A Good Day

Today was a pretty good day all in all. 


I started cleaning and then decided a day in the yard would do me good. I had just about finished stringing my first garden box when my husband got home and came and helped me. We  got both the boxes planted, and with the help of my two youngest, we got some trees pruned and a lot of garbage picked up. We also planted two raspberry bushes and two blueberry bushes. I do hope they live. I planted blueberry bushes when we first moved here and they did not survive. 


When we were done in the garden I went over to the deck and watered all my flowers, i had just sat down and removed my boots when my husband called out that two baby robins were stranded in our window well. My husband got a latter and climbed down and put them back in the tree, while the mother flew around so upset with us that she couldn't decide if she was brave enough to attack us or just brave enough to fly around our heads screaming at us. I am glad she choose the latter.

By the time I got my camera and came around to the front of the house my husband has already rescued one of them and was getting ready to put it back in the tree.

The other bird, still at the bottom of the window well. Hard to see in the picture but he is in the plastic bag, which also got rescued today.

Pretty deep window wells, my DH needed a latter to get down there. The second one did not want to get caught.

Protesting his rescue. I think he was yelling, "Get them, Mom".

Second one being placed back in his home. 


We all came into thoroughly worn out and tired. Always the sign of a well spent day. How showers all around, pizza and tv to end the day.

Sunday Mornings and Expectations

It is Sunday Morning and everyone is still asleep. Most Sunday mornings we would be on our way to church by now, but today my DS1 is teaching at his church, which doesn't start until 1:30 pm, and we are going there instead so we can, both listen. and support him.

So here I sit quietly by myself, contemplating things. 

Yesterday, DS3, told me his girlfriend is expecting. Yes, that's right she is expecting a baby, I really don't know why we use the word, "expecting". she is not expecting a baby, she is having a baby. As if it could be a puppy! Pregnant! 5 months along! I see this girl everyday and I never suspected a thing. Anyways, ever since I got the news I have been, well I am not sure what, I mean, I want grandchildren, I am just not even sure what I mean. I just wish it was under better circumstances. So last night I came to the conclusion, it is what it is, nothing I can do to change it, so I might as well be happy about it. Let go and let God. I leaned that lesson a long time ago and really don't want a repeat. 

So, I am going to be a grandma. Not sure what I want to be called yet. Nana, I hate! sounds like an old goat, I hope I am not offending anyone out there. I told my kids I was going to be Grand-ma-ma, back when none of this even mattered, but now I am not sure. I am pretty sure my husband will be papa, but as for me, I am still open to suggestions. I love this baby already, even though I am not too happy with the parents at the moment. It does no good to harp on it though, it will serve only in alienating the mother, which in turn will alienate my grandchild. So here I am still trying to take it all in. My son just turned 22, this month, He is two years older then I was when I had my first and one year older then my husband, but we were married, not that it made it any easier, but at least the circumstances were a little better. I told him it was time to grow up, no more goofing off, he said he knows, and he is very excited, so that at least is good. 

All plans now have to be put on hold. What makes this more complicated then them not being married is that my DS3, got into some trouble about a year ago and is waiting for his trial. Right now he is out on bail, which is why he has moved back in with us, it was court ordered. In fact he is not allowed to leave our property without me or my husband. That is a huge complication. Means unless one of us takes him he is not even allowed to go to Dr. appointments. See how this is going to affect us all?  

Anyhow, time for me to get up and get moving, on with my day, on with my life. It is a good life, even if things don't always go as I have planed them. I learned a  long time ago to roll with the punches, and lets face it, a baby is not that bad a punch. 

Lazy Day.

I am sitting at my desk, listening to the wind blow and hoping  it will rain. My tomato plants are in and yesterday I bought some seeds to plant but thus far I have not planted them We worked in the yard on Monday and I got my husband to help me with a few things I could not do by myself, such as move a huge rock that needed the bobcat. 

