Three Trees on Forest

The Wayback Machine - The Inspection

2007-05-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so I thought it might be a good idea to revisit the Inspection as Glenn was the best inspector on the planet and I'm just looking at our report and realizing how good he really was. So even though this is being written in May of 2007 lets pretend its December 12, 2006 shall we.

Click here to activate the Way-Back machine to December 16, 2006

Wow its been a while ...

2007-05-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that, but I can only claim exhaustion! I should have tons to tell you as its been about a month since I posted but mostly it can be summed up in one word ... Gardening.

We have a huge lot 1/3 of an acre and although most of it is taken up by buildings or cement or asphalt, there is a large amount of grass, grass that hadn't been cut in years. The dandelions had a forest going on and the other plants were just so neglected it wasn't funny. So Tim bravely cut the lawn. The first time it took about two weekends of non-stop mowage. The lovely new lawn mower was seriously clogged with moss. Most of the lawn actually was moss until we started treating it with a combination of grass seed, moss killer and grass fertilizer.

While Tim was busy taking care of the lawn areas I was busy planting some stuff. First I put some bog rosemary by the gate because its good luck, I also put some heather plants in with them. Hopefully they won't fight as apparently they are the same family and enjoy the same type of soil ... the things you learn. Around the fence on the perimeter of the south lawn (not really as impressive as it sounds) Kathy planted some lovely pansies which give some much needed colour after all that green. At the base of the trees (those are the 3 trees from the title of this blog) Tim transplanted some of the Fire Andromeda shrubs (shown here) from the area that we are going to use as a food garden to places in the yard that already had some of the Andromeda and needed filling in. I also planted some red Gerber Daisies at the base of one of the apple trees (not one of the 3 trees) which seem to be food for the slugs and or something that doesn't like the flowers as they seem to be pecked off.

We also planted quite a few roses around the house and when I say we I mean Kathy, she really did an amazing job and on one side, by Canada Way, we have white roses on the other side, by Forest, we have red and some yellow and other colours. The planter on the side by Canada Way I am filling with white flowers, yup even some Gerber Daisies. I don't know how it will work out but it seemed like a neat idea when I came up with it. Once stuff gets blooming I'll take some pictures. By the way I'm working on a garden map so once I get that done I'll post it here. Just so you can see the layout and then sorta understand what is happening.

At the base of the 3 trees we have a variety of plants, there is Fire Andromeda, Roses, ferns (which Sooty has a personal war with) and some some stuff I don't really know but I'll let you know when I figure it out.

On the stairs down to the small "birdbath" altar were some flower beds that were hidden by the evil dandelions. Now I say evil even though I quite like dandelions, after all they are yellow and pretty and require no maintenance ... whats not to like. However our neighbour hates them and as our dandelion 'clocks' as I've just learned they are called tend to blow over her yard, planing more of these no maintenance flowers. So in the interest of good relations with our neighbours I have launched an all out attack against this evil. My arsenal so far includes a cool 'weeding contraption' which leaves huge holes in the grass much to Tim's amusement (... not), another cool contraption which replaced the well known spade and, of course, Sooty's amazing shaking ability. So basically what usually happens in the flower beds is I dig out the dirt to loosen it up usually with my cool contraption, then I hand Sooty the offending 'flower' and he shakes it until all the dirt is off of it, then tries to eat it. I usually get it away from him however there have been a few instances of madly racing around the yard after him at which point I figured I probably needed a sieve so Tim got me this lovely thing. The aforementioned weeding contraption is only used on the lawns and has to be followed up with soil with grass seed and fertilizer in it so as to fill in the holes. So far we are winning but there are still a few 'clocks' out there that need to be cleaned ... wait what? is that where that saying comes from. I am amazed though at the roots of a dandelion, some are well over a foot in length and thicker than my thumb at their base. Anyway now that we have dug up most of this stuff we are trying to figure out what to put in there. I have planted some Lavender by the stairs mostly to indicate where the actual stairs are and also as I love Lavender and it loves sun, which it should get a lot of right there.

We still have some raspberries and blackberries, tomatoes and potatoes to plant. The potatoes should break up the land for next year and heck I love eating all of these so it should be yummy around here in fall.

So although it doesn't seem like we have done much we have been working harder than dogs ... as Sooty has just been lying in the sun watching us I can attest to this. We have filled at least 20 garbage bags of yard waste in the last few weeks, yes I gave the garbage man a present well a tip to buy coffee that morning anyway. The lawn is beginning to look lovely and now its raining so we are trapped inside. Oh well I'll just have to go and play WoW.

Love to everyone

Some of the above flower pictures are care of www.Wikipedia.org

Happy Chocolate Weekend

2007-04-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Or as its more well known, Easter! Sooty is still enjoying the plastic eggs that Tim and I received from Kathy. We didn't let him eat the candy, energetic puppy on sugar ... yup thats just what I need. Tim is hoarding his skittles and mine are long gone, such is the way of candy in our house.

To give you guys a bit of a better understanding of the house I have done up a rough plan (yes Tara I used tables in Word and as my mouse awol my keystroke addiction came in handy). The picture on the left (click it to enbiggen it) shows you the way the house looked when we got it, note the confessional. I have highlighted the fireplace room just so you guys will know what I am talking about further on. But thats enough of the boring stuff for now.

Today dawned a little cloudy but warmer than we have seen in a long while. Kathy keeps telling me that the weather that we get on Good Friday is the weather that we will see for the next 40 days, seems good to me. I awoke to Sooty hurtling his way onto the bed and attacking my hair, which it seems offended him. He must have no taste. We then spent 5 minutes tussling on the bed with me saying "Sooty don't bite" about a million times before I gave up on the concept of sleep and took him downstairs. Now in his defense Tim did open the door to let him in. In defense of Tim he had been looking after him for two hours and I think outdid my first 5 minutes with the whole "Sooty don't bite" thing. We got outside and it was lovely and warm and we spent about 2 hours cleaning up the yard and chasing bugs. Ok I did the chasing ... kidding! After raking up 4 large garbage bags of twigs and pinecones and misc yard bits. It was getting a bit warm and so I took Sooty upstairs for a dognap and went to help Tim and Kathy with the drywall.

