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Karaoke neighbors – again!!!!

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Oh my gosh … what is it with the house next door? I don’t know why but it doesn’t seem to matter who lives next to us but eventually they seem to get a karaoke machine at some point.

Oh and once they do they set it up in the living room so that the speakers are facing our living room so that we can hear them sing all of their songs endlessly over and over again – usually badly … for hours and sometimes days on end.

Oh boy … and the holidays are just starting .. if they just set up the machine that means that they are testing it for when they have guests next weekend and perhaps the weekend after next … AHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I’m still not sure what I’m doing this weekend or for Christmas. In light of our neighbors new Karaoke machine … hmm I think I’d better make sure I’m away from home. I think it’s going to be noisy around here. My poor dog. She hates the singing that comes through the walls! You’d think our walls that are over two feet thick would block the sound but it doesn’t.

So many houses for sale in my neighborhood!

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It seems that the real estate market here in Toronto is booming. I keep hearing on the news all the doom and gloom predictions about how the real estate market is set to crash here in Canada, but it seems that each year the price of houses just goes up higher and higher and the demand for them is not going down. Not at all.

I mean .. usually by this time of year – almost mid- December, house sales in the city are down. I’m not in real estate but just going by what I see on the news and what I see either driving around the city or walking around the neighborhood most years it seems house and condo sales do best from Spring through to late summer. I imagine it was the same this year, but oddly enough this month I’m seeing more and more signs, even in my own neighborhood, for homes going up for sale and the houses are selling very quickly.

This seems odd for this time of year. I’m seeing signs from all the big popular companies like Royal Lepage, ReMax, Century21 and then a few I haven’t really heard of before like Levein Team real estate which must be smaller firms.

Just down the street from me there are three houses in a row up for sale and I’m sure they’ll all be sold within a week or two even though we’re in the midst of the holiday season!

Don’t you think this is strange?






I love my indoor flowering plants

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All of my indoor plants are beginning to bloom. There’s something special about this time of year.

My Thanks Giving Cactus has flower buds that are growing every day. I don’t think they’ll open in time for Thanks Giving but they’ll bloom shortly after. Then there’s my Christmas cactus. Thanks to leaving it out in the cool weather for an extended period it’s already got tiny pink flower buds all over it. I think it will be in full bloom well before Christmas. Hopefully both cactus bloom a couple of times this winter season.

I also have three Amaryllis plants. Mine usually bloom in March of each each or at least somewhere between February and March. I have an African violet and I could never get it to bloom for years. You’d think that would be blooming it’s head off since they are supposed to be easy but mine wouldn’t bloom until I accidently forgot to water it once or twice. It seems they like to be very dry or at least mine does as ever since I’ve let it be mostly dry it’s been blooming and blooming.

My orchids will also start blooming sometime in the next month or so as well. I love having live orchids in the house. They’re so beautiful. Lovely delicate blooms. The flowers last for such a long time once they bloom too! I have three or four orchids.

Do you have flowering plants inside your home? What kinds do you have? Aren’t they lovely, especially when it’s cold and drab outside.

Organize Your Closets To Create More Space

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It seems like it would be fairly easy to organize the closets but as it turns out it can actually be rather difficult if you have a lot of items or clutter to organize. Have you looked at your closets lately or do you just throw your stuff in there and try to ignore the mess that it’s become?

If your closets are taking on a life of their own there are professional closet organizers that you can consult. They will come in and help you organize your closet and you’ll end up with a neat and tidy closet. You’ll somehow end up with more storage space. Probably because some items have been thrown out, but also because the professional has come up with some nifty shelving or storage ideas.

You don’t necessarily need a professional to help you out. You can get some fantastic ideas online. You’ll find all kinds of ideas as to how to organize your closets and drawers. I especially like the idea of using drawer dividers to separate things like undergarments, and socks that are usually kept in the same drawer. It would just make it all the more neat and organized.

My closets and drawers aren’t the tidiest but one thing that I do that helps is that I have hideaway storage boxes on rollers that I store under the bed. Each spring and fall I go through my closets and drawers and change out my winter and summer wardrobe placing items that had been in the hideaway boxes for winter into the drawers and closets once cooler weather starts to set in, and then once warm weather returns I take the cold weather clothes out of the closets and replace them with shorts and cotton blouses and lighter clothing.

I also use hooks in my closets to hang robes and organize my closet. It really helps and it uses up that tiny bit of extra space. I even have a couple of hooks on the outside of my closet door too.

There are stores dedicated to storage space and making life easier for those who are finally getting various rooms or parts of their homes organized. You’ll find customizable closet organizing systems in these kinds of stores. They’ll certainly get you off to a good start if you have a standard sized closet. I have a very old house with very few closets and the one in my main bedroom is tiny tiny tiny … so I’m on my own as far as organizers go.

Have you organized your closets? Was it a lot of work? Was it worth it?

I think I need new windows

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I think I need to have new windows installed in my home. When I first bought my house 11 years ago we were told that the previous owners had had new windows installed about two or three years previously, but if they were new they weren’t installed all that well.

I’ve always noticed a little bit of moisture or humidity between the panes in the summer time and I knew that wasn’t supposed to happen if the windows had been installed properly. In the last few years the moisture between the panes has been getting worse in a few of the windows. It doesn’t happen in all the windows in my house, mainly in the upstairs windows – but either way, I don’t like it. You’re supposed to be able to see out of your windows all year long aren’t you? I can’t fully see out of my windows in the the fall, winter and spring. That’s not right!

So I’ve been starting to look at some companies that I can get to come and replace my windows. It would probably be cheaper for me if I could do it right now, but I think I’ll have to wait until spring. One company that I’m looking at is richmond windows as they have Pella windows. I’ll have to compare their prices though as I want the best price.

I wonder if I could just have my current windows re installed – properly? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with my windows, it’s the installation that has a problem. I should ask about that when I’m calling around. Yes – I could save a ton of money if I could just get the installation fixed. Maybe … Have any of you tried that? Have you had moisture between the panes problems with your windows too?

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