JesterKiss

Who wants to move to Steveston?

2011-09-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

Our sweet new suite is finally finished (Took us 13 months to build a whole house - two full years to finish a little 1- bedroom suite - but who's counting). Had a nice tenant all ready to move in September 1st and she phones August 30 to tell us that she can't move after all. (court order due to divorce proceedings? - I'm not going to ask for the details) So now our poor lonely suite is sitting empty just waiting for someone to move in and love it. It is very lovable.

Here's our ad that we're going to post at the Richmond Hospital and Kwantlen college since the bus down the street runs right past both of those institutions. It's also on Craigslist.

Available Now: New 1-Bedroom Suite in Steveston

$925/Month including utilities

A fabulous location for a transit user and/or cyclist; on a bicycle lane and two bus routes.

Take a 10-minute walk into Steveston Village or hop on the C93 out front to go into Steveston Village or the other direction to Riverport .
Just around the corner catch the Gilbert/Bridgport bus to go directly to Richmond Centre; the Canada Line station; Richmond Hospital or Kwantlen College.

This is a brand-new suite in a custom designed house with a private entrance and alarm system. Features:

radiant in-floor heating
travertine marble tiled galley kitchen
full-size stove & fridge
tiled bathroom with full-size tub (& shower)
carpeted bedroom
new washer and dryer in suite

Isn't it cute?
The first two pics are in the ad, threw in an extra one here.

Kim & the boys installed the kitchen, I did the Pergo floors and all the tiling except the tub walls.
We kept the colours all very neutral. So neutral in fact that I had to do a little 'staging' for the photos so the rooms didn't look so stark. They're just waiting for someone to add their own personality now.

Now that that job is done next on the list is:
-landscaping our backyard.
Yay, another archaelogical dig to do with lots of left-over construction materials and other buried crap waiting to be dug up and sifted through.
Kim's spearheading this one since I took on doing the same in the front yard -all by myself.

Wrap-up

2011-01-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year that bloggers get all introspective and philosophical about the past year and their goals and plans for the coming year....

Bah!
One more down - bring on the next.

2010 feels like it was rather short on creativity for me.

Well, it is a little hard to follow two years of designing and building our own house, (Which, by the way is still not completely finished) but I feel like last year was quite sloth-like.

Oh wait, there was that fun little thing I did outside.... the front yard, that was it. I landscaped our front yard. A little creativity went into that - I hope. (the way I creatively veered from the landscape architect's plan 'just a little bit') That deserves a post of its own, I have lots and lots of pictures.

For now, mostly just to remind myself that I really did do something last year, here's a few random things that I made:

A picture
to hang on the wall.
Bit of a departure for me.

I call it an accidental landscape.

I really liked the way this sheet of clay turned out so tried to do something that didn't involve chopping it up and making beads or boxes or whatevers out of it.

I was going to mount it on a canvas and frame it but couldn't bring myself to cut off the edges. They're the most interesting part of it IMO. So I built a clay frame and let the edges drape, or rather flop, over the edges.

After I had shown it off at my guild meeting, pronounced it finished and hung it on the wall I realized it's not quite finished yet. I think it needs something growing out of that rock-like bit in front. We'll see what happens. (maybe something'll grow by itself if I wait long enough - hmm too much time in the garden Jem)

A planter (sort of)

Here's what you do when you're given a lovely Peace Lily but don't want to look at the ugly plastic pot it came in and it doesn't need re-potting yet, and/or you don't have a nicer pot, and/or you're just too lazy to re-pot it.
You make a polymer clay 'plant sleeve'. That's right, it doesn't have a bottom, no real function at all except decorative.
And I don't have to re-pot it, at least until it gets completely root-bound.

A tumbler.
I had a chance to try something new at our open house at work this November. I actually made this!:
Although I do refer to it as "the tumbler that Liz & Mitch & Malcom made with me sitting on the bench getting in their way" here's proof that I did have some hand in it's creation
(Note to my Mom: you can click on any of these pictures to see them bigger - don't worry she is NOT touching that molten glass with her bare hand - it's a photograhic trick only.)

This is what that bucket of water is really for: cooling off scorched fingers when you stubbornly do exactly what you have been adamantly warned NOT to do.

Many thanks to Liz and Mitch and a big hug to my friend Deb Groom for taking all the glass-blowing pictures.

And don't worry, the glass-blowing was a one-time thing. I'm not taking up any more hobbies.
(uh-oh I just put that in writing, didn't I?)

Knit one...

2010-12-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

While my studio table seems to have become a repository of everyone's stuff-that-doesn't -have-an-official-home (I confess, most of it's mine) I've been indulging in other creative pursuits (AKA things to keep my hands busy while lounging in front of the TV so I don't destroy my cuticles with that horrible habit I've developed lately.) (New Year's resolution #1?)
Fortunately my knitting has resulted in a few nice gifts so it also helped the Christmas budget... theoretically...
that is it would have if I wasn't so easily seduced by all the gorgeous (read "expensive") yarns in our local specialty yarn shop. Wool & Wicker, right in the middle of Steveston Village, just to warn you so you can stay away if you're as weak as I am - it's a very dangerous place.

It all started with the desire to knit a nice scarf for my MIL for her birthday.
I'm quite a few years behind the times so I jumped on the 'striped Noro scarf' bandwagon' long after it had passed. I saw it on the Yarn Harlot blog so it had to be good.
Noro's Silk Garden is a yummy Japanese silk & mohair blend yarn that changes colours as you knit. If you alternate rows between two balls you get a wonderful stripe that is addictive to knit. All the colours are to die for and I recommend just closing your eyes & grabbing a couple of balls or you'll lose hours out of your day trying to choose.
I don't have a picture of my Mother-in-Law's scarf but it was the most beautiful jewel-tones and I was hooked.

That day that it snowed (you know you live in Vancouver when you can say that & everyone else knows which day you're talking about) I found myself unable to get to work within a reasonable time so took the day off and stopped to visit my Mom on my way home.
I was raving to her about the lovely scarf I had just finished: how much fun it was to knit and how I'd love to knit one for myself but with Christmas coming I couldn't justify spending that much on myself. Especially since I would like a nice long one that would take 4 balls of that rather pricey Noro.

Mom took out her wallet, handed me some cash and said " here, go knit yourself a Christmas present."
I was thrilled and, after finally escaping from the Silk Garden colour-choice black hole, went right home & started knitting.
The phone rang shortly after. Mom calling to apologize. She realized after I left that she got her math wrong & had only given me enough to buy 2 balls of yarn.
I told her not to worry, being given the money for 2 balls was enough of an excuse for me to splurge on the other 2.
She said "But it's bad enough that I'm making you make your own gift without making you pay for half of it!"

Here is the finished product in all it's glory. Thanks Mom!

To be honest I'm not as thrilled about the colours as I could be. I was drawn to the colourways that were predominantly greens and black but I'm not too crazy about those pale pinks and salmon bits that were hiding inside the ball.
Oh well, that's what's exciting about knitting with this yarn - it's always a surprise.
It hasn't been blocked yet so it's a little skinnier than it will be. Although it remains to be seen if I get it blocked before I wear it out. Or get tired of it and unravel it to knit something new.
These colours might look better in a non-striped something.
Like maybe one of these lovelies.....
This scarf is also unblocked but I have incentive to do it soon because it's destined to be a birthday gift - along with that trio of skinny bangles.
Here's a preview of what it'll look like blocked.
The yarn is a beautiful hand-painted sock yarn I bought at the summer market in Whistler a few years ago.
The woman I bought it from takes pictures around Whistler, then uses her photos as inspiration for the colourways of her yarns.
This one is called "Thimbleberry". In my scarf shots the colour is a little washed out but this pic of the yarn is much more accurate.
I like to include the yarn label with the finished product when I use a special yarn like this but I can't find this one. At least she can see a picture of it.
The Thimbleberry scarf was inspired by a sample I saw in that aforementioned evil yarn shop. I escaped without opening my wallet (that time), went home to my trusty "Vogue Knitting" book, found the instructions for the 'seafoam' stitch and made use of that sock yarn that I still had because I was having serious doubts about anyone needing socks the colour of thimbleberries.
Much more appropriate as a scarf.

Among the 'gifted before they were photographed' items were a matching pair of incredibly soft "baby alpaca" simple single-rib toques that I hope are keeping my In-Laws' ears toasty warm on their winter tramps through their new neighbourhood parks.

I'm considering starting some socks as I received some good feedback on some of the ones I gave away a few years ago when I was on that big sock-knitting jag. Still have two neglected pairs that only need the toes sewn up. Some for me this time? (Resolution #2 - sew up sock toes while it's still cool enough to wear socks)

Still on knitting, I took a big leap of faith today and bought enough yarn (at Michael's, on sale; I'm being responsible) to knit myself a very cute lacy cotton cardigan. As it's been many years since I've committed myself to anything larger than a pair of socks I figure that my timing is probably pretty good for me to have it finished in the right season for wearing.

As for that scary picture of my workspace up there, I'm happy to report that that's what it looked like yesterday and I have made considerable progress since then.

Enough that I'm heading up there right now to have a little clay-time before knit-time, before bed-time.

A Christmas Victory

2010-12-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Against the odds, this year I finally got my way when we picked out our Christmas tree.
And it only took 20 years.

Kim and the boys have always liked a big, thick cultured tree. You know, the puff-ball hedge-like ones with branches so thick and close together that the ornaments lay limply all over it, rather than swinging gracefully from the branches. They've always turned their noses up at the natural, un-butchered kind with long thin branches and lots of room for tucking presents and ornaments in against the trunk. "Those are Charlie Brown trees." As if that's a bad thing.
Every year they got their way. Not because they can all out-arm-wrestle me (which they can, even when they were pre-schoolers) but because it's always been 3 against 1.

This year Kim & I went tree-shopping alone and Kim must have been in a charitable mood because he didn't even hesitate when I hopefully pointed to a tall 'natural douglas fir' and said what about this one? Or maybe it was because it was a good 3 feet taller and 1/3 the price of the cultured ones he gravitates to. And we have a vaulted ceiling that fits a 9' tree. Anyway, I got my tree this year, but boy, did I pay for it.

I have to admit, it didn't look like much when we first set it up but I remained optimistic, trying in vain to convince my family that it would look good once the branches relaxed and we got it decorated.
Cole showed his diplomatic potential: "no offense Mom but that tree looks like crap."
As we decorated it, Shea, my tree-trimming partner, grudgingly admitted that he "could see the appeal of a tree like this." Not that he actually liked it, but he could see how some people might. He's a very empathetic fellow, my Shea.
I like it, especially with a Grandma in front of it, lots of presents underneath, family gathered around and the smell of Christmas brunch in the air.

And I think my boys have come around to appreciating its quirky beauty.
Although I suspect we'll be back to a fluffy cultured one next year.

I hope everyone had a Christmas as wonderful, warm and family-filled as mine was.

Instant Gratification

2010-11-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

It's been along time but I'm finally finding some time to spend in my studio.

Don't have a lot of time (or is it merely patience I'm lacking? I have the same problem with knitting: drowning in hand-knit dishcloths but not a sweater in sight.) so I've been making some very quick-&-easy bangles. It feels great to use up some of my scrap clay and patterned sheet stashes.
Pretty soon I may even have to resort to ripping the wrapper off a new block of clay.

Aside from the instant gratification bangles I also have one or two artsy-fartsy large-ish projects in the works. They're still in the "lets try this to see what happens" stage so no pics yet. (if ever) Adding to my box of things-that-didn't-quite work.

Excuses, Excuses

2010-04-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hi Interwebs, did you miss me?
It takes more than one reason to keep me off the computer for this long and here's my list of excuses:

1. Kim, my audiophile husband has been researching, buying & selling stereo stuff (don't ask me, I don't even want to know) so he's been hogging the computer and I haven't bothered shoving him off because....

2. I buggered up my shoulder (again) and it's really aggravated by our computer set-up here so I'm trying to limit my home-computer time. Shoulder was, and keeps getting, hurt by all the digging, raking, & hauling around of dirt because...

3. We've been spending all our spare time landscaping our front yard. Took a couple weekends of shopping to find and buy some very pretty trees that should be big enough to satisfy the city's requirement as replacements for the ones we cut down to make room for our house. Now the top-soil's on and shaped, trees are planted and I've been shopping, shopping, shopping for plants (I've been shopping for plant bargains since January) and our courtyard looks like I'm opening up my own nursery. No lawn for us so we need a lot of plants. I've been having fun re-arranging all the pots, designing the layout and now can't wait for a free, rain-less day to put the plants in the ground. Which can't happen tomorrow because...

4. I'm working again you know, at a job, every day almost. And am still trying to re-adjust my after-work schedule to fit in everything that used to take me all day long. And the gardening won't happen this Saturday because...

5. It's the start of our annual birthday frenzy: 6 birthdays in 6 weeks. Plus a wedding reception to attend and Mother's day's in there too. Cole's is the first. My baby's going to be an adult. 18 years old.

6. But the main reason, the biggest time-sucker-upper in my life is of course:
We have SIX five-week-old kittens. 6 master escape-artists; 6 bundles of non-stop entertainment; 6 always-hungry eating machines; 6 mess-makers that need to be constantly cleaned up after because they're just learning you know and if they have one paw in the litter box when they do their thing they think they've done real good.

Kittens, Kittens, Kittens

2010-03-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's about time for a kitten update.
They're three weeks old now.

Zoe couldn't make up her mind where she wanted to to build her kitty nest so it was fun waking up every few days to find them somewhere new.
Or, being woken up in the middle of the night:
"No Zoe, you can't keep your babies in Kim's sweater cupboard. Quick Kim, close the door when I lure her out with this crying kitten."
And realizing that cats really don't have any spatial sense as Zoe rudely wakes us up to rescue the squealing bundle she dropped into a tiny space behind Kim's bedside table before realizing that there wasn't even room in there for her, let alone 5 more kittens.

She's now made a full circuit of our bedroom, starting at the back of our closet for the first few days.

one day old

After being locked out of the sweater cupboard she found a space in the corner beside the cupboard, behind a bin which we had to move out to make enough room for them to (barely) fit.

6 days old

The morning after the midnight rescue mission we found them squeezed in behind my bedside table, which we then pulled out another foot so they wouldn't have to sleep stacked up even higher than their usual sleep-clump.

7 days old

After experimenting with trying to feed the kittens under an armchair that she could barely squeeze herself under, she finally settled on the space between that armchair and the last corner of our bedroom. We placed a box (that nice cozy one we had prepared that she kept rejecting) across the opening to enclose the space and tucked rolled-up blankets into the crack under the chair to prevent any wandering. This is where they've been for the past 2 weeks but it won't last much longer.

10 days old

Now that their eyes are open & they're walking...

Tiger-face and Number Six at 17 days old

(I'm being generous by calling it walking- they lurch, stumble, stagger & teeter around like a bunch of 4-legged little drunks, although to give them some credit, lately they haven't been falling over onto their backs quite as often) they're soon going to outgrow the nest & we'll have to try and convince their Mom to let them move downstairs into their own pad. With their own 'sand-box' to play in even!
Then Kim & I won't be woken in the night to kittens squealing "NO NO Mommy, I don't WANT a bath right now". She pins them down & washes them so vigorously we can hear her tongue rasping across their fat little bellies from across the room.

Here are some newly-open eyes:

This is Number Five but since he opened his eyes we've taken to referring to him as "the little bear cub" Not one white hair on him. (that's someone else in the bottom corner)

Here's Tiger peeking out from under the pile of his sleeping siblings. 12 days old and still half asleep

11-day-old Tiger-face.

Before you think "OMG they are SO pathetic at coming up with names" I should explain that Shea won't let us name them because we won't be their final home (except for the one we keep, which I will choose... some time... later... I have lots of time to decide so stop bugging me) so we call them by descriptions, or their birth order.

Silver and Number Six at 12 days.

Silver, who was first born (first to do everything, that rascal) was first to open his eyes and Number Six was last, still not fully open here.

The only one missing from this line-up is Mittens, aka The Squealer.
Before the kittens were born Shea said that if one of them had white front paws like Zoe we would have to call it Mittens, so there you go.
We could have come up with something more interesting if one of them had had tall white "stripper boots" on his back legs like Mom. (I mean the kittens' Mom, not my Mom)

Oh, and we still don't know who's a boy and who's a girl.
I've tried, but I can't tell the difference between an "exclamation mark" and a "semi-colon".

Cuteness Overload Alert

2010-03-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

I certainly didn't intend this blog to be "all kittens, all the time" but certain out-of-town family members have already been clamouring for kitty pics so I'm giving advance warning that it may be just that for the next little while.

Monday March 8th, 7:30 am. (there, now I have a record of the date)
"Shea, get up or you'll be late for school"
"I am, but Mom, come here."
"OK, what is it?" (which excuse this time?)
"Just look in the closet."

