Monthly Archives: July 2015
It’s been a long week
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/game-of-groans/
I’ve taken a couple of walks in the past few days, needing to get out of the house due to sadness and just needing to get away from all the work going on. For some reason, on one of these walks, I thought it might be fun to take pictures of signs. Have you ever noticed how many signs there are out there? Well, I have. And there are a lot of them.
So here are some signs – literal signs – from my walk.
The spare room
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/______-is-the-new-______/
Still reeling from our sad news from Tuesday, and unable to be my usual sardonic, prompt-avoiding self, I am posting something I had in draft ready for when I was done the spare room (ok, I guess the prompt-avoiding self is still there…). Now, I still need to touch up a few spots where I got paint on the crown molding, and put furniture back, but essentially it is done. So, here is the story of the Spare Room.
Normally I would show you “before” pictures of the room from when we first bought the house. Those of you who have been following me for awhile know that when we bought this house, it had been “empty” for 10 years, but still full of all the furniture from its days as a B&B. This room was no different. It had 2 beds and 2 chairs in it and at least one dresser. The dresser is still in the room (beds and chairs are LONG gone). Searching through my vast array of pictures, however, I have found no trace of shots of this room from when we purchased the house. So, I guess we move on to…
After we cleaned out the room…Holes from electricians have been patched, but the old light fixture is still hanging, and windows are in sorry shape.
Then we moved into the house, and this room became “the room in which to put things until we had other rooms ready to move those things into” Jasper wasn’t one of those “things” though. Jasper just liked to sleep on top of the mattress.
Then we finally set the room up as our spare bedroom. New light fixture, but wallpaper still riddling the walls.
We also had the windows repaired – they even open now!
Then we had the wallpaper stripping of 3 years. Well, I won’t show pictures of this. Suffice it to say that I took my sweet time with taking off the wallpaper. It’s not like it was hard (not like the master bedroom where the wallpaper was on top of unpainted drywall – yeah, you heard me). I was just lazy.
Now to present-day. Here it is all primed. You’ve already seen the rest of the priming fuss from the past week of posts…
And now, finally, the final product! I’m overall pretty proud. It’s like a different room, and I did it all myself (well, the walls anyway…)
R.I.P Dexter
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/simply-the-best/
Yesterday our beloved Dexter the Wonder Cat died. We will miss him very much.
Here is a tribute in images to our Dexter.
A lazy Monday, but feeling a bit better today
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/fourth-wall/
So, I did pretty much nothing yesterday. Well, except for laundry. I did do that. And I talked to the painter about colours for the house. But other than that, I did nothing.
I’m feeling a bit better today, so I’m going to try for a short walk. Then I need to finish painting the spare room. And then maybe prime the bathtub in the backyard and do a bit of watering back there. Sound like a plan?
The only pictures I took yesterday were kitties snoozing around me (well, Jasper isn’t so much snoozing as sitting on my chest trying to decide how to get comfy enough to snooze. Elliot on the other hand is, as always, extremely relaxed in spite of the endless sanding and scraping going on outside.)
And a couple of new blooms in the backyard.
Here are some final pictures of the house before priming. I think they are pretty much done with the hard prep now. That only took a week!
And now, on to Tuesday…
Oh god, the sanding, the sanding (and scraping)
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this/
I’m not feeling well today. I feel rather like I’m coming down with something. Headache, sore throat, achy all over, general feeling of stomach upset. So, I’m staying home today and probably not doing much of anything, except laundry. I think I can do laundry. And listen to the painters finish the sanding and scraping prep. Priming begins tomorrow (I hope)?
Yesterday? It was quiet. Except for the thunder. 4 claps (maybe 5?) of thunder. A record for Victoria, I think. And the Rider game. We won’t talk about the Rider game… Kevin’s favourite joke yesterday? Knock-knock. Who’s there? Owen. Owen who? Owen five. Sigh…
Anyway, here is what the sky looked like yesterday before the rain poured down on our mostly prepped and eaves-trough-less house (sigh…) with 4 different filters:
And here is what I plan on doing today…
Company and a long walk
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/youre-a-winner/
That about says it all. Cleaned the house in the morning, a couple of friends came for an overnight visit, we all went for a looooooooong walk and then ate yummy food (cheese followed by BBQ trout and braised greens).
Here were some of the sights along said looooooooong walk.
On the way downtown, I checked out the newly vacant lot where a new development is going in.
There are a couple of old houses they are going to move somewhere else in the neighbourhood. Here is one of them up on blocks, ready to move.
We wandered around the Inner Harbour, then down Government Street, and then down Bastion Square to Commercial Alley.
After that, we headed down another alley…
…to go pick up soap from our favourite soap place.
Stopping in a tourist store, I noted the sexist display of swiss army knives ALL with male names on them. Not one female name (except for those male names which are sometimes female). Not one.
