We found walnut floors at a great price

Operation renovation has officially begun! Our first order of business was finding an affordable floor to replace the current crappy parquet in the living room, dinning room, and kitchen. Dave and I love hardwood, so we really wanted to find a great looking wood floor at a decent price. Our friends Kim and Alex, who recently re-did their floors, told us about some dude named Benoit who deals with overstock flooring somewhere in the East end. Unfortunately, when we called him, he was no longer in business.

Luckily, Kim mentioned another place called Planchers Economiques out in Boisbriand. We drove there one afternoon (they are only open on weekdays from 9-5) and were not disappointed.

We found a BEAUTIFUL, Canadian Walnut floor for $2.99/sq. ft. This was the floor of our dreams. The floor that we never expected to afford (this type of floor usually costs $7-$9/sq. ft.). And there it was, for the same price as some floating floors. We bought it on the spot! It will get delivered to our new home the last week of July and Dave will be installing it himself to save some extra money. Gotta love DIY projects!

We sold our place!

After attempting to sell our condo ourselves, we decided to call on the expertise of our real estate agent (and friend) Jean-Claude Bertrand. In truth, we probably would have been able to sell the condo on our own, but because of the short timeline (we needed to sell our condo before going to the notary for the purchase of our townhouse) we opted against it.

JC was amazing, he listed the condo and refused to show it to anyone for a whole week. This created anticipation. He also scheduled most visits so they overlapped a little. This created a sense of urgency. The result? We sold our condo to the first visitor for very close to our asking price and with the dates that we wanted. Though it cost us a pretty penny in commission, it was definitely worth going with an agent for the sale of this place. We’re glad we did it.

We bought a home

Ever since we got married, we’ve been looking for the opportunity to upgrade from our 2-bedroom, 810 sq. ft. condo to something a little bigger. We enlisted our friend, and Sutton real-estate agent, Jean Claude Bertrand, to help us find the perfect place.

Both Dave and I really wanted to stay on the Island of Montreal, but there was no denying that the same amount of money would buy us a much bigger property in the burbs (the South Shore to be exact). So we scouted for homes in those areas. After months of searching on the South Shore, Dave and I both decided that we were willing to forego square footage for the ease of downtown living, and narrowed our search to the Sud Ouest area. We unfortunately weren’t aware of the crazy downtown real estate market. We were outbid on two cute townhouses in the Little Burgundy area, by thousands of dollars! Our agent, JC, took matters into his own hands and sent letters to every homeowner in the area, saying that if they were interested in selling, he had a potential buyer. It worked! Within a month, we visited and arranged a private sale with a lovely couple for a cute 1987 townhouse. Purchasing a home this way turned out really well for us, we didn’t have to compete with other buyers on the price, and were able to negotiate a deal that was very favourable to us.

The house is in immaculate condition but it isn’t prefect (hello, oppressively small kitchen!). With a bit of renovations we’ll be able to make it outstanding.

It’ll be hard to say goodbye to our neighbours and friends… The only consolation? We’re just moving 3 blocks away! Oh, and more than double our current square footage. And a garage. And a kick-ass, brand-spanking-new kitchen.

We take possession of our new home on July 22nd. Before we can comfortably settle into the place, we need to:

• Rip out and replace the parquet floor
• Rip out the second powder room
• Rip out the current kitchen
• Build a gorgeous new kitchen in place of the current kitchen and powder room
• Oh, and we have to sell our condo.

Let the fun begin!

SEA Honeymoon – The Final Days

Day 33

Sad day. At noon we left our honeymoon cocoon at the La Laanta Hideaway and took their private transport to Krabi airport and back to Bangkok. We arrive at our hotel, the Novotel @ Siam Square, at 6:30pm. We spent the evening shopping at MBK and  the nearby street market. As much fun as the shopping was, after spending the last 4 days on a island that, in my opinion, rivals paradise, it’s pretty hard to get excited about a mall.

Day 34

From 10am-9pm Shopping. Shopping. Shopping and more shopping. MBK, Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery, Siam Center, Siam Square, and back to MBK.

