Rec Room Reno ... Part Four

Day Four:  two trips to the dump, a few hundred nails pulled, two exhausted kids, one thirsty husband, many aching muscles, one lonely dog and one clean and very empty room.  A clean slate.  Oh, and we pulled the ceiling down in the back porch, emptying out mousey drywall and insulation ... is this how those critters are getting inside?

Rec Room Reno ... Part Three

The sun came up early this morning!  Really, it did!  An hour early to be precise, due to Day Light Savings time, either switching to or from, I don't remember.

After rousing the kids and putting on our work clothes, it was after nine am!  Not a very promising start.

Here's the order of the day:

Step One:  Pull out nails from wall.  

Step Two:  Affix hat firmly to head and mask firmly to face. As boss yanks ceiling down, try not to shriek too girlishly when you see evidence of mice (nesty bits and poopy bits).   

 Step Three:  Carry ceiling pieces to back of truck to take to the dump. Do not step on nails.  As dust settles, day dream briefly about Florida sunshine.

 Step Four:  Toss demolition hat. Don chauffeur hat. Drive kids to job and bronze med class.  Do not think about mess.  Procrastinate the clean-up.  After all, tomorrow is another day.  Enjoy the late-setting sun tonight! Spring is inevitable.

Rec Room Reno ... Part Two

Day two was off to a slow start due to fencing lessons and grocery requirements, and our work force was depleted by 50%. The remaining two tore off the panelling, the wood trim and bid farewell to the messages written on the wallpaper.  

Step One:  build temporary wall to keep critters out.  

Step Two:  tear out ugly stone wall.  The eat lunch and await reinforcements.

Step Three: tear down drywall.  Read old bits of newspaper from 1979 found in wall hidey-holes.  Find treasure in fireplace which as not been opened since we bought this house.  This poor fella came to visit and never left ...

 Step Four:  work work work. Pull nails. Yank on drywall. Stuff in pail. Wonder if it's too late to go to Florida for March break.  A day at the beach seems pretty ideal right about now.

Step five:  tidy up a bit. Say goodbye to boss who is going to watch the Daytona Supercross at H's house.  Have a shower. Laundry. Ready for tomorrow.

Au revoir!

Finally ... Rec Room Reno, Part One

Finally!  We moved into this house almost four years ago, and we've been living, or surviving, with plywood floors ever since.  So now, on our spring break, we have enlisted the services of two local day labourers, S and J, to help with the renovation.

Step one: move out the furniture.

 Step two:  arrange furniture to mimic final layout, to see how it fits. 

Step three:  marvel at crazy seventies fireplace design. 

Step four:  ask shirtless day labourers to arrange TV in living room comfortably for the duration of the renovation. 

Step five:  remove snow from back deck to aid in the removal of debris during the demolition.  Try unsuccessfully to drive around trailer. Move trailer. Shovel snow around trailer and try again. Spin truck tires in mud.  Stand in the cool sunshine and think about driving to Florida to surprise grandparents, abandoning renovation entirely.

 Wonder when teen day labourer became such a great driver and how he can effortlessly steer truck and trailer through muck and snow with nary a four letter word. 

 Step six:  take final look around empty rec room. Smile at cute grafitti on hideous wallpaper.  Take note of important phone numbers in sharpie scrawl.

Let both day labourers have a well-deserved PS2 fun break after attaching all those snakey wires to make the TV work. 

Take a deep breath.

Tomorrow:  demolition day.

Kicking Jack Frost in the Snow Balls

What a whollop of snow we got yesterday! Yet today the sun is shining and it's a gorgeous day, nothing like the monstrous gusts and squalls of yesterday.  In all, there's 30 centimeters on the ground, heavy to plow and exhausting to shovel. But Scooby loves it!

Rural Friday Night Fun

Ah, the things the youths come up with to entertain themselves on a cold winter's night ...

The commotion woke us up and we saw the dirty rats in action as they sped off to do in the next mailbox.  Later the OPP said 20 mailboxes on our road were vandalized. Smashed. Demo-ed. 

Boo.

Thoughts of a Brass Monkey

It has been awfully cold these past few days and this morning the temperature is hovering around -18 with a wind chill that takes it even lower!  One of the old windows in our house needs desperately to be replaced.  How do I know?  So glad you asked.  Because it doesn't quite keep Ol' Jack Frost far enough away.  Take a look:

 On a more positive thought, my brilliant grade nine child has created a thing of beauty in shop class. During the session in metal shop, he made this rose. So gorgeous!
I can't wait till he makes me a Subaru Outback in auto shop.

Snowy News

So far this winter has been gorgeous, with lots of snow and not too cold days. Scooby has taken to posing regally at every opportunity, so I can't help but take his picture.

The danger of this glorious snow is that when unplowed, the driveway can be quite slippy. So slippy, in fact, that one's mini-van just might slide slowly and irrevocably into the ditch, as mine did.  But my knight in shining armour came to the rescue (the shining armour was really fleece and thin-sulate) and retrieved said mini-van out of said ditch, and he didn't even laugh at me.  Well, just a little.

Most Sincere Apologies

It has been far, far too long since my last blog post and I am sincerely sorry for the hiatus which was unintentional and entirely unforgivable.  In my defense, these past months have been busy ones.  A visit from relatives in Texas, a trip to the east coast with a gaggle of travel-mates, a week of glorious fun-filled camping, mad preparations for my new (LTO) grade one classroom followed almost immediately by mad preparations for my new core French classroom, which is PERMANENT!  The first weeks of school were crazy: learning how to teach core French in an entirely fresh and engaging way took up 110% of my time, and waking up with a racing heart before the sunrise really took it out of me. If I could sleep past 3 am, I felt somewhat rested ... and ready for the onslaught of the day. Now it is beginning to feel manageable, and my husband suggested I take a look at this long-neglected blog.  Et voila!

Now for pictures!  I will try to post some of the highlights from these past months. Enjoy!

First up: 
P's birthday in early October ... mmm ... cheesecake!

Somewhere in New Brunswick, at a touristy lighthouse that had information on local sights:

In old Quebec City, with the Chateau Frontenac in the background, on a day where the temperature fluctuated between blisteringly hot and unbearably humid: 

At low tide at Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick, posing quickly before other beach-walkers ruined the picture:

Happy 80th Birthday, Poppa!!!!!!

What a terrific occasion to celebrate! P's dad is eighty years young and grandkids from near and far came to partake in the festivities and cake.  There was also fruit which on a hot and sunny day was a delicious treat.  

These cousins don't get to see each other very often because two of them live in Texas, far, far to the south. This heat wave is nothing for them. In fact, I had to convince them that parkas and Sorels weren't necessary.  


After the birthday cake, the kids sat nicely on the couch and let me take a few photos of them all together.  Thanks for not goofing off, guys!