Swap it Up

My name is Kerry, and I have wanderlust. There, I said it. But seriously - the fact that I'm only JUST about to hit the quarter century mark, and own a place of permanent residence is sometimes scary. I love getting on a plane and travelling to new spots, but right now between our mortgage and the reno's, regular travelling has been put to the back burner for a moment.

Whether it's a major good score on a trip to Dublin, or renting a car and making it a road trip to Pittsburgh, I'm always looking for one way or another for B and I to get out of town and check out a new place. This would be how I came to my latest and greatest idea for us to travel abroad - House Swapping!

I'm sure most of you have seen The Holiday - so you know exactly what I'm referring to. If you haven't, the idea behind house swapping, is that you vacation in someone's home in another city and/or country while they stay in yours. Not bad, right? Except for the obvious questions. What about my valuables? What if they destroy my house? and so on, and so forth. I am sure most people have some extreme reservations when it comes to this type of thing, but it's really got me thinking recently, and thus began my research into the act of house swapping!


When doing my initial research, there were two sites that seemed really legitimate and got me interested. HomeforExchange.com and HomeExchange.com (which is apparently the website that was featured in the Holiday... according to their home page).


The basic premise for both websites is that you would sign up, pay a monthly/yearly fee (varies depending on what site you decide on), register your home and provide basic information and photos. You also provide information on particular places you are interested in travelling to, as well as when you are interested in travelling.

Once everything is all set up, you can begin your own search for a city and home you like and then you can directly contact a member to discuss swapping. One of the sites compared the process to online dating, which I thought was pretty smart. Most people will message with a potential swapper before making the agreement to swap homes, to make sure that they are "a good fit". On top of this, to enhance your comfort with someone being in your home, they suggest you lock up any valuables. In our case, I'm sure anything of extremely high value we would leave with my parents or a friend.

I could go on forever about a lot of the details of home swapping, but each website is different, and I believe that each individual person will have their own opinion and concerns when it comes to house swapping. Here's a quick rundown of what I believe to be the pro's and con's:

Pros:

• Save money on accomodations and food when travelling
• Experience your vacation spot as a local, as opposed to a tourist
• Someone is watching over your home while your away - essentially free house sitting?
• You pay a fee, and if you don't make an exchange in your first year - your second year is free (at least for the two sites I investigated)
• According to HomeExchange.com - "In 14 years and tens of thousands of exchanges,we’ve never had a report of a theft, malicious vandalism, or a case of someone getting to their exchange home and finding a vacant lot". I did find this comforting
• Most sites will show how many exchanges a member has made. This can also be a comforting thought - the higher number of exchanges, the more promising it seems to me!

Cons:

• I'm a nervous person, so I may feel a little on edge having someone else in my home... at least on a first time swap
• The fears of showing up to a place that is not quite what you expected. False advertising? Misleading pictures?
• No house cleaning - of course, you would expect someone to take care of your home if they're staying in it, so you should do the same! Therefore, unlike a hotel, there is no luxury of having someone else clean up after you. Laundry, dishes... it's all in your hands. It's a matter of whether you see it worth the swap (I think i'd take it!)

In the end, I figure that myself, as well as most of my blog friends, enjoy being able to share the beautiful work we have done to our homes (why else would we be blogging about it?). What better way to share it than to swap homes and let someone else vacation in your own little santuary!? Just a little food for thought.

What's the verdict friends? House Swapping - yah or nay?

(I also found these two home swapping blogs that may help provide some more info for anyone who is as interested in this whole thing as I am!)

Recruiting Your Help

Alright, time for me to ask for your help with another search. You may remember that back at the end of June I shared my plans to help my friends decorate the nursery for their new baby. Part of the moodboard that I shared was an adorable little leather hippo, that our mommy-to-be fell in love with instantly. Shannon, was so kind and shared with me the company that produced a similar little hippo (the one on my moodboard turned out to be one worth hundreds of british pounds... no thanks!). I was thrilled and instantly began my hunt for the fantastic little Zuny Hippo bookend!