After an amazing 5-week journey across four different Asian countries, at 10pm on January 2, we begrudgingly got into a cab and headed back to the airport to catch our flight back to Montreal.

SEA Honeymoon Day 32 – Exploring Koh Lanta and New Year’s Eve 2010

Excursion day! At 9:20 a speedboat picked us up at La Laanta’s private beach and brought us to a snorkeling spot nearby (another island). From there, we went to The Emerald cave: a dark, watery cave that opens on to a secret beach. Apparently, this secret isn’t very well kept: the entrance to the cave was clogged by a bunch of life-jacket-clad tourists queued behind their guides, bobbing along to the tiny opening at the other end. It was fun.

Next, we had lunch at Koh Ngai followed by some beach time and more snorkeling. Back at the hotel, I treated myself to a two-hour massage (Dave’s shoulders were too tender from the sun so he opted out of this rub down.)

We got ready for the mandatory New Year’s Eve dinner, which ended up being lots of fun. The gay staff (in both senses of the word) put on a killer drag show, which also included some traditional Thai dancing performed by students of a local school. Dinner was a buffet of BBQ ribs, uber fresh grilled squid, HUGE grilled tiger shrimp (other items were on the menu, but Dave and I stuck almost exclusively to those). Midnight brought a round of free drinks and some pretty spectacular fireworks on the beach.

We went to bed shortly after.

Continue: SEA Honeymoon – The Final Days

SEA Honeymoon Day 31 – Thai Cooking in Koh Lanta

Eat. Drink. Tan. Massage. Cooking class.

I asked the super helpful crew at the La Laanta resort if I could shadow the cook for a bit and learn to make Pad Thai and Papaya Salad. They said YES! Their motto is “everything is possible” after all. I now have two killer recipes and newly acquired cooking techniques, which I will share with you:

Pad Thai

Serves 2

Ingredients:

8 shrimp (shelled)
1 package of flat rice noodles (Pad Thai noodles)*
1 egg
½ cup bean sprouts
½ cup carrots, shredded
1 green onion, minced
Sauce
2 tbsp tamarind paste*
2 tsp palm sugar* or brown sugar
1 shallots, minced
Chili oil* to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Soak noodles in warm tap water for 30 minutes.

Prepare the sauce: In a saucepan, sauté shallots in a bit of vegetable oil until translucent. Add tamarind paste and sugar. Mix until they come together; add a splash of water if mixture is too thick. Finish with chili oil and salt. Put aside.

In hot wok coated with vegetable oil, sauté the shrimp until they start becoming opaque, add the noodles (drained) and the sauce. Mix.

Move the noodles and shrimp to one side of the wok and break an egg onto the other side. Break the yoke and allow the egg to set a bit. Fold the noodle/shrimp mixture onto the egg, add the vegetables, and toss 1 minute over the heat.

Serve with a wedge of lime and some crushed peanuts.

* Available in Asian markets or some natural food stores

Green Papaya Salad

Serves one Maya

Ingredients:

1 cup shredded green papaya*
¼ cup shredded carrots
5 cherry tomatoes
6 green beans cut into ½ inch pieces
8 peanuts
2 cloves of garlic
2 bird chilies* (omit if intolerant to spice)
1 tsp fish sauce*
1 tsp palm* or brown sugar
1 lime

Preparation:

Using a large mortar and pestle, muddle garlic and chilies to a coarse paste, add fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Combine into a sauce. Add papaya, carrots and muddle lightly into the sauce—the purpose is to lightly bruise them so they take on the flavours of the sauce, not turn into a paste. Add tomatoes, peanuts and beans; muddle very gently to combine. Serve.

* Available in Asian markets or some natural food stores

Continue: SEA Honeymoon Day 32 – Exploring Koh Lanta and New Year’s Eve 2010

SEA Honeymoon Day 30 – R&R in Koh Lanta

Eat. Drink. Tan. Massage. Repeat.

Continue: SEA Honeymoon Day 31 – Thai Cooking in Koh Lanta

SEA Honeymoon Day 29 – Koh Lanta and our honeymoon nest

Spent most of the day travelling to Koh Lanta. We booked a few days at a resort to relax by the beach on a Thai island before heading back home. This is officially the honeymoon portion of our honeymoon.

