Also, while looking for pictures, I found this one in which Peter Pan is totally grabbing your bum. How did I never notice that before?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Happy Birthday Nanci!
I miss you! Although it might not look like it, I wish I was there with you to celebrate right now.
Also, while looking for pictures, I found this one in which Peter Pan is totally grabbing your bum. How did I never notice that before?
Also, while looking for pictures, I found this one in which Peter Pan is totally grabbing your bum. How did I never notice that before?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Heavy rain + high tide =
A water filled basement!
It has rained a few times since we have been here and we haven't noticed anything like this, but yesterday, right around high tide for the Bay of Fundy, we noticed an awful lot of water in the basement. It wasn't that deep or anything, but it seemed to be seeping in from all sides of the basement. It was especially watery near the washer and dryer. It receded once the rain stopped, but it was still pretty weird. Does this happen to everyone around here? Is our house defective?
Today the ground was still damp so we lit a fire in the wood stove in the basement to try to dry it all out. There doesn't seem to be any visible mold in the basement, so maybe this was just a freak occurrence. I guess only time will tell.
It has rained a few times since we have been here and we haven't noticed anything like this, but yesterday, right around high tide for the Bay of Fundy, we noticed an awful lot of water in the basement. It wasn't that deep or anything, but it seemed to be seeping in from all sides of the basement. It was especially watery near the washer and dryer. It receded once the rain stopped, but it was still pretty weird. Does this happen to everyone around here? Is our house defective?
Today the ground was still damp so we lit a fire in the wood stove in the basement to try to dry it all out. There doesn't seem to be any visible mold in the basement, so maybe this was just a freak occurrence. I guess only time will tell.
Monday, June 28, 2010
How could I forget?
Moving Day!
Moving Day was officially June 15th, but I have been slow to get up to day on this here bloggy-blog. Now the moment you have all been waiting for, pictures of the new house!
But first, a story. On the big day, we rushed to check out of our hotel and head to Sackville. We were supposed to meet the realtor at 8:30 am for a walk through of the new house, and then await the official closing. We got there a bit late, and that was just the beginning of our annoyingly annoying day. After walking through the house, we were supposed to call the lawyer and let him know that everything was okay, and that he could start the closing process. I tried to do that, but when I called the lawyer's office, the phone was just dead. No ringing, no nothing. I called D's phone, and it worked just fine, so it seemed that something was up with the lawyer's phone. Fortunately it is a small town, so we just drove down there to see them in person. We handed over our certified check, told them everything looked good, and the lawyer's assistant said it should take about an hour for the mortgage money to be deposited into the account. We went to the bank to open an account, and then walked the dog around for a while. After about an hour and a half, the lawyer's assistant called to tell us that the money was still not there and that she had a call in to the mortgage company. Since we now knew it might take a while, we headed down to the local lake so Nova could play in the park. It was a really windy day, but the sky was mostly blue. It looked really cool down at the lake.
Also, Nova was kind of scared of the waves, which was funny.
Nova at the lake from LDH on Vimeo.
Soon it was after noon and the lawyer had originally said everything would be done by noon at the latest. I called over to the lawyer's office and was told that the computers at the mortgage company had gone down this morning, which is why they had not yet transferred the money. But don't worry, it will be sent right now!!
Because we had the dog with us (and that's a whole other story - we were supposed to drop her off at a friend's, but kind of forgot) we couldn't really go anywhere that involved being inside for too long. So aside from going to the lake, we spent most of the day sitting in the van in various parking lots around town. Tim Hortons was sort of our home base, but we also sat in the grocery store parking lot and the liquor store parking lot.
By 3:00, after 6 hours of waiting, we still hadn't heard anything, so I called the lawyer's office again. This time I was told that there seemed to be a problem with the wire transfer, so the assistant had called the bank to put a trace on it because it had been sent, but had never arrived (I am not really sure how these things work). So, more waiting.
Finally, at about 4:30, we got the call that we officially owned the house, and we could come pick up our keys! Thank Jeebus!
So, here are some pictures:
Master Bedroom (We do have actual sheets on the bed now, but this was the first day. Also, we had to saw off a piece of the boxspring to get it up the stairs):
Spare room (for all the visitors we hope to have):
My soon-to-be-awesome home office:
Stairs and hallway to the enclosed front porch (My camera doesn't do justice to the colour of the walls, which are lime green):
The front porch (soon to be populated with chairs):
The kitchen (complete with human dishwasher):
The living room (before we moved in because right now it is a disaster):
A bad picture of the dining room (I will post another when we get our new table):
Downstairs bathroom and mudroom (also taken before we moved in):
And Nova's favorite place (not including the 1.7 acre yard), the back deck:
Time to celebrate!
That last picture took about 5 takes to get. Clearly we are not gifted in the realm of self-portraits.
