Moving day, our bedroom and renovations...

Our furniture was to be delivered on Dec 22^nd, with Michelle supervising while I was proctoring my last exam in Ottawa. Our plan was to live with two bedrooms of furniture in our smaller front bedroom. The logistics of that plan would enable us to quickly renovate the downstairs, which would largely involve painting. After the downstairs was set-up our cramped quarters upstairs would "force" us to renovate our larger bedroom.

To understand why we felt the need to renovate the room only requires a description of the original state of the room. When we moved in, the larger bedroom had a stage. This was a raised area taking up a quarter of the original room that was not large enough to accomodate a queen sized bed. The closet had mirrored sliding doors and the wall surrounding the closet was also mirrored. The baseboards, window and door casements were all painted a horrible peach colour with the non-mirrored walls painted a pinky peach that was equally hideous. The only "tasteful" guess for this particular combination of decor is that the person wished to sit on an elevated bed and look out the windows at the river. Non-tasteful guesses have mainly included video cameras.

Our plans fell apart when our 1934 stairwell could not accomodate our queen size bed. Michelle adapted quickly using our main floor office space as a bedroom. Unfortunately this means our office stuff is now in the basement rec room. This cascade has moved up the need to renovate the bedroom because both of our offices at U of M are currently under construction. For me the situation is not too bad because I have a temporary space in the associate Chair's, rather grand, office while he is on Sabbatical. Michelle is not so fortunate and needs a space a home because at work she is still without a computer or an internet connection in her temporary space.

Thus we painted what was necessary on the first floor and immediately tore up the stage and removed the baseboards in the upstairs room. We also purchased solid wood flooring and I am preparing to buy and secure the necessary underlay. Of course that is worthy of another entry.

Let me say one thing about moving and renovating: I have never had a full appreciation for those who have renovated thier homes. Painting, putty work, drywall repair, general fixes, and demolition are all individually painful. And for the record I am speaking of being in physical pains and being mentally exhausted.

Still I love my house and the property (20+ minutes this morning to clear 3cm of snow covered with a very light crust of ice temp: 0 deg C).