Category Archives: home improvement

Seven Quick Takes Friday

family, home improvement, journal, seven quick takes

7_quick_takes

1. Oh look! My computer remembered my password to log into my blogging site. It’s been a long time, but perhaps spring is pushing me to get back in the game, so to speak.

2. It will be a busy summer. Boy number one has written his last undergraduate exam and will be coming home from Queens next week. Boy number two is aching to get outta town, but he has to finish grade 12. He’ll be at McGill in the music performance program next year, and already has an apartment and a roomate. So we’ll have them both through the summer no doubt, and that may try our patience at times, but we’re hoping for payback of an empty nest in the fall.

3. I need to get my ass in shape. Seriously. I may be at a personal worst weight-wise at the moment. Am considering getting a hipster city bike if I can find a decent one for a reasonable price. Must also ramp up the walking. With no dog in the house, I have little motivation to get outside and just cruise the ‘hood. 

4. I have a couple of house projects launching: we are in the process of swapping my office and our dining room. The latter will go into half the living room, and the former will now be in the room off our kitchen. I want to make these pseudo-built-in bookcases to fit one wall:

 

 

We also need a new mattress, which is the best time to upgrade to a king bed. Every time we sleep in a king in a hotel, we remark how much better sleep we get. I’ve found the mattress I think I want and now need to find a bed to put it on. I kinda like this one:

Source: westelm.com via Janet on Pinterest

 

5. I picked up this book when I was placing an amazon order the other day. It was written in 1959 and I’d seen a review of it somewhere. It’s rather retro, but still has some excellent advice for women today.

6. I learned how to create a form using Google Drive this week. My book club needed to vote on a book for our summer “big read” and I had the feeling that previous in-person discussions were kind of difficult to manage. The votes are coming in and it looks like the chosen book will be…. not telling! I’ll announce it at our meeting this Sunday.

7. If you’re a friend on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some of these items already. I’ll need to figure out how to keep the blog fresh with new content, but this is at least a start. Sorry it’s been so long. 

 

 

NaBloPoMo Day 1!

home improvement, journal, nablopomo

 It’s the first of November, the Solemnity of All Saints, and the first day of National Blog Posting Month,.  I’ve been blogging for 6 or 7 years now, since we left Canada for Atlanta in 2002, I think, so I”ve been in the game for a while, but this is my first year participating in NaBloPoMo.  The discipline of posting every day for 30 days will be good.  I’m going to try to do some more photography this month as well.

It’s hard to believe that November is here already I must say, although yesterday’s wind and rain pretty much emptied the trees in my neighborhood.  There’s a lot of raking to do out there now, and sometimes it’s a short period of time between the last leaves falling and the beginning of snow, so I’ve got to get moving on those final yard work tasks.

A couple of friends are joining me for lunch after choir and mass this morning.  We’re heading to Honeys Beestro,the location just a few blocks from me on Avenue Road.  One of them wants to do some shopping at Royal Lighting, also very close to me so we’ll head there afterwards to look at some fixtures.  I was just in there yesterday picking up some track lighting for our living room.  We had an electrician in to install two ceiling fans in the boys rooms, a junction box in our soon-to-be dining room for our new chandelier, and the track lighting in the study area of our living room.  Now we need to get our carpenters to put up crown molding and a medallion in our dining room and it will be ready for the light fixture.

NaBloPoMo Day 1!

home improvement, journal, nablopomo
Media_httpwwwfussyorg_dvmhc

 It’s the first of November, the Solemnity of All Saints, and the first day of National Blog Posting Month,.  I’ve been blogging for 6 or 7 years now, since we left Canada for Atlanta in 2002, I think, so I”ve been in the game for a while, but this is my first year participating in NaBloPoMo.  The discipline of posting every day for 30 days will be good.  I’m going to try to do some more photography this month as well.

It’s hard to believe that November is here already I must say, although yesterday’s wind and rain pretty much emptied the trees in my neighborhood.  There’s a lot of raking to do out there now, and sometimes it’s a short period of time between the last leaves falling and the beginning of snow, so I’ve got to get moving on those final yard work tasks.

A couple of friends are joining me for lunch after choir and mass this morning.  We’re heading to Honeys Beestro,the location just a few blocks from me on Avenue Road.  One of them wants to do some shopping at Royal Lighting, also very close to me so we’ll head there afterwards to look at some fixtures.  I was just in there yesterday picking up some track lighting for our living room.  We had an electrician in to install two ceiling fans in the boys rooms, a junction box in our soon-to-be dining room for our new chandelier, and the track lighting in the study area of our living room.  Now we need to get our carpenters to put up crown molding and a medallion in our dining room and it will be ready for the light fixture.

Early results are in!

family, garden, home improvement, Toronto

As soon as the new water service was installed, I rushed to the kitchen sink to check out the new pressure.  It showed no noticeable difference at individual taps/showerheads.  My heart sank at this.  Did we just blow over two grand for nuthin’?  I mean, it made sense to do it if the city is running a big fat pipe across the street to our house.  They were already in the ground, so it was the right time to extend the service to the house.