But first, a story. On the big day, we rushed to check out of our hotel and head to Sackville. We were supposed to meet the realtor at 8:30 am for a walk through of the new house, and then await the official closing. We got there a bit late, and that was just the beginning of our annoyingly annoying day. After walking through the house, we were supposed to call the lawyer and let him know that everything was okay, and that he could start the closing process. I tried to do that, but when I called the lawyer's office, the phone was just dead. No ringing, no nothing. I called D's phone, and it worked just fine, so it seemed that something was up with the lawyer's phone. Fortunately it is a small town, so we just drove down there to see them in person. We handed over our certified check, told them everything looked good, and the lawyer's assistant said it should take about an hour for the mortgage money to be deposited into the account. We went to the bank to open an account, and then walked the dog around for a while. After about an hour and a half, the lawyer's assistant called to tell us that the money was still not there and that she had a call in to the mortgage company. Since we now knew it might take a while, we headed down to the local lake so Nova could play in the park. It was a really windy day, but the sky was mostly blue. It looked really cool down at the lake.
Also, Nova was kind of scared of the waves, which was funny.
Nova at the lake from LDH on Vimeo.
Soon it was after noon and the lawyer had originally said everything would be done by noon at the latest. I called over to the lawyer's office and was told that the computers at the mortgage company had gone down this morning, which is why they had not yet transferred the money. But don't worry, it will be sent right now!!
Because we had the dog with us (and that's a whole other story - we were supposed to drop her off at a friend's, but kind of forgot) we couldn't really go anywhere that involved being inside for too long. So aside from going to the lake, we spent most of the day sitting in the van in various parking lots around town. Tim Hortons was sort of our home base, but we also sat in the grocery store parking lot and the liquor store parking lot.
By 3:00, after 6 hours of waiting, we still hadn't heard anything, so I called the lawyer's office again. This time I was told that there seemed to be a problem with the wire transfer, so the assistant had called the bank to put a trace on it because it had been sent, but had never arrived (I am not really sure how these things work). So, more waiting.
Finally, at about 4:30, we got the call that we officially owned the house, and we could come pick up our keys! Thank Jeebus!
So, here are some pictures:
Master Bedroom (We do have actual sheets on the bed now, but this was the first day. Also, we had to saw off a piece of the boxspring to get it up the stairs):
Spare room (for all the visitors we hope to have):
My soon-to-be-awesome home office:
Stairs and hallway to the enclosed front porch (My camera doesn't do justice to the colour of the walls, which are lime green):
The front porch (soon to be populated with chairs):
The kitchen (complete with human dishwasher):
The living room (before we moved in because right now it is a disaster):
A bad picture of the dining room (I will post another when we get our new table):
Downstairs bathroom and mudroom (also taken before we moved in):
And Nova's favorite place (not including the 1.7 acre yard), the back deck:
Time to celebrate!
That last picture took about 5 takes to get. Clearly we are not gifted in the realm of self-portraits.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Shediac Mini Trip
Our week spent in a hotel in Moncton was a long stretch of boring punctuated by a few fun excursions, such as breakfast at Cora's (the greatest breakfast place of all time) with K & C, our only friends in all of Southeastern New Brunswick. Another of our "fun" excursions was a trip to the beach in Shediac, also known as the most un-fun beach known to man.
This was the sign we saw upon parking and walking in the direction of the sand.
In D's words, "They banned all things that make beaches fun." I mean, not allowing dogs is totally understandable. The alcohol ban is also somewhat understandable, but who doesn't allow kites and flotation devices ON A BEACH. Maybe they should ban children too. How can they justify not allowing things like water wings and life jackets. That has to be against some sort of basic human safety rights or something.
The actual beach was behind some dunes, so we took turns running up the dunes to look at the beach and take pictures. The tourist brochures bragged about the beauty of the beaches in and around Shediac, and noted that they were the warmest beaches north of the Carolinas. And even though there is no fun allowed on the beach, I will definitely be returning to bask in the sun and play in the water (sans any flotation devices, of course) because it was damn pretty.
We had the dog with us, and figured she wouldn't be allowed on the beach, so we were just planning to walk around anyway. So, we started walking along a paved pathway that ran alongside the dunes. We saw some fun sights and had to listen to some rather awful singing coming from the local restaurant.
Only 10 minutes into our walking, however, we were accosted by the beach police. Apparently dogs were not allowed anywhere in the vicinity in the beach, not even on the paved paths or on the lush green grass that looked like it was meant as a doggy playground. They told us we had to return to our car IMMEDIATELY and then followed us for a minute to make sure we were headed for the parking lot.