The fireplace room was attacked with gusto, to give you an idea of what we have done so far, we have removed the outer doors of the confessional and the wall surrounding the doors, leaving up one wall up which we have to leave as there is wiring running in it. Then Tim, Kathy and I started to drywall. Drywall is heavy, anyone tells you anything else and they are lying. We have 6 sheets of 4x10 drywall sitting in the Dining Room waiting for themselves to be put into the Fireplace Room. Tim and Kathy put up a sheet in what was the wall to the confessional and honestly it looked fabola. We were beginning to see what the room would look like.

As it was a nice day out and lovely and warm we then gathered together to paint the chimney for the soon to be installed fireplace. It was a galvanized metal so we wanted to make it match the house a bit and settled on painting it a flat black. While Tim and Kathy painted I took pitty on the puppy and pulled him out of his room for a romp on the grass. He chased a fat bumble bee around the yard while I flaked out on the grass in the sun and tried to hold on to his leash.

More updates tomorrow, promise. Hugs to all and happy easter.

(\_/) Bunny Says
(o.O) "Eat your carrots,
(^ ^) and get cute like me!"

/yawn

2007-04-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Ok sooooo very tired. Well actually the real reason I've been remiss is that I finally picked up a book recommended to me by my Aunt Cynthia. The Algebraist by Iain Banks is extremely good, quite funny and witty and yet it has aliens. All together a perfect read for Sam.

Tonight Tim and Kathy replaced the handles on the cupboards in the Basement. A large undertaking let me tell you, approximately 80 handles were used, but not harmed. This was after some work from them a few days ago getting this monstrosity out from under the stairs. Its a compressor / freezer unit from the walk in freezer. I on the other hand spent some time with Sooty in the yard teaching him how to drop and then sit before I would throw his toy. It seems to have gotten through to him, well when he wants to acknowledge that anyway.

Yesterday we were all working in the soon to be "Fireplace Room", currently there is no fireplace but we are calling it that anyway. I was removing that 'lovely' oak strip flooring (my fingers still hurt) and Tim and Kathy were removing the rather strange wall board from the old confessional. The drawing is by Tim and I think a fair rendition of the over all concept!

Sunday was fabulous here, we did something I haven't done since I was a kid and I really really enjoyed it. Yup we did yard work. All those tree branches that fell in the great windstorm of "Aught Six" are now stacked neatly beside the house in nice little manageable logs. Except for one which is acting as chew toy / air freshener in Sooty's room. The whole place smells of pine which is lovely as I didn't even spray! He actually drags it out into the hallway to gnaw on it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that but I do have one of him relaxing nicely in the hall just outside of the computer room. Isn't that lino lovely?

Saturday was the end of school for me which is sad but good at the same time. I really enjoyed taking the course even though I didn't really learn anything of great importance it was easy and fun. The reason its good that its over is now I have another full day that I can work on the house and hang out with my Squishy (that's Tim fyi not Sooty ~ although I'll enjoy his company too).

Lots of love to all!
Sam

Squeek, squeek, squeek, squeek, squeek

2007-03-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

So goes Sooty's newest toy. He is so spoiled!

Ray just an FYI Tim found your comments hilarious and still bursts out laughing when I remind him of them. Also any chance you know how to put up a fence? *wink wink*

Anyway house, what is happening?

Yesterday Tim and Kathy managed to get the actual freezer unit out of the walk in freezer. Tim was also removing excess electrical that we seem to have all over the basement. To do this he has to turn off the power to that area of the house and then cut the wires, cap them with barrettes and then put a junction box in to hold it all. Then he turns on the power again. If there is a *fitzzzz* sound its not done right! Although we haven't heard anything like that. Wayne our electrician friend will probably have to drop by just to inspect them and let us know that they are all safe. Another thing that we have added to the house is photo sensitive lighting on the exteriors. Making sure that we are only turning those lights on when we need them. I had a look at the garage this evening after twilight and they were magically on! While I was in school Tim and Kathy managed to find a lovely place called Jack's which has the actual bath tubs we are looking for, cast iron and everything. They also stopped by Habitat for Humanity to see if they would like some of this excess stuff that we have, i.e. the gas furnace and water heater from the garage, the wood flooring that we are ripping up in almost perfect pieces, and some bricks that we have in a flower bed. They seemed quite interested so hopefully some of this stuff can get reused rather than just throwing it away.

Today it was a general clean up day at the house. Tim was on pressure washing duty and got the front retaining wall looking nice and fresh. He had a go on his car wheels at the same time. Kathy was doing laundry (god bless her) and painting the basement yet again, what can I say there are a lot of walls. I finished up Kathy's curtains and cleaned up the kitchen and sun room with the debris left there from taking out some of the drywall in the main floor bathroom. I also cleaned upstairs sweeping out the pine needles and washing floors.

Tim was also attempting to remove the refrigeration unit / compressor on the exterior of the walk in freezer. We hit a bit of a snag when the only blade for the reciprocating saw broke but after another emergency trip to Home Depot (we should own shares) for 10 blades, item number 4811, we managed to continue on the job. We still don't have it out though and as the table it is sitting on is cemented into the floor (yup not kidding) we will have to cut the legs of it off and work from there.

As for the other project that I was going to try to complete this weekend being removing the last of the oak flooring from the fireplace room, well that was put on hold in favour of cleaning up everything else. We seriously need to haul away that drywall though, but I suppose we will get to that at some point.

And we are down again ... oy

2007-03-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ok so last night I came home prepared to post on all the facinating items of the day, only to find that the tubes were once again disconnected. I talk, of course, about those brand new internet tubes hooked up to the house just 2 days ago. Well it was not to last, we made the mistake of adjusting our service and it seems like the disconnect order was received loud and clear but the reconnect at a fabulously higher speed got lost along the way.

I'm at school now (yup remembered this week) and so I'm posting from the lovely BCIT campus here in Burnaby with my chai latte, just senic blocks away from my house and I have to say I'm loving this school thing. Who would have thought me, someone who hated the early years of learning would voluntarily do this ... for amusement.