There was our Zoe on the floor of Shea's closet with two soggy little mice-like creatures nuzzling up to her.
I'd been telling her all weekend she better hurry those kittens along because I was starting a new job on Tuesday & I'm sure she wouldn't want to have them alone. At least someone still listens to my advice.
I checked around her just in case there were any more and my heart sunk when I found a 3rd bundle, still encased in its placenta. Poor Zoe, so overwhelmed she missed this poor little lost one.
Then it moved.
I quickly ripped open the sac and put it in front of its Mama.
"Quick Zoe, those two are clean enough for now, this one needs your attention."
She licked and loved that little one back to life. Another black kitten.

Once that crisis had passed this new family needed something more comfortable than the floor so I brought up the cozy box we had prepared for them. Now how best to transfer them? Of course, move the babies & Mom will quickly follow.
I shooed my own offspring off to school - at least they have an interesting excuse for being late today - then turned back to count the little line-up to make sure all three were settled and eating.
"One gray plus one, two, THREE?! blacks. Where did that 4th one come from? Boy, you're fast Zo, wish it was that easy for us humans to give birth.

While giving her a congratulatory pat I thought her stomach felt a little lumpy so wasn't very surprised when Number Five arrived with a little shriek.
This one was all black from head to toes, with not a speck of the white markings that distinguished his siblings. Feisty, too. He just couldn't find what he was looking for, even with two juicy nipples right in front of his face. I nudged & pushed him in the right direction, even resorted to bumping his little nose into the nipple but no go.
He was positive his siblings were hiding the best ones & plunged right into the row of contentedly suckling kittens, burrowing under them.
Little silver must have been the first born, being the cleanest, and was an old pro at latching on, not interrupting dinner to smack away pushy little brother (sister?)

First picture of the rather rumpled new family.
Bet you're glad my camera battery was re-charging so I missed all the gooey, just-out-of-the-wrapper parts.

A Six-Pack!

A full 2 hours after the first ones, we had a big surprise: Number Six.
A funny-looking little black & white clown.

I scooped up the first five and put them in a basket to give Mom room to look after Number Six, who also had to be rescued from the placenta.
Five kittens in one handful:

I put #5 back with Mom & #6 before the rest to make sure they both got a chance to get the knack of this latching-on thing before they had to fight with the older four for some nipple time.

Take note of this, one of the only times you'll see Silver not latched on to Mom. That one has a voracious appetite.

There are six in there. Click on the picture to see if you can count them all.

And you have to click on these two to get the full adorableness impact of hours-old kitten ears (above) and little tiger faces(below).

The Case of the Disappearing Kittens

After a day spent in Shea's bedroom with adoring admirers peeking in, we brought the new family downstairs to a nice quiet room of their own. We re-considered this move when we realized that Zoe was obviously torn between her need to be with the kittens and her desire to be around her human family. I wondered if we would have to pack that box of kittens around the house with us so Zoe wouldn't feel neglected but decided in the end to leave them downstairs for the night.
5:30 am Kim woke me up. "The kittens are gone! Zoe's downstairs alone, I've gone through the house and can't hear them anywhere."
"Zoe will lead us to them. Won't you girl? Where are they? Show us where your babies are."
Right on cue, off she trots - straight to her food dish.

After checking out all the hidden nesting places Zoe had been test-driving the past few weeks, and out of ideas, I made it back to our bedroom, and there, way in the back of our closet, I found a tangled little pile of peacefully sleeping kittens. (that's #6 bottom left, with the pink nose)

Resourceful Zoe found a way to be with her kittens and still keep her old habit of sleeping near us.

Wonderful, now I come home to find my small walk-in closet crammed full of teenage boys (one even brought his girlfriend, is my closet now a date destination?) trying to see the new kittens.

Back-To-Work To-Do List

2010-03-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

Looks like my days of sitting in a bubble bath reading trashy novels and eating
chocolates all day are coming to an end. (Ha, I wish. Although I will admit to taking a lot of long hot baths recently but that's purely medicinal - I've been working hard turning over sod & digging up weeds - and buried construction garbage - to prep our front yard for landscaping)

I'll be starting a new job next week in the office of Robert Held Art Glass.
And yes, this is a much more suitable place for me than the excavator parts and generator places I've been hanging out at the past ten years.

Having been unemployed for almost five months though, I have a few things to do to prepare for my re-entry to the workforce so I've started a list:

1. Shop
For some pretty specific items. You see, one of the drawbacks of having a fabulous new large-capacity washer & dryer and not needing to do laundry as often is that you start running out of certain items of clothing. This hasn't been an issue for the males in the house since Santa has a policy of filling stockings each year with socks and underwear but for some reason his policy has never extended to me (aside from a few interesting pairs of..... wait, we really don't want to get into that here). No problem with me at home, able to throw in a load when I need it but now that I'll be back on a weekend laundry routine I'll have to load up at Costco's "accessories" department.

2. Get a Kitten to Keep Zoe Company
Oh wait, scratch that, she's already taken care of that one on her own, the little.... oops sorry, we've already established that she's to be referred to as a 'Queen' now. (see previous post)
Her little companions should be arriving any day now, hopefully this weekend when we're around to offer some moral support and maybe have some say in where she decides to drop her load.

3. Re-establish "Boys' Cooking Day"
Tuesday is my yoga night & since I can`t eat before class I had, years ago, decreed Tuesday as the night that the males in our household get to practice their culinary skills on each other. This had fallen by the wayside with me at home but watch out boys, it's making a comeback. (I'll stock up on frozen pizza & Annie's mac & cheese)

4. Do Some Baking
Ironic that when I had lots of time on my hands for doing things like baking I avoided it.
That's because I also had lots of time on my hands for eating and didn't need that broken scale I got for Christmas to get any more broken. (Kim & I both agree that it's about 20 pounds out of wack. Cole agreed it was broken but, nasty skinny boy, said that it was 15 pounds light.)
Now that I'll be packing a lunch again I'm going to need some tasty home-made treats to go in it. The boys should be pleased.
I do realize that by avoiding baking it seems like I've been denying the rest of my family baked goods but the reality is that if I had done any baking while at home all day they probably wouldn't have seen any of it any way.
Willpower? What's that?

4. Re-Introduce Some Daily Chores
Alright boys. That's right I'm looking at you two, you know who you are.
You've had it pretty easy the past 5 months but we're going to be getting back on the program. You remember the one? That one where you have the dishwasher emptied and then re-filled with all the dishes you've dirtied with your after-school snacks BEFORE I get home from work. It's going to happen every day from now on. You have your assignments, now don't mess it up.
That is if you want to eat dinner at dinner-time and not at midnight-snack-time.

5. One More For the Road
I must remind Kim to add one more to his daily sandwich production line.
And make sure he's well-stocked, we don't want any glitches to hold up his routine.

I must thank Kim for his patience in not insisting that I "get a job, any job" and allowing me the time to wait for the right job to come along.

And to Cole and Shea: You can start growing again, we'll be able to buy you new clothes now. Poor Cole, only had two pairs of non-flood pants these past few weeks. I knew I should have stopped feeding them so much.

We'll have to learn to curtsy

2010-03-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

I learned something new this week.
The process of a cat giving birth is called "queening". And it naturally follows that a pregnant cat is called a Queen.

So that means that no more Fatso, Tubby, Little Mama or You Little Tramp.
Now we'll have to address our little teenage unwed mother by her proper title: "Queen Zoe".

Counting from that New Years Eve that she spent out partying all night, escorted home in the wee hours of the morning by a handsome long-haired brown tabby, I'd guess she's ready to start queening any day now. She certainly looks like she's ready to get rid of that bowling ball she swallowed.
The best way to see the full expanse of her girth is from above when she's standing, but you try to get a picture of a cat on her feet from above. If she's on her feet she's moving. the second she stops she flops over into a rather undignified sprawl for a queen.

Get your name in now to reserve a kitten, they'll be popping out any day now.

Hostess with the mostest

2010-02-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

On Day 2 of the Olympics 3/4's of our family drove to Whistler - to watch TV.

But how could you not? There are TVs everywhere you look, inside & out.
Every plaza & town square, every store, pub & fast food restaurant is wired for the big show. Coming out of the washroom at an Indian restaurant where I'd popped in for a pee-break, Kim grabbed me & whispered "You have to buy something, I don't want to miss the rest of this event." I was ready for a pot of Chai tea anyway and the waiter let Shea have the last strawberry-banana lassie that he'd hidden away for himself.

We watched the very first gold medal win of 2010 standing at the base of the mountain, on a TV screen the size of a small house.

See those clouds, chopping off the mountain at it's feet? That's why the men's downhills were postponed. That and the relentless drizzle that started later and kept the weathermen their jobs by fulfilling their forecasts.

From an Irish pub we watched three Korean speed skaters almost win the top three places, until one of them hit the boards just before the finish, taking one of her teammates with her.
Yup, we drove 2 hours to sit in a pub very similar to the one 1/2 a block from home and watch on TV an event happening 10 minutes from our house.

But it was worth it. The Sea-to-Sky highway was almost empty, only a few buses and official Olympic vehicles, and us, on the road. (We had a borrowed resident's pass) The weather, at first, was spectacular. Kim was kicking himself for believing the negative forecasts and leaving the skis at home. I had to keep reminding him that it was promised to get worse.

We had a mission to find Shea some new ski gloves so hit every single sports shop in Whistler (wait, don't we do that every time we go there anyway?) and some galleries.
One of our favourites, Gallery Luminaura, a glass gallery at the Chateau Whistler, had just received Dale Chihuly's new 2010 line of pieces. They got them before anyone else in the world because, well the whole world was going to be at Whistler wasn't it? They are amazing, I could easily have brought a couple home with me, except for, you know, that money thing.
Across the hall from the glass gallery is the gallery where I first fell in love with Francis Solar's woven metal pieces. They had a good collection of dolls they had commissioned from Kate Church for the occasion: quirky winter athletes and a whole herd of wacky spectators, all wearing those red mitts. And selling fast, judging by the number of red dots. "Look Kim, polymer clay in a gallery of this calibre! We are gaining some respect in some places"

Walking through Whistler Village, you really could tell that the world had come to visit: athletes, tourists and media people from all over the world, everyone in coordinating outfits, displaying their country or reason for being there. The coolest were the TV France guys we kept bumping into in their tres chic black down jackets, (OK, that's the limit of my high-school french) although Shea's favourites are still the Czech athlete's jackets.

What a festive atmosphere, and live music everywhere. We did manage to see a short set by the Great Lakes Swimmers and most of (darn, can't remember the name, will have to fill it in here when it comes back to me) before the rain started to soak through our jackets into our bones and we had to squelch back to the car for the long drive home. This is how Vancouverites enjoy outdoor concerts. Shea says the music really does sound better in the rain.

Here's me and Shea, who was mistaken once or twice for Sean White, the red-haired US snowboarder, even though Shea still needs a few more inches of hair to be a contender for the gold in "best hair".

Oh, one last thing. To all of you in the rest of Canada: if you've ever considered committing a crime, now is your chance.
Right now, when every single cop in the country is here, in Whistler or Vancouver.

TheTorch and the Torched

2010-02-08T22:47:00.000-08:00

My Mom dropped by the other day:
Mom: "I saw the schedule for the Olympic Torch Relay and it's going down your road on Tuesday at 5:30.

Me: "Right past my house? So we're going to have crowds of people standing in our driveway watching it? Hmmm, it's not something I'd normally go out of my way to see but if it's going to be literally on our doorstep I guess that means we should have a little Torch Relay Party on Tuesday."

"Yes, I think you should. I've already told my Tuesday bridge group that we could all come here straight from bridge."

"So. You came over to tell me you've already started inviting people to the party you hadn't yet told me I'm having."
Why am I not surprised?

Later that day a neighbour came by to invite us to the "Torch Relay Block Party" their townhouse complex is having. I told her their party had just expanded it's boundaries since I'm (apparently) having one too.

While I've never believed that hosting the Olympics is a good thing for Vancouver & BC, even before those American bankers broke the economy, it is hard to resist getting caught up in the excitement.
Especially when even a trip to the grocery store becomes an Olympic event. At the checkout to one side was an "Official Timekeeper" while on our other side was a group of Russians in matching grey warm-up suits. I wonder if it's Olympic regulations that everyone involved has to have a large label across their back letting everyone know where they're from or what their job is?

In honour of the Torch Relay I'll show you some things I 'torched' myself.
Sad isn't it?
This lumpy black cratered specimen WAS a very pretty turquoise, lacy-patterned pin.
I really liked it.
Enough that I wanted to wear it, so I put a pin-back on it right away and popped it back in the oven with some other things.....

Oh, dear. These were such a lovely purple, cream & gold.
I covered some of the tea containers that hold my tools in my studio with some nice-looking sheets of scrap clay.
Not so nice-looking now.
They actually look much better in the photos than in real life because the harsh lighting shows up the pattern that in normal light just looks dark, sooty and charred.

I've never done this before. Of the hundreds of pieces I've cured, (thousands if you count my beads) I've had a few come out slightly scorched before but never pushed the polymer clay to the extreme, to this bubbling, charred, lumpy, stinking, lava-like mess.
Thank goodness I have a good range hood fan. In fact it's so powerful that the salesman wouldn't even sell it to me until I'd assured him that we had a make-up vent (A what? Oh, is that what that vent in the pantry is for that we couldn't figure out what on earth the ducting guy was thinking when he installed a vent in the pantry?) so that when the fan is running it doesn't create a vaccuum in the house that could cause the entire house to implode.

To be honest, this oven disaster could have been worse.
I mean I've been using naked tea containers for years so do you think I'm going to care that instead of saying "Tetley Earl Grey" my tool canisters now say "volcanic eruption"?
And my lovely heart pin? At least it was only one, not that whole week's worth of work I baked the day before. Besides, I'm wearing the blackened pin now - on my black sweater. Very subtle.
I kind of like it, even though it's nothing like what I intended. You must be flexible about these things. (or you WILL lose your mind).

It's now my "un-Valentine heart".

Weather Report

2010-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Cole:

"This isn't Winter.
This is a cheap Chinese knock-off of Spring"

Dazed

2010-01-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

I just spent a wonderful, weekend in Victoria with my clay friends at "Clay Daze".

The Vancouver Island Polymer Clay Artists Guild (VIPCAG) and my guild, the Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild (VPCG), take turns hosting a retreat each February and this was the second turn for the islanders.

Their last "Sojurn" was in Nanaimo, chock full of back-to-back demos and workshops, an exhibition, sales, contests and other events. It was wonderful, ran like clockwork, but must have been exhausting for the organizers. It was for the participants, who left with our heads spinning from learning overload.
This time around, with a transportation nightmare & sky-high prices looming, courtesy of the Olympics, and the organizers' busy schedules, the Island Girls opted for an earlier and smaller event. No scheduled classes, just a large bright hall with lots of workspace for everyone and non-stop coffee & tea to keep us going. Seven of us from the mainland joined eight islanders.

It was just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing again: time to work on some half-finished projects surrounded by some of the most talented women I know; a chance to peek over the shoulders of 14 other artists; chat and laugh or just listen, soaking in all the positive creative energy sparking around the room. It was perfect.

I could go on gushing about the fabulous job that Barb, Kristine, Gera, Wanda and Sharon did but I have a house to put back together after leaving two teenage boys to fend for themselves for 3 days. I'm itching to get my studio put together and do some work but first I must deal with the aftermath of the tornado that apparently hit our kitchen this weekend.

Frame this one.

2009-12-30T23:06:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year From Kim, Cole, Jem & Shea!

This is a very rare photo not just because all four of us are in the same place at the same time and no-one looks terrifyingly bad but also:

Shea doesn't have his hand in front of his face. Can't count how many 'hand' pics I've deleted
Kim is smiling. (He often does, just rarely in front of a camera)
Cole isn't pulling any pranks on anyone. (that we can see) Oh, except for that silver bow stuck on my chest, but I think that was courtesy of Shea-Max.
No-one is wearing a t-shirt. That's an event that only happens, maybe, once a year.
Both boys are being hugged by their Mom and, guess what? They both survived.

On to the next decade....

Come See

2009-12-30T19:34:00.000-08:00

Our House is not completely finished or fully furnished but we've proven that it is party-ready so we're having our long-delayed house-warming open house.

Saturday afternoon & evening, January 2nd.

Everyone is welcome to come any time after 3pm. (Knowing us we'll just be finishing up our current project at 2:55)
Email me for address and directions.
We'll be happily giving tours of the house and our kitchen will be stocked with lots to eat, maybe even some food that doesn't contain left-over turkey.

(I know I'm safe posting an invitation publicly here because I get weekly reports on how many readers I have & even if every single person who reads my blog comes to the party they'll all be able to comfortably fit in the master bathroom at the same time.)

Here are some of our latest projects:

Installed the monorail lights over the kitchen island.
If they look familiar, they are: the pendants match the ones in the dining room.

Our powder room was a truly collaborative affair: tiling by Jem; fir walls with jatoba detail & cedar pedestal by Kim. You'll have to come & see how it all looks properly put together.

Kim sitting down on the job, gluing down the landing and step.
"Kim are you really going to allow people to actually step on that, with their feet even?"

