As The Year Ends

Cheese Board and Chocolate

Toronto Artist Sculpts with Nova Scotia Snow

Wouldn't every knitter in North America love to have beautiful buttons from France??

French Art Work

Winter Reading

Who could resist earrings chosen by a four year old? I will wear them with pride.

White Christmas

Seventeen centimeters of snow fell in and around metro Halifax today, guaranteeing a White Christmas. The landscape is postcard perfect. We are awaiting the arrival of the Ontario foursome and trying hard not to think of our French family  as we miss them so much. And in this holiday season, we are in awe of Brother's branch of the family, who have been soldiering on in the face of trials and tribulations, and managing in that the same amazing manner that has seen them pulling together and coping so marvellously in the past.

And inside:

Below stairs, for a while this week, there was a different dusting of white:

The festive layer there was crack fill dust.

The hardwood maple staircase is finished now and it is lovely. The maple laminate floor is complete. The ceramic tile has been installed inside the back door. The baseboard heaters are installed. The walls and ceiling have been primed. Next week, the ceiling will be painted, the trim installed, the doors hung, and the electricians will come back to install all the light fixtures, smoke alarms, thermostats, door bell, and activate the all the plugs and switches.

A few post Christmas challenges remain:

1. Assembling the Ikea bookcases, cabinets, chests of drawers, and television bench.

2. Sorting through the large amount of basement "stuff" in rented storage - at least 50% of it will not be coming back! (Maybe Heather Jay would like to have a lovely honey colored Argyle pine cannonball double bed frame???)

3. Choosing a finish color for the walls and painting - I am counting on many consultations over Christmas, with input from everyone at the dinner table.

Ah, Christmas 2011

Candles in the windows, white lights along the walkway

And a dumpster in the driveway!!

Dough Day

The door to the basement is taped as a reminder/warning that there is no longer a staircase on the other side! A lapse of memory could be painful, indeed. The staircase installer is due to arrive tomorrow afternoon.

Since I had to be on site all day as the various trades came and went and, since it was a raw, windy day, I decided it was a good time to set dough to rise.

Assembling the bread  - balls of dough, glazed cherries, pecans

One of my favourite sweet dough recipes is Bubble Bread (aka Monkey Bread - aka Hungarian Bubble Ring). No one else in the family cares for it very much but that doesn't discourage me. I can never understand older people who say "Oh, there's only George and I now. It's not worth the effort" or "There's only me now - hardly any point". It is worth the effort to surround yourself with the things you savour and enjoy.

Bubble Bread rising in a warm, draft-free location

Our stove has an oven "proofing" setting. The oven fan runs periodically to circulate the air. The oven light stays on at that setting and provides just enough warmth for the dough to rise. And you can see from the photo that it has risen considerably!

Out of the oven and glazed with a corn syrup/butter/vanilla mixture.

 The Bubble Bread only requires half the batch of sweet dough so I made a cinnamon/sugar/raisin loaf and a brown sugar/cinnamon/pecan loaf with the second half.

And since I was really on a dough roll, and the ingredients were lining the kitchen counters, I put together a pizza dough for supper.

With just enough time left over to finish off little socks for a Lunenburg baby boy.

This And That

The Pink Princess would approve...

Old World Treats from an old, old booklet that comes out of the cupboard once a year...

Struggling with a neckline

I have made this little cardigan at least four times but, for some reason, I am having a dreadful time picking up the neckband stitches this time. I have picked them up and frogged them so many times that I am going to have to simply compromise now and forge ahead for fear of wearing out the yarn!

Pattern: Clown #05053 by Swedish Yarn Imports

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (Natural) and Lang Jawoll (Navy)

Needles: Circular, 2.5 mm and 3.0 mm

Renovation Days 6 and 7

Potlights

The electricians were here for two days, installing connections for pot lights and central fixtures, wall sconces in the stairwell, plugs, switches, dimmers, and cable outlet. They rewired the central vac outlet, installed an extra light in the laundry room, and, on their return after the gyproc is installed, will replace all the thermostats in the house with up-to-date, programmable ones, all the smoke detectors in the house (we did not know until recently that they should be replaced every ten years) and add an extra smoke/carbon monoxide detector in the laundry area. They are a great pair of young guys who check frequently to make sure we are on the same wavelength, report any placement problems, and offer advice and suggestions.

Early Days of December

On the main level, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas:

And below stairs...

 Day Four: More framing. The closet and door to the laundry room are defined

Day Five: Framing continues.

The light switches and security panel are moved. The half wall appears. It will have small shelves for dropping off birdseed, gloves, hats etc. throughout the day. The window is framed.

The bulkhead is framed.

 

The stairwell wall is cut back to the third step to open the area up more at the foot of the stairs.

The central vac outlet is relocated.

Basement Reno - The Early Days

Day One:
We have a very, very good feeling about Blunden Construction. The estimator, Mark, has been excellent to deal with and he makes a point of visiting the job site once or twice a day. He keeps the homeowners informed about exactly what will be happening each day and liases with all the trades and suppliers for us in the most efficient and easy manner.
A team arrived early and spent the day jacking the house up along the load bearing wall in the basement, using both wood and metal posts. An electrician was called in to unhook the central vac outlet, light switch, and thermostat - all of which were fastened to studs on that load bearing partition. A plumber came, dismantled the two baseboard water heaters and discovered the first (and hopefully) only problem - that those heaters were "looped" into the heater in the basement office. So additional plumbing work was required there but the problem was quickly resolved.

Day Two:

The team arrived at what will now be their usual time - 7 a.m. each morning! The better part of the day was spent installing the steel beam with a jack lift. Mark stressed that this beam preparation and installation is the most important and most difficult part of the project. It was a tricky manoever as the extremely heavy (600+ pound!) steel beam had to be snugged in beside the metal ducts of the ventilation system. They also started insulating and installing a vapor barrier between the cement pony wall and existing drywall.

Day Three

 Studding begins. We also asked this morning if an eavestrough problem outside the basement door could be resolved by the company while they were here. By mid-afternoon, they had an extension ladder on site and the offending eavestrough was hooked into a higher one that runs the length of the garage.