Our Basement...Photos!

When we bought this new home, we decided to finish the basement. To be precise, we decide to pay the builder to finish the basement for us.

One of the perks of owning a home in Fort McMurray is that there is an amazing rental market, with prospective tenants willing to pay large sums of money for basement rental suites.  We decided to take advantage of the crazy market anomaly and rent out our basement. Really, we'd be crazy not to. It's like throwing money away, otherwise.

The builder just finished our basement in mid-September, and our {very awesome!} tenants moved in on October 1st. But before the arrived, we snapped some photos of what our basement looked like before and after!

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BLACK: Dreadful or Dreamy? But definitely BOLD...

I'm in a bit of design rut lately. I need to get "un-stuck".

I feel the itch to do something bold. Something crazy. Something I've wanted to do for awhile. Something that is VERY Mummy Maggie-like, but you would never guess.

But before I actually *DO* anything, I promise to let this idea marinate for a bit.

So here it goes...spilling my design dream...

{I want to paint my bedroom...BLACK.}

I adore my current bedroom "Modern Moroccan" style and colour scheme -- a mix of pewters, silvers, white and cream. But I'm just kind of tired of looking at it. It's too safe. Too expected. And I'm simply over it.

BLACK IS BOLD.  

BLACK IS DRAMATIC.

It definitely wouldn't be ALL black. That would be too cocoon-ish. I love the classic combination of black and white. I'm thinking like a black and white Hollywood Regency style bedroom, with lots of moulding, metal, sparkle and glam.

Just so you get an idea of what I'm thinking, here are some Pinterest images that captured my attention. You can follow my "Black Room" Pinterest Board here :)

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I know *most* people would never dream of ever painting a room BLACK, but frankly, I think it's kind of awesome. Yep, it's a bold, but I think if it's done right it could be totally amazing.

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New Backsplash Tiles!

When we purchased our home, it was still under construction so we had *some* say in how a few options were finished.

One of these options was the backsplash tiles for the kitchen & bathrooms. The builder had picked out a decent beige-y oversized subway tile. It was okay, just not FABULOUS. 

And seriously, when you're paying what we're paying for this house -- you want JAW-DROPPING AMAZING. Ok, that may be overkill, but you want something special.

And, let's be honest, I wanted something SPARKLY! 

One of the best things is that the builder offered to put in whatever tiles we chose! How amazing are they?!

I sourced some alright options at our local shops, but they were expensive and they did not "sing" to me. So just before we put down cash on some fancy tiles, I decided we should go to Edmonton to check out what the city had to offer.

The first place we went was to Lowes. We arrived around 10:15am {on a Holiday Monday - one of the perks of Alberta is that the shops are open on stat holidays! SCORE!} and they had JUST put out a new line of tiles that very morning! 

I LOVED EVERYTHING! And it was so affordable {like under $20/sq. ft. compared to the $40+/sq. ft. I was looking at locally}.

Since there were so many stylish options, I decided to do a different tile for every room. Here's what I came up with!

  Main Bathroom: Modern Mix of Cream, Putty & Stainless tiles

{These are a cooler & more modern version of the tiles I had already picked out! WIN!}

 Master Ensuite: White Carrera Marble 

{I've always eyed carrera marble but I never wanted to commit to it because it stains! This is a perfect alternative and will go perfectly with my new sparkly quartz countertops!}

 Powder Room: Stainless Steel penny rounds 

{I've ALWAYS wanted these so it was a treat that Lowes carried them!}

Kitchen Backsplash: Sparkly white glass, marble, gunmetal & stainless steel

{These are almost exactly the same as what I sourced here in Fort Mac - but I liked these much more - so much lighter & brighter!}

Getting this kitchen tile was a CHALLENGE. They had 100 in stock but they couldn't find them. They asked us to come back in a couple of hours so they could look for them. When we returned, they said they needed more time. We had to drive back to Fort McMurray {a 5 hr+ drive}, but waited another few hours. I couldn't leave this amazing find behind. 

We waited until after 5pm {remember we got there at 10:15am?!} and they STILL hadn't found it. They said they'd call when they located the tile, but we HAD to leave for Fort Mac since we both had to work the next day. So we left with only a faint hope they'd call.

But, true to their word {YAY LOWES!}, they did call 3 hours later. They had stayed late to find them for me!

Luckily 3 days later my brother happened to be driving through Edmonton and picked them up for me! Thanks bro!

UPDATE: The tiles went in today. Wait till you see them!

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West Elm Surprises

This past weekend, Big A went back to Ontario for a wedding. While he was there, I *made* him go to West Elm. 

Fort McMurray is awesome, but its shopping {especially for home stuff!} leaves much to be desired. I am desperate for an infusion of West Elm style.

Upon arrival at the store, he called me and I hopped onto the internet to guide him through the store with my wish list. That's when he informed me that he only brought a CARRY-ON!!! No room in his luggage for my wish list :(

So I had him look around and surprise me with a few cool things that he'd think I'd like. 

I think he did a great job :) I'm a lucky mummy.

First he got me this cool Pop Phone. It's a retro-look phone that plugs into your cell phone. And it's awesome in YELLOW. My favourite colour!

{via here}

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He also got me this super cute owl candle - "Owl" love it forever :)

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Lastly, he picked up these cute kitchen accessories for me. Elephant oven mitts & an apron -- in my favourite colour combination!

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  I heart West Elm. I see that they're now shipping to Canada, albeit only on a limited scale. Hopefully that'll change soon :)

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Update & Sparkly Countertops

We've been in our new home for just over a month, and it's definitely been a whirlwind {hence the lack of posting - sorry peeps}. 

