2012/05/21: Happy Victoria Day
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
In Canada Victoria Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer ... it
is affectionately know as the May 2-4 weekend (think this may have
something to do with the cases of 24 bottles of beer that are consumed
this weekend). Victoria Day celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday. Next
weekend our American friends start their summer with Memorial Day.
Work on the basement continues.
Ed starting the storage cabinets in his shop --- I like it when he uses some of the many tools he owns.
One base unit, glued and clamped. There are three bases units and five smaller upper units.
One bay of the garage was turned into a paint booth so Ed could spray the paint for a nicer finish. Had to park the car on the driveway .... the sacrifices I make.
Installing the cabinets in the basement.
The cabinets are installed and the drop ceiling is back up.
Now we just need the shelves for the cabinets, the doors for the cabinets, some trim, a door to the utility room and a bit of paint and it'll all be done. Still aiming for the end of the month.
The past two weeks haven't been all work. I gave Ed a day off to go up to our neighbors cottage to make a wiring shopping list. OK, that's sort of work but the five of us (Zaph too!) did look for a twelve geocaches, finding eleven of them. It was too cold for the customary Dairy Queen visit after geocaching so we went back to the cottage for coffee and hot tea.
First smoking of the season ... a pork half loin done to perfection. Looking forward to many more smoked dinners over the summer. Thinking about food, Ed and I finally went to the Sushi, Japanese, Korean restaurant in town. A year or two ago a Sushi takeout restaurant opened, it was very good and we picked up food there a number of times. Over the winter, the restaurant moved to allow for dining in and expanded to include other Japanese dishes and Korean dishes. I'm really glad that I finally took a day off from cooking and went out for dinner. The food was wonderful and the service was very good. I'm sure we'll go back.
Cuddle time.
After a week in the hospital, my mother was moved up to the rehab floor. She is walking with a walker, is able to get in and out of bed by herself and can take care of her personal needs. The plan is to discharge her on Wednesday. As a transition to home, she's coming to Walkerton for a visit. My house is one floor where her house has two floors. Going to give her a bit more time practicing stairs.
Work on the basement continues.
Ed starting the storage cabinets in his shop --- I like it when he uses some of the many tools he owns.
One base unit, glued and clamped. There are three bases units and five smaller upper units.
One bay of the garage was turned into a paint booth so Ed could spray the paint for a nicer finish. Had to park the car on the driveway .... the sacrifices I make.
Installing the cabinets in the basement.
The cabinets are installed and the drop ceiling is back up.
Now we just need the shelves for the cabinets, the doors for the cabinets, some trim, a door to the utility room and a bit of paint and it'll all be done. Still aiming for the end of the month.
The past two weeks haven't been all work. I gave Ed a day off to go up to our neighbors cottage to make a wiring shopping list. OK, that's sort of work but the five of us (Zaph too!) did look for a twelve geocaches, finding eleven of them. It was too cold for the customary Dairy Queen visit after geocaching so we went back to the cottage for coffee and hot tea.
First smoking of the season ... a pork half loin done to perfection. Looking forward to many more smoked dinners over the summer. Thinking about food, Ed and I finally went to the Sushi, Japanese, Korean restaurant in town. A year or two ago a Sushi takeout restaurant opened, it was very good and we picked up food there a number of times. Over the winter, the restaurant moved to allow for dining in and expanded to include other Japanese dishes and Korean dishes. I'm really glad that I finally took a day off from cooking and went out for dinner. The food was wonderful and the service was very good. I'm sure we'll go back.
Cuddle time.
After a week in the hospital, my mother was moved up to the rehab floor. She is walking with a walker, is able to get in and out of bed by herself and can take care of her personal needs. The plan is to discharge her on Wednesday. As a transition to home, she's coming to Walkerton for a visit. My house is one floor where her house has two floors. Going to give her a bit more time practicing stairs.
2012/05/07: Can't believe it's May already
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
April has just flown by. Unpacking, fitting everything back into the
house, cleaning and just settling in took a few days. Throw in sorting
mail, income tax and a trip to Burlington and a week was gone. Ed
decided to start our summer project, which means it should be done
before the official start of summer. This will give us time to actually
enjoy summer, I hope, and help friends with their summer projects. Our
neighbour (Rob) had a new electric service put into his cottage this
winter and Ed said he would help with any re-wiring that needs to be
done. Zaph is all for this and hopes it will require many days resulting
in many trips to the beach. The other big project is to help Victor
(our friend) build a deck at his home. Zaph is all for this project as
well as there is a creek that is usually deep enough for swimming.
I’m still working on organizing photos from past years. 2007 has been made into slide shows and now I’m working on 2012. After much thought I decided to jump forward and do 2012 followed by 2011 as they are relatively fresh in my mind. Once these two years are done I’ll go back to 2008, 2009 and 2010. Ed loves to take photos so I have anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 photos a year to sort through choosing the best thousand or two of photos. Then I build slide shows. All in all a time consuming process.
