Mid-December --- getting ready for Christmas!

Nothing too earth-shattering to report.  Still more shifting, moving and slowly unpacking.  Because we’re not in a rush to move, we’re taking our time and starting to fall into a routine.  No big blitzes like a traditional move, although last weekend we got 6 car-loads of stuff out of our storage locker.  Generally we take 2 full cars up on the weekend and deal with that.  Mid-week we’re down in the city, Ibby goes into the office and I’m doing errands and things in this area.

 

But I am excited to report that I’ve been doing some Christmas crafting!  Bought just a skinny little tree for the condo – they call it a pencil tree.  And to decorate instead of ornaments I’m still on the “vintage nautical” kick, so I found all sorts of steamer trunk labels and sailor stuff on the internet.  Printed and mounted on cardstock with some twine hangers.  Add a rope garland, and it’s looking good!  I found an old Cracker Jack sailor and Aunt Betty Ann sent me a photo of my Grandpa George Becker, all dapper in his navy dress uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

And a few gifts too!  You know how when you have just the right gift for someone, you can’t wait to give it away?  That was the case for Jaime’s old roommates Jeremy and Kris.  I think I was more excited to give these gifts than other things for my own family!  The families all shared a nice dinner together at a centrally located restaurant, Melanie Pringles.  It’s 50’s themed and casual, but most importantly has a small private room which was perfect for us.

 

Both gifts were based on old kitchen cupboard doors – Ibby says I’ve been spending way too much time hanging around the Habitat ReStore…  Jeremy has this massive key and keychain collection, so his cupboard door was spray painted with chalkboard paint.  Then Ibby put in 25 cup hooks (also from Habitat) and I sewed a little pouch to keep a few pieces of chalk in.  So Jeremy can change his display as he likes and label it too!

 

 

Kris is a real softie so he got a memory board.  You often see these in a ladies version with ribbon criss-crossed and then you tuck in photos and mementos.  But Kris’ started out with a base of denim, then I layered on some of Jaime’s torn jeans.  Left open waistbands and pockets so there are lots of places to clip and tuck things.  And there is a chain sewn on too that other things can be clipped onto.  Just add "fibre artist" to my job description along with general contractor!

 

 

 

We have been getting together with family & friends for dinner & drinks this year.  No huge parties, but we’ve been enjoying the small groups better! 

I hope to do another post before Christmas, but in case not –

Merry Christmas to All!

 

 

Jeans Memory Board without any clips on it

September and into October - continued

Ibby also took a week off in September and we focused our attention on the yard.  Grass seed was spread by the lake side.  And the slope in the front yard was just too steep to hold seed – it just washed away at the first rain.  So we picked up some sod, straight from the farm.  It ended up taking 60 rolls of sod just to do the front yard.  Again, thank goodness for our 2 SUV’s!  I’m sure we’ll have no shocks left by the end of this. 

 

 

Also had to pick up some topsoil, and Ibby worked that in first.  The weather was beautiful and cooperated, then enough rain the weeks following so it looks great now.  We haven’t done the side or back yards yet – that will wait until next spring – but at least from the front we look a lot less like a continuous construction zone.  And there has been a lot less dirt getting dragged into the house. 

 

Some of our neighbours have donated plants, and while I have an idea of how I would like to see the yard it’s not gonna be a ton of flowers.  Remember our goal was maintenance free as much as possible?  Some hostas, brown-eyed Susans, a little walkway, and that’s about it.

Canadian Gothic!

Ibby also shoveled some gravel over to the north side of the house by the propane tanks.  An attempt to keep weeds down on the side of the house we don’t really use.  And we both stacked firewood for the winter.   Have been enjoying fires in the woodstove again!  There will be plenty of time to unpack indoors when the weather turns bad.

 

We hosted a family picnic on Labour Day, and in early October Jaime’s 20^th birthday with his housemates and their families.  The boys had come to watch on demolition day so were excited to see the “new” cottage.  And we also celebrated our first holiday here on Thanksgiving with Maritza & Jaime.  We cleared boxes and actually found the dining room table!  Maritza started school in September and is loving it.  Unfortunately Jaime has taken another turn for the worse, and we’ve been meeting with psychiatrists, the school and his group home organization to support him through this as best as we can.  And hopefully to ultimately find a solution.  More ripped clothes to mend – better get my craft room organized soon!