We didn't have internet or phone until 10 days ago, but I guess it's been 10 days, so that's not a good excuse! 

Anyhoo, I am absolutely DELIGHTED with the way our new house is becoming a home. We moved into the brand new house in a brand new neighbourhood {hence the lack of availability of phone or internet despite we live in the 21st century. And we still don't even have a proper postal code, let alone mail delivery service!}, and it's slowly become our home -- or "Mummy Maggie-fied", if you will.

I'll show you the changes we've made so far in various posts. In this post, I was telling you about the tragic tale of the tiger tail granite. Specifically, how much I hated it :) I'm told by many people that this granite is expensive and fabulous, but I'm sorry, it just didn't suit the house nor did it fit into my vision of how awesome this suburban house could be. 

So we had it removed. And replaced. The day after we moved in. All for the price of a small car.

But it is WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Here's the BEFORE:

 Here's the AFTER:

 We chose Cimstone quartz in Lapland. The colour on the screen really doesn't do the quartz the appropriate justice. It's gorgeous bright white with tiny gray and mirror flecks, giving it that sparkling look. 

This is a close up of Lapland:

 I am absolutely thrilled with the final results. The change is massive. The house is so much brighter and the richness of the wood is really highlighted. We changed the granite in all the bathrooms to this white quartz as well. I can't wait to show you the rest! We've been busy around here!

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Countertop Decisions

Thanks for all your great feedback on yesterday's post. I'm happy to hear that my friends & followers agree with me.

Frankly, I haven't met a person that liked the granite. It's hard to explain design & decorating to a builder who thinks any granite is awesome because it's granite. Even tiger tail ugliness.

I guess some people would buy a house because it has granite, regardless of what it looked like. For me, it's a major turnoff if it doesn't go well with the other finishings.

Anyway, I digress because today's post is less about complaining, and more about DOING.

We are seriously considering replacing the tiger tail granite with a white quartz. Although the quote we got yesterday made me seriously reconsider if I could live with tiger tail. It's expensive to begin with, but then add Fort McMurray prices. Let's just say it was a 1/3 of my salary from my first law job!

Here are a few options we're looking at.  What do you think?

Ice Snow - warmer white with some tiny flecks to add interest

Image via here

White Shimmer - this looks amazing in the ensuite!

Image via here

Silestone Lyra - quartz's answer to Carrera marble

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Our {latest!} Fort McMurray Real Estate Adventure...

So...ya...we bought a house. 

Well, I'm probably jinxing it because all the conditions haven't been met yet, but it's *thisclose* so it's probably going to happen. And we're too excited to keep quiet about it anymore!

Obviously it's a new build, so we hope to move by the end of June. it's close to being done. Part of our contract is that the basement be made into a legal rental suite {EVERYONE does that here in Fort McMurray to offset the RIDICULOUS house prices!}.

Getting to the point where we actually purchased this house was quite the adventure. We saw no less than FIFTY houses of all sizes {1200 sq ft to 3300 sq ft in vast range of prices}. 

You KNOW that I love real estate, so I've been perusing MLS since Big A was offered the job here. I got the know the Fort McMurray real estate market pretty well. On the very day when we qualified for our mortgage, we set out to buy a specific house that day, only to realize it SOLD... that very day! It had been sitting on the market for 5 months and it SOLD the day we want to offer on it!

Unfazed, because I truly believe all things happen for a reason, we found another perfect house. We wanted to sleep on it, so we held off putting an offer for a day, only to find out that it too had SOLD within that short window! Of all the luck!

Soon we found another house -- which was going to be an exact replica of the first house I set my heart on.  But for some reason, I just wasn't sure I wanted to put an offer, so we slept on it again.

The next morning, my amazing Fort McMurray real estate agent {and now my soul sister!} texted me that she found the PERFECT house for me, in the neighbourhood I wanted, for a much more reasonable price. No catch. Seriously.

 As soon as we saw it, we knew THIS was the house. It was in the middle of construction, with only dry wall and a few doors, so we had to use our imagination. To make it more challenging, ALL the finishings had already been chosen and I had no real idea what they were. So once we got clarification on what the big ticket items looked like {cabinets, countertop, tile, etc.}, we took the plunge.

We are so glad we did. Look what we discovered when we came back from Ontario this week! The tile floors and kitchen cabinets are in!

Luckily, our builder is AWESOME and agreed to let us choose the hardwood, carpet, backsplash tile and basement flooring & countertops. It's so exciting to be able to customize this awesome house on these important aspects of our home.

And wait till you see what we picked! We're taking a bit of a risk, but I LOVE it! It's GORGEOUS!

One thing that we really love about buying THIS home in particular is that it isn't ALL done. We're not paying for someone's design/decorating/customization. 

We are going to be able to really make this house OUR HOME. 

Bring on the DIY! Did I mention the garage is HEATED?!?!?!

Stay tuned for our more updates on our new home!

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Real Estate Update {Photo Heavy!}

I just realized that in my neglect of the blog during the month of April, I didn't share two major things:

1) Amazing photos of our house!

2) Our house SOLD! We had 33 people in during the first 3 days and got an offer on the 3rd day! It firmed up a week later, so we SOLD it before we left for Fort McMurray. We're so blessed!

So I know you've seen photos of my house before, but I thought these HDR photos were extraordinary. Enjoy!

 

Thank you to the amazing Chris Abbott -- our Real Estate agent extraordinaire -- for letting us use these great photos, and for ALL his hard work in getting our home SOLD!

It's so hard to say good-bye to our old house, but now that it's sold, it doesn't even feel like ours anymore. Plus I'm really excited for the Adventures in Real Estate that we're about to have here in Fort McMurray, Alberta!

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