On the seventh day ...

The fence ... is finally ... complete. It's been an educational adventure.

This is the fence with upper and lower rails installed. The rolled up package there is actually the bamboo waiting to be unfurled.

This is the fence at the back of the yard - look how straight. That's my Dad's handiwork.

There's my Dad preparing the air gun to staple, rather than hammer in, the staples we are using.
This is the neighbour's house on the east side. We had some debate over where the property line actually lay but the neighbour didn't mind, he just didn't want his cherry tree affected. Yes .. cherry tree. Nice.

My mom came out to help too. Here she is holding up the expen and admiring the view of the water tower a few yards down. She was very helpful, infinitely patient with delays and we could not have accomplished the fence without her help. Thanks Mom! Check it out. Cool huh? I love it. It literally is split bamboo pieces wired together like a mesh. Hardy, doesn't rot, hard to break, flexible and attractive ... and cheap. Sold.

It is see through to an extent but it allows light in, it's not challenged much by wind, and most importantly it keeps the dogs in.

I let the dogs out at long last into their very own yard and they first did the perimeter check and then spent quite some time rolling around in the grass. That damn Leeloo ear again. Halo seems to like the yard ... ample opportunity for hole digging which I put a stop to. She looks innocent enough here but looks can be deceiving.
And Raimi and Archer enjoying a quiet moment in the yard. Leeloo's ear thing is catching I see.
The fence was way more complicatd than I could have imagined and my Dad's help, unbidden, was invaluable and I could not have done it without him. Thanks so much to my Daddy and thanks to my Mom as well for giving him up when he could have been doing work on their house for the past few days. I can't express how much I, and especially the dogs, appreciate both your support and help!

Hard Truths

The fence ... is complete-ish. We were so bagged on Sunday afternoon that we opted to leave the final step - the gate - for another day. It was a long process which actually didn't present us with too many road blocks ... except one which didn't really turn out to be a block - more of an inconvenience.

Because the ground here is pretty moist they strongly recommend you put concrete in the post holes to secure the fence. We were trying to work out how many bags we required. My Dad guessed about 14 bags total.

I had a couple errands to run and needed to pick up the concrete so my Dad stayed to level all the posts. I went to Home Hardware and between myself and the customer service rep we figured that I'd need 52 bags. Huh. It said on the bag that it would fill a 6" diameter one foot deep hole. We had twenty six 2 foot deep 8" diameter holes. That equals 2 bags per hole according to the directions. It sounded like an awful lot of concrete to me and in fact it had to be delivered as it was over 3000lbs. My truck would have had a coronary.

My Dad was skeptical when it arrived. The bags themselves are 66lbs each. Brutal. Back breaking. Exhausting. Mix a wheelbarrow of one bag, tote it to the hole, pour it in the hole, tamp it down, back to get another bag ... it took almost 3/4 of a bag per hole so ... we had a clear 34 bags too many.

Anyone guess why? Because the pole takes up about 60% of the hole. Spatially adept I am not.

We hemmed and hawed a few moments over where to store the balance of the cement until the next day when I could return it. We were warned, and in fact my Dad was already keenly aware, that you *cannot* get cement wet in the bag. Like ... even a little bit. We debated between storing it on plastic and putting a tarp over it or putting it in my truck despite the weight. We ultimately decided on putting it in the truck because with my luck it would rain and I'd have a cement bunker outside my house. Moving 34 bags of cement into my truck was the absolute end ...

Good thing we did though because it POURED that night. Phew. So the concrete was returned by splitting the weight between the truck and my parent's minivan and all is well. Those posts aren't going anywhere. We were so tired I forgot to take any photos but trust me ... there was a lot of cement.

Good Fences Make ...

We started the fence the other day and it has been an exercise in exhaustion and sometimes a wild goose chase. We picked up the supplies on Friday morning only to discover that Home Hardware didn't have enough rail brackets - you nail them to the posts and insert the 2x4 cross rails into them. As it turned out we didn't need them that day.

We rented a gas powered auger and it only took about 40 minutes to auger 25 holes - we had to go back and re-auger most of them because they are about 2 inches too shallow but at the end of the day this is what we had.

The dogs have been very patient as I haven't been able to get them out for a run for the past few days. It's too bad I can't explain to them all this effort is solely for their benefit.

This is the other side of the back of the house. This part of the yard will eventually be sectioned off so that I can garden and put in some nice flowers. The west side with the concrete pad and some grass is for the dogs.

