The moving games continue

So we've been "small towned" (yes it's a verb) a few times since being here...   For instance, Chris and I tried a local pub today and when we sat down on the patio, the waitress came right away to ask what we wanted...   "Well, what do you have?"  "Oh!  Would you like a menu?"  lol.  Suffice to say, nobody else on the patio needed a menu, and most were being addressed by name.   Chris also got it in the convenience store the other day -- "I haven't seen you before, did you just move in?" lol.  I haven't been in there yet. We'll see...

The "downtown" is very cute.  Tiny, but picturesque.

You may remember from a previous post that we had to pull up the weed-infused carpet and attempt to get hardwood down.  Chris managed to get the master done (or done enough -- we still don't have the floor vents) so that we could set up a bed when we moved in.   This was an entirely new experience.  Why?  Well because we went with an Endy mattress.   

For those not in the loop - this comes rolled up in a box, weighing less than 100 lbs.  

It comes with these instructions

So we unroll...

It made a hissing sound as we opened the package...

And in less time than you'd expect, we had an actual mattress. 

As to the mattress itself?  Plus side - it's super non-motion sensitive.  Remember those bowling ball mattress commercials?  Way better than that.  I'm pretty sure Bailey could be having zoomies tearing around the bed and you wouldn't feel a thing sitting on the other side.   Down side - it's quite firm.  I think C likes it, but I find it too hard, esp when sleeping on my side.  Suspect all it needs is a pillow top though and then it'd be excellent.   It's also not nearly as thick as previous mattresses.  That's neither plus nor minus (well - for Tucker it's a huge plus), just a random fact.

So good to go right?  We have a floor and a mattress, what more do we need?   Wait - did you see those windows???  And did I mention, we live at the end of the street?

Notice the streetlight?  Yeah - shines right in our window...

So not only is there a streetlight right outside, but every car coming toward us lights up the room, AND if we have lights on, we give a show to anybody on the street.  Less good.   But for reasons I don't entirely understand, even Ikea was sold out of curtain rods?!?!   And Amazon was going to be a couple days.  *sigh*.  So what did we have?

Flooring boxes for the win!

lol it's the opposite of classy (or classy with a capital K), but it was surprisingly effective.

Fast-forward a couple days for blackout curtains and finally a good-night's sleep!

All the rest of our furniture is currently in one room until the flooring is done, making unpacking reasonably impossible...  But we'll get there.  C has been flooring on super-speed -- has both our offices as done as possible so far.  Would be helpful if the pieces we're waiting for would actually come in ;)   Meanwhile I've been unpacking the rest of the house -- trying to make the bathrooms and the kitchen usable...

Other randomness -- Amazon takes much longer to get here :(   BUT, our internet is awesome?!?!  😂  I guess you need something to do when you live in the middle of nowhere.   I've also had to wait for a ship passing by for the first time now.  I will admit they're quite impressive.

Our slightly evil unicorn...

So it's possible our unicorn has a slightly evil side. 

Yeah, just like that...

Let's see...  Where last we left it, we had purchased new hardwood flooring for the upstairs since the carpet is thoroughly weed-soaked and the oder...  Well rather overwhelming.

Well after purchasing, step one is to get said hardwood to the house.  Rented a U-haul for that adventure.  Driving was less than fun -- I hate not being able to see out the side, and while the double-mirrors did help to ensure there was nobody in my blindspot, it made it impossible to tell how close somebody really was (top mirror showed them way too close and bottom mirror showed them way too far away), which made me really glad I wasn't driving during rush hour cause I basically waited till there were no cars before changing lanes.  Not such an option most of the time.

Our new floor!

Ah well, suffice to say I got to the store, and the hardwood was loaded quickly thanks to a forklift.  Awesome.  Get to the house and time to unload...  The only issue?  I can *barely* lift one box.   We have 43 boxes.  Frig.  So I managed to get three boxes upstairs before my body told me I would very strongly regret trying to move another one.  My solution was going to be to open the boxes and carry portions at a time.  Chris' solution was that he would carry all the boxes.  And he was being successful, so I switched to carrying moving boxes, and when those were finished, carrying carpet and sub-carpet out of the house while he was carrying boxes in.  Every once in a while my muscles would feel okay so I'd try another box.  End total?  I think I moved all of 6 and C moved all the rest.

So much for move in ready

But the carpet was out and the hardwood in.  Win.  Repurposed the U-haul to get the carpet to the dump and good to go.  Then we had a few days of pulling up tacks and staples and other fun stuff.   Today we primed the floor to try to make sure the smell is cancelled permanently.   Which, hopefully will be effective, but really?  Painting the floor that you're going to cover forever?   I really wish I could think of something brilliant to write for whoever one day pulls up the hardwood ;)   Alas, my genius has been exhausted by the degree of BS required for term papers.

Painting the room before putting hardwood on top
is a very evil-unicorn thing to require.

So tomorrow the frantic installation of hardwood begins in a desperate hope to have somewhere to put furniture when the movers come on Tuesday.  Wish us luck!

