Hello 2018!

So I've had my New Year breakfast (egg, hash brown and bacon).

I made the traditional New Year lunch...Hoppin' John (black eyed peas and rice)...I know it is not a Quebec thing but I enjoy and endorse most traditions that involve prosperity and food....

Like eating pancakes on Friday the 13th which is suppose to ensure that you get enough money to pay your bills...Who doesn't like that? Really?

I was lying in bed and wondering what word would give my year direction. The last 2 years have been taking care of business (TCB).

This year my word is OWNERSHIP. Taking ownership of my house. Taking care of this great old lady, drafty old lady. I have already purchased new front doors and the difference is unbelievable!

And just in time before Winter too. So far winter is whooping our asses...It is unbelievably cold for December.....This night the mercury will dip to -15 F (-26C) brrrrrrr

The house had settled and the old doors did not fit quite right and putting draft stoppers would not cut it anymore.....

 The rain and the snow actually would go under this door.

 One of the new doors

 Some yahoo at the workshop cut to mail holes!

I am still waiting for after sales to bring me the new one!

this particular door was so crooked that you could see outside

and not from the windows.

Most of the things I plan to fix are more labour intensive than 

expensive.

repaint the kitchen, fix a couple of cracked window panes,

grind and repaint the iron staircase outside....

Fix some plaster.

In an ideal world where money grows on trees...

gutting the kitchen and redoing everything would've been my fantasy

but realisticly it is not worth it. I can't make it bigger and the cub bards

are mostly ok, so paint it will be

 I went to The Nutcracker with friends and I really enjoyed it.

It is always a strange feeling to see my Dad's work.

 Some Xmas peeps, you know I love my blow molds!

 The mantle all dressed up.

my tree a little lopsided....
I felt the same way.

I am right side up now.

and I will be extra careful with money.

no cray-cray spending!

Be well faithful readers!

A good kick in the pants

Nothing gives you a good kick in the pants like putting your house for sale!

Stupid TLC and HGTV!!! I blame them for those buyers who want everything done for them!

 NO I WON'T PAINT THE LIVING ROOM!

I understand that the house must be clean but everything brand spankin' new? No way hosé!

So over the weekend we scrubbed and painted and I changed (finally) the kitchen faucet...yes the one that had been dripping for years....

And now that the interior is mostly done we need to take care of outside...raking leaves and painting,staining.....

We are really happy with what is being accomplished and we plan to keep everything squeeky clean...

                                          The old kitchen faucet had been dripping for years....and even
                                           when we tried to fix it, it was not cooperative! We tugged and pulled
                                           for more than 4 hours and we were not able to pull out the old
                                           cartridge. When i turned the water back on, the faucet was not dripping
                                           anymore...but that miracle lasted only 2 weeks.

                                          Enter the new faucet! With an integrated  veggie shower it
                                          was pretty easy to install once Dan was able to remove the old one.
                                          I started but didn't have the strength.
                                          So this gives me another faucet under my belt...so in the last 10 years I've
                                          installed  4 faucets. Not bad!

                                          As for light fixtures...I've installed 10 light fixtures and rewired 3 lamps in the
                                          same time period not counting dimmers. I quite enjoy working with electric                                                   thingies and if I had to start over today I would probably take an electrician                                                   course.

                                          We still need to wash windows....

                                     

Guess What? It's TCB Time!!!

After a slow start this weekend...we were supposed to get tapping and painting Saturday morning but we woke up tired and the rain did not help feeling productive....

Saturday we read, watched TV and snacked...and napped. I am glad we did not feel guilty AT ALL!

This morning however, we woke up relatively refreshed and focused on the task ahead.

Many months ago Dan decide we would paint the stair rails. The banister would be blackish, the spindles off white-ish and I don't really remember about the steps...

So he proceeded to use the primer we had in the basement... the pink primer. EW!

                                         You see the pink right?

                                              I don't know if I ever shared this secret bookself with you
                                              It is hidden in the staircase and it holds my Stephen King books.

                                          As you can see Dan is hard at work with the painting.

                                          So I went outside to paint the iron brackets that are holding
                                          the little roof of the kitchen.

                                                    To tell you the truth, it was 60 minutes of tapping and 20                      minutes                                        of painting

                                                   Since I need to let it dry at least overnight
                                                    I am glad the tapping is done so the second coat will be a snap!
                                                    At the same time I will give a couple of coats to the rails outside.


So what is done is done and it was easy lazy TCB. Needed to be done but with minimun effort!

