Sad ending to a Happy New Beginning

For over 18 months now I have been storing over 50 wedding gowns, 50 or more formal gowns, at least 100 pair of white satin shoes and many little bridal accessories.  Anyone who has ever been on the Kijiji website, craigs list, ebay, or the likes has probably seen many of these items posted for auction.

Well today all of this stuff has been relocated to a new location.  I am sad but proud to announce that I have donated anything bridal related to http://www.thebridesproject.com/ "Fighting Cancer One Dress At A Time".  This is a not for profit organization that operates with only volunteers that dedicate their time to run a bridal boutique in downtown Toronto.  Their mission is to raise money and donate all proceeds to organizations that fund camping experiences for terminally ill children, children with cancer and the likes.  Last year The Brides Project was able to donate $15,000. 

Dorothy and Steve arrived at the Wolverton House today around 1:00pm and left by 2:30.  It took one and half hours to load their rental cube van.  Dorothy was crying when she was leaving...not sad tears by tears of gratitude to think that so many beautiful gowns existed for this donation.  She was telling me that they were praying for a miracle as they were running out of sellable inventory and afraid that they might not see another year with this venture.

I am so proud today that I too am almost in tears.  It is a sad day as I am closing a chapter of my life that was with me for over four decades; more than half of my life.  However Hubby is happy as we can now venture forward with the completion of the Wolverton House without brides trespassing on those weekends that are most precious as our working days for this project.  I have no more excuses and now have to settle down to work on the major rooms such as the dining room, parlour and most importantly, the front hallway.

From this day forward, I will keep a bit of myself involved in campagning to find other bridal shops that are willing to donate to this cause.  I believe that all children have the right to a healthy and happy future and I will do my part. 

Coming in June, I will be shaving my head again and raising money for Angel Hair For Kids. From 2006 to 2008, I was able to raise and donate $4,000 plus six hair locks including my own.  I am currently in contact with "rally for life" event in our community through the Cancer Society.  I am hoping that anyone who is reading this will reach deep into their pockets and donate for a worthy cause.  http://www.angelhairfoundation.org/hair_donations.cfm

For now, I will enjoy the empty house and the warmth of my hair until summer arrives.  Please join the cause!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Well it looks like winter has finally arrived.  I didnt realize until today just how cold it is. 

About six weeks ago, I told hubby I was on "laundry" strike.  I was not going to walk up and down stairs from the carriage house to the main house or in and out through the kitchen through snow to get to my washing machine in the other side of the house.  He promised to start my laundry room and that in a matter of weeks (or months) I would have my laundry/sewing/craft room.

Hubby said he had rehooked up the laundry tub as this would make it easier for me to have a convenient sink to continue to clean paint brushes, cleaning cloths and the likes.  This was my first clue that the laundry applicances would  not be sitting side by side for a while.  There was definitely going to be delays, as I had already predicted even before the tub was reinstalled.

We have part of our summer dining room floor being relocated to the laundry room.  It is still usable hardwood and would make for a nicer floor for working on.  I am anxious to see what the 160 year old floor looks like underneath too.  So far "it aint to pretty" but nothing in this house had that look of 'lota potential' when the project started. 

So by know we all know that laundry is still an ongoing career in this household.  Even though I have picked out my choice of applicances...the Kenmore 5 cu.ft capacity washer and matching dryer.  SIL was with me when we...I druelled over the dryer, practically juming inside to check out the interior space.  It will hold up to 28 towel...wooohooo!  The washer is big enough to double as a hot tub.  Speaking of which is my story for today.

As I was on my daily routine to do laundry, I remembered that I have guests in The Carriage House for the next three days.  This means that I have to do the outside run between territories in order to take washed laundry to the dryer in the main manor. I have not ventured outside over the past six weeks, at least not while the roof was being installed...and it was much to cold to take wet laundry out into such frigid temperatures. 

Today would be the first time and as always, on my trek through the snow, I stop and check the chemicals in the hot tub and make sure all is operating correctly.  To my horror, the tub was not running....not hot...not even cold, but frozen over and ready for ice fishing.  Did the roofers use my electrical power for their equipment...or how about the carpenter who caused leaking from the master bedroom window because of facia board missing through the rain storm.  Or was it just too damned cold and the artic winds passing by the river beating  against the side of the plastic tub.

