A New Year.

I made it in to the New Year. I watched a kids movie that showed the New Year as a little baby, and the year that was ended as an old man and somehow this year feels more like a middle aged man starting than a baby. I guess it’s because of all the activity that took place this Christmas, or having kids just tires you out.

Anyhow, I’m back to the blog. I should be logging in at least once a week this year because I have a new cookbook!!! It’s time to start working through a new book, and I waited until after Christmas to get started. I wondered if anyone would give me a book for Christmas, but Santa must’ve wanted me to go chose my own book.

So I did. Welcome Donna Hay’s “Seasons: the best of Donna Hay magazine.”  Who is Donna Hay? Some Australian chick… that’s all I know. I’ve never even seen the magazine, but I can tell you this much. The cookbook is GORGEOUS! It’s twice as big as my last one- Chef Michael Smith’s “The Chef at Home”.  This one has enormous glossy photos and TONS of recipes. It’s going to take me all year to get through it. Literally. The book is organized in to  seasonal categories, which is why I bought it. I have a freezer full of broccoli and cauliflower and little summer squashes that I put up in the summer and want to cook.

I am also going to try and keep my newspaper articles posted so you can follow along…

Today though? Today is an old recipe–back to Chef Michael’s lasagna, so that I have something for tomorrow. You never know who’s going to stop by after church on Sunday…

And, if you are looking for some interesting reading—I posted a few new links for you all. I’m knee deep in a book my mom gave my called “the end of food” by Paul Roberts. He makes an EXTREMELY compelling case as to why we need to pay attention to what is going on in the food world….

The great divide.

I’m going to have to do what all serious renovationer’s (it’s a new term I came up with–you know that whole idea of ‘staycationing’? Why not ‘renovationing’? ) do. They lump days into one, time becomes a blur, and no one really knows how anything got done, or when it happened, so long as it actually did happen.

We have finished a marathon weekend of work- a big thanks to my dad and mom for coming down and busting up some serious lathe and plaster and platforms! Of course, we paired the weekend with a kid free yardsale day (thanks Nana for babysitting!) and made a whopping $60 on selling our stuff. Seriously-either we have way crappy stuff, or hosting a yardsale is an art that I’m terrible at. *sigh*

While I was trying to sell things, Andrew and my dad (with some neighbourly support later) ended up splitting and jacking the floor to the sanctuary. If you are a man (or a building-inclined female) you will want the details that I know I can’t do justice to. Somehow, they ended up chainsawing some beams, and using jacks to lift up about 3/4 of the theatre sloped sanctuary floor.

It was so AWESOME to walk into the building on Saturday afternoon and feel like I was standing on solid ground–and then to see the amazing wonder of engineering in action. Reno’s are way cooler than building new. (Sorry to all those who love building new!)

Then the great debate began- and here’s where I need my readers to jump on board. What would you do? I have ONE week to decide if we keep the floor split (like a sunken living room sort-of-thing) or if we raise the second part up somehow.

I’m seriously divided. (Get my pun there?) I LOVE the look of the divided floor. My mom suggested putting the kitchen up in the corner, having some neat free standing arches for drama, and adding the big 14 foot table to the sunken level. It totally resonated with me.

BUT! (ha! that ‘but’ made me feel like breaking into the chorus of “there are no cats in america…” Anyhow…) Versatility says that we should level the floor out. It makes the most practical sense. (Sadly, I’m not always a practical person…)

So…may that debate be solved in a week and my mind be settled soon. I really don’t like designing. Ewh. So many of you enjoy endless episodes about house designing/renovating on the tellie, but I don’t. I get bored.

And that’s where I come to my final tada. I learned something this weekend. I learned two VERY important things about myself and others.

One. When you are working in a TYPICAL (not all) males workspace….DON’T TALK. They don’t like it. You will hate yourself for it. Your head will start hurting from listening to yourself all day. They won’t answer you. They will get annoyed with you. It will hurt your feelings, and you will not have a good time. So, enjoy the peaceful sounds of the large fan, drills, hammers, chainsaws and other tools while your mouth is shut. (We paid Hudson to keep him happy and quiet….*grin*)

Two. BE NICE TO PEOPLE! You will have to talk about your renovation incessantly. Everyone you know will ask you for an update, they will want to know how it’s going and you will get so tired of talking about it. That will make you want to:
a) brush them off and change the topic rather rudely.

b) walk away with no explanation.

c) say something very snappily and then realize that you were cruel and heartless.

d)hate your renovation and make you want to move to a hotel forever.

