Havanese fun!

Good Sunday morning!  The sun is shining, the temperature is getting warmer and May is just around the corner.  We are now less three months away from moving to Huntsville.  We have chosen the moving company and our move is scheduled for July 25 and 26.  It will be done over two days.  There is still lots to do at our new house  but all will be ready for the move.  We are now in the process of choosing all plumbing fixtures and we need to finalize the outdoor lighting.  The kitchen design will be finalized this week in terms of measurement so that the cabinets and countertop can be built.  As for us getting ready for the physical move, we still have a bit of de-cluttering to do and slowly get organized for the packing process.   That will be my job.  Being as organized as I am, you can bet that each box will be properly labeled, with the content properly itemized.  It should be a breeze to unpack.....

This past week was a busy one with a few appointments, Cooper's obedience class, and we finished the week with a Havanese Play Date at the Talemakers on Saturday morning.  It was really nice to see all the puppies play together.  The weather was perfect for this and the dogs ran like crazy for almost two hours. Our Cooper was, as usual, full of beans, and he really had a good time.  It makes us really happy to see him play with other dogs, especially with dogs of his own breed.  The Havanese dogs are truly special and they have an amazing personality.  Cooper slept all the way home and another two hours once we got home.  He was beat.  I attach a few pictures that were taken.

Last Tuesday, a former colleague and good friend came over for dinner.  It was nice to see her again and catch up.  She got to meet Cooper, who behaved quite nicely throughout the evening.

Not much on the go this week.  I hope to get a bit of work done in the garden and Cooper will graduate from Obedience Level 3. This will be his last training until we move to Huntsville.  He gets to have a few months off....so he thinks :-)   Russell and I know that training is never over and it is part of Coop's daily routine.

The "Coop" in full stride!

That's about it for this week's blog.  I wish you all a great week!

A flying dog pile!

Russell checking in with the Coop!

Watching the 'run' from the deck.

Full steam ahead...

Rainy Monday....better than snow...so far we have been spared the white stuff.  As much as I hate this kind of weather, there is nothing I can do about it so it is what it is.....a slow day for Cooper since we are not going out for walks, a slow day for Russell and I in a matter of speaking.  We are taking advantage of this down time to take care of some necessary items.  Today, we met with a moving company in order to get our first quote for the July move.  Looks good and the cost is quite reasonable.  We are getting a second quote on Wednesday.  No matter how we look at it, and given the distance to travel to Huntsville,  it looks like it will be easier to load up the truck one day, then unload the truck the next day. We are now looking at moving on July 25/26. We will need to board Cooper for two nights during that time so that we can move and get organized without having to worry about Cooper being unsupervised.  Lucky for us, but most importantly lucky for Cooper, we will be able to board him with Nathan and Darlah at Talemaker Havanese.  Speaking of Talemaker, we are invited to a Teaser Pup reunion this coming Saturday.  If you remember from a previous blog, Teaser is Cooper's mom.  The reunion will be with the 4 puppies from her last litter and Cooper from a previous litter.  We (I mean all three of us) are very much looking forward to this reunion. It will be a lot of fun for Cooper to play with his siblings and for us to watch!

Another thing that we did today is order our new bedroom furniture.  We ordered it from Pioneer Handcraft.  It will be made from white pine logs.  It will be beautiful and go well with our new house.

Back to yesterday.  It was a full day in Huntsville and the weather was great.  We arrived at our lot at about 11:00.  As we were driving up on our private road, we saw two deer right in the middle of the road, blocking our way, so that they could protect their babies who were about to cross the road.  This was the first time that Cooper saw deer, and so close (literally outside our car doors).  Needless to say that he barked up a storm!  He will get used to seeing them on our property.  Once we got past the deer, we made our way to the lot and we were, once again, impressed with the progress since our last visit.  We walked through all the rooms and we were able to totally visualize where our furniture will be, even more so than last time.  That is how we landed on our bedroom furniture actually and were able to place the order today.  We also met with Doug Spiller, President/Owner of Peerless Security, and confirmed where all the speakers and security pads will be located.  We will have enough speakers to blast our music clear across Lake Vernon! We might even reach downtown Huntsville if we point the outdoor speakers in the right direction...they will love our Christmas music selections!

