We Have A Living Room

Amazing what a couple of hours of work will accomplish.

A new IKEA unit under the TV, accompanied by two IKEA shelving units (as previously reported, these two plus the one in the pantry, plus the one I cut up for parts, cost $10 at a yard sale).

Diane has completed the painting of the kitchen cupboards, pantry, linen storage and freezer storage closets so we can now start to put things away and get rid of more clutter.

A.J. and Michelle helped move some of the leftover "treasures" from Gateshead to the Bullivant offices.   Tomorrow A.J. will help clean out the storage unit so we will have another place to store "stuff".  Progress is being made!

A Busy Few Days

Didn't post anything for a couple of days because progress doesn't always show.  Then, Cogeco powered us up at the condo, and down at the townhouse (where my computer was) so the blackout continued.

To start with, I'll include some pictures of our new shelves (really exciting stuff!).  Two pantry shelves on the left are narrower at one end to accommodate the electrical service box.  The shelves on the right are my re-purposed IKEA unit, with shelves one inch narrower than they were originally.

One new shelf in the linen closet.

And the new "freezer" closet.  A shelf overhead as well as a shelving unit on wheels, in case we need to remove the freezer some time.

Did I tell you I closed in the fake door opening to the kitchen?  If so, you will understand why I'm covered in white dust from sanding the wall.

Meanwhile, Mardi seems to be able to keep the paint where it's supposed to go instead of wearing it like I would.

Diane finished painting the bedroom closet, so my first move was to bring my 30 year old suits and sports jackets over (don't laugh - they still fit!).  The bins on the closet floor are for my "Fishguts" duds and my "Tromper" gear.

Ta Da!!!  We have moved!

Although the TV is a bit hard to view.

A lot of stuff has been left behind in our downsizing project.  We have three days to clear it out of the townhouse and take it to Mardi's office for eventual disposition.  Then we plan to head for Florida on New Year's Day.  Which probably means that the condo will remain quite a mess for another three months at least - is there such a thing as a renovation refugee?

As you may have noticed from the previous pictures, there are still some red walls to conquer.  Diane plans to finish this work while we're away.  When she sees the current mess she may reconsider.  Painting in these circumstances is beyond my comprehension.  But, needless to say, without hers and Greg's contributions so far, this whole move would have been impossible.

There will be four major projects in the spring:

1. A new counter top for the kitchen (Mardi's business manager justifiably calls the current one a "petri dish") and a dishwasher.
2. Wallpaper the bathroom and replace the toilet (current one is too low for us old folks) and add a couple of safety bars and a mirror.
3. Get rid of the washer and drier and replace them with a combination stacked unit and use the gained space for broom, mop and vacuum storage.
4. Gut the storage locker and get some shelving organized.

My reporting in the next few weeks will be sporadic.  If we do something really interesting, or virtually impossible (like beating Mardi at golf) I will let you know.

Thanks for tagging along.  Happy New Year to all.

Open House

My friends Ron King and Gary Parker were asking when the open house would be held.  Told them it was the next day - bring a paint brush and knee pads.  They didn't show up so there hasn't been much progress at the condo 😩.

Three walls of the dining room/living room are painted.  So, we're ready to bring in the furniture on the 28th as planned.  Still have the entrance way and three closets to paint and shelving to build.

Mardi and Diane started painting the inside of the kitchen cabinets.  I'll miss that pink colour!

In the bathroom, the electrical box for the light is off centre.  Couldn't relocate it because it's located in a cement wall.  So I bought a new fixture which we could centre.  Greg installed it while I "supervised".  Looks much better.

Diane and Greg have been given time off for Christmas - we'll see them again on the 27th.  And we can't make noise in the apartment on Sundays so tomorrow Mardi and I will concentrate on moving some small stuff and clothing.  I expect to finish getting the wall ready for painting but not much else.

Didn't take pictures today, so the only one I've got to show is of my workbench in its new home.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas with family around.  I'll be at David's to watch his kids open presents while Mardi will be at A.J.'s to watch Reggie.

We'll resume the narrative in a day or two.

Thanks David

Caught up on some errands today.  Then, David and Sean came with the truck to pick up my workbench, the freezer, patio table and garden storage bin.  Took a picture of the workbench in its new home but then left the camera at the apartment, so show and tell will have to wait till tomorrow.

