Demolition Preceed Renovations

Call me cheap, I guess.  I'm saving $1500.00 by doing the demolition of our two bathrooms preceding the construction.  So far I've taken down the ceiling in the rooms below to allow the plumbing and electrical work to proceed.  There used to be a dropped ceiling there, which we will raise to full height and sound proof the ceiling so anyone living beneath us isn't disturbed by our wild parties....ha ha.

Today I pried up a glued down parquet floor and removed the tiles from around the jacuzzi.  Oh yeah, I stripped the cedar from the walls and around the skylights.  It felt like a 30 year old sauna...but now it feels like a construction zone.

I have been sleeping in each morning and get pretty tired after 8 hours of this kind of work.  I've been skipping my aerobics classes, but still wake with the odd sore muscle.  Tearing drywall off the ceiling is good for the abs.  And, even though I say "45 forever", I know I had more stamina at 45 than I do at 65.

Happy Anniversary 15th

This is the second marriage for both of us; the first being 28 years before ending our first ones.  So the vows we made 15 years ago when Poul and I married were, " for 28 years, or until someone better comes along".  So far, no one better has come along and we have another 13 years before we re-evaluate. 

We celebrated with a two and a half hour meal at a fantastic Greek Restaurant, Asteras on Wesley St.  Not only was the food fantastic, but the atmosphere and staff were very Greek, and the service terrific without being intrusive.


We celebrated on the 18th of Sept. but our anniversary is really Sept. 16th.  But Poul had Writing Club and I had sub-trades to interview for our renovation and our good friends, George and Cheryl, who joined us, were good to go on Saturday.  One must remain flexible.

There's GOLD in them Colorado hills!

Just got back from the Rocky Mountain Senior Games Basketball Tournament in Greeley Colorado with the Celadrin Tigerettes.  We all flew into Denver on Thursday Sept. 9th.  We stayed at the Marriott Suites and each of us had a room to ourselves with large TV in the room but with shared kitchen and bathrooms between three of us.  We had a great dinner at the Keg and since Loretta is celebrating a birthday (either 71 or 73 depending on who you ask), we shared an amazing chocolate dessert after.

Before we could leave Denver in the morning, we appeared on the DayBreak show for KWGN- TV.  You can catch the Celadrin Tigerettes news clip

The Tournament in Greeley was held in a beautiful city owned community center.  We played four games in two days and won them all though it was some of the toughest competition.  New Mexico Blue Jays won the bronze, Rocky Mountain High Tops from Colorado won Silver and by winning the Gold, we brought our 12 year record to 180 wins, 5 losses.  I have only been with the team for 7 years but this weekend I contributed well averaging 15 points a game.  We stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Greeley, and celebrated Loretta's birthday again at the Red Lobster restaurant.  More chocolate!  But after the tournament finished, before showering, I drove the 10 passenger van back to Denver.  I love my Magellan GPS which I bought at Costco.  It makes traveling in strange cities enjoyable, knowing you can never get lost or be late for anything.

Celebrating the birthday girl for the third time at another posh restaurant in downtown Denver, we laughed until chocolate came out of our noses.  Even though we had showered, we still wore our warm up jackets and medals and people continually asked us about the games.  Some had even seen us on TV the day before.

We were up at 4:30 AM this morning to get us all to our 8 AM flights and return the Van on time.  I flew with Air Canada though United covered the flight between Denver and Vancouver.  What's up with that?  Neither that flight, nor the one over to Nanaimo were filled so I had a seat to myself both ways.  So good to get home to my reupholstering and renovating projects.

Reupholstering Project

Sometimes we hold on to things because of the memories attached.  We make it fit appropriately in our current lives, our updated styles, our desire to have everything in it's designated spot.  When Mom passed in May, I latched on to an ugly chartreuse armchair which had been patched but still showed worn areas on the arms.  It was not one of those big over-stuffed jobs, just a tidy little rocking swivel chair that always sat beside the fireplace at Mom's.  But where would it fit in our westcoast contemporary (that's what we have decided to call our design choice) home that is being gradually remodelled to fit my image of home?  I say my image because it was, at the time of purchase, nearly perfect for my husband, Poul.  Every change has been a push and one by one, our rooms have been updated.  We have, until now, done all of the work ourselves.  Now, Poul has admitted that he is the bottleneck due to his perfectionist working style.  We are contracting with a construction company to do the changes required to bring our bathrooms into this century.  And that's where the chair comes in.
The chair is in the process of being dismantled as I take photos and notes to allow me to reverse the process with a lovely fabric to coordinate with my bathroom.  It's actually the ensuite bathroom, but with only two of us living in the house, we have designated the hall bathroom to Poul and I get the one with the skylights off the master bedroom.  It's such a luxury, having one's own bathroom.  And now that my grandkids and my daughter have moved out on their own,  I have a workroom for my project and a spare bedroom to allow us to escape the mess of demolition.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and the vision of the finished chair clearly planted in my mind.  I have never undertaken such a complicated upholstering project before.  I suppose you could say that they don't make chairs like this anymore.  The sticker on the bottom of the chair reads that Mom bought it in 1977.  More to follow on this as I progress.