It never ends (but at least we now have something shiny)

The previous owners of our house, the adult son and daughter of the previous resident, were very much unlike people one is often warned about when buying a house.  They were both quite open about the work it would take to maintain the house as well as many of the problems they knew to exist - and they definitely didn't sugar-coat anything.  One of the things they mentioned, and that we've since been able to confirm, is that the people they hired to re-enamel the bathtub didn't do a very good job.

Soon after we moved in the new coating began to peel from the side of the tube.  As is common with these things, the area began to grow and grow.  Eventually a second location began to peel.  Eventually, each bath would lead to several square inches of peeling.

It became clear that a new re-surfacing was in our future.  Of course, given the life-span of the last refinishing I wasn't too keen on rushing into another round if it was not going to even last 2 years.

Fortunately, we learned that the previous re-surfacing was done by a fly-by-night operator and not the main re-surfacing company in Regina.  The main company in Regina has a reputation for good workmanship and has resurfaced the bathtubs of friends in the neighbourhood.

So yesterday, after 2 years of an ever worsening bathtub we had it resurfaced again.  Amazingly, the whole process - including stripping - only takes the better part of a work day.  So now that we've let it dry overnight we should be ready to use it at any point today.  

I can't wait to test it out later today.

Cameron - 4

Neil - 0

Working for the weekend

It's just after 10:00 AM and I already feel as though I've got hours of work under my belt.

The major project I've been addressing this weekend is to put the aesthetic touches on a handrail in our basement that I constructed last weekend.  The posts (rather ugly 2x6s) are being painted a greyish colour while the hemlock handrail is retaining its natural colour.

The handrail was given a quick second coat early this morning and should be ready for a third and, maybe, final coat this afternoon (though I have a sneaking suspicion that a fourth or fifth coat may be ideal).  As each of the first two coats have been significant improvements, I'm hopeful that these additional coats will really be worth the effort.

The first of my removable posts has now been given two coats of paint is ready to be re-installed once it has fully dried.  Once this post is back in place I will swap out the other post and give it two quick coats and then re-install it.  To save time I have pre-woodfilled the second post so that I can have two streams of drying occurring simultaneously.  Ideally, both posts will be complete and back in place by Sunday evening at the latest.

Of course, while allowing paint and finishes to dry I've been busy taking care of other chores.  Dishes, laundry, and baking have all be going on in the background.  Sadly, I suspect laundry, which we've allowed to pile up all week, will also stretch through the weekend.

A Few Quick Notes 614

-Though thunder showers were originally in today's forecast, it turned out to be an almost perfect day.  It's been sunny, still, and about 22 for quite a while.

-Much to my chagrin, thanks to coaxing from Jeannette I ended up watching today's 'Labour Day Classic' between the Roughriders and the Blue Bombers.  After the lead changing hands a few times in the 4th quarter the Riders managed to pull out a last minute victory.  Despite the lead changes, it didn't seem to be a particularly exciting or well-played game (not that I'm in a position to be much of a judge of these things).

The best part of the game was from about the 1st quarter on when Pierre decided to take a nap on my lap.  He more or less stayed in place for the rest of the game (even after I repositioned him).

-Sooner rather than later Jeannette and I need to arrange for a new garage door.  We did some preliminary investigating a few weeks ago and a little more today.  Hopefully we'll have something fingered out in the next few days.  The upside may be that the new door should be much better than our old door, even before it was broken.

-Our garden harvests have been quite plentiful this year.  Today I was able to make some cabbage soup with carrots, green beans, and potatoes from our garden.  Maybe today or tomorrow I'll have to head out and snag a big harvest of spinach and kale and also a squash or two.

The new soil and raised beds we added to our set-up really seem to have helped.  If we're able to add two more next year, as we're planning, we should really be in position to have a substantial harvest.

-Maybe I'll manage to get Jeannette to go for a walk this evening.  It really is a perfect night for a walk.

Spring is coming

After a very solid four months of Winter, Regina's forecast finally includes several days in a row with daytime temperatures above freezing.

While I'm sure that just about everyone in Regina is ready for the Spring thaw, I'm also sure that just about every in Regina would have preferred not to have the 30, or so, centimetres of snow that we got over the past few days.  