Sick and twisted I know.

Glad to see some people are still reading /wave @ Ray, Cynthia, Tara and everyone else! Thanks for reading.

For all of you who are in the GVRD (you know who you are) check out www.blasters.ca a soon to be super fun place to hang out. I rode my first segway scooter the other day and it was super amazing fun. Almost traded Sooty for one ... but then he peed on Ray's floor so I doubt he would accept the trade.

So right house, whats happening with the house. Well yesterday was an apartment day. Kathy spent way too much time at the old apartment cleaning that for the official end of the month move out. She gets about a million gold stars for that as neither Tim or I were looking forward to it. At the very least she deserves an all expenses trip somewhere but she won't accept it! Stubborn Lady!

Tim and I spent the day at work of course, Tim doing its management meetings thing and me trying to understand why a document doesn't want to open in Word ... even though I asked very nicely. I didn't even hit it this time or anything. We then met up at the old apartment and surveyed Kathy's work. I packed up a few more things and prepared it for the final truck rental next week so it can just be loaded and taken away. Then Kathy deserved a reward, so we took her over to her old haunt the Sylvia Hotel and had a lovely dinner. The Sylvia is great for those wanting a lovely meal with a great view. I recommend the Ceaser Salad and Kathy recommends the liver ... *shudder*.

Sooty had been an amazing puppy for Tim when he stopped by after work to feed him his dinner and have a wander around the yard, doing everything the way he was supposed to and then going back into his room with a minimal of whining. He was of course jubilant to see us once we all got back to the house and enthusiastically played a game of Piggy in the Middle with Tim and I for about half an hour. We were both pooped and he was still trying to kill his monkey! The monkey is the horrid green thing I mentioned earlier. I think I'm going to try to track down a stuffed animal version of a duck. That way when he shakes it like he does he doesn't look like a demented dog flailing a green monkey with no nose or ears. Rather he looks like he is doing exactly as his breed has programmed into him for hundreds of years. He of course wouldn't leave our sides until we put him away for the night.

Sooty is a wonderful puppy and we are more than lucky to have him, I just have to sort out the random messes and biting, then he will be a fabulous member of the family. I'm quite surprised how much his personallity is similar to my previous cocker spaniel Sunny. He is lovely and cudily and so happy to see us ... again Sam not a puppy blog! LOL

The house is still standing, getting used to everything slowly, this weekend my to do list consists of finishing curtains in the basement and ripping up the rest of the oak flooring in the fireplace room. The basement is really coming along as Kathy has been painting up a storm and we have figured out a fix for the mysterious wall over the cupboards ... long story we would have to show you. Tim is going to be marking the front driveway for a fence to cut it off, so we can reclaim that land as grass or trees to block the sound from Canada Way, although I find it nice and relaxing. He was also going to look into slate for the basement entrance way and stairs to the kitchen. If its too expensive we will go with concrete and dye it to look like slate. The reason for this is my Father and I stayed at a lovely B&B near Bath last time I was in England and they had a lovely slate floor on the main level. I love the look of it and I may have convinced Tim it is the way to go. Now to convince him of the bead board in the stairway. We are also going to look into night lights and photo cells so that we can regulate all of the lights in the house. There are way too many to keep track of and we are expecting a rather shocking electricity bill (no pun intended ... ok maybe just a little).

Well hopefully I'll have the internet up at home again and I can wander around the house taking pictures for you to show you what we are up to.

<3 to all,
Sam

PS Father hopefully I'll be on tomorrow *crosses fingers*

Yay I'm back =)

2007-03-22T17:53:00.001-07:00

You will have noticed I've caught up on my posting now as we have the internet at the house finally! I'll try to keep you guys more up to date now. =)

Part Deux

2007-03-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

So like no internets … /sigh. Kathy has internets but Sam and Tim made the Internet Gods angry so the “order” wasn’t put through. Seriously I’m suffering from withdrawl from the entire thing.

However we have a phone … so you can now phone us. What’s that? Will we turn the phone on? … No why would we do that? Then people might phone us … oh what you mean who? Well anyone really! No can’t do that!

I did however check my email at Kathy’s in the two minutes before I was banished cuz Survivor was on. If you didn’t get an answer sorry >.< but I only had two minutes so I prioritized.

Oh interestingly I only got 96% on my mid term … freaking fracking (too much BSG I know) stupid highlighting thing that I missed the instruction on.

Tim misses the internet too. So does Sooty as he wants to meet his online spaniel friends. And I want to look up Sit Happens … oy! And I wanna order a mouse pad for Tim with this image on it cuz he likes it!

Cross your Fingers

2007-03-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

I should have the internet tonight and then I'll do a big update!

Cross your fingers that Telus comes through in a pinch.

The Puppy Stinketh

2007-03-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

So it all started around 4:30 am, Tim got up for work and so did Sooty, or he would have liked to anyway. We ignored him until Tim left for work at 5:30 as we don’t want him waking up at 4:30 am on a Saturday … 5:30 am is fine though … blarg.

I gave Tim a hug and sent him off for the day, ran the dog around the yard a few times watched him do his business and then told him what a lovely but very stinky dog he was. I made a note to bath him later. We then wandered back upstairs where I tried to convince him to sleep for another hour, ended up bribing him by pulling him into the big bed but even that didn’t work. He seems captivated by the birds singing though, its pretty beautiful so I can understand it.

At 6:30 I gave up and fed him and then tried to get ready for the day. Noting the paw prints on my newly washed dress pants I attempted to scrub them with little to no effect. Ah the joy of pets. He sat at my feet very well behaved while he tore apart his monkey, a hideous green thing with floppy arms and chewable ears. I did my make up and my hair, the hair dryer giving him pause more than once when it was pointed in his general direction.

We then went for a lovely wander around the neighborhood, watching the sun come up with the birds all chattering away. Gotta say its worth the price and we should have done it years ago.

