64Hope

What does this win mean to the team?

2005-11-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!!

2005-10-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

Actual House Warming

2005-09-25T17:58:00.001-07:00

Friday night I had the actual house warming party. There was a good crowd and Laurie made a wide variety of appetizers. I think I may have bought too much beer. The cooler is still full - which is pretty strange for a party up here. Anyway - got a lot of nice bottles of wine (some of which have been emptied already). I was really excited to get a bottle of Berringer's Founders Estate Merlot - it's the bomb. Here are some photos.

Sofa

2005-09-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

I bought a sofa and a chair from this rockin' store called Ontario Table and Chair. They have a great selection and decent prices. Here's a photo of the sofar and chair - they're just sitting in the living room now. I haven't put them where they need to go yet.

I fixed the plaster. Ok, I lied.

2005-09-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

First - there is a conspiracy with Corn Pops (the other blog).

Now on to real news. I didn't really fix the plaster, my dad fixed it. We bought these dry wall patches at Home Depot that have adhesiv on one side. We put them on and then used quick-dry plaster repair to cover the wholes. Tomorrow i'll sand the patches down and then paint.

My parents were up for the weekend and we got a ton of stuff done. Most of the purchases where at Ikea - here's some highlights -

1) INDEX curtains

2) Office furniture

3) Some colour in the bathroom

The biggest deal is this kitchen island -

We were in Ikea looking at one - brand new it's $270 CAN. This guy comes up to me and says they have downstairs in the "as-is" section for $100 off. I go downstairs and there it is with a couple scratches in the top. Nothing major. We picked it up and it's totally re-made the kitchen. My dad cleaned it with a bleach based cleaner and it's really given it a cool look.

Avoiding mowing the grass

2005-09-06T17:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't used a lawn mower in almost two years - quite possibly longer (my old house in Florida had no grass, just weeds). My parents are coming up to visit this week - and of course I need to have this place in order and if my dad sees the forest that was back there, well - i'm 29, but I'm still going to be in trouble.

Laurie's dad was nice enough to lend me his lawn mower and after two hours (I had to keep stopping to clear the lawn mower out) - it's a site to be seen -

Chocolate stain on leather

2005-09-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

My mom wrote me this....

"Do you think you could ask your house blog friends if they know a way
to get a large chocolate stain off a beige/mustard colored leather
chair.

I think Dad fell asleep while eating some dark chocolate because they
were a large chocolate stain on one of our leather chairs.

By the time I saw it - it was hardened into the leather. I washed it
with dish washing liquid but I think the brown stain is well
ingrained into the leather by now and it won't budge."

Any ideas?

Plaster vs. Dry Wall

2005-08-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

The one thing I find comforting in life is that there are always new things to learn. Unfortunately, some of these new things you learn come at a cost - and a lot of extra work. I've only ever had dry wall in the homes i've lived in. I honestly didn't know that there were other types. No one teaches you this. So when I went into the second bedroom with a crowbar to pull out some old wood that held up a shelf, how was I supposed to know that I would end up with eight giant holes in the wall? Seriously, someone explain this to me. Now I need to learn how to apply plaster to walls. The other option is just dry walling over it.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Would anyone recommend replacing all the plaster walls or is that just insane?

House Warming Warm Up

2005-08-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last night was my house warming warm up. I needed to see how the flow of the house works when there's more than four people hanging around. It went really well. I did figure out that the patio table needs to go out in the grass because it blocks the flow of people outside. Laurie picked up a bunch of cheeses, dips, and things to dip for the party - and I made nachos. It was very low-key, but a fun night. Here are some pics.

2005-08-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

180 degree self portrait taken in Area 51

You can never have enough crow bars

2005-08-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

I took my first trip to Home Depot today. This was not the smartest move - since I've spent the last 48 hours watching HGTV and TLC without sleep. Some of the cleaned carpet still wasn't try so I just ripped it out - now there are a couple "naked" steps. Then I decided to redo the closets (by way of a crowbar) - and I ran into some issues with plaster walls. The big issue is that i'm used to dry wall - which doesn't fall apart like plaster.