Our super-fancy dinner.  
I was pretty proud of the pillow seats ;)

But... Water is always south. Isn't it?

There are lots of animals that learn at a very young age how to find food; today I learned tech can too 😂 

So I had Mum's car at the new house (like really new, we've owned it since lunch time).   Mum's car rather than mine because it has significantly more space in it for the transporting of stuff.  All good except I know neither the car, nor the location, and being not my car it is, reasonably, not stocked with my stuff.

Now when I got to the house it said I had about 50km of gas left...  Which means not enough to get home. But that's okay - lots of gas between here and there; C and I were even at a gas station not far away when we were looking at houses.

Spend the afternoon cleaning, cause the house is a disaster.  I don't get how they managed to get it SO bad in only a year.  And am moderately amused that apparently there was one roommate not like the others -- the room that will be my office is the only room in the house w a lock on the door AND also the only room that's clean and smoke-free.  But the rest of the house.  Ugh.

And - my phone was quickly draining battery, both cause I was using it to play music and cause it was searching for cell signal all day.   Nbd - I'd brought charge cable.  Plug in and continue working away.

Time to go home.  Phone is essentially dead.  Hmmm less than good.  Turns out the plug wasn't working.  For move-in ready, this house is requiring an awful lot of work :(    C went down and did some magic in the basement and the plug started again.  Alas, too late for my poor phone.

Get in car and of course none of my chargers are with me.  However, Mum had a few!  Win :)   Except that when I plugged in, all it did was connect me to the car, not actually feed my phone any power :(   Fail.  And somehow the car is now down to 40km left?  🤷‍♀️   

So C's directions on how to get to gas "take either the first or the second road and it's down there."   Uh right.  That's sure to end well 😂   The first was a piddly little street so I took the second.  I realized pretty quickly it wasn't the right one, but seemed to be a grid-type setup, so figured I'd be able to loop back at top.  Alas, that was incorrect.  I *did*, however, find myself at the highway so I figured I'd hop on and there would be gas somewhere along the way...   But, uh, north or south?  None of the signs had locations listed.  Fail.  Well we turned away from the water so therefore new town is north of the highway I want to end up on, so let's head south...

Yup, realized pretty quickly that was wrong too.   Fail.   Also, maybe I should look up my new home on an actual map 😂   Since I clearly have no idea where it actually is.  My whole life the water has been south, but occurs to me out there it's actually north.  Damn Golden Horseshoe.  And that just might be too much for my little brain.   So now I'm on a road that I can't just pull over to the side to ask my rapidly-dying phone for help.  And I'm down to 30kms left of gas.  hmmmm.

For those not from around here, I've always lived on top of the water ;) Even when not in Ontario.  

Suffice to say, new house is below the water...

And then the nav/entertainment system goes black.  White words flash up: "You're almost out of gas!"   Well gee thanks Car.  Super-helpful.   The loud ding and big orange gas light on the dash also told me that.  I get that you're hungry, but I'm working on it.

But then...  Then Car's self-preservation kicked in.  "Would you like directions to a near-by gas station?"

Why yes, yes I would. 

She offered me several options and I went w the closest brand I recognized 😂    The trip there took me through a tunnel under the canal, which was somewhat fascinating in that it was torrential rain out, so coming out of the tunnel it looked like cars were being swallowed by a wall of white.   But other than that, Car quickly and accurately led me to gas.   Win.

And since my phone was dying, I took the time to program home into Car as well, and let her figure out how to get me back to the highway (over a bridge this time) and pointed the right direction 😂.  That's usually either Alexa or Siri's job (depending whether I want Spanish and reliable or English and dodgy) but both were on time-out due to dying phone...

So Car for the win today.  That is definitely the best random use of technology I've seen lately.  My car certainly doesn't offer that ;-P   And yes, she even got me home correctly.

Just one more thing...

So today was a Day.  Aren't they all? you may ask...  No, you see everyday is a day.  This was a Day, with a capital D.   It's an entirely different beast.

I woke up stupidly early, which I bitterly resent, especially on the weekend.  lol but the end result is that I got some work done on my paper and went for a walk all before I'd planned to get up.  We had planned for our house walkthrough at 10:45 this morning.   This is the "right before closing, check all the things work" walkthrough.   Now we've moved a few too many times over the last few years so we're used to these.   Walk around, check the water and appliances work, etc.

Driving out, all good.  Chris points out the craziness at the Home Depot - people lined up around the building.  So glad we didn't have to go to a store today.  Ontario just started reopening yesterday; it's the first time in ages stores have been an option and they're at limited capacity.

So when we got there, it wasn't a promising beginning with doggy bags left next to the front porch *sigh* - esp questionable as it seems they didn't actually have pets.  But okay.  Go in and there's a slight oder.  hmmmm.  And otherwise things are pretty dirty - for a house that's only a year old, the previous inhabitants managed to make a good mess of it.  