Continuing with the apparent theme of the day, we headed down Trounce Alley
After emerging from Trounce Alley, I looked up and thought, hey, this is a neat looking building. Let’s take a picture of it.
And, back down to the Inner Harbour – here are some flowers I thought were worthy of a picture.
And then, the best busker along the Inner Harbour I have ever seen (or, NOT seen….)
We made a quick stop at Finest At Sea (the fish store) – here is how you don’t get lost walking into the store…
Then, home for groceries and then beer, wine, cheese and BBQ!
I have not pictures of the feast, but I do have a couple of kitty pictures with which to end my post today…
It rained, but scraping continued
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/shoulda-woulda-coulda/
Yesterday was another day of listening to scraping and sanding on the house. Quite impressive considering it was raining on and off.
They have set up even more scaffolding…
And should be ready to start priming on Monday or Tuesday.
In the meantime, I finally put colour on the walls of the spare room. There is a second coat to do, and some touch ups I need to do (I’m really not a good painter) but it’s almost done! And I really like the colour.
And now…kitties!
This is for you, M-R!
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/well-i-never/
Remind me to tell you the story of our deck sometime, and why we had to present last evening to a City Council meeting in a Public Hearing forum. I’m not quite ready to put it all down on “paper” just yet, but just let me say that we’ve had quite the experience (a mild term considering) trying to keep a deck that’s been attached to our house for 25-50 years. Someday I’ll be ready to talk about it…
Anyway, a note has been made in my Comments that I have neglected to post kitty pictures over the past 2 days. So, here they are. Kitty pictures!
Oh, and a picture of our old back door…
…and our NEW back door!
Oh, and our spare bedroom is finally nicely primed and ready for a first coat of COLOUR (white walls, blag!!), which will happen today!
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-perfect-game/
So, yesterday I did not do anything around the house. In fact, you could say it was an actual holiday day. Mom and I went for lunch and to a show! The painters, of course, continued their good work scraping noisily on the house (I was kind of glad to get out for the day). I have no further pictures right now of the house. It is the same, only with slightly less paint on it.
When I bought the tickets way back in May, as a Mother’s Day gift, it was for the musical Pal Joey. But when I was checking online this weekend about parking at the theatre, I found that they had changed the play, without emailing anyone – like those of us who had their tickets emailed to them – about the change, to Private Lives. Which is not a musical, but is, at least, light and humorous (although, the humor is, shall I say, somewhat dated being centered basically around spousal abuse).
Anyway, it was a nice afternoon of food and theatre. For some reason I was exhausted when I got home and just managed to feed kitties, water the garden, and get a few things ready for supper before falling asleep on the couch with Dexter.
There are, however, more adventures in line for today, so stay tuned tomorrow!
For now, here are some pictures of theatre adventures.
This is the Roxy. It used to be a movie theatre (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/if-the-roxy-theatre-goes-dark-victoria-stands-to-lose-a-gem/article1375527/), but was converted last year or the year before to a stage theatre.
Old-fashioned ticket booth intact
This is the playbill for the afternoon. The Blue Bridge company (http://bluebridgetheatre.ca/) now operates out of the Roxy and does most of its shows in the summer (only a few special events during the rest of the year).
This is inside…chairs (complete with cup holders).
The stage (it was bigger than I thought it would be – the second and third acts used more of it.)
The back
The door to the ladies room (I just liked the sign)
The lobby with the concession stand
And now, another day begins…
It didn’t feel that busy…
A response in avoidance of the Daily Post’s Writing Prompt https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/
No, it didn’t feel busy or that I got a lot done, but I guess I did do a few things yesterday. Or, maybe I should say that a few things were done around the house today and I did some of them. Well, one of them. And a walk.
Here is the walk which I went on after saying good morning to the painting crew busily scraping away at the north side of the house.
Coming down the path to the ocean.
Which way…which way?
Ok. East it is.
Not sure why this bench was taped off with Caution tape.
Stairs going down to the beach. I chose NOT to go down them. Too lazy to want to come back up…
Another bench, but this one seemed ok to sit on. I chose not to sit. This time.
Random scenery
More stairs not to go down.
I walked to Clover point. It’s nice there.
More stairs…
Then, after lunch, I primed that damn room – the one thing I actually did around the house yesterday. I have now discovered that I think all will be well with one more light sand in spots and a second coat of primer. Phew! So, a second coat will go on tomorrow, and the first coat of actual colour on Friday sometime. No painting of spare room shall happen today, as I must go to lunch and a play with mom. But tomorrow.
After recovering from 3 hours of priming, I took a walk around the house and yard. I have to take pictures of the house work in progress as part of the Heritage Grant requirements, so here are a couple of shots of what’s going on out there.
Some of the scraping…north side of the house.
Scaffold city set up on the south side of the house, presumably for today’s scraping extravaganza.
And, finally, some of the blooms in the tranquil backyard…
