Chim-Chimney

On Saturday, Ian's Dad came over first thing in the morning, with his tall ladder (taller than ours that isn't quite high enough to get on the roof apparently), to take a look at our chimney with Ian. They had been up there in the fall, after a big rainstorm when we discovered water dripping into our garage from around the chimney somewhere. Luckily, there didn't appear to be any water coming inside the house itself! So they had gone up on the roof to see if they could spot the problem. They say that the chimney looked pretty good, and that's what the house inspector had said before we bought the house, too. In fact, he took pictures, and it looked fine. Ian says that there was some caulking in the concrete on the top of the chimney, but it looked to be in okay shape, and someone had spread a thin layer of concrete over it, I guess. So Ian and his dad thought that maybe if they put a cap on top of the chimney (which it should have anyways), it would stop the leak. They thought maybe water was going into the chimney, and seeping through the brick or something. (I really don't know anything about chimneys, and I am terrified of heights, so I will probably never know anything about chimenys, except what they tell me.) It seems we only get water dripping into the garage in particulary big rain storms, whether it has to do with the actual volume of rain, the speed in which it comes down, or the wind, we don't really know.

So Ian bought a cap for the chimney back in the fall, but never quite got around to putting it up before the snow arrived. And when there's snow, that's never a "good" time to get up on the roof if you don't have to.

Finally, now that the snow's all gone, the weather's warmed up, and we've been expecting some more good spring rain storms, Ian and his Dad got around to going back up there. However, as with just about every house project I've ever heard about, when they got up there, they discovered that the problem was worse than they thought. Over the winter the thin layer of concrete skimmed over the top had apparently deteriorated and crumbled. So they decided to re-concrete the top of the chimney AND put the cap on.

First, they had to remove all the old concrete. (Kindly, they've provided me with pictures! I told you, I am not going on the roof.)

And once it was all cleaned off (about three hours after Ian's Dad had arrived, and after a trip to Home Depot), they got around to mixing and laying (is that the word you would use?) the concrete.

And then they put the cap on, complete with wire mesh to keep the critters out. 

Didn't they do a good job?

And did you notice how nearly flat our roof is? It's not actually a flat roof, but a low slope roof, too low for shingles. And here's a view over the neighbours house, courtesy of Ian. I think he was trying to show me what it looked like up there, because I'll never see it. Notice the beautiful blue sky, too?

And here's our back yard, from the roof. Those are our Linden trees, which are slowly starting to bud! Good size yard huh?

A HUGE thank you to both Ian and his Dad for a job well-done, and for providing me with some great pictures to tell the story!

So far the rain has been delayed a whole day, (it was supposed to start yesterday) and now the thunderstorms that were forecast for today have turned into rain showers, but I'm sure, eventually, rain will come and I'll run out to the garage to check the bucket that we were using to catch the water dripping, and we'll know if they were successful in solving the problem! I have my fingers crossed! 

Feeling far from home

Today is a very special day in my family. It is my Grandma's birthday, my cousin's birthday, and my other cousin's daughter's birthday. (Are you following?)

So I messaged my cousin on Facebook, wishing him a happy birthday. We used to be pretty close. We hung out a lot. I have a lot of funny memories from time spent with him. I could tell you some very funny stories. Maybe I will sometime. Happy birthday Jay! I think this is 34! I'm glad you will always be older than me, to pave the way or something, and take the blame.. ;)

Then I played around with Photoshop and made a collage of pictures of my other cousin's daughter, from the time she was born, until one of the last times I saw her. I realize now I didn't actually put a picture of the last time I did see her, which I remember very well. It was at our Kamloops wedding reception. Anyways, I put all the pictures together, with a happy birthday message, and emailed it to her. She is turning 12. I remember when she was born. I remember when she was a baby and wouldn't go to sleep unless she was sitting in our laps on the porch. I remember painting her bedroom, a beautiful garden, and tucking her into bed. I remember when she came to stay with Ian and I for a whole week, and we got to have her all to ourselves, and she was so grown up. Now she's 12. I miss her a lot, and can't wait until she's old enough to come visit us. Happy birthday Kai-bear! I love you!