But sobeit, we start walking through and things are working.  The dishwasher was a bit of a mystery, but we got it working.  Chris saw the neighbour kid out mowing his lawn, and went and offered him $40 to do ours too ;)  Win.  Neighbour kid's mum was thrilled with the whole situation.  So not a bad start.

Then we ventured upstairs.  *sigh*   Remember that faint oder when we first entered?  Well from the best we can tell, there was a substantial amount of marijuana being smoked in the house *sigh*.  And on top of it, not only left-over smoke oder, but also multiple burns in the carpet and we're reasonably certain someone dumped their bong water on the landing.   So awesome.

Now "hardwood floor upstairs" was on our list of things to do some day, but super low on the priority list. Like maybe end of the decade?   What we had thought just required a carpet clean was going to be a much bigger challenge.

Fortunately the two rooms we were planning to use as offices were unburned.  The worst was in the master bedroom.  So we'd pretty much decided we'd apply the ostrich method (as in head-in-the-sand), and use an area rug to cover the worst of it and ignore it till future us could afford to deal with it.   When our amazing realtor volunteered to pay for the hardwood?!?!  She threw out a number and... wow.   So while on a quick google of costs I didn't think it'd cover it, it'd certainly do at least 50% if we were careful with what we picked.

Alright, so off to Home Depot...  Right - remember that comment about not needing to go to a store?  Much less Home Depot?   Right.  Hindsight's an ass.   We get to the closest Home Depot and the line up is insane *sigh*.   Okay, figure we'll go home and hit up another one after dinner when hopefully most people will have gone home.  But on the way home, we'd stop at a few flooring stores on the way.   Well the first one said they had no stock of anything and were booking six weeks out at best.  Not helpful.

Continue our trek and the next one was accidental -- we found it while on the way to a third one.  And it had a few options of hardwood that was not only in stock, but end of the line, so significantly reduced price.  Like 65% reduced.  Which brought it into the range our realtor had offered.  Amazing!   The only one we loved though, they didn't have enough left.  Sad :(

So we continued our journey.  The store C had been targeting was...  less successful.  Sales people were seriously meh and they didn't have anything we particularly liked and nothing in a price range we could possibly make happen.   Alright...  Continue on our way and hit up a Lowes that had essentially no line to get in, but all their product was both more expensive and not as nice as what the previous store had.  

We debated briefly and decided it was silly to pass on a good thing, so went back and ordered the hardwood.  So exciting news - we'll have new hardwood.  Less exciting - it can't be picked up till next week :(   Booo.   But we'll figure it out.

So okay - but if we're putting down hardwood, we need various other things to go with it.  Which means that Home Depot run still needs to happen.   We decided to save that for after dinner, and that ended up being a win.  We were able to go in with no line and collect the various things that had been on the list.  So that's all good.

But suffice to say the afternoon of paper-writing that was the original plan, most definitely did not happen.

All first world problems for sure, but just always that One. More. Thing.

When the wall paper really doesn't want to come down

Pro tip of the day - when removing wall paper, try using fabric softener before resorting to scoring it.  I was definitely losing the battle with the wall paper (not the paste, the actual paper) and the paint store lady suggested mixing fabric softener with the hot water.   I didn't have much faith, but it worked brilliantly!   I am pleased to announce we are now wallpaper free.  In a related note - I need to buy more fabric softener ;)

It's been officially two weeks now and have to say it's kinda nice being able to live with my husband :).  Novel concept eh?   I am finding the commute brutal - more so coming home than going in.  But I expect I'll acclimatize soon enough.    We're in, and while there's obviously still a ton to do, I'm pleased with how quickly we're getting stuff done.  I am looking forward to the after pictures ;)

On my way now to the pre-surgery test.  As in am I healthy enough for surgery.  Now in my case there sb no issue, but I do wonder what happens if you fail.  It's not as though said surgery is elective.  Or what if it's even more critical - your appendix burst, but I'm sorry you're not healthy enough for surgery.   Anyways - so be it.   My odds for the next surgery being a success aren't as high as I'd like, so cross your fingers for me!

Still playing with duolingo (need something to do on the train!) but I'm at the point now where I'm finding it insufficient as a primary learning tool.  Suspect it'd be a great support to something else, but on its own, no.  I find I have random questions and it doesn't offer solutions.   Found a FB group that answered the only one I cared enough to actually ask, but I think it's time to actually open the book I bought weeks ago *g*.  Oh come on, you had to know I'd buy one.   Alternately may take an actual course - but not doing that till after surgery.

Off for now!

PS - have to say, new ap I found for writing on my phone is way better!  No way to get around thumb typing, but other than that, all good now :).  Cut and paste into Blogger and done.

The next phase of our lives will be significantly influenced by this...

You know you want it...

It's DONE!   The house renos are complete!

Wish we could just relocate the house.  Kinda love this.

