So we're in Nelson BC, one major reason I've not been posting as much as I used to. Another reason is that I'm taking a creative writing class which requires much writing and I'm covering the Montreal Alouettes for an online media outlet called digitaljournal.com. So I have been writing just not here. We're just lazing away our Wednesday afternoon in the mountains and Kate managed to get us an Internet connection through her iPhone so I figured I'd read up on the Maple Leafs and post a blog entry.
Another house issue has come up, during a big storm I left the windows open to try and cool the condo down. The place certainly cooled down from 34 degrees to about 25 but also about two cups of water came in the house before I could get some towels down. The water quickly found a tiny crack in the wood, something that probably should have been repaired years ago, and eventually came out the ceiling above our dining room table one drop at a time. The damage is minimal: the paint is ruined, the table is totally fine, and the drywall is slightly soft. I also noticed previous damage though while trying to reduce the damage my leak was causing. So I'm going to pull the drywall down and see what's going on in the ceiling. Hopefully there will be nothing significant wrong, I can quickly replace the damaged drywall, repaint and put some wood filler in the cracks under the window upstairs and re-stain. Easier said than done I'm sure.
Our westerly vacation has been fun so far. We flew into Calgary, skipped the stampede and drove to Red Deer where we stayed for one night. Drove to Edmonton the next day for a quick lunch with Kate's sister and moved on to Jasper. Jasper is a great little town but we only stayed for a day and made the nine hour drive to Nelson on Friday.
The cabin we're in is old but nice, the water is freaking cold but the town is great and we've been having a lot of fun just hanging out with a tonne of mountains around us and lots of wildlife. We've seen: what I think are Ospreys, catch a few fish from the lake, an otter or something like an otter, a family of ducks, an elk and a dog. Tomorrow we go hiking in the Kootenays and while we're supposed to take bear spray I'm going to take my new machete instead. Just kidding I could never kill a bear, I'll just wrestle with it until it gives up and flees.
Somehow Kate us a pretty nice car. We were supposed to have a Ford Focus but instead we got a Nissan Altima. I don't know much about cars being the money sucking demon machines that they are but this thing is nice inside and it's got a fake manual gear shifter in it. I guess it's for people who don't know how to drive standard but like to pretend they do. I don't really use the feature but it looks pretty cool.
I've had a chance to do some work on the cabin. I burned some excess crap that was laying around, dug out part of the back of the cabin, bought a machete and cleared a path on the property to make a compost and I raked the beach. Then I skipped about a hundred stones.
Well I better go get some more crap done the beach is sunny and and I've got to find some worms to go fishing tonight.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Home Ownership Continues to Test
I would like to start by complaining about this heat but I should start this entry with things that occurred before this heat wave, but holy crap it's hot. The animals lay on the floor all day long and even chocolate can't stir them.
So we definitely are enjoying our new place, it's fun, I've enjoyed the work I've done on it and we're getting close to being settled in, just need a new desk and someplace to put our numerous garbage bags full of clothes.
We have hit a few money holes along the way though. The fridge has extremely poor light and it wobbled quite a bit. The previous owner had wedged a piece of paper under one corner of the fridge to righten it but I got rid of that and just extended the rarely used, in perfect condition leg instead. So now the fridge is straight but it still provides crappy light inside it and it generates a fair amount of heat, the edge of the door is more than warm so I assume this thing is crappy and an energy guzzler. It's also small. The dishwasher sucks too but I think all dishwashers may suck to some degree.
The doors were our biggest problem so far. Keeping in tune with the idea that jamming something like folder up cardboard or a stick into things that don't work the way you want them to, the previous owner liked jamming blocks of wood into the door frame to keep the doors open. We of course didn't know better ourselves and continued the ritual until one of the doors fell off the hinge. I should say broke off the hinge. These doors are European, whatever that means, and they open in two ways, like a door, and just the top can pop open for air flow. They're also supposed to be maintained every few years. Since 1988 they've been maintained, or adjusted, once, by us, two days ago.