At 11 am we flew from Bangkok to Krabi. At 1:30 we took a shared mini van (and two ferries) to the drop off point: a Seven/11. Our hotel sent a transport to pick us up and after 25 minutes of driving on a very steep dirt road, we got to our resort. The last one at the southern-most tip of the island: The La Laanta Hideaway.

Our room—a bungalow with a platform bed, couch, cement bathtub, and a balcony—oversees the ocean and the pool. We got there just in time to catch the sunset on the beach. After dinner and drinks at the resort we called it a night.

Continue: SEA Honeymoon Day 30 – R&R in Koh Lanta

SEA Honeymoon Day 28 – Bangkok: Market and Ping-Pongs

We spent the entire day at the Chatuchak weekend market. 15,000 stalls, 200,000 people, no air con. It was insane. There were times I thought I’d suffocate. There were times I wanted to strangle everyone in the crowd. There were times I wished I was back in Laos. But the prices on clothes were really cheap in comparison to home (the prices for souvenirs were the most expensive I’d seen in Asia, but still way cheaper than home). I got a bunch of tops and dresses, Dave got plenty of shirts and a pair of shorts, and a bunch if gifts and souvenirs. Sadly, the items I didn’t buy in Cambodia (Buddha head and bronze elephant shaped box) and was hoping to find cheaper in Thailand were nowhere to be found. Lesson learned too late: when you find something you love, buy it. Better to find out later that you over paid it by a couple of bucks than to not find it at all. Oh well.

We only planned to spend the morning at the market. It was 5pm when we left. What an experience!

After a stop at MBK to buy a new bag for all our loot, and another at our hotel to drop everything off, we attempted to make reservations at three different restaurants. No luck. Annoyed, we took the sky train to a district and hoped to find a good restaurant that could accommodate us. Dave brought us to a Lonely Planet recommended spot that served a good, albeit oversized, meal.

Next, we returned to Pat Pong for attempt number two at catching a ping pong show. After our previous experience it was hard to trust any of the men that tried to pull us into their club. We joined ourselves to a family from Texas (the mom was drunk off her ass) who had a Thai guide with them. When we told him the story of the pervious attempt, he made sure to grill the guy who was trying to get us into his club. The guy gave his word that the price was 300b and included one drink. Since there were many of us, we were confident about “Super Pussy” and trusted that they wouldn’t screw us. We were right. No hidden costs. No surprises. The place was legit. Well, as legit as these types of places can get.

With our Singha beer in hand and a prime spot in front of the stage, the show began.

Warning, the following description is graphic and not intended for children or my parents. Read at your own peril and don’t judge us for going to this show. It’s one of those Bangkok must-sees.

First, a lady pulled about 5 feet of strung together bells out of her hoo-ha. Next, a woman blew out candles on a birthday cake out of hers. Then, a woman opened bottles of soda (without a bottle opener), splashing a few unsuspecting audience members. Another woman pulled meters of fluorescent ribbon out of her nether region. Next, a woman shot blow darts out of hers, with surprising aim, and popped a bunch of balloons over 10 feet away. She then smoked two cigarettes (not with her mouth). Another woman pulled a bunch of strung together razor blades from her lady-parts and proceeded to cut a piece of paper to prove they were all sharp. Another woman asked a guy in the audience to write his name on a piece of paper, she then wrote “welcome to Thailand Shawn, 2009″ with a marker but no hands—her penmanship was impeccable. Another used chopsticks to pick up plastic rings off the stage. And finally, a woman shot ping-pong balls out to an audience member armed with a paddle.

There is nothing sexy about this type of show: none of these women were attractive, most had clear signs of previous pregnancies, and one was at least 50 years old (I guess experience counts for something, she was the one who did most of the really impressive stunts). All begged/harassed the audience for tips after each stunt—especially of any audience member who participated in the act (paddle, name, etc.). But it is a part of Bangkok “me love you long time” culture and an experience I didn’t want to miss.