House is spotless. I'm not even kidding.  Dogs have been sent on vacation (any trip to my parents' place is pretty much doggy heaven) in an effort to keep the house clean and people from being scared off.   Seriously -- Sasha sheds at least one critter's worth of hair daily, and Tucker believes all blankets should be stored in little balls for him to sleep in.  He also believes people should not be permitted on his property or in his house.   As a result, Sash and Tucker have been temporarily rehomed (HUGE thanks once again to my awesome parents who not only agreed to look after them, but even drove out to pick them up!)

Master Bedroom

In the last couple days we:  finished the house, cleaned said house, had photos taken (thanks Joe!), signed an agent, listed the house, signed a buyers agent for Burlington, and had one showing of our house.  Today we meeting with the bank, have agent showing and one or two other potential-buyer showings.  

Super-snazzy bathroom

There's a sign up and a lock box on the door.  It's real.  Really real.  Super exciting and absolutely terrifying all at the same time.  Wish us luck!

Form a line behind the sign... 

When you're going through Hell, keep going...

Another long day of renovations today.  Worse, a day of renovations that I couldn't actually be any part of.  The carpets were put in -- yeah, new house smell!   And some of the granite countertops were installed.  And Chris put in the rangehood for the stove.  In all this, I mowed the lawn and occasionally went to find something for somebody *sigh*   Both the people helping today were interesting -- the carpet guy from Turkey with his son, and the granite guy who had all the cool toys to make his job easier.

We have carpet!

Welcome to my life.   At least the end is in sight :)   And as far as sight goes -- mine is exactly as it was yesterday: the same black shadow with the same grey cloud.  Awesome.  But at least it hasn't changed.

Was rereading some flash I wrote ages ago -- long enough ago that I only vaguely remember writing them (although was sort of appalled to discover I've yet to write one this year!  Fail.)   Very pleased to discover that now that I don't remember writing them, I'm enjoying reading them -- hahaha but I guess that makes sense since I generally write things that amuse me.

Maybe next reno day there's nothing useful for me to do, I'll scrounge something to write on and see what I can come up with.  I think today's supervisor could use his own story ;)   I had to take the picture super fast as I was trying to stay out of the way of too many people in a small space.  Chris could *not* understand what I was taking a picture of; his eyes rolled so far I was afraid he'd need surgery too ;-P hahaha ah well -- the way I see the world rarely fails to amuse me, so I'll continue to share it with those inclined to read.  Just remember, I'm telling you stories.  Trust me.

Our supervisor looked slightly concerned...

The next installment of Reno Purgatory

Had a lovely evening at Marche on Friday night with Emily :)   Yeah for friends having to come to TO for work (*cough*Jael*cough*)   Time flew the way it does when you’re with someone close you haven’t seen in entirely too long and what seemed like a couple hours was… ummmm… a little longer than that ;)  

That did mean, however, it was significantly later when I eventually made it to Paris where my amazing husband was still working away at getting the hardwood finished in the kitchen so we’d be able to put in the cabinets on Sat.  Woohoo!  So we finished that section up and called it a night.

Ah the kitchen cabinets…  We went and collected them all from where they’ve been stored at his grandfather’s and after only a few truckloads, they were taking up every available piece of floor in our living room.  Slightly awkward and overwhelming, but hopeful.  A jigsaw puzzle with more pieces than necessary ;)   But our designer, who had found us the kitchen in the first place, had mapped out where all of said pieces should go so all good.

So we started with the “uppers” – as Chris innocently referred to them. Hahaha I don’t know why I found that so funny.  I don’t know what I would’ve called them differently.   Even “upper cabinets” probably would’ve made it less entertaining.  But somehow them being just the “uppers” had me envisioning them storing some very happy drugs combined with smiley face yellow stickers…  But maybe that’s just me ;)

Anyways – suffice to say, the cabinets, esp with the vibrant red walls, look *amazing*!!!   Super stoked.

LOVE how these turned out

So go to put the lower cabinets (somehow not the “lowers”?  Idk… ) in place and…  Well…  Nothing’s ever easy with this house.  The cabinets stuck out a little over an inch past the edge of the wall.   Designer fail in a big way.  I was not impressed.  C questioned me on that one, asking why it annoyed me so much when nothing else we’ve “discovered” has – at the time I didn’t know what the difference was, but thinking about it later it came to me: this one was entirely avoidable.  The others, with only one exception which frustrated me to an even greater degree, were all completely unavoidable.  So we dealt with them as we came.  But this issue was only an issue due to human error.  Which would’ve been one thing if it’d been just us – it’s not our day job, we could miss things.  But when you hire somebody specifically for the purpose of laying out the kitchen…  Mutter mutter mutter.

Do not love how this turned out...

Suffice to say that put an abrupt end to the installing of cabinets.  We lost a fair amount of time to spin while we discussed options – other potential cabinet arrangements, leaving a section out, making the wall wider…   And settled on the last.  Oh good.  More drywall *sigh*

So Sunday Chris got to build out the wall.   Absolutely nothing useful for me to do at that point, so a waste of a good piece of the day.  We did at least go out for breakfast ;)   That was actually lovely, esp given the torrential rain outside.  And afternoon we finished off the hardwood in the living room!  Woohoo!  Super stoked about that.  And it’s a fairly stunning colour.   I am actually *really* happy with the colour combinations we ended up with.  Just wish they were located a whole lot closer to Toronto!

