Vacation…. And some more Renovations!

Vacation officially started three days ago, but I’m a little slow off the mark getting this blog post out – when I tell you why, though, I am sure you will forgive the delay.

The last really significant time (I mean more than a long weekend) I had off work was in November of last year – which is really a little too long for me to go without a break.  I get crabby and tired and have a lot of trouble focussing on the task at hand – because all I can think about is how much I need a break and how much I want to do stuff for me, at home!

I’m not terribly different from anyone else in this, I’m sure.

Anyhow, this particular vacation will be a dilly for me! I have two weeks off now - a week and a bit at the cabin (where I am right now) and then a little less than a week at home. Typically I try to work it so that I am at the cabin for the beginning of my time off so that I can catch the cat well in time to get home - and so that if I don’t catch her right away, I can come back in order to secure her and get her home before I have to go back to work!  This strategy was put into place a couple of decades ago, and due to experience!

Anyhow, this vacation has all the earmarks of being a great one.  My planned week (and a bit) at the cabin is promising glorious weather (for which I am grateful) and while I am here, relaxing and taking my ease, my living room is being gutted.

Ok – so to back things up – the windows project was left ever so slightly unfinished because the long wall, where the biggest of the windows was being replaced, was starting to bow out.  Yes, the wall wasn’t strong enough and the weight of the roof was bowing it out.  Instead of just putting the window into a wall that would eventually bow enough to crack it (and lets not discuss the safety issue of the weight of the roof on a wall that was starting to bow) I opted to put a hold on the final window until the wall could be dealt with.

I got quotes for two options: First, reinforce what is there; Second, gut the whole space (right out to the original 10-foot-high ceiling), build a wall inside the outside wall (which means some more wall plugs AND insulation!) and have the space all re-finished. Though the second was three times the first, that’s the one I went with – because it is a long term solution, and one that will take a few things off of my goals list.

Since I was having the room gutted and completely changed, I also elected to just have the carpeting done – better to have ALL of it done in one go - so when I get home, though it won’t be fully complete, by the time this vacation is over, my house will be looking almost brand new on the inside!

The prep work for this project meant getting everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) out of my living room. To help me with that, my parents gave up a day and came up to help me. In addition to the movement of furniture, though, they also helped me to fulfill another dream for the house – the beginning of the pantry project! Yes! The doorway has now been completely filled in, insulated, and vapour-barriered!

Work area

First a base was nailed into place
Then we framed up the door filler
THEN we used a sledge hammer to install it!
Dad nailing it into place

Plywood on, Tar paper going up!

Look at that - insulation and everything!

Done for now - the rest of the siding will
Go up in a couple of weeks

We actually completed that part first and then filled the new little room to the gunnels with stuff from the living room.

BOOM - vacation bomb has exploded!

Living room nearly empty. Jasmine is unhappy.

Last before pictures!

On the way out the door!

So while I am here, my house will be filled with noise, dust and production… and HOPEFULLY when I get home, I’ll be arriving to painting (and only painting – God, I sure hope the drywall sanding is done by then!!!) In any case, I’m finishing out my first 24 hours of the year at the cabin.  I had a great day today with some of my family (I got play time and cuddles with my niece and nephew) and I have my first sunburn of the year. 

With love across the waters…

Foraging for Kale

We have been in the throes of a heat wave.  There's been no rain in nearly a month and we've had hot dry sunny weather all July.  Though most people complain about the rain all winter, I choose not to as I know how desperate we on Vancouver Island become during the dry and hot summer months. The garden beds have dried out (and required the installation of soaker lines to keep my poor plants hydrated) the forests have become dangerous (though the true danger is from people and carelessness) and my world had taken on a fine dust covered film. I have also not turned on my oven in over a month.

 

I was able to harvest my garlic and it is curing in my shed for about a week and a half and now it needs to be cleaned off, have the chaff trimmed from it and it needs to be stored for overwinter consumption.

 

Yesterday the skies were gray and overcast almost all day.  My Mum & Dad came up in the morning to bring up Grandma's old love seat, a chair of my Great Grandmother's (on my Mum's side) and Grandma's bed.  We also finished most of the back fence project - the lattice is installed and it looks AWESOME! And finally, after lunch we assembled the bed.  I now have a spare bed and once again I get to do some re-arranging to make things a little more space friendly.