The commute was what it always is, bus and train and then I’m at work. Work was fun, Tara was showing off ultrasound pictures of her tummy, my 68 page Report and Opinion decided to stop working and I had to reformat the entire thing (I’m half way though) and I got to train someone on BC OnLine. All in all a well rounded day.

The highlight of course was my Tuesday lunch at Timmies with Sue and Bug *wave*, where we discussed parenthood, puppies, the joys of dating and the relative insanity of buying a house from 1912.

I made it home by 5:30 today and ran about the yard again with the dog again noting the pungent odor of dirty pooch. Definitely time for a bath. We had a lovely dinner with Kathy, she made a great stew which Sooty devoured although he wasn’t too sure about his potatoes or celery for that matter. Although he told me that desert more than made up for it. Yup see I’m going off the deep end! No really the poor guy is teething so we gave him a bit of ice-cream … ok ok he is spoiled but it did help.

Then it was bath time and can I just say wet! Wet! WET! Ok but is he not the cutest thing in the entire world? He is now lovely and dry and sitting on his blanket just outside the computer room. We can’t trust him yet around all the wires as he just sees them as chew toys so we are trying to get him in the habit of sleeping by the door. Hey we can dream can’t we?

Ok so maybe lying quietly on his blanket is a stretch; he is attacking his dog bed (the nice sheepskin one) and trying to take it apart by shaking it so hard I’m surprised his head doesn’t explode.

I also managed to work on another two panels of curtains these ones being the final ones for Kathy’s suite. They are all ready to go except for the sewing. This is in the same blue gingham with sunflower pattern that I was using before.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

2007-03-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Injury alert. Tim and Sooty had a miscommunication as to the status of Tim’s nose vis a vis a chew toy. Sooty apparently didn’t read his email that human skin is not included in the allowable munchables. Tim has since recovered, only needing to blot for a few minutes to stop the bleeding. But the scar will last a life time, emotionally anyway!

Oh right the house … isn’t this a puppy blog?

After looking at the ceiling of the now defunct confessional area we sussed that the upper floor may have fir floors as well. Woot, but lets not get distracted. We talked about what we are going to do in that area once the fireplace got put in, went around in a few circles and then got confused and then went for a cup of tea.

After the tea I swung the sledge hammer a few times and took up some of the oak 1” strips to reveal the fir floor underneath. Tim and Kathy got some unpacking done in the basement, began to review the huge garden and painted some more of the 306 cupboard doors. Sooty decided the noise was all too much for him and hid upstairs where he couldn’t hear the nasty hammer and Sam swearing when she missed the crowbar. On the up side I think I’ve come up with a decent way of getting up that floor and as I’m only a 5th done I’ll need all the help I can get!

After that I managed to chase Sooty down the stairs, slipping near the bottom and knocking the wind out of myself but good! Not to mention I have a huge (ok maybe its just medium) bruise on my arm. It wasn’t the puppy’s fault, more the tile on that stairway … ick!

Kathy had a brainwave so Tim pulled up some of the plywood in the Kitchen to reveal fir floors! We think the entire main floor has it. The only areas we are not sure about is the Sun Room and the entrance way.

Tim and I also managed to fix the sewing machine, even going as far as tinning some of the connections to make sure that they are nice and solid like the originals. I gotta say that the craftsmanship on that thing is amazing. The hot lead even had a little red marker on it that I carefully transferred to the new chord. So that was my first wiring job in the new house and it seems to work fantastic as I managed to get a panel of Kathy’s curtains done!

Oy the Exhaustion

2007-03-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Monday dawned rainy much like every other day as of late, yay March! Nothing really to report other than the weather was icky and by the time we got home we were all exhausted so we basically did nothing, nada, el nothingo! It was lovely – except no internets ... internets how I miss the, let me count the ways, 1 podcasts, 2 games, 3 blog, 4 forums, 5 YouTube, 6 random searches through google, 7 clipart for blog, 8 instructions on potty training for dogs, 9 pictures of other cute spaniels, 10 spaniel communities to join …

/cry

Day 17 Patches! What happened?!?

2007-03-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

If the above date says Monday ... ignore it, its actually Friday March 16th ... no really ... blarg never mind just keep reading.

So I went to work, easy enough, took the bus a different way and I think I shaved a minute or two off of the commute and I got to sit down for a bit more of the ride. Spent the day drafting code and fixing problems for people, all in all it was very satisfying. Then I called home, apparently Tim and Kathy had been super busy, to be honest I was jealous, it sounded like so much fun. Then I went on with my coding reminding myself of hurt muscles and painful hands, content in my lovely little office. A few hours later I got to missing everyone again and called to find Kathy in giggles. She had been painting so naturally I thought the fumes had gotten to her until she explained that Sooty now had a patch over his eye where he had run in to a freshly painted cupboard door. Apparently he was feeling fine but the white paint stood out on his black fur. The image of him like this carried me through the day and I soon found myself on the train home again.

Tim met me at the door and told me to yell out "hi I'm home, really loud" so being the accomidating person that I am (no laughing) I did just that. Sooty came barrelling towards me gleeful in finding his missing pack mate. Gotta love dogs! And lo and behold there was his patch over his right eye.

I was then given the tour of the house, Kathy had painted every cupboard in the basement and Tim had done his best to unpack and fill them. Its beginning to come together folks.

I would go into more detail but honestly I'm exausted and can't remember anything else.

Peace out!
Sam

Day 16 Back to Work

2007-03-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm on lunch eating a carrot (see Father trying to eat healthy) and trying to quickly type something up to keep you all up to date. Aren't I nice? =)

Yup it was my birthday, I'm now 35 and honestly not feeling that much different from 25 other than I have a house and a puppy! So what did I get for my birthday, a pretty lazy day actually and now I'm thinking I should have done something about those drapes earlier!

Skip number 2 got hauled away yesterday, filled to the brim with garbage (i.e. old freezer, oven, range top, mattress and all sorts of other goodies). We think we will probably be able to fill yet another one but its going to take longer than a week.

No Internet at home yet and our phone still isn't working but on the up side Shaw finally fixed our television.

