Music NL

My friend Mary recently mentioned liking a Newfoundland band, Great Big Sea.  They're a great band and are well loved in St. John's.  The lead singer has been in a locally shot tv show, The Republic of Doyle.

I'd like to recommend another band to all you who come from away... Hey Rosetta.

Not sure I'll get to make another post for a week, so I'll now wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Miss you, love you!

Looking like Christmas

We've got a few decorations in doors, but no tree.  We didn't think it was worth getting one since we'd only get to enjoy it for two weekends.

A Fond Farewell

My parents & I stood in the parking lot at the MetroNorth train station.  I was getting ready to board the train into Manhattan, and after a few errands, onto a bus to LaGuardia and then onto my plane ride back to NFLD.
With an affectionate pat, my Mother said "bye bye baby".

Projection: Newfoundland

Was looking something up on line and came across a projection/topo map of Canada.

Its so pretty, and it reminds me of how far north I'll be flying in a week.

Bathroom, part 2

So there's some controversy out there about taking books and crafting with them.  I've seen a few cutting comments about people who buy books based on the spine color so it will coordinate with a room. Eh, not my cup of tea but whatever floats your boat.  Another craft blogger/personality was savaged for taking brand new books and shredding them.

I did feel a bit guilty pulling these books apart.  Ok...no so much in the case of the two Nancy Drew books.  But another was Dicken's The Old Curiosity Shop and the fourth was Pearl S. Buck's Pavillion of Women.

I assuaged my guilt by recognizing the books were in bad shape, stained and with broken bindings and would have gone in the trash if I hadn't bought them. 


But I was kicking myself when I got around to pasting up the title page of Ambassador Dodd's Diary.  The name on the title page (Martha Dodd) was nagging me and then I realized I'd heard a review of a new book on NPR's Fresh Air.  The author, Erik Larsen, had read Dodd's Diary and written In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror & An American Family in Hitler's Germany.  It sounds like a fascinating story.  You can read/listen to that interview here.

Wish I'd read the Diary before pasting it about.  I did find someone selling a copy of it on-line...for less than 10 cents.

The Bathroom

The bathroom upstairs is one of the rooms we're living with until we can gut it.  It's functional, although Greg had to do some grouting and creative repairs to the tile around the tub to make it so!  One of the first times he took a shower, I discovered a leak coming through the ceiling fixture/medallion in the front hall.   It turned out some of the tiles were loose and the water was finding its way down.  So, it was functional (semi) and ugly (full-on) when we moved in:

Different tile on the floor and walls that don't go with each other, and a formica-topped vanity that goes with neither.  Plus really special wallpaper.

New sink faucet, new lights and power switches/outlet and new window blind.  While Greg was working with the plumber to take out the copper (it was in bad shape under the vanity) and replaced with flex pipe, I suggested Greg remove the doors to make access easier.  We didn't really want to keep them.  The one on the right wasn't a door but a tip-out bin, something we'd never use.  I found some fabric that I was able to fashion into a skirt and put it up with a tension rod. Painted the face of the vanity that shows above the skirt an almond color (Behr's Baja).  I stripped off the wallpaper and pasted up the pages from some falling-apart books that I scored at yard sales.  It probably took me 10-15 hours to do the entire bathroom (over the course of a few days).  It was fun and something I'd definitely try again in a spot we we don't expect to demo.

So now it's tidy enough for a while...

Movember 1

It's Movember;  a month long consciousness raising about men's health, with particular focus on prostate cancer prevention.  To that end, men who don't have mustaches grow one for the month, shaving it off on December 1.  And men who usually sport a 'stache shave it off on Oct 31 and start fresh one (presumably not shaving on Dec 1).  They often do this as a team effort with co-workers, club members, etc and pledge to raise money for cancer research.

Greg didn't participate last year, I guess because I've expressed a dislike of facial hair (soul patches should be illegal, imho).

But, for a good cause, I can put up with a little bristling.  And my hubby looking like a 70s porn star.

Here's Nov. 1 (late in the day hence the 5pm shadow and the reclined position):

And here's today's porn-tastic shot:

My mantra is:  It's all for charity, it's all for charity, it's all for charity.....