 

Late in the afternoon, after Mum & Dad had headed back down to Thetis Island, I was sitting inside thinking on making myself some dinner and the skies opened up and POURED.  I'm not talking sprinkle, I'm talking out and out pouring rain.  It was glorious!  It rained like that off and on all night and most of today and I could practically hear the trees sighing in relief.  My plants outside look happier and my apple and pear trees (and the little coral bark maple out front) are even looking perkier.

 

As a result of the MUCH cooler day today I even turned on my oven for the first time in over a month!  I baked cookies and granola.  I packaged up and vacuum sealed the granola for future use since I opened a box of cheerios the other day and need to finish that before starting something new, but still, I've not had my own home-made granola in what feels like AGES.

 

Since I wasn't needing to stain or cut or organize anything fence-wise today, I also took some time to harvest and freeze some of my kale for winter consumption.  I had to battle aphids - there was quite the infestation in there - but I won that battle for now... next year I will buy ladybugs (hee hee hee) to eat the aphids for me... after much soaking and washing, I laid out the leaves on cookie sheets and froze them. 

 

Did you know that after about an hour in the freezer kale will shatter if you drop a leaf on the floor?  I didn't know that either.

 

Kale frozen, I decided to try my hand at making kale chips and a kale and pear smoothie.  The smoothie is delicious - though I think next time I will have to puree the kale before adding the other stuff so that there isn't so much to chew on (ha ha ha!)

 

The kale chips are in the oven and I may be ready to try some of them after supper when I watch TV. 

 

The kale harvesting has cleaned out about a third of my bed - I am selectively pulling plants out now as the big ones I am leaving will continue to grow through the fall and provide me with healthy greens through the winter.

 

All in all a good day and a great weekend!

 

With love across the waters,

Fencing - And Not With A Sword

You may recall that back in November I had an issue with a bear. The bear pulled down a section of my fence, pulled out a wall in my wonderful compost bin and had a munch on some apple leavings from when I made and canned my applesauce in the fall.

 

THIS year I will not make that mistake.  THIS year I will dig the apple leavings directly into whatever vegetable bed I am working on in order to augment the soil directly AND avoid any bear invasions to my yard.

 

This weekend saw the initial stages of the New Back Fence project get off the ground.  Or into it, if you like. 

 

On Friday my Mum & Dad and their dog Querida, and my Brother and Nephew came for a part of the day to visit and help get the old fence torn down and taken apart, dig fence-post holes and brace up the posts to hold in place until I can get concrete into the holes and also to put up a temporary fence to keep Miss Jasmine contained in my back yard while all of this is ongoing. Because it was a Friday, my Sister in Law was working and unable to come (I asked her to skip school but she has a good work ethic and went to work instead of coming to goof off with us up here) but I am hopeful that on the next fence project day she can come too.

 

While Mum and I distracted Finn (my gorgeous Nephew) Dad and Rob went to town on the old fence.  The pulled it down, pulled out the old post that the gate was hung on, dug deep holes, braced and placed the new fence posts (in readiness for concrete insertion - which one of my neighbours is going to help me out with) and then erected a new temporary fence to keep Jasmine in the yard.

 

Here's the state of the union before:

Before the bear pulled it down

After the bear pulled it over and
I propped it back up

Fence post in the corner - yes, it really IS
not touching the ground!

The fun part of Friday for me was actually playing with Finn and my Mum in puddles.  Mum & I walked Finn around to the Number 6 Mine Park in Cumberland where they have some great toddler-friendly activity thingies like slides and wheels to spin around on posts.  The skies opened up and POURED on us while we walked over so we took temporary refuge on the platform and waited for the rain to ease off a little.  We checked out the fun stuff and then on the way back we sploshed Finn in puddles.  Mum and I each held onto one of his hands and played "one, two, three - WHEE" with him - whee being the part of the game where we swung him up in the air and he landed both feet into the puddle. Finn had a ball with this and made some great splashes as Cumberland has some rather significant potholes. Needless to say, Finn`s clothing all came off when we got back to my house and it all went into the drier!