Sooty made it through the night and hopefully isn't having a melt down without me there. A cute/funny thing that happened with him was what I am calling the Great Esteak. It involved a steak, an escape and Tim and I almost collapsing in giggles. Picture black cocker spaniel puppy making a run down the stairs with a huge steak (ok huge in his mind) in his mouth. He thinks he is getting away with murder ... or steak theft, even though we gave him the steak. I think he seriously was thinking he is going to run away now that he has enough provisions. The amazing thing was he managed to yip and bark with the excitement of Tim and I chasing him trying to keep him away from the renovations and not loose his precious steak. Thats talent folks. I finally got a leash on him and ended up feeding him the steak small bites at a time in a sunspot in the back yard. So it was puppy heaven.

Curtains are up on one side of the basement (see Phil) and as soon as I repair the sewing machine's cable that Sooty bit through I'll make the others.

The main bathroom on the main floor is now gone ... woot Tim and Kathy for that tough job. That tub was stubborn but it finally came out.

Tim is at home today (after popping into work for a meeting) making a built in computer table which should be fabulous. I'll be sure to get pictures of the finished item once he has it completed. The day before yesterday (and I think the day before that too) he went around replacing all of the lights in the house, the florescents are no more which is a good thing after looking at the ballasts ... um melted = bad. Not to mention the scorch marks on the paint under the old fixtures. The lights that we put in seem to match the house quite nicely and they actually give nice light to read by.

Kathy helped out immensely yesterday as Tim lost his last contact lens. She drove us up to Metrotown (a mall close to us) and Tim got in for a quick eye exam and two sample sets of lenses later was a free man! She then drove me down to the old apartment to pick up my computer (and my beloved scotch - Cynthia please thank Garry again for that amazing find!) and other various things. We then dropped some sandwiches off at the greatest Doctor ever ... yup thats you Dr. Rondeau then headed back to the house.

Sadly we learned that Walter who had been the manager of our building since we moved in passed away on March 9th. He was a lovely man and a good friend so we were very sad to hear that he had succumbed to his cancer. He and Lala (aka Donna) will be the thing that we miss most from our stay at Beach Towers, they certainly kept the place immaculate and always had a friendly word and the occasional hug after a hard day at work.

Again with no pictures (sorry) but I'll try to burn a disk at home and then post them from here tomorrow.

A week in review

2007-03-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

So here I am sitting in my Word Class (its coffee break) trying to remember everything that happened in the last few days. This is just the "Coles Notes" of what happened so everyone doesn't feel totally out of the loop.

Bug I'm taking Word Complete at BCIT, going for my Microsoft Office Specialist eventually. 6 weeks, 6 hours on Saturdays ... kinda tiring but no worse than work and the questions are easier ... at least no one is asking me to use HotDocs to automate an email through Word while telling me that VBA is useless ... oy.

Ducks ... ok ok I mean ducts ... boy are they clean and now the house has lost a lot of that musty smell. E&H Duct Cleaning you guys made such a difference! They were in for only a few hours, left the place clean and assured me that all the cleaners that they use are natural and environmentally friendly.

Intertubes (Sam Translator: Internet) are not working ... woot. So we have to get our ISP to rewire the house for us, which I'm sure they will do ... for a fee.

Phone ... again with the not working. If you are calling us and leaving a message on our home phone we will not get it until we drive all the way back to the apartment and check the messages. Also on the phone front, my cel gets lousy reception in Burnaby, there is one spot in the yard which is a pseudo sweet spot but as I am running around inside the house I'm not always at the sweet spot. If you have called me and I haven't called you back so sorry but I'll be back at work soon and I'll chat with you then.

Movers ... grrrr no comment. Although they did come in under quote ...

Electrical ... Wayne buddy you totally rock and thanks for your help. I must email you with that list.

Inspector ... Glenn dropped by and I still think he gave us an unbelievable deal on the inspection.

Name Change
Hereinafter Buddy shall be known as Sooty. Tim reserves the right to call him Buddy and Kathy is still calling him dog, however she did admit that he is a good dog and she likes him! His name is taken from one of my favorite shows when I was little called Sooty and Co, Sweep was a contender but I always prefered Sooty and honestly I didn't like Sweep's water pistol trick.

Garden ... we were lucky enough to meet Harold, one of our neighbours who does landscaping on the side and I think Sooty has him wrapped around his little finger. So we should be able to get that sorted out soon enough.

Basement
Furnace ... we now have heat. I will do a more detailed post on this but Brent from Moore and Russell you rock buddy! Seriously. Tara, I'm positive they could fix your sound issue.

Chimney ... was so filled with gunk I'm surprised there wasn't a fire. Thanks May for giving us the imputus to change the system.

Washer and Dryer ... finally! Yay clean clothes.

Main Floor
Kitchen ... well its kind of a mess ... thank God for Kathy's suite. Tim is uncovering the chimney in all its brick goodness so we will have it featured in the new kitchen. Interestingly the chimney has a hole where the old stove would have vented into it. The old vent hole was not capped but just covered with dry wall ... it has a scortch mark on it which is quite scary. Again we are glad we took out that wood furnace. We will probably be using the old vent hole as the vent on the new stove and based on that I have a feeling that Kathy's design will prevail. The sink will have to move which means we loose the view from the sink, but there you go. The oven has been pulled out as has the range and half of the island. I'm beginning to see how huge this kitchen really is. We have figured out how to remove the tile ... it involves a da dat dit machine from Home Depot (thanks Edward you are a sweetie) which is basically a small jack hammer with a wide blade on it.

Living Room ... filled with stuff from the move but we are beginning to see the way it will eventually look.

Fire Place Room ... no more confessional (but you knew that) and it looks like the book cases will look amazing. We will also be able to have a TV over the fireplace ... I'm voting for plasma!

Cynthia fyi the confessional was a full catholic deal with the screen, kneeling step, stain glass doors and everything put in by the Monks (and nuns apparently) who lived there in the late 60's (Pre destruction picture here). We were talking to our next door neighbour (she moved in in 1959) who apparently didn't think too much of them, the monks that is, not the confessional.

Dining Room ... we exposed the hard wood floor and pulled out the cupboards ... oy.

