On hold and in the fog

Our new deck in the fog

Today it’s foggy, actually worse than it looks in this picture. And later today it’s supposed to snow. That seems hard to believe as it is well into the 40’s right now.

We’re on hold for a while in regard to the renovations. Monday the guys came by and finished the deck and made a wooden walkway that goes above the concrete sidewalk from our back door downstairs to the sauna (so people don’t get their feet dirty coming out of the sauna).

Drywall done but waiting for wood

Dustin came in with a sample of hardwood, trying to match the wood in our living room to patch around the new stairway, but it was way off, much too dark and grainy. I looked up some hardwoods online and suggested he look at red oak, and when he came back later that afternoon, the red oak looked like it was going to match perfectly. He said he had taken a piece of wood with him to match, but it must have been one of the darker ones and the red oak had looked too light. This time he brought back a large sample showing several boards to compare it with the floor, and it had the same graininess and shading and color. I doubt if we’ll be able to tell the floor has been patched. The bad news is that it won’t come in for three weeks. I don’t know if the guys will be back before then or not. There are some small jobs they can work on, but maybe they prefer to come back when they can get as many things done as possible.

Tuesday, the guy came from the propane company. My husband ordered a propane-fueled generator, because he got tired of the power outages. Of course, we haven’t had one since he did that. Maybe this will prove to be our costly power outage prevention technique. Anyway, we have to get the propane tank installed. Then the guys will install the generator, and the electrician will come back and hook up the generator and the sauna. Then we can invite our relatives over and I can have my first-ever sauna! I don’t know if I’m looking forward to that or not, since I hate being hot. We are sure to see my niece and her husband over here, as they had been driving into Vancouver just to use a sauna. This was another of my husband’s projects, as he says the sauna really helps his back.

A clean counter at last! (Don’t look at the ones in the background. I haven’t done the dishes yet this morning.)

And good news. My husband finally cleared off a kitchen counter that has been loaded with his junk ever since we moved in. I cleared it off several times at the beginning, but it just got messed up again, so I finally gave up. This allowed me to polish and display my grandmother’s tea service. We’ll have to put away the silver for the house painting, but the kitchen looks so much neater now (even with dirty dishes in the background).