Slowly, Ever Slowly

Well I am back to work after having a productive week off. Last Monday was my birthday and I had a lovely day. All sorts of good things happened. I don't know what I ever did to have so many caring people in my life but I am so very glad I did it!!. My favourite "Bug" family gifted me with a lovely bunch of flower,

They were and still are beautiful, I love the colours and the Tiger Lilies are a personal favourite. I was taken out for supper, I got phone calls and texts and Facebook wishes all day long. Not bad for an old broad.

So it was back to work and back to the routine again. I prefer to be home but work was not so bad. Its month end so its crazy but it is what it is and you get through it, One step at a time.

The Banker popped in on Monday and in no time at all we had the bigger pieces of furniture into place once again. After that I started to strip the top of the night tables. They are currently a cream colour and need to be white for the newly decorated room. I like that wood top, painted base look so that is what I am going for.

The base still needs to be painted but I am liking the way the top turned out. I had hope for a dark walnut finish but the wood has a mind of its own. We are going with this. The other furniture in the room has a red tinge to it so it will work quite nicely. I am hoping to get the painting done this week. Once this one is finished and back up stairs I will start the other one. This way I have a spot for the lamp and the clock.

I also took this opportunity to sort through the incredible amount of books I own and thin out the ones that I will not read again. Its taken a couple of days because Busy is not here to cart the keepers back onto the bedroom for me. I improvised so I could move a decent amount of books in one trip without doing myself a mischief. I used a laundry basket with a cord for a pull and sat it on a towel. Once the basket was full I pulled it into my room and loaded the books onto the book shelves. It worked a treat!! Save my back and myself a million trips back and forth.

The donate pile may not look impressive but there are over a hundred books there to go on to new homes.

Now I have some room to add the new books that I know I will buy eventually. I still have some more books to sort through but I need to get a night table finished and back into place so I can know exactly where the small bookcase needs to sit. My room, like my house is a jigsaw puzzle and every piece has to be in just the right spot or the whole thing does not work.So the bedroom is not back to normal, but its getting there. Slow and steady.

I finally bought some petunias to put in the washtub out front. Red and white ones which will look lovely for July 1st.  I have not planted them yet but they are purchased and ready to go. I worked on the puppets this weekend as I did not work on them at all this last week, or if I did, it was very little. I have four more porcupines to add to the stock pile.

My  leg is still hooped so my mobility is still not as good as it could be. I manage. Not everything I want to nor as fast as I want to but it will get done. One thing at a time. I do know now the pain pills the doctor gave me had no effect on the pain as it feels the same now as it did then I have run out of the pills. I though it was helping but I think it was just wishful thinking on my part. I am very ready for it to stop this nonsense and let me get back to the old normal.

Toodles,
Linda

Yes I am Feeling Blue

I had this week off from work because some time ago The Banker said she would help me paint my bedroom and June was a good month to get it done. I made the plans and then sciatica settled into my leg but we forged on. She does excellent work and is so neat and tidy. I love to paint but I am not as good at it as her.

Busy helped me to get the room ready for Monday and basically The Banker got going and got the whole room primed. All the trim and all the walls. While I mostly watched.

She also pulled up the last of the carpet and hauled that out to the shed for me. I was not sorry to see that ugly filthy stuff gone.

Tuesday she had a commitment so I thought I would do my bit and put the wall paper back up, It started out looking promising.

I got three pieces up and then it did this on me

Which made me say a lot of swear words. A cousin suggested using wall paper size on the walls so on Wednesday The Banker painted on the size and I managed to get the wall paper up and onto the two end walls and make it stay while The Banker painted the white trim. 

On Thursday the colour went onto the two side walls and I was in love!! I am so happy that I chose the darker blue instead of the very pale stuff I originally chose.

I love a blue bedroom and I have not had one for the last 11 years. Blue and white is classic and with the wide trim boards in this old house, I love the look.

All work was closely monitored by the most particular supervisor.

Thursday was paint the wall paper walls day. It looks lovely!! The paper looks great plain but even better painted.

Hard to see in the pictures but trust me its gorgeous!! I washed, ironed and hung the curtains in Friday night,and they look perfect.

On Saturday the flooring got installed. We did it together, finally something I could really help with.

I lay down on the job but I get'er done!!

It looks so lovely!! I could not be more pleased if I tried.

Now all that needs to be done is to move the furniture back into the room and I will have done the entire house from top to bottom. Every room has been redone and the pink and baby blue decor has been banished along with all the ugly shiny wallpaper that came with the house. 

Toodles

Linda

So Much Is Happening!!

Busy and the Carpenter came this weekend and Holy Smoke things were rockin' and rollin'. I am speechless with gratitude. Those two are workers and they got a lot done is a short space of time.

The Carpenter replaced and put in some new teleposts in my basement. My old house has a hump in the middle of the floor that he is hoping to get rid of over time. No more wooden porch posts holding up my house. I am so glad about that. I know the basement is not pretty but I have some lovely new posts!!

Then he moved on to putting in a new hand rail on the back step. I needed one. This one had a pretty good swing to it if you leaned on it, even with the brace.

Now its all pretty and solid and there is a nice solid new step to match. The old step had given way and was a hoot to step up on.

Busy helped as well,  You can see the step in this picture

Now it looks like this. Isn't it lovely????

After  he did that he replaced the ceiling fan in my bedroom. I never liked this cheap looking one but I use the fan all the time. Pay no attention to the humongous

 dust bunnies on the blades

Its all gone now and this lovely new one has taken its place.

