Thinking Aloud

So just like the weatherman said the snow has come down just to prove that contrary to my last blog post mid-Feb is NOT the beginning of spring, but rather still deep in the heart of winter.

A small sampling of the snowdrops

A little bit of fun close to home.

Yours truly, Riding the Tide

Ben paying his respect to the Gorge

And the pro Joe!

Big news, after months without a functional dishwasher and every invitation over for dinner having the addendum WYOD (wash your own dishes).  The new dishwasher is finally functional.  Woohoo. 

As proof that the diswasher is working in this picture I’d like to call your attention to the two little red lights.  Undeniable proof. 

I wouldn’t generally make a big deal of this except that I happened to notice.  And that in itself is kind of a milestone, an automotive awareness milestone.

Joanna first go at using her Christmas present was a complete success!!  Delicious bread made while we slept.

Turns out our bread make makes the tallest bread in the world.  Didn’t say that on the outside of the box.

Our kitchen was a perfectly functional kitchen… but it was a bit dated. Okay maybe more than a bit dated. It was definitely from an asthetic point of view the weakest point of the house and we had said from the outset that we would renovate it at some point. And that point is now.

We couldn’t have done this alone

We’ve had a lot of help! What a blessing to have family and friends that don’t mind chipping in. The demo and door removal, and window replacement was courtesy the Richards brothers. Mom and Dad came down a number of times to help us keep the project moving. Hovan, Ben and Joe have also lent a hand on a couple of key weeknights. As well we had a great bit of help from Nesta at Bay West Rona (and the rest of the staff) as we designed the kitchen and made about a gazillion trips to the store for supplies.

The pictures

So without further adieu here’s a photographic walk through the project so far.

Before (with some minor modifications)

Now the fridge used to be on the opposite wall and the island was connected as a penninsula next to the sink. But I did a little “visioning” to see what the new configuration would look like. So in actual fact the configuration ended up being pretty much the same as what you see here.

Work in Progress

The demo begins November 30th by getting all the stuff off the counters This is a great shot of the door and window that were removed.

A good shot of Dad with the new window and the new gyprock on the walls. Note the sink stays as long as humanly possible. Cause when it’s gone it’s doing dishes in the bath tub time.

Notice no door anymore, and a new portion of wall that is going to create a space for the fridge AND Uncle Tim after a long days labor getting ready for the post dinner shift.

One of my favorite surprises (actually I knew) a chimney in two parts cinder blocks and brick. Efficiency at work.

All the cabinets are gone and its rebuild time.

After a season of mudding and sanding. We have fresh paint.

You can’t see them in this shot but this picture shows the work of two very busy parental beavers who came for a two day work mission and made the painting,, plumbing and new subfloor a reality.

We went to work and when we came home the cabinets were in place. Oh this neglects to tell the part where the cabinets were delivered. Which is a story only because I didn’t know they would come so early (8am!) and one of the delivery guys immediately strained his back, ouch!

Starting to look like a kitchen again.

Where did that chimney go?? Shh… no one ever needs to know.

In the day light!

And now with handles….

Tonight I did electrical work… nothing much to see there. But this coming week we get flooring AND counter tops and it’s December 18th, 18 days and counting.

Hardwicke Hardcore

Once upon a time some good friends went a long way out of their way to do something nice for me and make me feel included in their crew. The effort was both commemorative of a friend’s passing and customized. It cost them real money, time and effort to do it. That effort has been making me feel special and included ever since. Some events have impacts on a person that are bigger than one might expect, this gift was one of those.

And I still wear the shirt quite often over ten years later.

You know who you are.

Thank You.

Here’s the currently remember-able list of movies that we saw this year and enjoyed to the point of recommending. Here you go.

The Joint List

• Get Smart I love the old Get Smart show. That definitely helped, but I would say that it was still really funny!.
• Up
• Avatar Thank you Hovan and Christine!
• Shutter Island (Psychological thriller), thanks for the recommendation Heather and Jon.
• Inception What two Leonardo Di Caprio films… sigh… I guess I’m a sucker for his I’m haunted by my past roles.
• Food Inc documentary, interesting if you haven’t read to many Michael Pollan Books

Joanna’s list

• It’s Complicated
• An Education
• Julie and Julia

Jeff’s List

• Iron Man 2

List to be updated as new great movies are seen!

This trip up the island highway is like an old friend.  Been with me for many many years.  I don’t really begrudge the time that it takes.  The 1-5 hours that it takes to get to where I’m going have been and will no doubt continue to be host to some great moments of talking, thinking, laughing at the radio, watching the sun rise and the rain fall.