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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Getting closer....

We have finished out the summer with a flurry of home decorating/improvements this year.  It's very exciting as we have been in this house for a few years now and really haven't had the time or money to get much done.  It will be very satisfying to step into my house on a cold winter's afternoon and look around at all the bright and inviting rooms.

Basement before
The last couple of days have been spent doing PD on the couch.  There is so much to look at and read!  Every page has at least 2 interesting links that lead me away to more reading.  By yesterday afternoon, my head was full and I was too overstimulated.  I managed to get into my scrap room and clean some projects up.  My room still has too much stuff on the floor, mostly finished scrapbooks waiting for their new home in the basement.


Basement is waiting for furniture
My next project for today is to make some of the cool things I found on Pinterest.  I need to step away from the computer for a while, I'm starting to twitch slightly.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

It's just around the corner

Work is starting again soon, with PD starting next week.  I am loving Summer this year, with all the great weather we've had so I'm not quite ready to go back yet.  I am starting to look at more readings and ideas, but my mind starts to wander when I think of all the start up stuff. 
I went to look at my room last week (which wasn't ready for me to do anything in) and found out that someone had shot at all the classroom windows.  More than once.  It made me sad.  Of course angry too, but mostly sad.  Nobody "knows" who did it, but I'm sure someone has some idea.  That kind of put a curb on my excitement of going back.  I do have some great ideas for this year for in my classroom and some stuff that I want to take on in my school.  I am just having too good of a vacation.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Adventures in home improvement

We had a few days of rest, and then we decided to paint the basement.  As we were sitting down there making our plans of who was going to do what, my husband looks at me and says "why don't we go and see about new carpet".  I didn't want to make any sudden movements as it might make him change his mind, so I calmly agreed.  The next thing you know, we were looking for new carpet AND new furniture for the basement!  It also delayed the actual painting by a day because of all the running around and comparison shopping to be done.  That was Monday.  Tuesday started with us going to rent scaffolding to be able to paint the stair way.  When it finally got set up, I was stuck in the basement for 9 hours.  I painted and listened to pod-casts.  My meals were passed to me through a window.  Luckily, there is a bathroom down there.  Good news, I got the basement painted.  Bad news was we still had to get rid of the old carpet.  That happened Wednesday.  We decided on carpet, went to look at couches and finally got down to the removal of the disgusting-early-80's-peed-on-by many-dogs-carpet.  Back then, they glued the rubber-backed carpet right down to the cement.  What fun!  The carpet it self was so old that it came away quite freely from the backing.  Except the stringers on the stairs.  We got the carpet up and to the dump AND returned the truck we borrowed (thanks to Bryce and Michelle) by 6.  Then I got down on my hands and knees with a putty knife and started to scrape the floor.  In an hour, I only got a 3X3 square done, and not well.  I abandoned the project in favour of pizza.  After dinner I had to get some plants into the flower bed and there was weeding to be done as well.  Thursday came and with it some back and muscle pain.  After some oatmeal with a side of Advil, I went to run errands for the project while Chris tackled the stairs again.  While in CT I came across a floor scraper.  The best $40 I ever spent.  I got the floor done in an hour with that thing.  I tried not to think of all the grossness that was in the dust and wore a mask to keep the worst out of my lungs, but wow!  3 big garbage bags are filled with the carpet backing and we'll need a new filter for the vaccum cleaner because of all the dust, but it's done and ready for carpet on Monday.  Chris has asked that I not request any other improvement projects for quite some time.  I think he may be looking for that commitment in writing....

Friday, August 17, 2012

Back home

We had a wonderful trip South.  It was busy and the weather was great and I got to rediscover parts of the Island.  We did a few nice hikes where Mom and Chris got to practice their photography skills.  There was a big car show, a couple of cruises and a long weekend spent in Victoria with my brother and sister-in-law.   I was also able to catch up with a couple of friends and spend some quality time with my mom garage saling. My mom and her friend are serious garage salers.  They plan it all out, one does the driving while the other manages the map and directions to the next big find.  Hard core!  I got many good deals (much to my husband's chagrin) for the classroom, especially when I told them I was a teacher. 
 We also got to enjoy a couple of fires at the beach, which is something that I haven't done in a very long time.

We are home, enjoying the last weeks of our holidays and the wonderful weather we have right now.






 
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