School's Out!

• I am completely done with the courses I was taking. It is nice to have my evenings and weekends back, no more homework! I finished the courses with a 90%, 91% and 96% so it went well and I learned a lot. I had last week off work and we went back to NS last weekend to fill in at the church we were ministering at last. It was so nice to see everyone again, hard to believe it had been a year since we were last back.

• The kitchen renovations are going well but slow. We now have all the cabinets installed but are still waiting for the door hinges and drawer slides so it is just open shelves right now. At least I can use the kitchen now! I bought a nice light fixture set off of Kijiji for $40! It was such a good deal, it came with a chandelier and two pendant lights and they will go perfect in the new kitchen.

• Jim is still going through the paperwork to getting his business set up and we still haven't started the renovations on the barn (to turn it into a workshop) but some baby steps have been taken. Jim has his website up and going (though still under construction) and the business name chosen. The website is www.theoldbrooklynwoodshop.com if you are interested in taking a look. Another area we are adding to the business is furniture refinishing. Jim has refinished many antiques over the years and it is always neat to re-purpose furniture to be used for many more years. I'm excited about finding great finds that we can refinish, give new life and sell. We have already collected, for free, a set of chairs that will look so nice when they are done and then Jim can make a table to go with them. It is all so exciting and scary at the same time! So much to learn about running a business that it sometimes makes my head spin but it will be worth it in the end, I hope!

• Back at work tomorrow until August where I have another week off planned. The boys love being home for the summer but they sure make quite the mess when they are home all day. They aren't so used to spending all day together but they seem to be now figuring it out, not driving each other crazy... as much.

• So far a busy summer. Hoping to be able to make some time to go the the beach, we still haven't made it out this year yet. There are always so many projects and cleaning to be done but I'm going to have to make it a priority. There are only so many weekends left of summer. I'll have lots of time in the winter when the weather is too miserable to go outside! I hope you are enjoying your summer so far and are doing a better job of making time to do some fun things with your family while the weather is nice!

Time Flies When You Are Busy!

Hello again! Wow, 9 months since my last post, crazy. Life has been so incredibly busy right now. I'm just finishing the courses I had to take for my job. I have one paper left and a few small assignments but have written my final exam already and will be so happy to be done with it all! The boys have finished school for the summer and graduated from grades 7, 3 and 2. Jim also graduated from his woodworking/cabinet making program. He did very well and even won first place in the PEI Skills Competition in his category. Now comes the hard part. He is trying to start his own business building custom cabinets, furniture and even wooden toys. This is not an easy task and there is much to learn about starting up and owning a small business so this is quite the adventure for us!

He is starting by doing our kitchen which once looked like this:

And at this point, looks like this:

And here is a sneak peak at some of the new cabinets starting to be installed:

I can't wait until it is all done. My sink still isn't hooked up but I can use the dishwasher. We took down a wall, closed in a doorway and replaced two windows, so it is quite a mess! After it is done I will show some before and after pictures and you won't believe the difference!

Here's a example of Jim's woodworking skills, a beautiful table he made me:

It is solid wood (VERY heavy) and gorgeous. I just love it, thanks honey!

Well, I guess that pretty much says it all, oh, except one more thing. The lease on our car was up so we took home this shiny new addition:

Ya, that's my new baby!

Well, here's to hoping a few more posts make their way here in the next couple weeks. Definitely expect more renovation pictures and new business adventures as we fumble our way through both!