Ethnic day

Chloe's daycare had a dress in your ethnic costume day. Corinne jumped in to a new art with both feet and sewed up a great traditional Alsacien (from Alsace-Lorraine in the north east of France. ) outfit complete with a too cute bow (not sure if the pink slippers are authentic though). Chloe took a bit to get used to the apron idea but then really loved wearing it all day and then some.

This week in kitchen

Sun. Nov. 14: nothin' much in the kitchen. Spent most the day with the kids at Mom's.

Mon. 15th: Corinne and I pick out a great faucet and finally found light fixtures. We just can't decide on a paint colour. Dmitry came by and finished up all the cabinet work he could (I'm still waiting on 2 doors and a drawer from Ikea).

Tues. 16th: The Granite guys arrived, even a little early. 3 guys and 5 hours later we have countertop and sink! I pickup some plumbing bits to piece together. Microwave goes back in.

Wed 17th: I go to pick up a Jacuzzi Bathtub. I now realize it's not really going to fit in the kitchen. I move the door handle up a few inches as it was just the right height to crack the new countertop. Fridge goes into it's new spot with new water hook up. Try to connect the cooktop but the wires were cut too close so it will be more complicated than planned and will wait.

Plumbing night. I got the pipes soldered in and all the drain pipe cut and connected and none of my pipe joints leak!

Thur. 18th: a slow start driving back and forth several times exchanging parts at Rona and Lowes. I finally got the faucet and garburator connected. I turned the water on to find that I should have changed the old shutoff valves when I had the chance as one leaks and now it's buried behind pipes and wiring. I'll figure that one out tomorrow. I get the dishwasher connected and installed regardless of the drip. Rip up the 2 floor tiles with the holes in them from under the old island.

Fri. 19th: Went to HomeDepot to solve the plumbming drips and bought a $40 of compression fittings (for backup) incase the soldered versions I also bought didn't take (wasn't too bad the first time but now I'd have to remove the old leaky valves and re-solder under the sink in the middle of pipes, drians and electrical) as I didn't want to have the water shut off all day. A last min thought from the homedepot associate, "If the shut offs were old enough you could probably just replace the washer." Remember washers? Way back before our disposable life took over? Sure enough a 99 cent pack o' mixed washers and 5 min later, problem solved. I put in the replacement floor tiles. Still waiting on Ikea for a few things. Started install of new light fixtures over the peninsula. finished touch ups to hole in the door from the old handle placement. We still can't decide on paint colour(s).

Sat 20th: Electrician says he'll come by for a check on cooktop connections and a dead outlet and we should be good to go electrically. Lot's of little things left to do. Cleaning and drawer and cabinet organizers are on the days to do list, as is some unknown colour of paint.

Sunday night is my imaginary 3 week deadline to be back eating in the kitchen again. It'll be close.

cookin' in the mini kitchen because...

The next set of pics from the reno.

Here's dad making pancakes on a hotplate. Somehow reminds me of second year University living in a some guy's garage...
Finishing my bulkhead removal. the new deep pantry will cover the duct.
sink pipes had to be removed so I learned how to solder plumbing.
and the cabinets start to go in.

Serge hanging the uppers
Dimitry working on the lowers.
my cement pad for the dishwasher.

all the cabinet boxes are in.
the doors start to go on.

pics to go with the notes below

pics are reversed as that's the way blogger loads them. can you tell I'm proud of my removal of the bulkhead and drywalling?

Where'd our kitchen go?

the tapers pop in for a little skim coat.

I removed that silly microwave corner.
step one was to cut a hole in the ceiling so I could stick a camera in there and find out what was in that anoying bulhead over the pantry. result is...nothing. just one duct at one end. bulkhead goes....

Wanna Get In The Mood?

La Nouvelle Cuisine

Here's where we started. Looks nice...In a photograph!

Officially started Oct 30th when we place the cabinet order for delivery Monday.

