11 Day Countdown

It rained every day this week in Bear River. The rain stopped long enough in between to dry things up a bit, and to plump up the tasty cherries in the 3 very old trees at our place.  Most of them are far too high to reach, but the birds have been enjoying the bounty. I’ve been eating the lower ones. Yum!

Bear River's Cherry Carnival originated over 100 years ago because of all the cherry trees. The few remaining are very old.

The rain has also doubled the sizes of the vegetable plants. It doesn’t seem very long ago that I was turning the sod to plant things. Now, suddenly EVERYTHING is up and growing. So are the cucumber beetles who almost took out the zucchini, cucumber, squash and pumpkin seedlings over a 2 day period. I picked off over 30 and drowned them in a bucket of soapy water, but it was like trying to catch rain drops. I’d like to find out if there is a ‘friendly’ way to kill them without poisoning the plants and beneficial birds and insects. Until I do, I’m using some powdered rotenone until there are a few more leaves on the plants so they can better fend for themselves.

Pole beans, broccoli and bush beans.

The beans are getting chomped by slugs, but they are still winning!

Not exactly 'House and Garden'.

The rain has also brought the roofing to a dead halt.

The good thing about the delay in the roofing is that one of the roofers has time to work on floor sanding with Larry.

And lest you thought that there is no mess to clean up, take a look at the backyard! In two weeks time we’ll host my dear sister and brother-in-law who live in England. Because of the distance, we don’t see each other very often and I want their visit to be memorable, but in a good way! It’s hard not to see the mess through the eyes of a visitor, but this actually is a wonderful opportunity for me to practice acceptance. Still, it is nerve-wracking to think that the owner of the house we are still living in is returning in 2 weeks,  and we need to move all our stuff and unpack some of it at the other end, and our visitors will be arriving and a few details still need doing like:

• finishing caulking the bathrooms and complete the final water hookup
• replace the motor on the water pump that cuts out several times a day but restarts when you hit it
• finish installing the kitchen cupboards
• stain them
• finish chinking the bedroom floors
• tile the front foyer
• varnish the floors
• install kitchen counter
• buy a kitchen sink and install it
• paint
• hook up the hot water heater
• etc, etc, etc.

Plugging in the sander for the last time.

I didn’t think Larry would have time to sand this floor, but with the help of a great neighbour, the last sanding ended on Wednesday!

Larry never ever wants to look at another sander. The fellow at the rental asked him if he was interested in making extra money sanding. "I get lots of requests."

Now the upstairs sanded floors are getting crack-filled with strips of wood and then with a combination of sawdust mixed with a resin.

These floor boards are beautiful. They were first laid 144 years ago using trees that were over a 100 years old. History under foot!

By today, Friday, all the floors had been sanded and the kitchen was starting to be installed.

It's great watching it all take shape.

I have learned from all of this that when estimating how long anything will take to do, double the time – but only if you are efficient. Otherwise triple it. I will never look at anyone’s renovations with the same eyes ever again. It is a TON of work and requires amazing, constant decision making and attention to detail.

After supper on Friday, after a very long, hard week, Larry said “let’s go down to the house and see what that periwinkle looks like on the dining room wall.”

Look how high those ceilings are!

So, at 8 p.m. he started rolling it on.

It's always exciting and shocking to see the colour roll on.

The painted woodwork will eventually be white. The yellow-green that is most of the kitchen and dining room reminded us of the first leaves of the willow tree. The periwinkle is like the evening sky, but it’s also the colour of a shed we had in our former backyard where our kids and their friends used to hang out. Here is a story about that.

The woodwork will be white and the rest of the room a yellow-green.

I’ve been packing and weeding and vacuuming and mowing and driving into Digby for supplies. I really hope that in 11 days from now we have hot and cold running water in the kitchen and bathroom, the stove and refrigerator work and the water pump cooperates. Oh, and could we please have all our stuff there and the new guest bed that I ordered from Sears delivered.

Other than that, a good meal, nice company and a bottle of wine is all we really need.