what we achieved on Saturday............

Between our house and next doors is this.  Although we have a gate on this side as well, we tend to use the other side to get into the back garden. 

 Not sure what the folk before us were trying to achieve, as there were no clear edges and it was full of weeds.

 There were a number of hostas and some other plants, which we dug up and transplanted into other parts of the garden.

 The weeds are just crazy in all the gardens and the grass.

 They left a composter, I need to sort that out as well.  The window to the left of the photo is the spare bedroom window.

We have full basements in Canada and ours is fully finished.  The window here is for our laundry room. 

 This is the after photo.  The sod is looking worse for the wear.

 I top dressed it with soil and grass seed, so as long as we keep it watered, it should be lovely and green in a couple of weeks.  Already it looks a hundred times better.

We had to take a trip to the dump.  It was hazardous waste drop off as well as it being a bank holiday/long weekend, we knew it would be busy.

When we got there we were at the 30 minute wait time, but in no time we were at the 15 minute time.  See the truck in front of us?

We were soon at the entrance.  Again see the truck......sort of figured that truck was going to be dumped, as it was a rust bucket.  Saw it on the way out in front of us, so it must be road worthy.........didn't look like it though.

We had 110 lbs of yard waste from digging up the side of the house, and it cost us nothing to dump it.  All in all a productive day.  Today will be as busy for us with more jobs being done outside in the garden.

Babies, weather, grass and drywall...........

Babies:

No babies yet.  One should have been here yesterday but is hanging in there.  The other will be here in less than two weeks.  If first baby is reluctant to pop out itself, then it will be helped out the same day as number two baby.............

Weather:

Stinking hot and humid............no I am not happy!

Grass:

Got the hole filled up and new grass laid last week or the week before.  Anyhow, I was helping dh at the time so I couldn't "supervise" the "boys" when they were laying the new turf.  Suffice to say it looks like a dogs dinner.  So we dh sprinkled  soil and grass seed over where they had missed.  Along comes a big water truck with what looks like a fireman's hose on it that's operated from inside the truck and dumps hundreds of gallons of water on the grass in a matter of seconds.  I last saw the grass seed and soil sailing away down the street............

Oh by the way, the gardeners are here once a week.  I have no comment about how they are getting on, other than my neighbours weeds look very healthy!  We are taking care of our own for the most part, saves me getting too stressed out at the dimwits!

Drywall:

Well that is coming along.  It will be all done by Tuesday and for what little I have seen looks okay, I refuse to go down there and have a nervous breakdown at the mess.  I think their aim in life is to make the biggest mess possible for me to tidy up..........I am neurotic when it comes to drywall dust and really, really hate it, so in a state about it all...........

Did pick up a big pail of primer/undercoat so will make a start on that next weekend.  The guys did say that I could paint the day after they leave?  It will take me the rest of the week to tidy up the mess down there and try and get rid of the dust in the rest of the house.

Results of the condo board meeting...........

Last Thursday evening was the condo board meeting.  There was a good turn out of people and we met a lot of people we hadn't met before.  There were enough in attendance that we were able to take care of all business including voting for the five members of the board.

There were seven people who put their name forward, including mine.  There were four women and three men.  We all gave a little speech about who we are etc and that was both interesting and plain bloody boring.  Lets just say I went sixth and the five people before me were all very qualified as was the person after me.  I was in two minds about even standing up and saying anything after the first five spoke but dh said I was as good as everyone else.

If truth be told other than solving world hunger and flying to the moon and back, they have all done and had very illustrious careers.  They are all over qualified for these positions but all were so willing and enthusiastic you couldn't help but want all of them to win!!!  Oh and then there was me..........

Here is part of my speech:

I decided to put my name forward for the board as I feel I have a couple of skills that could be useful. (LITTLE DID I REALIZE COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE'S SKILLS MINE WERE USELESS, I did not say this bit!!)

I worked in an office for a number of years so know my way around a computer and can read a set of financial statements.

I have been told and I think I am a very organized person.

I am also very lucky, that when God was handing out common sense, I was in the line and got some.  However when God was handing out how to use power tools, I was shopping.  THAT GOT ME A FEW LAUGHS.

Suffice to say I did not get voted onto the board and will say I am so glad I didn't.  One thing I said at the end of my speech was to tell everyone to play nice!!  One guy decided to bring up an incident that I have mentioned before at the meeting.  Luckily for us the lawyer running the meeting shot him down, not before totally blindsiding the woman he was complaining about and shocking the hell out of a lot of people for having the nerve to bring it up at the meeting.  The guy is a bully and needs to be brought down a peg or two.  Dh has warned me to keep out of it; but boy I wish I could sock him one (the guy not dh)

We then had to vote on a minor issue.  That went on and on due to one man's questions and concerns.  This issue was a straight forward thing and the lawyer told us it was straight forward as was the wording.  It was at that point I realized I wouldn't have the patience to deal with these types of things.

However after the meeting I chatted with a lot of folk and everyone loved my speech and said I would have been a breath of fresh air on our board, as compared to the other folk I was totally opposite.  A couple of folk wanted me to run for a social committee, I said no that was fine.

Will say we live in a great neighbourhood with a lot of super people from all walks of life.  The people voted onto the board will do a good job and I congratulated them all.  I think though after the meeting I will stick to my thing and let them run the board.  In the scheme of things we shouldn't have to deal with them much anyway, as what minor things we want to do with the outside of the house are things that are always approved anyway.

Oh and by the way we have a bit more grass.........

