Welcome back Fall, wait, I mean Winter.

Who knew that oil-based paint gave off flamable fumes? This is day two without our water-heater. It's proving to be a long process to get the fumes out of the basement.... So we've decided to just keep going (with painting the basement) and live with heated water on the stove for a few days. We'll see if our water heater turns itself back on later.

Other things we're up to...
Steph's teaching. I'm painting.

I've also volunteered my time to coach the boys soccer team at Timothy C.S. and at the same time I'm back as the coach of the girls basketball team at Unity. It keeps me busy. I'm hoping we get a better season than what we had last year. It'd be nice to win a few games before going to the 'playoff' this time around.

Our leaves are turning yellow. Which stinks. 'cause I looked at our October postings on this blog from last year. Yeah... Snow on October 21. Snow stuck around as of the second week in November...

Oh, and we're not joking about the snowblower. If anyone is looking to upgrade their present snowblower, and would like to sell their old snowblower cheap, let us know. We'll talk. Have your people call my people. That sorta thing. Seriously.

Snowblower

Seeing as Barrie just had its first night in the negative temperatures, I thought I'd ask if anyone has a snowblower available?
Let me know!

Wallpaper

Many of you now know that I have been trying to get rid of some wallpaper in the basement, and have had some frustration. I was having some difficulty as the paper would tear off in only two inch by four inch pieces.
"Have you tried perforating the wallpaper?" was a common question people would ask... indicating the method whereby you perforate the wallpaper with something akin to a fork and then soak the wall with a spray bottle.
I was doing that from the start.
Now, I know some of you might be thinking "Do they not have steamers that will soak into the wallpaper and loosen it up for you?"
I tell you that is a copp out. It wouldn't be work anymore. And for things to be done right, it must be done by working at it. It is only Christian. After all, did the Lord not work for 6 days to create the earth, and on only on the 7th did He rest? And did He not create our bodies for the very purpose of doing work? (If he did not give us bodies for this purpose, then why do we have bodies at all?)
Besides which, a steamer would have cost me money. And as a person of dutch heritage, well, I think we all know what it means to be of a dutch heritage, however distant that dutch heritage may be.
So, I tell you that I have come across the most brilliant method by which a person of proper mind may be rid of wallpaper, and produce a brilliant finish.
Now, don't think that you need to go out and buy any special tools to perforate the wallpaper. No, just go into your kitchen, and find that handy-dandy tool commonly referred to as a cheese-grater.
Many of you don't know this, but a cheese-grater was originally designed for plastered walls. It produced a finish that is hard to mimic by any other means. Time has run its course, and most people, (I dare say, all people) have forgotten it's original intention.
But yes, a cheese-grater, or as it is properly called -- the wall-grater, is the just the tool you need.
Those store bought tools you see now-a'days hardly even touch the wallpaper, but a wall-grater, takes a good solid rip out of the wallpaper, and also gives the frustrated person a good healthy thick sound of tearing at the wall.
Now, I know some of you are thinking -- won't that result in deep grooves in your drywall?
I tell you not to worry.
After finishing with the wall-grater, you should have a nice roughed up finish throughout the respective room that you are working on.
And yes, gypsum (the stuff that drywall is made of) will be prone to falling off the wall, seeing as there is no longer any paper to hold it to the wall. But don't worry.
I'm told that a little bit of plaster, and a healthy coating of oil-based primer will do just the trick to hold it all together.
Of course, if any parts of your wall are still looking a little loose, then a few healthy knocks with a hammer should put it back in its place.
After you have plastered and primed the walls (remember to use an oil-based primer!), your wall should be perfectly prepared for painting. You can use any sort of paint you want by now, because oil-based primer is just the primer, and there is no worry about using latex paint over an alkyd (oil) primer.
And there you have it. A sure-fire method for getting rid of wallpaper, in an expedient manner, resulting in a modern, rough "Texan" finish (everyone is doing this in those southern states where wallpaper was once the rage).
Good luck!

Back to school... Back to school...