In cleaning the windows, Mardi discovered that one window had lost its seal, and the dirt was on the inside, between the two panes.  So, we apparently have to put in a work request to get the window replaced.  The condo corp's responsibility - we are only responsible for dirt on the side that faces inwards 😄.

Diane has put the first finish coat (after two primer coats) on the dining room and living room.  That will be ready for a picture tomorrow after she finishes the second coat.

I rebuilt an Ikea shelving unit that we had picked up at a yard sale, so it will fit into the pantry.  Two others from that same purchase will be used as part of the TV stand in the living room.  Useful results from a $10. purchase!  Pictures will follow in due course.

Another Day - Whew!

Diane has started painting the dining room and the living room.  I'm working on closets.  Greg is doing electrical and Mardi, who just returned from an overnight to Petawawa to see grandkids Ethan and Chloe, will continue to work on removing more wallpaper in the bathroom and cleaning windows.

Lots of progress today, but nothing that would show in pictures.

So.... in response to a couple of readers, I'm showing the current state of David's pontoon boat.

Pretty sad sight!  But he's got a clean slate to work on.

I think I'll stick with closet shelving!

Back on Track

The bedroom is pretty well finished,

except that the closet needs another coat.

The resurrected wall has been drywalled and has received its first coat of "mud".

And seven bags of garbage and a full length mirror have found their way to the dumpster.

Tomorrow the wall gets more mud and I start on the storage locker.

That cupboard and all its "gifts" will be hitting the dumpster.  The bi-fold doors that I removed from between the dining room and the den will get a new life as storage shelves.  Stay tuned!

The good news is that, according to the Assistant Superintendent, the last unit that was similar to ours, but "pretty", sold for $64,000 more than we paid.  So I guess our hourly rate for the work we are doing could end up being fairly good!

Two Steps Forward - One Step Back

Not much exciting to report tonight.  Diane is progressing on the bedroom painting, Mardi took a half day off from her cleaning to have lunch with "the golf girls", Greg took the day off to rest his shoulder, and I framed in the  kitchen wall and got one side dry-walled.

I took the drywall to the greenhouse to cut it to size and wrapped the two pieces (81 X 46 and 81 X 47) in plastic so they wouldn't mess up the condo elevator.  Enlisted grandson Sean to help me carry them from the car to the condo.

Replaced the receptacles and light switch in the den.  While removing one of the old receptacles a strip of drywall paper came with it - too many sloppy coats of paint over the years had welded them together.  So Diane has some touch-up work to do.  A small step back.  Sorry Diane!

Mardi has been stripping the bathroom wallpaper and the wall behind the toilet appears to need some TLC.  We want to replace the toilet too.  So, in another step backward, we have made an executive decision to leave the whole bathroom project until we return from Florida in the spring.

By tomorrow night we should have pictures of the finished bedroom and our new kitchen wall.

That's all folks!

First Milestone

The den/office is painted.  Quite an improvement!  Good work Diane!  New lighting also helps.

Murphy's law kicked in today (as it seems to do most days lately).  Took the 2 X 3's to the greenhouse to rip them on the table saw.  But the 40 year old beast quit after about 4 feet of cutting.  So had to revert to the circular saw to finish the job.

Should have taken the camera.  David has stripped the old pontoon boat down to the plywood deck in preparation for a complete rebuild.  He's crazier than I am!

Slight change of plans for the kitchen.  We decided to keep the original door opening and close in the other side.  Will result in about 4 more feet of counter space.  So I've started framing it in.

Our day was slightly interrupted when the Assistant Superintendent took us under his wing and gave us a tour, accompanied by chapter and verse on the features of the building.  Nice young guy - very helpful.

Tomorrow I work on the wall while Diane paints the bedroom and Mardi strips the wallpaper in the bathroom.  Greg has a sore wing so we're going to give him some slack tomorrow.

The Downsizing Adventure Begins

The sale closed, and as agreed, we allowed the seller an extra day to complete his move.  So, December 15 was our first visit as owners.

First, we checked out the lake view.  Back when our offer was accepted this is what we saw when looking to the right from our balcony.

At this time of year, there is more water to be seen.

But, enough of the landscape - it's time to see the ugly side of our purchase.  These drapes were nailed to the wall!  Let's get rid of them and remove the dozens of nails and screws that held up pictures and wall hangings.  Then I patched the walls in preparation for painting.

