Fat off the Land: a Blog About Calgary Real Estate, Parenting, and Food

I know I’ve been complaining about the basement for many months now, but unfortunately I have to take to my blog once more to off load about the perils of our never-ending project.

The basement is mostly complete. We have a few touch-ups, but we’re saving those for later. We just need to move our stuff now and get our school room up and running so that we catch up on all the days of homeschool that we missed.

This move into the basement is one of epic proportions. So much moving has to happen that it feels like we are actually moving into a new house. Let me explain: Our oldest boys are moving out of their upstairs room and down to the basement. Our middle two are moving into a different room in the upstairs, and the baby is moving into the nursery.

There’s nothing more deflating than finding flaws on your home inspection, and suddenly doubting the price you paid for the home. Certain types of flaws definitely warrant a second look at the purchase price. There are times when it is entirely appropriate to do this, and there are times when it is neither helpful nor appropriate. Let’s go through a few examples.

When we go through a home with a home inspector, we are looking for all types of defects so that buyers can enter their home purchase with confidence---knowing exactly what they bought. However, we want to be especially mindful of material latent defects. These are defects which are hazardous, or potentially hazardous, and/or would involve great expense to remedy. These are usually defects

Well the summer is over and Clint and I are back from vacation in Sandpoint. Faith became really sick while we were away, and Trinity also became ill (though not as bad as Faithy) and I had my first experience in going to an American hospital. Thank goodness we had insurance!

Summer vacation can always go one of two ways, I think, and this year I’m sad to admit that I think I missed the mark. No matter how long you go away for, you have to have your head in vacation mode, and be ready to relax. I think I had it at first, but I lost it somewhere in the middle.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the circumstances surrounding you, and forget about the bigger picture. Faith had pneumonia, and going out by the lake or swimming in the pool was kind of

5: Number of videos I watched on YouTube trying to find the best version of the Spice Girls at the closing ceremonies because I didn’t get to see it live.

2: Number of cups of coffee I had without creamer because we’re out. Uggggh

1: Number of dinners out that I planned for the Vanderveen extended family and then foisted upon my parents-in-law.

300: Probable dollar-cost of the dinner out which was put upon my father in law. Thanks, dad!

2.99: Amount of money spent renting a certain Miley Cyrus movie off of iTunes. I’m not proud of myself. I don’t want to talk about it.

10: Time that we left our dear friends’ house last night with cranky kids in tow. Time spent with them was well worth the sleep-deprived bear-ish kids today.

3: Number of

There’s nothing worse than writing an offer on a property and then having your agent tell you that another offer has come in on the property you just wrote on. There is a lot of misinformation about the multiple offer process in Calgary so I would like to take a minute to dispel a common myth about Calgary real estate bidding wars: do Calgary real estate agent’s invent multiple offers?

We do not “invent” them, as in we make up something that doesn’t exist. We do, (if we’re a good listing agent) do absolutely everything we can to encourage them with every skill we have, and there are ways of legally doing that! We actually cannot make up a false bid because we are required to disclose to all agents bringing offers, all the names and brokerages of all

Today’s blog is all about builder upgrades gone right, and pulling together a colour scheme/theme in a new build without ever seeing it all first hand. With so many options available to you when you’re building a home, it’s hard to decide which upgrades will be best for value, and which ones will be worth it, even if they’re only for enjoyment. When it comes to pulling the whole house together with your own personal style it can be difficult to put your own vision into a new buld in Calgary when you can't actually walk into the house that you're decorating.

I have a friend named Erin who lives in Auburn Bay, and who has a keen natural eye for interior design. I took one look at her home a few years ago and I was in love. I think she and her hubby

This is the blog I’ve been waiting to write! I stopped by the home that had the amazing corner lot the other day and snapped some photos of her corner lot. I’ll show them to you first, and then I’ll discuss what she has done so well. I will note that the homeowner gave me permission to leave the address visible to the public, but for anyone else interested in showcasing their home here, I can always remove the indications of address.

OK, look at the majesty here! Being owners of a corner lot, Clint and I have always struggled with what to do with all that extra space we have! You can see that this homeowner made the best use of her land, and certainly added a lot of value by adding this elegant tea patio and garden. You can’t see in the above photo

So today I was at the lake with my mom and dad, enjoying the gorgeous sunshine, when my dad noticed that his cell phone was gone. We were all tossing things to and fro looking for the thing, when a stunning young lady in a bikini walked up to us to let us know that some young kids (around 14 or 15) had found a phone right beside her and were playing with it. We went up to the girls that the lady pointed out to us. They said the boys who were with them were unknown to them, and they didn’t know where they went with the phone.

The gorgeous lady---who I found out later was an off-duty cop named Veronique---spoke up accusing the girls of lying. She had witnessed the boys with them all afternoon. When I looked back to the girls for a response, they

For months now, Clint and I have been driving by a property on our way home which has the most lovely use of a corner lot. Every time we drive by, I say to Clint, “Slow down! Slow down, let me look at it again.” Today, on a whim, I decided to ring the homeowner’s doorbell and ask if I could take photo of their front yard and blog about it.

She said she would prefer to wait until tomorrow when she would have it looking ultra-pretty, but invited me to look at her backyard where she had something super cool to show me.

Check out how she used her swale!!!

I was so excited that I snapped a picture and ran home to ask Clint how we could do the same for our house. She’s growing a vegetable garden in that space!!! Isn’t that awesome? Clint and I have

It’s 1am and here I am at the laptop, not able to sleep because I’m seeing the events of this afternoon play over and over in my mind.

It all started with an innocent trip to Ikea to look at cabinets for the basement. In the parking lot, Clint unloaded Trin, and Faith and Nilo were going to walk. But sometimes I just like to carry my kiddies because then I can whisper things into their ears. It’s fun to carry them. But both wanted to be carried this time, and I’m always up for a challenge in that department.

Let it be noted that Clint is always trying to get me to stop with all the “challenges” with the kids. I love to pick them up and then toss them on the couch or throw them up high and let them fall on the bed. I remember how thrilling it was