 

Jaime, Jeremy & Kris kicking back on the deck.

 

Maritza made Spiderman cupcakes

 

August/September Update in Ummm… Late October!

Whew!  Where has the time gone?  Not sure if anyone is still reading this or if you’ve all given up on me.  But I know Mike W still bugs me for updates, so Mike, this one’s for you!  I’ll perhaps split it into a couple of smaller posts.  Problem is, there’s nothing big and dramatic that’s photo-worthy.  Still progress, but boring progress.

August and September saw the basement finished and slowly unpacking.  Of course there was another problem with the kitchen.  This time the pantry was too big to fit into the closet area because of the ductwork.  So they had to manufacture a new one in 2 sections.  But bonus – we got to keep the mistake cabinet.  So that’s staying out by Ibby’s home office for all the miscellaneous office supplies.  We also scored a really wide desk $35 at Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  It’s 70” which is perfect because he needs 2 monitors set up when he works from the cottage.

 Nice work if you can get it!  Notice the little "Stanley Cup" lamp!

Our little basement kitchenette has room for our canning supplies, roasting pans, big bowls & platters, paper plates & picnic supplies.  You know, the bulky stuff you need but don’t use very often.  And the closet area houses beach towels, sunscreen, bug spray and all those outdoor things you want to keep handy.  More shelf liners all around!  Electricians were back, countertop was ordered, picked up and installed, and the plumber returned to install the sink and put the toilet back in.  The countertop is from the Formica FX series that’s a large print laminate made to look like granite.

 The pocket door on the left leads to the toilet.

Just the one sink outside for both the kitchenette and toilet.

 

Stephen just recently finished putting leftover hardwood flooring on the basement stairs, so we’re now proud to report that MOST of the sawing and hammering (and dust!) is gone!  Have just finished painting the baseboards and trim so we can really put our furniture into place down there this weekend.  I still have to stain the stair edges and the handrail needs to go up.  Of course I have a unique decor idea for that – stay tuned!  Let’s just say I found more materials online on Kijiji…  Ibby & Stephen just roll their eyes whenever I come up with a great idea!

I also managed to do a few DIY projects over the last little while.  We painted the old beer fridge black with a can of Tremclad.  Turned out pretty good if I don’t say so myself! 

 

 

Sewed some curtains.  Our leaking ceiling was repaired at the condo, and a little glass partition was removed.  Check out the key holder at the condo!  Stephen made a little MDF box, which I painted and did my very first graphic transfer.  Thanks to the Graphics Fairy for the vintage seagull image!  It’s custom sized to fit right over the old, obsolete answering system.  Figured it was easier to cover it over than rip it out and patch drywall.

 

Before - YUK!

 

After - WOW!

 

And finally, bonus points to anyone who knows what these are!

Careful, you’ll poke your eye out!!!

 

 

Early August - Basement Almost Done!

We’ve had a nice mix of work and play these last few months.  The basement is nearly finished.  Stephen finished the framing, electrical was run, Roger & Randy the drywallers came out while I was on holidays, and the painters have already come for both priming and finish coat.  Kitchenette was finalized, been delivered and is set to be installed next Tuesday. 

 

The usual hiccups that by now I take in stride, the biggest being a back-ordered sub-floor that I had to drive 45 minutes away to get more.  We are using a unique basement sub-floor “Tyroc” that is made of a layer of magnesium oxide on the surface and recycled tires on the bottom.  The “tread” lets any condensation or water drain away – or at least that’s the theory!  But key for us is that this solution has a lower profile.  The other alternatives were higher, and we would not have been able to open our garden doors in the walkout basement!

