House Prep...AKA getting it ready to sell

Welcome wishes going out to The Solla-Mates of Happily Hitched: An RV Blog. Thanks for joining us as we begin this next journey :)

In order to sell our home in the new year we not only are selling off all our "stuff" left over from daycare and from the store we closed last fall, but we are finally painting our house which we have wanted to paint since we bought it in 2007. We have always hated the colours. (It's funny how when you decide to sell your home you find the motivation to deal with the issues you haven't liked about it for others to enjoy instead of you yourselves!)

While away this summer both of our neighbours painted their houses so we called to get quotes to paint ours. One company wanted close to $5000.00 and the other wanted $7800.00!!!

We decided to try our hand at painting it ourselves so now with our own time and energy and $1200.00 worth of paint and painting supplies we have begun!

In between our West Coast rain showers we have been pressure washing 4 years or more of dust and dirt off of that horrible grey and blue paint which makes the colours stand out even more!

And masking off windows and eaves and beginning the painting process.

We are gradually working our way around the house in one LoooOOOoooog slow process but little bit by little bit the house is being transformed. We have most of the main colour done, just trim and eaves troughs to do.

So we have put sunshine on order but the 5 day forcast looks like this :

Short Term ForecastUpdated: Fri, Sep 30, 2011, 21:00 PDT

	Friday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM	Saturday MorningMorning: 6:00 AM - 11:59 AM	Saturday AfternoonAfternoon: 12:00 PM - 5:59 PM	Saturday EveningEvening: 6:00 PM - 11:59 PM	Saturday OvernightOvernight: 12:00 AM - 5:59 AM
	Mainly cloudy	Cloudy	Cloudy with showers	Light rain	Cloudy with showers
Temp.	11°C	11°C	15°C	12°C	11°C
Wind	calm	SE 5km/h	SE 5km/h	SE 5km/h	SE 10km/h
Relative Humidity	88%	87%	88%	94%	94%
P.O.P.	30%	30%	40%	70%	40%
Rain	-	-	less than 1mm	1-3mm	close to 1mm

So it doesn't look like much painting is going to get done any time too soon :(

Our last week in Ontario

After leaving Wasaga Beach we headed to Barrie to visit with Mark and Corry again. We spent a couple days there and were happy to have Gary, Brooke and Jake come by for a visit again too. My camera seemed to be in hiding as the only pictures I took on this visit was of Aayla playing with the chalk outside. 

Not sure if she got more chalk on the ground or on her!

We did just manage to fit the trailer in their driveway...

And even though I didn't get a picture of it we all had a great afternoon which turned into an evening of enjoying the "Barrie Garage" phenomenon which expanded to sitting under the awning all evening, enjoying the conversation, hiding from raindrops and having a great visit!

From here we headed into Pickering to visit with Nana and Peter. Nana is the girls Great Nana. Our trailer was too long to even park on their street so we meet Diana and Nana at the mall and got some back to school shopping done for Sierra and both girls got a real treat! They were let loose in a toystore and were told to pick what ever they wanted! This of course took forever to do as there was just tooOOOoooo much stuff to choose from!

In the end Aayla picked a doll stroller (as every time we visited Mark and Corry it is the only toy she played with basically 24/7 while there) and Sierra chose some little pop up animals. I am not even sure what they are called as she has never mentioned them before but she was so excited to get them.

Aayla with her new stroller...take note of the ET in it...Diana brought it on the visit
 to give to the girls...it was Ian's when he was a baby :)

Thanks again Nana...the girls had such a fun time making their choices :)

We then went out for lunch at East Side Marios...but unfortunately our waiter wasn't very good with the camera and it isn't even close to being in focus.

Sierra learning to roll her tounge

Aayla trying the pepper in my salad

Cuddles with Great Nana

Then we took Nana out to show her our trailer

And decided to drive over to Nana's to say hi to Peter quickly before taking off. We parked on the street and ended up taking up about 4 driveways :( We went in quickly and luckily no one needed to get out in too much of a hurry.

Nana is a big Snow White fan so the girls really enjoyed looking at all her figurines.

Nana gave them one of her collector dolls.

But mine and Ian's favourite thing to do at Nana's is look at the family picture wall. When we come in April for Jay's wedding we really want to sit down and work on the family tree as we didn't get much time in Pickering on this trip.

After a short but sweet visit it was time to say goodbye.

Then we were off to Heather and Ed's for a couple of days. Again...I seemed to forget to pick up the camera!!! I did manage to get a few of Aayla and Nella having stroller races.

 And of course a few wild flowers

I snuck this one of Heather from their
back field of Nella enjoying a swing :)

Nice shoes Aayla

The guys hiding in the shade...playing with their phones...
I can't complain I was off having a snooze.

We had another great visit with you all and look forward to seeing you again soon...hint hint... like at New Years at our place :)

Sadly our time had to come to an end and we had to pack up and head out. Today marks the beginning of our journey home. We wanted a short day for our first day back on the road, and left late afternoon with the plan of getting to Sarnia Walmart for the night tonight so we can wake early, cross the border and be on our way home.