Bathroom ... soon to be gone. And can I just say ick!!!!

Upper Floor
Everywhere ... marked by Sooty (nee Buddy) and cleaned by Sam

Bedroom ... somewhat organized but I only have a 1/3rd of my clothes and 3 pairs of shoes roflmao ... so that will change.

Alarm Clock ... must find it! Woke up at 8:30 grabbed Sooty (aka Buddy) and took him out for a quick pee, ran around looking for a mirror to put on make up ... panicked and then Tim kindly droped me off at BCIT and I was only 3 minutes late ... sorry Donna!

Father, I will probably not be on tomorrow *huge hugs* though and I can't wait to talk to you!

Pictures as soon as I can ... yes including pictures of the puppy formerly known as Buddy!

Ok guys back to school now
xoxoxo

Day 5 - Quiet!

2007-03-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

Holy Cow the place is quiet, so quiet we couldn't really sleep, that and Buddy did whimper a bit, but he was a champ honestly. No accidents in the night and when I took him downstairs he went wee right away.

We had to leave him at the house but he has his own room set up (see we are being good Mr. Puppy Man) with his bed and some water and food for him. We are at the apartment packing stuff up now, hopefully the internet will be set up there soon and I'll be able to cart my computer over there.

Anyway Tim is ready to leave so gotta run, hopefully there will be a 5b at some point.

Day 4 - Nothing to See Here

2007-03-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

So I don't have much to report as Saturday was my school day so I missed 99% of the fun that was happening. However when I got home the place was way cleaner, the pile o debris in the living room was gone, the front entrance yard was clean of branches and the third floor porch was way cleaner. Also the beds had been delivered so thats why this post was late, we actually slept there!

After waking Tim and Kathy up from a nap on the new beds we headed over to Home Depot to exchange the Pressure Washer for an electric version and then went back to the House to test it. The front retaining wall will certainly look very nice once we get it all cleaned up.

Then satisfied that one actually worked, we headed off for dinner at Swiss Chicken. Over desert I managed to talk Tim in to checking with the Puppy Guy to see if he knew of any cocker spaniels who needed a home. AND GUESS WHAT ... he did!!!111one So we have a new member of the family, Buddy (name subject to change). He is four months old and they were beginning to worry he wouldn't find any humans but he is perfect for us. Old enough to be left on his own a bit here and there and still young enough to bond to all of us. He is a gorgeous black with a little white star on his chest and I don't think I put him down for about 2 hours after picking him up. We managed to get him a bed and a chew toy (which he is currently ignoring in favour of my hand) and he slept very well beside our bed last night.

We did have one amusing moment where upon taking him upstairs to the bedroom he decided at that moment to give us a present, after all we were so nice to him. After trying not to burst out laughing we did the whole NO! Bad Puppy! Bad! and then proceeded to clean up the mess and air out the bedroom. Oh well he just wanted to make his mark.

No pictures again as we were too engrossed with Buddy but I'll get some today and you can revel in his loveliness.

Day 3 - FIRE!!! Place

2007-03-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well so like ... I'm not as young as I used to be. So very tired. The morning started off like normal i.e. Me, Tim and Kathy up at 5. This time on the way to the house we cataloged our various aches and pains. Wacking stuff makes things sore, cleaning stuff makes things sting, walking is just painful. My hands ... oy, then the feet omg so need a pedicure. For Tim its his hands and his back as he is hitting things even more than I am. Kathy ... everything! LOL she is always the over achiever.

We attempted to hit the storage locker on the way to the house this morning but the fates were against us as someone hit the emergency stop on the gate which meant it wouldn't open. So we drove off with the empty truck and were sad.

The most fun thing today was ordering a skip. An hour later it was there. Thanks Super Save it was awesome service! We pulled all the junk out of the garage and a few (ok lots) things left by the old owners. Also we are still trying to find a home for a gas dryer, 2 gas furnaces, a gas water heater, a (icky) range top, a dishwasher and a stove. If you need any of that call us to pick it up should you want it, otherwise they will be donated to Salvation Army quite soon. Sorry I can't ship it to England and with the power thingy it wouldn't really work anyway.

We put the new wet dry vac to use cleaning up the cobwebs in the basement so when the furnace guy arrived it was nice and clean. Little issue with that though ... the furnace guy didn't arrive. But its nice and clean down there now so it all works out.

Kathy was a champ, spending 3 hours cleaning the fridge in the upstairs kitchen. It smells fresh and sparkles which was a major accomplishment if you had seen it to begin with.

Jeff from Vaglio dropped in to see us and assuaged our fears about the whole dealio. It's going to look fabulous and they don't even go through a wall ... just the roof. We have to paint the chimney as its galvanized aluminum, but that should be no problemo. Its a bit of a bummer that it will take 2 weeks to get it put in. We are now thinking of the mantle etc but as Tim said we need to figure out how much space the fireplace will take up. We also want to throw a small window in on the right of the fireplace as there is an existing window on the left, yay symmetry ftw! (Sam Translator: ftw means for the win)

Tim says Hi Everybody!

Other than that we basically half filled the tip with the junk from Mr. Destructo's visit and Tim pulled out some of the shelves and cupboards in the garage.

Pictures? There are none as the batteries on the camera wore out ... freaking camera.

We were bad though, this afternoon we stopped at Army and Navy and picked up sexy work boots for Kathy and I and then we just came home and had a nap. See Theresa you didn't miss anything and Sue I hope you got my message! Then after being recharged by Chinese food, we headed back to the house, stopping at the storage locker to pick up some chairs to sit on. At Princess Auto and Home Depot we got a pressure washer and some gardening stuff. We also did a bit of research on cement paint, it looks complicated, but then again doesn't everything. We couldn't resist Timmies for another double double before we dropped everything at the house.

I used a swiffer for the first time and Tara I take back anything I ever said about them, fabulous little things. Tim and I also got a peak through a hole in the main floor ceiling at the floorboards of the top floor and low and behold they appear to be the same as is on the main floor (cross your fingers everyone)! But we will deal with that floor after Christmas. After putting some instant coffee in the fridge to clean out any lasting smells we hit the road.