Nevertheless, who ever or what ever I could blame was not going to change the fact that my precious tub was frozen solid and I had to do something to save it from it's death and possibly mine.

Hubby and I never did see eye to eye on the benefits of owning a hot tub.  He would never think to use one and I thought that it would be a great bonus for the guests that choice to pick their B&B destination because of the extra features.  Without hubby's approval, I went out and purchased a cute and practical tub that would seat four but easy to move if needed.  It takes little water and I can change it frequently, especially because it would be used by travelling guests. 

I called service to see what could be done.  I have to break the ice and empty the hub.  This was not as difficult as it sounds, although I was a bit nervous that it would be dangerously cold on my hands.  With quick thinking, I put on my "magic gloves" and rubber gloves overtop.  Took my bucket and shamwhow and off to empty the tub.  It only took two minutes!  Clean!  The service rep arrived on time and we both examined the situation.  We would have the tub removed to the service centre and they would thaw out the tub.  But I came up with a second plan to move it inside...and save money too.  I grabbed the tape measure and low and behold....plan B.

When Hubby finds out that we are going to move the tub through our kitchen doorway and set it on it's side to 'thaw' on the construction site, I will surely be dead by sundown!

There must be a positive side to this story...with it in the summer dining room, I can convert it into a whirlpool clothes washer closer to the dryer!

******

Red Ribbon Day

We have finally finished the Master Bed Room and Ensuite.  It has been a very, very long time coming. 

When we moved in, in August 2007, this room as part of the upstairs apartment.   The largest room was the "living room" and the kitchen off from that room.  Now, as it was originally 159 years ago, it is the masters bedroom and the only bedroom of the manor.  The little room (10'x8") off of this room was a walk in closet or storage room.  There were definite signs of this room having the beaded boards with pegs, nails or hooks mounted on the walls to the right and the left.  Now we have a four piece ensuite.

The bathroom went in a year ago when we had the other two bathrooms installed at the same time.  This was hubby's way of doing all the plumbing at one time.  This is the most practical way for a contractor to work and plan construction, however not the most practical way for a family living in the construction zone.  I remember a time when I had to escape the mess and visited my aunt in the states.  In the three weeks that I was away, I assumed that hubby would have everything completed upon my arrival home.

He promised that I would have plumbing that worked.  It worked alright, however it was one step past using a chamber pot...and I didnt even have the bed yet to put one under.  When I arrived home, he was so proud to get the project advanced to the stage it was at.  However, I was not amused to find out that, although there was a toilet, there was nothing else working.  Water was not hooked up yet.  There were two buckets of water sitting by the edge of the thrown. One was for gravity flushing and the other for washing my hands.  Not trusting how clean the water actually was by the end of the day, and at times it was just an empty bucket used for the last flush.  I had bottles of water sitting on the tank with paper towelling, just in case.  The guys could have cared less, afterall, the trees in the backyard were just as useful to them.

We still had the "Carriage House" next door and that was a saving grace especially for showering.  We had a busy B&B season too.  So I had a great routine.  Guests would not arrive till mid to late after noon and would leave by no later than 11am.  So that gave me a window time of approximately 4 to 5 hours to clean the apartment and take a shower while cleaning that room.  However it became a bit awkward when our guests were booked in for more that just one night.  When more that three days, I would have to use the  Riverlane Suite.  We had plan 'C' as there was always a shower in "the Shop".  Not the most ideal conditions as this was an auto shop and not a very clean one, but nevertheless, a place with running water.

So when it came time to complete the rooms and install fixtures, I had the assignment to wallpaper, paint and complete the room's decor before toilet, tub and vanity were set in place.   The floor actually took the most time as some of the floor boards had to be replaced, then stripped and sanded.  We painted, caulked and painted twice more.  The floor was sealed and finshed.  The room was complete.  The plumber was called in for installations.