Phew!

2009-12-28T00:17:00.000-08:00

This is what Christmas dinner for 32 & 1/2 (for first time in ten years we had a toddler at dinner, little cutie-pie Anna-Lisa) looks like in our house. (click on pics to see full-size)
We didn't actually need all 32 chairs because by the time the last diners got their plates filled the first ones through had already inhaled mass quantities, as only teenagers can, and left for an important 'Rock-Band' engagement upstairs.

It was just a little frantic getting everything ready on time, considering we were still tiling, sanding and installing paneling and trim up until the 23rd but we managed to pull it off. There was a mad rush to vacuum & dust away all the sawdust (Thanks Mom!) and re-arrange our furniture to accommodate four long tables in the living room.

"The fourth table goes right here."

Only once did I get to the point where I had to remind Shea that "when your Mom is acting all stressed-out like this it's best to talk to her in calm, soothing tones". Referring to yourself in third-person always lets them know just how close to the edge you're getting.
We supplied the turkeys, hams and potatoes while everyone else arrived with the rest of the feast.

Dinner was a little later than expected (I lingered over our lovely champagne brunch at Tammy & Alain's and my turkey wouldn't pop itself into the oven even when I phoned it and asked nicely) and we ran a little short of mashed potatoes (Grandma's potato calculations didn't take into consideration the abundance of teenage boys in our family, all starving by the time my turkey was done) but, other than that, everything ran very smoothly.

Kim and I want to give HUGE THANKS to:

Poppa/Dad/Don
for taking on all carving duties and dish-scraping afterwards;

Grandma/Mom/Sally
for cleaning, cooking, organizing, helping and all-around Mom-type support;

For their centre-piece building and table-decorating skills, Tammy(centre) and Alain(left) now AKA "Glitter-boy" after having waaay too much fun when Tam took him to Michael's for supplies.

And to everyone else for making it such a wonderful evening, and showing Kim that we could comfortably fit that many people in our living room. Love you all.

Aftermath. This is the last picture taken that evening. Four cousins and an Aunt: Heather, Tammy, Jem, Erin, Floralee.

Interesting fact I learned: even a 1:1 ratio of Bailey's to coffee does not diminish the effects of caffeine if you're not accustomed to drinking coffee at 10pm. On the upside, it sure was nice to wake up to a spotless kitchen with every inch of counter vigorously scrubbed clean.

A Quick Zoe Update

2009-12-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

Here's proof that our Zoe is feeling like her old mischievous rascally self again:

There's still no sign of life in her tail but I think we'll wait until after Christmas to amputate it. Don't want a sulking kitten moping about during the holidays.
(Although, on second thought it would be safer for our decorations.)

Oh dear, the Christmas tree.
And she thought toilet paper was fun.

Swappery-doo-da

2009-12-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

This year I'm participating in the annual Clayamies Christmas Ornament Swap again after not having a space to make ornaments in for the past two Christmases.

I had a great idea for something interesting and a little different but after a couple of attempts I realized that the design that worked so well in my head would require a lot more real life design (& engineering) hours to get it to work than I was willing to spend. Filed it away in the box with all my other great ideas that didn't quite work. Am going to need a much bigger box soon.

Got nervous when I started to hear from some keeners who had already finished the maximum of 20 ornaments and I was still trying come up with a new idea - I now needed something simple that I could whip up a bunch of very fast. (I may have been guilty of going a little overboard in the past so I'm due for making some smaller, simpler ornaments than say, the giant pinwheels I made one year - sorry guys, I'm sure those ones blew everyone's postage budget to hell)

In the meantime I went to Julie Picarello's wonderful workshop at Linda's house in Deep Cove.

Here's a horrible photo of a slice of the Mokume I made in her class.

As a quick aside to the main course of Mokume, she showed a cute little thing to do with the scrap ends of Mokume blocks that she calls a lizard tail.

My Lizard tail.

Came home, started playing around and made some Julie's-lizard-tails-inspired twisted candy-canes.

Except I used a striped block of clay instead of thin sheets;
and I twisted them instead of rolling;
and didn't use any of the gold leaf that gives Julie's sparkle;
and I used no Ecru in my colours, strictly clear bright candy cane colours;
and I didn't taper them - (who would want a pointy, already-sucked-on candy-cane?);
and I cut them in 4 sections, not 2;
and.... Hmmmm, I guess my weird little candy canes really don't have much similarity to Julie's lizard-tails after all, except for the fact that they both have a mirror-image effect.
Julie's class DID remind me of the mesmerizing effect that those mirror images have on our brain.
I made an even dozen of them, a perfectly respectable amount for the swap. It means I get back a dozen ornaments from clayers across the country.
I can't wait.

In the past I've put all my swapped ornaments on a wreath but this year it was too crowded to fit all of them.
And I haven't even received this years' batch.

I'm going to have to get a small artificial tree, just for my treasured polymer clay collection.
Or a second "overflow" wreath.

From the 'Z' Files: A Sad Tail

2009-11-30T19:16:00.000-08:00

That's not a typo, our little Zoe has a broken tail.

We don't know how it happened, we found her sulking on the couch last week, hissing and saying "Meowch"when any pats got too close to her tail.

Her collar was found in the middle of the crosswalk so we feared an encounter with a car but the vet says she doesn't have the claw damage that usually indicates 'car'. Maybe a cyclist since we are on a bike lane? Who knows? Whatever it was, let's hope she's learned not to follow kids across the road.

She should have been feeling fine by now but, silly young thing, she refused to follow Doctor's orders to rest & stay quiet.
THIS is where we found her on Thursday....

See her poor tail... hangs straight down like a plumb-bob.

Not long after grounding her from any further ladder acrobatics I was on the phone telling Kim that she seemed to have some of her bounce back when I saw two white paws grab onto the edge of the kitchen island...... then slip off.
She hit the floor rump-first, right on her broken tail.
She did not bounce.

Oh the yowling and the howling. and the growling and the yowling.

She slunk off slowly, straight to her travel crate. The crate that she complains non-stop about being in when we go to the vet? That one that she hates so much?
She spent the rest of the day in there, snuggling a stuffed chicken.

Unfortunately we haven't seen any signs of life in the tail, it just drags behind Zoe, hitting the floor with a "thunk" when she jumps down from the couch.
At this point it's a liability since she has no feeling or control over it so it looks like it'll have to be amputated.
Now all the other cats will laugh at her and call her stumpy.

I said maybe we could get her tail bobbed at the same time as we get her spayed.
Kim replied that if she gets her tail cut off we won't have to spay her because none of the boys will want anything to do with her.

Don't listen to him Zoe, you'll still be the prettiest kitty on the block, stubby tail and all.

Crawling through the weekend

2009-11-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

It's ironic that now that I supposedly have plenty of time on my hands, unexpectedly unemployed bum that I am, I would find it so hard to find the time to post to my blog.
It's not that I have a shortage of subject matter. I could write about my polymer clay guild and the swap I organized; or about setting up a mini-studio and starting to, well, at least to condition some clay; or about our gorgeous new built-in shelves; or, about the garden design class I took.

All of those will wait. One of our favourite events happened this weekend.

This weekend I had planned to finish our downstairs 1/2 bathroom. With at least 3 parties scheduled (including Christmas dinner for 34) it might be a good idea to have the guest bathroom and stair landing finished enough that we can re-hang the bathroom door. I have a feeling most people would appreciate some privacy.

My good intentions were thwarted by Kim - the East-side Culture Crawl was on and we spent both Saturday & Sunday wandering around artist's studios wishing we had a winning lottery ticket.

Saturday we got off to a late start so Shea came alone. I think it's pretty cool that we have a 15-year-old son who WANTS to spend an afternoon with his parents looking at art. OK, maybe not the "with his parents" part so much but how else was he was going to get to the studios? He has very definite tastes too, even if his expression of them is very brief, limited to either "meh" or "I want" when asked for his opinion. Sorry kid, $1,300.00 is a little beyond Santa's budget for a painting for your bedroom.

Fortunately most of what we fell in love with was so far out of our budget that they were no temptation. It's the works that had fewer than 3 zeros in the price that were painful.
Almost within reach - but do we really want to be spending our money on paintings when we still need furniture? and landscaping?
I consoled myself by buying a very cool cast porcelain vase (or drinking glass).
"Hey Kim, I'm doing your Christmas shopping for you again. See what you're giving me - a porcelain canning jar". Reminds me of all the canning my Mom did when I was growing up.
I can't remember the artist's name - Heyday design I think? and her business card was a soggy victim of another broken teapot this morning. I've broken so many I'm now officially a serial teapot-murderer. (but hey, now you know what to get me for Christmas)

We also bought a small 8x8" piece. A photo transfer on gesso. Taken in the artist's front yard this summer, the garden that we tramped through to get to his studio.
That's what's so wonderful about the Culture Crawl - the closer connection to the artists. The ceramic artist even had a story about where she found the canning jar she made her mold from.
This is another nostalgic piece for me: I loved the bleeding hearts we had growing in front of the house we moved away from when I was 7. Pink Monkey Studio is the artist (can't remember his name either and too lazy to go check the back of the picture right now) and he's donating proceeds from his bleeding heart series to the Heart & Stroke foundation. That's what cinched our decision between the bleeding heart and the birch trees.

Must remember to add a bleeding heart to my landscape plan.

This little piggy...

2009-11-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not very happy.
If I'm going to lose two or three productive days to the flu I at least want one symptom to be "loss of appetite" so I have the benefit of being a few pounds lighter by the end of it.
But no, this one hit me just hard enough that I didn't have enough energy to do anything except lie around eating. (Doesn't help that I spent the evening before it hit baking & hadn't yet hidden, I mean put away, the results.)

'Swine Flu' is right.
OINK OINK

Toasted

2009-10-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of our new house that I've been looking forward to is the radiant in-floor heating on both floors. Nice warm floors, lovely to have toasty toes this time of year.
That is if we could get the heating system to work properly.

It performed beautifully for the final plumbing inspection before we moved in.

Inspector: "Your boiler's not working."
Me: "Wouldn't that be because it's what, about THIRTY DEGREES outside so we've turned the thermostat down?
Inspector: "Hmphh, I don't know. Fire it up and we'll see."
Me: Cranking thermostat up to 35.
Boiler: "Brrrrrrroooooaaar"
Me: "See, it works, nothing wrong." (Aside from the fact that we'd rather NOT be working in a sauna in the middle of summer)
Inspector: Scratches out the word "FAIL" on our inspection report & writes "Passed"
Inspector leaves
Boiler promptly dies.

Although we didn't know it for a couple of months, until after we'd moved in and the weather started getting chilly enough for us to think we might like to have just a little heat now, thank you.

According the repairman, it wasn't the boiler itself that died but one of those small box-like things attached to it by wires & pipes. A regulator I think someone called it. Anyway, it's name is irrelevant as long as it works now.

Which it only sort of did, the first night. No sign of warmth in the main floor, the boys' rooms or the rec room.
But boy was it hot-hot-hot in the master bedroom. And not in a good way.
We felt like we were being roasted alive in our bed.
And our stone-tile bathroom floor? TOO HOT TO STAND ON.
Seriously, I had to do a little dance while brushing my teeth so I wouldn't scorch my soles.

The second repairman discovered that some of the valves weren't open and weren't letting the water circulate properly. Opened them up, checked the rest. Should work now.

And it did..... for 1/2 the house. The main floor & boys' rooms? Perfect.
Our master bedroom and the rec-room below it were having issues. Both areas were swinging (slowly, this type of heat takes time to change) from feet-scorching, melting-the-candles-in-that box-I-left-on-the-floor heat to icy, where's-my-parka-what-do-you-mean-I-don't-own-one cold for no reason.
No matter how we adjusted the thermostats in those two zones, we couldn't get them to settle down to anything resembling room temperature.

It almost seemed like the thermostat downstairs was controlling the upstairs zone & the upstairs thermostat was adjusting the heat in the rooms below it.
BINGO! My theory was confirmed last Wednesday by repairman #3 who then re-wired them correctly.

Fixed now?
I wish. I'm going to have to go out and buy myself that parka because in a fit of desperation Kim has turned the heat in our bedroom completely OFF, not just the thermostat but right at the source, the boiler-room.

I'll be very glad I insisted on a fireplace in my bedroom this weekend while we wait for the.... what are we at now?... 4th visit by a repairman in 2 weeks.

Dreamer

2009-10-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

I keep telling him that he should try harder to be happy with what he has.
I tell him he's just tormenting himself spending all that time on-line looking at younger, prettier models that he can't have. But still:

"Oh no, Jem! I accidentally hit the 'buy-it-now' button for this red Ferrari.

"Well Kim, I sure hope it has comfortable seats because THAT'S where you'll be sleeping."

One room down...

2009-10-12T13:04:00.000-07:00

I've been saying for a while that one of the most frustrating things about living in a 'work-in-progress' is that not one room is completely finished.
"I don't even have a closet that I can consider finished."

Well, now I can say I have ONE finished room.
Look:
Door hung, trim installed & painted. (the splotches on the floor don't count, that's a cleaning issue, doesn't affect the 'finished' status)

Vent cover installed, walls & ceiling painted, with no dings needing to be filled. Even the ceiling light is installed, unlike my kitchen & dining room.

My Pantry is DONE.

All shelves & hangy-things installed and just a few Costco trips away from being filled.

Well, at least it's one room down.
Or am I cheating by counting a pantry as a 'room'?

Legal now

2009-10-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

We Passed!

Finally. On our third try.

We now have an occupancy permit and are allowed to live in our house.
After being illegal squatters for 3 - 1/2 months.

Our second inspection, one week ago, was very close. We had a few issues like attic ventilation and insulation and some little things that Kim had taken care of before I even got home from work.

Two of the things we failed for were actually the inspector's mistakes.
The "missing" insulation in the attic was not over living space, but where the wall takes a jog in towards the bathroom and the roof doesn't follow. No insulation needed there.
And that "grout" around the tub where there should be silicone? That's no grout, mister.
That's "Colour-Matched, Sanded, Siliconized Acrylic Caulk".
It costs FOUR times as much as regular silicone caulk and requires a lot more swearing at it to get it applied properly and looking good. So it's staying, Mister.

Now we can spend our limited 'house-work' time on things that WE want done, not what the city inspector thinks is important.

I'm off to put some holes in the walls.
(Hanging mirrors, shelves, curtains, robe hooks....)

My studio is where?

2009-09-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it was December 2007 that I packed my studio into boxes and went on hiatus from my guild, my polymer clay, my beads & jewellery, from anything creative that wasn't house-related. Almost 2 years. And I survived. Socks helped - I relaxed by learning how to knit socks. Now almost everyone in my family has a hand-knit pair of socks whether they wanted them or not.

When the Vancouver Polymer Clay Guild was re-organized last January to have 3 elected co-chairs I agreed to be one as long as my share of meetings to chair & organize all came at the end of the year, when my house would be finished and I'd have lots of free time again. (optimistic wasn't I)
So last weekend was my first jump back into the guild. I had promised a few people that I'd do the bead-making demo that there wasn't time for at last February's retreat. So, me teaching my guild something I hadn't done myself in almost two years? Time to unpack some boxes.
Since my 'studio' is otherwise occupied right now it's a good thing I have a nice big island with the best surface for claying on - cool polished granite.
You think this is messy? That's just one wee box. Wait until I get the rest unpacked.
Actually, I'd rate myself as mid-range organized once I get set up. Not as neurotically neat as some but organized enough that I know where everything is even if it looks like a jumbled mess to everyone else.
(My Mom now knows better than to move any of my tools even a few inches from where they look like they've been carelessly tossed. She once did me a "favour" by organizing my bathroom drawer for me; she thought everything had just been randomly thrown in there. Completely messed up my morning routine, I was late every day for a week until I got everything back where it belonged. Thank goodness she didn't "organize" my studio, I would have gone mad.)
Here's an example: this is my box of scrap clay. A rather messy orderliness. Or is it an orderly messiness?
(Probably 1/2 the clay artists will think "That's your scrap clay? It's so tidy." while the other 1/2 will think "That's disgusting, how can you stand it so messy?)

While unpacking I found some canes that I must have made sometime after the big studio pack-up, I just can't remember where or when.
They did come in handy to make some practice beads. Not that I have a shortage of canes, it's just nice to have something new to use. Turns out claying is like riding a bicycle, it all comes back once you start again. At least... I think it does, but really, how would I know? I may have forgotten 90% of what I knew and not know it.

I did remember how to make this many different beads.

And had a great time - it was fantastic to spend a whole day at a guild meeting again. What a great group we have.

On another polymer clay guild-related note: Clayamies, the Canadian online guild has a new blog with quite a few posts already.
Check out what clay artists across Canada are doing. www.clayamies.blogspot.com.

Thanks to Tina (of the fake pebbles contest) for setting it up.

Itchy hands

2009-09-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Now that the house is built I'm starting to think about other things I'd like to build.