A small light

We're still getting new lighting fixtures sorted out here.  Some are brand new and some are new to us.  I mentioned in an earlier post a fixture I purchased at the ReStore.  That one is painted, rewired and ready to go up.  I'll have photos of the fun of fixing that once I know it will actually light up!
Here's a smaller success story.


When the electricians started (holy cow, 4 months ago), the pulled down every ceiling fixture in order disengage the old knob-and-tube wiring and upgrade us to current code wiring. In some instances, they had to put in fixtures where none had existed.

The sound of Summer

This is one of many things I wanted to share going back to pre-Labor Day (just fell behind with lots of intended blog posts).
I was sitting out on the front stoop, sanding a light fixture (that's another blog post in works).  And a cruise ship was getting ready to leave St. John's harbor (this photo is from a different day):

Caribbean Princess exits St. John's Harbor through the Narrows, by Greg

And as they leave they blast their horns and other ships answer, rather lyrically in my humble opinion.  Here's a clip that I recorded with my cell phone:

I really love that I can hear that from our front door.

Ah well, no more cruise ships; the season is over.   Fall is here.  The clocks went back this morning; the furnace is on. 
But it was a glorious summer for St. John's.  Ask any of the locals.

Hurricane Sandy

I've been listening to reports about the aftermath on WNYC via our Sirius Satellite Radio and NPR iPad app.  I hope you all are safe and comfortable, that the power is back on and your homes are dry and warm. 

Labor Day

No...we didn't take a walk.   
We laboured (funny spelling 'cause I'm in Canada); a few projects around the house.
Nothing worth taking a photo of. 
Well...photos were taken but to use as a "before".  Not worth showing until there's an "after".

A Short Walk

Trying to get Greg to go for a walk with me; to here and beyond (a bit):

Looking back towards town

The trail continues below Signal Hill

I walked out last week, mostly out of curiosity.  Getting to this spot is under a mile from the house.
Today's weather is pretty similar - bright sunny skies. 
Will I succeed in luring him out ???  Tune in later.

Moose Alert

This is the only moose I've seen so far (and enjoyed very much) since moving to NLFD.

Lunch at The Rooms

Greg's parents & I went the cafe at The Rooms for lunch today.  The Rooms is an art museum/archives in downtown St. John's.  It has a fabulous view of The Narrows (the CBC has their webcam sited on the facility).

We shared an appetizer of cod tongues and scrunchions - my first foray into a traditional Newfoundland dish.  They were tasty (and dangerous to your arteries if you make a regular diet of them).   We had a very nice time over a leisurely lunch (the cafe isn't known for speedy service).

Didn't have my camera with me today; here are a couple of shots from a prior visit.

Atrium at The Rooms

Clever bee light accents in the cafe.

Discovery

I've discovered a few interesting paint colors as I've scrapped the baseboards in our bedroom.

I like the deep blue-teal color.  Coincidentally, it's a close match to a color I've been considering for the walls in the room (but with a neutral color on the baseboards).  I guess it was to compliment some funky linoleum we found under the two layers of carpet and one of padding (all of which was pulled up to get to the spruce boards).

Another more recent discovery are the pocket doors between the living & dining room.  We suspected the space had had them at one time.  But a conversation I had with the former owner's son confirmed it.  And the awesome news was that his father didn't remove them when they decided they didn't want to use them any more, he just pushed them back in to the pockets and sealed up the opening.  So after dinner this evening, Greg took hammer and tong to the mouldings to reveal them.

Six-panel doors.  They're 3' wide by 7'4" high!   Solid wood, though we don't know what kind.   And we're hoping the pulls on the doors (with keyholes!) are brass.

Hello? Is this thing on?

I've been off Blogger longer than I anticipated.   Tried to update the blog once since the 2nd but it wouldn't load properly for me (can't really remember if we were still at the hotel [the first or the second one], on the wireless at the coffee shop down the block, or here in the house).
Many things conspired against us.  Herewith, a timeline:

July 26
Floor sanding starts
July 28-29
Pack up belongings/furniture; Greg hires two guys to help move things into storage unit, only one shows up.
July 30-31
Wake up on inflatable mattress, continue to pack/ferry boxes to house.
Aug 1-3
Accommodations at extended stay hotel; floors are being buffed/varnished

Aug 4; floors dry

Aug 4 
Apprehensive that warm humid days will delay floors drying.  In house late afternoon; set-up inflatable mattress in dining room

Aug 5 
Greg showers, Sheila discovers leak in downstairs hallway.  Source: cracked tub tiles.  Greg seals/regrouts.  Sheila uses bathroom sink, Greg discovers major leak in basement from plumbing stack.   No shower for Sheila.

