New Neighbour Day

My gut is that just about a year ago a neighbour across the street decided to move to BC to be closer to her children.  Not surprisingly, this same neighbour placed her house on the market.  Though it did take a few days for the house to sell, it did sell a fair bit more quickly than many of the other houses in our neighbourhood that have been on the market recently (there are two on our street that have to be approaching at least 2 years with no movement).

Sadly, soon after the sale was announced it became clear that the house hadn't been purchased by an individual but by a developer interested in demolishing the cute yellow house occupying the lot and replacing it with two much larger homes.

I get a little hazy about the order of operations, but at some point not long after the sale closed the house entered a partial demolition phase - though the demolition was definitely just partial.  I know the front door was removed and I heard rumours that a few of the fixtures were also removed.  Conveniently, the windows were left handy so that they could be smashed at a later date.

At some point between the point of possession and the time of the final, complete demolition the houses being advertised by the developer were removed from the market.  Though we didn't know what, we could tell that something was in the works.

Eventually, as Summer transitioned to Fall, construction began in earnest on the two houses - which now appeared to be mirror images of one another.  Much to our surprise, the houses went up quickly and work on the finishing touches has continued throughout the Winter.

Of course, during this entire construction phase there has been a single, common For Sale sign between the two newly subdivided lots.  As far as we could tell, neither had sold, nor was there much apparent interest in the semi-complete houses.

Of course, it was just about two days ago that I finally clued in to the fact that these 'houses' aren't really 'houses,' but two suite mini-apartment buildings.  Each building seems to have an upstairs and main floor apartment.  How we didn't clue into this fact until earlier this week I will never know (though I think it's fair to say that the developers didn't make a show of it either).

Anyway, today, just days after noticing the two-flat situation we came home from a walk to discover people moving into one of the main floor flats/suites/units/apartments.  Pretty exciting.

Then, after a few errands, we both came home to a second move-in a little later in the day.

Definitely an exciting development for the two new, as-yet-unstuccoed and unlandscaped buildings across from us.

Though I haven't yet seen much activity from the newly arrived residents, I imagine that over the next few days we'll begin to see a little more of them as they get to know the neighbourhood?

Cameron - 8
Neil - 0

The Birds Are Back

It's finally spring and that means that means the annual return of many species of birds to Regina.  Unfortunately, it has also meant the return of two undesirable types of birds to our house and yard.

The first type of undesirable bird to return were those of the dead variety.  So far I've found four dead birds in just the past few days.  Even more unfortunately, I've now also found my first dead robin AKA first dead bird of any real size.  I'm really hoping that these four are it for this trend this year.

The second type of undesirable birds to return this year are the pigeons.

A weekend or two ago we first heard the pleasant and distracting coos of pigeons roosting just outside of our bedroom window.  Since then it has become a relatively regular occurrence.  Maybe the most unfortunate development associated with the return of the pigeons is that they've started hanging out in the roof above our front porch - something we'd really like to discourage.

This morning I finally got around to putting up some of the mesh we used last year to discourage pigeon/miscellaneous bird roosting.  Unfortunately, because prominence (i.e. the front porch) Jeannette was reasonably hesitant to ensconce the works of it in anti-bird mesh.

This reasonable position finally motivated us to look for anti-pigeon spikes that had been recommended to us last year by our neighbours' friend.

At $10 a foot, these spikes are a little more expensive than I'd hoped, but they look as though they'll be a little easier to install and will hopefully be a little less noticeable than wrapping everything in mesh.

Of course, there are still likely to be at least a few locations where mesh will be our only option.

Fortunately for my laziness, it's started raining.  Now I'll be able to put spike installation off until at least tomorrow (though it really should be done as soon as possible so the pigeons don't develop more of a taste for our eaves and porch than they already have).

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.

One year ago today

Exactly a year ago Jeannette and I moved into our current house, the first house either of us have ever owned.

By about this time of day a year ago we were in the midst of painting (I think we started with our bedroom).  For most of the rest of the weekend we were either moving items from our old apartment or painting.

Amazingly enough, by the end of the first weekend we'd painted Jeannette's office and our bedroom.  Within a few days we managed to paint my office.  Also, while the paint was drying we managed to move most of our belongings and set up shop.

Since then we've had to do a fair bit more work, the re-roofing of the garage being one of the most onerous tasks (though the extra electrical work and the burst pipe and subsequent patch job weren't trivial).