Shopping List
Work Boots x2
Pressure Washer
Chainsaw? ... How much?
Smoke Detectors ... too many to pick from must call Wayne
Cement Paint
BBQ Paint price check
Spade
Shovel
Rake
Washing Up Liquid

Todays Awards
MVP: Swiffer
Most Memorable Thing: Owwwie
Most Interesting Find: Hardwood Upstairs hopefully
Quote of the day: "thats what you think Mr."

Night all
ZzzZzzzzzzz ... z.

Day 2 - Confess! Oopsie too late!

2007-03-01T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hello again everyone, trying to fix the comment thing but honestly code all looks like greek to me. Kidding! Kidding! David I'll be fine by the time I get back I promise ~ grateful for the rest actually.

Day 2 and I'm pooped ... Tim (aka Destructo) is pooped ... Kathy will not admit to being pooped but I saw her wince today and we all know that means she is beyond tired.

Last night we totally cheated and slept at the apartment and it looks like we will be doing that again tonight ... the airbed is comfy but honestly I want a nice mattress to come home to. Ok ok I'm a wimp. Anyway we were up at 5 (Tim is a bad influence) and out the door well before 6. We stopped of at Timmies (Translation for the English folk - coffee and donut place) and grabbed a double double (thats Canadian for coffee) and a breakfast sandwich (thats Canadian for ambrosia) and then we were off ... sorta. Tim had to pop into work for a few minutes (i.e. a couple of hours) and Kathy and I got out the Lisol and started cleaning like mad. But just before he left we heard a blip of what we thought was the security system. Just a blip nothing more so of course after years of training in apartment buildings we ignored it. What? Kathy and I then attacked the 3rd floor with relish ... but I think it won to be honest ... I even scrubbed floors (no its true). 20 minutes later another blip, then a screech, then another blip. Sam looks up and then continues scrubbing. 10 minutes later all heck brakes loose, a piercing alarm threatens our ear drums and this time I grab the phone and call the security company. The lovely man on the other end patiently explains it cannot be his system as his computer doesn't show a problem. Well since I always trust computers I started looking for another thing that was yelling. What? Ok ok I argued with the guy for 5 minutes and then he had to ask me if I had smoke detectors in the house or something like that. And yes I did ... 5 or 6 of the little $#!#'s. So I unplugged them ... all of them ... why are you looking at me like that?

About 4 hours later Kathy and I had removed one level of dirt and Tim made it back to start in on the confessional.

Long story short ... its not there anymore. We have a lovely wood pile and bunch of wall board, but we also found some fabulous stuff. Wallpaper that we think is original and hopefully we can scan it and through the wonders of photoshop paper the kitchen with it. Tim also found a dime circa 1980, at this rate the house will be paid off in no time! Oh also Tim's hard hat was a key player today as a board with a nail in it attempted to attack Tim without provocation. Ok so he hit it we didn't expect it to bite back.

Good news for you we remembered the camera ... bad news ... Sam did most of the shooting. Oh even with that warning you want the address for those? Well they can be found here. And of course, me being me I forgot to take a picture of the lovely hardwood we found yesterday ... what? I'm tired!

Other than that we had some guests ... nope no one you guys know *poke*. The Electrician Wayne, popped in. He is an old friend of Kathy's and she trusts him with well electrician type things. He nicely let us know that the 2 aluminum wires are contained within the box and are in fact ground fault breakers. When I asked if we could change the wire he looked at me like I was insane and said "but thats the way they make them". Yay I'm a noob! He looked at the screechy things (smoke detectors) commented that they were old and we could pick up some new ones tomorrow and just plug them in. Yay Home Depot! Also those weird flickery lights on the main floor, he is going to take care of those.

We were also visited by the Locksmith "Father" O'Malley, he isn't old or a priest as far as I know but he is another pall from Kathy's former career and so now we have brand new shiny keys. Considering that the house's prior incarnation was something like that of a group home this is a good thing!

We also managed to clean up some of the mess from ripping out the confessional, we still have the pile shown in the picture though. Oh well I guess we will need that skip after all.

MVP Award: Tim's Hard Hat
Most Annoying Moment: "Do you have any smoke detectors in the house?"
Most Memorable Thing: Double Double

Shopping List
Wet Dry Vac
Broom
Bigger Broom
Flashlight
Batteries (freaking Swiffer)

Night all
ZzzZzzzzz

Day One - Moving Day?

2007-02-28T22:56:00.000-08:00

Well not quite as honestly it was kinda insane. Kathy and I got the keys just before 12 from our fabulous real estate agent (thanks again Phil you rock) and he let us know that the house wasn't really what you might call "clean". Understatement of the century but there you go. Not a big deal and honestly we expected that. The other annoying thing was though that the previous owners had left mattresses and other large items there. Again very annoying and costly to have such things removed. Phil negotiated for us like a champ (as per the norm) and got the previous owners to come in and pick up the junk. Sounded good to us.

Kathy and I spent the rest of the afternoon running around picking up supplies anything from milk to safety glasses. At about 3 we finally got to the house, complete with a chicken dinner from Swiss Chicken =) no need to go hungry you know. When we arrived there were 3 guys with their truck moving said mattresses and junk, the problem was they were also taking the wood ... yup our wood that Phil specifically wrote into the contract.

Considering all of the other things that had been going on ... so not getting into that right now as you don't need to be reading a rant ... I think I was fairly calm. Apparently the nice young guys didn't understand calm so Tim had to come in and get them to understand ... wood ours ... truck blocked by our van ... truck not moving with wood. Gotta love Tim <3 So we came to an agreement as apparently the previous owners had promised the wood to a kids camp thingy so they will deliver some new wood to us asap ... and we have just enough left in the woodpile to get a good fire going in the new fireplace once it gets installed.

FINALLY Tim threw me over his shoulders and we got inside ... no really I'm not kidding, the poor guy picked me up and carried me over the threshold. Kathy's downstairs suite is quite clean and orderly and other than needing a complete clean on the oven can't really be faulted. Upstairs is a different story but thats for another day.