Stephy texted me late afternoon that she was back on the injured list.  Fail.  So on the way home I randomly decided to go ride.  Had So. Much. Fun!   Hahaha nothing terribly productive, but trotting in and out of the sandring, up the driveway, around the round  pen and the track, every once in a while going back in the sandring to jump some stuff.  Just a fun ride.  But have decided that if Steph’s off for the week, it’s boot camp for Lex.  Which also means boot camp for me  (doubly so as I start with a new trainer – gym, not horse – on Tuesday).   Hmmmm.  Wish me luck ;-P

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.

So last weekend our lawn mower died.  Well it didn’t so much die as go on work-to-rule.  As in the self-propulsion declined to function.  Our lawn is large, lovely, and hilly.  I didn’t realize just how hilly till trying to shove a machine that’s supposed to power itself *sigh*   Suffice to say this was less of a fun game. Especially after just starting to exercise again.  You’re not new here.  You know I didn’t start slowly ;)  So Chris and I debated about whether to fix it (it’s somewhat ancient and on at least its second, if not third or fourth, home) or give up and buy a new one.  I could see arguments for either side given that we don’t know where we’ll be living in the (hopefully near) future.   But in the end, we decided that really the house was a much better use of Chris’ time than trying to revive a dying lawn mower, and shopping we went.  The only thing I was pretty insistent on is that if we get a new one, it needed to be one I could start.   The old one I could only start once it was warmed up – less than useful.  Of course that did limit our options somewhat, but there were two choices.   I more affordable green one and a less affordable red one.  We got the expensive one.  Who’s surprised by this?   Chris listed a remarkable number of totally valid reasons we really needed that machine (up to and including availability of parts to repair it in the future), but I still suspect the deciding factor was that it’s red ;-P   It’s fair – the green was fairly ugly *g*

I can't believe I just found this!   Apparently it's a thing ;)

Anyways – this weekend it was time to test out said new red lawn mower.  Step one – it starts!  Woohoo!  With no effort at all.   It also takes very little physical effort to maneuver it and is much easier to hold on to.   Sweet.  But the entertaining part is that the self-propulsion speeds up or slows down depending how much you depress the handle. So theoretically as you walk faster, it mows faster.   All good right?  Except that I, of course, felt the need to test this theory.  Hahaha ended up chasing the lawn mower downhill.  Kinda ridiculous but it kept me amused.  I then deigned that it was not necessary to mow the lawn at a jog, or even a power walk, but rather a relaxed stroll would do the job just fine.  Hahaha took longer than necessary (albeit still noticeably faster than with the other mower) but it was good daydreaming time and there was nothing useful I could’ve been doing at that point in the house so may as well enjoy the weather.

If you look *really* closely, you can see the new toy hiding under the tree :)

I did discover this one doesn’t off-road nearly as well as the other one did ;)   oops.  And it has a significantly sharper blade.  It’s also either lighter or better balanced as I could go sideways across the hills without it falling – something that really frustrated me I couldn’t do with the other one.  Got it all worked out in the end though so mission accomplished.

This afternoon we watched American Pharoah lope away with the Triple Crown.  Start late, book it out to the front, and then just stay there, let the others think they might have a chance at catching up, and then proceed to pull farther and farther from the others.  You know, it’s just that easy.  Hahaha first Triple Crown winner in my lifetime.  Was very impressive to watch.

In case you missed it ;) 

Then it was off for another exciting Saturday evening at Home Depot.   The tone of ‘exciting’ changes depending whether it’s Chris or I speaking ;-P  I’ll be very happy when we get to have a home reno store free weekend.  But alas, this was not that weekend.  And even worse, we got trapped in Home Depot Jail!!!   Hahaha we of course wanted something off the top shelf, but not only can they not just get it down, they have to close off all the lanes around it (and it would be in an intersection, so the sales people had to scrounge the shop for enough fences).    Anyways eventually they got our new laundry-room sink down and we were good to go.  Except Chris and the sink were on one side of the fence and I was on the other.  Yeah – this problem was fairly easy to resolve by moving the fence.  Smiling and nodding the whole time the Home Depot employee was telling me I couldn’t possibly go through there, while continuing to proceed.   Ah well – what’s the worst that can happen, get kicked out of Home Depot?    I’m not sure I see that as a negative ;)

Chris amusing himself in Home Depot Jail

And then, because that wasn’t exciting enough, we had to follow up with a trip to Lowes.  *sigh*  I’m not even kidding.   On the plus side, that should actually be the *last* construction trip we need to make.  Woohoo!!!!   Still have a ton of work to do and it seems to go oh so very slowly…  But we’re almost there. 

