Yes, when you have been washing dishes in a plastic basin filled with water from the bathtub, having running water (hot and cold!) coming out of a tap into a double sink can make you have a little grateful weep. I would also like to add that my faith and feeling of not taking things for granted have deepened over the past few months as we have been on the edge financially a few times, and there have been some amazing things that have happened to prevent complete financial collapse. Now that I'm getting all mushy, I would like to add that Brian's patience, sense of humour and skill at this renovation has impressed a lot of people (including me) and I am very proud of him. OK...now back to the usual bitter and twisted self.
In chronological order...Paint the Town was fantastic, and my cousin Ellen and I had a great time. We painted in the beautiful historic gardens
http://www.historicgardens.com/ We were joking about how one of us might fall into the lily pond...that didn't happen, but Ellen did fall off her stool into the bushes behind. There were a few tourists watching her work at the time. I heard a yelp and rustling from my location around the corner, but decided to let the handsome male tourist help her out. Thought it might be a romantic opportunity!
Brian had to go up on the roof of the summer kitchen to patch a hole as I wouldn't let him hire a roofer. I figured once he got up there, he could do a fine job. He drove the car up close to the house, tied a rope around the axle, flung the rope over the roof, tied it around his waist and with this high-tech safety equipment climbed the ladder and scooted up to the ridge of the roof only to realize he'd forgotten half the essential tools. I ingeniously put the items in a box, tied a string to the box, tied a heavy hook to the end of the string and threw this up to him so he could pull the box up. I only hit him on the head twice and missed getting anywhere near him a few more times, but it did work well once he caught the hook.
Brian's 55th birthday was celebrated on Aug. 27th with a great party here, and the new kitchen worked very well. About 20 people new friends and family came and feasted on the pot-luck offerings.
Hurricane Irene arrived last week, and it was a noisy night of high winds, but no rain. The next day was very windy as the pictures show.
Brian and our neighbour finished the upper part of the house above the kitchen window, so we will be snug for the winter. Climbing up and down the scaffolding has made Brian need to take in his belt another notch!
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| Cheap and cheeful! Paint the Town silent auction...My collages were made of shingles from the house, newspaper images from the old papers from 1962 that we found under the living room flooring, and birchbark found under the trim around the windows circa 1760! |
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| In the Historic Gardens |
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| Ellen at work |
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| Brian waving (not a Vulcan salute) from his not very comfy perch on the roof |
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| Sweet peas beside the barn (before hurricane...after...no flowers/buds left) |
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| We have never seen the River so choppy as seen here the day after the hurricane |
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| Brian may have to climb up on the roof again! |
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| At Port George with friends having a sausage roast |
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| Trying to get the fire going again |
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| Sunset over the Bay of Fundy |
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| While lettinga cat into the house in the wee hours of the morning, Brian snapped this shot of the mist on the opposite shore of the river |
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| New boards, housewrap and clapboard |