That was exactly one year ago this week.  It was like 100 years ago in my mind now remembering the day that Hubby and I arrived home from work at 5:30...opening the front door and finding our son standing on the stairs saying , "I shut every down.  It just exploded".   Looking to the left into the Parlor was a "rain forest"  The far corner of the room was 'raining' through the ceiling.  With quick reaction, we grabbed every bowl, pot, towel and covererd the electronics, floor furnishings.  I grabbed the mob and soaked the water drops from the ceiling cracks.  Within half and hour, all was ok.  The tub pipe burst.  It was a freak accident that should not have happened, but it did and thank goodness it happened this way and not at a time we were away for hours or days.  The water source is temporarily turned off now and only to be used when tub is used.  We anticipate that this will turn out to be a laundry hamper for the most part!

Now one year later, I am please to say it is the Red Ribbon Day.  The master room is painted, wallpapers, furnished and the TV works!  I love sleeping a my own bed.  The past years we have slept in every guest bed from here to the Riverlane Suite.  Sometimes on rare occasions sleeping on the sofa in the Parlor, or on a mattress on the floor in the master room or library when we had a full house B&B booking. 

Actually we could have moved in much earlier, however, I had this vision of the perfect floor cloth to complete my historic decorating.  This meant stapling a painters canvas 12'x14' to the centre of my newly stripped pine floor.  The project was going really well until I decided I didnt like the first pattern and decided to paint over and start again.  This was the first week.  The second week we had another set back when there was another freak accident and the rain entered in through an outside wall that was missing a facial board (carpenter didnt think this would happen, but it did)  The wall was soaked from attic to cellar.  I removed four strips of wallpaper, sash window and waited for the wall to dry and Hubby to fix the window.  The floor was soaked in an area too and had to unstaple part of the floor cloth and put a heater down to heat up the room. 

So floor cloth was on hold...and I cried for two days.  Floor dried quickly and started again on the cloth.  I had rolls of masking tape to grid off my pattern.  This took three weeks to paint my stencil on...and it was magnificant!  The day to verathane and then the bed to come in...very excited time for me.  At 10am the first coat of covering.  Ran out!  The paint store said it would give me enough to coat it twice.  I couldnt even get 2/3 covered.  I headed out quickly to the hardware store...and boxing day.  Picked up a gallon of something that was promised to be the same stuff.  Got home and finished the first coat.  Five hours later, put on coat number two.  I read the instructions (after the fact) and decided everything was as it should be.  It mentioned to put on liberaly and with a brush.  That seemed to be time consuming and I took the short cut of using a roller and smoothing it out with the brush.  The instructions said it would go on a bit 'milky' in colour...and it did.  Two hours later, it was still 'milky' and making me a bit nervous.  By morning, it was a mess.  Dried hard as rock and nothing clear about it. 

I had ruined my floor cloth.  How could this be?  I had to wait to call in the morning to the manufacturer.  Monique was quite nice and very knowleged.  She suggested that I put it on too thick and with the extra heat in the room, dried the top to quickly for the under part to dry.  She assured me that it would eventually dry...maybe in a month or so.  I didnt want to hear that.  She suggested I sand off the top to "crack" the top layer and get air to the under coat.  After days of watching, adding more heat, and crying some more, I decided to do a reverse stencil and at least see the red of the under coat.  That took another three days.

I used the same product and brushed on a top coat.  I used the brush and scrubbed in on until it was almost dry and not milky.   It is fabulous.  Not as good as the original but definitely an aged look...perhaps better...after the fact.

Hubby unfortunately has only shared the room for the weekend.  I have a nasty cold and kicked him out.  But he comes in at 7:00 and turns on Canada AM for me...and all is well  :)

******

See Food Diet...First Party of 2010

 We are now four days into January 2010 and I dont want to see food for at least the rest of the month.   Christmas finally arrived in full swing on the 24th of December, just as I had predicted.    Our tree was a fabulous price especially purchasing it days before the big day.  I wanted to find a 9 footer, however settled for what I thought to be 8'.  By the time it arrived at the house still in the stretchy net bag, I carefully set it up just to the side of our front entrance.  Forgetting that our eave troughts were removed for the new roof construction, the roof dripped icy water on our tree coating it with lovely three inch icicles.  It was very pretty, if only we could keep these 'alive' for the duration of the holidays.  So hubby dragged it through the root cellar door and there it sat to defrost before bringing it into the dining room.