I am waiting for a friend to come over, she is bringing me coffee, and I am thinking of all the things I need to do. I am the worlds biggest procrastinator. First off, getting dressed would really be a good start. 

Okay, I am dressed, load of laundry in machine, beds made, dishes done and now I need to vacuum and mop. My mother used to say, "As long as the dishes are done, the beds are made, and the floor is swept, your house will at least look presentable." Funny how things like that shape you as an adult. 

Today I was on pinterest and learned that you can paint upholstered furniture. I as so very excited about this because I have a burgundy couch that I love, it is in perfect condition, I just hate the colour, so now I am going to paint it chocolate brown. Can't wait! I also have a chair that I may paint for the spare bedroom, as well.

Friend has come and gone, coffee has been drank, and we had a great visit. Home is more then presentable and now I think I shall go out into the wind and get some planting done before it is time to go get DS4 from football. DS1, DS3, and DD are all playing basketball together tonight. I am so excited to go watch three of my kids play on the same team. All of my kids played sports growing up but none of them were ever on the same team. 

I think we shall go pick up DS4, go out for dinner and then to basketball. Sounds like a plan...and that is what we did.

Road Trip

On Tuesday, May 8th, my husband and I started our road trip to Texas. We left our middle child (DS3), darling son 3 home with our youngest child, darling son 4 (DS4), to look after things. We left home around 10 am-ish and drove to Great Falls, Montana. We had decided to depend on OnStar to get us where we wanted to go. Only by the time we needed it we discovered that it didn't work. We took it to a GM dealer in G.F. and paid them $70.00 to unplug the system and plug it back in again. That also wasted a good couple hours of good traveling time. So, with our OnStar working, and both the car and us refuelled we set out again. We drove from Great Falls to Billings and then down to Wyoming. In a small town in Montana we saw a place called, The Cozy Corner. I wanted to stop there for supper until I realized it was a bar. I should have taken a picture. I think that bars should not be allowed to call themselves, The Cozy Corner. That name conjures up visions of small antique stores or gift shops with homemade quilts and small intimate tables that are being served tea and sandwiches. At the very least tea with warm crumpets and jam. Not a place where people go to get drunk and forget all their troubles, with gas pumps out front. My big disappointment of the day.

We opted for salads from McDonalds and spent our first night in Wyoming. 

A small cheat, we didn't get a photo going in so we had to cross the road while getting Colorado and take this one as well. Wyoming was our second state.

Hard to get focused pictures when you are blind. I need reading glasses for this kind of stuff. Colorado was number 3.

We drove though Colorado and just south of Denver we went through a small town with an antique store. We stopped there to use the bathrooms and browse.

 The yellow one is the antique store we browsed in. Then we went to the little grocery store on the corner to buy water.

From there we drove right through to Oklahoma, which was the the fourth state we passed through, and into Texas to Vernon. 

While I went in to get a room, my darling husband (DH) went to pick up our darling daughter (DD). We spent the night at the hotel and then went and to DD'd dorm to pack up her things. She was attending school there on a volleyball scholarship, but has decided to give up the scholarship in favour of attending a school closer to home. 

A very full car, the reason why shopping would have to be put on hold.

While we were in the process of getting DD packed up, DS3 called to say that her horse had colic and was not doing well. A vet was coming out and he would let us know. 

DD a little upset after getting the first call from her brother.

We drove from Vernon to Amarillo and we were having a great time in a hoarders antique store, how I wish I had got pictures of that store, when DS3 called to say that the vet thought the horse needed to be put down. We hung up went back to the car has a small family meeting among lots of tears, called back my son and gave the go ahead to have the horse put down. Big damper on first day with DD. She cried for a few hours while we drove and we did our best to comfort her, but in the end she just needed to cry herself out. 

Texas was fifth. We missed the sign going into Texas so we had to cheat again. But it was better this way because DD was with us and this way she got to be in the picture, which was fitting, since she spent the better part of the last 9 months there. Good by Texas, hello New Mexico.