So one door broke off, it's now fixed and properly adjusted. Another door needs the same work, we'll get that done later, and the third door has also now been properly adjusted. The third door had a broken seal and the windows was dirty and had water between the panes of glass so while doing the adjustment one of the panes shattered. The glass went everywhere. We managed to get most of the glass cleaned up and Kate has been picking up the tiny pieces we missed with her feet. She usually manages to find one a day and then we use the tweezers to get it out and in the garbage. We'll get new glass instaled probably before the winter.
Then the heat came, I actually like it, I feel comfortable and I can wear fewer clothes around the house, it's great. My concern is the animals, specifically the rats, they do not like this heat and I saw Brewski pant for the first time ever yesterday. So last night we turned on the A/C. We already had two fans blowing the air around the condo, now we have three. I've had the A/C on since 6:00 last night and the temperature in here right now is 28. I guess it's doing something but the animals are still lethargic and I'm sweating while sitting still. The unit is blowing cool air, sortof, it's probably just too small for this condo.
In other news school is going well, I got an A- in Camera 1 and I'm half way through Photoshop 1. I got a great student deal on Creative Suite 5 so now I have Photoshop at home and I do enjoy playing with it. I'm also taking a creative writing class which I'm enjoying and will surly enjoy more once we finish poetry and move on to the short story.
So that's the crap I've been up to this month.
So we definitely are enjoying our new place, it's fun, I've enjoyed the work I've done on it and we're getting close to being settled in, just need a new desk and someplace to put our numerous garbage bags full of clothes.
We have hit a few money holes along the way though. The fridge has extremely poor light and it wobbled quite a bit. The previous owner had wedged a piece of paper under one corner of the fridge to righten it but I got rid of that and just extended the rarely used, in perfect condition leg instead. So now the fridge is straight but it still provides crappy light inside it and it generates a fair amount of heat, the edge of the door is more than warm so I assume this thing is crappy and an energy guzzler. It's also small. The dishwasher sucks too but I think all dishwashers may suck to some degree.
The doors were our biggest problem so far. Keeping in tune with the idea that jamming something like folder up cardboard or a stick into things that don't work the way you want them to, the previous owner liked jamming blocks of wood into the door frame to keep the doors open. We of course didn't know better ourselves and continued the ritual until one of the doors fell off the hinge. I should say broke off the hinge. These doors are European, whatever that means, and they open in two ways, like a door, and just the top can pop open for air flow. They're also supposed to be maintained every few years. Since 1988 they've been maintained, or adjusted, once, by us, two days ago.
So one door broke off, it's now fixed and properly adjusted. Another door needs the same work, we'll get that done later, and the third door has also now been properly adjusted. The third door had a broken seal and the windows was dirty and had water between the panes of glass so while doing the adjustment one of the panes shattered. The glass went everywhere. We managed to get most of the glass cleaned up and Kate has been picking up the tiny pieces we missed with her feet. She usually manages to find one a day and then we use the tweezers to get it out and in the garbage. We'll get new glass instaled probably before the winter.
Then the heat came, I actually like it, I feel comfortable and I can wear fewer clothes around the house, it's great. My concern is the animals, specifically the rats, they do not like this heat and I saw Brewski pant for the first time ever yesterday. So last night we turned on the A/C. We already had two fans blowing the air around the condo, now we have three. I've had the A/C on since 6:00 last night and the temperature in here right now is 28. I guess it's doing something but the animals are still lethargic and I'm sweating while sitting still. The unit is blowing cool air, sortof, it's probably just too small for this condo.
In other news school is going well, I got an A- in Camera 1 and I'm half way through Photoshop 1. I got a great student deal on Creative Suite 5 so now I have Photoshop at home and I do enjoy playing with it. I'm also taking a creative writing class which I'm enjoying and will surly enjoy more once we finish poetry and move on to the short story.
So that's the crap I've been up to this month.
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