Going Domestic

it's pretty, but I'll just watch the DVD ...

I might be the last person on the planet to hear about The Shire in Bend, Oregon.  That's okay. I don't mind. I mean, I used to be a medieval history fanatic and do think that the LOTR films are really well done, but storing my gardening equipment and my daughter's red wagon in a hobbit hole just seems silly. Everything I own would feel out of place in that community. How do the residents come to terms with parking their SUVs there? I can't imagine ...

window shopping

It's been over eight months since I stepped foot in an Ikea. Eight months of missing my MARKOR living room furniture, eight months of missing my sewing table with the turquoise VIKA CURRY legs.  My in-laws brought me a copy of the 2007 catalogue when they visited us last week, and I've had a really fun time planning out a shopping spree when we move back home next year.

First, a BILLY bookcase (well, maybe two), in red!  Very tempted to add a set of glass doors it. I'd put the bookcase(s) in our study/computer room, add rug like this VEDBAEK one, and then bring my old POANG chair up from the basement. Maybe I'd get a new cover for it.

I think that a set of the EXPEDIT shelves would look terrific in our entryway. One of these IKEA PS units would be handy in the guest bedroom/sewing room, hiding all of my fabric away.

We won't be moving until February, so I have lots of time to do this imaginary redecorating :)

Open Letter

Dear People Who Own the House We Rent:

Firstly, may I commend you on your excellent choice of neighbourhood? It's lovely to be able to stroll down to the lake with my toddler, and to have that lovely view of the ocean out the dining area window. I understand that this is to be your retirement home, and I think it shall do nicely. However, the reason why I am writing concerns some glaring omissions in what this furnished home is equipped with.

There is no teapot! There's a tea kettle. I cannot imagine why you would provide us with a kettle and yet no pot in which to add the boiling water to brew tea. Is the kettle there so that we can make endless batches of Jello, maybe?

Also kitchen related, there is no blender. I could understand not having a blender if there was an immersion wand, or maybe a food processor, as those all can perform some of the same functions in the kitchen.

I am also surprised that you don't have a lawnmower, even one of those manual push-type ones that I think are really cool. How are we supposed to maintain the new lawn? Does a flock of sheep regularly stroll past and help themselves?

My biggest gripe? Where are we supposed to keep the garden hose? There is no rack for it nailed to either the house or the deck in the back. Perhaps you ought to have invested in one of those hose storage gizmos like most of your neighbours have ...

Anyway, that's all for now ...

Sincerely,

One of the Tenants

PS I think I'm going to buy some pots of flowers for the front step this week.

If I don't post for awhile ...

... or respond to any emails, I'm not being neglectful or avoiding anyone. We're just moving really soon. This is going to be my last post here before me move and I'm not really sure how fast we'll have the computer set-up and internet access in St. John's.

Five Things I'll Miss about Calgary

1. Weather. I'll grudgingly admit the chinook winds are nice at this time of year.
2. The Cookbook Company
3. Living so close to an Ikea (old habits die hard, right?)
4. It's only a three hour drive to Edmonton
5. Our home! We spent a lot of money on improvements last year, not to mention my hefty investment in tulip bulbs, and we're not going to be able to enjoy it ...

Five Things I Won't Miss

1. Not having curbside recycling.
2. Urban sprawl sprawl sprawl and the complaints from the sprawlers who wonder why they live so far away from a school.
3. The drivers who think they do not have to signal for turns, leave a decent amount of space between my car and theirs, and think that shoulder checks are for sissies.
4. The Stampede!
5. The dry climate in winter. Static cling is no friend of mine ...

How the Mighty Fall

Okay, I am beginning to think that Ikea isn't my favourite store anymore. When we bought our Markor sideboard this past summer, I noticed that one of the drawer fronts was crooked, but decided that it was more sensible to just replace the crooked piece than unassemble the entire sideboard. I have emailed Ikea at least two times about how to go about doing this, but I never heard back. I asked in person at our local Ikea today, and all the employee could say is that I have to wait for someone to return a Markor sideboard first. Um ... seriously? There's nothing else that can be done?