Hard work aside, it's been very, after years of apartment living, to have a house of our own.  I'm sure Jeannette's also appreciated finally fulfilling her long-time dream of owning a purple house.




Cameron - 21
Neil - 0

Today's projects or a few of the lesser joys of being a home owner

Maybe about two weeks ago now I started to notice that our drier wasn't drying clothes as effectively as it had been.  Obviously, I immediately checked a few of the obvious potential problem points: the outside vent, the lint trap, the hose running from the drier to the vent.  All of these seemed to be working properly.

After some additional trouble shooting over the phone with my father, and a test run with the drier unconnected to the hose, I've come to the not-immediately-obvious conclusion that somehow the textured aluminum hose and two 90 degree turns are enough to slow down the exhaust enough to prevent the clothes from fully drying - a process that I suspect has been further hampered by low temperatures.

The solution, suggested by my father, that I eventually settled on was to replace the drier hose with a solid, smooth metal tube/duct.  

Today, because I didn't have to work, I finally got around to measuring the distance from the drier out to the vent connection above.  Turns out the gap was 60 inches.

Once I made it to the local building supply store I was pleasantly surprised to find that the material I was looking for came in just two sizes - 30 inches or 60 inches.  I was incredibly pleased to learn that I wouldn't have to hack a longer tube down to meet my needs.

Because of the wonderful coincidence that the size of tube I was looking for was exactly the size being sold the installation process was quite quick.  Lets just hope it works

For the time being, at least until I can determine if today's 'fix' worked or not I'll hang on to the old hose.  

While picking up the aluminum tube I happened to see some styrofoam and was reminded that we had an insulating project that we'd been meaning to take care for some number of months (almost a year at this point).  I decided to check out my options and see if I could find appropriate styrofoam.

As I'd long assumed that I'd need to buy a 4x8 sheet, which is much larger than will fit in our car, I was a little hesitant to proceed with the project.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they sold multi-packs of much smaller sheets.

By also using styrofoam that we received as packing material this past Christmas I was able to fill in the space between the inner and outer balcony doors.  

Though it still seems a little cool in Jeannette's office we're hoping that before long we'll start to feel the benefits of this added insulation.

Cameron - 6

Neil - 0

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.

67 steps later

As some of you may recall, yesterday I mentioned that our new fridge's manual outlined a 67 step process to change the side on which the fridge's doors were hinged.  Though I was somewhat discouraged by the large number of steps and poor photos/diagrams, I didn't have much choice but to proceed with the re-hinging today.

As some of you might have expected, I decided to capture the experience though the power of time-lapse video.


[Embedded video]

Of course, though the process is pretty much complete there are a few steps that I've neglected to complete.  Notably, the location of the original manufacturer's logo is still pretty gunk covered.  Once I get an appropriate cleaner I'll remove the freezer handle and then clean the gunk.  The other remaining step is to remove a little gunk around where fridge door had been affixed to the fridge door.  In total I think that these final fixes/cleaning jobs shouldn't take more than about ten minutes.

Oh, and the manufacturer has been so kind as to provide us with a replacement logo that we can place on the freezer door if we are so inclined - at the moment I'm not so sure I feel like replacing the logo if I don't have to.

And if you're curious, the process wasn't all that bad and was actually pretty straight forward.  Of course, there was one step when a second body was necessary.  Knowing that going into the process would have been nice, but otherwise it was really much easier than I expected.

A quick 67 step process

So about an hour after I learned that a middle of the night power outage restarted our fridge's cooling capacity our new fridge was delivered.  As much as it was a little disappointing to see that our fridge did have a little bit of life, it's also clear that it was not an entirely reliable piece of equipment.

Fortunately, our new fridge is quite nice (at least as far as I am concerned).  Aside from the absence of an ice maker and a water dispenser, the fridge has basically everything I'm looking for in a fridge (adjustable shelves and a freezer).  Of course, the one feature that the fridge does have that I am not so keen on is a right-side hinged door.

As is the case with many modern fridges, one can at least theoretically change the side on which the door is hinged.  The only problem is that the instructions seem to require the new fridge owner to follow a simple 67 step process that involves completely removing both doors from the rest of the appliance and maybe even further disassembling the doors.

I guess that means that I have an exciting few hours of fridge door re-arranging ahead of me tomorrow. Hurrah!