 

The bulk of the work dealt with, after lunch all that was left to do was to take apart the old fence sections.  Rob, Mum & Finn headed back down to Nanaimo, and Dad an I made short work of taking it all apart and pulling out all of the old nails. I will not be able to salvage any of the old fence for use in the new fence - the boards are pretty rotted and worn away - but I WILL be able to recycle the old fence boards into my compost bin.  I`m going to be moving it (yes, again) and I have decided that I will be going back to a single bin as, except for Autumn (when the leaves make a great addition) one bin is typically enough for my needs.

 

I`m going to move it back across the yard to where it was in the first place - between the lilac tree and the shed - it will be less visible in the old (new) spot and with the help of the fence boards I am going to be able to incorporate, it should be sturdy and unlikely to leak compost guts out the sides.

 

Compost bin - current location.

 

New (old) compost bin location

 

Here`s a final shot of what the yard looks like at the end of today`s fencing activities.  I can only hope that no hooligans come around and push the posts over before the concrete gets poured!



Temporary fence in place
New fence posts in and waiting for concrete!

With love across the waters,

 

Organizing Stuff

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to arrange things, re-arrange them, organize stuff, reorganize stuff, de-clutter things and basically make the energy in my space flow comfortably and easily.  I think part of it may be a little obsessive / compulsive disorder-like, but for the most part I think it has to do with needing a tidy space where I can locate what I am after.

 

Today I spent some quality time with some of my family (more about that in another post) and then after I had tidied the kitchen and done my dishes, I got to tackle one of the BEST organization projects (for me) to date.

 

This particular project started last weekend when my WONDERFUL Sister in Law let me know she was going to be going to IKEA while on a work trip and asked me if there was anything I wanted her to pick up for me. I let her know that I absolutely DID have a couple of things in mind and then, when I got off the phone from our call, I promptly forgot about the IKEA trip. 

 

My Sister in Law must have a sixth sense - she sent me an email the day before leaving letting me know that if there was anything I wanted to just email her the spec numbers... God bless her for that!  I immediately got onto the IKEA website and emailed her the spec number for what I needed... what I have actually been looking for for roughly the last year.

 

When I moved into my house, one of the things I immediately appreciated was the HUGE kitchen cupboards - massive!  What I realized shortly after taking possession of the house was that the HUGE kitchen cupboards weren't 100% conducive to true kitchen organization. 

 

So what have I needed, and been looking for for the last year or so? Shelf Inserts. Yes, truly, I have been looking and not finding anything sturdy enough to do the job.  Short of buying lumber and building them myself I just wasn't getting anywhere.

 

So Carrie, bless her forever and ever, picked up 8 shelf inserts for me.  Thanks to Carrie (and in small part to IKEA for having organization stuff that people like me need) I now have kitchen cupboards that look like this:

Organized!  Woo hoo!!

Ah the bliss of organization!

With love across the waters,

Real Success

Real success and fulfillment comes from helping someone else achieve their goals.

          ~John Stanton: Founder of the Running Room.

 

It was in one of my Running Room courses that I first learned about SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time framed) goals. This morning on FaceBook I read the quote above and once again have something to mentally chew on.

 

I can name a multitude of people who have made it possible for me to make more than a few of my goals into realities.  Without my family and my friends I would be in a completely different life.  My family and friends have given me the strength, support, push, and yes, when I needed it, the real kick in the pants that I needed to take the things that were just thoughts and wishes ,and make those things into my current (and future) realities.

 

When I was in Ontario and I first started running I actually didn’t tell anyone back home what I was up to – I didn’t want to tell people what my dream was - just in case I failed. I had a big fear of failure back then, and a big fear of disappointing other people.

 

Don’t get me wrong – I still fear failure and am still avoiding disappointing others like the plague – I’ve just realized over the years that the biggest thing I can do to the people around me to make them disappointed in me is to not be myself and to not trust them to support me in my endeavours. Even when I “fail.”

 

So what am I up to now? Well, I’m trying to live more fit – get more exercise and gradually improve my endurance and over-all quality of life.  This isn’t a small goal for me – this is a big one because it involves learning to feed myself properly, and it also involves follow-through.  It also involves getting out there and exercising and trying to increase and improve things by just a little bit, but every single day.

