Blogging is Wonderful

As I was reading all my favourite blogs over the weekend I checked out one of more recent additions Are We Nearly There Yet? and she was talking about Haiti and gave this great link. If you would like to help this is a small but hopefully effective effort.

When I popped by on Saturday to donate they hadn't quite reached their initial goal of 1 Shelter Pack. I just checked the site, and they now have enough for SIX packs. I know it seems like a drop in the ocean but every little helps and maybe these will actually reach someone, rather than be stuck in the bottle neck that is currently Port Au Prince airport.

It's these wonderful efforts, experiences and people that have made blogging a truly rewarding journey for me. I am so glad I started reading them, and then joining them, more than two years ago now, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon, even though some of my absolute favourite ones have decided to do so.

January

France seems a long way away right now, both in distance and time. But we did have a very productive week managing to organize quotes on various jobs which it would be great if we could get underway before we return, hopefully in late March. So the beams were done, the guy turned up right on time just as we were trying to seal up all the doors etc to avoid as much mess as possible. We could have saved ourselves the time and effort, believe me the mess and dust goes everywhere, was on every surface.

These are the beams in their original condition when we first saw the house, covered in a thick nasty varnish, but they are a beautiful shape, curved in the shape of the tree from which they were cut.

This is the mess you are left with once the sand blasting guy leaves. This stuff is copper slag, they don't actually use sand as it contains silica, which is believed to be a carcinogen. It was 2 to 3 inches deep across the entire room.

We didn't bother to cover up stuff in the kitchen believing the door and the taping would contain the dust. But no, if you click on the picture for a closer view you can see every item has had a dusting. No amount of wiping or mopping quite did the trick. We went out the next day and bought a vacuum cleaner and another industrial mop and things finally started to feel clean.

However we are very pleased with the result. We were worried that there had been some woodworm in the past but everyone we mention that to says its solid oak, try hammering a nail in! So I guess we don't have to worry. We are getting a devis to put insulation in, and board and plaster between the beams. They are about 7-8 inches deep at the moment and that will leave about 4+ inches exposed once the work is done. We have a definite feeling that things are moving on. We also spoke to a carpenter about making and installing a staircase again in oak. It is planned that the staircase will go from the door in the left hand picture above towards the left wall and then turn for three more steps and through to upstairs. The devis arrived this week and it is not far off what we expected considering he also has to open up the ceiling and do some work to cut and support the present beams.

Meanwhile back here in the real world, I am doing a real estate course designed to help me get business by referral rather than prospecting around to find clients. It is interesting but it is taking me outside my comfort zone.

Oh by the way........ if you are thinking of buying or selling a home, or you know of a friend or family member who is, just give me a call with their name and number and I will be happy to follow up. :)

Till next time....

We Survived!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is feeling hopeful and positive about the coming year.

Our trip to France was very successful, not least in the fact that we managed to avoid snow on both the way into and out of the UK on our way to the house. We flew into Heathrow and were picked up by friends who live close by and where we leave our van between visits. Good friends obviously. They cooked up a full English for us while we sat around and chatted and caught up with each other, loaded our van full of kindling and firelighters they had found for us, and saw us on our way to Dover to catch the midday ferry to Boulogne.

Feeling shattered after the overnight flight, we managed to doze for most of the ferry crossing and re-charge our batteries for the next step of the journey, to get south of Paris before stopping for the night.

We have to admit to a certain trepidation about our trip at this point, just how cold and damp and uncomfortable was our little piece of France going to be for a week in December? After an early start on the Monday morning, we set off south, stopped for an hour to pick up some supplies in Leclerc, an electric fire, tools for the fireplace, gas/petrol for the chain saw, wine etc. and we made it to the house around 1pm. You could see your breath on the air and that was inside the house. However, hubby got to work with his chain saw and soon we had the woodburner roaring, electric fires cranked up, bedding hanging around to air and a hot cup of tea to cheer us up.

See how cosy - wouldn't you love to be greeted by this after a 9hr journey?

By the time our son and friend, who drove all the way from Tignes in the Alps (9 hours), arrived around 9pm, the place was very cosy. We cooked up dinner on the barbecue, finished off a few bottles of wine and had a good long chat with him. It was great to see him, he was pleased with his new Christmas/Birthday laptop and to see all his snowboarding gear. Unfortunately due to his and his friend's work schedule, they had to get up early the very next morning and head back to the mountains!

We needed an early start ourselves that morning anyway as the sand blasting was scheduled to start at 9am and we had to clear the room and seal all doors etc.

Next!!

Christmas has come and gone in the SITH household. Lots of fun, good food, good company and lovely pressies. We should really re-name it "Annika day" as she cleaned up on the present and entertainment front.

So now it is on to France, we are packing a motley selection of items into our cases, bedding, tools, a gas/petrol canister (empty of course). teabags,etc. We are prime candidates for getting our suitcases inspected but these are the ingredients for a productive week in France.