The 12 dozen cookies, six boxes of Ferraros, four boxes of marshmallow santas and snowman, candycanes, truffles, and 48 Kinder eggs and much  more landed on the dining room table.  It was 4pm on the 24th when our guests started to arrive and started  the dressing of the tree.  There wasnt enough tree for our goodies.  It was the oddest shaped tree with branches missing and the bottom was hacked off in the strangest configuration.  But it was our Christmas tree and all 6' feet of it was dripping with "sugarry treats".

We had a marvelous feast the same as everyone else would have and too much to drink.  It was the perfect party.  Christmas day came quietly with a simple breakfast.  It was a long quiet day, just as we wanted.  Son number one and wife left for the inlaws and then on to India for their three week honeymoon.

I was glad there wasnt that much food left and we had simple meals for the rest of the week.  Even new years eve can with quietness.  We had the usual munchies and left overs. 

The party was on the 2nd.  It was a birthday party for the twins, hubby, as well as celebration for the new year.  This is the party that we eat like bears getting ready to hybernate for the rest of the winter.  Im sure everyone of us could find a cave and sleep for the next six weeks. 

Im embarrased to tell the menu of shrimp, crab puffs, artichoke hearts, antipasta and crackers, king crab, lobster, double baked cheese potatoes and cake, cookies, tree goodies, profiteroles etc.  There was enough food for thirty people and there were only 8 of us.  Im pleased to say that we didnt eat the birthday cake...and pleased to say that we will not need to eat for the next four weeks.

The pictures are self explanatory....many empty plates!

******

What...no key!

It's been a little more than two years that we were unable to live in the main manor.  There was still insufficient hydro, plumbing, and many other simple conveniences that so many of us take for granted.  We did have the Carriage House though that was attached located next door.  The home was originally built in a unique fashion of having the main manor, ajacent carriage house, or buggie barn as it was once called, and the barn attached at the end.

I just try to imagine what the noices...and smells, must have been like in the 1850's.  This was the first area in "upper town of Paris" designated for "residential" and this family had so many of the luxuries such as a horse drawn carriage.  Today our barn holds different transportation.  Hubby has his brand new Cadi Truck stored for the winter.  Asa would have been amazed by this set of wheels, especially being in the lumber business.  This man had built his barn in such a design as to have the stable under the barn and the hay drop above.  The carriage house was designated for several carriages that we can imagine as there were two doors that opened.  Each door a different size and can conclude that perhaps he designed these entrances to suit the styles of carriages or surrie that he owned at the time.  The smells and the noices from the barn would have been overwhelming on a warm summer's night, however in the dead of winter, there would likely be little, if any odour at all.  However, if you stand in the barn on a still August night, you might hear the sound of horse whinnying.  The smell of hay is still there as I discovered when I was wallpapering so many years ago.

Now as I started to tell, we had the availability of our Carriage House to live in.  It is converted now to a Bed and Breakfast suite that has its own bathroom, kitchen, two queen beds and the comfort of "home away from home".  At the onset of restoring the manor, we would work all evening and retire next door where we could shower, watch TV and sleep the night...if we didnt have guests booked for those evenings.  I remember one night that the three of us (hubby, son and I) laboured over the removal of the many layers of wall papers and paint.  It was a saturday in December and we spent all day and night scrubbing and scrapping.  When we had had enough, we would pack up our things and run from the main entrance, across the snow covered driveway and enter the Carriage House for the night.

We had nestled down in front of the TV, enjoyed a great movie and fell asleep. 

I am a morning person and that means that at the first break of morning, I am up....yes, even at 5:30.  I though I could sneak next door and jump on the computer that was still set up in one of the upstairs rooms or perhaps at that time even in the hallway.  Nevertheless, it was a great time to just sit and surf or play games or have quiet time to myself.  It wasnt long when I discovered that I didnt have my coat.  I had left it next door...and in the pocket was my key.  Not a problem, hubby would have his key...and with that I started to search in the dark for his jeans.  Nothing.  No coat either.  How could this be.  Were we both so tiered that we couldnt move next door fast enough?  So here I was, trapped in darkness and no place to go, nothing to do. I couldnt turn on the TV as that would wake everyone up, couldnt turn a light, as kitties would wake up and start jumping over hubby...and that was definitely not something I wanted to do.  So I sat, and sat, and sat...eventually surcoming to crawl back into bed where I lie with eyes wide open.  I watched the clock tick away until finally the room was lite with morning sun and finally the 8:30 churchbells rang out.  Surely that would wake hubby.  It wasnt until 9 O'clock...the day almost over, or at least for me before movement in the other side of the bed.  Finally, hubby would be able to tell me where his key was.