New Mexico was the sixth state we drove through, and the one with the best sign.

We drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico and spent the night there. The next day we started back on the road for our first destination, The Grand Canyon, west rim in Arizona.

DH and DD in Arizona. Seventh state and ninth as we passed through a different part going from Nevada to Arizona.

We were thrilled to discover we were driving along route 66. We got our kicks on route 66 and I can now cross that off my bucket list.

Stopped for gas at a fun little place along the highway and took a few pictures.

DD in front of a teepee standing on a piece of petrified wood. They had tons of the wood laying around and lots of old buildings.

The wood had lots of different colours in it. It was actually very pretty.

Spent that night in Kingmen, Arizona as it was too late to go the Grand Canyon. DD and I took a walk that evening and took some pictures.

The original, Route 66 Motel. I would love, love, love to buy this place.

The sign is being historically repaired.

I know all the fuss is over, but I have never seen one of these signs up close and in person. Had to get a photo.

Next morning bright and early we were off to the Grand Canyon Sky walk. 

I'm Back!

We got back from our trip late Wed. night and were immediately informed that a man my husband worked for had passed away on Tuesday. He was a wonderful man, and although I never met him in person, I had a lot of respect for  him. He was one of those people that everyone loves. He treated his employees like family and in turn they were very loyal. His funeral was yesterday at St. Cecelia Catholic Church. It was a wonderful ceremony. I had never been to a Catholic funeral before and I felt like I was attending a musical. 

Anyways, enough distractions. I am also Facebook free right now, which really feels weird. No more sharing thoughts or interacting with my 213 friends. Harder then I thought it would be even though I was finding it a bit boring. I love how people complain about people who change their Facebook status too often, and yet, if nobody does, what is there to do on there? Sorry, I go against the main stream, always have, probably always will. I quit Facebook because people don't change their statuses often enough. The only reason for Facebook is to connect with people, if you are not connecting why are you on there? We will see how long I last. I was meant to be a social butterfly and with nobody around me to socialize with, that was my window to my family and friends.

DH, DS1, DS3 went fishing today, they caught some fish and got some great photos. The first thing DS3 said to me when they got home was, "These are Facebook worthy pictures." Too bad. I will post some here instead. 


We have also been very busy getting garden boxes built and yard work done. If I can ever get caught up, I will post some pictures.

Spring

Today is so warm and sunny out that inspires me to want to get started on gardening and yard work. 

I went to Costco after church today and they have such lovely flower baskets, they were closing and I didn't really have time to do much looking, but I am leaving Tuesday on a road trip, to go pick my daughter up from TX. I just know that by the time we get back all those lovely flowers are going to be gone. 

I want to get my square foot garden boxes built and my railing painted and a fire pit built and a million and one other things, done. I want to have a yard I can enjoy this year. What I would really like, is to have the money, to hire someone to come in here, and design my yard for me. I can envision the heck out of the inside of my house but I have absolutely no imagination when it comes to my yard. I have twelve acres to play with and no real ideas as to what I want to do with it. 

Just in case anybody was wondering, this is what my house looks like today,

Christmas lights and all. My husband likes to turn them on all year round because they are clear and it helps people find our house when it is dark out. They are coming down this week though, even if it kills me!

One thing I want to do before we leave, which means tomorrow, is build a bigger dog kennel to keep my dogs off the lawn and porch. I used to think it was so mean to keep dogs in a kennel, but all my dogs want to do is lay in my mud room and sleep all day anyways, so they might as well sleep in a kennel. That way I might be able to have a front lawn that is not covered with brown patches where they pee and also much easier to pick up after them when it is contained. And the existing kennel is bigger then my mud room, so they will have way more room when we finish the new one.

Dog kennel as it is right now. That is Nana, in the kennel, my middle son's St. Bernard, that we inherited when my son moved back home. I want to move the kennel to the north side of the garage, closer to the house, and make it bigger. We have four dogs, so this, just does not suffice.

