Oh Canada!!

John finally got home from his trip to Canada on Saturday.

He had gone up there to get CSA and UL ratings so that we can sell the Draw Collar in Canada. It went rrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyy well. There is a final test that takes about 10 days to complete, and then we will be officially able to sell in this huge market!

Before this trip, he had been contacted by a HUGE company up there that sells fireplaces and stoves all over the world, and they had interest in picking up our product. So he scheduled a meeting with them since he'd be up there anyways. That went really well too! This could be such a big step for us! I am super excited that we might be on the verge of taking this thing to the next level.

My fingers will be crossed, and my heart will be praying for the next 2 weeks until we get the final word.

I survived his being gone by moving furniture around in my house. We are planning on moving the kids around downstairs so that Megan can have her own space. The boys will be moved into what was our family room (we will be hanging a curtain wall temporarily), and Megan will have the boys' current room. Sophie will stay put in the small bedroom.

I am so excited to make these changes, but it was so much work to get the couches moved around! Luckily, Megan and a friend helped me with the worst of it... Those girls are tough! We are so beat up! My arms and legs look like I'm a domestic violence victim. But we got 'er done. I even managed to move the cables so that the tv will work upstairs!

It's going to be tight for a while with the tv upstairs, and having little to no space to spread out, but I think that overall, once the kids are separated, and their rooms have just a bit more space, it will be worth it.

I'll have to post some pictures of these room projects as I get them done... I'm planning on sewing some pillows, and painting some rooms... I have to get pretty creative, since I'm doing this on a budget of $0...

So, here's some pictures of my upstairs space now that we moved things upstairs.

These couches are actually the sectional from downstairs. Some sectionals you can switch from left to right. Not these. So, they are separated, and positioned like this:

The tv actually fits nicely right there, but eventually I want to bulk out the mantle and put it up there. And REALLY eventually, the tv will live in the family room that we hope to build over the garage someday.

It's silly, but probably one of my favorite things is the arrangement of the pictures on the wall between the living and dining areas...

I had to go buy furniture sliders so I could push the armoir (sp??) into my bedroom.

Overall, I am really happy with the results. It isn't ideal, but it will be okay until we can make the rest of the changes we want.