-Halloween we emptied the cupboards and had the last supper so to speak.

-Monday Nov 1: Lorne and the guy who bought them took out the old cabinets. The pantry toppled over and a week later my leg is still rather swollen. Ouch!

-Tuesday Nov 2: Removed the bulkhead over where the pantry was. Took out the goofy angled cutout in the corner by the old microwave. Looks perfect now. Corrine and I spent ~ 3 hours flipping breakers trying to figure out what is on which breaker so I can turn off all the kitchen for a few days. This place is wired WEIRDLY.

-Wed Nov 3: Replaced drywall where bulkhead was and patched all the holes in walls nice and smooth (so the electrician could come in the next day and punch huge holes in it all) . sourced electrician. Corinne and I spent an hour making sure all the parts on the list were delivered (what we DIDN'T do was make sure those were the right parts...)

-Thurs. Nov 4: The cabinet installer and electrician came. Cabinet guy only stayed half day as there wasn't much room to build and install with electrician in the way and there were of course some wrong cabinet parts (I believe there is a guy hired by Ikea who is tasked with mixing up at least 3 things on each order for delivery) that I had to exchange. Electricians got about half done with pot lights etc.

-Friday Nov 5: Electricians (Johnny from Ghana and Hossein from Bangladesh) spent most the day finishing the kitchen then another couple of hours tracing wires to get the basement 3 way switch to finally work right! (someone sometime long ago had cut a ground wire). patched holes in the ceiling and walls

Sat. Nov 6th: Kids and Mom went to world record Yo-Yo attempt at the Zoo (they were a few hundred short of people for the record)

I Found mudder/tapers (Amanzo and Davain, lord knows where they are from. I couldn't even place the language and forgot to ask) to come in for a couple of hours to do a final skim coat on the ceiling (lots of holes from fishing wire for the pots) and wall patches. Cabinet guys (Russians Dimitry and Serge), comes in for half a day and puts up first 3 cabinets and is off again till Tuesday. The job officially qualifies for United Nations of Renos status.

I sand drywall, adjust electrical

Sunday Nov.7: Primed ceiling and patches. Did my first ever plumbing soldering in cutting off the kitchen sink pipes so the cabinet fits over. Didn't burn the house down.

Monday Nov. 8: painted ceiling and found a sheet metal place to make a custom adaptor vent so I don't have to cut a new hole in the brick. Then I had a second custom adaptor made as the first was measured too exact with no tolerance. Lesson learned. Cleaned up dustworld now that the drywall etc is done.

Tuesday Nov. 9: Pick up my new ductwork. Expecting Cabinets to all go in today.

1:30pm: not expecting that anymore :-(

found another batch of missing parts from Ikea. Had them all shipped with the 'lost' shipment from Montreal that they eventually found in their store...

I picked up my custom sheet metal box cut out some wall and customize them to make a cooktop vent adaptor so I don't have to cut a new hole in the wall. Seal it all back up with foam and styrofoam only to realize the microwave/fan now has only tin and styrofoam to hang on! (ie, I cut out the only stud behind it. I need some reeeeally long screws now..

Wed. nov. 10: cabinet guys are back. Ikea delivers some more stuff. went to get all the handles. by the time we get back all the cabinet boxes are in and many of the doors. We also have a new list to go to Ikea with for Missing parts to get, Wrong colour parts to exchange, and extra parts to return. I (usta) love Ikea. I'll be back there again tomorrow as they guys ran out of things to do with no parts to work with.

have a short list of Granite people to choose from tomorrow morning. Electrician coming in tomorrow to finish a couple of things. Sammy the granite guy is supposed to come to measure too.

Thur. Nov. 11: Dimitry and Serge back to try to finish. Still some things they need to bring so they call it a day at noon. The electrician, due to come at noon became unreachable and called to cancel after he got home at 7pm. Reschedule for Saturday. Sammy continually says he's coming to measure and bring samples, but a little later, after the noon appointment we had. He finally arrived around 8pm. He suddenly took on a used car salesman persona. I quickly realized I really didn't want the $500 undercoating.

