Thursday, October 31, 2013

Living in the dark...

Judy and I are both having the shakes with no internet, but our Verizon Account will kick in after we cross the Border.

We have been busy as usual though...

Enjoyed a great "Thank You Dinner" compliments of Chris and Kristina!

Enjoyed a great dinner at Turtle Jacks in Hamilton with our son.

Shawn came right from the Hospital dressed up for Haloween in Dr. Scrubs! No one was scared...

Yes, I greased the wheel bearings on the trailer... Ready to go!

and I confirmed all our tire pressures... Ready to go!

Got out to the pumpkin patch with the kids!

Said hello to the bunnies!

Had a ball!

Gwennyand Judy having Haloween fun...

Hanging out with my buddy Charlie!

 

Hitting the road tomorrow...

 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Getting ready to fly...

Not a bad day here...sun was out and that makes all the difference in the world! This morning we started on preparations to leave. We moved our motorcycle trailer out of it's spot to make it easier to hook up later this week.

I also broke out the hose and washed it down, along with the Jeep. That is how warm it was here today!

Next I got the rake out and got rid of some leaves... Don't want to come home in April to a bunch of leaves everywhere.

Most of the leaves have fallen at this point.

Made it to the Royal Bank to stock up on some U.S. $$$'s, tick that off the list! Went for a walk around Southside Park this afternoon.

A bunch of birds were hanging around the water...

Lots of fall colours in the Park.

A pair of big Swans sit above the falls.

Tonight Chris and Kristina are taking us out for dinner as a big "thank you" for helping out with the renovations! Can't wait!!!

Oh... Life without the internet sucks! Can't wait to get it back!

Till tomorrow...

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sunday is supposed to be a day to relax!

Yes, we simply took life very easy today... after many weeks of work and some travel.

This afternoon, Judy spent time going through some closets and drawers in the RV, as we look for items that we carry around, that we may no longer need. Heavy items, like books! We got rid of a few to the laundry library. We got rid of a few!

Our scheduled take off this week is Friday morning. We have a few items to get ready for take off, but overall we are prettly close to being able to leave.

We do have one small problem... that being that at midnight tonight, we will be losing our Bell Internet Plan on our iPad. We have switched our plan over on our phone to the North American plan, but it does not come with any data included. We will load our Verizon Sim Card in the iPad for use in the U.S., but not until Friday, so we will have to use some creative means to find internet this week.

Our poor devices will be lost this week...

Till tomorrow...

 

Saturday, October 26, 2013

I am back!

Seems I have been a bad boy when it comes to blogging lately, sorry about that to all my throngs of faithful readers... however we have been busy as usual.

On Thursday, we travelled up to Waterloo to enjoy a wing night out with a gang of friends.

 

There were 9 of us all told, and it was a good chance to say goodbye to Deb and Gerard, who will be down to Florida to visit us in March of next year. One of my faithful readers, Susan H. was giving me a ruff time at wing night about missing too many evenings lately on my blog, hence robbing her of her nightly enjoyment! Yes, there is pressure being a blogger...

On Friday Judy and I, along with Tom and Cheryl from Richmond Hill, travelled to Oakwood, Ontario, about a 3 1/2 hour drive for us, to attend a Celebration of Life for a very good Friend, Ruth Kelly. Back in the early Seventies, I worked with her Husband, Guy, at Victoria and Grey Trust Company.

We spent many good times with Guy and Ruth over the past years, and she will be greatly missed by all her Family and Friends.

Back in Woodsock today, we joined up with Chris and Kristina to make the big move for them back into their renovated home. They were all VERY happy to be back in their home after being forced out for 3 weeks while the renos occurred. This job finished exactly on time, and worked out real great! Tonight we have a bunch of "Happy Campers"!

You can see the stress and strain on the kid's faces as we were all getting ready for the big move today! Too busy to get any pictures today, but there was lots of smiles around!

Till tomorrow...

 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

What am I going to do next???

Today this job at the kid's house, is quickly coming to an end! All the painting is now done, and the floors are also finished up... and the trim work is done!

That colour on the wall is "Quiet Pewter". Today the trim was painted, and quarter round added to the baseboard... looks good I thought with the re-finished floors!

Judy is in the dining room doing some spot cleaning... We painted the dining room last fall.

Kristina had us over to enjoy lunch... Gwenny was hard into the colouring book today! I helped out!

The kitchen and hallway, had a subfloor and softfloor installed over the hardwood. We stripped it all off and ended up with hardwood!

I will show some stair work tomorrow... next comes moving the furniture back into place for the weekend!

Till tomorrow...

Sunday, October 20, 2013

The floors are finished!

This morning I was off early to the house to put the 3rd coat of varathane onto the hardwood floors. Kristina and Judy prepared a nice lunch for us all after I finished up, and then turned around and headed back to the house to put the 4th coat on! That is it! Finished, done, complete! Floors are good!

There is quite a difference from where we started. These floors were left neglected for many years before Chris and Kristina bought this home, and as you can see, quite a transformation has taken place. It took quite a bit of work from Chris and myself, but it was worth it! The new finish should provide many years of good finish and enjoyment for the family!
 