And then, after taking a breather from reminiscing and running on the treadmill for an hour, I called my Grandma. She is celebrating her 79th she tells me. She is also thinking about moving into an apartment in town and closer to my mom and aunt. I miss her so much it aches. Ian and I used to drive down to Birch Bay to visit her and Brian when they were down there. And of course, when we were in Kamloops we would drive out to her place. I used to call her more often. I haven't called her in a while. But I did send her a Christmas present; a scarf (although she says it's not  a scarf, more of a neck warmer, which works for me.) She has been through so much, and is so strong. I'm so proud of her and I wish I could give her a great big hug.

Then I got off the phone and felt very sad, and very far away. I miss all of these three people terribly, and I wish I could celebrate their birthday with at least one of them, which I usually do.

But I'm sending them good wishes, and lots of love. And to all of the other people I'm so far away from. I hope I can see you soon.

On that note, my mom will be here in 13 days I think!

Needing a haircut

Help! I need a haircut!

I seem to go through these stages. I let my hair grow really long, usually because I'm too cheap, too broke, or too lazy to get it cut. Meanwhile, I'm getting really sick of pulling hair out of the drains, my hairbrush, my salad... You get the idea... The ends are split, the layers are... less layered, more yucky. So I begin craving a much shorter cut.

These are some styles I've worked in the past, some not as cool as others obviously.

Must have been about 15 here...

My high school graduation picture.

Hard to see how long my hair was, but it was pretty long.

In December, the year after I graduated from high school,

I celebrated my birthday by cutting off my hair.

This may have seemed fun at the time...

Must have been about 21 or 22 or something..

I was about 23 here...

I was sort of growing my hair out again,

but before I moved to Vancouver, my sister and I put red and blonde chunks in my hair.

It turned pink. I wish I had those pictures.

24 years old I guess, still growing my hair out again...

I was 25 here.. Wow! My hair grew fast in a year!

Why doesn't that seem right?

And now.

I haven't even had a trim since last June.

Sad, right? I know.

So what do you think? Should I go short again? 

Shorter? 

Or shortest? 

Spring blouse sewing project

One of my favourite places to window shop, or browse online as we don't have one here, is Anthropologie. Actually, I just heard that they will be opening one in Buffalo this summer so I'm SUPER excited to go browse in person again.

However, it's pretty expensive. But it's been an inspiration for several sewing projects I have on the go right now. Here's the first one I completed.

I was inspired by this blouse, found here.

I happened to have some excellent fabric for this project on hand, that I picked up on clearance at Walmart at least two years ago, and I've been waiting for a great project to bring it out. I've had some things in mind, but when I saw the First Hints blouse I thought it would be perfect.

There are a few difference between my blouse and this one. I did the arms and the body in once piece, cutting out the front and back separately, and then I didn't have to worry about attaching the arms. The fabric is slippery and very light and I've never worked with anything like it before, so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I actually like the effect the seam on the top of the sleeve has, and it actually looks more like the shape of the sleeve in the Anthropologie blouse. I also put elastic in the cuff of the sleeve, so I can push it up my arm and have it puff out a bit. And I put a band around the bottom so I can wear it over my pants, but it fits snug there, and I think it lays really nicely this way, putffing up just a bit.

So here it is. What do you think?

Pets

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting a pet. Besides Lapel, who lived with us for a month, Ian and I haven't had any pets.

We've talked a lot about getting a fish tank. In particular, a salt-water tank. But it sounds like a lot of work, and now that we're in our new house and we've uncovered our wood floors, the thought of putting a huge tank of water over them makes me a little nervous. Not that they're in the best shape, but we've already had enough issues with water and leaks.

We've talked a lot about getting a kitten. I'm allergic to cats though, so it really has to be something we think carefully about. Maybe it would be best if we could arrange a trial period with a cat, to see how bad my allergies become. Sometimes they're really bad, sometimes they hardly bother me. It seems to highly depend on the cat. Also, a friend of Ian's got a kitten a few months back, and he has allergies, but he says they're actually getting better with exposure. It's been years since I had a cat, though it seems we always had two when I was growing up, until I moved out I guess.

I don't really want a dog. I love dogs, but they are a huge committment and a lot of work. I'm really not sure I'm up to that.