Fri. Nov 12: We wanted 21" (because it fit) pullout pantry doors but Ikea doesn't sell them and the cabinet guy said they don't make them. So, I found a local welder to cut down a 24"Ikea drawer back so I can make custom drawers. Back to Craigslist to find a better granite place. Drove to one near the welder that seemed good. They are a Chinese family run business and seem to know what they are doing. Sha Min comes out in the afternoon to measure and does a meticulous job. I think we got the right guys this time.

Sat Nov 13: Dimitry is back at it and electricians Hossien and Johnny finally arrive too. I recruited Dave Lee to help move the oven out of the garage. It's been there with the cooktop for just over a year since I got it, off craigslist of course. New oven breaker doesn't fit so I head to my other home away from home (Ikea being the first), Homedepot, for a new one and to pick up our Blanco diamond 1.75 Biscotti sink (check it out). They don't have the weird old breaker I need but I eventually find a weird old electrical supply store that has one for only $65! The oven goes in and the trades are done for the day by noonish. I run the sink and the cooktop out to the granite guy (he wants to do all the custom final grinding at the shop as to not cover the house with dust. good thinking!) and back to home depot of course.

Corinne asks the kids where they would like to go out for dinner. "IKEA!" LOL. Ok, I have to exchange more stuff anyway...

Corinne and I take the oven apart and 'detail' it. Looks great! Hope it cooks great...

More Pictures soon.

And the story goes on..

mug shot time

and I'm still too cheap to buy them. We get the group shot free each year
Wal-mart pix are due back later this month though with lots for everyone!

Boo

Woody and Jessie heading out for Trick or Treat.

Gramma stayed home to shell out. Notice the pumpkins are a little 'scarier' than intended (lesson, don't carve pumpkins more than 2 weeks in advance!)

The costume credits: Mom- Woody's shirt, and vest, Jessie's shirt/cuffs and chaps

Dad: Sewed Woody's Boots and holster, lined the vest, Jessie's hat (she wouldn't wear it unless it was red like the Real Jessie's) and belt.

Gramma- Jessie's embroidered shirt top.

and of course Props from Aunt Karen-hats, sheriff badge, Jessie boots

Trick or treat! Chloe too managed to walk almost the whole way by herself this year only falling about a half dozen times (slippery boots!). It was a cold night around freezing but the kids didn't even notice.
Home with their haul!

Some really good stuff too. Even a full size Kit Kat (well it was there last night. Where did that go...)

Halloween in Calgary

Couldn't ask for better trick or treating weather. it was about 6 degrees, after the sun went down, clear, and calm. A wonderful night. Here's Benjamin as a wizard/knight, and Natalie and her friend Jaymie as mimes. (They still talked a great deal.)

And there's lots of Candy:

Alberta Provincial TKD Tournament

This weekend was the Provincial Tournament: Natalie and I both entered into our respective divisions to compete in the patterns competition. (Neither of us opted to compete in sparring), And we both won Gold medals in our divisions! I'm just thrilled.
Here's Natalie and her friend Nikki, who was competing in the same division. Niki won Silver in patterns, and Gold in sparring.










Here's Me, in the ring of the competition:
I was very pleased to win first place in the "Executive" division for 1st to 3rd Dan. (That's over 40 years old). There were 6 competing in the patterns at that level, three at 1st Dan, two at 2nd and one 3rd. And competition was pretty tough. Considering I've only been a black belt since June, and I only started learning this pattern in mid September, I'm very happy to have come out on top.

It was very long day: they let our division go early in the day, which frees up the senior belts to help with officiating. I was a corner judge for much of the afternoon.

Our club did very well. Nearly everyone took home hardware. Our head instructor is very proud.