Moving Right Along

Can you believe it's almost the end of August already? What a beautiful summer we have enjoyed weatherwise. Lots of sun, little humidity and wonderful ocean breezes have made for excellent renovating conditions. Now that the outside of the house is completed other than staining the porch and adding on a deck in the backyard we have moved inside to revamp the upstairs bathroom.
The existing small bathroom has been expanded to make a large room that will contain a large shower, clawfoot tub and also house my washer and dryer. So far the room has been gutted, tearing out a wall, ripping up the floor and putting the plumbing and electrical in place. As with the rest of the renovating nothing is simple here. When the electrician started he found that the existing wiring coming from the fuse panel downstairs was not safe. We had a new electrician come in to look things over and it was decided that now was the time to switch from the fuse panel to a breaker panel. That is all fine and well but all I could think was...what else is this going to lead to. I have discovered through this process that nothing is as it seems so I asked...what else is going to creep into this change? Well...as it turns out, the electrical entrance into the house is not up to code so will also have to be changed. NB Power is called in and it is decided that the entrance will have to be changed from the back of the house to the front of the house and branches from my big tree out front will have to be trimmed...can you say "Cha-ching!!"? After walking around the tree it is discovered by the NB Power man that the tree not only has to be trimmed but it is rotting in the middle so will have to be completely removed...we had a tree removed from the deck last year so know what this is going to involve and cost...I can see my bathroom and new deck budget slipping away...Ugh!!! Lyndon then asked the guy how much over our budget this is going to take us and he assured us that because NB Power needs to remove it in order to bring the power up to code it will not cost us anything and they will be taking care of it! Whew!!! The break I have been waiting for finally arrived!!!
So, back inside the bathroom is moving along. Walls and ceiling are drywalled and taped. All the accessories have arrived and are ready to be installed. The shower that was sent has some large scratches on it so is being replaced on Monday...vinyl flooring had to be ordered and will arrive this week and once it is put down everything else will just fall into place...knock on wood!
Before and after pictures will be posted as soon as they become available.
Now, on top of all the renovating that has been going on we have been waiting anxiously for news from Lyndon's sister Karen regarding her move to St. George. We are looking forward to her moving out here with us and she has finally nailed down a moving date. Lyndon will be flying to Ontario on Sept. 10th to drive her UHaul truck out here for her. Karen and her friend Kathy will be driving her car out and hopefully all will arrive here by Sept. 12th.
So that is August in a nutshell...busy, busy, busy!

Summer Fun

June and July have been very busy here. Visits from my sister Catharine and her friend Judy in June and then my friend Sally arrived July. It's great to go on new adventures with people and this trip Sally and I went whale watching on the Jolly Breeze tall ship along with my friend Lisa from work. I had also received a message from my cousin Doug Donavan the day before that he was in the area with his family and they decided to meet up with us as well for the whale watching excursion. What a great time we had. It turned out to be a very windy and overcast day but that did not put a damper on our adventure. On our way out to the open waters we passed by an island with lots of seals sunning themselves. I had no idea that seals were this light brown colour...I thought they were black. You learn something new every day! Once out in the open water it wasn't long before we sighted the blows of the whales spouting off. Lots of whales were in the area but they sure are difficult to photograph...have to be pretty quick and try to have a steady hand but I did manage to get a few shots in. On the way back to St. Andrews when the tour was done the water was very choppy and the water was splashing furiously up over the front of the ship soaking the majority of us. Sally managed to stay dry by standing back beside the captain but Lisa, Doug, Brittnay and I were drenched. Just when I thought it was safe to take my jacket away from my face another blast of water would come up over the side and I got a mouthful of salt water! It was hilarious and we couldn't stop laughing...what a hoot we had! I do believe I will be making this a yearly trip if I have brave enough visitors to venture out with me.

If you click on this collage you will enlarge it to get a better look at the individual pictures. I can't wait to see what August holds in store for us here in Charlotte County! Thanks for stopping by!