And to top off the impending thaw and new mounds of snow, our sump pump has recently started behaving erratically.  Instead of just engaging when the float is lifted by water as it should, the pump has started operating whenever it is plugged in.

If we know what's good for us we'd probably take this last day of cold temperatures and had to a local sump pump supplier and pick up a back up pump before everyone else in the city also discovers that they are facing similar problems.

We might also take this time to try to fill any problematic cracks in our basement foundation, a task we've been putting off for a number of months.

Of course, because we're both feeling a little under the weather and are moderately sedated with cold medication it's possible that neither of these advisable courses of action will be followed.

A Few Quick Notes 602

-Though cloudy, today wasn't a particularly cool day.  Since our sudden and unexpectedly resilient snowfall of a few days ago I expect full-blown winter to arrive with each dawn.  When I leave the house and discover winter hasn't yet arrived I'm both pleased and disappointed.

-The arrival of winter would be even more welcome if our fireplace was fully functional.  At the moment the chimney is in need of a serious cleaning.  Until we have it cleaned we won't be able to determine if it's safe to use, and if not how much work might be required to make it so.  While I'd really like to have a fully functional fireplace this is likely something that will have to wait until at least next year.

-We went on a somewhat lengthy shopping trip this afternoon.  As usual, once we're out on our weekend shopping trips we keep remembering additional items that we've been meaning to buy.  Also, at least this normally happens, we tend to forget a handful of items necessitating future trips.  Fortunately, the items that we forgot today weren't so important that we'll have to head out today or even tomorrow.

-My 'smart' phone, or at least its operating system, has been behaving somewhat erratically for the past few weeks.  It seems that the major update has really negatively impacted the operational capacity of the phone - despite the fact that this was presumably exactly the opposite of what the developers intended with the new update.  Anyway, it's definitely been a frustrating way to waste a few hours.

-Now that we're a few weeks into fall the sun has started setting not long after I return home from work.  While this is to be expected, the transition has been happening a little more quickly than I expected.  It won't be long before my walks to and from work will occur mostly in the dark.

-A few days ago I combined a few ingredients and made some pea soup.  I'm continually amazed at how simple, yet tasty, pea soup can be.  Maybe even more impressive, is that the stuff seems to keep getting better in the following days.

-Turns out homeownership is definitely time-consuming.  This weekend I had the pleasure of spending a fair bit of time installing a single board above one of our basement windows.  Not only will this board be used to hang a blind, it will also improve our house's security as it will also prevent one of our windows from easily being pushed in from the outside.  While I'm not pleased at how long this project took, I am pleased with the results.

A Few Quick Notes 601

-After a few days of regular thundershowers and downpours we've had a few rain free days.  While the days haven't been quite as sunny or warm as I expected, they've nonetheless been a welcome change of pace.  Actually, aside from the fact that they're not quite as sunny as I'd like they've been almost perfect (not to windy or hot or humid).

-Today we went to an open house/jazz concert that was held down the street from where we live.  Not only did the open house allow us to see one of the units in a row-house complex we'd been contemplating when we were in the housing market, we got to hear the jazz band while were outside working in our yard.  The only bummer was that by the time I was finally ready to go the jazz band had finished their show and was packing up.  I guess this will teach me to be a bit prompter next time I was to see a free outside show.

-The regular pea pod stir-frys we've been having with our backyard-grown pea pods have been really wonderful.  I think that next year we'll have to consider doubling the portion of our garden we devote to peas.

-Our very own sweet little Marie has been really misbehaving the past few days.  It's been a real bummer following her around just to clean up her messes.  We're hoping that now that we've switched her back to the kitty litter she'd been using for her first few months with us that she'll calm down (but that may be too hopeful).

-As of this week the our house is now completely repainted.  The body of the house is purple and the trip is a cream colour.  We both are quite please with the outcome.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the colour change seems to be attracting a fair bit of attention.  Most drivers seem unable to drive by without at least slowing, some even come to a complete stop.  Pedestrians, as you might have guessed, are also frequently stopping to look at our newly purple house.  I get the impression that the people of Regina aren't quite used to houses being painted purple.

-I guess it's time for me to get back to dinner.   Hopefully it hasn't burned in my absence.