Getting that restless "I need a project (or 2 or 3)" feeling that installing shelves in the pantry simply won't satisfy.
I don't have a studio space yet (there is STUFF stored where my studio table is going to go) and I don't even have a knitting project to work on.
OK, I lie. I do have a knitting project but face it, when you're winging it and designing as you go you should write down the pattern if you're going to put it down for more than a few days.
I now have a partial throw-pillow cover which is completely screwed up because I thought I could just 'remember' the not-very-straightforward pattern I made up. I should be able to remember my own design, right? Worked for the first 1/2 pillow or so, when I was knitting on it every day; couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing when I picked it up after a week. Now it's waiting to be recycled back into a very inspiring ball of yarn.

To make things worse, we went to the Interior Design Show West today.
Lots of local furniture designers and woodworkers to see. For me it's not so much a case of "I want one of these and one of those...." but "I want to make one of those" and "I want one of these but I'd build it this way...". Now I'm itching to design and build furniture again.

Oh, except for THIS. I love it. I want it. Buy it for me, PLEASE. (because I'm sure I can't afford it)
You have to, have to, have to click RIGHT HERE (Straight Line Designs) and see it, it's fabulous. It would be perfect for the "Luxe Boudoir" look I have planned for our bedroom. (Um, just kidding Kim)
There was one hanging from a rickety garment rack along a back wall of the Interior Design Show, looking like someone had been taking it somewhere, then got distracted & forgot it, shoved against the wall, very forlorn & back-stage-looking. It was supposed to - I asked the designer, Jud Beaumont. We were at Emily Carr together (a million years ago he said, ahem, not quite a million for me, I was a couple years behind him).

Now that we have a Garage!

with a Workshop! (and it's much cleaner now than in this pic) maybe I should make use of it and build some custom furniture for myself. With polymer clay inlays & veneers of course.
Or..... better yet..... design some furniture and hire one of my handy-dandy sons to build it for me. Hmmm, feeding those hollow-legged teenagers may pay off yet.

Although, looking out the windows at the shorter days and falling leaves I think I should concentrate on getting my sewing machine set up and make some window coverings before the trees can no longer provide us with privacy. And there's this...
Do you think maybe it's a sign that I should make some proper cushions for the window seat?
The pink yoga mat just wasn't cushy enough for Cole, besides, it's since been removed to be used again as a yoga mat. My back (& hips, & arms, & everything) is so happy.

Hard as stone

2009-09-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

The totally talented Tina has rocks on her blog.
She is running a contest right now where all you have to do is to pick out the beach stones that she's made from the real ones she picked up on the beach.
Right!
She must have rocks in her head if she thinks anyone can tell.
Tina is far too talented at this faux-stone-making thing. They ALL look real to me. The only way I could enter that contest is to close my eyes and jab my finger at the computer to choose.

I must not be the only one who feels this way because Tina's now expanded her contest to include people who blog about it & spread the word.
NOW I may have a chance to win one of her fabulous pebble bracelets. Which is a good thing, because I really want one & didn't even bother to enter the contest, I looked at the picture and just plain gave up - it's TOO DANG HARD to tell which ones are fake.

You think I'm exaggerating? I tell you, Tina's a genius. YOU go to her blog and try to tell the difference between the real ones and her hand-made stones. See if YOU can do it Smarty-pants. Maybe you'll get lucky and win a tutorial to learn to make your own beach stones that no-one can tell are fake.

If that link doesn't work go to beadcomber.blogspot.com and scroll down to the "Want to win a free tutorial?" post. Just try it.

Maybe I'll even take another look and make a few wild guesses.

Chip, chip, chip

2009-09-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

A few more things from the 'Building Approvals Division' list...

#1. Install Permanent Site Address
CHECK!

Here's Kim working out the spacing. (And see what we bought at a Giant Pot Sale a couple of weeks ago - some giant pots. Now I need to buy some giant plants)

#11 Complete skirting at ensuite tub, caulk tub top & shower/tub bases.
CHECK!

Finally - now my bathroom vanity won't look like this:

And while I have the stuff out to do the tub skirt ...

doesn't it make sense to finish the walls at the same time?

...and the top trim?

Which is how a quick little tiling & caulking task becomes a 3-week job. (To clarify - that's weekends only, I'm slow but not THAT slow)

Now I only need to splash sealer over the whole works and clean up and we'll have a fully-functioning ensuite bathroom. (Except for the mirror, should hang that soon - maybe I wouldn't look like such a wreck if I had one properly-hung mirror in the house.)

A second usable shower just in time for the re-start of the mad morning rush with 3 of us trying to get ready & out the door at the same time. It sure was nice when I only had myself to nag: eat breakfast; pack lunch; don't forget your stuff; don't be late; don't let the cat out....
I'm as bummed-out about back-to-school as the boys are.

Paying the Bills

2009-09-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

I finally made a payment to my architect/general contractor... and acquired a little accessory for our driveway at the same time.

Poor Kim has been pining for a 'stick' ever since his beloved got smunched from behind when he stopped at a crosswalk for an elderly woman.
And if you look back at my "list of things we'll get once the house is done" ("Promises") you will see "sports car for Kim" at #6.

Now, I've been told this is just a partial payment until we can afford to pay him what he deserves for all his hard work - A real sportscar.

This is a trial one, a tester to see if he can survive the winter driving a sporty little convertible and, more importantly, to see if he can survive the daily commute without a cup-holder for his morning coffee.

But it is awfully cute. Ooops sorry Kim, I mean MANLY. It's an awfully Manly, Rugged, Powerful (sweet wittle cutsie-wootsie) sportscar.

Not quite archaeologists.

2009-08-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

It's surprising what pops up when you leave your backyard unattended for months.

I was lucky enough to snap a few pictures of this wildlife before our own native wildlife lunged out of the underbrush to swat at my dangling camera strap. After showing that strap who's queen of this jungle Zoe-Cat turned and took care of the invading fungi with a few bats of her paw. Trampled a pretty little fairy ring too.

Oh well, time was running out for them anyway, being right in the middle of our future patio.

We decided that since we had to remove 6" of soil from the perimeter of the house we may as well take it a little farther and prep the ground for forming a concrete patio.
Sure will be an improvement over our existing plywood "patio". This was taken after the big clean-up or, to be exact, re-location of the mess to the other side of the yard.
Here:
After a fair bit of consultation we decided on a curved patio, mimicking the curve of the eyebrow window above. Wouldn't do to take the easy way & make it square, would it? You can see the stakes showing where it'll go in the photo above. It'll be pretty big. Click on the pic to see just how excited our teenage helper was to be spending part of his weekend doing heavy-duty yardwork.

Then there was digging....

digging....

and more digging.

And this was not the easy sand that was removed from the side yards. This was the lovely soil we have for gardening - hard-packed clay. Good riddance.

Among the less interesting finds unearthed like pink bricks from the former house, large chunks of concrete and various construction debris was also a pink road cone and this guy:

Squatters

2009-08-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that we (still) haven't passed the final building inspection?
That means that technically we're homeless.
Homeless people squatting illegally in a building with no occupancy permit.

It's not as bad as it sounds. We've passed all the other inspections: final site; final plumbing. We've passed gas (oops, excuuuuse me) and final electrical, just not the final FINAL.
At our first final final inspection (that makes a lot of sense doesn't it?) the first thing the inspector said when I answered the door was "You do know you're not supposed to be living in a house without an occupancy permit don't you?". When I finished blabbering about how we had to move all our stuff here, had no other place to store it, and were here all the time working on the house, (never admitting that we were sleeping there) he cheerfully said "OK, as long as you know". Kind of hard to keep up the charade when he couldn't inspect the boys' bathroom because Shea was in the shower.

Before the inspector showed up Kim had called me, joking about some ways I could make the inspection go a little smoother: have some cold beer waiting... wear something low-cut....
But hey, I didn't have to resort any of those, we had secret weapon "Z"....
Luckily our inspector is a cat-lover and when our sweet little Zoe waltzed up to greet him at the door he was smitten. I can't say she convinced him to shorten our to-do list at all but those big gold eyes sure helped break the ice and make the whole ordeal a lot less officious than it would have been. I mean, how stern can you be about a missing vent cover when you're cuddling and cooing at a kitten on your clipboard?

We didn't really expect to pass the first time. We know this was just round one, but we didn't know how long and expensive our deficiency list was going to be.
It's pretty long but, at first look anyway, not too daunting: nothing we couldn't do ourselves and nothing very expensive. Oh, except for the permanent address. "You mean the spray-painted plywood propped up against a tree doesn't count? Even if we stamp down the grass & weeds in front so you can see it?" I knew I should have called Cantu (ridiculously expensive home fixtures) and told them to ban Kim from entering their store.
We thought we'd be calling the inspector back in a week, maybe two at the most. Ha, mildly delusional, both of us. Here's a small sample from 'The List':

1. Caulk exterior trim around all windows.

Just like that.

Took two weekends. Lovely job to be doing in the hot sun.
Awful, sticky, gooey black goop. Took four days to clean it all off because there's only enough shower time to scrub one limb raw each morning.
That'll teach me not do such a good job my first try and impress Kim so much I get saddled with the entire job. Until it came to the windows requiring tall, shaky ladders. Kim didn't want me up there and I didn't bother reminding him that "that display job I had at Eaton's? Spent most of each day easily going up & down taller, shakier ladders than these". Nope, by then I was quite happy to pass the caulking gun to him. Yes, dear, you better do the scary ladder parts.

Now that "Caulk window trim" is checked off, we're on to

2. Lower level of ground by 6 inches (oh is that all?)
in both sideyards and a strip along the back of the house and where we want the patio to go.
Just what you want to be doing in hottest, longest heatwave we've had in memory. Shovel sand into wheelbarrow; screen out rubble, rocks & garbage from tradesmen's lunches; dump in front yard; rake level. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, with all the hard work & sweating I've done I should be fitting into those clothes in the 'too small for now box' by now.

From this....

to this...
in one long, hot weekend. What do you mean you can't tell the difference? There was a lot of sand carted out of there. Can't you see the big 6-inch drop?

Because that was just one sideyard. Now where are we going to put all the rubble from this side?

More sun in the forecast? Oh well, it'll be just like being at the beach: lots of sand... and sand... and more sand... OK, maybe not so much like the beach.

Good thing we have a helper who loves to dig in the sand.

3. Install gutter downpipes.
Oh, you mean the ones that the stucco guys ripped off when they did the final stucco coat and left all over the roof, on the deck, in the garage under a pile of junk, and the rest in a heap in the backyard that is now overgrown with morning glory?
The ones that we have to paint now because we changed our mind about the colour of the house since they were first ordered, months ago because the stucco guys stopped work & wouldn't continue until the gutters were installed because they didn't want rain dripping on them when they were doing the scratch coat?
You mean that big brain-teaser of a puzzle that we (meaning Kim) have to solve to figure out just where the heck each piece fits?

Yes THOSE downpipes.

No problem. Done.
(says she who had nothing to with the salvaging, re-painting and reassembling of downpipes)

And the most onerous task on the list:
4. Sweet-talk obnoxious-plumber-who-we-fired-with-good-cause and talk him into filling out that important form that he should have already anyway but didn't because someone (understandably) yelled at him on his voicemail when his crew didn't show up for the third time.
Wish me luck on that one. I'll need it.

Finally able to move on

2009-07-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

Recently we took a break from the job of calking the exterior trim around all of our windows to spend a lovely morning wandering around under the trees looking at art.
We went to this 30-year-old art festival (click here) for the first time when we were still in the planning stage of our house. I remember having a hard time restraining Kim "walls first, then art" , so was a little apprehensive this time, since we now have walls but also a very tight budget.

I did plan to treat myself if I could find a replacement for my favourite bowl...

that my Mom gave me a number of years ago and that I use constantly in spite of the fact that it had been smashed into about 7 pieces and glued back together.
(Thank you Elmer's Glass & Ceramic Glue - where have you been all my life? If I'd found you sooner you could have saved me a lot of heart-ache, well at least some treasured ceramic pieces)
I've been using my bowl in this state for almost 2 years now and it's held up through regular use & trips through the dishwasher (that glue is truly amazing).
Because it's the perfect size & shape for many things I've been so fixated on finding the perfect replacement that I haven't been able to consider buying anything else. I've passed over many lovely ceramic pieces because "can't buy anything until I replace that bowl". So many came close but just weren't the right roundness & size. And I had to love it, and it couldn't be expensive.

At the art festival I found this one, almost the exact size. A bit of a departure for me colourwise but I was seduced by that black section where all the glazes overlap and there are little specks that you'd swear were 3-D bubbles.

NOW I can look at other ceramics again.

Maybe some smaller bowls, or a little platter, or maybe I'll find that french butter dish that was made for me. I know it's out there, somewhere.

As for 2-D art, as we walked through the show talking about the various works we liked, Kim would occaisionally say "so far so good". Meaning he hadn't seen anything yet that we couldn't afford that he HAD to have.

We made it safely throught the entire show until on our way out we walked past some encaustic work that I'd admired earlier but assumed was too rich for our budget. As I was taking another longing look I noticed the price tag on one small piece, gasped and called Kim over.
"Do you like it? LOOK at the price!"
"Oh, I do like it. OH! grab it."

We're now the proud owners of 'Pears' By Aline Davies. It's an image transfer surrounded by heavily textured encaustic wax.

Which got me thinking: you can put image transfers on polymer clay; you can put polymer clay on canvas. Hmmm, might be a concept worth exploring - once I get my studio operational again.

And it's a heat-sink

2009-07-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite spots in our house isn't even in the house.
The courtyard in front of our front door gets the evening sun and, thanks to the 'privacy wall' that Kim tied in to the house's foundations, has just the right amount of distance from the busy road in front.
We're on a bus route and have a bike lane so there's always a lot going on: cyclists, dog-walkers, stroller-pushers, roller-bladers, skate- and long-boarders, commuters hopping on & off the bus and people on their way to or from the corner pub.
So, even though we're on a main 'arterial' road, on warm summer evenings there's a great neighbourhood feeling.
We've barely started setting it up the way we'd like but I think it's pretty comfortable aready. All that's missing from this picture is a couple of tall frosty drinks.
The bench Kim literally scooped up on a quick run through Ikea's as-is section (the as-is part is that it was already put together - we got it cheap because we were denied the fun of assembling it ourselves) and the wood stumps are chunks of trees being cut down at the rental house - figures they would decide to spruce the place up just when we're moving out. At least we have a couple of nice mementos of our time in 'the crack house'.

I envision the courtyard overflowing with plants but this is as far as I've got.
Collecting plants & pots I like & plunking them by the front door.
So far the poor plants are still in the plastic pots they came in, stuffed into or sitting on top of planters that I bought a while ago. I think the problem is that I'm looking forward to potting the plants, and view it as a relaxing pastime so it keeps getting pushed down the list, after all the more important 'work' that needs to be done.

One of my favourite recent purchases: purple oxalis, (can't remember the proper name) looking a little limp in the heat. I also have a weakness for black foliage so we may have a theme starting here.

1/2 way thru July already?

2009-07-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

I finally had a chance to download all my pictures and organize my picture files.
I haven't been taking many the past couple of months but enough to disprove my theory that we skipped 6 weeks this year. I swear time just jumped from mid-May to July. I don't know how we arrived here already.

Anyway, here are some somewhat stale pictures to show that others were present even if I was stuck in a houseworkandmoving-induced time warp.

I guess it's testament to the size of my kitchen that it can contain THIS much stuff
and still have room for two boys to make brunch for themselves.
When Shea was young he hated 'brunch' because by combining breakfast & lunch it meant he missed out on one meal of the day.
These days their first meal of the day can't correctly be called breakfast since it usually occurs sometime after noon, so brunch it is boys.

The first meal cooked on our gas cook top: french omelets.

Cole's become quite a master at whipping them up.

One of the unforeseen advantages to having a gas stove is that my two pyromaniacs are now more interested in cooking.

ooooh, cooking on a open flame. F I R E!

Here we have the front of the living room shortly after moving day.

And here's the view from the front door...

Fortunately the floors still needed some work so we were forced to clear out that mess a lot quicker than I suspect we would have otherwise.
Same viewpoint as the picture above it. The floor is still wet from the densifier, it doesn't look quite so mottled now that it's dry.
Doesn't the room look spacious without 2 pairs of ridiculously over-sized speakers and the window screens for the entire house in the middle? Still haven't put up the screens in spite of my whining to Kim about them. He's in no hurry to install them He doesn't need them; He never gets bitten, living with the best mosquito-bait in the country: ME.
As I sit here scratching at a fresh bite on my arm. Ouch, and now my temple too.

This picture was taken, let me guess: about 15 SECONDS after moving in.
someone's priorities are a little skewed.
And if you can recognize the game he's playing from this pic, I'd say that goes for you too.

This desk area is my one big regret about the kitchen.
It was supposed to be at least 2 feet longer. That's how I had designed it but by the time the kitchen cab guy got through with the design, making everything symmetrical along the wall, the kitchen had grown and my poor little desk had shrunk. I didn't notice by how much until the cabs were being installed. So now we're stuck with a great long expanse of kitchen counter & a wee little desk.

