And So it Begins

After our decades-long road trip, Greg and I finally made it to Calgary. This came with overwhelming feelings of relief, and then more stress piled on top. The whole time we were travelling, I was freaking out because I couldn't get my work done the way I wanted to. This was going to continue for the foreseeable future, and on top of that, now we had a gigantic, 2,600 square foot house to renovate. One we had actually never seen in real life. Oh, joy.

I will point out that there were many points during this decision-making process where we (I) questioned the wisdom of undertaking a big reno while we were in the midst of moving across the country and starting brand new lives. Now that the time had actually arrived, I was really questioning it. But there was no going back.

Our initial visit to the house was...underwhelming, I have to say. I'm not sure what exactly I expected, but everyone involved in selling this place used all the magical tricks of the trade to make it look as good as possible. Without the staging, professional photography, and the distance, the dated and worn features definitely shone through. That being said though, the flow and the feel of the house was amazing, and we were (are) pretty excited that we get to live there.

The demo started almost right away, which is awesome. Not awesome was the asbestos that was found, meaning we needed special (read: expensive) demolition. At this point, everything is going pretty well, and on schedule for the most part. We've even got a little basement apartment set up downstairs where we can live during the reno (not ideal obviously, but I'm going to be in Ontario for a large chunk of time, and Greg's working his but off building our kitchen and storage, so he wanted to be near his workshop in the garage).

There is also now a fence up for Jasper, so she can chill while Greg's working at the house.

Thoughts and impressions so far:

• You think you're prepared for the amount of work. You're not.
• You think you're prepared for the amount of money. You're not
• You think you're prepared for the living arrangements during construction. You're not.
• Despite all these very overwhelming things, it's still super exciting and I can't wait to share everything we're doing.

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In the meantime, here's a gallery of the house under construction. If you want to see the before pictures, check out the blog I wrote when we bought the place.

More content, including video, coming soon!