But this morning it became apparent that the big payoff is when multiple fixtures are working.  I ran the shower this morning, hopped out, flushed the toilet, and hopped back in.  No change in pressure!  Then I did the same thing, but ran the tap at the sink while running the shower.  No change!  Woohoo!
Next step will be to see if two people can take showers at the same time (in two separate bathrooms, I mean).  This could be the end of Michael’s plaintiff cries from the boys’ shower:  “Whoever is using the water, could you PLEASE STOP!” 
In a house with three full baths, it would be nice to be able to stop coordinating shower times, particularly during the morning rush, or when we have guests in the basement and need to tell them to ask before they have a shower!
Plus it just occurred to me this morning that our expenses quality for the new Canadian home renovation tax credit, so that’s a little bonus.
Oh, and our lawn has frozen solid into a gnarly wreck.  Very unsightly.  But they will resod, once sod is available.  And that will only draw attention to the rest of the lawn, which was pretty pathetic to start with.  I actually asked the city contractor if we could pay him extra to sod our whole lawn, but sadly, no.  He contracts for the city and while they can do the plumbing work to extend the service to our home privately, they’re not lawn contractors.  I’ll see who comes to do the sod and find out if they could do the rest of the lawn.  Unfortunately, we are a corner lot in a neighborhood with a ton of dogs, so it may never look great, unless we fence it all in.

Early results are in!

family, garden, home improvement, Toronto

As soon as the new water service was installed, I rushed to the kitchen sink to check out the new pressure.  It showed no noticeable difference at individual taps/showerheads.  My heart sank at this.  Did we just blow over two grand for nuthin’?  I mean, it made sense to do it if the city is running a big fat pipe across the street to our house.  They were already in the ground, so it was the right time to extend the service to the house.

But this morning it became apparent that the big payoff is when multiple fixtures are working.  I ran the shower this morning, hopped out, flushed the toilet, and hopped back in.  No change in pressure!  Then I did the same thing, but ran the tap at the sink while running the shower.  No change!  Woohoo!

Next step will be to see if two people can take showers at the same time (in two separate bathrooms, I mean).  This could be the end of Michael’s plaintiff cries from the boys’ shower:  “Whoever is using the water, could you PLEASE STOP!” 

In a house with three full baths, it would be nice to be able to stop coordinating shower times, particularly during the morning rush, or when we have guests in the basement and need to tell them to ask before they have a shower!

Plus it just occurred to me this morning that our expenses quality for the new Canadian home renovation tax credit, so that’s a little bonus.

Oh, and our lawn has frozen solid into a gnarly wreck.  Very unsightly.  But they will resod, once sod is available.  And that will only draw attention to the rest of the lawn, which was pretty pathetic to start with.  I actually asked the city contractor if we could pay him extra to sod our whole lawn, but sadly, no.  He contracts for the city and while they can do the plumbing work to extend the service to our home privately, they’re not lawn contractors.  I’ll see who comes to do the sod and find out if they could do the rest of the lawn.  Unfortunately, we are a corner lot in a neighborhood with a ton of dogs, so it may never look great, unless we fence it all in.

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

home improvement, journal
Today is the day our water service is getting upgraded.  The crew was here in the dark at 7 am, warming up the excavator.  And they’re still here at 1:40 pm, with lots of dirt piles, water running down the street, but none coming into the house yet.
The city has a huge project to increase the diameter of the pipes that come from the city water mains, and we are also paying to have the upgrade continued into our house so that we get the full effect (more water pressure – yay!).  This also takes care of the dirty little secret here in Toronto – lead pipes.  
By 1:00 pm today, this was the scene from my bedroom window.  Note the three large, deep, holes in my lawn. (Well, one is actually in the neighbours bit of lawn next to her driveway.)
The plumber, who came to do the work inside the house, mentioned that the crew was “having a little trouble” getting the line across the street.  And that my water would be off for longer than the half hour that it usually takes when he arrives at the end of the process.  
On top of all this, at around 10 am this morning there was a strong gas smell in the house.  I stepped outside and it was there too.  I spotted an Enbridge truck (gas company) and a bunch of other white vehicles parked in the vicinity.
When I wandered out to talk to the crew, there was much hemming and hawing when I mentioned I smelled gas.  They said something to the effect that “it’s all under control now” and so I went back inside.
I’m supposed to be cooking dinner for a friend tonight.  We typically meet for lunch once a month, visiting restaurants in the vicinity of her office, but I hadn’t had her over for ages, so a few weeks ago,  I invited her up here after work tonight.  On Monday, I was informed that the water service upgrade would happen today…they are coordinating households that are on the same service (or whatever), so there was not much flexibility on that front.   The plan was to be done with the water stuff by noon at the lastest (so I was told) and then I’d do all my errands, shower, prep and cook.  Because of our nervous dog, I can’t really leave the house while the crew needs access.  I need water.  I need cilantro.  I need limes.
I think we will be dining out.