 

We also found a nice laminate floor at Costco of all places.  Extra thick and extra wide planks, and the only laminate floor I’ve seen that has handscraping & distressing.  The guys are finishing laying the floors as I type.  We anticipate the walkout basement will get a lot of use, so didn’t want anything too pristine looking.  16 boxes of flooring in each of both mine and Ibby’s cars and we made it home!  I spent my birthday making 2 trips back & forth bringing up baseboards and interior doors – 4 hours in the car on a hot day with stuff hanging out the windows.  Just a lot of chasing it seems like.  Our cars both deserve a day at the spa when this is done!

The "Captain Morgan" pose!

 

Late June I took a week off and drove down to Wisconsin.  Was able to catch up with some family for a few days, including a great visit with cousin Judie and her horse Reuben.  Then Ibby flew in on Friday and joined me at my cousin’s wedding in Chicago.  Congratulations to Mark & Monica!  So great to also see the rest of the family, including Banners all the way up from Kansas.  And Henry the most adorable ring bearer in the world - his Daddy Matt was the ring bearer in our wedding! 

 

Matt, Becky & Henry, Mark & Monica, Aunt Linda & Uncle Peter

 

It was the long Canada Day weekend, so we took an extra day there.  Ibby & I spent Sunday at Navy Pier in Chicago.  We took an architectural boat tour and had a nice dinner at Bubba Gump’s to celebrate our 30^th anniversary that was earlier in the week.  Maybe that’s why we’ve managed to stay married so long – we were in 2 different countries on our actual anniversary!

July saw us helping Maritza move into her first little apartment at Yonge & Eglinton.  Everybody should do the downtown thing when they are young!  She starts a 1-year post-grad program in September in Children’s Media.  And Jaime participated in an adorable end-of-school-year program in which he sang karaoke to Winnie the Pooh. 

 

      

 

And we’ve also taken some time to just sit a bit and drink a beer or sangria!  Or two!  I brought back some Mike’s Hard Lemonade from the States, only to find out it’s a frickin’ MALT BEVERAGE.  Where is my vodka???  In Canada, all cooler beverages are made with vodka.  I swear it’s a Monsanto plot to now DRINK their GMO products!  Americans beware!!!

 

Enjoy the summer everyone!

Early June 2013 - Back on Track!

So while I might have been getting a little discouraged there for a while, we’ve made some great strides these past few weeks and I’m invigorated again!  Seeing big changes is so rewarding!  Since my last blog entry, the woodstove has been installed, the very last of the kitchen is in, and the blessed deck rails are up!  (Mostly – a few parts short that had to be ordered in…)  We ended up with just black rails because the custom powder-coated brown colour would have been a tiny bit off, looking like we tried to match and missed.  So good thing we have black after all – so much easier to get extra parts as it turns out.  If I had to do it all over again obviously I would have just gone with black in the first place!

 

At 8:00 am Tuesday, our big retaining wall for the driveway was delivered.  Last week Paul dug the trench for the 2’ x 2’ x 6’ blocks.  Then when it was delivered the concrete supplier was kind enough to place them in the trench right where they needed to go, instead of dumping them on the ground.  That saved us a huge amount of money so Paul didn’t have to rent additional heavy equipment.  So nice to have the right people – and their connections – on the job!  Starting at 1:00 a couple loads of gravel were delivered, so by the end of the day we had a driveway!  Paul also beefed up the drainage here and installed some underground piping since our lot is on such a slope.  He knows a lot about drainage and has been busy these past few weeks installing/repairing tile beds in farmers fields – who would have known there was huge underground drainage there?

We also got quotes on a little interlock patio to go outside the basement doors underneath the deck.  We find we are using that entrance a lot, and the dust and dirt getting tracked inside is insane.  But let’s just say, I had no idea interlock was so expensive!!  So Stephen suggested a little floating deck floor there instead.  AND BONUS!  He is making a little framework and screening the area in so it will be a screened in porch!  So now we’ll have an outdoor summer Sangria Porch, and in the winter we’ll go upstairs to the original Sangria Room.  Mmmm…  That’s a lot of sangria!  We may end up putting our blow-up kiddie hot tub downstairs there – the $300 Wal-Mart special a few years ago.

