[.: into the river below :.]

It’s been a busy week again for us. Doug and Wayne brought all 294 pieces of lumber into the basement on Monday and began to frame it out starting with the far left hand rooms (Bedroom 1 w/sitting space, Bathroom, Mechanical Room, and Bedroom 2). They have really been strategizing on what door goes where, where hook ups for Central Vac, Sound System, Cable, etc are going to run. It’s interesting to watch them talk it out and compare points of view.

At this point, the entire left side is framed. Yesterday, they unloaded the trailer of the drywall sheets to ensure we can get another Edmonton RONA & Building Stores run in before the renovation tax credit bites the dust at the end of the month. I’m excited this time we are going in on a Saturday which allows us to go to the various re-stores that are in Edmonton, and there are quite a few.

Here’s what I’m excited to check out:
-Architectural Clearing House
-Habitat for Humanity ReStore
- Home ReUsables

I’ve taken to clipping coupons, and becoming very thrifty. I see a lot of my mom in that; this is what she always does. In some ways that is comforting, but in others, sometimes you takes it to an extreme that is what we call “squirrely”. I’m trying to maintain a balance without being “squirrely” that allows our resources to carry us through this project with the least dollars spent. Sometimes that means being creative, or delaying the instant gratification that we are used to.

I keep asking myself, “Does it still work? Is there some way to recycle this? How could I get this item for no or low cost?” and the answers to keep things and keep using them, or the creative alternatives that I can come up are pretty flipping good, I think. It also helps that we just got a lot of replacement/new things from our wedding. I am proud to say that I have not bought anything in the last two weeks except groceries and needed items for work. This is a complete shift from the “consumption” and “I have to have it” that we were living in Milton.

In other news, my pants are falling off of me, I have lost inches off my waist and butt, but my stomach has had a rough week, but I’m working on these things…. Next week I am going to try and get out for a few walks to check out our new neighbourhood in more detail. WiiFit Plus has been interesting, however when I learnt like an hour worth of work burn approx 455 calories, I could burn that by walking for 30 minutes instead!

Finding the Mould

Lovely mould shot in upper left corner

Basically the whole basement looks like this now – with the exception of the electrical panel, and water metre, there is nothing down there.

We dealt with the mould, a couple sprays of bleach on all the major spots seems to have killed it. As I type, Doug is sitting at the kitchen table sketching out floor layouts we could do, he has about 15 copies of the basic floor plan to go nuts with; and then we’re going to decide how we think it is best suited. The L shaped “bonus” room is making us think, and we would rather not move the laundry hook-ups if we can get away with it. A bigger bathroom down there is a must, as well as a more open concept.

When we decide which plan, I will scan it in for your pleasure!

Prior to deconstruction, the hobo-chic project looked as follows (you can click on any picture to get an enlarged view):

For our wedding, my always baking new grandmother bought us a Kitchen Aid mixer. Since then, and since we learnt we were moving, it has been sitting in storage. Whereas, I would have liked to use it, I didn’t have time, and frankly those things don’t quite go into the box the way they came out.

The craziness of life has subsided a little today, so I was able to pull out my Kinnikinnick Bread Mix and Cookie Mix to try them out (these are gluten-free mixes which are made by a company right here in Edmonton). I will learn how to do this without mixes, but I am lucky that I am not allergic to potato starch like my dear mother, and can happily indulge a little in the meantime.

I haven’t eaten any bread since December with the notable exception of one lovely cheese bun that tantalized me from the microwave this week (that was a huge mistake!).

Okay, so the mixer… super easy to use, but read the instructions anyway. It mixed up the g-free/y-free bread with ease. I used it on “Stir” and then slowly increased to about 6. Used the bread hook, and it made a lovely consistency. Popped that in the oven for an hour.

On to cookies – they were a bit harder – had to change the attachment to the mixing. I doubled the batch, and also used fructose instead of sugar, and oil instead of shortening (healthier) and added chocolate chips… YUM! I made the mistake of not putting on the flour shield and whipping it up to 6… yes, small mess, luckily! Kinn actually writes on the back of their products how to make substitutions – I love that!

