off to Massachusetts for one week!

be patient ... the pictures and updates are truly coming ... all five months honest!

alas we are off to staff in Harvard, MA and to visit MRTW (page's dad)and perhaps other peeps .. if she decides to reply that is (=

ok .. gotta pack ... we leave in a couple hours ...

BLOG HAS RETURNED WITH PICTURES!!!!!! yippee!

a shot of the back yard with the mended fence and new mulch

cheers from Switzerland!

DAY TWO OF RENTAL EQUIPMENT -- pictures are HERE!!!

Yesterday i traded in the bobcat for an excavator (=

I dug out my hole for my bamboo planter on the south side of the house(=

OH DID I MENTION i removed the hedge on the north side of the house??? may have forgot to mention that in addition to taking the fence down ... i sorta kinda tore out the hedge (very planned -- however a few months premature) so that i could get the jackhammer in to access the sidewalk. So here are the cedars (approx 25) i lined up this morning in the boulevard -- awaiting their chipping. The past few days have been outstanding as far as the weather is concerned. Today a week bit of drizzle ... and i am still smiling. (=


And at the end of the day -- this is the site. I am off to a massage and dinner. As for tomorrow -- stay tuned.

While Page is away -- the bobcat is at play!

Page is away for two weeks (12 days actually). She is staffing two weekends back to back, the first in Colorado and the second in Texas. In between she will be staying in Boulder with Margaret (Dave) and HAVEN!!!!
So while she is away, I am keeping myself busy with outside projects (while the sun is out). Doing the jackhammering in the back seemed a wee bit daunting compared to renting a bigger piece of equipment and doing it much faster. So a day rental and the back patio slab and the entire sidewalk on the north side of the house -- in pieces.


It looks like a little toy ... but this John Deere with the skid steer breaker attached is one mean Jack!!
This is the sidewalk BEFORE picture.


Made near pebbles of this one mighty slab... AFTER shot or should i say aftershock of out back. Jan said her house next door was rockin and rollin!

Sadly after 14 hours working in the yard ... I accidentally erased all the pictures on the camera without downloaded the day's progress, hence the absence of the after shot of the sidewalk )=


Because this John Deere was BRAND NEW, I was the first customer to rent it out, one of the guy's misinformed me of its width. If it was 54 inches wide as i thought it would be then i could have driven it along side the house and piece-o-cake. Alas it was 66 inches wide and thus i removed a section of the fence to drive it out back. (=
Sadly I lost that picture as well, damn it was a good one! )=

And when I was done I made everything tidy again -- replaced the fence and what not. It looked as nice as it could ..... UNTIL TOMORROW THAT IS.

one last trip !!!

Yesterday we returned from Toledo. On Tuesday, after landing, we unloaded most of the truck as planned and finished it off on Wednesday. We left early Thursday toward WA. We took the northern ferry and came down through Bellingham and Seattle.

We stopped of to visit Thomas and Amanda (my old housemates/landlords) and their little Olivia--so sweet.

After dinner at Pagliacci's, we headed to Toledo for the night. Heading out early we made the afternoon ferry in Port Angeles. At the border we declared the Scooby and after a wee bit of a line -- moments drive and HOME AT LAST!!

All and I i put in over 60 hours of driving and just about 3000 miles. No more driving for awhile.

We are now completely landed and should receive our Permanent Resident cards within a month or so.

HOME AT LAST!

The drive along the peninsula is just gorgeous. We stopped for a closer look and a snapshot.

As we waited at the ferry - I calculated the trip down and back to be about 2600 miles. I clocked over 52 hours behind the wheel for the round trip.

We technically "landed" today. We are now Permanent Residents of Canada. Just less than two years from when we started the process (though we have had our visas since December 8th and could have landed any time since then). It is official.

We spent a good three hours unloading the truck and will finish tomorrow before returning it to Dad's (Thursday). THANKS DAD!

The road trip while necessary to collect and return with our belongings, served as a distraction from my reno projects. We returned to the yard in full bloom -- a reminder that Spring is here and Summer right around the corner. After a weekend of rest, I will be back at it. Page leaves next week for Colorado and then Texas, staffing weekends back to back. When she is away I am always in ultra-productive mode. I look forward to seeing what i can accomplish in her absence. (=

On the road again ...

After loading up the truck on Thursday, Page and I headed back up North. We left in the wee hours as to avoid LA traffic, which was successful. We stopped off at a rest area about 5AM and slept until 10AM. We got back on the road and arrive at Tawnya's house just in time for supper. (=

Saturday morning we went to Tuesday Morning the store with Tawnya and found some fun things to buy. Tracy and the kids arrived later in the afternoon, so the house was full of peeps. Easter Sunday we got up, had breakfast and headed back out again towards BC.

Page catching some Zzzzz ... helping me stay alert on the road and keeping us going the right direction makes her very sleepy.

Arriving in Grants Pass just in time for a buffet dinner with Martin, Jessica, Skylar and Taylor. Yum! We stayed in GP overnight and slept in. A late check out let us get on the road about lunch time. We drove all afternoon and met up with Dad and Felda in Longview for pizza. We'll stay the night here in Toledo and head out the tomorrow morning for Port Angeles.

catching up with Jack and Stacie -- and Carol too!!

While Page lived in SD for ten years and has a handful of close friends and her mom nearby. I have just a couple people that I wanted to connect with, whom I have grown close with in the past couple years.

Stacie and little Jack live across the street and after seeing them nearly every day since Jack was born (18 Feb 2006), five months was a long time to be away. It was great to catch up with them. Jack is motoring around now like mad! It was perfect having him over -- great crawling space with little to no furniture. (=

We shared a few delicious (Cafe 976) meals earlier in the week with Stace and Jack and ended the week with a home cooked meal. Michael was away on business and missed all the fun.