By this point were were rather disgruntled, but instead of heading home, we decided to check out the boardwalk. We hopped in the car and drove in that direction only to see a large sign indicating that we had to pay to even enter the boardwalk. It was only $2.00, but since we had no idea what was on the other side of the toll booth, and we were pretty sure Nova wouldn't be allowed out of the car, we opted to just turn around. I did manage to snap a few pictures before we were driven out.
We do plan to return to Shediac some day soon without the dog. I will report back when that happens.
This was the sign we saw upon parking and walking in the direction of the sand.
In D's words, "They banned all things that make beaches fun." I mean, not allowing dogs is totally understandable. The alcohol ban is also somewhat understandable, but who doesn't allow kites and flotation devices ON A BEACH. Maybe they should ban children too. How can they justify not allowing things like water wings and life jackets. That has to be against some sort of basic human safety rights or something.
The actual beach was behind some dunes, so we took turns running up the dunes to look at the beach and take pictures. The tourist brochures bragged about the beauty of the beaches in and around Shediac, and noted that they were the warmest beaches north of the Carolinas. And even though there is no fun allowed on the beach, I will definitely be returning to bask in the sun and play in the water (sans any flotation devices, of course) because it was damn pretty.
We had the dog with us, and figured she wouldn't be allowed on the beach, so we were just planning to walk around anyway. So, we started walking along a paved pathway that ran alongside the dunes. We saw some fun sights and had to listen to some rather awful singing coming from the local restaurant.
Only 10 minutes into our walking, however, we were accosted by the beach police. Apparently dogs were not allowed anywhere in the vicinity in the beach, not even on the paved paths or on the lush green grass that looked like it was meant as a doggy playground. They told us we had to return to our car IMMEDIATELY and then followed us for a minute to make sure we were headed for the parking lot.By this point were were rather disgruntled, but instead of heading home, we decided to check out the boardwalk. We hopped in the car and drove in that direction only to see a large sign indicating that we had to pay to even enter the boardwalk. It was only $2.00, but since we had no idea what was on the other side of the toll booth, and we were pretty sure Nova wouldn't be allowed out of the car, we opted to just turn around. I did manage to snap a few pictures before we were driven out.
We do plan to return to Shediac some day soon without the dog. I will report back when that happens.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Journey Pt 4 - The Finale
The next two days of driving to get to Moncton/Sackville were fairly uneventful with the exception of sitting in traffic in Montreal for 90 minutes!! What a waste of my life! I have never had the pleasure of driving in Montreal before, so I didn't really know how bad it could get. I should have known, since everyone I have ever talked to about driving in Canada has told me that Montreal has the worst drivers and the worst traffic. It was only 3 pm, so we thought we would just miss rush hour. Fools! By my calculations on Google maps, the route we took was 44 km and should have taken about 30 mins. It was pure torture. On the positive side, it definitely made me happy that I was moving to a small town where there is no rush hour.
Quebec had some of the most interesting and unique road signs I have seen. Unfortunately, by the time I had figured out the wackiness of a sign, it was too late to find my camera. I was able to find a picture of my favorite sign on the internet, though (although now I can't find the source.) It means, "Watch out for strong crosswinds." I feel this could have been conveyed without using some weird Bigfoot-looking dude. Do the Quebecois really believe wind comes from a hairy monster?
We stayed in St. Apollinaire, which is near Quebec City. (A few days later I found out that my credit card had been duplicated, and I suspect that occurred at the hotel.) Even though we were on the other side of the St. Lawrence from Quebec City, the next morning we had to deal with a TON of traffic again both near Quebec and Levis. Not only do I loathe traffic, the van could not handle all the constant braking with all the weight it was towing.
As we got further towards the Gaspé Peninsula and closer to New Brunswick, the scenery became more and more hilly and green. The green of the hills and the blue of the sky and the water were so bright and vivid. It was beautiful. The van, however, loaded to the gills and pulling a uhaul that was also loaded to the gills did not like the hills as much as I did.
I really wanted a big, grand "Welcome to New Brunswick" sign that I could use for a picture commemorating my entrance to my new province. On the route we took, however, there was no big sign, unless I completely missed it. I was really looking for it though. Oh well, I decided to settle with this sign commemorating our arrival.
Except that we needed to spend a week in a motel in Moncton before we got to move into our new house. Bor-ing.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Journey Pt 3 - Northern Ontario
We arrived in Monetville around 10 pm on Day 3 of the journey. It was still light out as we rolled into D's dad's place. I love that about Canadian summers! D's dad's place is on a lot that was subdivided from D's grandpa's farm, which is about 150 acres. This is why the population is approximately 200 people. I can't seem to find the actual population since Monetville is apparently a part of the municipality of French River, which comprises several "communities." D's family actually lives in North Monetville, which might be even smaller!
Here is a shot of D's dad's house from the road that goes through the farm. The extreme zoom at the beginning combined with a rough-running engine in the van make it a little shaky. Sorry!
