Archives for the month of: April, 2008

The World Wide Web

April 24, 08 //
7

I am sitting on our bed in our motel room, wishing that we could get Internet access at our motel. Although, I am asking myself what I would actually do if I could access the Internet. First, I suppose I would check my email…which would have no new messages because I haven’t really sent any outgoing emails for the past four months; funnily enough, with no emails going out, no one writes back!

Then I would come here to our blog, and think, oh Lord, I have nothing to write because even though we have been working 10 to 12 hours a day for almost two months, we have barely any tangible results to show. No perky before and after pictures, because it’s been all electrical and plumbing and demolition and insulation. It’s productive, but it’s not very fun to share.

Next, I’d spend a little longer here at this blog, smiling over the comments left by you lovely people; I then promptly feel overwhelmed because normally I like to respond to every comment and I have not responded to any due to a lack of time combined with a lack of Internet access (or perhaps a plethora of laziness?).

Next, I would probably log in to Facebook, stay there for three seconds, get overwhelmed again and turn to Google.

At Google, I would ask myself, “Now that I have the Internet for ten minutes, how should I spend my time?”

Usually I’ve amassed a short to-do list, such as trying to find some used kitchen cabinets online or paying some bills. Often I will also have a few phrases to look up on Wikipedia, if time permits. For example, today, if I had the Internet, I would read about baby carrots, because I’ve been eating a lot of them of late and I am wondering whether they are simply small or just cut that way. Yes, all the information in the universe at my fingertips and I choose to read about daily minutae.

It’s usually at this point that Cameron will glance at my screen and say, “Are you just reading about baby carrots? It’s time for us to get to work on the house!” And so end my forays with the Internet.

Home Improvement Glamour: Debunked

April 8, 08 //
4

Oh sure, reading about our 63 acre Walden utopia leaves an impression of daffodils and the smell of fresh baked bread. Well, let me be frank, it aint as easy as all that.

Would you care to see our yard?

Our yard

How about our welcoming front stoop?

Our front stoop

What about the alluring Friday night outfit, swim goggles and all?

Laura-Jane

And what about the jaw-dropping cost of door-knobs, and the sudden “ahha” moment when we realize that logic does not necessarily dictate price at Home Hardware? (Um, this moment is not pictured.)

No, roses it’s not, but I guess it will be worth it–at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

On Moving to Prince Edward Island

April 8, 08 //
3

We grew up and lived in British Columbia, Canada. In order to begin this adventure we call our new lives, we had to leave BC behind and drive for 28 days to get to our new home-land: Prince Edward Island, Canada. (Yes, the drive could have been done in five days, but we couldn’t resist visiting friends and family, seeing Niagara Falls, tobogganing in Quebec City, visiting the House of Commons, among many other events.)

Confederation Bridge

We’d heard a lot of rumours and stereotypes about PEI, “the Gentle Island”: very flat (not so!), over-loading on Anne of Green Gables, and potato fields at every turn.

Potatoes

However, there are a few exciting notables that we’ve had fun discovering about our new Province, of which we’d had no idea.

All pop comes in glass bottles, just like in the old days. Aluminium pop cans are banned, although we hear that this law may be on its way out.

Most stores are closed on Sundays–yes, even Wal-Mart!

In addition to their garbage bin, all businesses must provide a compost bin! I haven’t had a chance to research the legalities of it, but it seems that ALL businesses must provide a “waste” and a “compost” bin. For example, a fast food restaurant will have one garbage can (with a sign stating “Styrofoam, plastic drink lids, all other waste”) and one compost bin (with a sign saying “Paper cups, napkins, food, etc.)”. In addition, home garbage collection incorporates composting; one week the garbage man comes to collect your waste, the next week, the compost man comes to collect your compostables (paper goods, kleenex, food, etc.).

Compost and waste

Of course, there are billions of other weird and wonderful minute differences, but upon our arrival these three factors about Prince Edward Island shocked and thrilled us.

Items Spotted in Our House

April 8, 08 //
5

In the walls: newspaper from 1915;
In the walls: chewed up French currency from France (really old);
In the floorboards: vintage beads, circa 1940;
In the floorboards: a vintage metal broach;
In the floorboards: vintage hand-cut paper cutouts of a heart and a purse;

Unmentionables: a live mouse (only one so far), thousands of live flies (and even more fly residue), three dead birds, some bird’s nests, some mouse houses, and numerous mummified rodents and bird bones;

And my favourite discovery, which I unearthed yesterday: the cutest wall-paper imaginable!
Wallpaper
The majority of the wall-paper was removed years ago, but only a few scraps remained beneath a window frame’s moulding. If I ever get organized (which I am finding hard to imagine a future where I would ever have time to do this), I plan to frame this scrap in a tiny frame. Aaah, all these little ideas that may or may not materialize in the far-flung future.

Tales from the Road

April 5, 08 //
2

Thus far I am enthused about our progress and am amazed at what we have been able to accomplish and learn in just over a month. Of course, we have made mistakes, but with every room that we renovate we get faster and better at what we are doing.

With a tendency for sloppiness, I am amazed at my blossoming measuring skills. I used to have a strange but persistent phobia where if I was forced to take a precise measurement with a measuring tape, I would look at the tape, feel woozy, and state, “I think it’s approximately 4 feet, give or take many inches”. Whereas now I can easily measure anything to the Nth degree–even to the millimeter. I realize that this is a small feat, but I take great satisfaction in this advancement. Other notable feats have been my speedy drilling and my inate ability to cut straight lines with a skill saw.

In general, Cameron and I are a fabulous team and we work really well together. A big part of us wanting to take on this project in the first place was that we wanted to spend more time together. However, this is not to say that we don’t have our moments.

I am, hmm, what one might describe as “as far away from perfectionist as one can get.” If I had a home-improvement motto, it might be “Isn’t this good enough?”

Cameron, God love him, likes to do things right and to the best of his ability. His motto might be, “Good enough is not good enough–I mean, just look at the degree of that slope!”

On occasion we don’t see eye to eye when it comes to crooked corners or rough edges, but we have both learned to give in a way that works–most of the time.

Dry-Walling The Living Room

April 4, 08 //
3

Our latest accomplishment has been taking the living room from original plaster walls to blank-”dry-walled”-slate.

Before - cute but cold

This transformation included the usual insulation, etc.

Getting to work

However, the living room had the added feature of requiring us to drywall the ceiling, which, as you can imagine, was rather eventful. After a few false starts, we built a simple “dead man” tool out of some 2×10s, and the tool made the job a little less hellish.
Holding up drywall

We also discovered that the trick to dry-walling a ceiling is to make absolutely sure that your piece of drywall is the perfect size, because nobody likes to launch a huge piece of drywall onto the ceiling, balance it precariously on one’s head–and come to realize that the piece is just a smidgeon too big, can’t be shoved into the right place, and has to somehow be returned to the floor again.

When easily putting up a full sheet of dry-wall on a wall I can be heard stating that I love dry-walling, because it looks so good and covers so much space in a short amount of time. When cutting a complicated and small piece of dry-wall or trying to get drywall onto the ceiling, I can be heard ruing Mr. Gyproc and cursing under (and over) my breath. But in the end, it looks so good that a dry-walling day is a good day.

Drywall upCameron