Think grandma was right – no woman or household should be without one of these if you like to bake, make bread, or pizza crust! The accompanying recipe book is fairly useless to me since it’s not g-free, but I will use it as a reference to what we “can” make.

As a kid spending summers in Kincardine, ON, there was nothing more exciting than a dump run. The municipal dump is currently set up just north; all up in agricultural lands. It was fun to drive up there, and I’m not ashamed to admit, this is where some of my first driving lessons took place in an old Black Beast. After several months/years/decades of coming to the dump, the operators would just wave us in, seeing our truck. We were there that much! I also can remember as a young 17 year old with brand new license in hand, driving there and being leered at by the young dump attendant. (When I googled this today to get a link – apparently they are closing the dump down in 2010; it’s the end of an era!).

Here in Hinton, our dump honestly has one of the best views in town… and definately better rates.

Taken by the local birdwatching club, during the 2009 bird count.

So much to our surprise, we hauled 6,000 lbs to the dump, or approx 3 tonnes. This is just 1,300 lbs less than all of our belongings that we towed with us across Canada. That’s a lot of garbage, even with saving some 2×4′ for re-use….

Being Easterners, we assumed this would cost us an arm & a leg… but nope, just $64.63. Incredible.

The past 2 days have been spent removing the final 2 rooms in the basement – the laundry room and the bathroom. The laundry room was a mess of all sorts of strapping and 2×4 that were arranged into a seemingly odd design. Doug remarked, “You would need an engineering degree to understand how this is standing,” (sorry, Dad). But shortly thereafter, it was ripped out.

We had a visit from Public Works to remove our water meter which is leaking. Hinton doesn’t actually meter water but rather it is a flat rate, and so they were going to remove this old piece and put in a spacer. Unfortunately, the shut off was stripped, and they will not fix it. Meaning, we need to get a plumber in to fix the shut off. Also, the Public Works guy will have to return and use… get this… a blow torch to melt the ice to be able to shut off the water at street level. Ah, the joys of living in the West.

The bathroom came down yesterday – 1 large yank and poof the ceiling hit the floor. The plumbing with incorrect piping (not using ABS) will obviously be replaced.

With all this excitment, I even got to peek in our “bonus room” with the torch light. It is absolutely freezing in there, and the massive pile of dirt has dried grass on to the top! This made be laugh, but the small dirt pile I had been envisioning is NOT the one sitting in our house. Instead, this is a good 1-2 yards of dirt. Time to roll up my sleeves, I suppose and don’t forget a sweater.

Dump load today – I’m wondering how much that will cost.

We have been taking pictures, but without the Internet at home, it’s really hard to upload them. Shaw is finally coming tomorrow to hand us the box for the TV and Internet so we hope to be able to be in better contact. In the meantime, our cell phones work just fine! Our VOIP phone will work as of tomorrow – fingers crossed – so you can call us locally again.

Oddly enough for January 21, we also don’t have much snow – it’s all melted with the warm temperatures we’ve had last week.

The ladies and I drove down this weekend and did Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise (pic above). While we were gone, magically, the basement seemed to be ripped down to bare studs. The only thing left now is the bathroom & laundry room, which I assume we’ll see the end of in the next couple of days along with a massive dump run.

Our Internet is suppose to be hooked up this week, so more pictures soon of the deconstruction and ensuing garage!

Our water metre is leaking, and I have some mould to bleach in the basement (they did not insulate, but rather just vapour barriered the walls down there, ensuing moisture was trapped). But all in all, it looks like a good place to start.

Next step, ripping out bathroom, laundry room, and me being shoved through the window to shovel the dirt away from the wall in the bonus room.

The boys are off to the airport today to get M&G back on the plane for Toronto, and pick up new lock sets for our doors (brushed nickel, I hear).

The deconstruction has commenced!
 