With eyes slowly opening, I sprung into idle chatter, explaining in a thousand words or less my plight and asking for his key...finally!  "It's on the other side".   "But I have no key either".  Brilliant man suggests checking son's pockets.  Why didnt I think of that.  But there was no key there either.  All three of us has dashed quickly from our project forgetting to grab our coats, or at least grab a set of keys.  We had nothing!   We couldnt open the doors as they are sealed up with dead bolts that would lock up Fort Knox.  With all the doors in our house, how could we have everything so secured?  And we wouldn't consider breaking the windows.  Most of the glass is original to our home and we wanted to preserve that too.

Hubby had a light bulb moment to find a crowbar.   He had a strange curiosity to see what was in the wall between the two sections of our home.  The other side of the wall was our bedroom...and so with one swing of the bar, the first hole was punched.  The second swing, third and so on until we had a hole big enough to walk through.  This wasnt the time for a new project, but, what the heck...now we could have the convenieince to walk from one end to the other without having to 'weather the storm'.  

B&B business came to a halt for at least three weeks while the door was installed.  Hubby was quick to repair the walls.   And once upon a time we had a door with no key...now we have a new door and new key!

******

Paris...15 minutes of Fame

How exciting it was to know the that the request to stay in our Carriage House was actually the Olympic Torch Runner.  I had to refrain from running up a huge phone bill as Lincoln was politely asking questions as to the accommodation that he required for the evening of December 21.  "Are you close to Yeo Street?" he asked.  Why yes I said.  Actually I continued to say that if he where energetic, he could ware his hip waders, walk across the river, scale the retaining wall and be at Yeo in a matter of 3 minutes.

My family certainly understands how silly I can be, but this stranger must think me to be a bit odd.  This was one guest I was hoping to give a bit more attention to.  After all, he was the chosen one to have the honour to run with the Olympic Torch through our Town of Paris.

Up until this point in time, I was so nieve about the routine, protocol and ceremonial functions of the runner.  I did not realize that it was only a 300 metre distance for each runner.  I also didnt realize that there would be several runners in each town.  Paris had seven runners and Lincoln was one.

Lincoln did not live in Paris which I thought to be a bit odd, however he was chosen from a contest that his company had.  He is employed with Bell Canada.    Im not even sure if there were any other Torch Runners that were from Paris.

I headed out at 7:00 to make sure that I didnt miss the excitement in our community.  It was a 15 minute walk to the destination where I would watch my Carriage House guest "pass the flame".  As I briskly walked down the road and across the Nith River Bridge, I could see hundreds of people crowding together on the sidewalks of our downtown district.  The town cryer was there as well as a yoga instructor trying to gather together people to have morning exercising to keep warm while waiting for the runners to pass by with the ever flaming torch.

I stopped to take my first picture.  It was the town cryer, "Oyee, Oyee, Oyee....etc".  I took a picture of the Yoga Lady too.  Thats when the camera died...DIED!  and I wasnt even at my destination yet.  As I passed familiar faces, I asked if they could share pictures and have them emailed to me.  I continued my journey across the Grand River Bridge.

I am sure of one thing, and that is that even without pictures,  I was one of the few proud Parisians that stood in the cold at 7:30 am at Yeo Street to cheer one of our Canadian runners.  There was a small parade of special buses, one that carried all the Runners, one that represented Coca Cola and the third one that represented The Royal Bank of Canada.  Flags were passed out along the route.  Unfortunately, I didn't get one.  Didnt matter.

I was standing with the runner's wife and children and Mrs. Runner was kind enough to send me these pictures so I could share them with my friends and family.  I's also excited to say that I held the torch before and after it was lit.  It's a surreal feeling now.  Hard to imagine that this flame exchange had been happening for months from around the world.  How many people would ever have the chance to say that they too held the infamous torch?