I've worried since it was put in that my kitchen is extravagantly large. But enough people have assured me that there's no such thing as a 'too-large' kitchen that I'm starting to get over it.

IT WORKS!

Kim has been teasing me mercilessly that he's planning an expedition to circumnavigate the kitchen island. "but we'll have to plan carefully, pack lots of food for such a long trip"

Until Shea's birthday party.....

when he counted 18 people comfortably sitting, standing, leaning and hanging out around the island.....
(ya, I know, they're not all in this picture)
that he gave me a thumbs-up and said "Congratulations, your design works"

I do love everything about the island. Because we'd been scrambling to get the place 'tidied 'for the party I still had some food prep to do when people started arriving. Having everything where it is is fabulous: I could work in the kitchen & still be in the middle of all the action.

When I was working on the kitchen design I read an article about islands that had 2 good points about how people use the space.
1. People can't comfortably socialize sitting in one long line so have seating on two sides, either facing or perpendicular. Check.
2. People don't always want to sit so include a raised area that is 'leaning' height. Check. That has been proven so true from the first minute the island was put in. I think the installer made his last adjustment, stood up and leaned his elbow on it.

And it looks pretty good too, the way it anchors the island.

Here are some more kitchen details.

I went with floating black glass fridge, oven & microwave. (Check out the wild patterning in the wood. It isn't anywhere near that prominent in real life)
Soooo glad I didn't go for all stainless steel appliances. I love the way the black looks against the cherry and...
I still haven't got all the installer's fingerprints off the stainless steel range hood.
Granted the glass does get smudgy from mucky hands but it's much easier to clean than SS.

Now look at the above picture and imagine it with a lovely tile backsplash, not patched and marked up drywall. Don't know specifically which lovely tiles yet but I know they'll be a white of some sort. Nothing busy that will compete with the granite. I was thinking of a white & off-white harlequin pattern but some have said even that might be too busy.
Was originally planning to tile up to the top of the cabs but I think the bottom of the hood is a more natural break.

I'm really happy that I managed to scoop up these bar stools from a Scandesign sale. They're much more comfortable than they look. AND the shiny black looks great with our black glass appliances. AND they're light enough to easily push back under the bar. AND they swivel. AND they hydraulically adjust from bar height to table height so we can use them at the dining room table or computer desk. AND they were the same price as the Ikea stools that did none of those things.

Love this picture of my Mom's 4 grandsons playing Rock Band in our kitchen 'nook' Look closer, there are four of them, Zac's peeking out from behind his brother Torin.

Last but not least, we decided on "Passion Plum" for the front door.
Under the deep overhang it looks quite sedate from the street. It's only when you get right up within knocking range that the true degree of purpleishness jumps out and hits you.

NOW it's a home

2009-07-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

Meet Zoe, Shea's favourite birthday present.

It's not really a home without the pitter-pat of little paws so now our house is complete. Not finished, but complete.

This adorable little bundle of curiosity was a surprise gift from Aunty Tammy & Uncle Alain, Grandma & Poppa.

The biggest surprise was that she WAS a surprise for Shea because everyone else knew & nobody breathed even a hint to Shea. Had no idea our family was capable of keeping a secret for that long.

Zoe shares a birthday with Kim, April 22nd, so is about nine weeks old and full of kittenish energy.

It took her less than ten minutes to make herself at home and take over Smokey's old job as our house 'greeter'. She ran to the door to say hello at the first knock when my nieces arrived for Shea's party.

She's a perfect fit. Perfectly comfortable with a houseful of strangers, playing with everyone & cuddling up in a chair with Shea's gaming friends when it's naptime.

Now I have one more member of the family to pick up after. She doesn't pick up her toys when she's finished playing either.

EX-HAUS-TED

2009-07-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

But very happy to be in our beautiful new home.

We had to put on a big push to get the house to a state where you weren't bumping into boxes in every room in time for Shea's birthday last Sunday.
Thanks to my Mom the house was nice & clean as well as relatively box-free. We've been so busy chipping away at the thousands of things that need to be finished that I hadn't realized we'd been in the house long enough that it was now due for some ordinary regular-house-type cleaning. That's not to be confused with the endless daily dusting as 13 months' worth of construction dust suspended in the air settles itself down - onto my nice shiny new appliances and baseboards and counters.

Lucky thirteen

2009-06-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

Shea pointed out, in the middle of moving our stuff into the new house, that it was June 13th and "What was the date that we broke ground?" Why, May 13th, last year.

That makes it exactly 13 months, to the day, from the start of building to moving in.

Thousands of words

2009-06-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting this blog almost as much as I've been neglecting my kids lately. At least the blog hasn't had to forage for it's dinner every night.

My last few posts haven't had any pictures so I'll make up for it and show what our house looks like now, without too much blabbing.

Checking out the unfinished, recently hung doors.

Just when they're getting used to swinging around, they're taken down to be finished.

This special 'recipe' really makes the grain of the fir POP and emphasizes the natural variations and beauty of the wood. It's hand-rubbed on and has a nice matte, hand-rubbed-oil look to it but with more durability and without the need to reapply every year.
Thanks Graham!

Now for the finishing touch to these beauties.

I love our handles. They look like fine jewellery for the home and feel nice in the hand.

Skills?

2009-06-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

I think I've managed to stumbled up that steep tile-setting learning curve.

A young painter's helper asked if I had really tiled the master bath floor myself & when I nodded he told me I have "serious skills". (for those without teenagers, that's a good thing)

My very first tile project - ever. (No, no, not the shower stall, we hired someone to do that part, there's tricky window bits there & we want to be in the house before next Christmas) The downstairs bathroom floor in white 3" ceramic mosaics.

Tile project #2 was a doozy. 18" (very heavy) porcelain tiles.
I thought "this won't take long, because the tiles are so big there aren't very many of them, should take about 1/2 the time the 3" mosaics took."
What a deluded moron - try 4 times as long. This floor took me FOUR!! long (as in 10-12 hours) days. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it took so long.
And I'm still going to have to ban any guests from using the toilet because that's where I started tiling and I don't know if we have liability coverage for badly stubbed toes.

The finished floor looks much more impressive in real life. The tile has a speckle-y stone-like pattern that's very nice. Also, this picture was taken before I'd wiped off the haze from grouting.

Tile Project #3: My little tiny powder room.

Planning the pattern & layout takes such a long time.

This is some (a very small part) of the tumbled travertine that Kim negotiated for with the manager of the Rona store that closed last summer.
"How much of a deal will you give me if we take the your entire stock?" A pretty darn good one as it turns out. I wonder if travertine would work outside on the deck?

The inset tiles are not black, but impossible-to-photograph iridescent jewel-toned glass pieces. I bought one sqare foot of a multi-coloured glass mosaic and ripped them off the backing. The glass tiles work well with the rough tumbled stone because the glass has an uneven ripple-y surface & they aren't perfect squares but look like broken bits with jagged edges. Click on the photo to see closer but to get the full effect you'll have to visit in person and have a seat....

while you admire all the pretty colours.

No in-progress pics of Tile Project #4, just the final result.

We liked the 'hopscotch' pattern in the powder room so much I used some left-over white 3" tiles from my first floor to do the same thing in a larger scale in the master bathroom.
Most of the travertine we bought is ivory-coloured and tumbled but we had just enough of these honed, darker tiles to do the floor. Really - just enough - I have less than a whole tile left.
When Cole was sponging the tiles off for me as I installed them, he kept saying how much nicer the colour is when they're wet. So I searched for a sealer that would dry with a wet-look.

Found one called a "stone enhancer" that did just that so I got the dark-coloured floor I had been campaigning for after all.

This shows how I spend a typical Saturday night - tiling the tub-deck. What a party animal.

Outerwear

2009-06-03T22:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, it stands all by itself. Look Ma, no scaffolding.

We see this same view when we look out our bedroom window.

We really had to scramble to paint the trim that was only accessible by scaffold while the stucco guys put on the final colour coat. They were practically removing the scaffolding out from under us. The bottom trim that's still white? We'll get to it later - not a priority as it's easy to reach.

So, what do you think of the colour? Leave a comment & let us know. (click on the word "comment" at the bottom of this post)

We're finding the colour a little on the bland side so need a great colour for the front door. Any suggestions? My brain's on overload & can't decide.

Now all we need is a little gargoyle to sit right here.

Rinse & Repeat

2009-05-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

A typical weekday:

Wake up later than I should.

Frantically try to motivate kids to get out of bed, get moving and get ready quickly (hasn't happened yet but I keep trying) while getting myself dressed.

Drive boys to school, drinking tea & eating breakfast in car. Empty dirty dishes and/or garbage from boys' breakfast out of my purse. (such a prankster, that Cole)

Work 8-1/2 hours at day job.

Go to house & work with Kim for a few hours.

Go home & do a load or two of laundry - because it's easier to get the kids to go to school if they have clean socks & underwear.

Flake out on couch with a book or TV for a bit to 'unwind' before bed. (That unwinding thing doesn't seem to be working so well. My shoulders and neck are wound up so tight I've lost some fine motor control of my left arm. Jammed ring finger up my nose when I was washing my face because ring & baby now have minds of their own and wouldn't stay in line with the other fingers. Big, gushing, bloody mess. Fingernails on my right hand are getting ragged because my left hand can't work nail clippers properly. Doctor says my arm should start working properly soon.)

Stay up too late because too tired to move.

Finally drag butt off couch & stumble to bed.

Note what's missing? Things like cook a nice meal, go to yoga class, go for a walk or bike ride. In other words, any form of nutrition & exercise. This house is going to cost us a lot more than we planned because of that new wardrobe in a larger size that I'm going to need.

Reprieve

2009-05-20T13:16:00.001-07:00

We got some great news the other day from our landlords. The people who have rented the house don't need to be in until June 15th so we can have it for another two weeks.

Phhhhhhewwwwww!

We still have to get our house finished, inspected & passed by June 1st but at least we don't have to be in two places at the same time: frantically scrambling to get all those last-minute things done at the new house (like lights purchased & installed, vanities in, doors stained, sinks installed...) while at the same time packing up and moving the rental.

tick, tick, tick....

2009-05-06T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not losing sleep over our month-end deadline, mostly because I REFUSE to think about it and because we have a bigger one coming: the carpets are being installed next week and we have to get the upstairs finished before then. Kim put in the last piece of trim upstairs just last night.

We've also given in to our kids' suggestion (DON'T DO THAT YOURSELF, IT'LL TAKE FOREVER - HIRE SOMEONE, LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE DO!) and hired some professionals for a few jobs. Will help with the timing (and also, hopefully, our sanity)

I was thrilled when Kim told me yesterday that the painter we hired to caulk and paint the trim has also offered to fill and sand the nail holes. I am SO glad! Beause, well, Kim's new at putting up trim and, ummm..... he's very thorough. I didn't know how I was going to get them all done in time for the painter to finish painting by the weekend.

Now maybe I will be able to get all the upstairs doors stained and at least start on the the masterbath floor tiles.
Just when my hands and knees are feeling normal again - more tiling to do.

Countdown...

2009-04-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

30 Days and counting

It's official now. I just gave notice to our landlords that we'll be moving out the end of May.

I'm now officially in panic mode. Excited, but feeling just a tad overwhelmed.

Not only do we have an awful lot of work to do on the house to make it habitable, then must clean it so we're not wading through dust, but we have to clean the rental house we're in and return it to a state that will make someone else want to rent it.
I've been spending so much time on the new house that I've let things slide in our temporary home worse than usual. Even the laundry is piling up, which is unusual - that's one thing that I'm always on top of, (sometimes the only thing).

Tonight I'll be going straight to the house from work again to help Kim finish casing & trimming the windows. This weekend I have a bathroom floor to tile (the largest one) and doors to sand & stain.

I'll have to tell the boys to turn their underwear inside-out to get a second wearing.

Looming

2009-04-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a full day of errands and shopping.

First stop was a lovely visit with our banker who gave us an ultimatum: be moved in by June 1st "whether the house is finished or not". I guess we've used up all our extensions and extra draws on our builder's loan. Panic is starting to set in, we're so close, yet so far.

That declaration and the news that the carpet we ordered is ready to be picked up (already! - that was fast) caused us to change our plans for 'house-work'. We need to get all the messy stuff finished upstairs RIGHT NOW before the carpet can be installed. So I got pulled off of bathroom tiling & painting duty to help case windows.

Kim has been casing and trimming the windows this week (after a great lesson from Brad, who spent last weekend hanging all of our fabulous fir doors) and has almost finished downstairs. What a difference it makes to the look of the house when you can't see bare studs anymore.

Following our new ramped-up schedule, Kim cut & built the window casings while I installed them and later Cole, now aka "bondo-man", joined us, following behind me filling nail holes. They both quickly overtook me as I learned that tiling isn't the only thing that I'm painfully slow at.

I realize I haven't posted pictures of any of my tiling projects - coming soon. I quite enjoy doing the tiling even though it's hard on the knees and I could probably sand the walls with my bare hands, they're so rough.

Delicate surgery

2009-04-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

We have light!

We had a houseful of electricians a couple of weeks ago. They installed the trim kits for all the recessed light cans, put in the xenon puck lights under the kitchen cabinets (they really make our granite counters sparkle) and hooked up our electrical outlets.
It is so nice to walk through the house at night without carrying a tippy construction light and tripping over long extension cords plugged into one of three outlets in the house. And Kim no longer has to choose between having good lighting in the room where he's sawing or in the room where he's hammering? (decisions, decisions - to cut fingers off or just smash them to a pulp?)

We still have to pick out the light fixtures we want for those areas without pot-lights. And then the electrician's crew will spend one more day installing everything else electrical. (he keeps telling us emphatically "only one more" does that mean he was getting a little tired of us calling him every time we thought up another thing we wanted?) At least in those rooms still waiting for lights we now have a choice of outlets to plug a lamp into. Even Shea commented on the fact that there is an outlet on every wall of his bedroom. "Is that a mistake? That's almost as many outlets as we have in the entire house where we're renting." Ahh, the joys of having up-to-code electrical. Can't wait.

Another thing we asked the electricians to do was to correct a boo-boo made when they did the rough-in lighting in the kitchen. The transformer & wires for the puck lights were right smack in the middle of the wall where the range hood goes, not where they should have been, hidden by the cabinets. (It may have been my error; I vaguely remember being asked if there was a valance that would hide the transformer. Yes, a malfunctioning memory error - it was the cabinet company we didn't go with who's design included a valance.)

When I told the electrician the transformer needed to be moved he asked if we were going to tile the backsplash all the way up behind the range hood.
And when I said "yes" what I really meant was "yes, it's one of the things that I plan to do but since it's not as crucial as having functioning bathrooms, floors, window coverings, etc, etc, and it's perfectly acceptable to have a painted backsplash, it's quite far down my list of things I would like to do eventually"

Yikes! Looks like "tile kitchen backslash" just got bumped way up the list.

Do you think they could have done an uglier butcher job on my freshly painted wall if they'd tried very very hard? I don't.

Time to compromise

2009-04-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Kim told me recently that I've used up my quota of "getting my own way".

What?! How did that happen? I'm very cooperative & give in to him all the time.

Hmmmm, could it be my choice of 'Misty Memories' (a soft lavender) and 'Sea Life' purple for our bedroom?click on pic for the full impact

Cab Install

2009-04-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Finally!
The installation of my beautiful kitchen cabinets.

Here we are all painted and not-quite-ready just before the delivery guys show up. They are rather blunt, blabbing on with me about how huge this kitchen must be, it's a full truckload, etc etc, before they find out that I'm not a hired painter but one of the owners.

Unboxed & waiting to be installed. This is where we spent the evening oooohing and ahhing over the beautiful cherry wood. We specified natural finish, no stain and the natural colour is beautiful, with quite a few examples of chatoyance (where the wood shimmers and changes depending on direction viewed from, with some depth almost like 'mica shift' in polymer clay) which I didn't know was a characteristic of cherry. What a fabulous bonus..

The installer was great, a very friendly guy who really knew his stuff. He pointed out and helped solve a couple of potential problems not the least of which was being open-minded enough to brain-storm with me to find an unconventional way around a big plumbing screw-up. See those white things sticking up in front of the cab box in the island? That's the water lines for the sink. They are supposed to be inside that cabinet. If we had located the island so they were where they were supposed to be we would have had a very narrow space for hallway and eating bar and a huge expanse between the two main work surfaces (stove & sink). When I said I wouldn't mind giving up some of the under-bar cupboard space to house the plumbing the installer made it work. Now we have lots of room for traffic and bar-stools - as long as everyone learns to push their stools back under the bar, and not leave them in the middle of the hall. I'm dreaming aren't I - have to be optimistic though.