Things to do this month; paint the railing on the deck build a bigger kennel, build raised garden beds for my sq. ft. gardening, take down Christmas lights, build a fire pit. Make my deck pretty. And maybe just maybe make a nice little front entrance by my gate at the driveway entrance. After all that is the first impression people get, it would be nice if it was welcoming. Well we will see how much of this actually gets done. Especially since I am about to embark on a road trip all the way to TX. The plan is to get the the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park as well as whatever catches our attention along the way. I also plane to keep my eyes peeled for things that may beautify my home and yard. 

Oh, and I almost forgot. Take down the eye sore, of an ice skating rink. It was a lovely idea, but we had an unusually warm winter and I think it only got used like twice. 

I will blog along the way and post pictures of any great finds, as well as great places we visit. Hasta la vista everyone.

Feeling Sad

I don't know if I am suppose to blog about this kind of stuff, but since nobody follows me anyways, I am going to blog about this because it is therapeutic. 


Even though I did not want the Alpacas, I did not want anything bad to happen to them either. However our dogs got out and killed some of them. It made me sick to my stomach because they just did it for sport. To say that I was very upset with them would be an understatement. I locked them in their kennel and got my middle son's girlfriend to come pick up his dog, a St. Bernard that would not leave them alone. My husband is out of town and I had to have my 2nd son come over and shoot one of them that was suffering. Anyhow, I could not eat last night, and I felt ill over it all. Then last night after I went to bed I kept hearing barking and high pitched squealing and yelping. I thought it was the dogs, upset that they were locked in the kennel. I tried to sleep and ignore them but they were very loud and no matter how hard I tried, I could not sleep. I have a hard time sleeping when my husband is away at the best of times. I kept thinking they would tire themselves out and quit. They didn't!  Finally, about 2:30 am, I got up and went out on the deck to yell at them. That is when I realized it was not the dogs but coyotes. I had a flashlight and I turned it on them but they just kept barking and yelping. It was too dark for me to see anything so I got the shotgun and fired it in the direction of their yelping. They moved over to the the north end of the yard but kept yelping. I fired again in their direction and they shut up. It was late and I went to bed. 


This morning, when I drove my son to school, we noticed that the alpacas were missing. After I got home I found them all dead, up in the corner of the pen we had them in. I feel so sad and bad and ill and horrible. Poor little alpacas, not a very nice way to go. And I feel so guilty, like somehow I should have prevented it, although I don't know how. Life out here is not always what it is cracked up to be. Sometimes it is just lonely and sad.

Not Progress

Some friends of ours, that were into showing Alpacas, moved to the city. They sold most of the animals they had and my husband bought some tools and a few other things from them. The other day he went out to their farm and came home with these.

We now have seven Alpacas in our yard. What we are going to do with them is beyond me. I guess they will be fun to pet, for the many kids who come visit.  Did I mention the my husband went out of town the day after these made an appearance in my yard? Seriously, I am not fond of taking care of my daughters horses and now this!

I am pretty sure this in not considered progress. One step forward two steps back. If you would like to adopt one let me know.

Love You More

Okay, remember my reason for doing this? Progress is progress no matter how small. 


So yesterday I decided to go down and tackle my dungeon, because I do that occasionally. I was cleaning the basement and I went into my son's bathroom, a place I usually avoid. I decided it needed a mother's touch. After giving it a good cleaning, it still needed something more. I looked around my house and found a painting I had bought a while back and hadn't found a place for. Now, when I bought it, I must admit, that a bathroom is not what I had in mind, but to be truthful, I don't think I really had a place in mind, i just liked what it said. 