Cute, right? According to the Zuny website, their little collection of animals are available at Chapter's and Indigo stores across Canada. That's it! I figured it couldn't be that hard and have stopped at every Chapters / Indigo store that I have passed since late June. This past Sunday when we were out shopping, the Chapter's we stopped into turned out to be the flagship store and the manager told me they carried the whole line, so my precious hippo is probably discontinued. NO!

After poking around a little more today, I realized the hippo is from their Classic line, and the only "Classic" bookend I have come across in stores in the Teddy Bear. So I need to ask - has anyone come across the Zuny bookends, and if so have you found a hippo? In store or online? ANYWHERE? Can anyone help in the search? I know that our Mommy-to-be would be beyond happy if I could deliver one at the baby shower in a few weeks time! Thanks for any help or advice you may be able to offer!

*UPDATE*: I'd received a comment (which won't appear) from Kristine, letting me know that CB2 had the Zuny Hippo paper weight... and also that they will ship to Canada! It's pretty close to the bookend, and also cute... so my request for international shipping has been submitted and I will keep you posted! Thanks again friends... and thanks to the mysterious Kristine! Appreciate your help!

*UPDATE #2*: I heard back from CB2... and it's going to cost almost $20 to ship, and take 2 weeks to get here. It would probably cost me less to drive across the border and get it. I also do not have 2 weeks. Do I give up?

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday Friends! We had a fantastic weekend here and I hope that all of the rest of you can say the same.


Friday evening I was thrilled to head out right after work and meet one of my best girl friends, along with a bunch of other lovely girls (and a couple guys), to head out for dinner and drinks to celebrate her 25th birthday. We enjoyed delicious food and drinks and great company. It's always fantastic to visit with her and I enjoyed absolutely every second of it!


Saturday morning we were up bright and early, initially with plans to pick up a dresser that someone had spotted on craigslist and shared. It wasn't too be (hopefully next weekend), so instead we busied ourselves getting ready to head out to a friends wedding north of the city. It was a nice, laid back reception and everyone had a great time. After all of the eating, we retreated to the bride's father's house where we hung out, drank, sat by the fire and camped in the yard. Perfect end to a lovely little summer wedding! Of course, I also have to say "Congrats Shane and Jess! B and I are so happy for the both of you!"


Sunday morning, B and I were the first ones up, greeted by lots of rain... which started to drip into the tent. Sleeping wasn't going to come back easily, so we got up, cleaned up all of the bottles spread around the yard, packed up our stuff and headed home. We stopped for breakfast on our way back, and then headed into the Chapters near us to peak at what they had. I ended up leaving with this...

Two sheets of each of these pretty papers...

The paper was too pretty to pass up. I know I don't have a specific project in mind at the moment, but with those patterns and 75% off, I had to have them. Just like all of the fabric I've collected... I know I will make use of them soon enough! The frame, on the other hand, I knew exactly what was going in it...

My print from Brittany from Pink Peacock Paperie (and My.Daily.Randomness). Brittany is also the genius behind my gorgeous blog design and this fancy little print that currently hangs in the guest bedroom. This one will have a home in our newly renovated basement... once the laundry room/my office is cleared out and finished off. Soon enough!


Lots more excitement coming of the course of the next week, but overall - a fantastic summer weekend. What kind of fun adventures did everyone else get up to?

Fancy Friday Love

What did I love this week? Take a look...

The Clinton Trench from Anthro. Loving the ruffles, and I'm a sucker for a great jacket. Thinking of buying myself a  birthday present (next month)!

This teeny one room escape that was featured on Bliss on Tuesday, looks like just that - Bliss! Doesn't it just look the perfect place to kick back and enjoy the remainder of the summer? Who's in?