Healthy-fit isn’t all I am trying to improve upon.  I am also trying to live more financially fit – make more intelligent shopping choices.  Ensure that there is no waste when it comes to groceries. Grow food for my own consumption.

 

This year, 2013, promises to be one filled with challenges – but the challenges I am looking forward to aren’t overly scary ones – they are goals I am excited to face – and ones that I will be thrilled to overcome!

I am also looking forward to maybe being able to help someone else achieve their own goals. Remember: what goes around comes back around threefold – good or bad.

 

Here’s to a GREAT 2013!

 

With love across the waters,

Under Pressure!

Don’t worry – this is in a good way!  I have a Pressure Washing experience to share! But first… my weekend! I have had a HELL of a great weekend this weekend!

My brother and his wife had their wedding vow renewal on Saturday – a GLORIOUS day – sunny and not stupidly hot (thank God!) filled with love, laughter and fun.  Because they initially married in May of last year, most of Carrie’s family was unable to make it out for the ceremony, but this time, with the exception of her grandmother, all of her immediate family made the trip and it was a wonderful time for all!

Finn was a little concerned with the sheer number of people around – he had his little forehead all scrunched up in consternation, but he was quiet and sweet the whole time things were going on… he hit overwhelm about two hours into it all – but that was also, partly, due to the heat. 

I packed it in and came home around 7 that night – the day was a very hot one and Jasmine was cooped up in the house with all of the windows and curtains closed to try and keep things quiet and cool for her. It mostly helped – but it was still about 26*C inside the house when I got home.

Sunday we all met in Nanaimo again – this time for a celebration of Finn’s first birthday (while Carrie’s family was still out) and some play time in the park.  Finn LOVES cake - he couldn’t even be enticed with peek-a-boo – and that’s his FAVOURITE game in the whole world right now!

Mum, Dad & I headed back to our respective homes around 2 yesterday – and I came home with some new window screens that Dad constructed for me (for the two sash-less windows I have in the house) AND the family purchased pressure washer!

First things first, I put in the screens and opened the windows – the cross breezes that they allow (front to back of house – North / South direction) are making a big difference already! The screen doors can comfortably be left open during the day while I am home, but need to be closed at night for the obvious reasons as well as one not-so-obvious one – bears. When Jasmine and I walk in the mornings now, quite often I will see bear scat on the trails near the house – with bear scat being so near by, I am concerned that, if I leave the front door only secured by the screen door, well, that could appear to be an invitation to a bear to come on in!.  No thank you! 

Screens in, I had a glass of water and then assembled the pressure washer and got started. I finished off a quarter section of the patio before dinner and then worked on the next quarter section afterward. The semi-finished product was pretty neat to look at and, though I will, I am sure, need to seal the concrete, I like it SO much more without the red paint on it.

This morning, (I took a long weekend this weekend) I cut grass, weeded a little more, pressure washed the other half of the patio, set up the umbrella laundry line and did some laundry.  I have also dealt with my paperwork drawer and washed the kitchen floor… I haven’t yet vacuumed – it’s almost 6 PM now – so I still have some time – but it’s REALLY warm at the moment and so I am going to wait…

Here are a couple of shots of the pressure washing project…

Before - paint peeling off in places &
generally looking ugly

Partially done - the pressure washer
allows for straight(ish) lines

Done for now - looking WAY better already!

Laundry drying in the sunshine

Time for a shower!

With love across the waters,

Another Project Completed & the First Day of Vacation

Update on the drywall situation – it’s been hung and the mud coats are going on… there are 2 coats on it now and the 3^rd will go on tomorrow some time. To clarify, my awesome contractors hung the drywall for me and are looking after the mudding. Tuesday I will prime/seal and Wednesday I will paint.

2 sheets to the... uh, wall...?

A hole for the plug...