No pics cuz Sam is a stupid head and forgot the @#%!!! camera but just in case you cannot live without a fix here are the terrible pics from the inspection.

Pulled out one of the sets of cupboards (see picture 36) and boy do we have a lot of wood ... oh ya and the really cool thing is I pulled up the lino in the soon to be dinning room and guess what we found .... CHERRY 3/4" HARDWOOD!!!!111one

All in all a good day. Freaking tired going to bed now ... zzzzz

Most interesting find of the day: Pitch Pipe
Most fabulous find of the day: Cherry Hardwood
Most annoying moment: Its our #@%$ Wood
Most memorable thing: the smell ... oy the smell

The Inspection ... duh dun dun dun DUN!

2006-12-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

I was quite nervous about the idea of finding an inspector and talked to a bunch of friends who had bought houses to get their ideas on the subject. All said get one and everyone had different ideas on what an inspector should do for you. Basically I wanted to go though everything with a fine tooth comb and be there when they did it. I talked to some people who weren't too keen on me being their before I found Glenn. He was so excited, he wanted me to be there, to learn from him and the house. I got a good feeling so I booked him on the spot.

I hardly slept at all last night, I'm just so excited to be in the house today. Its too bad that Tim will only be able to stop by in the after -noon (if we are still here). Anyway its pretty cold out today, not freezing but still chilly. The snow has melted but hopefully we get some for Christmas just to make it feel all festive. Kathy and I arrive at the house at about 8:30 am, what can I say we are excited. We are waiting for Glenn our inspector and the home owner to show up and let us in the house at 9:00 am. The wait actually gives us a chance to absorb the neighbourhood and understand the early morning schedule. So far its just lots of kids off to school and all of that, nothing really scary. The majority of the kids looked interesting rather than scary, there does seem to be a majority of Asian kids which is kinda cool as I grew up in a mainly Asian area so I understand the culture enough not to make a huge social error.

I snapped a picture of the other side of the house (the south side) showing the deck on the 3rd floor and the kitchen. This also shows one of the apple trees. To the right of where this picture was shot, directly across from that small window on the right of this picture is the Fireplace Altar. Wandering around the other side of the house again I took the next photo of the Birdbath Altar, you can also see a small amount of debris from the pine trees on the other side of the house. This is an indication of how bad the windstorms were that blew through the area and how much of our trees were actually affected. To the left of the Birdbath Altar is the famous garage, mild mannered by day, bunker by night. For those of you who don't know, the garage is actually two floors, the upper being where all the cars etc are stored and the lower being a 'living area' which term I use loosely as no one would live down there. However there is a gas furnace, water heater, hot and cold water and electricity so it can be quite cozy if not completely illegal for living purposes. That area will turn into Tim's shop for various things like model building, metal casting and painting studio.

Glenn showed up shortly after we did and started viewing the outside of the house just to get a feel of what he would have to look for. He immediately started taking notes and pointing stuff out to me about the foundation, the state of the driveways and things that he would be looking out for. The tenant showed up just a bit after 9am to let us in, unfortunately he wasn't able to stay as he had to work but he did wonder how long we would be. When Glenn said 6 hours I think both the tenant's and my jaw dropped. Apparently Glenn does a detailed inspection - YAY.
We started off slowly in the Garage and on the top floor and honestly I was amazed at the amount of stuff that they packed into the garage, oh well more space for cars and bikes so I didn't worry too much. Glenn wandered around testing all of the plugs he could find, one of them was reverse polarized so he carefully noted that in his report. We then went downstairs as the electrical panel, hot water heater and furnace were all down there. He then decided to treat the Garage as though it was a separate house, who could have blamed him with all of the things to look at in the simple garage. We went through each room down there (all 3 of them) checking plugs and switches. Unfortunately as the hot water tank and furnace were not active, he couldn't test them but did estimate their age. This wasn't a huge concern to us as we would pull them out eventually. An hour later we emerged from the Garage and decided to look at the roof oy ... well it might be a good place for a garden. We noted the drain was partially clogged and the dip that may account for the small leak in the roof. That would definitely have to be replaced.

Ok well now it was finally time for the house, an hour or so had passed with us inspecting the outside of the house and the garage and it wasn't really any warmer. We went right to the very top of the house and started working our way down. Glenn was poking in everywhere showing me the crawlspaces and the attic, commenting on the airflow in the house and the general structure. So far it was looking good with little glitches here and there, like stair heights not being even and the like. The attic is quite small only a foot or two at the very peak of the roof as the third floor is built into the eves of the house. In the boys room where our computers will end up is an access that is basically large enough to slither through like a snake. Not a happy prospect for me but it didn't look as though anything there needed fiddling with so there shouldnt' be any slithering required. We had a look at the skylight which Glenn opened and confirmed that it looked to be installed correctly. He also tested the wood casing for indications of leaks or water and found none. At that point I began to get really interested in what he was talking about so the camera was forgotten, so any pictures were snapped latter. Next we went into the main bathroom (Pictures 1; 2 & 3) on the third floor. Although the bathroom itself seemed fine, Glenn suspected that was due to lack of use. The bathtub/shower did not appear to be sealed correctly and the toilet appeared to be sealed to the linoleum instead of the actual pipe as it should have been. He recommended that we get some caulk when we move in and seal the entire thing asap. We then moved on to the powder room next door and that seemed fine except for the chip in the sink and general bad taste in decorating. The smaller of the girls room was next and other than a missing set of interior windows there were no surprises there. The next girls room had unfortunately been a victim of a cat poop attack which I tried to miss in my picture. There was nothing amiss in the upstairs hallway either and a quick test of the emergency lighting did confirm that it was actually functional. We then went and had a good look at the deck, it looks as though the covering used wasn't the most fabulous type so there was some water damage to the wood underneath. However it wasn't bad enough that a few days of warm and clear weather coupled with replacing the flooring wouldn't fix.

We then moved down to the main floor, but after typing all of this I am exhausted ... hopefully I can finish this later.

All pictures can be viewed on my flickr as I'm sure you all know.