It's been Awesome

I thinks my stiff and sore-ness has finally ebbed away.  No the only complaint I can use is my bum is sore from sitting and playing No Mans Sky all day. Ok I have been busy doing a few other things a well but not many.

Tyler and I have been driving out to a few hiking trails to try out and get a little exercise and came home to this beautiful sun set last week. 

Looking over Barrington Straight

But for most part we have fog (and I mean wet soupy fog) until about 2pm them lighter fog until 6pm then back to dense fog for the evening and night again.  One thing about it is that it makes Cape Sable Island a lot cooler than the mainland. Where they are having heat warnings we are having highs of 24C.  Not to be fooled though that sun is still hot enough to burn through as I learnt sitting out on the deck a few afternoons ago. 

Still having fun with acrylic pours and experimenting with colors.  Here are to 2 new pictures made this past week.

Used lots of silver

Dark and moody

Tyler has been busy job hunting and working on a new program.....  way over my pay grade.  I did apply for one drafting job but am not hopeful as being out of the work force for over 10 years does not make for a great resume.  But you never know.

We have also been house hunting in Saint John for the past while and am off tomorrow to look at a few that the realtor has set up for us.  Need one with a large enough room for a longarm again.  Although wont be able to afford one until this house sells.   Hopefully in a warm house in the city by winter. Fingers crossed.  

Slow week this week

Nothing much to report as its only been a few days since my last post.

All this talk about our new car "Luna" thought a picture was in order.

Had a fair amount of wildlife the past few days including deer and rabbits. Maybe I've just been more observant with less renos to do. 

Our local rabbits passing through

We've been thinking about Saint John a lot and are now actively looking for a place. We walked into the Yarmouth credit union and got a soft "yes" for a mortgage. Not having a job isn't the greatest but with the house it gives us enough borrowing power. There's a bunch of to dos for and hoops for us before it'll get approved (like realtor home appraisal). Sent a local realtor a few places that we wanted to see and will drive back to check them out when she has a chance to organize viewings for us. And finally turning my attention to Saint John for my career search. I think I can speak for mum and I when I say Looking forward to our next hop back to Saint John in the near future! 

This weeks big goal is to fix the hole in the workroom wall where the window used to be. We're going to do another pour like the counters and frame it into the wall to make it look like a picture.

Back from Vacation

Looking back at my photos we took virtually no pictures while on our trip. Oops 😶

We did, however, have a great time in Saint John, NB. We ended up going several days early and stayed up at the university residence summer hotel. Apparently that's a thing and if you are travelling and want to stay someplace on the cheap it can be a good option. Or not (later). The res was actually quite nice even if it lacked AC and was quite hot. But for $50 a night it was quite reasonable and the student staff were helpful and pleasant. We saw a couple of open houses (which is why we went early) and I totally found our next forever home! However chances are by the time this one goes it'll be gone too as it was a great catch. Oh well....

We stayed two nights at res before moving down to the Delta hotel in Uptown (which is down from everywhere but they call it uptown because in the olden days they had to walk 'up' a little hill from the shore to get to the shops and such). Huge improvement from res and with AC! haha. It's a pretty small city but there are lots of pubs and restaurants and has a fun vibe to it. Had a great time bar hopping and wandering around. 

Britt's Pub & Eatery Rockwood by the University

Made it to the Saint John reversing waterfall (Which should be called reversing rapids as the waterfall is underwater). It was cool. Talked mum into walking the 5 km to get up there which almost killed mum under the hot sun by the time we got up there. Had a pint and watched the water change direction before catching the bus back to uptown. 

After a few days of exploring we headed back towards home. We stopped in Amherst for breakfast and wandered around. It is a cool artsy place and surprisingly large for only 10,000. We had planned to stay in the Dalhousie Agricultural University in Truro but when we checked in it was smelly, hot and stuffy even with a window open so we handed the key back to the girl at the desk and continued home. It was kind of too bad as we had wanted to check out Truro but maybe next time. 

At least from Saint John to Home it's only about 6 ½ hours driving time so while a long day by our standards totally doable. The new Soul, which we've named Luna, was a pleasure to drive and I only really freaked mum out a few times! But there was no fist shaking or horns honking so I don't think I did too bad. 😝

Home was nice. Sad to be out of the city but so so happy to see the Kitties! Sam immediately was at the door "I want to go outside. I want to go outside! Like now, lets go!" So we hung out on the deck as they wandered and grazed in their little harnesses. Today they are both super happy to see us and zooming all over the house showing off. 

This week I'm not sure whats on the docket. A few more finishing touches and a lot more hassling the realtor!

