Kitchen Reno b4 & After

Here's the latest kitchen photo update just after the Caesarstone countertops were installed today.





















Compare with the night we took possession of the house way back on Nov. 11, 2002. That was even before I had a digital camera!

Check out the funky 80's range!
















I'd say that's a pretty dramatic "Before" and "After".

Sammy and Ozzy

I’ve been looking at this photo repeatedly ever since I took it, so I thought it was high time I shared it. It’s already posted on the Metro Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group site, but it needs more exposure. It’s just such a happy photo. It always makes me smile.

Sammy and Ozzy are half-siblings. They are 2 years apart in age and share either the same father of mother; I can’t remember which. The pair is owned by a couple with a small baby. At the ‘All Cocker Christmas Meet-up’ last Saturday Colleen told me they have matching sweaters for all 5 family members: Mom, Dad, baby and two Spaniels. Wouldn’t that make a great Christmas card!

I draw the line at dressing up dogs, but sweaters are OK in my book during cold winter weather, especially after a visit to the dog groomer. Shelby’s going to need a sweater on Saturday after her visit to Happy Tails. She’s long overdue for a trim.

Kitchen reno update

It's been a while since I posted an update photo of the new kitchen. It's coming along nicely. Countertops got measured and templated yesterday. They will be installed next Tuesday, then the backsplash tile can be applied.

Christmas is coming and it looks like it will be 95% finished so we can use it.

Metro Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group

I recently accepted the position of leader/organizer of a local Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group in Vancouver, BC.

http://www.meetup.com/cockerspaniel-107/

Sue, the originator of the group, stepped down due to more than a full plate of activities requiring her attention, not the least of which is caring for her father-in-law who is afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. He lives with them.

Until 2 years ago I had never even heard of Meet-up Groups. I can’t remember how I found out about them; technology changes unbelievably quickly these days. Some things I don’t even have time to participate in before something else takes its place.

Case in point, Facebook. I was never really interested in it in the first place (I think I’m too old and cranky for it), but now Twitter has shown up. And to tell you the truth, I’m not interested in it either. Oh, and don’t forget about Texting. Don’t get me started. I’m just proud of myself that I figured out how to input names and numbers into my cellphone address book (pat on the back).

An email recently was sent to all members of the Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group that it would shut down in two weeks if a new organizer didn’t step up to the plate. I gave it some thought for about a week. My decision is based on my devotion to my dog, Shelby.

She was really the inspiration for me taking up the internet search for a group of dog owners. Our last dear Spaniel (also coincidentally named Shelby) passed away almost 2 years ago, and we found out about our current Shelby shortly thereafter. She was 1-1/2 years old and needed a new home. We drove to Vancouver, WA to get her.

Long story short, I wanted to socialize her with other dogs and figured a group of same breed dogs would be fun. And it has been!

When I learned that the Cocker Spaniel Meet-up Group might end, I just couldn’t let that happen. So now I’m the Organizer.

We just had our first Meet-up under my direction, and I’m happy to report it was a success. Eight Spaniels brought their people to Angus Park (aka Fraser River Park) in Vancouver, BC. They all got along famously and the weather was sunny. A bit cold, but a big improvement from the month of November when it seemed the rain would never end. Last Saturday would have been a wash-out.

Like they say, timing is everything.

Update regarding "Soggy News"

Success! My Courier newspaper was tossed onto my front steps, under the roof overhang this morning, as requested.

The squeaky wheel got the grease, so to speak.

The next test, of course, will be delivery during the rain. This morning was cold and clear.

Just another soggy news day

I've been having trouble with the delivery to my home of our local neighbourhood newspaper during this very wet Autumn. While I consider myself to be a reasonably patient person, I must admit I had had my fill last week. The following are 2 letters I sent to their circulation department, complete with photos:

First letter dated Nov. 24th

"Dear Vancouver Courier,

I have resisted the urge to complain about my home delivery of the Courier in the past largely because it’s not a paid subscription. But recent rainfall, combined with the lack of a basic standard of delivery service has prompted me to point out that my area carrier is getting paid for a job poorly done.

Last Wednesday I noticed the paper had not been delivered. On Thursday I noticed it still had not arrived. Then on Friday evening, upon arriving home in the rain from work, I was greeted by a sodden lump of newsprint in the middle of my front sidewalk. But what really annoyed me was Tuesday morning (yesterday), as I walked up the side of the house to exit the yard, there was Wednesday’s paper, lying between the fence and garden, nowhere near the front door or even the sidewalk! (photo attached)

Our front door has a generous overhang, and it really doesn’t take much effort to open the gate, and take 3 or 4 steps before lobbing the paper so it lands in a dry place. Is requesting dry delivery of a free newspaper asking too much? Because really, if it’s not delivered dry, what’s the point?

I realize it’s a free paper, but it’s not like you don’t pay your paper carriers. Your advertisers no doubt spend a lot of money to have their ads inserted into the Courier, and people don’t read sodden lumps of newsprint. They go straight in the recycling bin.