This is the view when you come down the stairs and shows two of my favourite features.
That little cabinet facing into the hall is our "communications centre". That's where the permanently-plugged-in phone will be, nice & central for those times when the mobile one is hidden in someone's bed or between the couch cushions. That drawer is for storing all the re-chargers when they're not plugged in. Another thing to try to train the boys to do: put rechargers back in the drawer. In the cupboard above I'm going to put holders for everyone's mail - a hidden version of the pigeon-holes that one designer suggested that really didn't work with our clean look.

I love the way the raised end of the island looks with those glass doors - that's where my nice glass-ware and teacups and teapots will go. That's if I have any teapots left by then, I seem to go through them like you wouldn't believe. Cole knocked the last casualty off the counter a couple of weeks ago.

It's a two-toned kitchen. The island and desk are stained maple. The colour, if I remember correctly, is Witchcraft. We'd originally planned for black, pretty opaque, more painted than stained which I wasn't crazy about. We saw a sample of Witchcraft in the showroom that we liked better but decided it was too brown for the blue-grey granite I'd chosen. Well, by the time the designer came by for the final sign-off Kim had ditched my nice sophisticated 'Desert Eyes' for the more flamboyant 'Bianco Antiquo'. So I took a gamble & changed the island colour to Witchcraft, thinking it would work fine with our new granite choice.

Chose a colour that I'd seen a sample of only once, months before. I spent the next six months holding my breath, with my fingers crossed, hoping it would look good. A little crazy? If I wasn't before I am now.

And here is is with our fancy-pants granite tops.

The faucet and cooktop were just there for the photo-op (and to make sure they fit) and are now back in storage waiting until everything else is ready for the plumber & gas-fitter to do their thing.

Just like the Shoemaker...

2009-03-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

Except the Shoemaker's elves snuck in during the night and worked while he slept.

My elves snuck in and painted primer/sealer on our upstairs rooms during the day while Kim & I were at work. Better light for painting then.

We were surprised and absolutely thrilled. Those elves worked all week, doing what would have taken us a few weekends at least.

One of them even tackled the almost impossible task of getting two teenage boys out of bed before noon during spring break, then took them to the new house and gave them painting lessons. Cole & Shea can now say they not only picked out the colours, but also painted their own bedrooms.

Here's Shea's...

...and Cole's.

Those two busy elves certainly deserve a nice long holiday in a warm climate.

Have a great month in California Mom & Dad (aka Grandma & Poppa).

Love you and thanks for all your help.

Primer, Paint & Indoor Plumbing

2009-03-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

We're coming into the final stretch now. According to the bank's appraisor we have 75% of a house. I have a feeling that that last 25% is going to be a killer. (When Kim was tearing his hair out over everything on his plate and glaring at me calmly flipping through design mags I kept telling him "don't worry, my turn will come" - well, it's here) We're trying to save money wherever we can and one of those places is the walls & ceiling: priming & painting to be specific.

The drywallers were supposed to be finished by Thursday, giving us lots of time to prime & paint the rooms where cabinets were being installed the following Monday. Naturally, there was still one guy there Saturday, finishing up.

After a long, frustrating and ultimately un-productive attempt to rent a paint sprayer, (including an encounter with a confused & surely Home Depot employee who really shouldn't ever be allowed out of the tool crib to talk to customers) we bought a small sprayer and the whole family got to work Saturday, cleaning up and covering windows in preparation for the big primer spray event.

When my Dad stopped by to say hi I asked him if it was possible to temporarily install one of our toilets as the builder of the house next door said they no longer needed the porta-potty we'd been sharing. (Guess it wasn't doing much for their curb appeal, right in front of their front door) The next thing I knew he'd sent Kim off in search of toilet-installing supplies and shortly after we had working indoor plumbing. No privacy, no sink for hand-washing but much better than running outside in the rain or dark to use a plastic out-house. One step closer to civilization.
(I do have a picture of it but, uhm, it's being used - you really don't want to see that)

Dad stuck around and my Mom soon joined him so we had a full painting crew. Cole assembled the sprayer and I read the instructions (how would males function without a female around to read the instructions), then the rest of them got it loaded up and ready to paint. Before Kim or I could try it out Shea had taken command of the sprayer and, with Poppa giving directions and doing the back-rolling, the two of them had soon finished a large room. Nothing like a new gadget to get the guys doing some work.

We always seem to be barely one step ahead, realizing at the last minute that 'this' needs to be finished before the next scheduled thing can happen. We decided it would be best to finish all three coats of paint before the cabinets were installed so we had to make a quick decision on the white for downstairs. I had been to Benjamin Moore with my window frame, cabinet door and chunk of granite for help choosing an appropriate off-white so had already narrowed it down to two (Cloud White or Cloud Nine), so it was just a matter of painting two sample swatches to make the big decision. Kim & my Mom were our jury and they both agreed Cloud Nine was best. I pointed out - just to make sure Kim was fine with it - that Cloud Nine has a fair bit of green in it. We had a little bit of panic when we'd cut in around the ceilings and it looked like a stripe of light lime green against the primer. Fortunately once the whole area was done it looked like white again.
The rest of that weekend was spent frantically painting.

Amazing how much brighter everything was when it was primed.

Shoe as paint-tray.

Late Saturday night, after we'd started packing up I noticed a place on the vaulted ceiling where I'd missed cutting in. Too tired to haul over the tall ladder or refill a small can, I grabbed the full paint tray and climbed onto a stepstool. I was teetering on the edge, stre-e-e-e-tching to reach the farthest spot when Kim started yelling. "What are you doing?" I peered up at the wall, trying to to figure out what I'd done wrong. Did I use the wrong colour? - Not possible, we only have one open. Wrong wall? No, both of these walls are going to be this colour.

Tired brain was still trying to sort out what the yelling was about when foot sent up a signal - "I'm getting a little damp down here". Uh-oh. A waterfall of paint was pouring out of the full tray, and cascading over my shoe into a growing puddle on the floor.
Didn't need the paint tray after that, there was enough paint on my shoe to finish the job.

Thanks to the help of Grandma and Poppa we finished the kitchen just as the delivery guys showed up with a truckload of cabinets on Monday morning......

which almost completely filled the living room.

And this? This was just plain weird.

Who forgot to tell the weatherman that this is Vancouver?! And it's March?!

We don't get SNOW here on March 9th! Crazy stuff.

Kitchen...

2009-03-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

I've received a couple of complaints that I'm taking too long between posts, especially with things finally looking interesting (too busy working at the the house to sit here blabbing about it) and a request to "forget the words, just post pictures of the kitchen, NOW"

So, here we are................

And that's all you're getting for now.

I know, what a tease.
But I need to get to bed, busy day of painting & tiling (and admiring my new kitchen) tomorrow.

Paving stones & Pergo

2009-03-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

Lots has happened in the past 2 weeks but it's hard to keep the blog up to date when your teenager is so good at procrastinating that he's been monopolizing the computer every evening doing last-minute homework. (is procrastination genetic?)

OK, where to start?
At the top.
Now that the drywall has been delivered in through there we were able to put the window in the right way (Did anyone notice that it was installed backwards all this time?) and get the grey-coat on the last bit of naked wall.

Then this cute little bobcat got to work smoothing out our front yard.....

...like this.

And now we have a driveway.

Does it look fantastic?
It better, it came with pretty fantastic price tag.
We just about had a heart attack when we saw the bill. It was so far out of line from what we were expecting that Kim phoned to complain and headed to the site to measure & double-check the square-footage. When the company's owner heard that he had his employees re-measure too. Then he called back with a revised total which worked out to 150 square feet less than they'd originally charged us for. Just an honest mistake? If so it was a pretty big one, equivalent to a room 10' x 15'. It sure pays to be diligent.

What I'm really happy about is that now I won't be sweeping up buckets & buckets of sand from inside the house every weekend.

The mudders have been busy, making stripety-type stripes all over the house.

They promised me they would be finished by Feb. 27th so I scheduled our kitchen delivery for the following Monday. Big surprise - on the 26th they told us they would need another full week.
So I had to delay the kitchen - again. I'm sure they think we're just pretending to be building a house, we've had to re-schedule so many times.
Turns out to have been a good thing because shortly after that I realized that we had a floor to install before all the cabinets can go in. I'd forgotten that we'd changed our mind about having concrete floor in that one room that didn't take kindly to being ground and polished (it looked like crap and I didn't want to take the extra time to start from scratch with the course grinder & have to go through all grits again).

The drywall delay left me one weekend to buy and install a floor so it was a good thing I noticed some fax-spam at the office last Friday. The 'King of Floors' was having a moving sale. I headed there first thing Saturday morning and scooped up a fabulous deal on some Pergo flooring. Kim was in Whistler having a well-deserved couple of days on the slopes so I was just a bit nervous making such an important decision without his input but it looked pretty good for fake wood and he sure couldn't argue with the price. By the time he got back Saturday night Cole & I had cleaned & scraped the 'mud' blobs off the floor, and started laying out the foam underlay.

Cole brought the boxes in, which is why they were stacked like a giant Jenga tower.

This is how far I got by bed-time Saturday night.

After a leisurely late start Sunday I managed to get it completely finished and Kim & I covered it up just in time for dinner at Grandma's house. Doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself.

I have another 'relaxing' weekend planned: Have to buy handles for our kitchen cabinets, then we'll be covering our windows and cleaning walls so we can spray primer on them before the kitchen gets installed this Monday. No More Delays! I'm a little nervous about seeing the kitchen because I think I went way overboard with it. I'm afraid it'll be too big, with too many cabinets and that the island will be ridiculously huge. Wait a minute, does that sound crazy? Is there such thing as too many cupboards? too large an island?
Anyway, there'll be enough room for THREE kitchen helpers at dinner. It's time those boys (all 3) learned how to cook.

Its Alive!

2009-02-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Our house has a heart now, humming away and pumping warm liquid through its veins.

Last weekend we had the heating installed & also experienced our first domestic emergency.

While the plumbers were working away and my Mother-in-law & I were in the kitchen discussing paint colours, a fountain erupted in the middle of the room. We were standing just to the side of the line of fire so didn't get a full shower, just a little sprinkle.
We yelled, the plumbers yelled, I turned off the open valve, the plumbers turned off the water from the source.

See that long wet splotch on the floor, we were standing right beside that. Close call.

After everyone had calmed down, they turned the water back on. We looked around, and didn't see any more fountains, but a few minutes later I thought I heard a noise upstairs. Sure enough, a valve in one of the bathrooms had been left open all the way, not just a fraction like the kitchen one. We had a full-force geyser and about 1/4" of water on the floor. Good thing we still have holes in the ceiling so the water had somewhere to drain out without doing any damage to the new drywall.

It was bit of an ordeal buying the boiler.
We decided to upgrade from the one specified by the heating designer because we heard too many negative things about that brand from too many different sources and also wanted something more energy-efficient. Had a tight deadline because we wanted the drywall 'mudders' to do their thing and they couldn't work until they had heat. So it came down to "what do you have in stock that will work with the already-installed & drywalled-in vent".

In the process I learned more about boilers than I ever wanted to know: I can now read specs to determine efficiency rating and type of vent needed. Also learned that "super-high-efficiency" translates as "super-high-priced". Plus the high-efficiency type need a special stainless-steel vent which would mean ripping out the existing vent and re-drywalling. After spending half a day on the phone & on-line studying spec sheets I figured out which of the ones our supplier had in stock would work for us.

It's a German brand that I was told is the same quality as the 'other' high-priced German name but without the high price; a few more BTU's than we need but its better to be over-powered than under; and, most importantly, it works with our B-vent.

I got an earful from Cole because it's not Energy-Star rated but he cooled off when I pointed out that it's rated only 0.8% less than the Energy-star one that would have cost us a lot more. I'm sure not going to worry about less than 1% difference in efficiency.

The plumbers said it has to run flat-out for a week before they install the thermostats so our house is Hot-Hot-Hot. When Kim & I went to do a clean-up the next evening it was like walking into a sauna. Whoever told me it would take a few days for the house to warm up obviously didn't know what they were talking about. The plumbers said the drywallers wouldn't mind, they need the heat, but I'm afraid to go into the house when they're there - they might be working in their underwear. I would be.

A normal weekend

2009-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a change. It was so nice to spend an entire weekend in normal clothes. I was able to attend (almost) a whole Polymer Clay Guild meeting and on Sunday even had time to, OMG how long has it been, go for a walk and coffee with a friend. Kim cleaned the yard, took a load to the dump and then re-discoved the joy of an afternoon nap.

This is the first weekend in a long time that we haven't had masses of work to do at the house. There's not much we can do until the drywallers are finished taping, mudding and sanding so we're free for now until they're done and it's time to paint.
We're re-considering hiring pros to do the primer coat, I mean we know how to paint, and we've had lots of offers of help so we'll probably take it on ourselves. (Uh-oh, now all those who offered just to be polite won't be answering their phones any more)

At least Kim can't describe me as "a big ball of polar fleece" any more. I don't think it was meant as a compliment.
To keep warm while working in the house my usual attire is baggy, spray-foam insulation-encrusted polar fleece pants (over long underwear, giving me a severe case of diaper-butt), a couple of Kim's old, paint-stained long-sleeved T-shirts and a very bright, multi-coloured fleece vest. Top that with a pom-pommed touque with ear flaps and a dust-mask (or as I call it: pimple incubator) and sprinkle with lots of saw-dust and/or insulation fibres.
I don't understand why Kim kept backing away from me and changing the subject to stereo configuration when Rod Stewart's "Do you think I'm sexy" came on the radio last time we were working at the house. It's not like I was singing along, I wouldn't torture anyone that way, I just wanted a little dance.

Board week

2009-02-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

All four of us spent last Saturday at the house finishing up some last-minute sound-proofing, backing and clean-up for the drywallers who would be starting some time that day.

One of our helpers must have stayed up a little too late the night before. Very resourceful, these teenagers, they can always find a place for a nap....

and so considerate too. Look how Shea made sure his big brother didn't get cold - tucked him in nice & cosy under a pile of construction debris. Warms your heart.

We now have roxul sound-proofing insulation (the green stuff) and donna-conna (those flimsy-looking brown sheets) across the front of the house to stop road-noise and around all rooms where the stereo or TV will be blasting. Oh, also in the wall between the powder-room and kitchen so we don't have hear the sounds of people 'powdering their nose'. In spite of the open lay-out it's going to be a very quiet house.

Around noon I looked out the window when a big red van pulled up and watched as men started piling out of the van. It was like that circus act where an endless stream of clowns tumble out of a tiny car, they just kept coming.

After saying Hello and finding out where they were starting we went back to work clearing all of our junk out of their way upstairs. Pretty soon we were lured back downstairs by the most wonderful smells. These guys give new meaning to a packed lunch. They were sitting around on top of the drywall sheets having a veritable feast of hot food and drinking tea from china teacups. They even had a sugar-bowl there. No paper cups & fast food for these guys. Unfortunately they hadn't brought enough to share (Yes, I did ask) so now I have a craving for Indian food. We'll have to go out a restaurant soon, or at least pick up some samosas.

The guys were finished boarding by Thursday so we now have skin on our bones. Well, maybe muscle & fat, it still looks pretty rough until the 'skin' of drywall mud & paint goes on.

What a difference it makes. This is the living room and great room beyond. Taken from the front door, the same point as the picture at the top of this post, just a few days later. This is so exciting, it is really starting to look like a home on the inside now.

The upstairs hallway looking towards the front of the house.

To the right of the 1/2 wall is where the stairs go down and under the window is one our last-minute changes. We had planned for that area to be a mini office/study area but the boys both thought it was a "stupid place" for a computer desk so Kim built a window seat instead. A much better use of that nice little space. The seat will be hinged so I'll have a storage chest for blankets and things. Right now it's been used to store our tools.

Two opposite walls of our bedroom.

The door beside the bathroom is our walk-in closet. The spot under the window where Kim is standing was going to be a window-seat but the framer-who-didn't-read-plans framed it with a floor instead so we're going to take advantage of the extra space and put our bed there. It's a good thing our old bed-frame broke because we'll have to buy a new, extra-low one to fit under that big window. It's one of the tilt'n'turn windows we have - can be swung open or tilted open at the top.

Next week we have our heat installed so the trades can stop whining about being cold and the drywallers can start mudding.
Then it's paint (I'm gathering quotes right now) and then ..... My Kitchen! It's been so long since I ordered it I can't remember what it will look like.

Photo update

2009-01-31T22:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos that really belong in previous posts.

I took a couple of close-ups of some of the more interesting areas of the floor. They don't show the shine but you can see why we like the floor - lots of variation. Click on them to see even bigger.
What do you think? Leave a comment below, let me know.

It's almost impossible to take a picture that show how shiny the floor is - I think I'd need professional lighting - but this in this one you can see that it's polished enough to reflect the French doors and 'eyebrow' window. It'll look even better once the weather warms up enough that I can apply the densifier - had to put off that task when I read the label that said it must be over 4 celcius to apply. the label also says that with the densifier the concrete gets even shinier with age and wear. Very cool.

Here's the hero of my blog, with his favorite solution to the "cold hands, but need my fingertips" problem: buy a bag of those cheap "magic" stretch gloves and cut the tips off some of the fingers.

