Hormones

Okay everybody, I'm still here.
I'd like to make excuses for the scarcity of posts so far this summer.
I'm renovating.
My mom's been visiting.
My daughter moved home.
My daughter's found a new roommate and will be moving back out (this Friday!)
I'm going to my youngest sister's wedding. (Wednesday)
These things are all true, but. . .
If I'm truthful they are not the main reason I haven't been blogging as often.
Hormones are.
They are pretty pesky, these hormones, as I navigate perimenopause.
My hormones have been playing tricks on me since I was about 36, so I've been struggling with this for a good seven years and there are times. . .
The worst of it has past, for which I'm very thankful.
At it's worst, I had severe anxiety, hot feet (still get that), crankiness, sadness, and, well, the list goes on. . .
These days it's just a general feeling of the blahs. I don't feel blah all the time of course, just enough to slow me down and frustrate me intensely.
I mean come on people! I don't have time for this! I have things to do!
Being sensitive to hormonal changes seems to run in our family.
My sweet quite little grandma who took care of the customers in the family bakery almost assaulted a customer with a loaf of french bread when she was going through the 'Change' (it got so bad that she wasn't allowed in the front for months! )
So. . .
I'm trying to be kind to myself. To remind myself that this is just another of life's passages. To be as forgiving of myself as I would a friend.
This too shall pass, and when it does. . .
I'll be blogging up a storm!
And no, I still don't have a new bathroom.

An update on Jesse and a peek at the front garden

It looks like Jesse will be fine although we do think he had/has a mild concussion.(Thanks Chandra)

I stayed up with him last night for about three hours watching a movie on family channel and by the end he was starting to feel better. (He even said he was hungry and made himself ramen noodles!)

I woke him up for work this morning and he's still got a headache and feeling rather queasy so we've decided to let him stay home and hopefully sleep it off. (Thanks for your prayers Jenny.)

And as Jenny requested I'm posting some pictures that I took in the front garden this morning.

I even ate my oatmeal on the bench under the tree.

Gardens

I spent a couple of hours today as a volunteer for the city's horticultural society, as a first round judge for the annual Front Yards in Bloom contest.

It is city wide and there are over 500 nominations this year.

I had great fun enjoying all the gardens and I thought I would share a few with you.

And now. . .

I had better check on Jesse who banged his head quite badly at work a little while ago.

He says the ringing has stopped, but he still feels like he's going to throw up.

Let's hope we don't end up visiting emergency!

Poor soul.

I'm still here!

Wow! I just noticed that I haven't posted since the 11Th!

Yikes.

Well, I'm still here, but with my mom visiting until Saturday, crystal moving home, a back tooth (rather what was left of my tooth) pulled, allergies aggravated by the drywall dust. . . . .

Well, I could go on and on, (couldn't we all ?) but needless to say I just haven't had time.

The bathroom is now ready for tile. Hopefully the tile guy will be able to come in the next few days.

Our contractor will be at his family reunion next week and when he gets back we hope to put all the fixtures in.

WHOO HOO!

It is going to look great.

Now I'm off to paint the bathroom before the tile goes in.

This afternoon is a break for fun, as my mom and I will be going to Fort Edmonton this afternoon.

It's one of my favorite places so I will be taking pictures.(although they may not get posted until next week!)

I hope you are all having a great week.

Day 4

Today was a short day, as our contractor had a dentist appointment in the afternoon.

He did get the fan wired, installed and then vented to the outside. (The vent for the previous fan had fallen from the ceiling long ago and the fan just vented into the attic.)

He also managed to drywall the ceiling with a little help from Jesse and Jesse's head (which he used to hold the drywall up when the second brace proved a little short.)

This was all quite exciting .

I was, however, totally fed up with the hunt for the 'perfect' vanity.

As you may know, I hate to shop.(Unless gardening is involved. But that's totally different. )

We had chosen, and purchased, our tile, sinks, and faucets over a year and a half ago. I still needed a new toilet for upstairs, a vanity, medicine cabinets (or mirrors), storage, towel bars etc.

I figured that shouldn't be too hard. However, as Tamara commented, the hardest part is getting everything to look as though it belongs together.

I started out just fine.

While in Canadian Tire I found a cute medicine cabinet with a matching over the toilet cupboard ( of the non tacky variety) and a really great light fixture.

The medicine cabinet and the storage cupboard were on sale, so I decided to by them for both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.

The light fixtures made me feel a little guilty because they were not on sale and I already had two fixtures.

I had spent a lot of time over a year ago trying to find something I liked and I just couldn't find it so I finally settled on something that would be, good enough.

Then my friend N gave me another fixture she had purchased for her own reno that didn't work for her. (The light, not the reno.)

So, really, I did have two lights that were okay.

But in Canadian Tire I found a light fixture that I loved!