When the staff started harassing us to buy another drink, we left the bar and went back to the hotel.

Continue: SEA Honeymoon Day 29 – Koh Lanta and our honeymoon nest

SEA Honeymoon Day 27 – Sightseeing in Bangkok; still dislike the city

We woke up early to try and beat the crowd at the Grand Palace. That didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped. The plan was to start walking toward the Palace, stop for breakfast then take a cab the rest of the way. There was no breakfast place (not counting stalls serving street meat, which we didn’t have the stomach for so early in the morning). The walk from our hotel to the Grande Palace took an hour and a half. All the tour buses got there at the same time as us. We got harassed no less than three times on the way by someone telling us the Palace was closed. It’s a famous scam in Bangkok: if anyone tells you something is closed, even a foreigner, just ignore them and keep walking. A couple we met in Saigon got suckered. They believed the man who told them the attraction was closed, and accepted his offer to another site in the meantime. He took them to gem and silk stores and refused to bring them back to the place the originally wanted to visit, or let them out of the car at times, until they purchased something. Anyway, we heard several mentions of a ‘Lucky Buddha’ at some vague location. Whether this Buddha does in fact exist is a mystery to me. For us it became code for “walk away quickly”.  After a quick bite at Au Bon pain, I wrapped myself in a sarong and bought Dave some what dubbed as “Asia pants” (neither if us had pants that we long enough for the strict dress code). First we visited the Wat with the emerald Buddha (which is actually made of jade). Compared to the Wats in Laos and Cambodia this one was so over-the-top with embellishments. Mirrors, gold, etc. It was beautiful in a kitsch sort of way. We walked around the Grand Palace—the interior was off limits.

Next we went to Wat Pho to see the famous, HUGE Reclining Buddha. It was a very impressive sight. The glided statue was massive! And the room jingled with coins that people were dropping into bronze pots for good luck. It created a very unique experience. The Wat is also a massage training facility, so we treated ourselves to a traditional Thai massage (450b/hr). In a big room, with 50 or so other full beds, I had one of the best massages of my life. During our rub down, a rainstorm came in. It stopped just as we left the parlor. Lucky us.

We went in search of lunch at the Bungalmphoo district. We found a small place called “Take a Seat” which served up a great meal for under 200b. I had Tom Yum, Dave a green curry, and we shared a papaya salad—I love that stuff!

We wandered the area for a few hours. It’s a district popular amongst back packers,  so it was packed. We had a beer on the patio of a bar on Soi Kha San (the waitress shamed Dave into changing his Beer Lao order to a Thai beer… I stuck to my guns and got to drink a way better beer) and spent some quality time people watching.

The plan was to attend a Muy Thai match at 6pm that evening (main event was at 8pm). We left the pub at 5 and headed towards the ferry. First hurdle came when there was no way of crossing the street we needed to cross. It was a five-point intersection with a highway, no lights, no stop signs and no cross walks. We somehow managed to get to the other side (15 minutes later). When we got to the ferry we asked which one was going to the main port. The ticket lady pointed to a ferry and we took it. It crossed to the other bank of the Chao Praya river. Expecting it to continue on, we stayed in our seats. The ferry then returned to the point of departure. We asked the guy who’s in charge of tying and untying the ferry to the dock how to get to the main port. He pointed to the same ferry, then to a boat leaving the dock on the other side of the river. Our moods instantly soured. It was 5:45 and we were less than 1k from the pub on Kha San—our point of origin.

The ferry eventually got us to the sky train. We got off near (or so we thought) to the boxing stadium. Two kilometers later we got to the stadium (at 7:20) only to be told that they weren’t offering 1000b seats that night because not enough Thais showed up. Tickets were 1500b+. Dave got really pissed at how blatantly they were ripping off tourists (the guy at the ticket counter wouldn’t talk to us, would point straight at the scalpers.) and lost all desire to see the fight. We left and walked to a nearby night bazaar. Both feeling a little down, we ate at the food court and went back to the hotel.

Continue: SEA Honeymoon Day 28 – Bangkok: Market and Ping-Pongs