We are entering crunch time for construction and everyone is starting to stress out. There are many late nights of maintenance, tiling, cementing, and painting.
I personally shouldn’t be allowed near anything home improvement related (home destruction I can do). Every time I start to work on something it blows up into a series of unplanned projects. The rust on the garage became a repaint, new weather stripping, paint the trim for the entire garage project.
The new one is painting a strip of wood by the front entrance. This has become a paint the entrance, dig out a section of wall in the closet, caulk the windows, weather strip the front door, glazing the front window, and patch the roof project. Because, when I pulled off the strip of wood I found a bit of mould. We’re getting help with this one.
The basement work continues. The bathroom drywaller looked at what we’d done and asked if he could *ahem* re-mud.
This includes the window that has never ever ever been finished; lucky renters, they’ll be able to look out a finished basement window that’s not covered in plastic and blocked by bits of wood or boxes of nails and screws.
So, dP may have an office soon, which is a good thing because we’re all working in the living room with the packed moving boxes and have to step over something or someone when you need to go somewhere.
The downstairs bathroom continues. I’m beginning to think it will never end… just like the humungous pile of pop, candy, chocolate, chips, and Doritos that just keeps growing and growing on the floor. Seems construction elves are powered by high fructose corn syrup and salt.
The whole process would be less messy and go faster if it actually stopped raining and snowing in Calgary and we could work/do things outside.
Packing is still overwhelming and I don’t know how movers can pack up an entire house in less than 24-hours. The scary thing is we’ve been really diligent about getting rid of things we don’t need (the never-ending cycle of getting rid of stuff) and not buying new things.
Donating is a huge problem in this city… even in tough times. We have families roaming our alley with their trucks looking for bottles and things to sell. But, the donation centres won’t take anything that has touched a baby/child. Second-hand book stores and libraries won’t take books unless they are new. And, now you can be sued by people who bought something at your yard sale, garage sale, or on Kijiji. No wonder the landfills are overflowing because you can’t even give something away without worrying about being sued. It bothers me.
It feels like we have a forever pile of stuff to deal with. Like: what do people do with the gardening tools in the garage when they move (what stays/what goes, how do you pack it, what do you do with a lawnmower, what do we do with the 30-year old ficus tree in the front entrance, what bikes do we keep/sell, etc). Memories are the hardest. #firstworldproblems #doesanyonewantaficustree
I did learn something new. Saran wrap has yet again another amazing use. Lay it out…
…put jewelry on the saran wrap and cover with another layer of saran wrap…
…and roll it up. It is surprisingly strong and keeps the jewelry compacted and from getting tangled.
We’re trying to keep things “normal” for La Niña. Her room is packed up and her only job is to learn French.
It’s amazing to me how quickly a young brain can pick up a language. The Rosetta Stone/tutor method seems to be working but the ultimate test will be walking into camps/practice and being able to talk to her synchro teammates. She’s going to have to learn the language of her sport all over again.
By the way, I know the name of a fantastic, reliable, and affordable tutor if anyone is looking for someone in Calgary. She teaches more Latin based languages than just French. We love her.
Pippin the Cavy does present an interesting move challenge because we built a cage for him. Does this go with the movers? Does this go with us? The cage was downsized yesterday and a lot of the parts were thrown out because they were gross; rodents are cute but messy little creatures.
Yep. Our lives are boring/mundane but it’s the overwhelming journey we’re on at the moment. Pulling out roots is hard.
A young brilliant brain. I’m not surprised she can learn French quickly.