What's Customer Service in Swedish?

I think that I am getting slightly less infatuated with Ikea. I emailed their customer service address over a week ago, asking how I would go about obtaining a replacement part for one of the drawers on our Markor sideboard - the holes in it were drilled off-center, so the drawer looks crooked.  No reply yet. I'm disappointed. I wonder if I could inquire at the actual store - it's only ten minutes away from my house ...

Related topic: my friend Chris sent me this link to the blog of a gentlemen who is an even bigger Ikea fan than I am.  I've only been to four Ikea locations

• Edmonton (two old locations, and the current one)
• Shaumburg, Illinois (the coolest escalator for shopping carts!)
• Richmond, BC
• Calgary (old and new locations)

Sadly, there is no Ikea in St. John's ...

One More Present

Chris, Madeline, and I arrived home from a trip to Edmonton last night, and unloaded three days worth of mail from the box. In amongst the junk mail and the mobile phone bill was the updated report the results of our most recent energy audit, the one where ATCO came back to evaluate how much impact the changes we've made have had on our home's energy efficiency.  I was keeping my fingers crossed for a ten-point improvement, but the report said that our score  increased from 57 to 70! Wow! That means that we can expect an EnerGuide rebate of $800 - enough to buy us another new window :)

Extreme Makeover

I think that we've spoiled our house this year.  Okay, repairing the leaky roof (that the previous homeowners did not disclose at the time of sale, thank you very much) was a necessity, but our latest expenditures were largely for curb appeal and comfort. Our house had cedar siding in the front, some of which had started to rot. So we had vinyl siding installed, with thick rigid insulation underneath. Our green house is now a deep beige and I dare the vinyl to start decaying!  We also had a mid-efficiency furnace installed last Friday, replacing the thirty-six year-old Chrysler one in our basement. That upgrade is really nice. The old furnace lasted two winters for us, both of which we spent worrying about having enough cash to replace it. Now we don't have to worry.

The nice thing about our year of spending on the house is that we were able to get our post-evaluation period for the EnerGuide rebates extended. I'm going to call about setting up another energy audit tomorrow, hoping that our home's energy efficiency has improved enough to qualify us for about $300-500 back.

Ceramic Anniversary

Chris and I celebrated our third anniversary a few days ago. The traditional gift for the third anniversary is actually something *leather* but we're breaking from tradition once again and re-tiling the backsplash in our kitchen. I think it will be awesome - currently we have tile there that the previous homeowners painted yellow. The problem isn't so much that the tile is yellow - it's just that the previous homeowners took no care at all while they painted it. It's lumpy and drippy. And they painted over the electrical switch cover plates. Again. I'm kind of torn between choosing faux tumbled stone tiles installed on the diagonal or some cool subway tiles. Either would be an incredible upgrade.

We dined at Jack's Grill for the first time ever for our anniversary dinner. I'm really glad we went there - they had a tasting menu featured as part of Dine Alberta. Both Chris and I had the tasting menu (something we've wanted to do for a long time!) and it was fabulous. We started with a beet salad, then pickeral in a sort of succotash (who knew that fava beans were so good?), next was veal sweetbreads in a tomato-based sauce, then wild boar loin in the very cranberry mustard that we have at home(!), and then dessert was a chocolate lava cake in a saskatoon berry coulis. It all was wonderful!

It's the season for upgrading

One of the local television stations has added an "ask an expert" feature to their website for home renovation topics. A group of local companies in the industry have been recruited to answer questions from regular homeowners, so I think that's really neat. I'm just a wee bit suspicious because a person has to register to ask a question - I am having visions of being spammed with messages like "cheap low-flow toilets", "install your own skylight - find out how!!!" and so on!

Digital phone service is now available in Calgary, and I think that we're going to sign up. $55 for all local and long-distance calls a month, so that's not bad, but really, it's just an excuse to cease relations with our local regular phone company because their high-speed internet is down more than it's up lately.