Onions, already?!?

Yesterday was a wonderful day.

We spent the better part of the afternoon outside; both boys, Chris, and I, and did so prepping the garden beds for planting. Planting! Can you believe it? For anyone living inside zone 4 as we do, they will agree that that is a pretty impressive accomplishment. At this time of the year, the ground in most places is still frozen solid.

What is even more remarkable is the fact that we also planted our first crop of the year: onions! We planted them in one of the covered raised beds, and the difference inside was astounding. The air is much warmer within the covering, and is so moist that the inside walls have beads of condensation on them. When we started tilling the earth we got another surprise: it was so warm much warmer than even the air inside that it released steam every time we turned the earth over, and is full of worms! I don't remember there being that many worms in the beds even in the summer, so they must have been drawn to the heat.

In other exciting news, we received our other vegetable seeds too! We ordered them from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a company that works with smaller organic seed farmers, and even tests their seeds against GMO's. Now I am not sure how I feel about the GMO seed and food debate, and I am sure I will cover that in another post in the future. However, I do like the fact that the seeds are grown in a pesticide-free environment and that they are heirloom-variety (assuming we can figure out how to harvest our own seeds in the Fall). As an added bonus I appreciate that the seeds are collected in partnership with smaller community-based farms throughout the U.S. and developing countries, and are therefore helping to support the local farms and their inhabitants. It's just a shame none of them are Canadian! (Though I think I may need to start researching more local seed producers, or start learning how to harvesting the seeds ourselves!)

I also finally took some video, and will share it with everyone below. Unfortunately the "free" software I was using was only a 30-day trial version (though nowhere was that stated when I downloaded it!), so we're on the hunt for some new software that is decent enough yet will not cost us a small fortune. In the meantime you'll have to bear with us as we share our unedited version with you!

Painting Pianos?!?

One of our readers had asked if we would share some pictures of the creative painting and  crafting space I made for Chris. As I had already filmed footage of our new piano to share, I thought it would also be a great idea to film the new room as well!

So here is our family's second vlog; showcasing the new piano and crafting room!

I love old houses!

We are fortunate enough to have very little carpet in our house, but the carpet we do have drives me to distraction. It's hard to keep clean, looks dreadful, and somehow seems to draw every single piece of pet hair towards it like a magnet. And being in the process of house-training a puppy certainly doesn't help, either. It's a good thing we don't have much.

Where we do have carpet is the stairs, upstairs hallway, playroom, and front sunroom. The sunroom isn't too bad, as we rarely go in there (it's still the catch-all of unpacked boxes - one year later!), but whoever decided that white carpet was a good idea not only in a playroom (that is what the previous owners used the room as like us), but in the only room with a door to the backyard; I want to throttle.

So needless to say, I've been looking for any excuse to replace ALL the carpet in the house. Though Chris does not share my loathing for carpet, he has been kind enough to humour me, and last weekend we just went out and purchased enough laminate (in a beautiful rosewood colour) to refloor the playroom. But that still left the stairs, and hallway.

It has been our suspicion that the upstairs hallway at least, perhaps even the stairs, had hardwood underneith the carpet, as the upstairs bedrooms all have what looks like the original flooring. But with carpet as old as we have, there was no telling if that was the case, or if it was hardwood, what shape it would be in. But yesterday I finally went ahead and took up the carpet; if only to discover what we were dealing with. And I found this:

Sure, it needs to be sanded down, the white paint splatters washed off, and there is a spot right in the middle where a previous owner tried to cover a grate-hole with plaster. But it's beautiful! Chris wasn't as impressed, he just remarked that the baseboards now need to be replaced, and the wood needs to be refinished, but I believe in it's potential. I love the old worn look, it makes me wonder how many people and generations have walked across that floor. And yes, the floor is stained a different colour from the bedrooms;

But with a little sweat equity, look how nice they turned out:

I just love old houses!