Jake visits his new school

Jake is coming to the end of his elementary education, and come September, will be moving on to junior high school. This week, Okotoks Junior High (known locally as O.J.) had an open evening for grade 6 students, where they could visit the school, take a guided tour from the current year 7 students (who were great ambassadors for the school) and speak to staff about next year. In addition to the usual subjects - English, Math, Sciences and Social Studies - the students have to choose courses that they would like to study next year. These can be year long courses, or courses for just one semester. Jake was really impressed with the music department, as they have amazing facilities, so he has chosen to study in the concert band. This is great news as it means that he can finally start learning trombone again after what will have been a 2 year break. He's also chosen Science and Technology, and Woodworking for one semester. His choices aren't guaranteed so fingers crossed he gets what he wants.

We were certainly very impressed with the school and staff on our walk round. Everyone seemed very welcoming and the building was bright and attractive, with bright, colourful homerooms and a wonderful gym and library. I think he's pretty excited about next year.

Basement reno

Lots of you back in Blighty have been saying you'll come and visit us, so we thought we ought to get our bums in gear and sort out some accommodation for you!

When we first started looking at Canadian properties way back on our first visit here, we were amazed at how every house had a basement. It seems to be a North American thing, but virtually every house here, new or old, is built with a basement. While many people use it as a space for storage (here in Canada, people don't really use their loft/attic space in the same way we do in the UK, so the basement is the place to store stuff. Our attic is full of serious amounts of insulation!) there are also many who convert the basement to extra living space, be it a large 'recreation' room or man cave, to a self contained rental suite. Our basement is a fantastic big space, and perfect for conversion to extra living space/bedroom space for guests to use when they come to stay. We also wanted to convert it before it filled up with 'stuff' (like our loft did in the UK....man, that was a pain in the rear end to clear!....it took us weeks!).

Neil was anxious to learn how to do a lot of the building work himself, but lacks a lot of know how. Luckily, he shares an office with a good friend, and fellow realtor, Paul, who also happens to have a background in the building trade - so he knows his stuff. This is perfect as it means that Paul and Neil can work together to convert our basement.

We will be posting regular updates on their progress on here. So far, we are at the stud wall stage, and the boys are busy wiring it all at the moment. We are putting 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a small kitchenette (also known as a wet bar) down there. There were already 2 windows, but we've added a third.

Here are a few before and after pics of our progress so far. More to come....

Short break to Banff

We've all been exhausted recently from working so hard (especially Neil who's been working extremely long hours in the last few weeks, so much so that Jaz said that she was fed up going to bed without bedtime cuddles from her Daddy - oh dear!)

We therefore decided to treat ourselves to a short break in Banff. We stayed at the Hidden Ridge Resort located on Tunnel Mountain just above the town. The views were stunning, although for much of the trip the valley was shrouded in snow clouds. We were happy just to chill out, spend time together as a family and take advantage of the 2 outdoor hot pools! It was a wonderful break - over much too soon for my liking!