We then met with Matt and Ali at their house.  We had a great meeting and covered of a lot of items.  We are now at the stage where details are very important and a lot of decisions have to be made.  As we were driving away from their house, we saw their cows and horses being fed.  They were so close to our car that, once again, Cooper barked up a storm.  The cows are actually quite impressive when you look at them closely, they are very big and totally black.  So, yet another new experience for Cooper.  He also didn't quite know what to make of the cat that Matt and Ali have.  I wouldn't say that he is afraid of cats but he doesn't quite know how to approach them now....so it was a full day for us and also for Cooper.  He slept all the way home...on my lap.

So, what is happening this week on the log home front?  The windows are going in, the fireplace will get started, work for the lightening protection system will begin.  The plumbing and electrical work is almost complete.  Ali will be measuring for the cabinets, both in the kitchen and bathrooms.  Matt has sourced all the interior doors and they will be made by Mennonites.  At our end, we will finalize the order for the lights (indoor and outdoor). We are also in the process of getting quotes for landscaping.  We now realize that landscaping will be a bigger job than we originally anticipated.  Most importantly, we need to have a secured area for Cooper.  There is a lot of wild life out there, and Cooper would be the perfect bait for any wild critters.....fishers, coyotes, wolves....etc.

Lots on the go, the next three months will just fly by. The rest of the week will be busy with all kinds of appointments and Cooper's training on Thursday.  Tomorrow night, a good friend and former colleague is coming to our house for dinner.  I look forward to seeing her again.

Anne & Cooper as viewed from the loft.....they are in the muskoka room.

That's it for this week's blog.  I have to get the Coop's dinner ready soon.....Have a great week everyone! I include a few pictures taken yesterday.

View from muskoka room looking at the deck and screened porch far end.

View up the driveway...tower in full view!

Road trip to Huntsville...

We're off to Huntsville today to meet with Doug Spiller.  Doug's company (Peerless Security) have just installed our security system and will be installing the sound system in our house. We have to decide where the speakers and control panels will go.  Then, we are meeting with Matt and Ali this afternoon at their home to get an update on our construction.  Lots has happened this week and I will report the progress tomorrow. So, for now, this is a very short blog update...

Have a great Sunday!

The end of a chapter...

.....and a new one will begin soon in Huntsville.  The "Sold" sign went up on Friday.  Although we are happy to have sold our house so quickly, we are experiencing an "anticlimactic"moment.  Not sure why, could be because we have so much going on with the building of our log home, and the anticipation is starting to reach a new level.

This past week was relatively quiet. We had the house inspection on Monday, which went very well.  During that time, we took Cooper to daycare and Russell and I had a nice lunch out.  Once we got Cooper back home, he crashed for a couple of hours. He loves daycare but he comes home so tired from running around with the other dogs.  We took Cooper to his first Level 3 Obedience class last Thursday.  He did extremely well and learned a few new things.  We are also learning, which is very important.  For example. we now use the "Down" command from a distance, which is important to know if we ever have to ask him to stay put from a distance in order to keep him safe.

Yesterday, we went for our hair cuts with Cooper.  He is now used to going to downtown Toronto and doesn't mind the elevators, escalators and chaos of the downtown core. I am happy that we are exposing him to all sorts of venues and experiences. It is good for him and it makes him a better dog.

We now spend even more time brushing Cooper.  We think that he is "blowing his coat", which means that his puppy coat is slowly going away and his mature coat is coming in.  This period of coat change can last a while. He gets little knots in his coat in places where he never did before and they sometime seem to appear overnight. Both Russell and I do a brushing session every morning and Cooper doesn't mind. Russell holds him and I carefully remove the mats, one by one.  If we don't do that, he will have mats all over his coat and it will get out of control.  Cooper truly has a beautiful coat and we want it to remain that way.

Not much else happened this past week.  It seems like we didn't do much, but we did, it's just a blur now, as often my weeks are.  Today is a cloudy/rainy day so we will take the Coop to the indoor doggie park for an hour or so this afternoon.  When we come back, I will start reading a new book that I downloaded yesterday.  I haven't read a fiction book in months, today seems like a good day to do just that.

That's it for this week's blog.  Have a great week everyone!

Happy Easter!

This is our first Easter holiday with Cooper and I couldn't help myself.  I had to have a little a bit of fun and I must say, I was somewhat challenged by Darlah, of Talemaker Havanese....   Hope you enjoy Cooper's Easter wishes!  Having a dog can really bring out the kid in you!  I didn't buy any Easter eggs for us just in case Cooper managed to grab one (chocolate is bad for dogs).  Instead, I bought a few pomegranates and made rhubard compote.  Two nice healthy treats for this Easter weekend.