The Sarnia Walmart where we are parked for the night

We plan to get home as quick as we can with only a couple planned stops as our truck insurance runs out on Aug 28th so we need to get back to BC to pick up our insurance sticker. As well Ian has to fly back here to TO on the 28th to take care of the new rental properties and get the tenants situated with Mark.

So for the next couple of days we will be driving, driving and more driving until we get to Mt Rushmore where we will have a quick scenic tour and be on the road again!

Warm welcome wishes tonight going out to Rick and Paulette of Rick & Paulette's RV Travels. Rick is a wealth of computer tips and tricks and Paulette just might have a yummy recipe ready and waiting for you :) Welcome aboard!

Wasaga Beach visit one

After leaving Kingston we headed out to Wasga Beach with one stop planned in Trenton to visit an old friend. However I didn't realize how short of a drive it was from Kingston to Eric's so by the time I left him a message saying we were on our way, to the time we arrived...we missed him :( About 45 minutes past Trenton, Eric called after returning home and we decided we would try to get together later in our Ontario visit.

Sorry to have missed you Eric but I am positive we will find a way to get together soon to catch up. (Eric lived 3 houses down from where I grew up in Torbrook Mines and other then good old facebook we haven't seen eachother since grade 6!)

Off we continued to Wasaga Beach to visit my dad. Dad has been in Ontario for many years but in December he moved from Peterborough to Wasaga Beach.

My Dad and step mom Bev

We of course spent time at the beach. Ian has finally proved his point to me. The lakes here in Ontario are so much warmer then in BC. Our lakes in BC are beautiful, usually surrounded by gorgeous mountains...and all glacier fed and therefore freezing!

Dad and Aayla wading in

A few years ago Bev found her son (whom the dad had abducted when he was little) and instantly had 2 beautiful grandchildren...MaKayla and Chloe who just happened to be visiting when we arrived and are staying for a week or so.

Chloe, Aayla, MaKayla and Sierra having fun at the beach

Sierra, Chloe and MaKayla surfing while Ian and Rob keep a look out...
either on the kids or at girls going by ;) who knows

Aayla wanting to try out her surf board like the big girls

MaKayla and Aayla...they were instantly the best of friends

We spent a couple of days here catching up and spending time at the beach. We will use Wasaga Beach as our homebase and will come and go from here to visit other family, friends and look for land near the Muskoka's while we are in Ontario.

This past week we have traveled to Barrie to visit Ian's brother Mark for the night.

Sierra trying to rollerskate with a little help from Daddy and Uncle Mark

Mark and Corey have some vacation time this week (and also they are kidless this week) so the next day they came to visit us at Wasaga Beach along with Ed and Heather (Ed was the master of ceremonies at our wedding and Ian is good friends with Heather from highschool) and we had a great day together at the beach.


Aayla making a sandcastle in Auntie Corey's hand :)



Aayla's the queen of her castle

Sierra having a blast on the turtle with daddy while Uncle Mark chases her

I am so impressed with how well Aayla is now doing in the water

Daddy and Sierra relaxing and watching Aayla swim

Whoooooaaaaaa! Surfing Aayla

Sierra and Ed hanging out on Mr Turtle

Ed taking Mattea and Sierra for a ride on Mr Turtle

Heather and Nella

We are still trying to figure out who had more fun out there...the girls or Ed



Cheese Nella!



Cheese Aayla











Aayla is worn out from a long day at the beach



Uncle Mark is burying Sierra

 Uncle Mark playing a trick on Sierra...everytime she went to sit down, he'd pull the chair and she'd fall...gotta love uncles!   :)

Mark made up for it...he pulled Sierra around the beach spelling her name
and then of course Aayla needed a turn too!

Look mom we spelled my name

We also spent time this week looking at some acerage. There was one I liked with a river but we walked the wrong way because we came to an abandoned house that wasn't on the property listing so the realator will look into it further and we will so see it again.

We saw a couple other ones we liked as well. One with a seasonal pond and rock outcrops, but not really any area to make into a pasture or hay field easily.



This grassy area is a big pond in the spring
but gradually dries up over the summer



Sierra the explorer trecking through the ferns

Mr Toad

Aayla rock climbing

And another very thickly wooded 97 acres.

Indian Smoke Pipes

A tiny little tree frog

 Which across the main road there was another 44 acres with this bit of cleared land and a lake made on it so we got to envision what the land could look like with a lot of work.

When we got back to dad's after seeing the properties I quickly put Aayla to work stacking wood...she might as well get used to it :)

 When her stacking wood chores were done she got to spend some time playing with MaKayla :)

Tomorrow we head to Orangeville for a few days to see Ed and Heather and then we are off to London to go camping with them for the long weekend. Hopefully we will get to see Jay and Liz tomorrow too. Next week after camping we will be back in Wasaga Beach for another little visit.

Ian and I have basically decided that we probably won't buy land here right now even if we see the perfect lot as it would be a shame to buy it then have to leave and not come back for a year. Instead we are getting a feel for areas we like and will go back and look at land in BC again aswell while we pack up and sell off the house this winter before making any final decsions as to where we want to build our earthship.

We probably won't have internet while camping so I might not be back for a week...until then safe travels, happy journeys to you all.

Warm welcome wishes to Ira and Vicky. Thank you for joining us on our journey. If you have a link back to a blog of your own, let me know as I'd love to go check yours out too.