Thank you for your attention."

That wasn't too harsh, was it?

Letter No. 2 dated Nov. 25th

"Dear Vancouver Courier,

Well, it happened again last light; a sodden lump of newsprint was left on the topsoil beside my front walk (see attached photo) about 10 feet away from my dry front door overhang. I figured I might as well have some creative fun with writing this evening since I don’t have a legible edition of The Courier to read.

I was thinking, my neighbours and I would be just as well served by our local paper carrier if he were to simply dump his bundles of papers in a ravine somewhere rather than go to the trouble of walking the city sidewalks lobbing newspapers onto wet residential front walks in November downpours. At least he’d save some fossil fuel by not having to drive to our ‘hood.

If you insist upon delivering The Courier twice a week to my doorstep, which I’m quite happy to receive under normal circumstances, could you please (at least reasonably) ensure that the paper is dry? Otherwise, as I asked in my last complaint, what’s the point? Yesterday the bundle containing newspaper plus Christmas flyers was so waterlogged I couldn’t even separate the pages.

In stark contrast, my Vancouver Sun was waiting for me this morning completely dry on my doorstep (see other attached photo), a mere 10 feet away from the wet resting place of the Courier.

Of course, it’s a paid subscription, but it’s not like it requires any expensive special equipment to deliver a dry paper. The same delivery tool set applies both to free and subscribed newspapers. I know; I was a paper carrier myself for several years in my teens.

And I never left a newspaper in the middle of a sidewalk in the pouring rain.

Thank you for your time."

OK, it probably was a bit harsh, but I have a very low tolerance for poor service. But I stand by my conviction that there's no point doing the job if the end result of said effort has no purpose whatsoever, e.g. providing an unreadable newspaper. It only incites frustration in the homeowner, and creates more work to retrieve the sodden lump and throw it out.

The reason this whole newspaper thing burns my britches probably stems from my pre-teens when I took on a job delivering a free neighbourhood weekly, The White Rock Sun. I think I must've been around 12.

I vividly remember one incident in particular. It was a hot afternoon and I was walking my route with a fully stuffed canvas newspaper bag slung over my shoulder. I walked up the driveway, veered onto the concrete sidewalk, and lobbed the paper onto the front doorstep (a covered doorstep, I might add). No sooner had I turned around to exit the yard than the front door and screen door whipped open and an elderly woman’s voice said. “Young man! Do you realize that my newspaper blows all over the yard when you throw it on my steps? You’ll open the screen door and slide it through the mail slot next time, or your manager is going to hear about it!”

The door closed before I could say anything. And really, what could a twelve year old have said in defense? I had only been trying to do a good job. On windy days I did regularly take precautions by slipping the paper under the corner of a front door mat, or looking for a rock with which I could anchor the paper.

Of course, I'm sure my memory is crystal clear on that event some 30 years ago, and in my mind I had done all that I could to ensure that an intact and dry weekly edition of The White Rock Sun reached all those intended.

So, in firing off a couple of letters to the circulation department this past week, I must say I did so with some trepidation. I didn’t want to adopt that ”cranky senior citizen” stereotype. I may have sprouted a few grays since becoming a homeowner, but I like to think I’m encouraging a base level of service for me and my neighbours, by expecting the same service from my local carrier as I delivered when I was twelve.

New kitchen progress update

The kitchen is progressing nicely. We’re reasonably on schedule. But there are always a few unforeseen things that pop up. We had to remove all the original plaster from the walls, whereas we were only going to remove it from the exterior walls so we could install more efficient insulation and a vapour barrier. Also, the original shiplap floor boards were deemed to be insufficiently stable, due to shrinkage and cracks. They wouldn’t have been strong enough and stable enough to support our new tile floor. We replaced them with new, thicker plywood.


Currently all the gypsum board has been installed, and has had a couple of coats of drywall mud applied and sanded. We (my contractor and me) decided that all the seams and corners didn’t need to be filled and sanded because, realistically, many of them are going to completely covered by either tile, cabinetry or wood trim. That’ll save us a bit of time.

Once the ceiling drywall is filled and sanded sufficiently I can paint it, and then the tile floor can be installed. Cabinetry is due to be delivered on Dec. 4. Appliances arrive Nov. 28. The cabinetry installer wants the appliances on site so he can be 100% sure of their dimensions. Nobody wants him to have to remove and re-install a cabinet due to tight clearances.

Having a usable kitchen by Christmas is still a possibility at his point. Cabinetry installation is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 7. Then our solid surface countertops get templated and will take about 10 business days (2 weeks) to fabricate. That takes us to Dec. 21. Then the only major item left will be the installation of the backsplash tile.

I’m not sure what my contractor’s schedule will be that close to Christmas, but at least we’ll be able to use the room for the holidays.

I love it when a plan comes together.