Tuesday, August 08, 2006
What a tremendous mess a construction project makes.
The underpinning is complete, and the crew is preparing to pour the new concrete pad in the basement tomorrow. It will need to set and cure for a couple of weeks, so the carpet and tile won't go down until I get back from the UK with the boys at the end of August, but I'm hoping I can leave instructions for the drywall and painting work so that when we're back, it's all ready to go.
Meanwhile, everything that used to be in the basement is in the living room and the back yard. A concurrent insulation project on the addition to the kitchen has blocked off back yard access, and there's very little room to move in the living room. The poor boys don't know what to make of it! They had so much room at my parents' house. We leave for the UK on Friday evening, but until then I'm trying to get them out of the house for about half of each day.
And everything needs cleaning in the worst possible way. I've done a few of the floors, but they only feel slightly less gritty. Urgh. I'll be glad to get the boys onto the plane, under the circumstances! And certainly we're looking forward to seeing Paul's mother's new home. And eating Marmite, and good malty bread...and perhaps the occasional pint of cask-conditioned real ale.
The underpinning is complete, and the crew is preparing to pour the new concrete pad in the basement tomorrow. It will need to set and cure for a couple of weeks, so the carpet and tile won't go down until I get back from the UK with the boys at the end of August, but I'm hoping I can leave instructions for the drywall and painting work so that when we're back, it's all ready to go.
Meanwhile, everything that used to be in the basement is in the living room and the back yard. A concurrent insulation project on the addition to the kitchen has blocked off back yard access, and there's very little room to move in the living room. The poor boys don't know what to make of it! They had so much room at my parents' house. We leave for the UK on Friday evening, but until then I'm trying to get them out of the house for about half of each day.
And everything needs cleaning in the worst possible way. I've done a few of the floors, but they only feel slightly less gritty. Urgh. I'll be glad to get the boys onto the plane, under the circumstances! And certainly we're looking forward to seeing Paul's mother's new home. And eating Marmite, and good malty bread...and perhaps the occasional pint of cask-conditioned real ale.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
We're now preparing to leave Camp Kemptville after what has amounted to almost five weeks of "country living". The boys have grown, and with the outdoor play and the large spaces to move in, they are very brown and their legs have muscled up. Aunt Tracy has been with us and has given both boys a lot of special attention and love, which has hurt nobody's feelings in the slightest. Jamie is a curious, active young boy, and AJ has left toddlerhood and is functionally a two-year-old.
While we've been here, AJ has fallen in love with boxes of crayons, with which he is usually very careful; he makes very colorful pictures. He has also discovered Thomas the Tank Engine. I thikn I may have to find him a couple more of the named engines from the wooden set for his birthday in September; he really loves the Thomas, James and Percy engines he has, and calls them all by name.
Jamie has been experimenting with the pedals on the second-hand two-wheeler my mother picked up, and although he finds it a bit frustrating to be going so much more slowly than on his Like-a-Bike, he's plugging away at it bit by bit. If he could just stop backpedalling by accident and slamming on the brakes, I think he'd have it down.
We've seen Daddy a couple of times since we came. The boys ask after him all the time, miss him, and know that he's at our house in Brooklyn and going to the office to work. They know that he's making sure the men do a good job fixing the big hole in the floor in our basement, so that when we come back from visiting Mamma Jane in England we will have a playroom again. AJ says he likes a playroom! (AJ likes lots of things.)
We'll have just a few days at home before we head off to the UK, so I'll be spending a bit of time now making lists and sorting such things as I have here. I'd originally thought to have over a week in Brooklyn before we left for Jane's, so I'll have a number of errands to pack into the short time I'll actually be there! I've had a good rest here in Kemptville though. We have hundreds of good pictures, and if I can find a little time at home to format them, I'll get a sampling posted to the website gallery before I go. Otherwise, perhaps I'll put the software on my laptop so I can do it from Devonshire.
While we've been here, AJ has fallen in love with boxes of crayons, with which he is usually very careful; he makes very colorful pictures. He has also discovered Thomas the Tank Engine. I thikn I may have to find him a couple more of the named engines from the wooden set for his birthday in September; he really loves the Thomas, James and Percy engines he has, and calls them all by name.
Jamie has been experimenting with the pedals on the second-hand two-wheeler my mother picked up, and although he finds it a bit frustrating to be going so much more slowly than on his Like-a-Bike, he's plugging away at it bit by bit. If he could just stop backpedalling by accident and slamming on the brakes, I think he'd have it down.
We've seen Daddy a couple of times since we came. The boys ask after him all the time, miss him, and know that he's at our house in Brooklyn and going to the office to work. They know that he's making sure the men do a good job fixing the big hole in the floor in our basement, so that when we come back from visiting Mamma Jane in England we will have a playroom again. AJ says he likes a playroom! (AJ likes lots of things.)
We'll have just a few days at home before we head off to the UK, so I'll be spending a bit of time now making lists and sorting such things as I have here. I'd originally thought to have over a week in Brooklyn before we left for Jane's, so I'll have a number of errands to pack into the short time I'll actually be there! I've had a good rest here in Kemptville though. We have hundreds of good pictures, and if I can find a little time at home to format them, I'll get a sampling posted to the website gallery before I go. Otherwise, perhaps I'll put the software on my laptop so I can do it from Devonshire.