The house of the one gable

My friend Nicole suggested that if I want to solicit house names I should probably provide a photo of our house so that appropriate names might be suggested.  So, as you can see I have provided a photo.

Not really sure if the photo will help, or if the name really even needs to relate to the features of the house, but it seems reasonable to think that it might help.

Name that house!

A few weeks ago I happened upon a Saskatchewan Gazette notice regarding the naming of a ranch under the authority of the Names of Homes Act.

Of course, this was something that I felt I had to look into a little more.

Turns out this act is exactly what I hoped it would be - basically it grants a home or ranch owner the ability to register a name for their home.  How cool is that?

Anyway, as soon as Jeannette and I can come up with an awesome name we'll be submitting the paperwork, waiting the required waiting period, and then naming our home!

So because we're both suffering from naming-block we're open to suggestions from the internet wilds - just leave a comment with your suggestion.

We'll definitely keep you updated with our progress on this front.

Big day at the house

So today was definitely a big day in our new house, at least as far as cold hard cash is concerned.

First of all, we finally had an electrician install a few extra electrical outlets.  Having just one outlet in the master bedroom and no outlets in the bathroom wasn't a situation we're really enjoying.  We ended up with five new outlets.  Of course, the downside of this kind of work is that it definitely isn't free.

Then, while I was at home for lunch, I noticed that the frozen corn I was retrieving from the freezer wasn't as cold or as hard as I expected.  I soon learned that everything in the freezer wasn't as cold as I expected.  Then I started to find that the food in the fridge wasn't all that cold either.  So our fridge blew.

Tonight we went fridge shopping and picked up a new fridge (the upside being that this new fridge should be more energy efficient.

Anyway, definitely a memorable day.

A Few Quick Notes 597

-Well, after several snow free days (and even a fair bit of melting) we're now in the midst of another patch of flurries/full-fledged snowfall.  Bummer.  I guess I was really hoping that by April I'd be starting to get a sense of what our backyard looks like.

-It seems I've had another extended absence from these parts.  Woops.  It seems that working, painting, household chores, etc. keep me away from too much recreational internet usage, and I'm not particularly vigilant when it comes to using the few minutes a day I do have for blog updates.

-Because our house is relatively old and un-updated our insurance provider required that we obtain an additional electrical inspection after we took possession.  Not surprisingly, we had a few things to update.  The electricians did a few hours of work on Wednesday and should be back again today to do the rest of the updating.  We're planning on having them also do a few optional projects that should make our life a fair bit easier (like adding a plug in the bathroom and making sure that we have more than one plug in the master bedroom).

-Ok, now to deal with the electricians.

Why didn't anyone tell me paint is so expensive?

We just returned from our paint selecting excursion.

Not only was colour selection process much harder than I anticipated (mainly because Jeannette vetoed my plan for plain white walls and then also my plan for painting all four walls and the ceiling different colours), but the paint itself was also much more expensive than I anticipated.  Of course, it didn't help that I talked myself out of going for the cheapest of the paint lines that the company offered.

Anyway, we're back now and we have two different whites (ceiling and mouldings), a moldy green, a grey, and a light orange.  Oh, and also all kinds of painting related equipment like brushes and rollers.  At some point in the near future we will have to buy a step ladder.

The worst part of this is that I'm sure that once we're about half way through the job we'll realize that there's something important that we've forgotten (like maybe to buy enough paint) that will cause us to be stalled for some number of hours.

But when I'm not moping about the amount of work this will be and the risk of failure, I'm really quite excited that we'll finally have a place that we can paint and that within about two weeks we'll actually be able to start painting it.  The prospect is a little overwhelming.

Cameron - 7
Neil - 0

Paint shopping

It seems that in anticipation of the acquisition of our new house Jeannette and I will be at least spending some portion of the day doing some paint shopping.  The hope is that if we can have the paint on hand before we move in we will be able to shorten the downtime in a few rooms associated with re-painting.

Of course, one of the problems with this paint shopping excursion is that it's been a few years since either of us have done any serious painting - so we're a little out of touch with what's hot in paint application techniques and/or high-tech latex paints.  And though it doesn't worry me, Jeannette's a little worried about how the whole 'accent wall' thing works.

Anyway, if all goes well by the end of the day we'll have paint and appropriate applicators for three rooms (and we'll have also finalized colour choice for the three rooms we're planning on painting).

Cameron - 6
Neil - 0