Painting...

We stopped with the drywall for a night, and I continued painting the cupboards a beautiful and delicious "French Butter" colour. The upper cabinets are done, and tonight I will tackle the lower ones. It is going much faster than originally scheduled (yes, we do have a construction schedule!) Come on! We're in the business and I'm a virgo! Daryl ignored the textured ceiling we have and attacked the phone nook with a vengeance! This is where our fridge use to reside, sticking out into the middle of the room by over a foot. We moved it over by 2' to miss the WC behind, and recessed the fridge into the new pantry. I will finally have my butlers pantry off the kitchen in a few short days! We will probably move the plates and glasses from their cramped cupboards into the existing built in pantry and put glass in the doors I will be painting soon. We are putting a drawer under the desk, and a shelf above for whatever! I think Fletcher likes the overhang!
He found a new place to sit and stay out of the way! Once we refinish the hardwood floors you won't even notice the patch job that we had to do in front of the fridge and pantry door. I think it looks amazing already! But I can't wait to have painted doors on my cupboards! And to not have to clean up drywall mud & dust anymore!

Once we were done for the night, we could sit back, relax and enjoy some of our hard work. It was so hot yesterday (38C) that the poor chow threw-up the water he had been drinking. Maybe it was too cold...I will try and make him sleep in the shop tonight...
Even with only a few of the pot lights in, along with the new under-counter puck lights that Daryl installed, the kitchen has an amazing feel to it. I can't believe how big the room is, and there are going to be more cupboards and shelves then we know what to do with! We had a friend come in on the weekend to run the NG line for our future gas cook top (come on lottery!) and for our BBQ that we did a great trade for. The Weber arrived yesterday afternoon from Vancouver with Daryl, and tomorrow we will be sparking that baby up! I've got the steaks marinating already! It will be great for the upcoming festivities celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of my aunt and uncle who live about a hour from us. Our house is being invaded by 3 of my aunts and my mom who will be doing all the prep work while we open our doors to family and friends who are coming to celebrate this amazing day. 50 years...wow! Daryl and I are almost at 1! WOOHOO!

I HATE DRYWALL!

I hate drywall. There is nothing fun, or rewarding, or interesting about putting up drywall, taping the seams and mudding everything. It makes a huge mess, which is a pain to clean up, and then when you think you are done cleaning, the sanding begins and you realize you have to mud all over again! If there is ever one task that I would hire someone to do in the home renovation list of crap that has to get done, it would have to be mudding, taping and sanding drywall. Those that make their living as professional dry-wallers have more patience than me...or they are completely nuts.

Enough with the aggravated chat...this weekend was a huge success in the kitchen reno attack. No photos, but here is a funny one of my crazy sisters. Makes me laugh... I miss my sisters. They live too far away and we haven't won the lottery yet to afford to fly and see each other every time we want. Also, it's a bit far to the land down-under to hop over for a weekend visit. And even TO is too far these days. I am fortunate that my parents lives fairly close, a 3 hour drive makes the weekend visits a possibility. I am hoping and praying (if you call it praying) that with the new developments in Nadia's employment situation that they might seriously consider moving out west. That would be such an amazing occurance, I would get to know my nephews all over again, get to know my sister too! A few years ago I was working around the Toronto area so much, that I was able to pick the kids up from school, spent weekends with the family, would have dinner with them on a regular basis. I knew who my family was, I knew what they did and all about their daily life. Now, I don't know anything. Family is too important to lose touch with. I miss my sisters. :(

(Wipe the tears...back to the renos...Apart from the f*#ken drywall, we picked paint colours for the walls and cupboards. Daryl got his precious "cappuccino" colour (I still don't think he knows what colour that is!) and the ceilings are going to be PINK!! Just kidding. It's that wet-tint paint so you know where you've painted. We need all the help we can get! But we are better painters than dry-wallers! Daryl left for Vancouver yesterday afternoon for his dentist appointment today (please let it be the last one!) so last night I started to paint the cupboards. It was 35C yesterday in the loops, and today it is suppose to go up to 38C! I love the heat, Fletcher does not. He was sleeping in the shop on the concrete floor when I found him last night! I thought he had escaped out the back yard and was chasing deer or bear again! But no, the innocent little pooch was passed out, drooling on the floor.
More to come...unless we melt in this heat!!

