Spring time in Nova Scotia means lots of flowers and yardwork.  The azaleas are really putting on a show this year!

Big Boys

My funny boys are too big to take a bath together.  Seeing eachother naked....ooooo grooooos!  But they just got new snorkling masks.  They said they were just going to put their heads in the tub.  After a half hour of screaming with laughter, I went in to see what was up.  They figured out how to shoot water at eachother with their snorkles.  The bathroom is flooded.  But man are they happy!

Some of the most recent crocheted wire sets.

Kitchen reno

Alrighty folks.  Here's the re-done kitchen!  This is Alexandre.  He's been with us for a while.  He came as an international student during his last year of High School.  Then he got a good schollarship at the Agricultural College here in town, so he decided to come back here for college!  All the way from Recife Brazil.  I wonder if his sweet girlfriend down the street had anything to do with his decision to come back....hmmm.  He hurt his knee playing soccer.  Now on the mend.

Zach had to get into the picture of course!  The cabinets are now an ivory color.  The countertops are a grey laminate.  The walls are green...really really green.  The color name is "Squeezed limes"  Pretty accurate.  Dennis kept coming into the kitchen and yelling "Hulk SMASH!!"

My big boy Nate making himself some eggs for dinner.  Notice the new stainless range hood.  I installed it myself...not too hard, but a bit of a pain.  Big improvement over the yellow old one!

He's so cute!

A real size fridge?!?!?  In the Bruce house?  YES!  We had to have the cabinet over the fridge raised so the space could house a standard sized fridge.  No more minis for us!  Wahoo!  I went crazy and got the pretty stainless with a freezer drawer on the bottom.This is Zach and Nate`s Great Grandma's cabinet.  When she passed, Dennis helped clear out her house.  This cabinet had been sitting outside for years on a porch.  It was mildewy and filthy.  It also had about 10 (not exagerating!) layers of old paint on it.  No one wanted it, in fact they wanted to throw it away.  Dennis quietly said that he thought I might want it.  I worked many long hours to restore it...now Dennis` brothers want it.  Too late guys.

Dennis remembers being washed (as a babe) on the dough board that pulls out in the center.

This is the new Breakfast Bar.  We still have the TV on it, but eventually it should serve us pretty well.

Still have a bit of painting to do...as you can see by the supplies in the corner.

OK, people are going to have to forgive me for posting some bad pictures.  The changes in the kitchen have been so extreme!  I forgot to do "before" pictures, so I've gone through the old family pictures and these are the best ones of the kitchen.  Not the best of people.....sorry.

Notice the dark cabinets and the light counter top.  Also notice the absence of a breakfast bar.

Notice the bright red walls....which I loved for about 5 years!

Notice the scroll-y wood above the sink...or above Mom Bruce's head.  I hated that.

Also note the old yellow range hood.

Rotten angle...but note the height of the fridge.  It was small because the cupboards above it were low.  They used to be all the same height.  No standard fridge would fit.

Soon to come....The Kitchen Reno!!

All Done!!

Woooohoooo!!! It's done!! Joe and I have really busted our tooshies for the past two weeks. My beautiful deck is really done done done. It's been the stuff of dreams for so many years, I'd begun to think of it as an impossibility. Joe took one look at my plans and said "let's do it." Next thing I know there is a deck on my house.

We enclosed a small portion of the deck with a board and batten pattern. This was a tutorial for me so I can enclose the rest myself. It also negates the need for a stair rail on this side of the stairs.

My favorite part...a gate to keep Gadget from getting out of the house! Ha!

Notice the pretty pattern with the stiles on the railing. This was something I'd seen online. Joe was very reluctant to try it. He was sure it would mean a lot of extra work. It's the only time he actually whined while he was here. But I insisted, and it turned out really well. Not too much extra work, but a lot of visual bang. Joe also cut the tops of my posts with a 45 degree angle. So Pretty!!!

This is the part where you begin to realize that I've taken advantage of my brother. He built the kids a really cool playhouse. I had the pattern in a book, and have been trying to figure out how to do it. He had this thing done in no time. Well...OK it took time, but SOOO much faster than I could have done.

