Saturday Roundup

Oh my, has this week ever whizzed right on by. Soon we will be saying goodbye to January and hello to February!!

This past week has seen us ripping apart the bedroom and sleeping in beds that neither of us enjoy. That means very little sleep over the past three nights.

Harvey painted, filled in a few holes, and fixed the floor as well as cut new baseboards. I am a very messy painter so that was Harvey's job. Mine was sweeping and mopping when everything was done. I also did touch up paint jobs on the baseboard and removed all the tape.

Everything is back in place now and I am looking forward to a restful night. Pretty sure Harvey is as well.

I also moved things around in the sewing/craft room and will be finished up in there tomorrow. I won't be doing any crafting in there until Tuesday as I have prayer shawl ministry Monday and I want to make a trip to the library.

Of course while all this was going on a bit of decluttering took place as well. Not as much as I would have liked, but even a bit helps get closer to a simplified manner of living.

Menus were switched around as we had our date night. We went out for Chinese and you all know that is a meal that keeps on giving. The leftovers were brought home and fed us for another two nights plus lunch for Harvey today (I think a few night time munching was happening as well).

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

It has been a busy week. Not so much doing things around the house, but busy enough.

We delivered meals to shut ins all week and while the weather did not always cooperate things did get delivered on time.

The new carpet was laid in the living room and I do hope it stands up as well as the old did.

It is actually a darker brown than the picture and the lighter flecks actually match the paint on the walls. Notice the piles of yarn beside my rather broken recliner. That is the yarn I am using to knit the temperature blanket and Harvey's  Christmas gift.  I have been told that I need a new chair and so we will be looking at accent chairs next week. Hopefully whatever we choose will be here by Christmas.

I finished up some sewing.

A pair of elastic waist pants which were actually done last week. But they needed pressing and washing.

An easy midi elastic waist skirt.

A simple cotton sleeveless top. My Mom used to call these types of tops pop tops. Cause you can just pop them right on.

I started my last cut out pattern, but have not finished it yet. 

Pulling a couple of boxes out that I brought home from Dad's place when he died I found a bunch of photos. I started scanning them onto the computer this afternoon. Still have more to do, but hopefully will be finished them very soon.

Totalled up the number of items either recycled or donated and we are up to 492 items gone. I am beginning to feel much lighter.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek

Well we are half way through our delivery of Meals on Wheels. It is all down hill from here and the weather while cold will not be the snow storm I delivered on yesterday and hopefully there will be no mix ups like there was on Tuesday.

Mix ups with meals do not happen often but when they do it is usually a big one. One lady who we had a meal for said she wasn't supposed to get one until next week. So since we were short a meal for another gentleman we decided to use that meal for him (both were regular meals) and explain what we did when we got back to where we pick up the meals. Well, I stood in the snow, and wind knocking on the gentleman's door for around 10 minutes and there was no answer. Turns out he was upstairs in the Dialysis unit and the girls in the kitchen took his meal up to him. Forgetting to take his name off our list..... While I know the kitchen staff work wonders getting all the meals made, it takes a matter of seconds to scribble out a name.

I have started to move bits and bobs into the living room. All our DVD's, music CD's, and cassette tapes are now put away. Still lots to do but we shall get it all completed very soon. Our new furniture should arrive within the next couple of weeks. All set to hold Christmas for everyone. I just have to find a new chair for myself and we are done.

Next will be new flooring for the kitchen. The lino is as old if not older than the carpet and the lovely shine when it was new is now worn off. I am really liking how things are coming together.

Last night was one of my sleepless nights. I did fall asleep very well, but woke up at 1:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep. So rather than toss and turn I got up and read my library book until 4 in the morning. Crawled back into the spare bed and might have managed another hour of sleep. Right now I think I just might be running on empty though.

I have a few chores that have been carried over that need to be completed tomorrow and they will be. Sewing has not been done so I hope to get a bit of that done as well. Pictures to be posted soon.

Tomorrow is Halloween and I hope we get a few ghosts, goblins or super hero types knocking on our door.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

I thought that since the basement is now pretty much finished I would share some pictures with you all.

Before the flood a couple of years ago the walls were paneled in a dark wood, the floor covered with red/black patterned rubber backed carpet, and the ceiling done with smoke and a funny shiny coat. This made it seem dark and drab.

Now, we have a brighter room.

Using light pine, paler grey paint with a darker grey chair rail and a pure white ceiling we have really brightened the room up. Adding extra lighting, and a grey vinyl plank flooring also lightened things up considerably. 