Looking at these pictures, I find it hard to believe myself the transformation that has occured. Goes to show you what a bit of effort can do for you!

Now you would think, alright, lets put the furniture back and call it a day! No way! While we have the house empty, we are going to paint the living room, and some stairs! The floors still need about 3 days of drying time to fully cure. Nothing better than standing around watching paint dry.... right?

Too cold outside here to do anything else anyways!

Check out this video of Gwenny singing "ring around the rosy" <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uAQFQGwU3fs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Till tomorrow...

 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

We are starting to get there...

With the sanding phase on the floors finished, and the 2 coats of stain on, today we were able to start into verathane! Sure was not much of a day to do anything outside, as it was cold, and rained most of the day. Sure can tell fall is here.

 

Kristina took this picture above, standing in the dining room, looking towards the living room. The floor has the stain only on it in this picture, ready for verathane. Gives you a good idea of the colour of the stain.

Both the stain we used, and the verathane are with a satin finish, and both are latex based, so they are easy to use. Today I applied the first coat of verathane at 9:00, finishing 2 1/2 hours later. At 2:30 this afternoon, I started the second coat. It is looking good. Tomorrow, 2 more coats will be applied to make a total of 4 coats, recommended for high traffic areas.

Hey, in less than 2 weeks, we will be heading to Florida!

Till tomorrow...

 

Thursday, October 17, 2013

A good day on the job...

Off to work early this morning, well, 9:00 a.m. anyways... lots to do today. Between Chris, Judy and I, we got the floors all cleaned up last night, and ready to be stained!

Kristina picked out a wonderful colour to stain the floor, but I can't remember the name of it. I started this morning shortly after 9:00 and right away I knew that this colour was going to look great on their floors. It seemed to go on so nice as I brushed it on. The folks at Home Hardware in Woodstock are really good at giving advice, and they advised that we use Exterior Stain on the floors inside. This advice seems real good at this point, as I was very happy with the coverage.

You can see above the colour difference after the stain is applied. This is in the dining room. Oh, check out the neat little paint brush holder Kristina bought me... it just sticks on the side of your brush, and then you easily clip it to the side of the can. Actually, I should have had the brush pointing the other way, hanging over the inside of the can... oooopppsss...

This is looking towards the kitchen area, just inside the front door.

This is looking into the living room and dining room. The stain took quite a long time to dry after being applied, and some of the shading you see will disappear when dried. The owners will be deciding tonight if they want me, (the worker...) to apply another coat of stain tomorrow or not. After the staining is finished we will apply two coats of verathane.

Finished work at 1:30 this afternoon...yahoooo! So what did I do with a bunch of time this afternoon on my hands... more work of course!

We have had so much wet weather lately, and warm temperatures, our grass just keeps on growing! I picked up one of the park lawn mowers this afternoon, and gave it a trim.

Turns out I also managed to get rid of a bunch of leaves on our site as well! They are all hidden behind the motorhome, in the bush. Good spot for them!

 

Shawn and Jenn bought me a "beer can cooker" for my birthday back in Sept. and I put it to use today! It worked great. You stick a chicken over top a beer can half full of beer and spices, and cook it on the BBQ for 2 hours. Turned out great!

Check it out! Tasted as good as it looks!

 

Judy and Kristina took the kids over to London today, while I was working on the floors. They stopped at Costco and bought Gwenny a neat Halloween Costume. It is a Dinosaur Costume, she runs around with toy dinosaur which is about the same colour as this costume! Kristina reports she is still wearing it, and does not want to take it off!

Till tomorrow...

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Floor work continues...

Just a quick post tonight, to let you know that I am still alive and kicking...

Work continues on the floor job, which has now come to the end of the sanding phase. Tomorrow I will finish up the clean up, and then start the staining process.

After staining, will come two coats of verathane to protect the new finish.

No new pictures tonight, but will put some up soon on the blog.

Till tomorrow...

Monday, October 14, 2013

Thanks Giving all the way!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Weekend... we sure did with not one, but two big turkey dinners to keep us happy!

On Sunday Chris and Kristina and the kids took Judy and I on a road trip up to Orillia for a big dinner on my side of our Family. We had a great afternoon visiting my Mom...

Mom sure enjoyed seeing the kids again...

Our Family got together at Orillia's Highwayman Inn, where they put on a terrific Turkey Dinner, a la Buffet style... just no pictures, but it was great!

Today, Kristina and Chris got together with Chris' Brother Kevin, and Wife Ramona for another Turkey dinner. We got to come and enjoy as well.

We had all the trimmings, and dinner was simply great... again!

Before Dinner tonight, Gwenny was out driving around the deck in her fancy car... it was a beautiful afternoon here...

Charlie had a special Turkey Bib on, but I don't think he had too much turkey tonight...

Earlier this afternoon, Judy got carried away with RV cleaning, and after doing the interior work, headed up to the roof to take all the built up leaves and stuff off the roof! What a brave woman!

Well, that is the end of another great Thanksgiving... one more to go after we hit Florida!

Back to the floors again tomorrow... we are getting there!

Till tomorrow...