Long story short...

Joe is a lazy fart who only begs for food and whines if you ask him to work. Never ask him to help you build anything. He really messes it up and is so slow you can't see progress. You'd be much better off getting some random contractor to do the work for you.

Joe asked me to put that in.

Thanks little bro for all the great stuff. This time with Joe has been invaluable. I LOVE HIM!!!

Deck

Notice how I can now come up from the basement without bonking my head. Yeah!!!

Pretty stairs. I love the look of the covered rise.

Our neighbor said the deck is "substantial." Hmmm...complement?

Hard work is followed by success...at least in this case. We'll start doing rails soon.

The schedule has gone as follows: Monday we had the backhoe. We dug the footings for the posts. They had to be 4 feet deep and wider at the bottom than the top. The cement truck came on Tuesday. We had to take a break on Wednesday because Dennis and I changed the design of the deck last minute and Joe had to add one more footing by hand. Sorry Joe! So Wed we waited for the last footing to set. Thursday we framed the whole thing. This was the time when I realized the ammount of talent and ability my kid brother has. Wow! He is fast and perfect. Really fast and really right. It was fun to watch and be involved with. Friday through Sunday were decking days. We weren't in a big rush. Most of the decking was finished on Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday we took a trip to Cape Breton. The posts are going up Wednesday, and the railings will go up on Thursday. I hope to take Joe to Prince Edward Island on Saturday and Sunday, then we fly out on Monday. Talk about a whirlwind trip!

Louisberg

Joe has been with us for a week now. We decided to take a trip to the fortress of Louisberg in Cape Breton NS. It was a French stronghold during the 18th century. It's been largely rebuilt, we had fun in the rain taking a look.

Joe tried to throw Nate down the wishing well..."If a quarter is worth good luck, what will I get for a little boy?!?"

The deck

Ok Joey, this one is for you. This is my deck. That`s Zach standing in the basement entry. As you can see, the deck is dangerously low when you exit.

The first time I walked up the basement steps I almost knocked myself out hitting my head on the deck. I want to raise the section over the basement exit. I also want to extend the deck to go under the double window so I can put in a sliding door. We`ll have to have a 5 foot wide section at floor level, then step up to a higher section.

Side view.

back

Front of the house

Gadget the black standard schnauzer trying to escape the basement. Notice the diagonal crack on the right.

The crack in the stairwell. This part is outside.

We`ve had the cracks on the inside filled with rubber stuff. This one is to the left of the door. It is the partner to the last picture.

This is the crack on the right side of the door. We had to remove drywall to get it fixed.

I know this is all vague, but at least you`ll have some idea what we have to work with. I really need to get the water to stop coming in under the door. I think the cracks are pretty well sealed, but the door itself pours water whenever it rains. If we are able to create a storage area under the deck, the water issue should get resolved. Runoff is really important to factor in.

I`ll post more stuff as I get it.

Introducing Aaron

This is Aaron. Well, at least that's what he likes us to call him. His real name is Chen Feung. It has become sort of tradition for the Chinese international students to adopt a western name for their stay here. Took some time and persuasion for me to agree to calling him Aaron, but now we're used to it. He's a cute kid. We enjoy getting to know him.

Our Living Room

OK, this one's for Laura. She asked me to post pictures of my remodeled living room. We did this at least a year ago. We changed the flooring from the old pink carpet (yuck) to a thick laminate that feels like hardwood. We debated long and hard over hardwood, but decided that with a dog, the laminate would be a better choice. We changed the mouldings around the doors and floor, as well as adding crown moulding on top.
I got this couch and its matching chair from a friend. They sold the set to me for 100 dollars, I'll get them reupholstered sometime, but I love the shape.

The detail of a little block at the bottom of the door.

Crown, and the small medalions at the corners of the doors. I guess I like the historic feel.

The rust couch was free. It was on the street to be picked up for garbage. Of course at the time it was pink, with no cussions and ant-infested. I had it reupholstered, and painted the wood because it was too badly damaged to stain. Dennis thought I was crazy, but likes it now. The color on the walls is called Copper Mountain.