Much thanks goes out to Stacie as we had all of our office needs fulfilled, utilizing her computer, phone, fax and copier. Thanks!

Jack just didn't know what to do with all the girls visiting. Stacie had another friend, Felicia, a recent BC transplant, staying for the week. What a coincidence. (=

On Sunday, while I was carless, Lee came and picked me up and we went out to Sammy's. It was good to catch up with her.

On Monday night, I met up with my friend Carol. We had supper at Red Robin, it was fun to see her and catch up.

Both Stacie and Carol will be paying us a visit in the near future. No definite dates as of yet.

Page and I look forward to more visitors here at 119 in the coming months!! Speaking of which, Ms. Hunt will grace us with her presence early next month. Lee will make the haul up north mid May (both coming from SD). And looks like Margaret will round out the month with a Memorial Weekend visit from Boulder.

good to see my yard again at 3967

The winter freeze had its way with the palms in the area. I had a day's worth of catching up to do. The yard had gone untouched most of the winter. Minus a quick visit/clean up from the Rossiters (Page and Lee) last month.

Once I trimmed up everything, I felt much better about being away for 5 months. I realized I have created over the past 4 1/2 years a very low maintenance yard, which is cool! I trust that the next owners will enjoy it as we did. No definite buyers as of yet. Lots of interest.

Stay tuned...

road trip - SD O NADA!

We stayed in Toledo with Dad and Felda on Wednesday and I drove the Isuzu to the Portland Airport to drop off Page -- she was co-directing a youth camp in SD over the weekend.


I drove 6 hours that day, ending up in Cave Junction at brother's house. Stayed the night there and had a leisurely morning. I left late morning and drove all day.

I stopped about every 90 minutes or so, about every third or fourth rest area. There is only a 40 gallon tank on the Isuzu, so I stopped every 300 miles or so for gas. This is me, near Fresno, i think (?), on Saturday.
Some of the scenery was indeed easy to look at.

If you can see past the bug splatter -- the greenery was a worthwhile viewing. (=

I drove all day again on Saturday and pulled into San Diego that evening. Minus a bit of traffic in LA (always) and one minor accident that slowed things just North of SD, all went well.

Day of Departure (=

As we headed out "toward" San Diego yesterday -- it was a busy morning. The city came out and installed our new water meter, one inch, hoo hoo hoo. (=

At first there was some debate over just how many city employees were needed.

They decided that two would be enough ... and they proceeded to "vacuum" out the boulevard soil, sod and all. -- cool!

I am glad I got a chance to see this process. It did help to make us late to the ferry. Yet it was neat to watch. And thankfully we got to the loading dock in time and got on the 10:30 AM ferry, headed to Port Angeles.

Of course this is the last face I saw as I closed the door to the house. Heart breaker.

Deck No More, Revealed Stairs and all is well...

Here is the back yard post deck demolition. New supports for the house and the last of the deck will be removed in the coming weeks/month. The ground here will be dug down (under the remaining deck), in part, that will become a storage area for bicycles and the like. While the right half of the slab you see and the dirt area is the future site of one 12'x12' detached sunroom.


I removed the carpet on the stairs this week to reveal --- the wood staircase. We'll see how they show after some sanding, finished and new supports.


And the kitties are tired just hearing about all this work!

BIG BIN week at 119

The bin arrived last Thursday, 20'x8'x8', the biggest bin they offered. It would be my mission for the next 7 days to fill it. And fill it I did.

I began, piece by piece, Tetris-like, loading the bin from our heap in the driveway. I packed it in there tight. It took me about 6 hours to load the entire pile. At that point the bin was exactly one-half full, top to bottom.


I kept plugging away until --- TADA!! The driveway was clear again.

After a couple days rest, Page and I added the concrete footings from the deck, the carpet from downstairs and the old stove from the suite. I added a bunch of pruning I did from the standing rose out back and Jan, the neighbour pitched in a few pieces from her junk collection just for good measure.

And as planned, today, I made the call to have the bin picked up. I closed up the back door and added a few last minute pieces; a basin and fiberglass shower from the basement, some crappy shelves from the shop and a couple bags of insulation.

And away it went!

We will rent another bin toward the end of summer. In the next few weeks I will be removing all the ducting from the house. Along with the remaining hard wood floor I am removing, the new pile will give cause for another bin. A smaller one this time.

DEMO DEMO AND MORE DEMO

After six hours ripping apart the deck ... the back yard is opening up. This is where the lower deck USED to be.
This is where it is NOW -- in pieces in the driveway!

After all my raking and cleaning up ... I looked out the window, nearly freaked out -- due to the resemblance of Smudge -- one of the neighbour kitties was out rolling around in the newly revealed soil. I would hate to be his mama. Eww

And, as all the blossoms in the neighbourhood have, our Star Magnolia has burst onto the spring scene with beautiful pink buds. Literally overnight we can see the difference from day to day. Good fun.

Page returns -- just in time to Spring Ahead!

Page finished her first knit bag -- she is now accepting orders (no -- not really .. thought several people have tried to place them !!) She has moved on to mittens ... YEA!! See her most recent work showcased on her teacher's website!

http://www.highspeedplus.com/~groening/showntell.htm

Though Page doesn't get the opportunity (cause i am the camera hog) to take pictures ... she snapped a few while visiting with friends and family in SD.

Pam and Page.
John, David, Page and Sebastian -- getting fired up to do Youth Camps!!!

A tired Page and Mom, helped tidy up the house -- after months away.

Mysteriously no pictures were taken of the elusive Ms. Hunt. Hmmmm.... very curious indeed.