Metal corner bead

First coat of mud

My initial plan was to go up into the attic on Tuesday and lay out the insulation, but I had a mysterious and yet horrifically painful back and neck pain episode and have been the better part of crippled for almost a week now.  Much better than I was, my balance is still a little off and so I think that trying to balance around in the rafters of my house may not be in the best interests of me OR my house and so I will put it off until… well… later. I still plan to pull out the carpet this week though…

Last night, whilst quietly sitting on my sofa in the living room, not doing much of anything except appreciating a quiet Saturday night and basking in the fact that my week of vacation had officially started, a wasp flew in through my open doorway – reminding me that I had yet to hang my screen door – and while I was at it, I should have also mounted my door stopper to prevent the handle mashing into the drywall each and every time the door is opened…

Gamely, I pulled out all of my cool tools - the cool ones need power of some sort to be operated (and by power, I mean battery or electrical) laid out all of the other paraphernalia I was going to need and got to work.

First things first – because the door doesn’t sit flush to the frame, I needed shims.  My AMAZING contractor knew this and kindly cut me a couple and handed them over with the admonishment that I had better drill pilot holes because I really didn’t want to split the beautiful door mouldings he had put up.  I drew dots on the shims, taped them to the door frame and drilled all of the pilot holes.  I then put in the needed screws and mounted the frame side of the hinges. The shims split, but the door framing didn’t. Shims can be cheaply and easily replaced…

Next up, I pulled out the door and got ready to mount it.

Nope. The shims weren’t *quite* thick enough and so I had to pull them all back off, add something underneath (in this case additional shims made, ingenuously, with pieces of an unused paint stir stick.  NOW I know why they always give me two!!) move them BACK a little (I mounted them too close to the frame itself and the screen door would have opening issues) and re-mounted them all. More shim splitting, but again, its just the shims that split.

From the inside

From the outside

Split shim

Next up was drilling pilot holes to mount hardware on the door – easy-peasy and no mistakes there.  Door mounted it was time to put on the hooks and eyes for holding the door closed from either the inside if I’m home and the outside if I’m not home. Another minor location miscalculation and I had to re-drill the pilot hole for the one inside the door frame – but that will be super easy to cover when it comes time to paint the door frame and door.

Indoor hook & eye...  

Last but not least, the outside hook and eye and, of course, the handle…

Complete!

Next up was the door handle shock absorber (OK, really, I don’t know what to call it)

And last but not least, here are a couple of gratuitous doorbell shots – my doorbell is a turn-style bell that tinkles.  You turn the handle and it rings inside the bell inside the house – and isn’t going to be stopped by power failures… My Great Grandparents on my Mum’s Dad’s side had a doorbell just like it and when I saw it I couldn’t resist.  Grandma & Grandpa’s doorbell had been painted over a number of times – and I think the base plate was round… but it still makes me feel like a little kid when I get to ring it!

Now… if I could find some antique cut-glass doorknobs (which Grandma and Grandpa also had and I used to pretend were giant diamonds) I’d have them in my house as well!


And today - my first day of vacation - was spent doing VERY little.  Today I slept in and had a nap, ate breakfast outside, read for hours, puttered doing research on my computer (spoiler alert - I will have to deal with a Giant Hogsweed infestation) and generally just relaxing.  Great way to start a week off!!

With love across the waters,

New Year’s Resolutions? Nope, Not So Much…

I try not to make resolutions at New Years - there seemed (for me, anyhow) to be a big push to accomplish something, which then became a little push and then the resolution was placed, neatly, back on the personal shelf... For many years now, I have been trying to set SMART (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time Oriented) goals for myself... and I usually try to set them to paper around my own "personal new year" - my birthday – which is in a little over a month’s time. 

It ends up looking more like a “To Do” list, but that’s OK - I work better with lists (that I write out) anyhow. This year the list starts with things that will continue to make my home a place of safety, comfort and usefulness. The installation of a new front door, the installation of a wood stove, making the back and front yards into productive garden space (where the deer and bears will allow) growing (and then freezing, drying and canning) my own foods. I need to learn how to actually can foods, but that will be part of the process.

I have a new notebook/diary set aside for this.  I have a red pen ready to start writing.  I have a day off in front of me and I have coffee ready to drink.  What a great way to look at my year ahead – setting my goals. Writing them down. Reviewing what is left from last year - modifying those ones as needed and adding them to this year’s list.  Dates for completion are subject to change – it all depends on the supporting factors like time and money. And weather, and season, and availability of teachers.

