I don’t think so! Over promised and under delivered. Hardly a city closing event. Sure, highway driving was very bad and lots of highway closures etc., but in the city a total over reaction in closing so many things.
April 12, 2022, the day before the storm.
April 13th, 24 hours later.
And Good Friday, April 15th after the winter storm warnings have ended.
I’m truly tired of shovelling snow and I didn’t even have to do all the shovelling as our very kind neighbour used his snowblower on the really heavy wet snow day.
Today was the templating day where they come out and measure your kitchen exactly for the new countertop.
Originally scheduled for around 10:30 there was a cancellation so Larry, the person doing our templating, is able to arrive at around 9 am
We were told by some other folks that they would make a cardboard template of our counters to guide their production of the actual quartz countertop. Turns out that is very old school.
Larry sets up a tripod with a tablet computer and laser on top and proceeds to map out our kitchen with laser precision. I hear a tape measure being used occasionally but probably just to confirm the digital diagram that is being produced.
Larry says it doesn’t matter if your walls are straight or your corners are not square the scanning will take care of all that for a perfect tight fit.
In under one hour we’re signing off (digitally of course) on the finished diagram that will be used to generate the instructions to drive the CNC machine in cutting out our quartz top. Hand cutting stopped 10-15 years ago and it’s all digital now.
In about another hour I have the counters back in place and the sink hooked up again. In 5-10 business days we’ll be getting a visit from the installers and I’ll yank out the current countertops one last time.
Tomorrow the installers arrive to template for the new quartz countertop. That mean that I need to remove the old countertop before they arrive.
Several sections of countertop are easily removed. Just unscrew from underneath, cut off some silicone sealant and off comes the tops.
Counter and old school phone deskRight next to pantry
Then there is the more interesting section, the “L” shape that includes the kitchen sink. My initial hope is to leave the sink in the countertop and remove the whole thing together. This turns out to be more difficult than estimated so I end up removing the sink.
Pulling the sink of course means shutting off the water to the tap. Thankfully, somewhere along the line I’ve installed shutoff valves under the sink so that’s easy. Next is remove the garburator, disconnect the drains, disconnect the tap and unfasten the sink. With all the plumbing disconnected and out of the way the sink pops out without too much difficulty.
The dishwasher needs to be pulled out to unfasten the countertop. This requires disconnecting the water to it in the basement and again some smart guy installed a shutoff valve for that as well so while the sink & dishwasher are disconnected the rest of the house still has water.
The “L” shape comes off in one piece. It’s snug but comes out clean and is now out in the garage.
Drawers with no lidSink & CornerSink & Dishwasher
Tomorrow, after the templates is done I’ll be reversing the whole process to get the countertop, sink, and dishwasher operational for the 5-10 business days before the final install of the new quartz countertop.
So, for the next 24 hours it’s minimal countertop and washing dishes in the bathtub or stock piling them up in the dishwasher.
So, if you are driving in downtown Toronto on University Avenue and pass by Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have a look up at the banner they put up in the last couple of days.
The 2022 Ride banner on the PMH
What are those circular swirls you ask?
My name, not quite up in lights, but sort of ?
It’s the names of everyone who signed up early for this years Ride to Conquer Cancer.
Yesterday was COVID-19 shot #4 and Moderna at that!
I’ve always liked the 1980 Pat Benatar song, Hit me with your best shot. And it seemed appropriate today.
As I’m getting my paper work processed it seems like I might not be allowed #4 as Manitoba has not yet approved a second booster. However, when I show them the CancerCare document about my immune compromised situation, #4 is a “GO”. Strangely, to work around the “no 2nd booster” they consider my first three shots as the base vaccination and #4 is actually my first booster.
As I’m getting checked in by the supervision she asks if my oncologist has discussed the COVID shot options. Nope. It seems there is some possibility that the Moderna vaccination might provide better protection against the up and coming variant, Omicron BA.2. So, split second decision, I go with the recommendation for Moderna as it seems like it might be the “best shot” for my situation.
I’m at the RBC vaccination site and what a difference from a year or two ago. The place is almost empty. Probably 10-20 people, minimal waiting compared to a packed out 3rd floor convention area and 1,000s of people being processed daily.