Aug 6
Check into hotel for one night, enjoy plumbing and climate control.






Aug 7
Furniture delivery by movers; plumbers replace stack.  All converging in vestibule at generally the same time (1pm).  By 3pm, we're alone again, enjoying the house, unpacking, doing laundry.

Aug 7; cracked cast iron stack

Aug 7; Greg tries to telecommute on the single solid surface

Aug 10
Discover water bubbling up from uncapped shower drain in basement after washing some dishes.  On advice of plumber friend, Greg uses Drano and caps the pipe.  Put laundry on hold for a bit.

Aug 14
Discover that water brimming-to-overflowing in downstairs toilet whenever other taps/toilet used.  Water rationing again.  Dishes left soaking in kitchen sink.  Absolutely no laundry. Sheila without shower again.  Judicious use of coffee shop down the street for bathroom needs.  (No Photos !)

Aug 17
Plumbers come to snake basement pipes; snake not big/strong enough.  Come back with bigger one and snake/scour every pipe in the joint.  Pulls downstairs toilet to snake/re-seat.  (I could have been blogging during the 3+ hours this took, but spent it pacing the kitchen.)

Aug 18
Back to normal.  Well..almost; we are still waiting for the electricians to finish up.

Now we are getting ready to welcome Greg's parents for a visit later this week.  Hopefully they haven't been scared away by this!

Stretchy home stretch

The floors are taking longer than the originally suggested 5 days.  It's more like 7 days.  So our stuff is in storage and we're at a hotel.  We get a look at the floors tomorrow morning with the first two coats of varnish on them.  Here are a few shots of the floors after the sanding.

Hallway/stairs before and after sanding

Back Parlor before and after sanding

Its lighter than I originally thought I wanted, but it will make a nice backdrop/canvas for strong colors from our couch and how we paint the walls.

Home stretch

We're juggling a bunch of things this week. The electrician finishing up the whole house rewiring soon. The floor guys are supposed to start Thursday morning (job will take 5 days), and in anticipation of that we pulled up the laminate floor in the second bedroom so they can do the whole shebang.  Still trying to get nails/tacks up and Greg is patching some holes.  Wed morning, got a bunch of garbage carted away, including the drop ceiling that Greg pulled out of the second bedroom over the weekend. And we're packing up the apartment so we can move out on Tuesday. Whew!

I hope to find time to post photos from a fabulous lunch we had on Sunday; Lighthouse Lunches at Cape Spear.  The event is completely booked for its run.  So fortunate that Greg booked in when he did.  Fantastic food and presentation; they had the last lighthouse keeper (he retired in 1997) to give a chat between courses.  Gerald Cantwell was the last in the line of eight generations of the same family to tend the light.

It's Alive!

I bought a clematis about a month ago.  I have a tendency to kill plants I purchase.  I've been watching this, waiting for it to succumb to my usual charms.  But lo and behold, after just having some new leaves, I finally have a flower.  :-)

I hope to plant it in our backyard against an old clothesline post.

The wind

It's been really windy this evening. 
And anytime it's windy, I think of Aunt Pat and the wind upsetting her as she walked home from school in Riverdale.

"Superstitious or skinny ?"

That's what our plumber asked me this afternoon when I backed off our narrow staircase as I started for the top step as he was coming up.  It made me laugh and also called to mind my Grandmother's penchant for "leaving by the door you came in".   I wanted to look up this superstition and some of the searches turned up a verse I like (it also creeps me out a bit):

'Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away'
  ~~ Antagonish, by Hughes Mearns ~~

Today in History

On July 18:
1861    Union and Confederate troops skirmish at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia, in a prelude to the Battle of Bull Run.
1877    Inventor Thomas Edison records the human voice for the first time.
1872    The Ballot Act is passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.
1935    Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urges his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.
1936    General Francisco Franco of Spain revolts against the Republican government, starting the Spanish Civil War.
1942    The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, makes its first flight.
1971    New Zealand and Austrailia announce they will pull their troops out of Vietnam.
1994    In Buenos Aires, a massive car bomb kills 96 people.

