Tag Archives: home

A place for everything

There is a saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”

Right now that’s not the case in our household. We are moving back onto our main floor after an extensive renovation, and now we have to find a place for everything. When it comes to the kitchen, that’s a real challenge. Our new fridge doesn’t seem as big as our old one, and the shelve sizes don’t seem to work for us. Our new cupboards and drawers are slowing becoming the place where we keep things, but I still find myself going on scavenger hunts to find things I usually find easily.

The good news, I absolutely love the new look. We took out the walls between our living room, dining room and kitchen and have a fully open concept. It looks awesome, and it already feels like home. But for now, we still have a lot of things to put away, and while we might find spots for everything, remembering where everything is kept will take a some time.

Slowly coming together

We’ve been living through a renovation since mid November and as we approach the completion it is great to see everything coming together. Drywall and flooring are done. Cabinetry is almost completely done, appliances are in, with one delayed shipment. Dust still everywhere.

We will still have to wait until late April or early May for all of our furniture to arrive, but we will have a working kitchen in about 2 weeks. That’s when things can start to get back to normal. And while it may take a couple months to settle back in, it feels good to be at a place where the end is in sight.

Living through an entire floor renovation isn’t very convenient. But we can already tell that the end result will be worth it. The biggest leap was deciding that we are going to live here for quite a while longer, and so let’s make it the place we really wanted. After that, it’s just really about not blowing the budget by too much, because there are always things you can add, always upgrades that look appealing.

But now is not a time to focus on that. Now is a time to appreciate what we’ve done and to see the vision we had for this place when we started. We have a home that we can enjoy for years to come, and while the process has been challenging, the final results will definitely be worth it.

Home Sweet Home

On my last day of work I left to visit my parents. I came home from that trip for 3 nights and then visited Nelson, then home for 4 nights and left for Kelowna. I also came home for 1 more night to drop my daughter off and head back to Kelowna. This whole summer I’ve been on the go!

I’m now looking forward to sticking around for a bit. I feel like I’ve had a great holiday and now I just want to rest up at home before starting back to school. I love to travel, but being home feels good. Sleeping in my own bed is something I’m looking forward to.

What’s even more exciting is that my wife and I decided that we will stay in our home for quite a bit longer, and so we are going to do a renovation that we’ve been talking about for years. We are planing to make ‘home sweet home’ even sweeter.

Going home

I booked a flight home to visit my parents this summer. By that point I will have had my second vaccine shot for a few weeks. I look forward to being able to hug my parents and sisters. It has been a long time since I’ve given anyone except my immediate family a hug. Sometimes the little things in life mean a lot.

I wish I could also take a few side trips and visit friends I haven’t seen in a while, but it feels a little soon for that. It will be a time to focus on family. That’s good too.

Living thousands of kilometres away from my parents and siblings is tough sometimes. It is easy to feel disconnected. Oddly enough the pandemic has brought me closer to my sisters. We now have a group chat on WhatsApp where we connect far more often than we used to. This is wonderful, but not the same as seeing each other face-to-face, and so the opportunity to go home is wonderful.

I remember a moment in my second year of Universtiy. I was home for the weekend, and shortly before it was time to leave I was sitting with my mom at the kitchen table. I absentmindedly said, “I better start getting ready to go home.” (Referencing my university as home.) My mom responded, “This is your home.” And at that point I realized my comment was impolite.

Now I have my own home, with a wonderful wife and two awesome kids. We’ve made a great home of our own… but when I’m heading back to see my folks, we’ll, I still like calling that ‘Going home’.