As for the carpet cleaning - here is a before and after:

BEFORE

AFTER

2005-08-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

first home depot purchase

2005-08-22T12:01:00.006-07:00

no-smoking dog

2005-08-22T12:01:00.005-07:00

pretty door

2005-08-22T12:01:00.004-07:00

cowbell!

2005-08-22T12:01:00.003-07:00

clean carpets

2005-08-22T12:01:00.002-07:00

home network

2005-08-22T12:01:00.001-07:00

crowbar damage

2005-08-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

blinds - window is sideways

2005-08-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

the secret garden....oooooh

2005-08-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

The naked steps

Wet carpet

2005-08-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

No, no - it's not a bad thing - it's a good thing. AAA Carpet Cleaning of Kitchener was here today and they did a fantastic job steam cleaning the carpets. I had the ground and second floor completely cleaned - it's made a major difference. The previous owner had a dog and I think that added to the normal wear and tear a carpet takes. I'm off the idea of restoring the hardware floors for a while now that the carpet is nice. Give it a couple months (or weeks) and i'm sure i'll be back on that path again.

The other nice thing about having the carpets cleaned is that it's an excuse to have a bare house again. It makes it easier to plan what I want to do in this place. I'll post some pics ASAP.

Not a creature was stiring - hey, what the f**k was that?

2005-08-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, I was sitting on the futon enjoying a nice smoothie and watching Carol Costello on CNN. There was nothing out of the ordinary - until -out of the corner of my eye I saw a small black object ran into the living room from the kitchen.

This is not a photo of the actual mouse. Actually, i'm not sure if it was a mouse. It might have been either a giant cockroach or a a cockroach in a mouse suit trying to mess with me. I haven't seen an actual cockroach in over a year and half (yet another reason I don't miss Florida) and I have a feeling the cockroach nation has it out for me.

Do mice really make nice doors in floor boards like in the cartoons? I've never actually seen a mouse in a house before - so I have no idea.

Closed. Moved. Rock and Roll.

2005-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

Howdy - i'm all in moved in now, here's a recap:

Tuesday, August 9th
I met with Rose Johnson over at Gowlings (the solictors, oh how British) and handover my closing cheque It the second biggest cheque i've ever written, biggest if you only consider in Candian dollars. Anyways - I handed over the cheque and signed the papers and that was the closing - two days early. It's all very anti-climactic actually - it was just me and rose, sign here, sign here - thank you ma'am. That's it.

Wednesday, August 10th
Did the final walkthrough - everything seemed to be in fine order. All of the previous owner's stuff was out - even the incredibly cluttered basement and attic. I'm not sure how they managed to move it all, but i'm thankful they did. My goal is to have the basement clear of anything - everyone at work says it's impossible to keep it that way, but to hell with them - I can do it.

Now here's the weird thing - there's no front door key. There's a lock - no key. They've lived in the house for five years, replaced the knob and tube with 100amp service, put in a gas furnace - yet, they've not had a front door key.

Thursday, August 11th
The real closing day - nothing to do but wait for a phone call. Around 3pm, I got a call from the solictor's saying the closing was finished. That's it - no fanfare, nothing - just have a nice day. Which I did.

Laurie and her dad met me at the basement apartment and helped me move some boxes, the kitchen table, futon, and the bed over to the house. They also, as a family, gave me a bad ass patio set. It's freaking awesome.

After we finished moving the stuff, Laurie and I went to Morty's were I gorged myself on chicken wings.

Friday, August 12th
The real moving day - and it rained. I started around 7am, did one load and then met Tim the Key Man at the house to have a new deadbolt put in and then rekey the back door to match the front door. After that, I picked up my first 2-4 (case) of Keith's from the Beer Store. Russ and Jon D. came over and we went to Vinny's for sandwiches and then we came back to the house to eat them and drink ice cold beer.