By request: the 'other' side of the fireplace.

This is what it looks like from the bedroom side. And, despite the TV cable and electrical outlet that mysteriously showed up there one night, we ARE NOT going to have a TV there! TV's DO NOT BELONG in bedrooms, no matter how perfect the spot is for one. As far as I'm concerned it's an even more perfect spot for one or two of my ceramic sculptures.

So there. (putting my foot down REALLY hard)

Murphy's Law in action

2009-01-22T21:09:00.000-08:00

Still no drywall.

I think it's just the way things go when you try to build a house as a weekend project but sometimes it feels like everything is conspiring against us.

Lately it's been building inspectors.
When an inspector gave Kim his list of deficiencies after our first (failed) framing inspection he told us they'd check that list of things at the insulation inspection. But last week when Kim called for insulation inspection, the inspector who showed up said he was there to re-inspect the framing only, no insulation. It was a different inspector so, not only did he very thoroughly check everything on the list (even making Kim rip out drywall in the mechanical room) but he failed us again and gave Kim ANOTHER list of things to do before we could pass the 3rd framing inspection, before we could call for insulation inspection.

We failed the first gas fireplace inspection so Kim had to take apart & rebuild the top of the enclosure.

He curses the fact that he builds things so well every time he has to take them apart -it's enough to drive one to drink.

Instead of merely adjusting the clearance around the vent to satisfy the inspector he decided to re-design it while he was at it so we now have some cool little cedar shelves and the niche angles to follow the line of the ceiling.

Most inspectors are very helpful. The fireplace inspector pointed out that we still needed a 'tub & shower' inspection and that we would have to waterproof the ledge & bench in our shower first. He told Kim exactly what was needed, where to get it and how to put it on.

That was fun, getting that waterproof liner over those corners. With the heater blasting to try to maintain the minimum temperature, and the windows wide open so we wouldn't pass out from the contact cement fumes.
We passed that one the first time & the inspector even wrote "nice job" on the inspection sheet.

(I'm sure that was for this tricky corner that, after a few tense & sticky
minutes, I surprised us both by managing very neatly).

Tally of inspections passed this past week: fireplace (2nd); tub & shower; gas (2nd); framing (3rd time); and insulation. Phew!

We would have been ready for the drywallers to start by Tuesday BUT.... that's when the city started chewing up the sidewalk in front of the house to put in the new driveway and curbs. No big trucks allowed to drive over it until next Thursday so that means our drywall is delayed by yet another week. They need a big truck with crane to load the drywall through the window into the second floor because WorkSafe won't allow drywallers to carry it up the stairs.

On a less whiny note, our floor is (almost) done. What I said about not wanting it too shiny - forget that, I got over-ruled. Kim kept cracking his whip and I kept grinding....

and grinding, and grinding......

all the way up to 3000 grit.
Now our floor is shiiiii-neeee. No wax or polish needed.
All that's left is to apply the densifier and then cover it up again to protect it from the drywallers.

The thing to keep in mind about concrete floors is that it isn't ever going to be a consistent, even colour. You have to look at it like natural stone: all the flaws & imperfections are considered characteristic and are to be respected for their inherent beauty.

Our floor has LOTS of character.

Blotches and splotches, lines and hairline cracks, some aggregate poking through. There are even a couple of workboot tread marks that didn't reveal themselves until I'd ground down the surface.

One of the concrete floor specialists said to us "you must honour the cracks".

I hope that also applies to the tooling marks that I couldn't get rid of.

(click on any pics to see close up)

What a grind

2009-01-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

I think I know why one of the quotes we got for polishing our concrete floor was $17.50 a square foot - Boredom Pay.

The machine is a dream to work with, but it's a tad tedious going back&forth, back&forth, verrrrry slooooowwwwly - all day long.

It's so light & easy to manoeuvre that when I first started I was zooming across the floor thinking "this is easy, I'll be finished in no time" - until I looked at the ground I'd covered & realized that I wasn't doing anything - no difference at all. M u s t g o s l o o o o w.

It's slow going but not difficult, you just have to make sure that the machine NEVER stops moving for more than a second. I know this because we now have some interesting marks resembling crop circles engraved in the floor.
Then there's the power cord, the vacuum hose, the extension cord and the large canister dust-collector, all trying hard to trip me and stop the werkmaster in it's tracks. At least I'm getting a little exercise & stretching by kicking and pushing them out of the way while keeping the machine always moving.

The process is very much like sanding polymer clay.
You start with coarse grits (metal diamond-tipped grinding pads) to remove any nasty bumps and then progress through finer & finer grits (diamond pads) until you achieve the level of smoothness & shininess you want. The diamond pads go from 30 grit all the way to 3000, which gives you a high-gloss glassy finish (that's what the $17.50 quote was for). I don't think we'll be going all the way up to 3000, I don't really want a high-gloss floor (it's slippery) & it took me two full days to do the grinding step and first polishing step. With each grit you have to go over the floor in 4 directions: lengthwise, widthwise, diagonally & then diagonally in the other direction so I did a lot of walking.

I was able to start with the finest of the grinding pads because our floor was already very smooth and in fact, we could have skipped the ginding and started with the polishing pads if it hadn't been for those ........ oh dear, I haven't told the story of how I RUINED OUR FLOOR. So embarassing.

Confession time.
In my zeal to protect the floor and have the best surface for staining or polishing (we hadn't decided which) I covered it a few days after the pouring with some 'floor-protecting paper' that has adhesive strips along each edge to keep it in place. The label promised that it was easy-release adhesive and would leave no residue. Sort-of true. No sticky residue left once we finally got it to release, but that label didn't warn us about the properties of freshly-poured concrete: the parts smothered with the sticky stuff cured at a different rate so when we unwrapped our floor to get ready for the finishing we had dark lines, runways, racing stripes, alien landing strips, whatever you want to call them.

I was devastated.

It did make our finishing decision easy though. We had been waffling between staining the floor a warm colour or polishing the original gray. Acid staining would have emphasized the stripes; and grinding, while not completely removing them, is at least softening the effect. And after I getting over my initial guilt, I don't mind them so much. At least they're straight, evenly spaced and running in the right direction. In our TV nook they create a pattern sort of like an area rug.

There, that's my big(-gest) blunder. I wrecked our floors.
For penance I will spend at least 5 full days pushing a Werkmaster machine back&forth, back&forth, back&forth, verrrrry slowly while trying not to get too tangled up in cords & hoses.

My weekend's booked

2009-01-09T15:26:00.000-08:00

Just found out the 'Werkmaster' has been fixed and is on its way to our house.
I'm really looking forward to grinding and polishing our concrete floors even though it'll probably take me the whole weekend.

If you see any elves hanging around with nothing to do this weekend, please send them to my home to do the laundry, cooking and cleaning for my family while I'm occupied elsewhere.

Marshmallow walls

2009-01-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

Shhhhhhhh.... it's so quiet in here now.

The first thing we noticed after the first day of insulation was a huge difference in the way the house sounds. Everything sounds muffled, like when walking at night right after a heavy snowfall. That's something we're familiar with now, although this week its more of a 'splashy' sound, wading through slush and puddles.

The rooms seem more defined, even though it's only the ceilings and exterior walls that are filled in.

It's nice to finally SEE what looks like real progress, after a 3-week delay because nobody wanted to work in the cold or drive in the snow.
Next is the floor, which I'm grinding & polishing this weekend. Turns out it wasn't operator stupidity making the machine refuse to turn on, but a broken switch that they weren't able to fix until Jan 5th. (after the end of my holidays that I took just to do the floor) Then, fingers crossed, the drywallers start Monday.

For now we have nice padded rooms, which I'm afraid Kim might feel comfortable in after all the agony he's gone through with my fireplace.

Every step of the way has had a hitch, right from the ordering (dealing with picky, picky manufacturer), delivery (it got lost for a while), venting, installation (unclear manual) and framing. He had to take apart & rebuild each component at least once.

I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to say the word 'Fireplace' without seeing a maniacal, murderous gleam in his eye.

2008-12-31T18:38:00.000-08:00

Some days it just isn't worth getting out of bed.

New Years Eve we got up early to be at the house to meet the rental guy delivering a Werkmaster grinder for us to grind and polish our concrete floors.
Two and a half hours late he showed up with the machine, a vaccuum system and various diamond discs. It wasn't until he tried to plug it in to show us how to use it that he realized he hadn't brought the right adapter to plug it into the 220 outlet that I had had the electrician install just so we could use this machine.
He went back to Kerrisdale to get the adapter and we went off to have breakfast, although by then it was time for lunch.
When we got back the adapter was on our doorstep, along with a large bucket of densifier, which he had forgotten the 1st time, and a very large invoice.

Finally we were ready and I was excited. I'd spent the day before clearing out the downstairs and sweeping the floors clean, then spent the evening watching all the 'Werkmaster' training videos I could find on-line and was looking forward to trying out this machine & polishing our floors.
Good news: the adapter worked, the little red light on the machine was on, we had power.
Bad news: the end of the hose for the vacuum system didn't fit on the grinder. A quick phone call to the rental guy got us
"Oh, I must have thrown you the wrong hose. Can you duct-tape it on?"
Uh, no. Duct tape won't work in this case.
OK, so we don't have a dust-remover now. Lets just start it up and see just how much dust this thing kicks up.
Maneuver it into position in a closet, (start in an inconspicuous spot just in case) push the "On" button.
Nothing. No sound, no grinding, no sign of life except for the red light reading "STOP".
Check the plug, check the connections, flick the breaker on and off, still nothing.
Another call to rental guy. He advises us to do everything we'd already done. Then
"Sorry, I don't know what the problem is. I'm running late (well we knew that), have lots to do and we're actually closed for the day now."

Nothing else to do but go home and back to bed for an afternoon nap before going out for dinner.

(\__/)
(='_'=)
(")_(")

(Little bunny courtesy of Shea)

Well, what else is Boxing day for?

2008-12-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Linens'n'Things was closing and so desperate to empty the building that everything left in the store was either 70 or 90% off. They had a lot less to pack up after our second visit and even less the next day when I went back a third time, with my Mom & sister Tam.

Now we don't have to worry about peeping toms in the new house while we wait for me to sew window-coverings. We'll have everything covered with silvery-gray damask stripes ($12/pair) or roman blinds ($5 each).

Won't have to spend money re-covering or replacing our dining-room chairs either because they'll be covered too - in chair covers ($1.99 each) a brick colour similar to the coppery-red flecks in our granite.

Here's a slightly washed-out photo of a chunk of our granite next to my cherry kitchen cabinet door sample.

I found a few towels for the boys' bathroom. Their bathroom is designed with two teenagers sharing in mind. The toilet is in a separate compartment with a door on it and I have the perfect vanity for them. Two sinks, separated by a raised section of drawers.
My plan is for them to each have their own set of towels, using my old colour-code for them so I'll know who's leaving their wet towels lying around. I made it easy for me to remember: Lime green for green-eyed Cole, cobalt blue for blue-eyed Shea. And to hang the towels?

Hooks only, no towel bars because, apparently, they don't know how to use them!

May as well show more of what I've chosen for their bathroom.

'Rhythm' faucet, with matching tub/shower fixtures. The boys get their own style, different from the ones in the rest of the house but they're all single-hole, single-handle faucets. They just make so much more sense than needing two hands to get the right temperature.

A catalogue shot of the tub. Can't believe I haven't taken a picture of it in the house yet. It's there, installed already.

I chose this tub for a few reasons. It doesn't have sloping sides so there's maximum standing room for showering, as this tub will seldom be used for bathing. And see that extra-high bit extending up the wall? That means that the ledge where all the shampoo and body-wash bottles collect, has no calking-line to get all slimy and moldy.
And it's made in Canada.

Merry,

2008-12-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

Merry

Christmas!

Fashion dilema

2008-12-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

Basic Black? or.......

Stripes? or.......

Plaid?

Oh, just forget it all and slap on a coat of grey mud.

Then add a little frosting on top.

This was last weekend's snowfall. Yesterday's was much deeper but we didn't pull in to take a picture this morning and risk getting the car stuck.

Now that we've seen it like this I think we might change our mind about the colour and go with something a little deeper than white for the main colour. When the 'grey-coat' was first applied and still wet it was a nice green-grey. Maybe we'll go with a 'wet-stucco' look for the final coat. I think Benjamin Moore even has a colour called Wet Concrete". We have until spring to decide. (long enough to change our minds at least another 1/2 dozen times) because it's best to let the first two coats age a bit before putting on the final one. (not to mention that the dead of winter doesn't make for the best conditions) You just don't see it done often because houses can be a little hard to sell with rough, upainted stucco.

It seemed for a while like progress had stalled. Work was still being done but the only evidence was little piles of wood shavings on the floor. It was like we'd been invaded by a gang of small rodents building nests everywhere. Guinea pig hotel. It was only when you took a closer look that you realized there were now more cables or wires or pipes or ducts snaking through holes in the studs and floor. It's a wonder the house was still standing there are so many holes drilled in it.

Everyone did their job right though because we passed the framing inspection with only a short list of 8 things needing to be done. Nothing major, nothing that had to be re-done, but enough additional back-framing to keep Kim busy for the past two weekends.

He's almost done, now we're waiting for the weather to warm up enough that the insulation guys can do their thing. (bunch of wimps - when I get too cold there I sweep the floor, there's always sand - and gerbil beds - to be swept up & I warm up in no time.)

(ps - Zoya - I couldn't figure out a way to respond to your comment and couldn't find an email address for you - please email me directly. jesterkiss (at) telus (dot) net)

2008-11-08T12:25:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a very full one, we got a lot accomplished.

Kim finished #2 and #3 on his list of tasks to be done before the strapping goes on for the rainscreen, which is the 1st step - no I guess the 2nd; 1st would be the paper, which is already on - towards getting the stucco on the house.

We (by "we" of course I mean "Kim, with maybe a little help from me") framed a wall in front of the house to give us some privacy from the busy street and create a court-yard for sitting & soaking up the evening sun.

Kim had built a form and stuffed concrete into it a few weeks ago so we had a nice foundation to start with.

After some pushing & pulling, taking apart & re-doing sections (& running to the lumberyard twice for lost or forgotten bits) it was nice & straight.

Kim started putting the sheathing up, then we stood back to admire it from the street.
"What do you think?"
"Oh, it looks good."
"It's too tall isn't it?"
"Uh, well, it's practical, will give us lots of privacy."
"It's too tall isn't?"
Not satisfied with our own eyes Kim asked for more opinions, from Cole who was riding by right then & from a stranger walking down the street. Both said without any hesitation. "Yup, too tall"

So what can you do?........
but get out your trusty saw and behead the whole thing.
Damn, he's good - perfect the first time. (click on the pic to see just how level)

Much better. Now the proportions look right.

With Cole's help we got the waterproof blueskin on it just seconds before the sky opened up for a 20-minute torrential downpour.

Next, Kim added a window to the garage......

While I finished insulating, vapour-barriering and tuck-taping the walls around the tubs in all three bathrooms. Then glued the tub-deck into place in the master ensuite.

Although, after watching Holmes on Homes last night I think I'll double-check all the seams & edges to make sure everything is completely sealed up.

And there's my tub.
It's so frustrating that, after working so hard all day on the house that all I really need is nice long, relaxing bubblebath, I come home to the most uninspiring, uncomfortable, ugly vintage-70's bathroom. I just opt for a shower & dream of future baths in my fabulous new bathroom, with......

There - can you read it?
Gas. F/P. Above tub ht.
A see-through one, right at the end of the tub, between the bathroom & the bedroom.

The only stupidly extravagent feature in the house, but hey, why not? I'll certainly get a lot of use from it.
When I was ordering it I couldn't resist - ordered the remote control too so we can lie in bed reading by firelight and won't have to get out of bed to turn it off.

I can't wait.

No longer Itchy & Bitchy

2008-11-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Kim has been working his little butt off.
There were a few things that needed to be done before the stucco guys could start stucco-ing that Kim decided to do himself.
In the case of the soffits, because we couldn't afford to hire anyone to do it even if we could find someone willing to do this horrendous job.

Kim designed the house with such deep overhangs that the soffits are very prominent, (especially now that they're lemon-yellow). We didn't want such a large expanse of that grooved plastic-looking stuff that goes on most soffits so Kim took an idea from a development in West Van & decided to have them stucco-ed. Sounds simple, right? But the stucco has to go on something and that something happens to be a very heavy, outdoor type of drywall that sheds itchy fibre-glassy dust when it's cut. And who's doing the cutting & then hoisting the sheets over his head? Not a happy time for Kim.Kim took some time off work and did all of it, aside from a few weekends & after-school afternoons, by himself. It's a good thing we invested in a good, light-weight cordless drill, with all the time he spent with both arms above his head putting in screws.

He did the 1st floor, then had to wait until the stucco-er's scaffolding was built to do the rest. Even installing dens-glass has its learning curve, as the stucco guys pointed out he was missing an important edging that has to go on the outside edge of all the soffits he had already screwed in place. More work, unscrewing, squeezing the edging on & re-screwing. Heart-breaking to find out he'd screwed up the screwing up.