The telescoping poles were a problem. For the longest time Harvey could not figure out how to cover them. The covers you could purchase were either too big or too small. Soooo, he decided to build his own covers for them. Eventually shelves will be made between them and the wall.

The television is on the old, rather ugly stand and Harvey plans on building something to match the electric fireplace this winter. 

More pictures need to be hung up and another basic clean up done, but we are very happy with how everything turned out.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Projects Started, Projects Finished

Thought I would share a few pictures with you of our various projects. Both finished and unfinished, but being worked on.

First off, Harvey decided rather than try to do the  renos on both of the rooms in the basement, he would work on them one at a time. He chose to work on the smaller bedroom/library room first.

My book cases are installed, now just to get the books on the shelves once again.

I need to make some new window coverings.

Then on to my finished project. 

I had cut out a red knit skirt the morning of the day I took my tumble. So once the cast had been off for a bit I started sewing. Slowly day by day for 5 days I would complete a seam or two.

It really is a lovely red, I just can not figure out why sometimes the camera isn't true to colour.

This is my blanket of Many Colours. Every day I knit a few more rows and it is slowly growing. Mt stash of orphan skeins and small leftover balls of yarn are slowly disappearing as well.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

Well, every day since the cast was removed I am gaining a bit of strength an dexterity in my wrist and hand. I can now put my own bra on (believe me this is major as I was teasing Harvey that it took him less time to take it off than put it on), put my hair in a pony tale, use regular floss instead of threaders or picks, pick up my pills (well not the real small ones yet), and other small things that I have been unable to do while the cast was on, and for the first couple of days after. The luxury of using two hands to wash my hair is mind boggling. I am doing the exercises the doctor gave me three times a day, and in a couple of weeks will be having regular physio appointments. I am determined to get as much mobility as possible in this wrist (the bone moved a bit and so movement ad dexterity will be compromised a bit according to the doctor).

Yesterday I worked on my mending and got a bit of hand sewing done as well as my sewing machine threaded and a small seam repaired. Today I managed to rethread and sew an entire seam on that knit skirt I cut out before my accident. Then I went on to knit a whole row (without stopping) on the blanket of many colours. I hope to manage even more tomorrow.

The weather here has been up and down.

This is what greeted us yesterday morning.

The start of what is hoped to be the last storm of the winter.

By mid morning this is what it looked like.

At this point in time we had about three inches of snow with it still coming down. By the end we had close to 5 inches and it was freezing cold. One could say it felt like January rather than March.

This miserable weather did have one good result. It kept Harvey busy doing reno's.

The basement bedroom/office/library is coming along nicely. 

Walls and ceiling painted. A second coat of polyurethane on the pine boards.

Closet sanded and painted. 

Floor is down.

Next Harvey will be working on the chair rail, the closet casing, and the baseboards. Of course there will be a few touch ups, but we are thinking things can be moved into here next week.

When Kris comes home he will be helping with sanding and mudding in the Man Cave portion of the basement. 

After almost 2 years (yep it will be two years since we were flooded in 4 months), it is so nice to see an end in sight.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Something To Look Forward To

I mentioned earlier about getting together fabric and patterns so that once I get the go ahead I can start to sew.

Thought I would share some pictures with you. Today will be about half of what I have put together.

Some purple linen that will become a pair of clam diggers/pedal pushers or what ever you care to call them.

This light grey with a white stripe crepe fabric will become the short sleeved dress.

Not sure which view of this dress I will make. Pretty sure it will not be the one with long sleeves.

This beautiful deep amethyst knit will become one of these tops to be worn next winter.

This dusty pink crepe will become one of these blouses. I am hoping there is enough to make the view with sleeves. But since this is a remnant from another project I am not too sure.

I have fabric selected for some summer tops an will share those with you another time.

Dry wall taping and mudding are pretty much complete. The electrician came and finished installing those lights and smoke detectors. Harvey has started the first sanding in the one room. 

Pictures of the renos so far.

The office/library/spare bedroom.

The man cave lighting and dry wall (the dry wall still needs a bit more taping and mudding).

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

 

Sunday Ramblings

Kris came home this weekend to help Harvey out with the dry walling of the ceiling. They got all of the hard stuff done and the little that is left /Harvey can do on his own. Hopefully we will be painting in a couple of weeks as the mudding still needs doing.

Here is Kris.

We now call him our handy man aka the Good son (bit of a joke there).

This is all they accomplished this weekend.

I am amazed at how much they did in a day and a half.

