Quick and dirty tour of the {empty} house

(All shots taken on my blurry iPhone, better 'before' pics to come soon! These aren't in any sort of order, I'll just describe each one underneath the shot...)

The family room/den/TV room, between the laundry/mudroom and kitchen

The family room/den/TV room, looking at the entrace to the mudroom/laundry room from the kitchen

Kitchen, looking into the den/family room/TV room and mudroom entrance

The dining room, off the kitchen

Built in in the dining room, looking into the kitchen

'Formal living room', which will act as my office/studio, off the dining room

My office

Front foyer/entrace, looking into the dining room (from my office)

Back room, behind my office, which will be Dan's music room for now

Downstairs main bath, right off the front foyer

Bathroom

Looking out to the front door from the bathroom

Kitchen, looking in from the den

Staircase

Stairs and bathroom (Dan's room off to the right)

Victor's room

Looking into the foyer and my office from the dining room

Victor's room

Landing at top of stairs/closets

Nursery

Nursery

Our room

Our room

Landing, looking from the 1/2 bath

Eventual guest room (needs lots of work!)

Eventual guest room

1/2 bath upstairs

1/2 bath upstairs

Mudroom/Laundry room (the first room to be getting a makeover!)

Back entrace into the mudroom (the main door we'll be using)

So there you have it! Lots of work to be done, but tomorrow is the 'big move', and we'll be spending the night there, very exciting!

Be back with the mudroom makeover (for some reason I'm the most excited about this one!)

Enjoy the end of summer, I can't wait to see it go.

G.

Instagrams and Point Form Lists.

Yeah, that's all you're going to get right now. I've been meaning to do an update post for weeks now, but of course with work, house, baby, all that fun stuff, this little blog is falling to the wayside. Perhaps once the kids (!) are a bit older I can get back to blogging regularly, but for now, you get Instagram photos and point form lists.

Victor (aka bébé):

*Has gone through a crazy amount of changes in the past 4-5 months (since I last did a proper update on him)

*Is 17 months old

*Weighs about 25 pounds and is over 30 inches tall

*Walks everwhere and has mastered climbing onto chairs, coffee tables, beds, etc

*Is in the process of learning to jump

*Can say Mama, Daddy, Cheese, What, Bye Bye, Wow, and some other babbly/half words, but isn't 'talking' yet

*Has his top 4 teeth, bottom 4 teeth, and 4 molars

*STILL drools like crazy

*Likes to watch Thomas the Tank Engine and Caillou

*Is annoyingly obsessed with our smartphones

*Has recently enjoyed 'helping' us do dishes

*Is kind of a scare-di cat (afraid of the vacuum, dogs, etc)

*Sleeps through the night every night no problem, and is SUPER easy to put down for naps and bedtime (we're very lucky!)

*Can do 'head and shoulders' (points to his body parts)

*Has been having 1 crazy long nap in the afternoons (3 hours)

*Loves going in the car and being in his carseat

*Still enjoys his books and likes one with actions 

*Knows actions for giraffe, elephant, monkey, crocodile and a few others

*Called cats (chats) 'yyyyyya's

*Says 'WOW' everytime someone turns on a light or ceiling fan (and loooves turning lightswitches)

*Is still a picky eater but has a decent appetite

*Is pretty whiney sometimes (well, a lot of times)

*Copies us doing things that I didn't know he noticed (like putting on deoderant or putting dishsoap under the tap)

*Still likes to be (and gets) picked up more than he should

*Understands when I ask him to put his dirty clothes in his laundry basket

*Still cries whenever I leave him at Sara's

*Has a 'mortal enemy' (Eli); pushes him whenever I'm around

*Has a mop of thin hair that blows in the wind and makes him look bald, it's so cute

*LOVES my mom (grand mama) more than anyone else in the world, though my dad (grand papa) is coming into close second these days

*Still fairly shy in public places and with new people, tends to cling to me

*Gives the biggest, drooliest kisses ever

*Likes to 'pat' (aka smack) Félix and Shimi

*Puffs his chest out when he walks, not sure why

*Likes to 'sweep' with the broom

*Can play well by himself but most of the time wants us involved

*Is a full blown toddler, no more baby at all :(

Shimi (aka 'yyyyya', 'jerk', 'kitty'):

*Has been outside most of the summer

*Probably has fleas

*Is losing weight and looking kind of mangy

*Is about to get a younger brother soon (my sister's cat had kittens and we're taking one of them)

*Still annoys me but Dan loves her

Dan (aka 'Daddy'):

*Has been working more hours at work and taking on more responsibility since becoming the main installer

*Takes care of and plays with Victor without ever complaining

*Has been very patient with me and my preggo moods

*Bought a 12-string guitar and loves to play it

*Is obsessed with UFC/MMA

*Is excited for all the work he has to do at the house (well, maybe not excited, but ready for it anyway) 

*Is as steady and calm as she goes (he's like my north star, wherever I am I can always find my way with him)

Kid A-2 (aka 'baba', aka 'bébé', aka 'ta p'tite soeur', aka '_________'):

*Is 32 weeks grown and taking up a lot of room in my belly

*Is a GIRL!

*Has a first name, but we're still unsure about the middle one

*Likes to kick a lot but luckily stays away from my ribs most of the time

*Is about 3 and a half pounds

*Is most likely already used to Victor's voice/crying

*Is healthy and happy as far as we can tell

Me (aka 'Mama', aka 'Geneviève', aka 'Geneviève Flynn Photography'):

*Is getting REALLY busy at work and feels quite behind at the moment, but is also thankful for the chance to see her business flourish a little bit before going on a short Mat Leave

*Wants to see her business grow and expand, but worries how she will do next year

*Has been packing up boxes in between editing, parenting, and cleaning

*CAN NOT WAIT until she gets a dishwasher!