As the flame was exchanged at that moment on Yeo street and no pictures to record the activity, at least not for me, at least Mrs. Runner captured the moment and we all cheered.  The torch ran off to the next destination....and I walked home.

I was glad to reach home as it was very, very cold.  I also discovered on my route home, that everyone I talked to about exchanging pictures, actually had their cameras die too.  It was just too cold for most batteries that morning.

As I entered the front hall, Canada AM was on the TV and to my surprise Mr. Weather Man was announcing the location of the Torch Run.  "it is now passing through Welland".  WHAT!  "no, no, sorry, it's , it's, its's. Brantford".  And with that news, I immediately called the TV station....the phone line was jammed!

Paris might not have had our fifteen minutes of fame that day on TV, but I was there and wouldnt have missed it for anything.  Oh Canada!

******

Fender Benders...Christmas Isnt Complete Without One

'Tis the season when the snow flys and we have lost our ability to immediatly alter our driving habits to accommodate for slippery road conditions.  We forget that perhaps we are not the best drivers and find ourselves slipping at least once in the onset of cold winter weather.   This is usually an unspoken event!

My son has recently experience such an occurance and survives his very first 'fender bender'.  But Mother does it best!

It was Christmas Eve, two years ago and I still had the Bridal Store.  My assistant and I decided to close early that day and I actually had a luncheon at hubby's office to go to.  It was a perfect wintery day with lots and lots of snow falling.  Assistant and I locked up the store, said our holiday greetings to each other, got in our cars and proceeded to leave.  I engaged the 'three week old company truck' into reverse and slowly released the break peddal.  Rolling slowly to the edge of the west exit and stopping, and then shifting into drive.  Assistant is now out of her car flagging her arms at me.  I stop, get out and...o h  m y  G O S H!  I turned around and a hysterical old woman is screaming at me, "Look what you did".  How could I have done that.  It was no brainer that, yes, I was the guilty one, no doubt about that. 

A Tayota Carolla was smushed from front quarter panel to back with the side mirror in at least ten tiny pieces on the side of the road.  As I approached to inspect my truck too, I noticed an insy, binsy black mark on the tail gate. That was it?  That was it!  I made my apologies and excused myself to call in the accident.

Assistant decided to stay with me.  I think mostly because she was interested to see the outcome.  We did the appropriate activies, went into the store, called the police, called Hubby, and called the insurance company.  This took about ten minutes.  As the two of us where now leaving the building and locking up,  Assistant says, "Of all the people to hit, you had to pick a looney tone". 

The victim was now at the curb with the officier and he was combative at this point.  "Not a consiencious driver, I see".   This put me immediately into denfense mode and shot back my comment, "Im guilty, lets just settle this fast.  I did not see her in either side mirrors or rear view mirror".  You see, the 'work truck' was just that much higher on the road than the carolla.  He wanted to 'nail me to the cross'...and again I said I was guilty and Im sorry...and I was not being reckless! 

The two of them disappeared into the cruiser and assistant and I sat in her car, waiting.  It was at least fourty minutes, when finally it was my turn.  I was dressed for a blizzard with my mukluks; at least twice the size of normal boots...and into the cruiser I squeeze, barely getting my two feet in the back seat when the door slambed on my heels.  My knees were in my chin.  Not much room to even breath!

There was a tiny window in the glass partition.  I was now a criminal ready to be slapped with a huge sentence even at the onset of investigation.  In less than five minutes, the cop explained the 'crazy lady' story.  She was running the green light to make a turn ...just as I was rolling down the driveway.  You see, the driveway to our little commerical building with a west and north exit because we are on a corner street with  street lights.  The drive way is eligally too high for this type of parking lot.  The cop simply said, this was a no-fault accident.  He could see that the truck was much higher than the car and he believed my story. 

The cop was now ready to release me, opened the rear door and like a slinky in a tight can, my feet shot out and hit the road.  I said my goodbyes again to assistant who was patiently waiting to hear the story end, and off we went.  I was  little late for the luncheon and hubby could only comment that his work crew would probably do more damage to the car than I just did. 

In conclusion, I must give you the update of the work truck.  It was months later that this vehicle went in for "detailing".  This is a term used for putting company logos and decals on the truck.  As luck would have it, the available Vehicle Number was #13!