More on House Colours

Last Friday, we met onsite at Mystery Hill with Linda (architect) and Irene (interior designer). Purpose - pick an exterior colour... the clock is ticking. On site we all agreed that Baby Seal Black is way too blue and that Iron Mountain, while brown, is better. We also introduced Overcoat and agreed that we should paint another big board to compare as it was similar to Iron Mountain but less brown. Done. Seb painted a big board on Sunday which I was able to see and pretty much eliminated because it turned out to be very light, a less intense colour. Colours are posted above (L to R, 3 boards, Baby Seal Black/Overcoat/Iron Mountain and then 2 boards Overcoat/Iron Mountain).

So. Where are we now? My other design team (Trish and Darrin at work) are in agreement with me... not that excited about Iron Mountain and happy to eliminate BSB. Tomorrow I'll surprise them with Black Jack and Grey.

Saturday morning with the boys

Yesterday morning I didn't go running. It was raining outside and I was tired so I rationalized my way into staying in bed. That meant I got to read the paper with the boys.

Please note the appendage that inspired the name "Mr Big (Foot)".

At least Murph enjoys the paper, I, on the other hand, found it difficult to read.

Small World

Last Thursday, Seb and I returned on a red eye from a conference in Phoenix. We were waiting for our flight from Boston to Ottawa when we spotted Tom Keyserlingk. Tom used to work at QNX. Tom made the mistake of asking about our house and then was subjected to entire photo history of our building project.

Running into Tom reminded me I ran into Seb's aunt and uncle in the passport line at the airport in Paris and then encountered an industry friend in line for the taxi. Both are easy to rationalize, the flight was through Montreal where his relatives live and the reason I was in Paris was for a conference hosted by the company where my friend works. Nevertheless, it was quite a shock to run into people in Paris! And good thing for Ian from Freescale, because he and his colleagues didn't have a Euro between them. They bummed a ride from me so I could pay the driver :-)

The Boys

Its hard to believe that "the boys" havent appeared in my blog thus far. Mr Big (Foot) and Mr Murphy are the source of great entertainment for Seb and me. Mr Big licks soap, in addition to human heads, and Murphy is a counter surfer and sock thief. Here they help with the laundry.

Baby Seal Black vs Iron Mountain

Here are the two finalists, leaning against the end of the garage. Who would have thought that picking a colour "gray" could be so tricky... ? :-)

More from Mystery Hill

More pics... These show the great room, looking out towards water... and then back into the house. Upstairs will hold 2 guest rooms, a bathroom, and a loft area.

Mystery Hill - A not so lazy Sunday afternoon

These pics show the front door from outside and the view from inside the front door. And, oh yeah, a picture of us with our gorgeous niece, Chloe!

Seb spent another weekend at Mystery Hill working on the house. I popped in this afternoon to work on painting big boards as we try to narrow down our exterior colour. We're trying to choose between Baby Seal Black (gray with blue undertones) and Iron Mountain (gray with brown undertones). Our architect favours the former and our designer, the latter. Argh :-)

It was a busy day at the Hill with visits from Janet, Scott and Chloe, then later we had Uncle Don and Aunt Claire pop in. Seb and John were working on installing tubes (Soner tubes) that you fill with cement that act as the base for the front porch and other verandahs.

It was a truly gorgeous day and as always, I feel lucky to think that some day, we'll be living here.

Erica and I hanging out...

While Brian and Jackson go see the Boss (can you say stuck in the 80's?) at Scotia Bank Place, Erica and I are hanging out for the evening. We went to visit Chloe and now we're back at home waiting for Seb to come home so we can go to Swiss Chalet for supper. While we wait for Seb, we're colouring our house plans for Mystery Hill in hopes of finally selecting an exterior colour. Erica thinks my choice of grey is quite dismal and prefers baby blue or yellow.

Mystery Hill Progress

With all the travel I've been doing recently, its been 3 weeks since I visited Mystery Hill. I dropped by yesterday with coffee and muffins for Seb and his cousin-in-law, John Marquardt. They were working on levelling the gravel for the screened porch, connecting the well to the house, and levelling the ground around the house. Seb is going again today, I think its all about roughing in plumbing (drains) in the basement as they prepare to pour concrete in the next few weeks.

Since my last visit, the focus has been on getting the house ready for the steel roof. The garage is now half way framed (bottom floor is done), and the master bedroom wing is closed in. In a future post, I'll be sure to include pictures of the interior, yesterday wasn't very sunny.

The goal is to have the roof on, the windows and doors in and the siding on before winter! Ack! But I have total confidence in the man.

It's going to be gorgeous and I'm very anxious to get to live there.

Le Petel, Paris...

When Seb and I were heading to Paris on our honeymoon a few years ago, my brother in law, Matthew, recommended both a hotel and a restaurant. The latter is now part of the QNX road warriors' itinerary. After Seb and I visited, we recommended it to our colleague and friend, Romain who is a total foodie. Romain visited, not once, but twice, during same business trip. This time I invited my colleagues from our French office to join me there. We had a great time-- the food, wine and service were excellent. But especially the company :-)

Le Petel
4, rue Petel
75015 Paris
Tel 01 45 32 58 76
www.lepetel.com

Alone in Paris

My latest buz trip took me to Paris for a conference held by one of our partners. I arrived on Sunday morning and to avoid jet lag, I was determined to stay up all day without a nap. So I walked. A lot. And I took the metro. By myself. (This ranks with renting a car in NC last week) I am directionally challenged. In attempting to find the Picasso Museum, I stumbled on lots of areas that I hadn't visited in the past. I never did find Picasso but I did enjoy Ile de Cite behind Notre Dame and Village St Paul. I was accompanied by my new ipod shuffle and as I mentioned to a colleague (who provided over 100 songs), I am hipper because of this day :-) The pictures show me at the Louvre and at Place des Vosges. And despite appearances to the contrary, I had a fabulous day!

The wrong way to blow bubbles...

Here, Lisa demonstrates to eldest daughter Linden the incorrect way to blow bubbles... "the secret, Linden, is not to eat the bubble juice" :-) Dad watches on, and happily looks more like himself than I've seen in any photo since last October...

Testing 123, Testing... (cough, cough)

This is it, finally, my first blog entry. Can't remember a darn thing Janet told me about posting. So much for being the high tech Campbell Girl.

I'm sitting in the airport lounge in Ottawa, about to head to Montreal than Paris, and can confirm that setting up a blog is pretty easy and fast... longest part of process has been selecting my template.

More later as I try to post photos.