MY BABY IS RETURNING

As you may know, Josh stayed in Kamloops when we returned home. He went to camp with his cousin Aaron and then stayed at his granparents house. By the time he gets here it will be almost 4 weeks since we have seen him. Our house has never been this quiet before. We are both excited because, it everything goes according to plan, they are starting the trip to the Yukon today. Needless to say we have missed him tremendously.

Our house is coming along very nicely. I only have to put the pine in Josh's room now - I am about 1/3 of the way done. We are going to do the dining room and kitchen after it's moved - actually we will need more wood for that. Brian has finished putting the siding back on in all the places it had come off. And Naomi and Hannah have started painting their room. (Pictures soon). They were really excited about painting it, but I think they are finding it a little tedious. Maybe they were imagining standing there and splashing paint around or waving a magic wand and getting the results they wanted. Who knows!!! This morning we are taking a much needed rest. Actually we are on a mission - we have to go to Faro to buy some white paint for the bathroom. Brian took off the old mirror, light fixture and sink cabinet. I don't know what the people before we thinking, but the bathroom used to be a minty-horrendous looking blueish greenish colour. And before that was an orangy, peachy, pukey colour. Anyways, our new stuff won't cover the same areas as the old, so he will show us how handy he can be with a paintbrush. He worked for a painting company for a very short period of time before we were married - he can use those valuable skills again. He is getting to be quite the handy-man. Nothing like some home renovations for learning some new skills. It's been a lot of fun doing this together.

LEARNING SOMETHING NEW...

Our day off working on the house provided a much needed break. Brian and I made the trip to Faro to buy paint and while we were there we went golfing. They have recently redone their entire course and it is actually really nice. This was my first time golfing, so my impression of the golf course could be a little off. I had a great time. I won't tell you my score, but let's just say I didn't make par. I will leave it to your imagination how far off I was (and no, I did not score 8 on every hole!). I'm really looking forward to going again with Brian, it was so much fun. Maybe next time I will remember to take the camera so I can post some awesome pics.

COMING RIGHT ALONG

Pictures never do justice, but you will at least get some idea of what we are doing. This shows the contrast between the pine and the old panelling. As I said before we were content with the panelling until we started putting up the pine.

Here is our living room. (The board on the window has come off now). It is a very bright room.

This picture is of the entrance and looking down the hallway. The front door is just to the right.

So, as you can see we are making progress. As for moving the house - we are still waiting. When I talked to George yesterday he said he would be here in about a week and a half. Now, where have I heard that before????? (He's been saying that since the beginning of June.) Oh well, we don't have many options in that department, so we just have to wait. But we have tons of stuff to keep us busy in the meantime. By the way, anyone want to help us move a 500 lb wood stove off the back of our truck???

GOOD FROM THE BAD

We just got back from another whirlwind trip to Whitehorse. While we were there we met with the insurance adjuster. Wouldn't you know, I have more work to do. I have to make another list of everything that was stolen or wrecked, along with when we bought it, how much we paid and the replacement cost. Then they will pay us either the depreciated value or the replacement cost (if we turn in the receipts). Anyways, out of all of this Brian and I ended up buying ourselves a very nice digital video camera. It's a Canon DVD one - burns the movies right onto a small disc that you can just pop into your DVD player. It's just tiny. We were also able to replace the digital camera - so I will have house pictures for you soon. Things are slowly getting sorted out. Thank goodness.

Also when we were in Whitehorse we did some more shopping for the house. We ordered our flooring. I can't wait until it comes and we can start installing it. I won't even try to describe it - you will have to wait for the pictures!

WORKING ON THE NEW HOUSE

Yesterday we started working on our new house. We are so excited about it. We had panelling throughout the house, but some was older and had been painted so we wanted to change it. Our plan was to put pine in the bedrooms (a real cabin look) and just replace the panelling in the hallway. The rest was going to be left panelled. However, when I went to start putting the panelling in the hall, I discovered that the new stuff didn't match. So, Brian and I had a conference and decided that we would put the pine in the hall also. So, I started putting it up and we both loved it so much we decided to put it in the living room too. So, I took down the pieces I had put up and started again, this time in the living room. This room is now 2/3 done and looks great. (I would put pictures here, but the camera was stolen.) We have put 2 days in now and the place is really starting to come together. Brian has become a demolition expert - he has been busy ripping out the old panelling and linoleum. We have found ourselves caught in the classic renovation puzzle - we keep asking ourselves "what were they thinking????" We've come to the conclusion that the previous renovator was looking for a quick fix. Pulling walls apart always leaves one open to great surprises - lucky for us, there have not been too many bad ones yet. Anyways that's all for now. Hopefully, I will be able to get some pictures out there one of these days.