Dan started to paint the trim around our dream board as well but we found out it is plastic and not wood so it doesn't behave as expected.

So what have you been up to? Did you  work on something that had to be done? Did you create something? Let me know!

See you soon :)

Love at First Sight!

Yesterday I remembered that this weekend is one of our yard sale weekends....

But I didn't really feel like thrifting....keep on reading folks....I didn't have a stroke everything is fine!!!

It's just I'm tired of seeing greasy Tupperwaes, jig saw puzzles and kids clothes.

We drove pas a few, but I didn't stop. We had a lot of shopping to do: drugstore, hardware store, bank....

But I did stop at a church run thrift shop. This thift shop is strange because the volunteers decide what they will be keeping to sell and throw away perfectly good vintage things that they don't like!

Once in a while I get Pyrex there but not this time. I almost walked by it. Then I did a double take and just grabbed it.

Isn't she a beauty?

A handpainted made in Japan appetizer plate.

By the look of it she's from the 60's

(just like me)

 



  Check out the foot with the crocs!

 I totally fell for that plate...

Also at that thift shop I saw this

This is a cute telephone table.

 



                             I wish this coffee room table was in real wood

 

 This is one of the ugliest painting I've ever seen, no joke!

 

You know that patio furniture we got a while back? Well we're looking for a cover

for the loveseat....Nobody sells one!

Not Wallmart, Home Depot, Reno Depot , Patrick Morin (a Quebec based hardware chain), Rona,

Canadian Tire....NOBODY SELLS THEM!!!

And when we ask for it, we get looks....like you is crazy people looks!

 

But thank God for the internet! I found one reasonnably priced that will be coming my way from Texas....

 

Can't wait!

 

Another find and an update.

Yesterday I did find something AWESOME, well to us at least! It was one dollar. I have been yearning for this for a couple of years....

Yep a rack so I can dry the wash on it. I do have a clothes line but it's not very long and i need the extra space. I tell you it is new! And for only a buck! SWEET!

The last find was another amazing bargain at the same garage sale. We bought 2 curtain rods complete with all the hardware and fleur-de-lys end pieces for a dollar each. FANTABULOUS!

So this is what we're working on this weekend. All the trims had a coat of primer and 2 coats of deliciously pristine white paint, the ceiling is done and the living room floor has been removed. The wall with the windows used to be dark blue (dated!) and we decided to tint the primer so we bought some that was supposed to kinda match the paint we choose. Surprise, surprise! The primer turned pink on the wall. It looks really ugly and reminiscent that we did have a pink living room in the early 90's.

There was a lot of trim that was in knotty pine. We couldn't stand it any more. Back in 1995 when we moved in our style of decor was more country than today. Now it's mish mash country ecclectic vintage I want all my furniture to be made of teck now and put Pyrex in all the bookcases.

It should be mostly over by wednesday night. Why? because we're having a new floor installed in the living room and dinning room. I can't wait!

Tomorrow I should work on the pool, the veggie garden, install the A/C and assist the master painter whenever my presence is needed. Oh I might even go and get a new grill to replace the one I threw out friday. I think I'll get some rest at my job on tuesday...lol! 

Tired I am....

Not the most beautiful pictures.....So we decided to paint the kitchen...and started by going to get all the materials at Home Depot on good friday. Saturday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed (I love that expression!) we began slowly but surely....One of my jobs was tackling the microwave stand. It's not used to carry the microwave but a tv stands on it and the rest id full of my cookbooks. Of course I would've prefered a hoosier, but not right now...lol

As you can see on the first pic, the scheme the kitchen was before. We had some khaki sand (on the wall) a lighter vserion of it on the top cabinets and the molding, the bottom of the cabinets was this dark indian blood-whew let me tell you it was time we changed those colors!!!

The red turned a kind of fushia and the other colors a kind of yellow ( could it be because of the smoke??? We smoked like chimneys before) 4 years smoke free in September 09!!! YAY!

Back to the program....And we had some funky faux finishes and varnish on a lot of surfaces. Dan is certainly the grand poobah of faux finish....On the top of the microwave stand was aluminum foil,all textured with some dark stain and varnish on it...quite nice at the time!

Suffice to say the kitchen is not done yet! LOL

I must go and give the last coat on some cabinet doors...It's gonna be GORGEOUS! Corn husk green and snow fall white (Behr paints).

I want to welcome the new followers, I hope you'll enjoy reading my blog!

Salut!