Loving the TAMIYA shoes from Aldo's Fall Preview. They look cozy and sweet, with that fantastic large flower on the toes. Perfect little shoe for the fall. Also comes in Taupe... which I'm sure would look great with the Clinton jacket I will soon own?

Adore this "read" sign, available on Etsy by Old New Again. It would be perfect in the little reading nook that Brett created for me in the basement!  

This Pink Champagne / Tea Party Bridal Shower, that was featured on The Sweetest Occasion, is absolute perfection. It makes me want to run out and plan a bridal shower... RIGHT NOW. Or at least attend it.

I'm adding the Pitrizzia Dot Louis handbag from Kate Spade to the outfit that I've started to assemble in this post. I'm in L-O-V-E! Love the brown and black for the fall. Hopefully someone is paying attention as my birthday is quickly approaching!

We have a busy weekend planned. Celebrating my best friends 25th birthday tonight (she's visiting from Ottawa), and tomorrow we're headed to our friends wedding! It's looking to be a good one for us, and I'm hoping the same for all of you!

Freshen Things Up

As I mentioned on Tuesday, we just had a long weekend, so we took Monday to tackle a few small projects around the house. Since I revealed (ages ago) that I would be moving our bedroom, into a new room and giving it a whole new look, I've been collecting pieces and ideas that will work for us. I want to try to work mainly with what we have, which meant giving a few pieces a face lift.

Enter, this little chair and my mini dress makers bust that holds all my necklaces...

There was really nothing wrong with them... except for the fact that they wouldn't fit with my master bedroom vision at all! This meant making some inexpensive changes.


As we all know, there is nothing like a fresh coat of spray paint to pretty things up. So after a quick trip to the big orange, where I grabbed an extra large can of white spray paint, I went to town. The first project that was finished was my little dress makers bust...

Doesn't it look fantastic in all of it's white glory? I tried taping off those little details on the shoulders, but they actually popped off as I was doing so. Worked well for me. When I was finished with my spray painting I used some of the "Gorilla Glue" that B had in the garage and just slapped 'em right back on. Done! I LOVE it!

The chair took a few more coats as I was covering black with white. I also used some extra material I had laying around from my final project in my Residential Materials class (Never shared that, did I?). It was a neutral denim that I had picked up at Designer Fabrics, and had to buy at least 1 yard. Glad I did, the excess came in handy!

The denim perfectly complements my Robert Allen fabric that I picked for our DIY headboard (which we have not yet started). Plus, by sticking with neutral colours, I'll be able to move the little chair to any room that I may need it in, in the future. 

So there you have it, for about $7 both my chair and my jewelry stand got a fresh new look that will look fantastic in my brand new master bedroom.... when I finally have one. I'm starting to think I dive into this one full force. These two pieces along have really inspired me.

Who doesn't love a quick, cheap and easy makeover?

Nuts 'N Bolts - Installing the Heat Pump

It's been quite a long time since I last made an appearance around here. Figured it was better late than never to continute the saga of our heat pump installation. You can read the first part, explaining what the system is and why we decided to go with it, right here.

After we knew for certain we were going the heat pump route, the unit sat in our garage for a few weeks waiting to be installed. Finally, my contractor friend and I were able to find a time that worked for both of us and the installation process began.

Our first step was to anchor the mounting bracket to the side of the house and bolt down the condenser onto the bracket. When the unit was mounted on the wall we installed an electrical disconnect switch to meet code regulations and ran power from the main circuit breaker to the disconnect box. I used ½” PVC conduit to run the wires from the outdoor unit to the separate indoor units. The electrical consists of 4 wires including the ground wire, and the terminals are clearly labeled and the directions provided a wiring diagram as a backup for those who might not be 100% sure of what their doing. I must admit, I tend to ignore directions but I'm glad I looked them over because I realized we were missing a wire before I got too far into the installation.

The outside condenser unit, mounted to the wall with the disconnect switch below.