Of course the arm was sore at the injection site but it was a pretty rough night as I was up a lot, chills, achy all over and in the morning I’m tired, a temperature of 101 and taking Tylenol. Things settle down during the day, but it’s a quiet afternoon on the couch after church
We’re updating our kitchen counter tops to quartz!
As is seemingly quite normal one new thing tends to lead to a bunch of new things. New counter mean new sink, new faucet and new backslash tiles.
While the new counter will be installed by the pros I’m tasked with removing the old counter and doing the new tiles. New tiles means removing the old ones. To test out that process I’m starting behind the stove.
Behind the stove
No turning back now so I’m hacking off the rest of the tiles trying to minimize the drywall damage.
Unavoidable drywall damage
Let the patching begin! Coat #1.
I suspect there will be a couple of rounds of mudding and sanding to get the surface ready for tiles and then a coat of primer.
Back in mid-December Len and I were out at the lake and this is trip #2 for the winter season.
The drive was fine and we stopped in Kenora for dinner at the LOTWBrewCo and arrived at the cottage around 8 p.m. As usual the snow bank at the bottom of the driveway and the driveway itself was impassible so I used the snowshoes to clear a trail. A few trips and we’re loaded in. The cottage is only -5°C and didn’t seem all that cold. With the furnace, fireplace and kerosene heater cranked on it’s quite toasty in short order.
Some beverages, snacks and a couple of movies and it’s almost 1am so we call it a day.
Next morning after a few coffees and a light breakfast it’s time to head down to the lake to get some water.
There is still lots of ice but also lots of surface water this year. I shovel off a light cover of snow to find out that I can also break off about 1” of ice with the shovel and hit a water pocket! Normally, this requires a pick axe to dig out a trough to dip the bucket in. There seems to be alternating layers of ice and water for about the first foot and then it’s solid ice for over 2 feet. We scoop out two buckets and back up to the cottage.
Later in the day we head out across the lake past the island and across the ice road to an area where there has been some sort of snow clearing activity.
Out past the island, where we see people fishing during the summer, there has been another ice road created that leads form a cottage in the north end of the bay to this fishing spot. There is evidence of several ice fishing holes which are now frozen over. With the ice roads “officially” closed I suspect any ice fishing shacks have been removed.
Next morning I’m up at 6am with a coffee watching the moon rise being washed away by the sun rise at 7:05am
Moon on the far right and Saturn straight ahead 6:00am
Sunrise in the East just coming over the trees 7:05am
Our water hole has frozen over with about 2″ of ice due to the -21°C over night.
After coffees and a leisurely breakfast we clean up, pack up and head for home. A good winter weekend.
I seem to have had some new motivation lately to accomplish a few long outstanding tasks around the house.
We have 3 basement windows that were never finished when the basement was developed. I just didn’t know how to tackle trimming them out without a lot of messing about. And then, early in the pandemic, I saw and Instagram reel from a finish carpenter essentially building a box with trim attached on one side of the box opposite the window and then you just shove it into the rough window opening. Genius! I made 2 of them and they were a big success. But, for some reason, window #3 got neglected for quite some time. And then the third window finally got it’s trim on.
Project #1 completed.
When we finished the basement, many years ago, there was an opening left in the drywall to access the area under the stairs which we, like most people, use for a storage area. Well, the opening was an unusual shape and off and on I’d think about how to finish it off with some kind of door. And then I’d forget about it and a few more years would pass.
Finally, I decided to build a custom door. I remembered some 1/4” oak plywood in the garage so I build a frame using a Kreg pocket hole jig to fasten the frame together and sheeted if over wth the 1/4” ply and trimmed out all the edges with oak moulding.
Project #2 completed.
Again, a door opening in the basement where we had planned to put French doors into just never got completed. Finally, after deciding the French doors were not happening, the opening was painted to match the rest of the basement but it was still exposed 2x4s and the edge of the drywall.
After buying some very expensive architectural moulding which made the job simpler and some oak trim to match the other basement doors, voila!
Project #3 completed.
Last one. Can you figure this one out?
Well, the wall going downstairs to the basement had quite a few dings, scrapes, scuffs and some patching that never got painted. So, some washing, patching, sanding and a fresh coat of paint has it looking like new.