Yesterday, we had a visit from the Eco-Energy Audit inspector. The good news is, that it looks like the grant for insulation will help us out greatly, along with some other opportunities he mentioned to us that may help.
 
The basement tear out has started. The “bin guys” here charge an exponential amount to drop a bin, let you fill it, and take it to the dump. So, we have been ripping out and putting back into the trailer to take ourselves.
 
Yesterday, Doug and Wayne tore out the carpet, underpad, and casings from all rooms. I got into the action and was allowed to kick down 3 pieces of panelling; but no more.
 
So far we have found no insulation at all in the downstair walls which is hardly surprising, but would explain why it is so cold down there. (Wayne tried to sleep down there on Monday night but didn’t have enough layers.)

No Internet at home yet, although I’m harassing Shaw.
 
Meagan and Gillian flew in on Monday, with no problems. I picked them up, we toured West Edmonton Mall, and I got to my specialist apt at the hospital, we got back to Hinton on Monday around 5pm and showed up at the new house with pizzas.
 
House.. well, disapointed at how they left it. They had been smoking in their garage (we knew this), we have been airing out for three days now, and have 3 happy home puck freshners in it, and it’s beginning to get better. I guess, they decided since they were moving it would be okay to smoke in the house too…So Doug ripped out all of the carpet on the main level. The many staples took a while!
 
Unfortunately, no one has yet shovelled the driveway this winter, and with the melting temperatures in the daytime and freezing ones at night, the driveway froze into a sheet of ice. D & W had to shovel this out to get the trailer and truck in, and it took them quite a long time as it was very thick and our driveway is very long. We dumped a lot of salt on it yesterday and it’s still very slippery. I am being very careful.
 
We got the electrician to also take out the alumnium wiring, unfortunately most of the downstairs with the exception of the hall light and one bedroom light is now not hooked up. This included the washer & dryer…. and other bathroom…… apparently ALL of this was on 2 breakers.
 
The second bedroom someone started refinishing the floor but guess they decided it was too much work and put down carpet over top. The front room and the master, they didn’t use drop cloths for, so their is paint tracked on the outside edges of all the hardwood, and in the living room some “transfer”. It definately does not look good, but it smells a lot better.
 
All the drapery got pulled down and I’m washing it as we speak. Meagan, Gill, and I took Simply Green and scrubbed down all of the doors, door frames, walls and floors and this seemed to help the smell immensely on the first floor. We Febreezed the heck out of the remaining blinds (how do you clean verticals?!!!). I was amazed at the places I found dog hair, pencil marks, and I don’t think anyone had ever took a cloth to the top of the door frames or blinds.
 
Wayne graciously cleaned the easetrophs outside, they were full of muck and we have had really nice temperatures this week of 9C or thereabouts, and everything has been melting….smelt like manure…. I don’t think anyone had done this in 1-2 years at least. Wayne also did the storm windows and outside of the windows so the front ones are really gleaming now.
 
We got our lift on yesterday afternoon when finally finished cleaning we were able to bring in the living room furniture, dressers, etc. Before that on Monday, the Tim Horton buckets doubled nicely as bedside tables.
 
The trailer is empty…..and the garage very full…..
 
Still much more to do… deconstruction of the basement most likely starts tomorrow. Gave Gillian and Meagan a day to “play” today, took my Escape and are touring around, sounded like they were going to hit up Jasper.
 
That’s all the news from out here for now…we are a little stiff and sore, but powering on.

There’s just something about the sunrise over a blanket of snow that is beautiful.

Today, we head away from the mountains to make the 3,700 km journey back to where we started from.

In many ways, I’m sure going home and seeing all our people and places will be comforting. But I just left a piece of me in those mountains. I like what we are building for our family in Hinton. I like my work and the cast of characters there. I like our new hobo chic house and the big plans we have for it. A different reality than what is Ontario but its really developing into a life, a good place to be!

Merry Christmas and happy new year. Wishing all your travels and adventures are safe!