Will report back when I return. We are excited that our son, currently located in the French alps, is making a flying trip over to see us (and pick up laptop we bought him!!) so that will make our festivities complete.

Next job is to drop off the dog and all his paraphanaelia (?) to my kind friend who is dog-sitting for us and make a quick turkey sandwich before we head off.

Have a happy New Year everyone.

One More Thing

The Christmas list is done and dusted. No more trips to the mall, and maybe only one more to the grocery store. Hubby managed to escape the UK before all hell let loose and the snow totally snarled everything up. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the backlog will have subsided by next weekend, and hopefully less people will be traveling so we can catch our ferry to France without too much delay.

We now have to wrap all the presents, the turkey has started the defrosting process and I am beginning to feel on top of things - on the Christmas front that is. We do still have a little side trip to Home Depot to get supplies for France! We are assuming that all the stores will be closed for the best part of next week over there.

Hubby took some photos of our rendered wall when he was last in France and it is looking good. Hopefully I will have some exciting shots of freshly sandblasted beams when we return. I know try to contain your excitement.

The plan is to stay at the house until we are fed up of being cold and have at least ticked a few things off our to do list, hopefully hook up with our eldest son may if he can make it over from where he is working in the Alps in Tignes, before heading back to the UK for a day or two then back to Canada.

It seems more likely at the moment that we will have a whiter Christmas in France than we are having here in southern Ontario. It keeps falling out of the sky but thankfully not settling, just the way I like it - kind of virtual snow!

Anyway if you do drop by over the next few days, I wish you and your families safe and happy Christmas. Do leave a little note so that I know you were here.

Merry Christmas to One and All!

She's making a list....she's checking it twice!

I am a list-maker, it is how I organize my life. I find it tremendously satisfying to cross things off, and great sense that all is well with the world - is this normal.....sad.....scary....? I sometimes even add things, just so I can cross them off!

The Christmas/holiday to do list is coming together nicely. I have bought/ordered almost all the presents which are currently on the list, As you know there always others that have to be added last minute.

I did charity gifts to my nieces and nephews in the UK. I was thinking of sending cash, but didn't like how unthoughtful it would appear and then I remembered a gift my brother sent last year, a donation in my name to get vaccinations for children. I remember it being my favourite present, I loved the idea. So I searched around for some appropriate charities and that's what I did, for my nephews I donated money for footballs (soccer balls) to needy children and to my nieces, education and health donations. I think they are all old enough to appreciate that there are children worse off than them.

Also managed to arrange to get work done while we are in France. We arrive (after a two day trip) on the Monday after Christmas and the sandblasting guys will be there 9am on Tuesday (I know this is France ...on the week between Christmas and New Year but I have all my fingers and toes crossed). Hubby is buying himself a chain saw (hubby Christmas gift .....check) to reduce all the firewood to a manageable size, we will be usng that quite a bit. Also in the hope that the sandblasting proceeds, we have selected paint for him to purchase in the UKm having read all the blogs that say that French paint is not so good.

So apart from the stocking stuffers for youngest son (yep - the 17 yr old) and a few more items for granddaughter, it is just the food to be bought. How big a turkey does one get when having people to Christmas lunch but then flying away the next day. We usually buy large in order to enjoy cold turkey for several days (weeks) after.

When I was unpacking at this end I noticed that I didn't have many photos of my youngest son, that is probably because he lives with me and I see him all the time, unlike the other son, so I searched and found this lovely picture of my three great children on a wonderful day and I thought I would share.

Progress....

So I bit the bullet and put up the Christmas Tree, mainly because the boxes were cluttering up the living room and it was either do it or store them away and my conscience wouldn't let me store away the Christmas stuff in December! I have even bought and wrapped a few presents. Who knew!! And what do you know....it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I took the photo above so you could see the tree in context but I must say I prefer it when it looks like this, with the lights dimmed, much more magical.

From this photo it looks like I put blue baubles all down one side, but that is just the light from the window doing that, all my baubles are silver. Then I have a few touches of red.

Hubby is in France this weekend. He drove over through the channel tunnel with his brother. He has to take the van back regularly to keep the insurance valid, but also of course to check on the house. It is a long drive from the UK so that part I am not looking forward to at Christmas, especially after a transatlantic flight! The end wall has been rendered and made watertight and he is pleased with the results, he has been instructed to take photos so I am sure some will follow. Surprise, surprise a lot of the weeds were back up in the front courtyard, but I guess that was inevitable but he did say the plants we put in in July have come on quite a bit, again photos have been demanded.

He also managed to speak to Steve, one of our many contacts there, regarding the next phase on the inside work, making an opening for the staircase, and renovating the floor/ceiling to the main living room so that we can start the framing for the bedrooms. I doubt much will be done before we arrive in December, in fact I don't really want an opening in the ceiling as hubby says it is pretty cold right now. His brother and him are both sleeping in their clothes. Doesn't that sound appealing, roll on December 26th.