Hopes and dreams dashed... a consolidation and Before & After Pt. 3

Old Upstairs Hall	Upstairs Hall
Old Upstairs Hall (To 1)	Upstairs Hall (To 1)
Old Upstairs Hall (To 3)	Upstairs Hall (To 3)
Old Bedroom 1	Bedroom 1
Old Bedroom 2	Bedroom 2
Old Bedroom 2	Bedroom 2
Old Bedroom 2	Bedroom 2
Old Bedroom 3	Bedroom 3
Old Bedroom 3	Bedroom 3
Old Upstairs Bathroom Bath	Upstairs Bathroom Bath
Old Upstairs Bathroom Vanity	Upstairs Bathroom Vanity
Old Upstairs Bathroom Shower	Upstairs Bathroom Shower

Well this concludes our before and after series of our Newellton house renos! Its been quite an adventure and I have learned a lot about what goes into a house and not to be so afraid of hurting anything! It can be rebuilt. Better, faster, stronger!

its been up for 3 weeks now and so far two cancelled showings with one booked for either this or next Friday. I didn't think it'd sell right away but the lack of showings has me a bit discouraged 😔 but don't worry I'm not loosing hope yet! I just have to remind myself that we're not in the Vancouver market... things don't move as fast here.

Meanwhile we got papers for the Motorhome and had her on the road yesterday to get an inspection. The diagnoses: needs a new windshield to pass. For what she's been through and sitting here next to salty water for a year she is in amazing shape!

Meanwhile my little Kia popped out on me and needed new brakes and then the AC died. So they refilled it and I didn't made it 10 minutes on the highway before the condenser blew. Opened the hood and found grease everywhere (Which managed to get onto the windshield and wipers as well)! OMG so made an appointment to have it all cleaned up and fix the AC again. So yesterday I followed mum to the inspection place and on the way home we could smell burning and it got worse and worse. Pulled over. Opened the hood. Met with a billow of smoke. The friggen grease got everywhere including the drive belt. Thankfully it didn't light anything on fire and we gave it some time to cool down before limping back to Kia (It was a short distance thankfully).

They have been great and gave me a loaner car while it gets sorted out.

In conjunction with this we were doing a cost estimate on taking the motorhome on a full time vacation for a few months again... It would cost us over $5000 a month between the gas and finding places to stay. There is almost nowhere that's free unless you like parking lots. So mum popped into the sales manager and asked what kind of a trade in we could get. After a bit of negotiation we decided to trade in the Motorhome and car for a brand new Kia Soul. It was hard to decide to give up the motorhome but the cost of travelling around in her we can make smaller trips and stay in a nice hotel for way less. So in for a consolidation we're doing to drive around to Saint John, NB next week and stay downtown for 3 days.

Tomorrow we go back to Kia and say goodbye to the Furgs and pick up our new car. I'm getting a bit choked up sitting here writing about it...

There she goes happy as punch to be back on the road. 

Don't drink and blog

I will tell you of our adventures tomorrow...

A Ditch and Before & After Pt. 2

Yesterday was ditch digging day *yay!* It was for the sump pump drain and the theory goes that when it rains the sump pump will drain into that dry well, which is a hole filled with gravel, and then bleed off into the surrounding ground which is far enough from the house that it won't seep back again. And if it really rains because the hold is a few feet below the pump exit against the house it'll flood the yard which then drains away from the house into the ditch. The pictures don't show it but there's almost a 2 foot bank that the ditch goes down before the dry well.

I tried to cut the grass into blocks so we could put them back and Mum did a really good job matching them back so there is hardly a line which won't take long to grow over. I still have to get out there and move all that dirt that was left over after laying the gravel bed and 4" pipe but I can hardly move this morning... You'd think after a year of manual labour my body would be used to it by now!

Now onto the good stuff! Here's a few before and after picks of the downstairs:

Mud Room	Mud Room
Kitchen Old 360
Kitchen	Kitchen
Kitchen
Kitchen Old	Kitchen New
Lower Bathroom	Lower Bath now laundry
Dining Room	Dining Room
Foyer	Foyer
Stairs	Stairs
Living Room	Living Room
Sitting Room	Sitting Room

The dining room was the only room we didn't really do much to. I liked the country style look so we decided to keep it.

Oh! And we exchanged the battery in the motorhome and she fired right up no problems! So today maybe we'll move it aroundcloser to the door so we can look at moving into it. And tomorrow I have to take my Kia in for new brake pads, an undercoat, and ugh the AC is on its last legs so I need them to take a look at it as well. While we're in Yarmouth we are going to stop in at the DMV and see about getting plates for the motorhome.

Sam thinking he's a lot smaller than he actually is.