Reno Reveal and The Answer To Where We are Traveling!

Yes, we will be replacing the microwave to match :)

Just a quick post to share our new floors - and look at that!  A new fridge and stove!  I missed my stove the most - broke it in Friday night by cooking up homemade pizza, even before I had finished unpacking the fridge (they put about a mile worth of tape and wrapping on these to keep all the bits in place in transit).  Unfortunately the installers ran into a snag about halfway through, several boxes of laminate had broken interlocking bits so they could not finish the project.  Fortunately, they managed all of the kitchen, most of the living room and the entrance.  All they have left is a small bit in the livingroom and the hallway.  They are coming back Friday to finish the job which should only take about two hours then all the trim can be replaced and we can start touching up the baseboards.  That likely will be slated for a couple of weeks down the road though, since my eldest stepson flew in from the Armed Forces yesterday.

The bits left to be done

Buddy is fast learning how to run/walk on the laminate and does so at a much slower pace than carpet.  He has wiped out twice but seems to be doing better now.  We have a very large area rug in the living room so he likes to hang out there.  In the Fall we will be upgrading the countertops and getting a backsplash!  I will be glad - so tired of washing food off painted walls in the kitchen.

I was so happy to have a fridge again that as hubby was driving to get my stepson from the airport (we flew him into a neighboring town 1.5 hrs away to save him $200 as the airfares were lower) I went out and dropped $250 on groceries.  That includes that watermelon on the counter - I missed watermelon as there was no way we could buy one living out of a minifridge.  Later this week we will try and do a few tourist type things in between work appointments and flooring.  Thursday hubby has a business meeting in Victoria (3 hrs away) so we decided to make a day of it and the three of us will drive there together and do a bit of exploring after the meeting.  Buddy will get taken care of by Grandma who is mourning the loss of her ancient cat last week.  She needs some cheering up.

Thanks to those who ventured a guess as to where our next travels will be in April.  The answer is....Spain!!  Anne had the right country!  Mitchel of Mitchel is Moving lives fulltime in Fuengirola (spending the summer in Brooklyn caring for his Mom) on the Costa Del Sol has been a huge influencing factor - too many beautiful pictures of the area posted on his blog!  There is all sorts of cheap accommodation there including apartments, hostels and hotels.  Prices seem even cheaper than Portugal if you avoid the tourist trap restaurants!  We are not hostel people (well, I would easily stay in hostels but Hubby won't) and most of our accommodation in nice 3 star hotels is between $80 to $100 Canadian!  If we didn't require good wifi there are even cheaper hotels, but since we have to stay connected for our business that is something that is really important.  Our currency has taken a big nosedive this year next to other currencies (Canadian dollar versus USA we pay $1.25 for $1 USD) so stretching our poor Canadian dollars as far as possible is critical.

Malaga

Malaga

Ancient walled city of Cordoba

Royal Palace, Madrid

Madrid

The Andalucia region to be precise with 3 nights in Malaga(Costa Del Sol), 3 nights in Cordoba and 3 nights in Madrid.  We would love to go longer but just can't cease operations in our business for long periods of time.  I ended up booking our air tickets as we have a huge contract in the works for next year and if we didn't book the time now - we simply wouldn't be able to go.  Since traveling is something we love I needed to make it happen.  Fortunately there was enough money in the travel fund for the taxes on our points ticket and to pay the other ticket in full.  Other countries trips that were considered?  Greece - everyone says it is a bargain right now but based on my research the trip will cost nearly twice as much so we will do it in the next 3 years when we have more cash (*kid #4 will be off the dole), Turkey, Barcelona, Spain then taking  the train into the South of France, Croatia as the Medievil city of Split intrigues me, the Czech Republic, a stopover in Paris (not enough time!) but Andalucia won out.  I love ancient history and so does hubby and this area is full of it.  Things are reasonably close together by high speed train and we can easily see a lot on foot.  The bus system in Spain is an excellent and really cheap one but it does take more time that we don't have.

We managed to get an airfare much lower than I expected, important as we were paying for the 2nd ticket and it included the connector to get us off Vancouver Island which was a nice surprise.  We paid $200 each more last year when we went to Portugal which is just next door to Spain.  There is enough money in savings to cover 9 nights hotels and now I just need to save the spending money.  When I was sick a couple of weeks ago I spent hours researching it all and then went about finding the cheapest way to do it based on our time frame.  I love researching travel :)  I guess that is why I used to be a travel agent (back when you could make a living at it, really difficult to do these days).

It seems like the livingrichonthecheap household is not frugal anymore.  You couldn't be more wrong, but I just don't talk about all the things we DON'T do, like eating out constantly or buying brand new clothing.  Like disregarding prices at the grocery store and just piling the cart high.  Like getting into debt for things like travel.  We have had a paid off house for a few years, drive used paid off cars and live a cash life (*we do use credit cards for points but always have the cash to immediately pay it off).  That is how we are affording the things we do.  If you are not there yet - you will be if you place a priority on it.  If you don't have to pay interest you have way more money in your pocket, and way more freedom to roll with any punches life may have in store for you.

Yes, life is very busy and honestly we are pretty tired after the last 10 days of moving furniture, cleaning and working, but you just have to get on with things.  I turn 46 this coming Thursday and am feeling every year of it right now.  Have a great week everyone!