Exhausted
I was sick for two days, Monday and Tuesday, after three days of pushing my body further than it was prepared for. I think it was likely a combination of all the hard work (shoveling and raking and lifting rocks) and a meal or two that didn’t sit well. I awoke early on Monday morning with nausea and aches, and while I luckily didn’t have to “throw up” at all, I did need to make numerous trips to the bathroom all day. I slept most of the day, missing Sophie’s birthday party and a sewing session with Kari, but my body was definitely telling me it needed rest. Tuesday I spent in recovery, as I was feeling very weak. Today my body feels almost normal, except for a few sore muscles, so as long as it doesn’t rain (too hard), I plan to be outside and get all those plants and trees in the ground.
I’m almost a tad hesitant, however, because there’s a neighbour who comes ’round and critiques my plant and tree choices, and even our landscaping choices! I’m choosing to just be nice about it all, because she doesn’t really listen to me when I talk anyways. So it feels futile to explain that each thing we do is for a good reason (like putting a three-foot-high picket fence in the front will block OUR view of the ditch and the road). She also insisted that north was south, and south was north…and laughed at me when I tried to suggest otherwise. It was bothering me a little, but now I realize she’s quite confused and maybe there’s a serious reason for it. She really is a nice lady, despite her near-constant Bible quotes and referrals to “living with the Spirit.”
Filed under gardening, yard | Comments OffSpring Gardening
It’s spring and I AM SO HAPPY! Spring and summer are by far my most favourite seasons. The past winter was really tough for me. The craziness began last July-August when we bought the house, and it hasn’t much subsided since. Buying, packing, moving, getting settled, fostering Leeloo, adopting Piper, having the hardwood floors installed, Christmas, building the shed, losing my job, fixing up the suite, and now the landscaping, front deck and suite patio; these eight months have been extremely stressful, and I’m ready for a little break. Once the yard is fixed up, there aren’t any huge projects left for me to work on, except painting some of our rooms, which isn’t really a pressing item.
A week and a half ago we had our severely compacted “soil” (well, clay really) tilled. Then we had 10 yards of garden top soil delivered, which last weekend we raked out and graded. It was rough work. My back and right arm suffered. (Side note: Ever since I sanded the suite, my right arm has been sore, and at night when I sleep it goes numb. Sometimes my left arm numbs too, and I can’t sleep on my tummy or back very well, so…yeah, I haven’t been sleeping very well for the past three weeks.) Last week I studied gardening magazines and the Internet for information on what types of plants would flourish in our yard. I spent a small fortune on shrubs, trees, seeds, ground cover, grasses and other plants, as well as tools, Sea Soil, and such. I’ve even made friends with the lady who owns a small nursery near our house! I keep running into her in town and we stop to chitchat — she’s so sunny, I just love to see her.
Ty took Thursday off, and we rented a truck to get the rest of the supplies we needed. On Thursday we picked up our new lawn, two yards of bark mulch and a truckload of limestone rock. On Friday, in three loads, we got another two yards of bark mulch, two yards of top soil, a yard of flatstone gravel, four barrels of sand, another truckload of limestone and blue rock, 16 18-inch round pavers, and nine concrete caps. We did that all in four hours. All those rocks? We had to pick through a huge pile of them and carry them to the truck. After we finished unloading, we each had a beer, went to Mom’s for lunch, and when I got home I slept in the sun on the chaise for about two hours. Holy crap I was exhausted.
On Saturday, we picked up another load of natural rock (looks like slate), three garbage cans full of sand, and 60 feet of concrete stacking stones for a wall around the driveway. Then we were able to finally start working on the yard, with all our supplies picked up, and so Ty took the clippers to the brush and old, fallen-down fence on the side of the house. I put in some landscaping edging and flatstone rock. It’s starting to look good! (See more photos of the progress at my flickr account.)
More projects planned for today, and tomorrow is our day off. Phew. I’m pooped.
Filed under gardening, landscaping, spring, yard | Comments OffFinally Fini
We finally finished the renovations in the suite early Saturday evening, mere hours before our new tenants moved in. What a week, holy schmoly. The Friday before, Sharon called and asked if they could move in March 1. I figured I could get everything done in time. Which I did, of course, but I worked almost nonstop all day and evening all week, and on Friday night we worked until 3 am. I slept five hours that night. We had an enormous amount of work still to do, and it all took a lot longer than I anticipated. I worked so hard that at times I didn’t know how I kept on. I hardly ate. The only breaks I took were my numerous trips to Home Hardware and Rona for supplies. I think we spent a small fortune just on tools.
But it was worth it. We tested our mettle, and found it to be resolute. Sure, we didn’t plan it out all that well at first — “Oh, we can just take down that wall, no problem!” — but we persevered. We went way over our budget, but I guess that’s to be expected. Still, we had an enormous storage room and a useless hallway, and now we have a beautiful two-bedroom suite with a lovely, warm living room.
We took out the wall behind the wood stove and made this whole area the living room. We added a wall on the right side of the old room to make a small storage area. Some electrical had to be moved, and a baseboard heater installed. We cut out two long strips of drywall on the ceiling and put in insulation.
Oddly, the shared laundry room at the back was open to the suite. We put in a wall and a door there, by the kitchen, so we don’t have to walk into the suite to get to our laundry.