Perhaps those responses are a tiny bit extreme…but I did feel something along all of those lines. Sadly, my mom took the brunt of my “reno-anger” and I tried to apologize the next morning. (But then, I was rude all over again. RRR! Why do I do that! Why do people actually care about where the door to the bathroom goes? Or which way the toilet faces? Don’t you just get used to what’s there? Ugh. I am the worst renovator in the universe.)

We did spend most of today trying to spray paint/draw/walk/map/talk out where the bathroom in the basement will go. It was a bit tricky because we have to live down there for awhile, and it’s our only bathroom, so it needs to be fully functional. It also needs to make sense for plumbing, and not jam up the door to the furnace room. I’m not sure what got decided, but it doesn’t really matter to me, so long as there is a toilet and tub.

And, as a final treat of the day, I will leave you with a picture of what we found when we ripped out the wood underneath of where the organ stood. *Ah-got to love church reno’s.*

Basement Busting.

Long weekends. Iced tea, fireworks and barbecues. Sometimes. I’ve come to the conclusion that most homeowners spend their long weekends working-in their gardens, on their decks, on their homes or on someone else’s projects.

We spent our Victoria Day in the basement of the Red Brick Church. At least it was cool!

The family reinforcements arrived just before lunch, and got straight to work. Andrew’s dad (Papa Ben) and his brother Dave got started on the kitchen walls and ceiling.

When Andrew arrived after selling tickets, he and his brother James started to rip out the floor and walls under the stair cases at the front of the church.

Seriously? I just vacuumed all those nasty spiders up yesterday, and they ripped the place apart in about an hour. So much for Olivia’s little room. (Actually, I’m glad they tore it out. It smelled bad.)

There was lots of rotten floor boards, lots of hazardous nails, but no major injuries.

For a little break, we got to watch Olivia get married to Alex. You heard it right! I found a great treasure chest of dress up clothes full of princess dresses, brides get up and shoes for Olivia while yard-saleing in the morning. Katie (Andrew’s sister) officiated and we got to see a lovely bride, her “sister” Snow White Chloe, and her Knight in shining armour (Alex- I found him some knight get-up) get married. And, after Katie pronounced them, Olivia piped up with “Auntie Katie! Not yet! I haven’t kissed him yet!” So, we finished our break with a heartwarming kiss between Knight and Princess.

We had lunch outside in the gorgeous weather thanks to our neighbours barbecue, sang Happy Birthday to Katie, and that’s when Andrew enlisted the serious help. Me. 

That’s right. I got my hands dirty! Denice (my sister-in-law) and I headed upstairs to the sanctuary where there is a bunch of carpet that needs to be removed. (We also got to see the progress that’s being made on the pews being removed. We found a buyer for the whole lot on Kijiji and we were so grateful that they weren’t going to be wasted!)

Ripping out forty or fifty year old carpet is gross. There is so much dirt underneath the actual carpet that it caused me to promise myself to NEVER carpet a home again. GROSS! You can’t ever suck up the dirt under the carpet-and there was a mountain of it!

Tricky though.The old nails they used to secure the underlay are tiny, missing heads and don’t pull up easily. We are going to have to plier them out, one by one. 

And then, we ended the day with the piece de resistance and a crazy wind storm. The whole crew ripped out the first set of stairs going down the basement. They are now sitting in the entry way. Whew.  And, while we comforted crying kids inside (who were terrified of the sudden rain/wind and that their tent would blow away) we realized that our building is incredible secure. It barely creaks, doesn’t move and feels like I would imagine the third little pig felt when the wolf tried to blow his house down. Ha!

I came home dirty, exhausted and happy. This is going to be a great house. A GREAT house! But, thank God for this one, where we can take a long soaking bath.