A promising start for the downstairs washroom

Sunday we spent making that happen.  Got the vanity in the downstairs washroom (Clarencing at it’s finest – I held it in place while Chris did everything else).  And then the rest of the day was dedicated to tackling the hard wood floors.  This is actually significantly easier than I’d have thought.  At least given the collection of power tools Chris has ;)   I spent most of the day laying pieces out and playing with the saw while he measured and nailed things into place. About the only productive way we could figure to make a one-person job into a two-person job.

It's slowly starting to look like a house!

And a random mom and baby deer came to visit.  Yup, this has no place in my story other than that it made me smile, so it gets included here too J   Somewhat amazed the power tools didn’t scare them off, but maybe that meant we were too busy and too noisy to sneak up on them ;)

The road to success is always under construction

The house is creeping closer to being done.  Upstairs is pretty much there with all but carpet complete.  Downstairs, this wknd we were insulating and vapour barriering (yup that's a verb) the last two rooms.  For those who have not had the dubious pleasure of experiencing vapour barrier, think about wrapping a giant, house-sized present, from the inside.  It even gets all taped up in fancy red tape.  And not red-tape of the paperwork style, but more of the "tie with a pretty bow" style.  Somewhat frustrating at times for those of us (ie me) not tall enough to reach the ceiling.  Had quite the dance going with the ladder, trying to relocate it while still holding a staple gun and trying to hold a giant sheet of plastic to the ceiling.  The fact that there are still giant holes in the floor just added a level of challenge. Like picking "expert" on DDR.  Except sadly, I am nobody's definition of an expert.  And then once it's all, successfully I might add, stapled up comes the tape...  ah the tape.  The tape that sticks to *everything*.  Think of what you'd get if you applied a thin coating of crazy glue to the back of a sheet of saran wrap.  It's a fun game, let me tell you.

That, however, at least I can manage.  It may not always be graceful, but I can get the job done.  The drywall otoh...  Oh dear.  Especially given the level of tired of my poor muscles by the time we got to this.  My whole job became "hold this" ;)   And sometimes in a creative fashion as we were trying to put it on the ceiling which, we've already discovered, I cannot, in fact, reach.  Blah.  Fortunately I can climb and Chris knows what he's doing so I didn't have to hold way too heavy things over my head for too long.   One of the things I miss most about the barn is how fit I was!  Could really use hay-throwing muscles now!

The rest of the house stuff though was outside and let me enjoy the amazing weather while Chris did useful things like hook up plumbing (I definitely have a new respect for simple things like heat and running water :). I tackled the mowing -- which on flat surfaces is fine, but turns out the lawn mower does not, in fact, have either four-wheel drive or roll-over stability ;)   Thus hills should be tackled at 90 degrees...   But not all our hills are accessible at 90 degrees...   There might or might not have been a few dodgy moments *sigh*.   But hey, at least the weather was good ;)   

Also tackled the garden, which was more enjoyable than I'd expected.  Would help a whole lot though if I had any knowledge whatsoever about local plant life ;)   Ie what is, or is not, a weed *g*  hahahha  Ah well -- maybe when we have a place I can make a little garden where anything I didn't plant is fair game ;-P

And, I am more excited than I should be about the brick wall I built.  It stands an impressive two bricks tall and could easily be demolished by Sasha chasing a ball, but it still makes me smile.  I can't even lay full claim to it, as it was half-way built already, but half the bricks were upside down which just wasn't acceptable (seriously -- not only did it look bad, but the little divots filled with pine needles.  Way too much unnecessary sweeping involved).  And the rest of the wall had to be built as we didn't have enough bricks the first time around (the "new" ones came from the chimney we tore down a while back).

The huge wall of Horsfall's Half Acre

And now I'm writing this while waiting for the mountain of laundry to complete.  The only thing that makes this, and every weekend like it, survivable is that it brings me one week closer to actually being able to live with my husband.  My friends who've been married forever think this is a fairly ideal situation, but for me, Sunday nights are always too sad.  But hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer!

Oh -- and I got my job :)  Yup, my year-long trial ended with being hired full time about 6 mths ahead of schedule.  Pretty stoked about that!  So yeah, that also made it a good weekend :)

My dog does this amazing thing where she makes my world better simply by being in it.

So. Much. Randomness.  I figure at least four posts in one. Consider yourself forewarned...

Sasha has taught me all sorts of things since I've had her -- some more important than others ;)   She's taught me to be wary of squirrels, and diligent about keeping the yard free of them.  She's taught me that frisbees are a little part of Heaven and that one should never walk when you can bound with enthusiasm.

She's shown that one should always go adventuring with a friend, that trying new foods is bad, and that even those with the most energy need a nap once in a while.

But today she taught me some new lessons.  Let's see:
- the kindness of strangers really is a thing
- sometimes you have to let go
- sheer determination is not always sufficient

It was one of those "did that really just happen?" moments...  She was with me at the barn, so I went with her to play at the pond when I was done teaching.  She loves playing at the pond.  She found a stick that I threw for her -- a favourite game.  This pond is the best of the ones she gets to play in because she can run in rather than jump.  So all good.   Except, there's a hose in the pond, and a little part of it was sticking out.  So she jumps in after the stick, but loses site of it and fixes on the hose instead.  Uh oh.  She grabs the hose, all proud of herself, and it doesn't move at first, but with some effort she starts pushing it toward the shore.