And believe it or not, we’re finishing the basement already!  Yes, just shoot me now!!!  It was the perfect storm of Stephen having time to do the framing and knowing all the right people to call.  Right now our holiday decorations and craft things and kid toys are still in our last storage locker.  And if we brought all that stuff over it would just be more to work around when we finished the basement later.  And the main reason is that in our brand new house, I just didn’t want “piles” of stuff eventually destined for my sewing room and Ibby’s office.  I didn’t want to look around and say “Oh, that’s just temporary until we finish the basement”.

So, biting the bullet and doing it now.  Stephen has already framed out my little craft room and the kitchenette & toilet rooms.  We’re re-using the glass French doors from the old cottage and they will be pocket doors.  Lots of light coming into my craft room, but I can still shut the door to my mess!  The plumber already moved the roughed in pipes a little (the rough in was really rough, and unfortunately while they were “in the area” now that the design is finalized just a little off).  Electricians were here already, and the drywall has been quoted.  Now that the deck rails and glass panels are out of the garage, just need to shift some furniture out there and get the drywall delivered.  Our kitchen planner is tweaking the design – we’ll just have a basic little galley kitchen with sink & microwave.  But I’ll be able to keep the canning supplies and paper plates, etc down there.   And a nice linen closet where we can keep beach towels & sunscreen so it’s handy to the outside, as well as having room to store our suitcases in the bottom.  Ibby’s office area will be right in front of the main window looking out to the lake.  And of course we have a spot for the “Back to the Future” pinball machine!

 

Just to keep things interesting, a little work has been done at the condo too.  It was discovered there was a leak in one of the skylight areas coming into a support beam.  Drywall had to be stripped out and mold remediation done.  The leak still has to be sealed, then drywall replaced in that area.  Fortunately that falls under the building maintenance and the expense is covered through that.  There are also a couple of interior glass panels that form a little solarium that we are having removed during this process.  Not only do we want to open it up as much as possible, but the airflow to those areas was horrible – freezing in winter, and a sauna in summer.

 

So to sum things up, we’re back on track full steam ahead!  I hope we’ll be able to relax soon and enjoy some of the summer – when it finally gets here that is!

RIP Davey #22 - June 2, 2013

So sorry to say that our good friend Dave Coe passed away on Sunday morning – way too young at only age 58.  We’ve known Dave and his family since 1986 when he and Ibby started playing softball together in Pickering.  Many years of team parties and annual couples weekends in the fall, where the ladies shopped and the guys golfed.  And it was just last April that Ibby & Dave jumped into his car and drove 18 hours to South Carolina to meet about 10 other guys for a week of golf and friendship.
 

Dave leaves behind his wife and best friend Lynn, 3 sons and their wives/girlfriends, and an adorable grandson.  He will be missed by all.

 

Please don’t let this tragedy be in vain.  If you’re over 50, have regular check-ups for colon cancer!  Catch it early!

Mid-May - Still Cleaning...

We are starting to bring over boxes from the condo every day to unpack and organize.  It’s starting to feel like a year ago when we had some things at each house.  Lots of back & forth, and it forever seems like whatever I need is at the other place.  Where we had to combine things last summer, now we’re splitting them apart so that there is one at each place – for example, toasters, cookie sheets & can openers. 

The missing kitchen drawers finally arrived just this week.  But unfortunately still missing one drawer front only.  This kitchen has been plagued with problems, so we’ve (ahem) had to eat out a lot…  At least I can organize the kitchen now.  Stephen added in some extra shelves for us, so now the uppers are much more efficient.  With any luck, we might even make strawberry jam again this year!

 

 

Woo Hoo!  We have drawers and kitchen is ALMOST done!

Bathrooms and clothes closets are pretty well organized.  Shelves were installed in the linen closet.  Mirrors hung.  A decorative shelf was built for the laundry room.  Shelf liner has been put in the entire kitchen and bathrooms.  Working on washing the windows.  Stephen built an access door for the laundry ceiling storage area and installed the last closet organizer.  Seems he builds things as fast as I can paint around him! 