Same room, but looking back from the window.  The colour looks different (the above picture captures it more accurately) but the important part is that sister-in-law Diane has made the first brush strokes in the rehabilitation.

It appears that someone's open concept idea didn't quite pan out.  They gave up and left a post with the wiring in it.

My first project is to fill in the right hand space where Mardi is standing (the original door) and go with the wider opening on the left.

My first full day was bringing in supplies, more patching, and figuring out how to run power to the room where our small freezer will be located.  All the while, Mardi struggled to clean surfaces that appeared not to have been cleaned for years.

The freezer is going in the closet below.  Brother-in-law Greg is handling the electrical side of things.

The freezer is going into the above "Storage" closet which is located just inside the entrance door, not the "Storage" closet below which is in the kitchen.

Haven't quite figured out why these closets needed to be titled - the bedroom, bathroom and den weren't named!

The wall I will be closing in has 2 inch steel studs.  So, tomorrow I rip some 2 X 3's (which are actually 2.5 inches wide) into true 2 inch boards for the door project and get that started.  After applying two coats of primer today, Diane will be painting the finish colour in the den and then priming the bedroom.  Greg will finish up the freezer wiring and perhaps start replacing the fifty year old light switches and receptacles.  Mardi, bless her soul, will continue to stress out cleaning the filthy kitchen and bathroom.

There are good reasons why we got this place below list price!

The best news is that we have been greeted positively by the residents of the building.  All seem happy and tell us we'll love it here.

To be continued.

The Party's Over!

As we left our unit for the first show of the day, it was apparent why we didn't golf this week.  Frost on the course!

Even later in the day, at plus 5C, the dormant Bermuda grass wasn't too appetizing.

Our show this morning was "Yakov - Make America Happy Again" and he did a great job.  Not only really funny, but a very bright and talented man.

He went fairly easy on President Trump - do you suppose that's because the audiences are old, white and mostly from middle America?

Yakov is an accomplished artist as well.  Note the little man on the scaffold signing the artist's name!

A great show that not only made you laugh, but also much food for thought regarding the need for humour.

We headed back to Branson Landing for lunch at Garfield's, which is next to Bass Pro Shops.

Why are those huge lights aimed down at the water?  Isn't that illegal?

For our final show we picked the Haygoods, supposedly the most popular show in Branson.  Certainly it was the only one that played to a full house in this offseason week.

But, most of the show was hard to follow due to flashing, moving coloured lights, and pyrotechnics and loud noise.

We seldom managed to see the performers due to the moving, flashing lights and the "fog".

It was unfortunate - very talented performers wasted by the lighting effects.  We were very disappointed.  Time to go home I guess.

We leave Branson in the morning.  If anything exciting happens along the way we will report.

Branson Scenic Railway

Our unit here at Holiday Hills is a two bedroom lockout, essentially two one bedroom units with lockout/walk through, doors.  We are staying in the larger unit, which features a full kitchen, laundry, Jacuzzi tub and separate shower, king size bed and lots of room.

The other unit, which we are not using, has a queen bed, mini kitchen and normal bathtub.  But, similar to the unit we stayed in for our Santee week, we have a "thunder heels" staying a floor above.  These units are certainly not soundproofed.

Today's excursion took us to the Branson Scenic Railway for a trip south into Arkansas.

We managed to get seats in an observation car, so we had a clear view around and overhead.

The overhead view treated us to a scene we've never seen before, at least in such quantity.  The picture doesn't do it justice - the faint lines you see are thousands of Canada Geese migrating south.  

The vees undulated and flowed in waves that seemed to be a dance, and went on for quite a while.  In the picture below, a turkey vulture (buzzard in local lingo) shows up as well.

It was a really incredible scene.

The scenery was nice as we climbed into the mountains to the south.

We went through two tunnels on our trip.  The first a mile long, the second a half mile long.  Lights please.

After two hours we were back in Branson.  An entertaining trip.

Back to the ranch for a short rest, then dinner at Red Lobster, before heading to the Shoji Tabuchi Christmas Show.  We were surprised that the tickets were for the Clay Cooper Theatre, but it turns out that, although Shoji's theatre looks OK, the interior is still damaged from a fire a year or so ago.

The show was great.  He's a fine violinist/entertainer.

And, he had some help.

Another good day in Branson.

Tomorrow we see Yakov - Make America Laugh Again, and the Haygoods.  Our last full day before heading home.