The kitchen in my new home and Ottawa

Hello everyone!

I hope you've been having a good week so far! On my end, things have been pretty nuts with finalizing the purchase of my new home and then selling my father's home and ironing out the details of when the new owners will be able to move in and therefore when I will have to get the furniture of my father's that I am keeping out of the house. It looks like I'm going to have to end up moving out on a Friday and will therefore be hiring movers for the first time ever. 132$ and hour plus 40$ fuel surcharge. Ouch...oh well, at least I know they're a reputable company since they moved my family and I from our first house to our second one many years ago and nothing was broken or lost. I'll have a better idea of the exact cost of the move once a company representative comes in for an evaluation on Monday, so between now and then I'm going to go back to my father's place and make a final decision on what furniture of his I am taking and what stuff of mine I am going to be getting rid of. I know that I will more than likely not be bringing a single book case since one of the rooms at my new place has some build into the wall. Plenty of space for all of my books in there, let me tell you!

I know you guys were eager to see some pictures of my new place, so in this post I'm sharing part of the kitchen with you. See the massive built in cabinets back there? I will never ever lack kitchen storage space again, you can be sure of that! The kitchen opens up onto my back deck and behind the kitchen island is my amazing gas stove and stainless steel fridge and the DISHWASHER!!! I have not had a dishwasher in five years and have missed it very much indeed :) Another detail I love about the kitchen are two little Murano (Venetian) glass lights above the island. See below for a close up of those, my Sweetheart and I love them to death! 

So aside from all the planning for my move, I have been trying to fit some fun in now that I pretty much done healing from my surgery. I will be seeing my Ob-Gyn on Tuesday and plan on getting the all clear from him at that point, but I've already been easing myself back into things I was restricted from doing since early last week and everything has been going fine. One of the things I did for fun this week was to take a little road trip to Ottawa with my friend G on Monday. I had only ever been to Ottawa once and the weather hadn't been very good so I did not get to see much. We were treated to lovely weather this time and G had been to Ottawa tons of times, so she knew just where to take me. We were also in luck as it was the last day of Ottawa's annual tulip festival, so that made for some colorful pictures. (from left to right: tulips in Major's Hill Park, the Parliament buildings and Library of Parliament can be seen across the river, Rideau Canal Locks with the Farimont Château Laurier on their left and finally the facade of the Parliament Buildings with the famous Peace Tower)

If  you are every planning a trip to the Montreal Area, I strongly recommend planning on taking a day to visit Ottawa as well. It is an easy two hour drive away at the most and there is plenty to do there. Byward Market is a must and a visit of the Parliament Buildings is fascinating as well. I took a tour of the buildings the first time I went to Ottawa and the architecture is very impressive as is the history of the building and government of Canada. A walk along the locks is also a lot of fun, especially if you happen to be there when there are boats being put through them! There are also plenty of museums to be visited in Ottawa as well as across in the river in Gatineau-Hull. I haven't visited any of them yet (it was way to nice out to be inside on Monday), but look forward to having the chance to do so soon.

That's it for now, thanks so much for all of your kind comments on my previous post! I'll be sure to let you know how my doctor's visit goes on Tuesday, whether I get the all clear and any final recommendations he gives me.