I love this. Its a great improvement over the other one. 

While the Carpenter was busy doing all these jobs Busy was waging war on the dust bunnies in my house. She vacuumed from top to bottom and then she washed all of my floors. I have not done anywhere near what I should have for a long time now and with my leg being so stupid I can't do a lot but that is not the whole excuse, I am the biggest reason my house was not in good shape. She worked like a trooper and got me in a very good place. I am going to do my best to keep it up. I need to snap out of whatever funk I have been in, get over it and get on with it!!

Sunday found the Carpenter replacing the landscaping ties in my front yard. We went from this:

With a little bit of this:

It turned into this:

While he was out front working on this Busy and I went upstairs and started to empty my bedroom The Banker was coming on Monday to start to paint. Busy suggested and I agreed  that the more we could do that day was the less the Banker and I would have to do on Monday. Have I ever mentioned that sister-in-law of mine is a worker?? We got everything moved out that needed to be done. That includes three big book cases stuffed with books. I pulled them out and she hauled them into the spare room. No small job in its self.

I have always said I am blessed with so many good and generous and willing people in my life. The amount of work that happened here would have taken me forever not to mention some of it may never have happened. Its so wonderful to have it all done.  I still have a list of things for that brother of mine to do next time he visits but don't tell him that!!

Today the Banker came, We went shopping and I bought paint for the bedroom, Completely changed the colour I thought I would do with originally, Its no longer a very pale blue!! The room was all ready for her to get going. Busy is a good organizer and great at getting things done. I need a kick start now and then.

She got it primed today and pulled all the carpet out that was left in the room after I had stopped 

I did about half then got stalled. Its all gone now. So this week she will paint the trim, I will get the wall paper put on the end walls and then the colour can go on the whole thing. 

I am also going to go looking at flooring. I have been offered a loan to get the flooring and I snapped it up. This way the floor will be done and the furniture will not have to be moved yet again. I told you I was very blessed with some very good people in my life. Not sure what I did to deserve it all but I am eternally grateful.

Toodles

Linda

Definite Progress

I am not going to go on and on about my leg. Even though I am a really big baby and I love to make mountains out of mole hills. I can complain here non stop because I cannot get interrupted but I won't. I am tired of thinking about it let alone talking about it.  Its coming along. Its a slow process but its coming along. There that is all I am going to say about "the leg, formerly known as the good leg".

Other things are progressing nicely here at my little house. Today I ordered landscaping ties for the front yard and they delivered them this afternoon . The Carpenter and Busy are due next weekend so I have a wee list of things for him. Replacing the landscape ties along the front sidewalk is one of them. Footings for the basement teleposts, a new handrail at the back step and a new ceiling fan in my room is the rest of the list. Oh yes and to stop the front door from sticking at the bottom. Love having a brother who is a handyman.

While I waited for the delivery man, I began to weed. My neighbour to the south of me mowed my lawn earlier in the day. He has been doing this lately since I am a tad out of commission. I think I could do it now but he got it done while I was out getting the ties. So happy. I started to weed. I am not as good at it as The Banker but I get the majority of the stuff out.

I found the hostas in the front yard. I actually thought the middle one had not come back after last year but who knew if you remove enough weeds you find the plant!!

I also washed down the stuff on the veranda. Swept away the leaves and generally made it fit to sit out there and enjoy the beautiful weather. I have no before picture because no but needed to see that disaster!! Just picture everything all gray and fuzzy and covered with dead leaves. HOWEVER  I do have an after.......

KitKat stopped by because she found me some nice new sheets for the spare room on sale. I mentioned last night I was in the market for some and she spotted these:

 New sheets!! The Carpenter and Busy will not know what hit them when they test drive these babies this weekend. That sounded a bit risque but you can take it however you want to.

We spent the majority of the afternoon sitting on the veranda, drinking cold drinks and working on the weeding.

The picture is a little hard to see but that is KitKat working away on my over grown weeds, with the new landscape ties at her feet.  I am so happy with what we got done. We called it a day and went for supper. Then she headed home and I decided I was done. Teddy Bear stopped by and brought back a table she borrowed for a yard sale. We sat on the veranda for a bit and chatted.

The sad part of my day was the Canada tulips that I made three trips to Home Hardware to get last fall. I planted them and was thrilled when they came up. I could not wait to see them bloom in all their red and white glory.

They turned out to be a bit of a fizzle. Yep they turned out to be yellow and pink. I could not be more disappointed if I tried.  I checked the web site and apparently this happened with some of the tulips. Some came out orange and some were yellow like mine. Most were white and red. I just was one of the lucky ones!! Yippee.  Its too late to change this. These yellow ones are really lovely but they are not what my heart was set on. Canada is only 150 once and this is the whole reason I wanted them.
I even sent a comment to Home Hardware even though there is not much they can do to fix it at this late date. Oh well, I just need to get over it and move on.

Tomorrow I hope to get some wood chips from the City as they offer them for free. Finish up a thing or two in the yard and then dedicate my self to cleaning the inside of the house. I am so glad to finally see progress and to finally feel like doing something.I am still restricted as to how much I do and for how long but its getting better and I am getting there. I do things slower and maybe in a more inventive way than I normally would but I do it. I have wonderful friends who are so willing to help me. and I have family coming to do some things that need doing. Its a good thing you don't have to pay for the good people in your live because there is no way I could afford the ones I have.

I will be sharing pictures as things go along.

Toodles
Linda