WHAT A ROAD TRIP!

This past weekend has been quite the adventure. We sold our 5th Wheel a few weeks ago and had to make the trek to Fort St. John to deliver it to the new owners. Little did we realize that over 2000 km in 2 days is a little insane!

On the bright side, the trailer is sold and I got to see a part of the country that Daryl has been wanting me to see for quite some time now! If only we had a few more days, or weeks, we would have gone further North up to Fort Nelson and on to Whitehorse. Some day!

Needless to say, we didn't get very many renovations done this weekend. All the more that will be attacked in the coming weeks!

The Renos continue!!

So this is the never ending saga of our home renos...this weekend we continued with the kitchen and finally drywalled the pantry! WOOHOO Walls! Daryl got stuck behind the fridge, and I got to do a puzzle! I don't think anyone has ever had that much fun with hardwood floors!




Some of us were more exhausted than others by the end of the day! Good thing hostas are resilient!

We had a short but great visit with Wendy and Duncan who came up from Vancouver to celebrate Kristen's birthday this past Saturday! Each of the sisters have recently adopted a boxer from boxer rescue, and Zoe & Zara are so cute! Fletcher even shared his house and toys with them when they invaded on Sunday! A huge congrats to Kristen & Stephane who just bought their first house! You gotta love the loops for its affordable housing market!! We're trying to convince W&D to move up here too!

SOME MORE ABOUT THE CHOW

I found these photos today...Recovering from my dental ordeal.

Silly chow! I really believe that if dogs could talk, they would have a lot to say. Like stop dressing me up and making me wear stupid glasses! There are times I'm sure that Fletcher understands us, that he really knows what we're talking about and saying. He's either very smart...or really a goof!

Either way, I love him to bits! Fletcher just turned 8 last weekend and I gave him an egg. Lucky dog! And it isn't true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. We just taught him to play dead when we point at him and say "bang". He rolls on his side, paw flailing in the air, and you can almost hear him say 'don't shoot!!"

I think he just farted!

This is a funny picture of Fletcher. I think that he is a goof. Sometimes when he is sleeping, he flipps upside down on his back, four legs in the air (very uncommon for a Chow), and then wakes up, TERRIFIED of where he is, freaks out and growls at us cause we laugh at him!

Silly dog!

OOWWIIEE!!!!!!!!!!

I am not the brave little toaster I thought I could be. my mouth hurts...my head hurts...my teeth hurt. I have fat lips and cheeks and a spitoon! I am getting no sympathy from anyone except the dog! I've never had a cavity, never a needle in my mouth, never a drill, never a tooth pulled LIKE THIS!! (Papa, you were so gentle)

TIMEWARP…PART 2

Renovations suck. There is nothing fun about them. There is no joy in tearing out a ceiling or bashing down a wall. You can’t even go nuts and pretend that it is frustration release. If you did, the whole house would be down…at least it would in my case. We are renovating the kitchen. Taking down t-bar and fluorescent lights and replacing with recessed pot lights and accent lighting, refinishing the cupboards and putting in new countertops and a new sink. Someday, we will get the gas cook top and new wall ovens. Not anytime soon. As Daryl and I are both in the business, we have been so fortunate to get most of our materials for free, and have the opportunity to use any tool we require. This privilege does not encompass carpentry, electrical or plumbing knowledge. I am not an electrician. I did not pay enough attention in electric power class. We do not have proper lock-out procedures in our house. My husband has tried to electrocute me twice now. I can take a hint! I’ve installed my last set of lights and switch. My job is done. Daryl was stuck in the wall today. For those who know him, this should not be a surprise to you. My first reaction was to find the camera. Life is never dull. We want to enjoy this weekend coming up, and although I would like to spend it in my warp of a garden (out back – black birds still rule the front), we are leaving our home to relax. This makes no sense to me, but it must happen, I am told. We are heading up to our friend’s cabin on Green Lake near 70 mile house to camp and relax on the shores of the still quiet lake. Once July rolls around, there is no peace to be found on any lake in the BC interior. I don’t want a boat. Daryl does. The sailboat is good enough for me…harness the power of the wind to take you where you need to go. You can’t ski or wakeboard behind a sailboat…pity. The garden and renovations will have to wait. I hope the house isn’t a disaster for too much longer. My OCD is on overload!

