So…the last few months have been quite the adventure. In addition to wrapping up my PhD life in London (defence date set for August 20th!), I got a job, bought a townhouse, packed up and moved to a new city (Waterloo, Ontario). Things have been hectic to say the least but I’m definitely excited for this next chapter on my life.

While my new day job means that I’ll be trying to put my 12 years of post-secondary education to good use (12 years! Wild.), my new evening and weekend programs will consist of making some changes to my townhouse. And since I am a design blogger I think it’s only fitting that I document my renovation projects here. Yes?

So, let me introduce you all to the new series on White Cabana called Uptown. Where did the name come from? Let me explain.

As an outsider, I find the area of Waterloo quite confusing. People in this part of Ontario actually refer to this area as Kitchener-Waterloo (KW for short) because the two cities are basically attached at the hip. There are other communities around KW such as Cambridge and St. Jacob’s which are sometimes roped into the KW area as well. To add to the KW confusion, there’s a King Street for every cardinal direction and getting off the 401 and into KW can be a challenge even for the most skilled GPS system.

As if things weren’t confusing enough, the “downtown” district of Waterloo is actually called “uptown” and “downtown” Kitchener is called “downtown”. Uptown Waterloo, downtown Kitchener. Both city centres are on King Street. Confused? Yeah, me too. But with each day I’m here, Uptown Waterloo seems to roll of the tongue a little bit more naturally.

So, as I live near Uptown Waterloo, I thought that Uptown would be a great name for this series (actually, it was my Dad who came up with it and I agreed). So, anytime you see Uptown in the title, you’ll know that you’re in for a townhouse update!