What is this green stuff you say?????

We finally got grass on the front and side of the house along with some more trees and plants.  The white pipe will be cut down and disguised as it is a water run off pipe.

 The tree that is closest is a Silk Lilac, and the other one is a Canadian Maple

 The tree to the right of the photo is an Oak tree that goes red in the Fall.

 They put in some more garden which is still to fill with plants

 This is a lilac tree that they planted.  Wasn't expecting that and pleased to see it.

They had started sorting out the back today and then we got some bad weather.  We now have a swimming pool in the back. 

This was the hail that came down. 

 More hail and it's still thundering out there.

All the neighbours pleased to see our grass as it tidies up the place.

Well that's just teasing..........

Look what pulled up outside our house this morning............

 There were three skids of the green stuff.........

None of it went around our house.........bummer!!

Had to go to babysit our Little Munchkin on Friday, as her parents had to go to a funeral.  I have seen her in better moods, so no photos taken.  On the way home I got stuck in traffic, so what do you do..take a couple of photos.  Now don't panic I was at a full stop, going no where fast as they say.

 This is on Hwy 400 going north at Canada's Wonderland Theme Park.

 Friday afternoon at 3pm is not a good time to be on that highway going North as everyone is heading for their cottages.

 Took me nearly 2 hours to get home.  Normally it is an hour and 15 minutes.  I wasn't impressed!!  Did enjoy looking after our Little Munchkin though.

Some people have grass on their front lawn..........not us

{{SIGH}} one day it will be grass I guess!!

I tidied up the basement the other day.   We have a lovely big basement.  The doors on the right of the photo are doors to the furnace room, the double doors are a linen closet and the other door is a full bathroom.  Just down from that door is the bedroom. 

This is looking from the other end.  The door at the end is the cold cellar and the stairs are stained to match the hardwood floors on the main floor. 

Why I am showing you the basement, is I went and purchased some floor paint to paint the floor.  We will not be finishing the basement in the next few months, so to keep down the dust I decided to paint the floor.  It will take at least a week or so with drying time to get it all done.  I cashed in our Aeroplan miles and got a $100 gift card for Home Hardware.  At $37.99 a gallon of floor paint it paid for a lot of the three gallons I picked up.  I think however I will need a couple more gallons before it is all done though.  I will update you on how I got on next week.

Are you doing any painting at the moment?

So I am guessing you're all ready to strangle me with my lack of posts?

I would love to say I have been super, super busy but I haven't.  Well I have been busy but can always be busier if you know what I mean. So lets catch you up with what has been going on.

House:

No grass.........which = lots of dust and stupid me went off my allergy pills.  Suffice to say I am suffering royally with allergies and am now back on allergy pills for the foreseeable!  I am hoping we will see grass by the end of September........it if comes before hand it will be a bonus.  If I look out of our back windows today this is what I see:

I think I have shares in the Swiffer company, with the amount of their product I use at the moment!

Got the basement organized and tidied up a bit, so we don't have to step over boxes to go from A to B.  I now know where everything is, sort of, and that in itself is a huge help.

Dh has got the central vac working and the garage door opener installed and running.  Still don't have my car parked in the garage as it needs a tidy up, but that is dh's domain, so I leave it well alone.  Talking of my car, Betsy is looking worse for the wear, due to the dust.  Now me making this comment must mean it's bloody bad, as I NEVER clean/wash my car, but even I am fed up with how she is looking!

The Central Vac we purchases is a Beam Electrolux Alliance Special Spring Edition (it's white not black). It cost us just over $1,100 (including all taxes) and was well worth the money, very pleased with how it works.  Plus I got a "vac pan" installed under the sink cupboard, so I can sweep the kitchen floor, kick the lever and all the dust/crumbs etc, is sucked up through the vac pan.

The garage door opener was a Craftsman from Sears.  We have one double garage door and I got a 1/2 hp opener and it works fine.  I picked it up on sale for well under $200, and it came with two car openers, a key pad and an opener to put by the door to the house.  We have purchased this type of opener before and have always had good luck with them.

I have to say the way the builder finished off the garage makes it look immaculate.  Never had such a good looking garage interior....LOL

Dh's next job will be installing a custom closet organizer we got from Solutions.  We are big fans of their systems and had done a few closets using their product.  I will post about that when we put it up.

We, actually dh is helping renovate our daughter and son-in-laws basement, so that is also taking up a little bit of time.  My job is to take care of our little munchkin.  Here is her 8 month old photo which was taken last week:

She is of course sitting up, she is crawling and she can pull herself up to standing and walk around furniture.  She has got her four top teeth in all at once, so the poor thing hasn't been awfully happy, but she is over the worst as three of the four are through.  So that will be six teeth in all.  She is a grand eater and dd has been teaching her how to pick up pieces of cracker herself.  She will also "kiss" you when asked.  Do I sound like a proud Nana?  I know shut up!!

I have been busy reading.  As not only have I been reviewing books, I also attended my first book club meeting.  Thoroughly enjoyed it and a great set of ladies.  The book club with max out at 12 members and we have 11 members at the moment.  To read my book reviews you can click on this link.  If you have read any of the books I have reviewed I would love to hear your opinion.

I have much more to talk about, as it's been quite an eye opening experience moving from the country to a community where the average age is probably at least 60 to 70.  I know you will not only laugh at but also commiserate with me about some of the daft things that happen around here.

On that note I will sign off and try and get another post written for tomorrow.

Oh, and please feel free to yell at me for not writing more posts...LOL!