A Few Quick Notes 600

-We seem to be heading into another grey and rainy prairie summer's day.  Yum.  If we're 'lucky' we may even get to have a few thundershowers and whatnot.

-I guess it's a good thing that we just installed our second rain barrel below your garage's new roof and eavestrough then?

Unfortunately, our smaller rain barrel is below the downspout that is likely to collect more rain.  Eventually we may have to try to switch these barrels around - but for the time being and as long as I am disinclined to cut up our downspout and then re-attach it to our stucco siding we may have to stick with this less-than-ideal arrangement.

-Oh, and did we mention that we're painting our house?  The process should start in earnest next week.

Maybe the new colour will help with the naming process?  Of course, I'm not entirely sure that I like the idea of naming our house something like "The Eggplant" or some other name that is entirely dependent on a house colour that may not be permanent.

I guess we could consider something like "Jellybean West"?  (For those of you not familiar with St. John's, Jellybean Row are colourful row houses in downtown St. John's.)

-I think I may have mentioned it before, but our cat seems to really like hanging out in boxes.

This shoe box seems to be Marie's favourite, though if she's in another room she'll pretty much take anything that's available.

For instance, laundry baskets are definitely a suitable stand-in.

-Despite the aforementioned risk of thundershowers the sun seems to have just found a slight crack in the cloud cover.  Of course, it's now clear how long this situation will hold.

Unexpected consequences

In a recent post I mentioned that our tub was checked for a leak but in the end it turned out that the leak was in the neighbouring apartment. At the time I thought that this was good news for us and rather unfortunate news for our neighbour. In the short-run at least, it seems that it may actually be the other way around.

This morning, in an attempt to access the neighbour's tub plumbing, building management cut a hole in the wall in our front hall.



Unfortunately, once the hole had been cut they realized that there was plywood blocking access to the desired pipes. The consequence of this mission of discovery is that we now have a rather unsightly hole in our front hall that will need to be repaired in the coming days (and the superintendent has assured us it will be). The other bad news, meaning in addition to the unneeded hole, is that if they cannot fix the leak from above our neighbour's tub will likely have to be removed for the leak to be fixed. This will surely be a rather significant inconvenience.

The other thing that this encounter has taught me is that Neil doesn't keep up with the blog as much as I expected. It seems that he hadn't read the post about the possible leak and was thus surprised to hear about the leak when they came to cut a hole in our wall this morning. This is something of a blow as I imagine that I could at least count on him to be reading this blog on a regular basis, but it seems that this is not the case anymore.

A Few Quick Notes 173

-While today has been a little warmer than yesterday the high of 12 was a little disappointing. Fortunately, the sun was a little more visible than it has been these past few days and the rain seems to have temporarily stopped. While we are supposed to carry on in a similar vein tomorrow, it seems that the middle of the week will put us back into the rain and fog cycle.

-Tomorrow my father and I are scheduled to head out on a converted fishing vessel to go iceberg hunting. Though one might expect me to know approximately where we are going I don't. Hopefully we are able to see a few impressive bergs, and maybe even scoop up a few of the smaller pieces of ice.

-This afternoon my father and I removed a section of wall at the adjoining house. This is the first demolition of this house that I have taken part in since my demolition party of '05. Unlike the last time, this experience involved less beer and tools more complex than bare hands and feet.

-In a few minutes, even though it is less than ideal weather, I will head out to the back patio and toss a few burgers on the grill. It is likely that once Greg and I finish eating that we will head to the downtown region, though this hasn't been settled. As I have to leave on the early side for my boat trip I hope not to stay out all that late.

-Yesterday my sister went on 'tour' with her youth choir. This is her first tour with the choir since she joined last fall. While previous tours have taken choir members to such places as England and Denmark, this trip will seem them visiting such towns as Gander and Harbor Breton. As far as I can tell she seems to be enjoying things so far, though I have no idea how the singing is going.

-I think that the recent posting drought is likely related to the over abundance of posts that occurred while I was in Sint Maarten. After such an output and the subsequent diminished excitement level the idea of posting every day has seemed difficult and somewhat unimportant (as I guess this entire exercise is anyway). Anyway, I guess I will see if I can continue somewhat regular posting as we enter the Summer.