My plans for the past week were changed rather abruptly. On Wednesday, Ed and I had driven down to Brampton to see our friends Henry and Connie who were visiting Connie’s family. Henry and Connie moved to LA at least 15 years ago. My mother’s friend Louise called to say that my mother had fallen and probably broken her hip. Ed and I drove to the hospital in Burlington and hung out in the emergency room for awhile. My brother also showed up, so after another hour or so I sent the boys home to my mothers while I stayed with my mother. After about 6 hours in the emergency room which included a trip to X-ray and a visit from a doctor who got to decide if my mother was fit for surgery, she was moved to the Surgical Ward. Another hour passed and a nurse appeared with good news and bad news ….the nurse would bring my mom some food and the surgery was bumped to Thursday evening. A “more critical” surgery had come in. Thank goodness for morphine as that was keeping my mom more or less comfortable. A little after 10pm I left the hospital, picked Ed up at my mother’s house and we drove home. Our wonderful neighbours, Rob and Ellen, had gotten Zaph so he had been walked and fed and walked some more.
Thursday I packed an overnight bag and drove back to Burlington arriving at the hospital a few minutes after 4pm. By this time my mom had been moved to the orthopaedic ward, so after I tracked her down I chatted with her nurse. The surgery was scheduled for 4:30ish ---- just love the “ishes” at the hospital, they don’t like to be exact when it comes to time. About 4:45 two ladies arrived to transport my mother and her bed to surgery. By 5:15 pm she was being wheeled into surgery and just after 7pm she was back in her room with a plate and a screw in her hip.
Friday afternoon I headed over to the hospital again and was happy to find a much happier mother. The physiotherapists had her out of bed Friday morning and she had walked a few steps in her room. My mom is on the way to recovery.
Now for the "summer" project. The 2nd half of the basement is to be insulated.
The following two photos are the storage room before we start. Paint won't stick to the floor in one area, the wall between the storage room and stairway room only has stubs at four foot intervals.
DRIcore subfloor was installed.
Installation was installed followed by drywall.
The almost finished storage room ... still need a door.
The stairway room, doesn't look like it needs work but we wanted to insulated the outside wall and replace the old drywall / paneling.
Outside walls insulated, a new shorter bulkhead built, new drywall put up and painted. Now Ed just needs to be build the storage cabinet, trim the room and put the drop ceiling back up.
I’m still working on organizing photos from past years. 2007 has been made into slide shows and now I’m working on 2012. After much thought I decided to jump forward and do 2012 followed by 2011 as they are relatively fresh in my mind. Once these two years are done I’ll go back to 2008, 2009 and 2010. Ed loves to take photos so I have anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 photos a year to sort through choosing the best thousand or two of photos. Then I build slide shows. All in all a time consuming process.
My plans for the past week were changed rather abruptly. On Wednesday, Ed and I had driven down to Brampton to see our friends Henry and Connie who were visiting Connie’s family. Henry and Connie moved to LA at least 15 years ago. My mother’s friend Louise called to say that my mother had fallen and probably broken her hip. Ed and I drove to the hospital in Burlington and hung out in the emergency room for awhile. My brother also showed up, so after another hour or so I sent the boys home to my mothers while I stayed with my mother. After about 6 hours in the emergency room which included a trip to X-ray and a visit from a doctor who got to decide if my mother was fit for surgery, she was moved to the Surgical Ward. Another hour passed and a nurse appeared with good news and bad news ….the nurse would bring my mom some food and the surgery was bumped to Thursday evening. A “more critical” surgery had come in. Thank goodness for morphine as that was keeping my mom more or less comfortable. A little after 10pm I left the hospital, picked Ed up at my mother’s house and we drove home. Our wonderful neighbours, Rob and Ellen, had gotten Zaph so he had been walked and fed and walked some more.
Thursday I packed an overnight bag and drove back to Burlington arriving at the hospital a few minutes after 4pm. By this time my mom had been moved to the orthopaedic ward, so after I tracked her down I chatted with her nurse. The surgery was scheduled for 4:30ish ---- just love the “ishes” at the hospital, they don’t like to be exact when it comes to time. About 4:45 two ladies arrived to transport my mother and her bed to surgery. By 5:15 pm she was being wheeled into surgery and just after 7pm she was back in her room with a plate and a screw in her hip.
Friday afternoon I headed over to the hospital again and was happy to find a much happier mother. The physiotherapists had her out of bed Friday morning and she had walked a few steps in her room. My mom is on the way to recovery.
Now for the "summer" project. The 2nd half of the basement is to be insulated.
The following two photos are the storage room before we start. Paint won't stick to the floor in one area, the wall between the storage room and stairway room only has stubs at four foot intervals.
DRIcore subfloor was installed.
Installation was installed followed by drywall.
The almost finished storage room ... still need a door.
The stairway room, doesn't look like it needs work but we wanted to insulated the outside wall and replace the old drywall / paneling.
Outside walls insulated, a new shorter bulkhead built, new drywall put up and painted. Now Ed just needs to be build the storage cabinet, trim the room and put the drop ceiling back up.