes in shelves and in plastic to protect it from the damp we know, and the damp we know will come!
wish us luck.

2) My other dark, deep secret isn't really much of a secret. It's IKEA.

IKEA, shiny blue and yellow Swedish siren, luring me to your shoals of disposable consumerism. You with your crunchy, green, family friendly image, your shining clean ballroom, your cheap meatballs and fries. But really are you any better than Wal-mart or McDonald's ? Despite your shiny exterior, your insides are just as tainted by the pursuit filthy lucre.

I returned to the blue and yellow behemoth, Toronto version, for the first time this past Saturday. By some cosmic miracle both our children agreed to stay in the play place as my wife and I giddily skipped through the store. 3 groggy hours later and many, many dollars poorer, we staggered out into the bright daylight of a North York parking lot...wondering how yet again we had been lulled into consumer complacency and wasted almost a whole Saturday inside.

the secret here? I guess it's just that I keep on believing all my downsizing problems can be solved if I spend enough money on Expedit shelving.

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?

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.

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?

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!