Okay, prob not the best for the hose, but it's pretty solid and seems all good.  Except about 3' out from the edge, the hose stopped moving.  So she swam harder against it, and it still didn't move.  And I could see her getting progressively more exhausted.  "Leave it" is not a command we've ever schooled in the water -- she's great at it with anything when she's on her feet, but apparently not swimming :(   Ugh.

I was just about to go out and get her (water would've been about to my knees), when Fraser stopped me -- he had big boots on and taking in the situation promptly stepped in and pulled the hose, and therefore Sasha, to the shore...   Poor Sash was very wet, tired, and stressed.  She very quickly decided Fraser was a great new friend though doing her"you're the best person ever" bum shake.

Poor bedraggled puppy

She slept all the way home and then bounded into the house to play with Bailey, so all good.  But still.  Sheesh.

On the flip side, this reminds me of this article I came across the other day.  It's a thinly disguised advertisement, but it has an interesting point.  "When does being tough become a liability rather than an asset?"  It suggests it's when we'd be more successful if we got help.  This is one of these things that I only began to understand when I was running the farm -- I actually *can't* stack 20,000 bales of hay by myself in one weekend, so I had to ask for help.  That was the easiest to accept, because it was actually needed.  Same with our house renos -- some of it is simply too heavy for me to move; I actually need help to get it done.  Frustrating at times, but sobeit.  But learning to ask for (or even just accept) help that's offered when not entirely necessary is one I still find myself struggling to master.  Spend your life learning to be independent only to have to unlearn it.  Classic eh?

And as for our house -- we have walls!!!!   Never would I have thought that'd be the highlight of my week, but here we are.  And even more exciting -- next weekend we might even have plumbing :) hahhaha Spent the weekend sweeping and vacuuming.  Not just floors, oh no, that'd be average.  Sweeping and vacuuming walls, ceiling, AND floors.  Craziness.  All this for the ever-exciting priming.  hahaha ah well - at least it's visible progress.  There's something to be said for this.

I actually considered writing a mini-post in the dust,
but in the interest of productivity, and amused by using the vacuum to write,
I left it at this.  And maybe a happy face.

So the non-renovation part of the week involves taking the train daily.  Wow.  That's a special experience.  I think it could actually be a blog all in itself -- might amuse me for the duration ;)  I *love* the quiet zone (for those unfamiliar with the wonders of GO Transit, the quiet zone is the top floor of the train that, during rush hour, is quiet.  Electronics silenced, little to no conversation, just quiet.)  This is a fabulous idea. Although always have to laugh at the guys (and it does always seem to be men) who break the silence with their snoring.  hahaha the one sitting across from me the other day was snoring in a "white noise" style -- he sounded like static.  Seriously unfortunate.

But since lots of people like the quiet zone, I don't always get a seat up there...  Listening to conversations of strangers makes me fear for the future of the human race.  Most of the time what I hear is so stupid or ignorant it's actually painful to listen to (when you don't have anything accurate or intelligent to say, make up for it by speaking louder!).  I really need to invest in a good set of headphones *sigh*   But - I was quiet pleasantly surprised to spend the ride the other day listening to the very intelligent conversation of two teenage girls -- based on conversation I'd say they were likely senior year of high school.  They ranged from critical evaluation of homework that had been returned (rather than complaint of the grade, a discussion about why the grade was given and what would've improved it), what they were doing at their current jobs, and even some discussion about seniors and how to improve quality of life in retirement homes.  So random, and they switch topics as quickly as Jen and I tend to ;)   It was really cool to listen to.   

Then there's waiting on the platform...  For those who like to people watch, that's the place to be.  There's always the one person who either thinks they're super cool to be talking on their phone, or who is brand new to a cell phone and feels the need to yell into it.  There are the lemmings, standing perfectly still, staring straight ahead and seeing nothing.  There are usually at least a couple people be-bopping to whatever music is playing in their headsets.  There's generally one person who wants to stand in the middle of the platform, but keeps darting up to peer down the tracks and see if the train's coming yet, and then darts back again.  Of course copious amounts reading or on their phones; I admit I'm often in that category.  And then there are the ones that you just don't really know what they're doing.  They're what keeps life entertaining :)

Today it was two ladies -- my guess would be in their 50s.  They were heavier, blond of the sort that comes in a bottle, and very happy.  Standing directly across the tracks from one another.  I did a bit of a double take because they looked very similar, but then didn't think anything of it.  An east-bound train came through and kept driving.  When it passed, both women were laughing.  Always good to be easily amused.  Next train came and I realized they were making faces at each other through the passing windows.  Let's be honest -- I'd probably do the same thing with my friends ;)   Although most people I know go to the same platform when they're travelling together.  So this one actually stopped, and the other platform doors opened first.  I saw the lady on my platform give her friend a thumbs up.  hahaha apparently they were concerned enough about getting seats that they parked one on each side so whichever door opened first that person could save a seat for the other.  Not an entirely bad system, although the timing isn't so far off that you couldn't get a seat from either side...   Amused me anyways -- and seemed to amuse them too, so all good.