FLOWER GUESSING GAME!

Ok, so We've already determined that I'm no gardener...but how good are you? The following are flowers from my garden...all growing wild (except my herbs). Can you name that foliage? If so, please let me know!

THE TIMEWARP…OUR HOME

We purchased our first home in late October, 2005. Let me re-phrase…our first home without wheels. Since 2001 we’ve owned, towed or lived in one trailer or another. Sometimes two, occasionally that number rose to three. Those were sad times… Regardless, we have been the proud owners of a house without wheels for just over 7 months. The question I have today is this…what did we do with our time prior to owning a house?

Daryl and I both work ‘8’ hours a day, and prior to being home owners our evening were filled with short adventures and excursions, meant to explore this great province of ours. Yes, there were times where we would come home from a particularly rough day, grab a cold beer and spend the rest of the evening feeding the campfire. Those were the joys of living in a trailer. With only 600sf to clear, a small fridge to fill, no possible renovations and no garden.

I am not a gardener, nor do I have a green thumb. But I’ve discovered the void that is my green space and witnessed how it sucks away my evenings, my weekends and even invades my thoughts at work. We were so very fortunate to have purchased a house from a wonderful couple who undeniably loved their garden. It is what many have called ‘a mature garden’. I don’t know what this means. In the fall, I didn’t know if I needed to cut things back, or wait till spring. In the spring, I removed the leaves and mulch that covered the dirt and brown plants and hoped. When nothing happened for a few weeks, I bought a pair of clippers and went nuts. Edward Scissor hand nuts. I had convinced myself that if I cut it and it didn’t grow back to prove me wrong, I didn’t need it in the first place. The plants have proven victorious. Our garden is insane, and I haven’t even fertilized.

My parents came for a 10 day visit and my mother, ever so calmly approached me in the garden as I had my clippers out and suggested that I leave ‘just those ones’. I know enough to know she knows more than I will ever know about a garden. What I thought was a weed invading my herb garden, she gently informed me, were rose bushes. You would have thought that the thorns that caused my bleeding hands would have been a good clue! Not so much.

The front yard has it’s own protector, albeit not so gentle. In our umbrella tree (what I call it, cause I have no idea what it is and copy the people down the street with pruning) has a pair of black birds nesting. I have always been, and will always be, respectful of any living creature raising and protecting its young. I would never think of removing an active nest. These birds don’t know me. These birds think I am out for poached black bird eggs, or blackbird à l’orange! These overly protective have squawked and screamed at me, and today they swooped. I have admitted defeat and will avoid the front yard. Birds one, Armstrong’s zero.

WILL I BE LESS SMART?

On Wednesday, June 7th 2006 I will be a brave toaster. One of my best friend’s little sister is going to stick a needle in me and yank my teeth out. I can’t complain…I get no sympathy from Daryl. It’s not my fault he’s had over $50,000 worth of dental and reconstructive surgeries…but he does have a nice face now.

I could have left it at that and had one hell of a story to tell! Truth is, I am getting my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday and I’m terrified. I’ve never had a needle in my mouth, never had a drill or anything. Never had a cavity or filling of any kind! I’m freaking out, but can’t let it show. My only saving grace, besides the ativan, is that Dr. Kristen Itagawa will be my dentist. Isn’t that completely bizarre?!? I had a consultation a few weeks ago, and it was so hard to be serious with Dr. Itagawa!

Ok, so back to my pending extraction…I know it has to happen. Kristen wouldn’t lie to me. But is it really going to hurt? And is it going to hurt bad enough for me to take the rest of the week off work?

Why are they called wisdom teeth?