So it's been a while since I've had to be in school. Can't say that I relished the idea of heading back when there's still golf to be played, and baseball season ain't over yet, and the basement still has (very hated) wallpaper on it yet.
But anyways.
Last week Friday morning I wasn't expecting any calls from the school board, but just to be sure, I had kept my cell phone beside the bed "Just in case". But I really didn't expect any calls.

Sure enough, at 6:07 am (when I'm getting my best sleep, you know) the cell phone lit up with my 'construction' ringtone (BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP....)(but not like a truck backing up kindof beep ~ it's more of an annoying high pitched beep).

As I said, I wasn't expecting the phone call.
So after fumbling in the dark for the phone, and not finding it where I had left it, and consequently prolonging the agony of beeping, I finally found it, tried to open it up and somehow hanged up.
So I didn't get the call.

Now this morning, sure enough, at 6:07 am, the phone lit up again. (but this time I was prepared) I opened up the phone, and realized that a cell phone's small buttons are really hard to operate in the dark at 6:07 am.

But don't worry. I managed.

So I went to school today.
High School.
First class - Grade 12 English. (I made up stuff about Shakespeare and they ate it up...)(just kidding).
Second class - break.
Third class - baking chocolate chip cookies in home ec. !
Fourth class - annoying grade 10 boys doing seat work and not working quietly.
Fifth class - break again.

And now I'm home again.
Altogether ~ a successful and good first day back at school.

Now I've got to do something about my ringtone.

Funny Pieces

A new book that I think everyone should read, is Stephen Leacock's "Funny Pieces". Look for it in your library. This guy is funny. It's even funnier when you consider that he was writing between wars (1936 is the copyright on this book).
But I can't say too much about it, because I wouldn't give the book enough credit.

Honestly, if you're looking for a humourous writer, and you don't mind skipping a few words that you will not understand (because the words just aren't used anymore), then you should pick up a book by this guy.

(If you like Stuart Maclean, you'll like this guy too)

Satisfaction

The golf course, is one of those places. Where, you can hate something sooo much, but still really have to love it.
Maybe it's part of our instinct, that, if we really suck at something, we need to improve, if only to prove it to ourselves, and thereby get satisfaction.
So satisfaction may be the key to a healthy golf game. When you walk off the course, satisfied, well, there's just something to it. If you walk off the course dissatisfied, well, you'll stay bitter until you get back out there and do it better.
Yesterday, I walked off the course satisfied for two reasons.
1) I started off the game with horrible drives off the tee. (The kind of drives that don't make it past the women's tees)(and worse, didn't even go in a straight line to get there...). This was leaving me terribly unsatisfied ~ because the last time I had been using my driver ~~ a year ago ~~ I had been making pin-straight 200 yard drives. It was costing me my game. My satisfaction. Fortunately, after a Brutal score on the front nine, I managed to regain some of the form I had with a driver one year ago. My back nine score made a dramatic improvement.
2) My short game had made some huge improvements ~ such that I was becoming extremely confident with my sand and lob wedges (Christmas present from Stevin a couple years ago - thanks Stevin). This resulted in one particularly memorable 30 yard chip-in for birdie that was just, oh-so-satisfying.

Now, I'm left feeling unsatisfied because I am at home, on a computer, instead of being on the golf course. Golf, anyone?

The Garden's Produce (or lack thereof)

So, today, our 'vegetable patch' went from looking like this...to looking like this.... A little bit 'uglier?', but hopefully, our abundance of tomato fruits will ripen without all the extra foliage.
We've also had problems with snails and slugs. So... we're starting a collection of eggshells. Hopefully we can get rid of them next and do better with our garden next year. I might try relocating the garden as well.

Only a Few Rooms Left!

Only a few rooms left to paint - These are the next ones.... Found in the basement. These walls feature really ugly wallpapers that really need to disappear.
Below you'll see the floral print in the basement hallway.
And the Pink, Blue, and Yellow Palm Tree print in the basement rec-room.

Today, I managed to pack a TON of stuff into a few small areas found beneath the stairs and around the freezer. Don't expect me to pull out the Christmas decorations any time soon!

OH, Does anybody need a rug? We used the rug (rolled up in picture above) for a year and a half in Jarvis, but now we have no need for it... Speak now, or it's going on Kijiji soon!