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Markham, Ontario
December 2002 - November 2004

Our big fat house in Markham which is cheaper to rent
than Mishkin's one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey.

This is the family room before we moved in.
I painted it a light peach and...

Tah-Dah! This is the family room now. It is used as
a living room when we have guests as well. There is a
lovely gas fireplace and lots of eastern light. We do our homeschooling in this room and the kitchen.

The kitchen before we moved in.
It's big - it's the perfect size.
I love the island.

This is the formal living room (which we never use and
sat empty for a long time). We now use it as the
"piano room". This poor use of space is the result of a
poor floor plan. That's why Mishkin and I want to
build our own house.

Our "piano room".

My office is in the formal dining room (another room which
we don't know what to do with and sits mostly empty due
to a bad floor plan). My office will eventually be upstairs
in the fourth bedroom, but Alexei (Mishkin's brother) is
staying in there temporarily.

The stairs up to the second floor. We never use the
front foyer, except to let in guests. We always enter
via the garage and laundry room which is quite cramped
when two adults and two children are trying to remove
winter gear or unload groceries. A well thought out floor
plan would have a garage entrance onto the main foyer.

This is the master bedroom. I've painted it a lilac colour.
This room is very light coloured and sparse to create a
tranquil feeling.

The master bedroom also houses my computer where the
kids watch a lot of movies and play video games. It is convenient in the morning when Haifa wakes me up and I
want to sleep more - I just put on a movie and she's happy
for another hour. There is also enough room in here for me
to do my exercise videos (yoga or ballet).

This is the master bathroom. We never use the other
upstairs bathroom.
The kids bathe and brush their teeth in here with us.

Here is the glorious bathtub in the master ensuite.
I take baths several times a week now. After the kids go
to bed, I enjoy reading homeschooling books in the tub.
This tub is so big that me and the kids fit in altogether very comfortably. I can lie down neck-to-toe with a kid playing
on either side. Sometimes if I'm tired or sore I just invite the kids to take a bath with me. There are times when the kids want to take 3 baths a day - they love this kids-size pool.

The kids room has a walk-in-closet which I also use for
diaper changes. The kids love hiding in it. We have
decorated this room with glow-in-the-dark stars,
a virtues tree, and Winnie-the-Pooh stickers.
We read for two hours before bed all snuggled together
in Justice's bed. I'm thinking of just putting in one
queen-sized bed since we are always trying to skwoosh together and fall asleep every night in squishy positions.

The other side of the kids bedroom.

This house is so big, we now have a "Lego room".
It is on the second floor next to Mishkin's office.

This is the garden I planted out front. When we moved,
I took all the plants with me. There is a rose bush
Jeanne gave me for my birthday. The white is
snow-in-summer. The purple beside me is
purple coral bells. There's a purple sandcherry and a
blue spruce as well. I'm very proud of this garden,
it turned out well.
June 6, 2004.

This is the garden at the end of summer with sweet peas growing at the back. August 15, 2004.

Despite my comments about poor floor plan, we really love
this house. In fact, we like it more the more we're here and sometimes think about buying it. It is a beautiful home which
we are enjoying a lot.

We did try to buy it but the negotiations didn't work out.
Check out our next home...Stouffville here we come!

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