After lunch, I did anohter run and did some cleaning in the apartment - then a couple more runs, the final clean and then I was finally able to take my first shower. The cable guy showed up around 5:30pm and he was able to clean up the coax in the living room and put a new jack in the main bedroom.

Friday night - Laurie and I had vodka tonics and relaxed on the new patio set.

Random Toilet

2005-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of the random toilet in the basement -

I'm not sure what the idea was - I mean if you were going to put anything down there, wouldn't you have at least just put in a urinal. Would someone actually take a dump there? If someone walked down the stairs, then they would see you. I'm not really comfortable doing that in front of other people.

The plan now is to leave it for a while and then remove it and put the washing machine where it is.

This is a photo of the street sign on the corner. I just thought it looked cool.

This is the back center part of the basement - to the left is the finished room and to the right is the workshop. I'm planning on drywalling the area in. Part of that work would require redoing the bad pipe job that is there now. I want to get those sweet plastic pipes that all the new houses have - but then if I finished the ceiling - no one could see them. Maybe i'll use plexi glass instead of drywall. I'm starting to think that would be a little too ghetto - it'd be like "Pimp my House" instead of "Pimp my Ride". Has anyone ever used plexi instead of drywall? Let me know.

Grills vs. BBQs

2005-07-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

While I continually find new things that are different between the U.S. and Canada, the one item that gets me is that they call grills BBQs. Maybe this a little thing, and maybe i'm wrong - but I always though the object outside that you cooked on was a grill and that you could make BBQ chicken on a grill, and that you grilled steaks on a grill, etc... but all along, it was a grill. I'm not trying to say it's as deep as an argument like how furniture is Oriental and people are Asian - but come on - it's a grill.

Regardless of what you call them - i'm looking for one. Home Depot has a Broil-Mate natural gas model for $329 CDN - so that might be the one to get. Tomorrow I have to call Kitchener Utilities and see if they can run the gas line out to where i'd like the grill and if that's a go, then i'm heading out to start pricing. Canadian Tire has some models that i'd like to take a look at too -

From Home Depot there is this model - from Broil Mate.

Personally i'd just like an old school newspaper grill like they have in Kazakhstan. Nothing beats fresh (and I mean freshly slaughtered and hung from a tree) lamb cooked over yesterday's local section. Wash it down with a warm German beer - oh, c'est si bon.

Three weeks to closing

2005-07-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

I've only got three weeks left until closing and then the fun can begin. Last night we went to Ikea to get some ideas of what's out there, what works, and what doesn't. Right now i'm kind of locked in for darker furniture because of the trim in the living and dining rooms - but that can always be changed.

I'm trying to get an exact date on when the house was built, all I know is that the current owner says it's at least 80 years old. Chris the plumber said it was more like 90 to 95 years old. He based this guess on the plumbing - so it's kind of like an paleontologist saying a bone is 1,000 years old - they just know, right. There are two normal size bedrooms, and two smaller rooms that could be bedrooms if you were 1/2 your size. One will become an office and the other has been dubbed "The Library". We're trying to find a psychiatrist chair - this was Heather's idea - and then a nice big bookcase. From the library, you take another flight of stairs to the finished attic, which I am thinking about naming the "Ann Taylor Loft" - in honour of the clothing store.

There's only one bathroom - well, technically there are two. There is a free standing toilet in the basement. I've been calling it a three peice bath; toilet, washer, dryer. The plumber recommended that we have that taken out and move the washer there. I'm going to call him this week and make an appointment for that. The other project there will be the replacement of some steel pipes with that fancy new plastic pipe. Those plastic pipes are the new hotness.

Other than that, I have two big projects - gutting and redoing the kitchen and restoring the hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms. We do so much cooking that a better designed kitchen wouldn't be a waste of an expense and hell, for the hardwood floors - they just look cool.

Enough for now - have a great weekend.