Everyone have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

It has been another quiet week around the old homestead. Well, quiet as far as what I have been up to at any rate.

I have used the new Instant pot three times this week.

Sunday to make our roast meal, Friday to cook rice, and today to make hamburger soup. The extra soup has been packaged up, labeled and is almost ready to be put in the freezer for meals later on.

I have packaged up the yarn for my next few projects (once I get this cast off) and tomorrow I will get together some sewing projects as well. My sewing/craft room needs a good going over but that will take place once the basement is completed and I have room to move around once again.

Harvey on the other hand has had a busy week (and it will be even busier over the next while). He has managed to get most  of the drywall and pine boards up, but still has a great deal to accomplish before Kris comes home to help with the ceiling.

The larger sheets of drywall are well covered an outside on the driveway. I just hope we don't get the snow storm that is being predicted. Twenty-five or more centimeters of snow might not be a good thing no matter how well covered the pile is.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tidbits

This has been a slightly upside down day. I am going to end up re cleaning many of the areas I cleaned this week. Mainly because this has happened.

We now have the hole cut through the cement into the new part of the basement. Work will begin on the venting as soon as M is finished the job he is on now, probably towards the end of next week.

We are now one step closer to being able to finish off the basement and get all our things out of storage. Thus saving us some of our hard earned cash. 

Once the venting is done we will get the electricians back in. They should be done in a couple of hours and the phone line can go in next. 

Harvey is looking forward to doing the finishing work. He said it will be nice not to wait for anyone. Me, well I am looking forward to having my house back to normal and room to move around my sewing/craft room once again.

A project we only expected to take a few months has grown into almost a year and a half of waiting. Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

Well most of the plywood is off the walls and things are as bad as we thought.

Here are some pictures of what we found.

Big voids where cement is supposed to be. This is going to be a pricey renovation. We have a construction company coming to take a look to see if it is even fixable.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

It has been a dreary couple of days around here. The fog has been thick and has not lifted until late afternoon, if it has lifted at all. The dampness makes it feel much colder than it is and I find my walks very slippery in the morning. I am so looking forward to spring.

Kris has gotten his car fixed to the grand total of $2568.00. Kind of scary as he does not know whether the parent company is going to start layoffs again or not. This will have cleaned out his savings a great deal. Harvey feels he should buy a new vehicle, but not knowing if he will have the means to make the payments is holding Kris back from doing so.

Today we went out and priced stoves.... We were offered a very good deal on a convection oven and so we took it. Money going out, but from our capital expenses and not our regular budget. I have removed all the items from the bottom drawer of our oven. Now just to find a place to put them, the drawer in the new stove is very much smaller and I really need all my baking pans!!! I could be spending tomorrow moving things around in the cupboards to make room. I am looking forward to having a stove where all the elements work properly. Cooking will be so much easier.

My BFF, Debbie went to visit a specialist in Regina today about her knees. She will be undergoing a double partial knee replacement. The specialist is going to do both of her knees at once. She has been told it will be up to 6 months before she has full functionality in her knees. She is however looking forward to being pain free very soon.

I am continuing to work on my embroidery project. Running out of one of the shades of yellow I need has moved me to doing the outline stitching. Hopefully I will still get this project done by the end of the month.

Still using things up as much as possible. I am trying to eat down the meat freezer before we head up to Regina for our big stock up shop. I know we will be going away in a little over a month, but I don't want to have to run out and shop as soon as we get home.

Today I picked up the Euro's we ordered for the trip. I am getting excited about seeing Spain and Portugal in the spring. Hopefully I will have lots of pictures to share with you all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Update

Since I was subbing all week I did not manage to get much accomplished on my dragon cross stitch. I did however finish up a few small knitting projects.

Three more pairs of mittens all in pink and all size 4.

I then moved on to these.

Three pairs of pink slippers. Two in extra small and one small.

I also started some black slippers to give to Kris as he requested a pair. Those are almost finished as well.

Harvey finished my hall cupboard and this is how it now looks.

The middle shelf slides in and out for easy access and the top shelf now sports a lazy susan so I can make use of the entire space. So much better organized now!!

Today Harvey started and finished another small project.

The installation of a thermostat in our bedroom. We can now control the heat much better and perhaps even lower our bills a bit further.

I made bread today and because of it being Valentines day made these lovely heart shaped cakes.

Yummy. They will be served with a butterscotch sauce as a bit of a pick me up tonight. Of course being the thrift person I am I packaged up 4 and put them in the freezer to use for other nights as a treat.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.