The trailer is now retired as a trailer, it will become my garden shed once the fence is up. I'll secure it and put in a ramp at the back. It's certainly not staying where it is right now. Is it really any wonder Raimi hopped out of this expen set up? They are truly so sick of this space.

And my Daddy thinking about how much I owe him and totting up all the favours he is going to ask over the next 20 years.

Room with a View

I painted the bedroom at long last. I sleep better knowing I have pictures on the walls and things are where they should be. It still smells of paint but at least it's pretty. This is the main bedroom window which is west facing. The color is not apparent but it was sort of a pale green color.

This is the bedroom door which needs a coat of paint but the trim is all getting done once the rooms are complete so I can do it all at once. I sure do like to torture myself. There's the livingroom in the background .... hideous.

This is the south wall. I painted it a dark cranberry color and the other walls are a sort of rich golden color. The room is Scottish themed which is only interrupted by a collage of Petal and that painting above the bed - I actually chose the wall color really so that painting would really be showcased. It's my very favorite piece of original art in the whole house - my friend Tanja gave it to me out of her dear departed mother's collection. I just have to look at it and it draws me in. It's one of those painting that is a mish mash of blobs close up but further away you stand the clearer it becomes. Very cool.

This is the north wall with my new wardrobe and my dresser. The hanging on the wall is a tea towel(I think) of Scottish landmarks that my mom gave me when I arrived in Nova Scotia. It sort of sticks out in this photos but it's not actually that BAM in the room.
They say your bedroom is supposed to be a haven ... this is my Scottish Haven in New Scotland.

Living is Easy

When one is without internet one must find other ways to occupy one's time. Thus the painting began. I've done a couple rooms so far and next on the docket is to at least prime the hideous pepto bathroom and paint my bedroom.

Here's the livingroom before painting last October. Some kind of army green color - I was so busy unpacking etc I forgot to take more recent photos. The color didn't change in 6 months tho ...

Although it looks brown it's actually a kind of green - very dark, very gloomy, and dirty. So I chose a bright neutral paint that would lighten up the north facing room. This is the northeast corner of the room.

And the corner with the front door with the new closet my Dad assembled for coats and shoes. A few things have been re-arranged since this photo was taken but otherwise it's pretty much as you see it. Nice and bright.

And the south wall of the livingroom complete with dogs ensconced on the couch. Typical. The mirror over the couch actually was supposed to go in the bathroom but as it turns out the mirror is 4 inches too large to fit so it ended up over the couch to enlarge the room. That worked out well.
And that is pretty much the livingroom completed. The baseboards need to be replaced and the trim needs painting yet but so far it's starting to feel more and more like home.

Green Day

The kitchen is almost complete. I intend to restain the cabinets and change the hardware at some point but for now it's pretty much as it will stay for the next few months.


Here it is in October of 2008 - no appliances and some wildlife living under the sink. I opened the sink cabinet to find a spider staring back at me. He is gone now as are several other tiny spiders who needed some convincing that they were no longer welcome in the house.

I had a soft green paint from the place I was renting - I was annoyed by the issues I'm having with the landlords so I brought the paint I'd bought with me. Take that suck-ahs. My parents found a little apartment sized stove for me and so far the oven cooks up pizza nicely. For some reason the sink wall consists of a backboard and not drywall - I'm not sure why but don't care - that's how much I care about kitchens.
I also painted down the 'hall' which is really just a passage way to the living room. This is my tiny little linen closet and atop that sits a container with some pussy willows from the park I went to almost every day for 4 years. The linen closet has some assembly issues which need to be addressed at some point but for now ... it's fine. The plan for the next few days is to paint the bedroom, bathroom, possibly the spare room, the front and back doors and to get that fence in!

Organize This

Arrival of the trailer and unloading went reasonably well and it only took about an hour to actually unload everything.

The cats were happy to get out of the crate and truck and into what will be the dining room. They were especially happy to have their cat post back. The green of the dining room will one day be replaced but for now the room is being used as storage since a dining room is the lowest room on teh priority list.

We assembled the new bedframe and as soon as the mattress was on it this happened:

Weird.

We had to go out to pick some things up and I put the dogs in what will one day be the guest room. This is what happened. There was a box in there for one of the closets and they tore into the box and removed the styrofoam.

Also weird.

At one point this is what my kitchen looked like. I took a photo of the livingroom but the flash didn't go off and it didn't turn out well. Here it is anyway ... a jumbled mess. That was the house last week. It is now is some semblance of order and my brain can relax instead of churning at 100 miles an hour with everything that needs to get done. It still churns but it's more like cruise control now.