As I have mentioned a number of times, I love lists, and one of the things I am planning to do today (a day off) is to start drafting up my 2012 "to do" list. That’s the great thing about having a whole year to work through the tasks (or change them or remove them and add new ones, as the work progresses) there’s a whole year ahead.  

A whole year – one of potential and possibility – stretched out ahead of us.

I know a lot of people had a rough year in 2011.  Parts of it were unpleasant for me too, I’m sure. The thing is, though, that in looking backwards at this year that just finished, the spots that are standing out for me are all good things. In May I welcomed a new Sister to my family.  In July my Nephew joined us. September saw me starting a new full time job, learning new skills for work and taking possession of a new home.  October saw me hit the 20-year mark at my place of employment and December saw my Nephew’s first Christmas – spent with two of his living Great-Grandparents.

So as I wrap up my own personal thoughts on the year just finished I am reminded, once again, of how much I have in my life to be thankful for, and just how blessed I truly am.

I look ahead to 2012 with happy anticipation.

With love across the waters,

The Voices in My Head

To be clear, I'm not hearing voices telling me to find the tallest building in Cumberland and go shoot people.  That is a good thing since it would be hard to do, as, I believe, the tallest building here is the hotel and it's maybe 3 stories high.  I also don't have a gun. I don't like guns, don't agree with civilians having them unless they are used for "working" purposes like protecting other people or hunting for food that will be consumed and appreciated - but that's another posting altogether.

I suppose I could go up to the roof and shoot paperclips at people using an elastic band (a small but useful skill I have developed) but that would be WAY too much work for me today.

No, the voice I am hearing in my head today is my Mum's voice - telling me that, if I am too sick to go to school (or in this case, work) I'm too sick to go out and do yard work. 

I don't take sickkies often - my parents raised (my brother and) me to work hard and to be honest.  Always. For me, this shows itself in the actual number of sick days taken and what I will allow myself to do on one. Today will be the second sick day taken in the past two years. It falls on a Saturday (which is the Friday of my work week) and so I will have three full days off, in a row, to get better. 

So what will I do for the next three days? Nothing I had planned, for starters!  Today I was going to drop off my recycling and see about getting a kitchen-sized trash can. Tomorrow Mum & Dad were going to bring Grandpa up to Cumberland to see my house and then later Sunday afternoon I had been going to have a guy come over with his truck to take a load of yard waste and such to the dump. Monday I had been going to Nanaimo to spend the day with Carrie and Finn. 

What I will actually do over the weekend will look more like puttering around indoors.  I'll take Jasmine out for some light walks, to be sure, but the bulk of my time will be inside doing inside things.  I still need to organize my home-office-come-spare-room... I would also like, very much, to organize some of the kitchen a little better. That will be about it though.  When I get sick, I run out of energy so quickly its scary - and have a tendency, if strained while sick, to get woozy & things go all hazy until I sit down and let my heart stop racing.

I'm grateful to be able to hear my Mum and Dad's voices in my head - and even more than that, I'm grateful to be able to pick up the phone and hear their voices (and the voices of my Brother and Sister-in-Law) over the wires. It's an awesome and very special thing (I think) that when I feel crummy - even at my fine age of (ahem) 40-something, what makes me feel safe, better and taken care of is hearing the voices of my parents - in my head or on the phone.

With love across the waters,

Another Quick Week

Last weekend, the Labour Day long weekend, I had Saturday booked off work (a rarity for me) and spent three absolutely glorious days at the cabin.  Jasmine and I arrived around 7:30 on Friday night and we were across, unloaded and into the cabin just a smidge after dark.

As you know from my last post, by the time I headed for the cabin, I still didn’t have my results from my IFC exam back (I have now, more on that later) and so planned to spend my whole weekend drinking copious amounts of cider and reading as many trashy books as I could in the course of three full days off. Planning a technology-free weekend, I left all forms of communication with the outside world at home.  The netbook on purpose, the cell phone accidentally.  I needed the cell phone.  Oh well!

Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny and (with breakfast in my belly) I got the chairs out and sat on the deck for some sunshine and reading of the aforementioned trashy books.  Saturday afternoon was the last salmon smoke of the summer and family had been arriving since Thursday night.  Mum and Dad arrived around 12:30, Rob, Carrie and Finn a little after that.  It was their (Rob, Carrie and Finn, I mean) first major outing EVER and what an outing it was!  When all was said and done, there were more than 30 family members there!

Finn was a total trooper (as were Rob and Carrie!!) and he handled the noise and many new people like a dream.

I, as per my usual modus operandi, ended up with sunburn.

UNLIKE my usual modus operandi, this one was on my legs AND has morphed into a half decent tan!

Sunday dawned clear and sunny as well, and Sunday morning Jasmine met me on the deck for reading:

Monday, also sunny and clear (what an AWESOME weekend!) I packed up and came home with the high tide (around 2:00 PM) and, once home, gave Jasmine a bath, had a shower myself and then started laundry.  I logged into the computer and……. No results yet.

Hm.

Tuesday morning I got into the office and, having checked at home, still had no results. At around 9:15 I had an instant message from the other staff member who wrote telling me that her results had just been posted and she passed… I logged in and checked and, YES, I passed!

Woo hoo!

Being a short week, things have been busy in the branch and the time has been passing relatively quickly.

On Tuesday my (former) crush was in the branch while I was on lunch.  One of my co-workers came back to tell me. I didn’t bother getting up to go look.  I’m actually quite proud of myself for that one!

On Wednesday the townhouse was shown to 4 different sets of prospective renters and, application approved, they have a new tenant set up for October 1^st so there are now no more showings need to be planned for or worried about!

Thursday, yesterday, was Nephew day.  I headed down to Nanaimo early on in the day and spent until about 2:00 PM with Finn and Carrie.  It was a good visit for me and Carrie, but Finn was a little fussy – we think it is the heat…. It has heated up here – over 30*C yesterday and today (with the humidity) and though yesterday I had to actually drag out the AC unit, today it has been breezy and I don’t think I will have to have it on tonight in order to sleep.

Today I spent my day puttering.  I have made some headway with contacting utilities to have things switched over and have arranged for my local construction guys to come out next Friday to provide an estimate on replacement of the toilet and hot water tank. I won’t actually be able to have the work done until after I take possession of the house (liability issues) but the estimate on that is most important at this stage as I am trying to plan out the money I have to finish this stuff off.  I have opened an account at the local Slegg Lumber office and so will be able to purchase the hot water tank and toilet (and new door) on account and pay it all off later on.

Since it has been WAY too hot to run Jasmine today, we went for a short walk up at the park this afternoon… I’m hopeful I can get out for a bike ride first thing tomorrow morning with her, but that will really and truly depend on what the winds do tonight.  If they stay coming out of the north overnight, things may cool down enough to keep the bike ride safe temperature-wise.  If they die off, we will be doing another short walk.  Poor mutt – not getting enough exercise!

Well, I should close this update off – I have promised myself that I will update my "to do" list, pack at least 2 boxes, and go through my closets and clear out the “not keeping” stuff to ready it for donation…

And I might just do a drive-by at Dairy Queen – it *is* very warm tonight…

With love across the waters,

Progress...

Well, progress is coming along nicely!  Monday saw two of the subjects crossed off the list (title search and property disclosure statement) those two things in hand, the financing was submitted and then approved on Tuesday.

After hugging my mortgage representative (yes, he was in the office and yes, I hugged him) and doing a happy dance, I let my real estate agent know that we are good to go ahead with the inspection - which is booked for tomorrow morning.  Work is letting me leave around 11:00 AM to go complete the walk-through with the home inspector and, provided all is good to go, I'll call the insurance company when I get back to the office to discuss insurance.  That will be the final bits done and the purchase finalized.

I'm trying hard to be very positive that the inspection will be fine.  There really is no point in worrying about what *might* be found.

I'm reminding myself, daily, what my Grannie always told me: "If its for ye, it'll, no pass ye by."

In "other" news, I got to spend a great four hours with my gorgeous nephew today.  We cuddled, we bounced, I sang to him (yep, I actually sang, out loud, where my brother AND his wife might hear me) and he slept like the little angel he is.

All in all, this has been the best summer of my life - and it just keeps getting better!

With love across the waters,