Born on July 18
1811    William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist and satirist.
1887    Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and Nazi collaborator during World War II.
1902    Jessamyn West, American author (The Friendly Persuasion).
1906    Clifford Odets, playwright (Waiting for Lefty).
1913    "Red" Skelton, American comedian and actor.
1918    Nelson Mandela, civil rights activist, first black president of South Africa.
1921    John Glenn, Jr., American pilot, astronaut and politician.
1929    Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American blues singer.
1933    Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet.
1939    Hunter S. Thompson, journalist.

And today is my mom's birthday and Janet & Jonathan's 25th wedding anniversary.  Wish I was there to celebrate with you.

Nice pipes

Greg & the plumber get started today.

And last night, we found out we have vintage spruce floors - not something many people refinish.  They'll replace it with a hardwood (spruce is a softwood).

After spending all the time and effort pulling up all those nails, this IS my floor, damn it.
We're debating to stain or not to stain.

(another example of spruce floors here)

Checklist

Iceberg
Moose
Caribou
Whale
Puffin

Crossed off #1 two months ago.
And now can cross off #4.  On our walk along the Biscan Cove Trail in Pouch Cove, while taking in this view:

Greg spotted two humpback whales (heard their spout before seeing them).

We watched them (and took lots of shots) for a while.  They swam down further to another cove and we sort of followed them.

I turned my attention to trying to find a geocache and chasing some butterflies.

The whales didn't breach but Greg did get a shot of a tail at one point.

Day off from the house

Going for a walk in Pouch Cove - hope to have some nice coastal shots later.

Let there be light

In anticipation of needing new fixtures to hang in the vestibule, and living/dining rooms, I've been on the hunt for things that might fit the character of the house and our furnishings.
We were up to the ReStore, a Habitat for Humanity operation, to look at doors, tools and everything else they offer (Greg picked up a wooden swivel desk chair for $20 while I was in NY).   You have to hunt and you might get lucky.

Purchased for $18

This is a Virden lamp (I know because of the label in the cap).  I'm planning to spray the metal parts with Krylon to a more appealing color than the faux bronze it is now.  Will need to be rewired before we can put it up; I'm going to try that myself too.

Originally wanted it put this in the vestibule but given the swing of the front door and the lower ceiling, I realized it won't go there.  So into the main hallway it goes.   Didn't really want to have something amber-colored in that area but decided to embrace it.

Going to look at painting the wall running the length of the first floor a shade of yellow and the other wall going up the stairs a shade of cream/ivory.  Have taped up color swatches to see what we like best.  Right now, Martha Stewart's Yellow Magnolia (top row, 4th from right) is winning for me.

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A fine day's work

We pulled the carpet and linoleum from the upstairs bedroom, upstairs hallway, and off the staircase.
Too tired to say more....look at some pics:

Harbour Symphony during Sound Symposium

This week, as part of a 5-day music event here in St. John's, the harbour and the boats docked are used as an orchestra.  Music has been written to be played by the ships' horns.  It's very interesting but not exactly something I'd want on my iPod.

And the Indonesian Tall Ship, Dewaruci, is docked here for a few days.

Link to Harbour Symphony

Link to local news on Dewaruci.

"By this time next week..."

I'd hoped to have all the flooring up as noted in a post last week; was just a few square feet shy of that deadline.. 

Ah well....target dates and deadlines are nice concepts when it comes to home reno, I guess.
One thing Greg noticed when this stretch of floor was uncovered was how long the boards are.

15 feet 9 inches

Would love to know what kind of wood it is.   Oak, fir, pine or maple ??
Hopefully, a floor refinisher coming next week will be able to tell us.

Something else:  The plumber commented on the floor and said he'd heard it was rather common for homes to have a rug tacked down in the center and the floors stained only around the perimeter.  So that may explain this shot:

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Almost done...

...with the floor that is. 
Got the rest of the tile/backer board off the dining room floor. 

Just need to go back through both rooms to pull some errant nails.

Then onto the hallway.  Which requires hammer and tong; the backer board is something stronger....and it seems like it's nailed down every other millimeter. 

Greg's attacked it with the circular saw that he's calibrated to just cut through the tile and board (after some trial and error).   It will be so nice when these are refinished.