*Has been finding it hot so far this summer even though it's not

*Is incredibly annoyed with the lack of pants in her wardrobe

*Prefers to live in leggings and tight shirts

*Has been eating way too much junk food lately

*Has the WORST legcramps every morning and can't figure out how to stop them

*Is spoiled sooo much by Dan

*Wishes she could finish reading the 2nd Hunger Games book but has no time/patience for it right now

*Fears going into early labour, even though the doctors told her she's fine

*Misses her far away friends

*Appreciates having her friend Sara and her parents nearby

*Is incredibly excited about moving and decorating the new house, but also daunted by the task

*Feels like she has a million things on her to-do list all the time

*Enjoys her new bangs but kind of wants to go back to dark hair

*Is seriously considering switching from a PC to a Mac

*Struggles with being patient with Victor-the-toddler

*Has been tricking herself lately into thinking it's Fall, even though it's still far away (boo)

*Is really excited for the Flea Market this year (it's the weekend of our move, so perfect timing!)

*Loves Pinterest but wonders if she'll ever do any of the things she pins on there

*Needs to get back into the habit of taking photos at home

*Misses scrapbooking (and debates doing A Week in the Life this Fall)

*Is throwing out/giving away lots of things that she thought had value to her but in reality don't

*Longs for a trip away with just Dan

*Is anxious to meet her daughter

Well, that's about all for now, off to watch some TV with the hubs! Be back eventually with some photos of the move and hopefully some more belly shots (only 3 more shoots left if I keep scheduling them 3 weeks apart!)

Until then,

G.

Maternity Series |29 Weeks|

Woah, talk about late! I took these shots at least 2 weeks ago but forgot to post them on my blog here (you can see them on my photography blog, along with an explanation for the 'raciness' you see here, haha).

Too tired to post much else, I'll try to be back with a point form update on us all and our crazy busy lives, but I can't promise that packing, working, tending to a needy baby, and growing another needy fetus won't take place first. Perhaps in the dead of winter when things slow down I'll be able to take a breath, but for right now, it's just go go go. I have to tell myself Dorie's old motto "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Have a good one!

G.

House Update

I said I would be back to update you all on the house, so here I am, and I'm VERY happy to say that everything worked out and WE GOT IT!

The last 2 weeks were very hectic for me, getting all of the conditions met, finding insurance quotes, going to inspections, paying appraisers, finding lawyers, and a bunch of other things I had to do to line up our mortgage and 'close the deal'. It was stressful (and pricey), but it's done now so all we have left to do is prove our downpayment to the mortgage folks and get our insurance lined up before we move on August 22nd.

The inspection went well, all of the majors were old but ok, the only thing we weren't really expecting was some (well, a lot) electrical issues, so that was a bit stressful, we had electricians in telling us different things, but in the end we managed to get a bit off the price of the house to bring it up to code, so that's good at least. Plus we got some extra money from the mortgage folks to do a few repairs that we felt were necessary (gutters to draw water away from the basement, replacing the pump that's outside in the shed, and adding a railing to the staircase). Those repairs, plus getting the house ready for winter (and a garden patch ready for next summer), will probably be the only things we'll do for the rest of this year, but we have our whole lives to work on it, so we don't need to be in a rush. The inspection report is really useful, we're going to use it as our 'long term to do list', checking off things here and there as we get them done (trust me, there's A LOT to do).  But it doesn't matter, the important thing is that's it's OURS.

So yeah, 6 weeks 'til we move again, which means we're back to having boxes everywhere and I'm packing up what we don't use on a daily basis. I'm also purging as much as possible, I really don't want to bring anything into the house that I don't either love or find useful...old sentiments and gifts included. This is our fresh start, I want to make it our home and not just a place where we keep our stuff, so only having what I want in there will be very important.  Many trips to the Salvation Army drop-off are planned :)

I think that's everything, I'll be taking LOTS of pics of before and afters, and our progress as we head down this journey of home ownership.  I can't wait :)

G.

PS-The layout above is my first attempt at digi scrapping, yay! I got the template for free from Cathy Zielkse over at Bits and Pieces...she's a cool lady, that one, I'll be using the template again very soon!

Maternity Series |26 Weeks|

Two words for this week: Leg cramps. I had completely forgotten about them from my last pregnancy but in the past couple of weeks they have come back with a vengeance! Terrible Charley Horses that almost bring tears to my eyes, usually first thing in the morning, waking me up and leaving my legs sore for the rest of the day.  Yes, 26 Weeks in my mind has been defined by Leg cramps.

(Shots taken at the old abandoned mall near my house, also where I took my 16 Week shots...it has come quite in handy as a play area for Victor and as a photo backdrop for me! You can see my new hair a bit in these shots as well, though it's definitely not 'styled' as well as it could be, tisk tisk. I suck at hairstyling and personal grooming, what can I say?!) 

I love my little helper :)

Be back later this week to let you know how all this house stuff is going, we're sooo close I can taste it!

Until then,

G. 

Maternity Series |24 Weeks|

Oops, falling a bit behind in posting these (at least I'm taking them!) These shots were taken when I was out location scouting for this maternity shoot I did the following evening. I find it funny that the client and I both wore a similar pink shirt, I guess it's a popular colour (and it popped against the background, so it works!) I'm not sure if there's much of a difference in my size from week to week, I mean there must be, but looking at the pictures sometimes it doesn't seem like that much...but he/she's growing, I know that for sure!

There were several tractors and cars going down the road as I was taking these, and I always made sure to look busy 'adjusting' my camera settings until they were gone...I don't think I'll ever get used to taking self portraits in public.  Hence the far out locations, they tend to offer some privacy.

Back in a bit with Week 26.

Until then,
G.