We have a visitor.

Craig installed our peep hole today!  

I put ducky on the steps to test it out.

It works.

Our tenant has moved out!

April is almost over and our tenant has moved out.  Craig inspected the basement and it was in great shape so the full damage deposit was returned.  All in all, our first experience renting out our basement was a success.

Side note:  Spring clean up!

New Door

Today we finally replaced the back door.  Hopefully it is more secure now!  

We just need to add a peep hole and then it will be perfect.

Ducky

I think ducky needs to wash his boots!

Although it is nice to see little green things poking up from the dirt!

Maybe I spoke too soon...

Ducky is disappearing again!  Silly snow.

Although I am still optimistic that spring is coming.

Deadbolts VS. Crowbar

Today when I came home from work I realized our house had been broken into.  Luckily no one was home at the time.  The police were fairly quick to respond so that was good (as I stood out on the side walk trembling because I didn't know if anyone was still in the house).  Unfortunately Craig's phone was on silent so he didn't get my frantic phone calls until he was done work.  

As you can see below the invaders pried open our back door (looks like a crowbar was used) and this completely wrecked the door.  The wood splintered and the door is almost in half.  They also pried open the dead bolt to get into our kitchen and this made a big mess.   Not sure how we will fix the wall there.  

By the time the police asked all their questions and CSI investigated for fingerprints it was too late to go and buy a new door.  We had some dead bolts in the closet so Craig put one on so that we can at least shut the door until tomorrow when Craig can replace it with something made of metal so that I can sleep at night.  

The two doors that were "secured" with dead bolts.  I didn't know it would be this easy to break in.

Not much was taken.  Craig had several hundred dollars worth of loonies that was taken and they may have stolen some of Craig's coin collection (but he isn't sure).  They also stole a pillow case (to hold their loot) and almost all of Craig's PS3 games.  Luckily the ones we play the most weren't in the cupboard so we didn't lose those.  It is possible other things are missing and we haven't noticed yet.  

Empty shelf that used to be full of games. 

They emptied out the contents of our bed side tables and made a big mess.  

This type of home invasion is not common in this neighborhood and when I was talking to police dispatch the person mentioned that another home invasion was reported earlier a block away.  Hopefully we will be able to make the house more secure so that we don't have to deal with this stress again! 

Spring is coming!

We haven't seen ducky since the fall when the snow arrived!  

Yesterday when we came home he was there to greet us.  

I think this means spring is coming!  This spring should be very exciting... I am hoping we can use the time-lapse camera that Craig got for Christmas to make lots of interesting videos for the blog.  We currently have it set up to watch the snow melt on the front yard.