MJ ~ the end of an era

I have not done any work in my office for the last hour - why - I am glued to CNN watching the MJ memorial.

An icon from my youth - with every song I have memories of some of the best years of my teen years.

I dont agree with his choices and how he lived his life - I do feel or felt sorry for the man he became and the demons he fought.

He was talented

He was interesting to watch

He could never be replaced

He is gone

The Cabin / bunkie up north....

Let me introduce you to our little cabin / bunkie up north on the lake - was built on my in-laws property - they are lucky enough to live on a beautiful lake and offered to allow us to have a weekend cabin on their property - we dug the foundation last year - here is a photo of it taken early spring - will have to post a newer updated exterior photo.
This is the lake....and our view

Just wanted to post some "before" photos of the cabin with our "temporary furniture" - right now we have a few pieces in it that are actually hubs parents - we have yet to decide on a sofa - Thinking we are going to go with the Extorp Ikea sofabed sofa from Ikea but that has not been decided ....

This is the main part of the living room:

Ladder to the loft for the kids - behind the white door is the bathroom which also has to be completed - just off to the right is our bed and back door. For the ladder we used the same ladders that are used on mobile homes - does the job and doesn't take up much space. In the loft is just mattresses on the floor - can sleep up to six kids up there.

Here is our bedroom area - we are thinking about putting a curtain up so give us some privacy when we have guests who might be on the sofa bed - that is if we decide on getting a sofa bed....decisions decisions...

Well there she is - the little cabin - finally almost finished but finished enough to start enjoying our time at the lake.

New photos coming with all of our furniture in it.....

Do you have ugly things on your house - how to hide them and turn them into a feature and not an eye sore

Do you have ugly utilitarian items attached to the exterior of your house like I did?

When you drove up to my house the first thing you saw attached to the house was the ugly gas meter which is huge, the ugly hydro meter that hung on the siding six feet in the air and the ugly cable box next to it.

One of the first things we did when we moved in ten years ago ( cant believe it has been that long) was cover those eye sores and turn them into "features"

Below see the cute little bird houses attached to the house - well they are covering up what we didn't want to see:

Peek-a-boo there it is - the ugly hydro meter - easy peasy for the hydro reader to check - just open the door which is on a butterfly hinge. The green bird house is covering the cable box.

There are no actual holes drilled for the birds - sorry birds - those are actually not for you - what I did was paint a black circle to make it look like the birds could go in and nest.

One day while out "treasure hunting" what hubs and I like to call it - (looking for cast-offs during big item garbage pick up) - we came across a huge pile of weathered picked fence - hubs turned that into a great gas meter cover - now with some greenery around it you can hardly see it.

Do you have any uglies you need to cover on your house - make some bird houses and make it look like they are "supposed to be there"

My flowers and some before shots of the furniture we are working on for the cabin

Thought I would show some shots of my gardens - all this rain has certainly helped with the gardens - flowers are gorgeous if I do say so myself.


These two hosta's are over ten years old - not sure if you can see in the photo but easy six feet wide. My favorite plant in our garden.


Daisy - I love how "imperfect" it is.

Here is a better shot of the hosta I love.

Endless summer hydrangea starting to bloom - they are my favorite flower

Roses growing on the wall of the garage.

More climbing roses

These photos are not in order - here is hubs spraying the chairs

Did not get a good before shot of the dresser I garbage picked- here are the drawers from it - they were really ugly with the worst handles I had ever seen.

Here is another beauty - once again garbage picked during big item pick up - wait to see what it looks like now - stunning - the brown on the table is mould - YUK - but we knew it had potential and I loved the look of the table.

A shot of some of the chairs - they were either garbage picked or from garage sales.

Hubs and I have been busy this week painting all our furniture for our little cabin up north - the final coat of clear is drying right now....

Tomorrow we are loading everything into the trailer to bring up to the cabin - I can't wait to show you what they look like now.

Happy Canada Day

Wishing everyone a happy Canada Day.

We spent the day painting furniture for our cabin - the paint is drying so slow because of all of the rain.

will be posting photos tomorrow....

I am on the fence right now if i leave everything pristinely painted or do i sand it off a bit to make it more rustic.....oh decisions decisions....