I've thought a bit about birds too, but I'm sort of on the fence about it. I'm not sure why.

I guess what it comes down to is that I'm still feeling lonely, and a pet is a companion, particularly if we had a cat that you can actually interact with. You can't really develop the same kind of relationship with fish, and birds could go either way, depending on the kind of bird. Certainly Lapel had quite a personality, and there was way more interacting with her than we were prepared for. She used to get quite upset if we didn't let her out to sit on our shoulders when we were home.

But I think, given our financial situation at the present time, until I'm working, it's probably not a good idea to get a pet.

So in the meantime, these guys have sort of become my pets.

This is Bunny.

He lives next door, maybe under the shed,

but he frequently comes over to our house to eat.

This is Robin.

Yesterday was a very warm day, and Robin was singing in the trees.

Usually Robin doesn't sing so much.

Or maybe I just can't hear her over Cardinal.

This is Squirrelly, seen here eatting spilled bird seed from the bird feeder.

Obviously we need to get different bird seed when half of it gets spit on the ground for the squirrels, grackles, and bunnies.

You've met Cardinal before, but I'll tell you a bit more about him soon.

And I can't wait to introduce you to Hairband. I've mentioned him before here, but I'll try to capture a picture of him. Ian thinks they're going to be friends. I think he's probably right.

I need a job, right? 

Thunderstorms

It's 17 degrees outside right now. Yesterday wasn't so warm.

Ian's parents came over for a visit and a cup of tea last night. We were sitting in the living room and looked outside and it was snowing! When we went to bed last night it looked as if it was turning to rain, but there was still snow on the ground.

I woke up about 4:30AM to the booming sound of thunder, the kind that shakes the whole house, and then just keeps rumbling so you're not even sure if it IS thunder.

Thunderstorms are one of the things that I was really looking forward to enjoying in Ontario. We don't get them very often in Kamloops, or Vancouver. Not good ones anyways, with really awesome forked lightning. That's the cool stuff. However, when I woke up to the booming noise and shaking house, I wondered what I had been thinking. It wasn't so cool.

I lay awake for a few minutes. Suddenly, there was a flashing of light, and the whole room lit up. It must have been some good fork lightning the way the room lit up, then got brighter, then faded a bit, before getting a bit brighter again, and finally fading away. It was followed almost instantly by the crashing thunder, and the whole house shook. I could hear the windows rattling. That one woke Ian up too. We both got up and got a drink of water before going back to bed.

There was another, more distant lightning strike, followed by a much quieter rumble of thunder. Ian was asleep again I think. I, however, tossed and turned for the next two hours. Finally, when Ian got up to go to work, I fell asleep again, and slept until 9AM.

Tomorrow is only supposed to be a high of 6 degrees.

Too bad.

I am, however, looking forward to more thunderstorms.

A sewing project

A number of weeks ago, Ian and I went over to the States and I did some shopping at a second-hand store. I think I could have spent hours in there. You know how it's usually hit or miss with these things, sometimes you find nothing, sometimes you could go away with a ton of things? Anyways, I found three dresses that I thought were pretty good deals. The following dress is Banana Republic, and I paid $3 I think. Granted, it's a little out-dated, and a bit too big...

But I didn't really want it for a dress anyways. I thought it would have made a great skirt, particularly for in the fall. I cut the dress into two pieces (a tank-top and a skirt), brought the skirt in about two or three inches, and put an elastic in the waist. I was going to keep the top for a tank-top, but just didn't like it, so I'm keeping it for scrap material... I'm sure it will go to good use in some other project. So it's seen here with a plain black tank top.

Also, it said "dry-clean only" and I never really bother with that. Sometimes I'll hand wash things, or wash them on delicate, and if it says to dry-clean, I definitly don't put it in the dryer. Usually it's not a problem. However, in this case, the yellowish coloured lines were actually gold (as in sparkly!) when I bought the dress, but it apparently washed off. I still think it looks okay. What do you think?

Please forgive the dust on the mirror in the following picture! We've been doing some sanding and painting again, and the regular house-work is getting away from me - I can't be bothered to clean it if I know I'm just going to be spreading more dust around!

Not bad for $3 and maybe an hour of sewing I think...