Even scaffolding doesn't help in some tight spots.

We were all relieved when this job was finished. But don't worry, his wife gave him something to reward him for all his hard work....

A nice cosy pair of hand-knit ski socks!

Yip yip yip, uh-huuuh

2008-11-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

See why Shea was such a hit this Halloween?

He found the instructions online and then hounded, pestered, bugged and nagged me for weeks until I took him shopping in search of the perfect shaggy-monster (or should that be alien) fabric.

Black on black

2008-10-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

Our house is dressed for halloween. Including new black gutters.

We're in a bit of a rush to get the stucco on. Both because of the weather and because we've run out of money and our next draw from the construction loan comes when the stucco grey coat is on.
You don't realize how much everything relies on everything else until you try building a house. Before the stucco guys will get to work, the soffits had to be complete and the gutters had to be on and before the gutters could go on the fascia had to be painted.

After finally choosing the right colour it took me 3 weekends to paint all the fascia. Not because I'm that slow but because I could only paint what I could reach so had to wait for the scaffolding to be built for the stucco-ers. Then I had to wait for the water-proof finish on our bedroom deck to dry so I could get up to the roof from a stepladder on the deck.
I spent last weekend overcoming my fear of heights and climbing around on the roof to paint the highest peak of our roof. Scooting up & down the steep parts on your bum sure is a PAIN. Took me a while to pry my underwear....umm, never mind, too much detail.
I came to the conclusion that it's all right that I missed out on that last session of yoga because with all the stretching and contortions I had to do to reach the fascia I'm sure I did every asana ever invented.

I did manage to recruit a couple of helpers one afternoon.

Although, I'd have to say that one of the hardest parts of building a house is getting your weekend labourers out of bed before noon.

And the winner is....

2008-10-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

Once we'd decided on a classic black & white colour scheme it was fairly easy choosing the right white. We knew we wanted something soft & creamy, but not too yellow.
We took a sample of our window frames and a piece of our roof to colour pros at Farrow & Ball and Benjamin Moore for their recommendations. They each suggested 2 or 3 whites that would work and 2 of them were almost exactly the same and just what we had in mind so that was settled. (Lancaster Whitewash)

The black took a little more work.

We narrowed down the suggestions from the two pros and some of our picks to four choices, painted swatches & pinned them to the house beside a swath of our chosen white.Picked our fave from those four, Wrought Iron, & Kim painted most of the front fascia boards. No go. On the colour chip it was black but on the house it changed to Navy. Very strange. One down.

Let's give the runner-up a shot: Soot, not as much blue and a little lighter.
Another gallon, another coat on the trim.

Nice, but now it's too light, almost wishy-washy. We need something stronger, darker.

Back to the stage with three new contestants: Soft Black, Black Beauty, Carbon Copy.
I was rooting for the underdog, Carbon Copy - very dark, with more than a touch of purple, but we have to go with the one that works best with all the other elements & Carbon Copy is just a little too purpley & sharp to play nice with the window frames.

So Black Beauty it is. Once on the house it's perfect. Works well with the roof, nice contrast with the windows. It doesn't have any blue tones, or purple, or brown or green.... it's just Black.

Now we have to get a couple of coats on all the fascia boards before the gutters can go on.
Oh, by the way. Our winner, Black Beauty? It wasn't one suggestioned by of either of the colour pros. Was picked by lil' old non-professional me, using the time-tested scientific method of eeny-meeny-miny-mo.

How to tell you're married to an audiophile

2008-10-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know Kim won't be surprised at all to hear that even though we don't have proper walls yet...

we do have music....
This is Kim's idea of a portable stereo.
You didn't think he'd be happy with a regular portable stero or i-pod did you?

He's very impressed with the sound from these big babies; these 30-year-old collector's items were apparently rated the best speakers of the 70's.
And the receiver? I think that's the one that Cole & Shea brought home one day as a present for Dad - they found it in someone's garbage on the way home from school. Born treasure-hunters they are.

And yes, Kim does pack this whole system into his car and lug them from home to the new house every time he's working on site.

Did you notice our first piece of furniture in the house is a stand for the stereo?
Figures - no place to sit or set your cup of tea but we have a 'custom-built' stereo stand.

Don't be slamming these.

2008-09-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

When we were working on the design of our house we visited every show home in the lower mainland for ideas. One of our favourites was a new complex on the far tip of Lulu Island, Red Boat. We visited many times as they were a similar size and scale to our house so we were able to confirm how the sizes of our rooms would feel while we were still in the design phase. One plan was almost our exact main-floor plan - very helpful.
The design and finish of these homes is wonderful, quite different from the usual clones being built all over the lower mainland.
One of our favourite features was their use of natural and salvaged materials & real wood, particularly the fir interior doors.

Thanks to Kim's friend Brian & his connections we were able afford to splurge on our own 'stain-grade, vertical-grain' fir doors. They're still waiting to be stained & sealed, but don't they look nice even naked?

Beautiful real-wood doors like that deserve to be dressed up:

I LOVE the design of these handles. They have such a heavy, substantial feel in your hand but look like fine jewellery for your home. (note how the curve of the handle mimics the curve of our window & barrel vault - we have a theme happening here, people)

They're a brushed nickel finish, which is a wonderful warm colour (that doesn't show in this picture) & looks good with the champagne-y colour of our window hardware - and the un-nameable colour of the clear-ish flecks in our granite. (Thanks again to Brian we were able to afford these handles)

I was hoping to buy brushed nickel faucets for, at least, the kitchen & powder room but the tight-wad side of me can't justify the $200.00!!!! price difference between brushed nickel & plain old ordinary polished chrome kitchen faucets. Just for a different colour?!!? Sorry, we've been splurging in too many areas, will have to stick with plain old ordinary for our plumbing fixtures.
Don't want to have everything too matchy-matchy anyway.... Right?

Next.....

2008-09-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

The back of our house, over the end of the kitchen/greatroom has a high vaulted ceiling.

This view is taken from the back door looking towards the front of the house. That wall in the centre is a 'shear wall', in case of the big one, and that's where my wall-oven & microwave will be - Jennair's black floating glass (not stainless steel, I'm bucking that trend - I like stainless steel in small doses and only where completely appropriate for function, not fashion - like cooktops & range hoods, definitely NOT fridges)
Last weekend my shiny new oven, microwave, cooktop and range-hood arrived. I hope they don't get lonely waiting in storage, I know I can't wait to be able to use them. If you read about my appliance woes last winter you'll know how exciting this is for me. (See Nov & Dec archives)

So we have this lovely vaulted ceiling, coming to a sharp point in the middle, over this lovely rounded window.
Hmmm, can't have that can we? So, after taking only a 5-day break (that's what the paying job is for isn't it - resting up for busy weekends?) Kim was back at it: (click on pics to see'em big)

Half-way there.

One last piece.

Oh by-the-way, any ideas on how we're going to get insulation in there now?

There, isn't that better? A nice barrel-vault ceiling. Great job Kim!
I love it..... but somehow I think the drywallers won't share my enthusiasm.

We're Wired

2008-09-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

Too much coffee....

No, not really, not every day, anyway.

It's the house - the rough-in electrical is in.
I knew it was happening soon but didn't realize that 'rough-in' includes actual fixtures for the pot lights so it was a bit of a scramble getting them in time.
I had met with a lighting designer a few months ago so I was prepared (or thought I was) when we did our first walk-through with the electrician. I had made a few adjustments of my own to the designer's plan & then the electrician had some great suggestions to make.
OK I'll confess, when I got home I compared our final plan to the original designer's plan and found they were almost exactly the same. Most of the changes that I had made the electrician had revised - to the way the lighting designer had originally planned, coincidentally.
So much for my delusions of being a lighting designer.
And, it's a good thing we had such a knowledgeable electrician.

When Kim & I checked the placement of all lights & outlets after the first day, before the wire was strung, we found just a few errors. Then sheepishly realized that most of the changes or additions on our list were because of our own mistakes.
In one case we both thought the other had told the electrician about a fairly crucial outlet requirement; in another I had carefully measured & put an X on the floor for placement of our dining room fixture. Then, just to be absolutely sure, I wrote the distances from each of the walls on my taped 'X'. When we did our check that evening I couldn't believe they had put the light 'over there' when the X was obviously 'right here'. Couldn't figure out how they could make such a stupid mistake when they had done such a great job everywhere else - until I looked at the figures I had written on the X - I had the numbers swapped, of course.
They must have noticed their, I mean my, mistake as soon as they walked in the house next morning because it was fixed before I even phoned to tell them about it.

Capital, part 2

2008-09-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Now that the capitals are unmolded comes the job of getting them installed. Way up here.

But before we hire a crane, there's a lot of work to be done to make sure those 600 pound chunks of concrete don't come crashing down on someone's head. We are in an earthquake zone, you know.

Kim had some heavy pipes made for reinforcement. He and camera-shy Shea worked all weekend installing them and strengthening the upper supports.

He really gets into his work.

Here's the view from just inside the front door, up through the skylight.

Ta-da!
Sorry, no pictures of the crane putting them in place, I was at work & Kim was too busy helping guide them into place to be able to take any pictures.

Capital

2008-09-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

That's an interesting look, Kim. Cowboy Darth?
He tackled a very tricky project to create the finishing touches for the front of our house. Had to do something to stop everyone from asking "what are those two tall box-things in the front?"

Those pink things on top of 'the tall box-things' are styrofoam prototypes for the caps on these columns.
The style we went with is the one hidden behind the tree.

The first finished (or so he thought) mold.
After the concrete expert came & took a look both molds had to undergo substantial re-inforcement. That concrete is pretty heavy, especially when it's wet.
Many hours of work went into designing and building the molds. It's a good thing Kim's labour is free or these capitals would have cost us a fortune.

We're very fortunate to find out that one of the best concrete experts in the province lives just 1/2 a mile from our house and was willing to cast the caps for us. Turns out it isn't something we could have done ourselves, they're so heavy that special equipment was needed to handle them and we don't happen to have a crane or vibration table, or a cement mixer for that matter. This is part of Casper's workshop.

The 'unmolding' was an exciting evening.
Once the concrete had hardened the filled mold had to be turned over.

It took three people and a crane.

Then they went at it, unscrewing the 5 bzillion screws.

Carefully, one piece taken off at a time, like a long, boring strip-tease.

The first reveal. Looks good.

And here they are, unmolded.

The pokey things sticking out are for attaching metal eyes to so they can be picked up and put in place by crane.

All locked up.

2008-08-31T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the long-awaited 'eyebrow window, installed.
And our lovely, extra-tall French doors, looking out into our chewed-up, barren back yard. (but isn't that a nice fence? Cole helped stain it)

This is the back of our kitchen/great room. To the left of the doors will be a small-ish gas fireplace and to the right, under the two corner windows will be a computer/homework desk at the end of a long run of kitchen cabinets.

In most house plans this area is where another table & chairs would go but I've always thought having THREE eating places (dining room, stools at the bar, breakfast nook) is a waste of space so we've ditched the space for a table and extended our kitchen and put in a huge island, since that's where everyone congregates anyway. This way the dining room will get a lot more use too. No formal, unused spaces in our home.

We will eventually take that blue plastic off the doors.

Shea really likes the design of the hinges.

And the doors don't just look great, they work too.

With the installation of this last window & the french doors and a temporary front door, we have achieved 'Lock-Up'.

The good thing about having a very ugly and beat-up construction door is that no-one will mistake it for our permanent front door.

looky

2008-08-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

Not much time to chat, I've been busy: spending money, paying for things like doors, handles and pot-light guts; making final decisions for orders on appliances; and meeting with the cabinet guys and the electrician. We should have power by next week.
I've also been spending more time at the house actually DOING stuff there. It's starting to feel like MY HOUSE, not just a construction zone belonging to a bunch of sweaty guys with hammers.
So here's this past week in pictures. Click to see closer.

We have floors.
We're going to polish and/or stain the concrete on the main floor so it has to be protected from all the construction mayhem. I started to cover it before I realized I hadn't taken a picture.

See the difference between the top floor here & the one downstairs? This one looks more even but it's actually quite rough to touch, designed to be covered up with flooring. The main floor looks mottled but is so smooth it has a bit of a sheen to it even before polishing.

And we have a garage door. Kim's first garage door. Looks very plain but that's the way we like it. It's going to be stucco-ed the same colour as the rest of the house.

Now we just have to fit this round window into This...

square hole.

And this is where my camera battery died on me.
I do have better pictures of our lovely 'eyebrow' window and french doors but they're still on the camera.

Diversions

2008-08-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

I've re-discovered an old love.

I knew how to knit as a child but found it too time-consuming so took up more 'instant-gratification techniques like needle-point and crochet instead.
It was Kim who got me hooked on knitting as an adult when we first got together. He was admiring a hand-knit sweater in the window of a yarn shop when he noticed a sign offering classes. Looking at me and seeing the potential for an unlimited source of beautiful chunky sweaters, he had me in there & signed up for the next class in seconds flat.
Fortunately I didn't mind and did turn out a few nice sweaters for him (that he still wears more than 15 years later) before kids & life turned me into a knitting committment-phobe. Since Shea was born I haven't knit anything more substantial than scarves, dishcloths and placemats, even though I've now knit enough dishcloths to be the equivalent of a wardrobe of sweaters. I guess it's understandable since my main knitting time is in the car (not when I'm driving) on long family drives, so working on a sweater might be a bit unwieldly.

For the past couple of years I've had my big-project excitement vicariously, reading Yarn Harlot's blog, (click here to check it out) so I guess it's inevitable that I'd catch the sock-knitting bug.
I polled my family to find out if anyone would wear hand-knit socks and got two surprisingly enthusiastic "yes's" and one very predictable "no way" (guess who).

The last time I had a few minutes to kill in Steveston I found some fabulous sock yarn - Trekking - that creates wonderful stripey patterns. Now who do we know who would wear such wild-coloured socks?
Here's my first ever sock, a ski sock for our eccentric Shea.

It's so gratifying to have someone truly love what you make for them (and that I can still pick his fave colours). The only way I could convince Shea to finally take off his one new sock was to tell him that if he wanted the second one to be the same size he'd have to hand it over.

I was planning to have a lot of knitting time on our trip to Whistler last weekend so, even though I still had most of Shea's second sock to work on I optimistically bought some yarn to make a pair for Kim.
Good thing too, because we were 1/2 way to Whistler when I needed the next page of the pattern and found that I had brought a page from a completely different sock pattern. I'd printed out a few to choose from, from the internet so they were all on loose pages. GRRRRR
I came home with 3 socks knit up to the heel-turning stage. And some beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn I bought at the Whistler farmers market. (Someone's going to get a nice hand-made Christmas present.)

Here's a little Whistler friend who loves Chili rice chips.

We brought our bikes & Kim & I had planned to do a lot of cycling but the weather was scorching, far too hot for riding much. It was perfect weather, though, for wandering through air-conditioned art galleries and sitting in air-conditioned ski shops knitting ski socks while Kim & Shea looked at skis & boots and dreamed of nice cool snow.

Just in time

2008-08-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

We're protected from the rain. And with the roof shingles comes a complete re-thinking about the colour our house is going to be.
It was going to be shades of brown & our large collection of tester-bottles is proof of how seriously we take the job of finding the perfect colour. You can see swatches of some of the contenders painted on the front of the house.
But that was last week.
Now that the roof is finished we're going back, waaay back, to one of our original colour schemes: Black & White. Not a stark black & white but a creamy white trimmed with a soft, charcoal-ly black with a hint of.....something else. Haven't decided what else yet(blue? brown? purple?), but I have a few new tester bottles waiting to be slapped on some poster board to try out with the 'Lancaster Whitewash' we've (almost certainly) decided on. At least, thanks to the colour pros at Benjamin Moore, we've narrowed it down to only three blacks: Carbon Copy, Wrought Iron, or Iron Mountain.
Here's what the house looks like now. (Can't believe it, my blog is finally up-to date with what the house looks like today) Nice roof eh?
The skylights have all been installed, you can see the one over the entrance in this picture. (click on pic to see)
The house is all boarded up because we don't want anyone walking around in there while we wait for the concrete floors to be poured.
The floors look like this right now:

Even upstairs has red tubes snaking all over the floors
They were supposed to be poured last Wednesday but have been delayed until next week. It's frustrating but what can you do? It's all part of building a house. We can't hire just anyone to pour the concrete floors because we're planning to have stained concrete floors, so they have be smoother than if they were being covered with flooring. Our framer has found a concrete guy who does acid-staining and other decorateve concrete floors himself so he knows exactly what we will need for our acid-stained floors.
Part of our current decor in the living room at home is a stack of rolls of special adhesive-backed paper to cover the floors because they can't be walked on for about 4 weeks while the concrete finishes curing and is ready to be the acid-stained. The paper was another of my great scoops from the Rona liquidation sale.