The floor obviously became an issue. We weren’t prepared to replace the whole floor, but the living room definitely needed new flooring because half of it was just concrete, and the other half was simply a very thin vinyl. VERY cold on the feet. After much debate, we opted for carpet. We tried to go on the cheap and bought from the Carpet Dollar Store. You can’t get much for less than $1.50 a square foot. But I didn’t skimp on the underlay (hopefully). The carpet guy I found on Used Victoria ended up telling us that he had to charge more AS HE WAS CUTTING THE CARPET. Apparently it’s a very difficult carpet to install, and the seams are a nightmare. Sure. He didn’t do a great job, and with delivery cost near $400. All told, less than 300 square feet of carpet was $1,100. I didn’t even measure for enough carpet, and so the carpet doesn’t go to all the other rooms. We were pretty bummed, but it turned out to look just fine. I got these lovely wood transition strips too, and this little touch really makes the floor look great.
Unfortunately, we had to have the carpet installed before I sanded the drywall and painted, so we had to put thick plastic down to protect the new carpet. What a mess. The sanding part? The hardest thing I’ve ever done. And so gross. I absolutely LOATHE the feeling of sanded drywall on my skin. And my hands? Trashed. I did, however, get a kick out of wearing my sexy mask.
My radial sander broke as I was sanding the ceiling. Either because I dropped it, or it doesn’t like sanding upside down. I didn’t have time to get to Rona for a replacement, so I used a crappy old regular sander and my own brute strength. Rawr! Any idea how hard it is to sand above you? It makes a person want to die. And so I’m terribly embarrassed, because the ceiling looks freaking horrible. But I got over it after a while. Once I primed it, there was no turning back. And cleaning up that sanded mess was a pleasure like no other. I didn’t get any photos because I didn’t want to take my camera in there.
The “hard part” over, I set about priming and painting. This should have been a lot easier. But no, not in my world. Because despite my best efforts, I like to do things the hard way. Oh well, maybe it wasn’t so bad. I bought this beautiful paint called “Hazy Skies” from Benjamin Moore. After I bought it, I put a swatch on the wall in the second room, and after much deliberation decided it was a tad too grey.
Listen, I spent a couple of hours going over colours in the living room: putting the paint chips on white paper, looking at them in different light at different times of the day and on all the walls. So for me to go and put the real paint in a different room was just silly. What was I thinking? I know better. Obviously, after spending all that time in the living room to make sure I got the right colour.
The suite isn’t super bright. We have a bank of large trees to the south that block the sun. The living room has but one small window. So it was very important to me that I choose a light tone to reflect light, but I also wanted a warm colour tone. I really love blues and greys, and they suite the “west coast” feel of the property. But they are cool colours. As well, I wanted to steer away from beige and taupe because they are so BORING. Besides, I heard grey was the new beige. But not too grey. This is tricky stuff! Perhaps you’re thinking, “It’s just rental suite, why are you going through so much trouble?” Well, my integrity is at stake. I just cannot rent this suite to anyone unless it’s good enough for me to live in. This is a good thing in the end. Because if our tenants see that I CARE about their living space, then hopefully they will respect it as much as I do. Give them crap, they will treat it like crap. To me, it’s a no-brainer.
But back to the paint. I went up to Home Hardware to see if they could make my Hazy Skies just a tad green. Sure! That’s what the special computers are for! I picked out a lovely sagey green called “Beach Glass.” Well, I took a risk, and she added to one gallon the wrong tints and it ended up being much MORE grey. So she mixed up a fresh gallon of Beach Glass. Looked green in the store.
On the wall, wet, it looked very green. Like medical gown green. Hrm. No turning back now. It was rush time. I didn’t put on a swatch, I just went for it, hoping it would turn out okay. After the first coat on one wall, I grabbed the paint chip and compared it to the paint. NOT THE SAME. NOT EVEN CLOSE. The paint on the wall after dry? BLUE. No doubt about it. It’s robin egg blue. I was worried. It looks a bit baby nursery. But after two coats, it looked really good, and the colour grew on me. Now I love it, but of course since it was a mistint, it can never be recreated. BOO!
I originally bought my paint from the Benjamin Moore store in Langford, and the girl there said the folks at HH mistint their paint quite frequently. Urgh.
So I still had a gallon of Hazy Skies. Since the blue is so dominant, we decided to use this in the “hallway” area. It looks just fabulous. What a gorgeous colour. Calm, sophisticated, light. It changes with the light, and often looks a tad green, perhaps reflections from the blue. I think it looks sort of like putty, or plaster. We love it so much, we’re going to use it upstairs.
A note on Benjamin Moore paint: I love it. It is superb paint and I feel it’s worth the few extra bucks. It goes on so smooth and easily (with the right roller brush). We also used a telescopic handle for the first time and love it. I broke the one I bought within 20 minutes, and then Tyler broke three of our broom handles. Someone needs to invent one that can’t break. Still, it’s a way better way to paint.
With the painting of the walls done, I set about paint all the trim and Tyler worked on everything else: framing in the window and building a sill (which involved making a hole for a bolt that was sticking up – tricky!), cutting and installing the door trim and baseboards, securing and moving some baseboard heaters, spray painting the wood stove pipe cap, installing the transition strips, putting in bathroom hardware, replacing light bulbs, and cleaning up.
And so this is the result of all our hard work. We think it looks awesome.
Doesn’t Hazy Skies look fabulous?
Even Piper loves it!
For a complete set of photos, visit my flickr photoset.
What’s next? Well last week we also had our driveway cleaned up and leveled, and then crushed rock put down. It looks really good, even though it’s not my ideal driveway, and there’s no more mud when you step out of the car. We’re going to build a patio for the suite: a simple pergola and lattice to block the view of the cars and driveway a bit, and space to hang flower baskets and such. I’m excited about this, as spring seems on its way and getting outside more lifts my spirits. Next week we’ll have top soil brought in for the front yard too, and we can start making some bedding area and planting for the summer. Yah!
Filed under painting, renovations, suite | Comment (1)