Musings on a Small Life

The guys finished putting down the vinyl and trim (baseboards in three bedrooms, shoe moulding throughout most of the house) at 5 PM Friday afternoon. The stairs were prepped Friday morning, and carpeted Sunday morning.  I'd rather have nice oak stairs and a stair runner than outdated-looking carpet on the stringers, but these stairs are in too bad shape to do that. I think they must have had to use up their entire supply of floor screws, screwing down the subfloor and stairs as much as possible. The fellow who did the stairs even put construction-type glue between the treads and risers.   They all did their best, IMO, to lessen the squeaks. A few were simple and easily remedied, most not--just a function of poor construction when the unit was built. I appreciated that they tried, though. (And it was what I was paying for too!) I had taken Friday off as a "vacation" day, which I desperately needed, as it took me all afternoon and into the evening to get the downstairs mos...

OMC, I thought doing the tiny kitchen was chaos. That's nothing compared to the flooring reno.   They got the vinyl put down in the two back bedrooms; all the trim (throughout the house) will be done on the last day. With the exception of the front bedroom (10x16), the other three rooms are very small. I have to keep moving stuff around, cramming things in, as they work. I won't be able to settle in fully until after the shoe moulding goes on, since they need space to move around the boxes and furniture to install the trim.   They're also having to spend a lot of time screwing down the subfloor, since it was such a poor construction job. They've been able to remove or at least lessen some of the floor squeaks so far, which is great. They can't work miracles, but they're doing their best.   There will be a third fellow here on Friday to work on the stairs. It's quite possible that he will not be able to finish in one day, as he apparently will need to put 3...

My vacation is almost at an end; 16 days definitely has not been enough. If you hear weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth on Monday morning, you'll know it's me. Here are some pics from the visit with my Brighton friends--it was mostly sky and landscape pics this time! October 17. Below: October 18, a misty early morning. You can see the progression of the bank of mist over the water, passing in front of the rising sun. Incredible. There are a few other pics I can/will post; I just wanted to share these. We were lucky to have perfect timing!

I took the train to Brockville on Wednesday to spend a handful of hours catching up with my aunt and the friend of Mom's who is visiting from Nova Scotia. We had a lovely lunch downtown at the  1000 Islands Brewing Company  and did some poking around, then checked out the old Brockville train tunnel , Canada's oldest railway tunnel. The two entrances/exits are unremarkable. However, the waves of light inside are really funky and fun! The lights come in waves from one end to the other and it's quite something! They have old photos and information kiosks along the way. It's also quite damp and dripping in various places (by design) and you can see the water (heavy in calcium) forming deposits on the rock. I'd been wanting to check that out for some time, so I was glad to get the chance. The one thing that we missed out on was the Aquatarium , which had just changed hours and was closed. Too bad! I'll leave you with a pic of this very friendly fellow who was with h...

Happy Friday/weekend to all and happy vacation-eve to me.    Kenny came to visit a couple of days ago. I've got the door painting to continue with, the packing up of the small items pre-floor reno, three medical appointments to go to, I'm away next week for a day trip to visit my maternal aunt and a friend of Mom's who's staying with her for a few days while she's in Ontario visiting family, and I still hope to be away a few days during Thanksgiving week. I already need a holiday from the holiday I haven't yet taken. 😄 Someone's dahlias are still doing well.   Handsome George a couple of days ago.   I'll be around when I can. Everyone take care, stay safe, and be well. 🫶