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 30th
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!