And completely unrelated (how's that for a segue?) since this is the most random blog post ever, I have to include my recent entirely random experience.  Tonight the doorbell rang.  I figured it was a sales person of some form but the last sales person was like 10 yrs old and selling girl guide cookies, so I answered it.  A representative of Ontario Farmers who would like to give me a free steak.   Ummmm I'm sorry, what?  hahaha absolutely the most random thing ever.  Sadly I am not, in fact, the house owner so couldn't help relieve him of his dead cow, but I was definitely amused by the whole experience.

And the other day I went for a walk at lunch (imagine that -- I actually had a lunch break!) and discovered that Tim Hortons downtown does the Canadian tourist thing to a whole new level:

But far more importantly, I discovered this random city-beach.  Carved out of the cement is this nice rectangle of beach with umbrellas and Muskoka chairs.  It was so lovely.  Kinda made my day.

Love this!

Bailey's telling me to go let Sasha in, so I'm off. I suspect that's for the best *g*  Night!

Several steps closer to escaping reno purgatory

We have new stairs!  Hahaha this should really be Chris' blog post since I wasn't even there but, well, he doesn't write ;-P   And since I was fairly fascinated by this whole thing, I'm stealing his pictures.  Given that I wasn't there, the story will be either super light or entirely fictional -- I haven't decided which yet ;)

Once upon a time there was a house.  It was an older house that had been, shall we say, modified.  A few times.  And in this house was a flight of stairs.  The stairs were narrow and steep.  They had a turn at the top, designed in such a way that if you happened to slip in that section would lead to a pretty substantial drop -- before you'd plummet the rest of the way down said steep stairs. 

In an entertaining example of structural design, these stairs blocked a window.  The window did, in fact, allow some light into the dark ally that was the staircase.  And, presumably, into the closet beneath.  But it was awkwardly positioned.

It was deemed that in the new amazing house-to-be, this staircase had no role.  And thus, it had to disappear.  Kinda wanted to watch that, but alas real life called and I was at work.  Fail.  But magic happened and volia! 

This tunnel used to be our staircase...

Okay so that's the largest ladder we own… hmmmm  Here's hoping new stairs make an appearance :)

So in what used to be the kitchen, construction commenced…  Sharks' teeth that would eventually transform into safe, normal sized, stairs.  Awesome.

While admittedly still a tunnel, at least now it's a comfort-lane-sized tunnel.  And the death drop at the top has been eliminated.  Sadly, so has Sasha and Tucker's sleeping space, but I feel like they've got more comfortable ones ;) 

On the old steps

So now it seems when I go home on the weekend there'll be all sorts of civilized stairs!   Apparently no electrical ;-P but that's a story for another post.  For now, we celebrate the stairs.  Woohoo!

Not only did we get new stairs, we also got new walls :)  Sweet!

Renovation purgatory

Another reno weekend.  Seriously wish I were still working at the farm -- maybe then I'd be fit enough for all this!  Sad how much weight I've gained and fitness I've lost in the short time since the wedding.  Hahaha was so good leading up to it, crashed pretty hard after.  Ah well - started back at the gym last week, so will get there.

It is cool to see changes at least.  Progress.  Here's hoping one day in the not to distant future I may actually be able to live with my husband ;)  What a concept eh?   So Saturday was incredibly productive.  Chris' friend Rebecca met us and between the three of us we got a ton done.  Took all the cabinets out of the kitchen and relocated them to Chris' grandfather's.  Then tore down a wall.  Also cleaned up all the flooring that we removed a month or so ago and left in the front lawn.  It was pretty thoroughly buried in snow, but at least wasn't stupidly cold out.  I, having no actual construction knowledge and little strength, am generally relegated to carrying stuff.  In this case, back and forth to the dumpster.  I know it needs to be done and it's one of the few ways I can actually help, but I seriously think my brain turned off at some point merely to stop it turning to mush.

On Sunday C's friend Ian was out, putting up walls to replace the ones we've been tearing down.  Classic eh?  While he was doing that, C was tearing down the ceiling in the kitchen while I, you guessed it, carried the remains to the dumpster *sigh*  Slightly more interesting chore in reorging the laundry room to make space for the little furniture left in the living room.  We also emptied the bedroom, since apparently those walls are next to be demolished…  Finished for the day mid afternoon so at least had a few hours together to just chill.  My brain started to turn back on then and I became human again.

I swear this is progress ;)

And while I'm in Oakville this week, the stairs should be taken out and new ones put back in.  Actually wish I could see some of that -- interested in the process.  But real life being what it is, that's the piece I'm *not* there for.  Classic eh?   Ah well -- should be very cool to see next weekend.