At the risk of this sounding like “The Stephen Show” – you would swear he is a sponsor of this blog! – he truly has been a blessing to help make our house a home.  It’s just all the little things that make it ours.  Customized spaces and added storage that are such a big help.  All those little projects that people say they will get to “someday” he is doing now.  Ibby has still been putting in a ton of overtime on weekends, so doesn’t have time to do much extra.

 

Stephen had some time during the week from his “day job” so he also spent a week at the condo.  We can only do work there during weekdays due to the noise.  He teases me that I’m like the Queen, dragging him from one estate to the other!  He framed out a wall and installed closet doors in our bedroom.  When we moved in, there were ugly sliding mirrored doors that were heavy & kept falling off the track, so they went and we’ve basically had a wide open closet for the past year.  Now we have 2 sets of double doors for a “his & hers” look, but it’s really one big closet behind there.  Didn’t want bifolds or anything on a track, and this way each door doesn’t swing out too much into the bedroom.  I was busy painting inside & out, and we had boxes of clothes in the living room for a week.

 

 

Then Stephen also took out some upper kitchen cabinets at the condo and bashed out a little wall.  It really opened it up to the main room and looks great!  We didn’t tell Ibby about it in advance, but waited until he came home and surprised him with a big reveal like on the decorating shows.  I still have to sand & paint the ceiling there where the cupboards came off and it was patched.  And in time I would like to paint the cabinets – they’re currently a bleached light oak – but that’s a big job that will likely wait until the fall.  I’ve painted oak bathroom vanity cabinets before in our old house, and they turned out good.

 

before - don't mind the mess!

 

after - kitchen feels so much bigger even though there are fewer cabinets

 

Back at the cottage, little odds & ends are being finished.  Electricians finished off their stuff.   The propane tanks were moved to their permanent location.  Ordering replacement shades for light fixtures broken in transit.  Satellite was installed for the TV, which of course wasn’t simple either as we had to have a post sunk into concrete and braced onto the house.  I’m convinced that nothing will be simple, and if it is, well there must be something wrong.

 

I am now turning our attention to the outside.  In process is a retaining wall for our driveway.  Paul who did our shoreline restoration work 2 years ago will bring out his Skidsteer and equipment soon.  His recommendations have been very valuable.  So glad that we’ve known him from the past and have a relationship there.  Also getting quotes on a little interlock patio for underneath our deck.  I think the rest of the yard will be mostly grass for now, and plantings will evolve over time as all yards do.  We did plant a lilac bush and a couple of little trees with our neighbour to give us some privacy between the houses.

 

The big headache has been the darn deck rails.  As you may recall, we had to make some modifications due to the part of the deck over the garage being a flat roof.  Since there is a waterproof membrane burned on, we can’t put nails through that.  That deck portion is also very slightly sloped for drainage.  So we had to get special brackets that bolt to the outside of the garage, then have each custom welded with an extension for the different heights depending on the slope.  We ordered what we thought would be the perfect colour to match the windows and the rest of the house, but were extremely disappointed when they arrived.  A definite gray instead of a brownish-bronze.  Note to self:  Don’t ever order something this big again from a tiny colour swatch.  We had splurged on railings with clear glass panels – instead of pickets – but there are still posts and a top and bottom horizontal rail.  We just don’t want to say “uck” every time we pull in the driveway, and once it’s installed that’s it.  So now we've researched an option to have the entire thing powder coated in a (hopefully!) matching colour.  I spent Thursday on a loading dock stripping off the packaging on all the parts, after bringing it all down in 2 trips in the car.  Apparently that's called the "homeowner participation segment".  Never dreamt in a million years that I would be dealing with welders, sand blasting and powder-coating…

 

Load #2

I keep having to remind myself that this build is taking longer than we hoped, but it’s because we’re taking the time to do things right.  Thank goodness there is no rush to be out of the condo!

 

This is the long Victoria Day weekend here.  Great weather and we have enjoyed watching the fireworks across the lake.  Congrats to Stephen & Theresa’s son William who we saw on stage in “Les Mis” on Friday night!  And a very Happy 21^st Birthday to our niece Angiee!