I took care of the electrical myself and wired the entire system together, the hardest part was anchoring the PVC conduit to the wall without any spare hands. We did have an electrician come and take a look at my panel to tell me which spot was best for the system, and we were able to utilize the same circuit that the old AC unit had been on.

Once that was done, we worked together to run the copper tubing. Two sets of hands were better than one in this situation, since we needed to straighten the roll out and slide the insulation over the tubing while attaching it to the PVC with zip ties.

The most difficult part of the tubing is making sure your fittings that tie the units together are solid so that the coolant doesn’t escape. You will need a specialty tool to ‘flare’ the ends of the tubing which can be purchased at a home improvement store for around $75. Fortunately, I didn’t need to buy one. You will also need a tubing bender to make the 90 degree turns without kinking the tubing. The last thing you want to do is kink the copper, have to cut it and then put an unnecessary fitting, creating yet another spot for potential leakage.

Hanging the indoor units was relatively easy, anchoring them into the wall studs or using extra drywall anchors if we couldn’t find two studs. The most difficult part was getting through the brick for the unit in the kitchen but with the help of a hammer drill we made quick work of it. I used ½” black plastic tubing as drainage piping from the indoor unit to the ground below the unit on the outside of the house.

The pipes coming out of the brick, in the back of the house, from the kitchen mounted unit.

The unit comes pre-charged with environmentally safe refrigerant, so after your tubing connections are checked for tightness, you open the valves and it's almost ready to run.
After tying in the system to the electrical panel we powered up and worked out the bugs in about a half hour. The top of the condenser unit comes off and has a diagnostic chart and two LED lights on the control panel indicate any problems.

I still need to decide how I am going to cover the lines on the outside of the house, for now they are tucked under the overhang uncovered. A protective shroud is available for purchase which kind of resembles a down spout and is paintable, I think we will wait until we stucco the house before that is installed.

We'll eventually hide all of these pipes with the shroud.

My contractor friend is a family man with a very busy schedule to say the least so it was over the course of 3.5 days in which we installed the unit. If we had everything we needed and put in a full days work we could have hammered it out over the course of a weekend. The installation was a little frustrating at times because neither of us had done this before but now after completing it I would have no problem doing it again. My buddy plans on installing another unit in the near future and I offered my services to help him install it (I will work for beer!) since he didn’t charge me installation on my unit since it was considered his learning experience.

Interested in tackling something like this yourself? Here's what you'll need...

Tools required:
Hammer Drill
Flare Tool
Tubing Bender & Cutter
Level
Cordless Drill
Wire Strippers
Screwdrivers
Crescent wrench & Ratchet Set
Saw for PVC Conduit

Supplies Required:
Romex Wire (check power requirements on your unit)
PVC Conduit and fittings
Disconnect Box w/Switch
Copper Tubing
Anchors or Epoxy and Threaded Rod
Zip Ties
Drainage Piping and fittings
Spray Foam
ScrewsTubing Insulation

So what's the consensus? Helpful rundown? Would you try to install something like this on your own, or with the help of someone else? Have you ever considered a heat pump for your own home, or had one installed? We'd love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences - share away!

In the Most Unexpected Places

Back at it on a Tuesday after a long weekend over here. We enjoyed time with friends and family on Saturday and Sunday and then spent Monday working on some projects. Most of which I hope to share later this week. Thought that I would start the week off a little slow as I ease back into the work week...

Last week while I was out picking up some stuff I needed, I made a stop into Indigo to pick up some new reading material. While I was in there I spotted the most beautiful chevron throw for our basement. 

I loved it the minute I saw it, and was even happier to learn that it was 30% off! Score! I hadn't seen it at any of the other locations I had stopped into, so I knew if I didn't snag it then, I never would. So home it came! 

I know exactly where it's going to go, but we still have some finishing touches to take care of in the basement. Hence, no reveal yet! Just wanted to share my newest find. 

Where is the most unexpected place you've picked up something for your home?