And it went with the other things I had just picked out.

Hmmm. . .

What to do?

How to justify buying new lights?

Well. . .

The lights I had were brushed nickle.

Everything else was chrome.

That would look kind of stupid.

Kind of stupid looking isn't good for resale.

YES!

I had no choice.

I bought two light fixtures.

But still. . .

NO VANITY!!

Every hardware/ big box store in town and most of the kitchen stores were searched and. . .

Nothing!

I really do hate shopping.

Day 3

Day three was all about plumbing .

You can't see where the shower head will come out in this picture because we've put it up nice and high so Henry won't have to duck down while he's showering!

And. . .

The bathtub's in! (Which also means that the hole is covered. Whew!!)

Ahhh. . .

A few candles, a nice book. . .

Bliss.

Day 2

Here are the bare bones of the bathroom.

Did anyone notice that hole around the pipe in the corner?

What do you think you might see if you looked down?


Oh, my. . . !!!

Umm. . . I think I'll make sure I go to the bathroom while I continue my search for the elusive 'perfect' vanity. I've had no luck so far, but. . .

All those stores do have bathrooms!



I did however find the 'perfect' bathtub.

The right price with the right style and depth (Henry and the boys are looking forward to having a bath in a tub deep enough to cover their knees. Well, maybe not Henry's knees.)

I can hardly wait until I can soak in that tub.

Bathroom day one

Well, day one was all about ripping stuff out.
Jesse was happy to help. (for $10 an hour!)

Now what do you think we found behind the tiles?

MOLD!

Gross!!

What a messy dirty job. (Glad I got to go shopping while they worked. And I don't even like shopping!)

Almost the end of day one.

By the time they finished for the day, everything was cleared up but the stuff in the bathtub.

They saved that for day 2.

Before we could start our bathroom renovation

Before we could start ripping out the bathroom upstairs, we had to make the downstairs bath somewhat usable.




This is what we have.

This shower stall is up temporarily and it's not too bad as long as you don't brush up against the hot and cold handles. They turn very easily and it very easy to burn yourself!

This little area started out looking neat and organized but. . .

Well you know what it's like!

It didn't help that all the banging in the upstairs bath caused stuff to rain down from the ceiling.

Ah well, at least things have gotten started!

Downstairs bathroom

Well, as promised, here are the pictures of our downstairs bathroom.

We will be using this bathroom while the upstairs one is being renovated.

We purchased a metal shower stall that will temporarily be mounted on top of the old shower base.

Henry put stacks of bricks underneath to hold the shower bottom up and our renovator is coming tomorrow to put this together. (the shower bottom will be glued down to the base to prevent any unfortunate accidents!)

We will also have to use water from the shower to wash up as there is no sink. ( The red bucket is there to catch the water that leaks down from the shower upstairs.)

We're in for a real adventure!

Wish us luck. Henry was already aggravated because he couldn't find his razor after I had emptied the upstairs bathroom.

This should be interesting.

This and that

Well, it's been a busy week already.

The temperatures have been hovering around 30 degrees C or 86 degrees F.

Neither Henry or I function too well once it starts getting that hot, so it's slowed me down somewhat.

I've been busy watering my pots, the veggie garden and Ev's garden (It's looking good Ev!)

I picked my first spinach harvest and Henry enjoyed it in a delicious salad.

Yesterday my neighbour dropped her dog Diesel off. He and Jada have known each other since they were about five months old and go for a walk together most nights.

He and Jada will be having a sleepover until Saturday.

The poor little soul had been rather badly abused before they rescued him, which has left him fearful of a good many things.

Laundry folding, open garage doors, axes, loud noises, teenagers. . . and the list goes on.

This became a bit of a challenge as I have started purging and organizing this week.

Yesterday I started on the kitchen. I tried to work slowly and quietly and he did much better than I expected.

Today, Jesse and I started work clearing out Crystal's room, as she is moving all her stuff home on Saturday.

While Jesse was at the physiotherapist this afternoon, I ran over to Canadian Tire to check out bathroom cabinets and what have you.

I found several things I liked and they are on sale ( I love it when things are on sale!) until tomorrow. After talking to Henry, I decided to do both bathrooms in the same cabinets and light fixtures. The only problem I'm having at the moment is finding a vanity for the upstairs bathroom. We are putting in a pedestal sink downstairs but we had originally intended to reuse the upstairs cupboard and I had already purchased the sink. (over a year ago!)

Most vanities seem to come with the sink as part of the package these days. I could probably go to a bathroom store and order something but. . .

That's when jobs slow down!

I do not want to wait 6-8 weeks for something to come in!

I will have to run around next week.

It's looking like the work will start then too. When my mom is scheduled to come for a visit.

Oh my.

Well, I guess we will be going on a lot of outings while she's here. . .

Pictures tomorrow.