So here it is, hung in the bathroom. That wall still needs something more, I am not sure what. I do have a hand towel ring that will be hung on the wall over the sink that will help a little, but it still looks a bit bare. I will have to figure something out but it is better then it was. For some reason the painting appears so small in this picture, it is actually a fair size. If you click on the picture and make it bigger it looks better, but for some reason it is so much better when I just go look at it in the bathroom. Maybe a cute towel rack underneath it with hanging towels? An update to follow.


Last night when my son went into the bathroom to take a shower he yelled out the door to me, "I love you most". Made me happy!

Bad Contractors

So what do you do when you have paid somebody a $10,000.00 deposit to finish your house, and they spent your money, but haven't done anything? Oh, wait, he did do something. He took all our custom made doors and trim so that he could stain them to match the existing doors and trim and then never brought them back again. 


He promised me in October when we hired him that he would have our house finished for Christmas. He took our cheque and promised he would be back that weekend to start. Suffice it to say, he did not show. And when he finally did show after many phone calls, he told me I was panicking, that there was not that much work to do, and assured me once again that it would be done by Christmas. It was not! Not even close! What he did do was stain all my wood yellow, after I begged him not to. Then have to get a new stain that would cover up the yellow and for all I know it all looks horrible. But we can't even see if it can be fixed because we still don't have it.


He was supposed to bring them back today at 6 pm, sharp, he said, it is now 6:45 and he has not shown. The only reason he even talked to us is because I threatened to get the police involved and my husband had to go knock on his door. He was recommended to us by the guy who made the doors. So hard to find good trades people, when you do, keep their numbers.


What I should do is start a list of people you should never ever call no matter how desperate you are.


If that guy does show up today, I am going to take his picture and post it on here so you can see what a tradesperson looks like who has no pride, integrity, honour or any other morals or ethics. Yup reserving a spot for his picture right underneath this.

Getting a Roof.

When we finally  started our reno, my husband gave me about one day notice. He came home with a framer one day, and the next day they were ripping off roof. I panicked. "You said you wanted it done, what are you complaining about." Was the answer to my pleading for more time to move things from upstairs. 


The kids and I grabbed things as fast as we could and brought what we could down to the main level. Some of the furniture ended up being moved off the second level floor, which was now our roof, with a Bobcat. Fun times. I wish I had been blogging while we were doing it, I could have got some great pictures. 

It was very weird walking up your stairs to be standing outside. The rectangle hole in the floor is the old stair well. 


Anyways the Reno had begun. No permits, and an old plan that no longer worked because we had now ripped off the entire second storey of our home. So I called our designer, told him what my husband was doing, and as quick as we could we got new plans drawn up for the new second floor.

This is a picture of the only addition we were going to do, minus the rest of the second floor that was not supposed to be ripped off to begin with.

Walls being built. The guy with no shirt is the framer my husband hired to help, everyone else you will see in these pictures are either, my husband, my brothers, or my sons. I found out later that the framer was smoking pot every time he took a break, maybe why he did not think to move beds out of the way of the down pour that ensued when he removed tarps from our roof in the wake of a storm. May also be the reason he did not notice the storm coming.

Walls going up, the guy in the grey t-shirt on the left would be my husband.

Walls are up and now the roof trusses are going up. Notice the blue tarp on the left hand corner, that was all we had to protect us from the rain, and we did get rain. It poured in to my cabinets in the kitchen, as well as many other places.

More  trusses going up. Even the tarps need some sort of support.

The stairs going up to the second level were the stairs that used to go down to the basement from the kitchen. They were put to good use for months during our reno.

I guess I never got a picture of the framing complete before we has some sort of waterproofing on it. It stayed covered in tarps for weeks, which seemed like months, until my husband, who is a roofer by trade, had time and a break in the weather to get a waterproof membrane down.

Framing complete, back side view. Notice the nice waterproof membrane on there. No more floods. Yay! 

All the framing done and waterproofed roof. Notice the tarps now on the ground. The great thing about this is that that waterproof membrane is still on under our shingles, so, our roof should not leak, ever. 


