The drywall phase of the basement wasn’t too exciting. White… mud… sand… more dust… more white and then on the weekend, they did our ceiling which made it look like a real basement (if you looked up). Now the walls are painted, the lights are up, the doors are on and tomorrow the carpet comes!! Woohoo!! A finished basement might be in my future very soon!! We don’t want to put anything down there now as it will look so nice!
Okay… I was a little late coming up with a Mother’s Day gift idea (thanks Mrs. Brown for the quick flower pen idea!!!) so I am starting early looking for a Father’s Day gift idea. One I like (thanks Robin) is painting a rock to make a paper weight. I am open to suggestions though as I can’t use the same gift each year (I have the kids for three years).
Here is what our basement is looking like these days…
Looking toward the cold room and the stairway.
This is looking toward the bathroom and behind the wall is the furnace room.
This is our fireplace and the TV will be on the right.
This used to be the ‘man space’ and now doesn’t have an official purpose!
Wishing my Mom the best day ever! She is the bestest Mom ever!
Yesterday we arrived home to find a fresh tire track embedded into our ashphalt! Very sad. It was quite deep and left a large ridge as well. THEN today… we arrive home to find out they are paving our neighbours driveway! So the nice pavers flattened the ridge for us and the filled it with ashphalt! And for FREE! So it’s not perfect but better then a hole and a ridge in our driveway.
I think I have dealt with ‘chains’ for too long. I have been pleasantly surprised by the great customer service we have received from people as we have been hiring and buying for the basement! It’s been neat to see people who have pride in their work. I think it’s becoming more rare and hopefully I can learn a thing or two from them in terms of work ethic.
I’ve been craving to get my canoe out for a couple of months, and we had said that some weekend in May we would do it. So seeing how lovely it was this weekend, today was the day to canoe the Grand River.
We headed out at 10:00, had Tim’s breakfast sandwiches, and parked one car at Hwy 7 (Victoria Rd - access point 10b according to the Canoeing The Grand book) in Kitchener/Waterloo, then drove the other car up to Invernaugh (just a bit south of Elora - access point 4). We unpacked, and setup the canoe, and jumped in.
The river was a little shallow up that far (we were glad we didn’t go up to the next access point in Elora - access point 3) and we slid over the rocks quite a bit, but it gradually got deeper as the day went on. We passed the cache we had placed last weekend, some fly fishermen, the kissing bridge, and just before the river got urbanized, we stopped and had lunch. We were a little tired then, as it was 1:00. I had been hopping out of the canoe anytime we got stuck so my feet were cool and wet. Jenn was bundled up with her winter coat, 2 sweaters, and mittens - she looked very seasonal (but better warm and happy!). We continued on past the golf course, past 4 caches that I hadn’t done (but didn’t want to do this time as it was a long day already), and finally made it back to the car by 5:00! In total, it was a 37 km canoe ride (according to the GPS)!
Jenn was a fantastic sport - she did her usual singing, staring at the water, staring at the birds/geese/ducks, playing with her paddle, thinking about work (I’m sure), and even a bunch of paddling, and no complaining (she asked how much longer a couple of times, but that’s deserved and warranted!). My legs are a bit sunburnt, and Jenn? Well, her winter coat (with the hood up) and mittens and long pants and thick socks meant that she was thoroughly unexposed, so she’s good. My back is sore (after a bunch of gardening yesterday). We’re going to sleep well tonight!
Does anyone have any suggestions for an easy Mother’s Day craft??? Anyone??
Our fireplace is sort of in. We have a gas line and the main unit but no mantle yet. Lots of people will be in in the next week so we should see quite the progress soon! Yeah!