I had been to Monetville once before, but that was 10 YEARS AGO! I was so surprised when I calculated that because it really didn't seem like it had been that long since I had been there. I had seen D's parents over the years, of course, but none of his extended family. Last time I was there, I didn't get to meet everyone, but this time I met all of D's dad's 5 siblings and a few of D's MANY cousins. Of course, no visit is complete without some time spent with the grandparents, and these particular grandparents are damn adorable.
We also went into North Bay to visit D's maternal grandmother, but I neglected to take any pictures while we were there. I assure you that she is also adorable. I did take a couple of pictures down by the Lake Nipissing, which stretches all the way from Monetville to North Bay. The lake is so massive that it almost looks like the ocean.
Between North Bay and Monetville is Sturgeon Falls, which is where D went for most of his High School. Sturgeon is a small-ish francophone town famous for it's Chip Stands (french fries for you Americans) that are just off the highway. D's favorite is the RIV chip stand, so we of course had to visit it and get some good, old-fashioned Canadian poutine. (To be considered poutine, it MUST have cheese curds. Anything else is just an imitation).
These stands are basically big huts that sell mostly fries, but also burgers, corn dogs and other things you would find at county fairs, like beaver tails (in Vancouver we call them elephant ears).
We also took a trip into Sudbury, a formerly very dirty mining city. It is still a mining city, and it is still fairly dirty, but they are working hard to make it more clean. One improvement is a taller chimney for one of the main smelting operations that helps the soot blow out of Sudbury and into surrounding towns, such as Monetville.
It is actually really insane to think of all of the soot that has been spewing into the air for so many years. Much of Sudbury's rock face is just black from years of being coated with black soot. I stole a rock from beside the big nickel that shows over a half inch of black soot accumulation on top of the actual rock. (I can't find it right now to show a picture, though). Last time I was in Northern Ontario, I didn't go to Sudbury for some reason, so I had never seen the big nickel, which is apparently actually made from nickel. It is a tourist attraction intended to draw positive attention to all of the metal mined there and to distract from negative attention to all the pollution.
On our last night in Monetville we headed to a cabin on Lake Nippissing and went canoeing. It was just as the sun was thinking about setting, so it was really pretty.
It was a lovely ending to our week-long stay in Northern Ontario. And here we are setting out on the morning of our departure. Two more days of driving to go!
Here is a shot of D's dad's house from the road that goes through the farm. The extreme zoom at the beginning combined with a rough-running engine in the van make it a little shaky. Sorry!
I had been to Monetville once before, but that was 10 YEARS AGO! I was so surprised when I calculated that because it really didn't seem like it had been that long since I had been there. I had seen D's parents over the years, of course, but none of his extended family. Last time I was there, I didn't get to meet everyone, but this time I met all of D's dad's 5 siblings and a few of D's MANY cousins. Of course, no visit is complete without some time spent with the grandparents, and these particular grandparents are damn adorable.
We also went into North Bay to visit D's maternal grandmother, but I neglected to take any pictures while we were there. I assure you that she is also adorable. I did take a couple of pictures down by the Lake Nipissing, which stretches all the way from Monetville to North Bay. The lake is so massive that it almost looks like the ocean.
Between North Bay and Monetville is Sturgeon Falls, which is where D went for most of his High School. Sturgeon is a small-ish francophone town famous for it's Chip Stands (french fries for you Americans) that are just off the highway. D's favorite is the RIV chip stand, so we of course had to visit it and get some good, old-fashioned Canadian poutine. (To be considered poutine, it MUST have cheese curds. Anything else is just an imitation).
These stands are basically big huts that sell mostly fries, but also burgers, corn dogs and other things you would find at county fairs, like beaver tails (in Vancouver we call them elephant ears).
We also took a trip into Sudbury, a formerly very dirty mining city. It is still a mining city, and it is still fairly dirty, but they are working hard to make it more clean. One improvement is a taller chimney for one of the main smelting operations that helps the soot blow out of Sudbury and into surrounding towns, such as Monetville.
It is actually really insane to think of all of the soot that has been spewing into the air for so many years. Much of Sudbury's rock face is just black from years of being coated with black soot. I stole a rock from beside the big nickel that shows over a half inch of black soot accumulation on top of the actual rock. (I can't find it right now to show a picture, though). Last time I was in Northern Ontario, I didn't go to Sudbury for some reason, so I had never seen the big nickel, which is apparently actually made from nickel. It is a tourist attraction intended to draw positive attention to all of the metal mined there and to distract from negative attention to all the pollution.
On our last night in Monetville we headed to a cabin on Lake Nippissing and went canoeing. It was just as the sun was thinking about setting, so it was really pretty.
It was a lovely ending to our week-long stay in Northern Ontario. And here we are setting out on the morning of our departure. Two more days of driving to go!
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