Once my husband decided he was going to rip off the whole second floor, I decided that we should then have a second floor deck with doors in all the bedrooms. Easy exit if there is ever a fire and nice place to enjoy in the summer. That is why you there are doors framed in.

View from the front. You can see the old roof line if you look to the left of the chimney. The chimney now needs to be built up higher, one of the things that still needs to be done.

Drawing of how the house is to look nee it is done. To get the house to this point only took a little over a month. We started June 3 and the above picture was taken July 7. Not bad, really. That included rip off and and all. It lulled me into a false security that this was going to actually get done. 

The Beginning

In September of 2005, we moved into our new home. We knew from the start we wanted to make a few changes. What I didn't know, is that my husband was going to turn my whole world upside down and inside out. A reno that my husband said would take 6 months is still not complete.


Now to be fair to my husband, we did not start in 2005, as we were going through an audit by revenue Canada and did not have the money. We started in June of 2008 and here it is almost four years later and here I sit in my unfinished home. I have decided to blog about it because I am hoping that it will motivate me to get things done. Even if they are small things. Progress is progress no matter how small.

I cannot find a picture of my house when we first bought it, I will add one later, but this is a picture, taken from the driveway, before my world got turned upside down. This picture was taken after we added a deck and replaced a picture window with the double patio doors you can see here.


To begin with the plan was very simple. The upstairs had three dormer bedrooms and a bathroom. Because they were dormer rooms there was six feet of attic crawl space on two sides of each room. The back bedroom was very small and we did not really have a master bedroom. The lower level of the house had a small bedroom and office off of the living room that had nothing over it. We decided to take out the back side of the roof and the roof over the office and bedroom to crate a bigger back bedroom and a walk in closet and bathroom turning the front bedroom into a master with an en suite. Simple, right?

This is the north side of the house, here after referred to as the back side of the house. The window on the upper level is the bedroom we wanted to make a little bigger and the man is standing on there roof over the small bedroom and office of the lower level. 

This is a view of the back of the house before we started. 

All going according to plan. Roof ripped off and getting ready for new addition.

Roof off over small downstairs bedroom (my bedroom at the time) and office. Back side of roof removed to continue wall of back bedroom and make room bigger. First snag. We got caught in a hail storm and flooded the two down stairs bedrooms. Window under upstairs room was also a bedroom. The framer had shown up as I was leaving. He started taking the tarp, my husband had put over the roof off. "Is that wise," I asked, " there is a forecast for rain." "Don't worry," he assured me, I will see it coming from a long way off.  Famous last words. My mattress was water logged. However frustrating this was, don't even get me started, you would think he would at least have moved beds out from under the water pouring in, I soon got used to it as it was only the first of many floods to come.

New wall for new en suite and walk-in closet up. Things were going pretty good. Then my husband realized the bedroom that was going to be the new master bedroom was sort of built in a box. there was a 2x8 box around the bottom of it that was held together with metal cables. Any rooms adjoining it would have to be built 12 inches higher up or have a dividing board between them. Not ideal on any level. Especially since that new wall going up was going to add six feet to the bedroom, that used to be attic crawl space, and that six fee would have to be 12 inches higher then the rest of the room. My Husband thought about this for a bit and decided the only thing to do would be to knock the whole top of the house off and start over. 


That is how simple turned into chaos.


I had a small panic attack, begged him not to do this, especially since the framer he had hired to help him told me that the rip off alone would take until Christmas. My husband assured me the guy was crazy. The whole thing was going to take no more then six months.  I finally relented (like I had a choice) and we went ahead.

My husband chalk marked the outside of the house where the main floor ended and second floor started used a saw to cut along it and started removing the rest of the roof and pushing out walls. Keep in mind we never moved out of this house. 

If you think this looks scary, think of how I felt, living right underneath it all. That's right, we have no roof, and it is June in Southern Alberta!


Well this is how it started. Stick with me and I will show you how it progressed.