This past week was somewhat stressful for us, with our house up for sale and many many showings.  Each showing meant that we had to tidy up the house, put things away, turn all lights on and, of course, leave the house for about one hour each time. This becomes somewhat more challenging when you have a dog.  Needless to say we walked a lot.  Cooper was probably wondering why the heck we kept going for walks with him! We had a total of 19 showings in three days.  On Thursday night, we received a conditional offer on the house, to be finalized on or before Friday the 13th due to the Easter holiday, with a closing date of July 31.  We are happy to have sold it so quickly.  We now look forward to finalizing the build of our log home.

On Thursday, Cooper graduated with Honours at his Level 2 Obedience/Tricks training.  We start Level 3 this coming Thursday.  This will be his last training for a while. We now have a nice repertoire of tricks to practice with him. On Friday, Cooper created his own Facebook page and has 14 friends so far!  He quite enjoys chatting on Facebook, I enjoy reading all about it :-)

Yesterday, we went to Huntsville.  The weather was very nice.  We had lunch in our log shell, with a roof over our heads!  We were impressed with the progress made since our last visit.  It felt quite amazing to be inside our log home with the roof structure above us.  We can now totally feel the size of each room and how everything will come together.

Today, being Easter Sunday, will be a relaxing day.  If the weather stays nice, we will take Cooper to an outdoor fenced in area that we found not too far from where we live and play retrieve with him.  This area is quite large, all grass, and we are not sure what it's for.  No one ever uses it and the gate is not locked.  I have a feeling that once people find out that we are using it with our dog, they will start doing the same, but so far, we seem to be the only ones using it.

Not much on the go this week other than the house inspection tomorrow, which is part of the conditional offer on our house, and training for Cooper on Thursday.  Other than that, the week is shaping up to be quiet.

Have a great Easter everyone.  I hope the Easter Bunny is good to you and your family!

Roof structure and foyer entrance below...cat walk above to den, second bedroom and guest bathroom.

Ground floor view of foyer entrance.

Anne and Cooper take in the view from the claw foot tub spot.

For Sale.....

This is it.  The "For Sale" sign went up at noon today.  Now we wait.....We expect a few showings this week, especially before people get busy with the Easter weekend.  Although the weather has not been that great this past week, the trees and flowers are certainly starting to bloom big time and the grass is green.  Perfect time to sell a house.  On the log home front, things continue to progress at a good pace. The roof structure is almost complete and will be ready for shingles soon.

This past week was busy.  On Tuesday, the photographer came to take pictures of our house for the virtual tour.  The sun was out so it was a perfect day for pictures.   We met with Patricia on Wednesday to review our lighting needs and other items.  We decided that it would be best for Patricia to see our house before finalizing the bathroom fixtures, etc.  So we plan on going to Huntsville towards end of April to show her the house so she can have a better sense of what we need.

Cooper did really well at this Tricks class on Thursday. In addition to the "Spin",  he now can do the "Wave", "Weave" and "Crawl".  The only trick that he needs to work on is "Play Dead", otherwise he is quite the clown when he does his tricks. The trainer is very impressed with Cooper's ability to learn quickly and she refers to him as a little working machine. Although we were not going to, we decided to enrol him in Level 3 Obedience, which will start the week after Easter, for four weeks.  This training will be about fine tuning the commands he has learned in the past few months, as well as the tricks and will also include some agility training.  This will round out his curriculum.

My parents were over for the weekend.  The weather was a bit cold but sunny on Saturday.  We had a very nice weekend and it was good to see them again.  Cooper behaved quite well, except for when he jumped on the couch next to my Dad trying to lick him.  He also tried to nibble on my Mom's slippers.  While the "Coop" was at the groomer yesterday, we had a nice lunch at Snug Harbour in Port Credit.  We ended the day by celebrating Earth Hour last night, with candles on and Cooper keeping an eye on us.

Today is a rainy day so we will take Cooper to the indoor dog park this afternoon for a bit of running around.    We don't have much to do this week since we have pretty well done all the work that needs to be done in our Mississauga house. We look forward to a nice relaxing week, as relaxing as it can be when you're both selling and building a home.  The weather forecast looks nice so we will go for nice walks and enjoy the week leading to Easter weekend.

Have a great week everyone.