It will come as no surprise…

But there just hasn’t been much time for knitting. The ribbing and one repeat is all I’ve managed to accomplish! Oh well. There will be time to knit later!

Remember those ice-dyed mandalas Mom was making…?

Well here’s what she’s doing with them!

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I might not have time to sew or quilt right now… but I’m certainly enjoying watching what she’s doing!

First – I apologize if you’ve asked a question on the last couple of blog posts and I haven’t responded yet. This week has mostly been, get up at 5:30 am, drive two hours to the new house, work until we’re too tired to work anymore, drive two hours home, collapse, get up and do it again.

After this weekend, things will slow down a bit and I’ll get to my email.

In the meantime, check out what’s happening in my garden…

You will recall that I am very fond of lilies (All kinds of lilies) and I have lots. I don’t have quite as many as a used to – for some reason, the ones in the backyard haven’t done well this year…

But the daylilies out front…

I just love all these happy orange blooms.

Down by the sidewalk

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These pink stunners are greeting every one who walks by.

And around the side…

Big, bold orange!

Elsewhere in the gardens….

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I’ve got lots of these orange/red Black-Eyed Susans blooming. It feels a little early to me for Susans… but I won’t complain.

The Echinacea is just starting to bloom but it’s right on time.

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My passion flower, which lives inside as a house plant during the winter, is loving it’s warm summer vacation outside.

The Yarrow is just starting to bloom. The flowers will get deeper in colour, then lighten completely. It’s a fascinating flower.

And last…

I actually got to enjoy all three of those big, juicy red ones one night after working at the new house all day. It was a wonderful treat. I can’t wait to grow more there!

Always be sure to have a pedestal handy to put your cat upon!

Burton is stepping out in red to show his Canadian pride and wish all our fellow Canucks a happy Canada Day! (Plus he just looks REALLY good in red.)

Well – the Beatles really nailed it…. I do get by with a little help from my friends (and family).

As you are well aware, our house is a bit of a “project”. We knew that going in. Just as we knew there would probably be a few surprises along the way.

When put our offer in, we were sure the place had an updated electrical panel. But on our final walkthrough, we realized it didn’t. (I’m talking fuses instead of breakers, so not the end of the world). Nothing was said about electrical in the listing, so we must have just gotten confused with on of the many other places we looked at. We figured we’d upgrade eventually and put it on the to-do list.

Well… then the heatwave hit. There were already two window a/c units in the downstairs and we had them working fine. We had a couple of spares from the townhouse, so Dave decided to put one on the second level. Only one problem – none of the outlets in the bedrooms were working. He got it going using and outlet in the hallway (this house has a lot of outlets!) …and then we blew a fuse. Turns out the downstairs a/c, fridge, and upstairs hallway plug are all on the same fuse.

So… we got the fuse replaced, no problem, but we really had to address the issue of the non-working outlets. Dave went around with his tester and tested each one in the house. Almost half of them weren’t working. Now we were a little worried…

Happily, my best friend’s (Samantha) husband, Michael, also happens to be a licensed electrician. So on Saturday they came out to the house. While Michael helped Dave assess the electrical, Samantha helped Dad and I load up the trailer with all the garbage from the greenhouse demolition.

The good news is, in just a few hours, Michael was able to get all but one outlet working (it looks like it’s shorted), and can upgrade our panel to breakers. We’ll probably have to wait until the end of July for that, but we’ve got enough on our plate at the moment anyway.

Sadly, I did not take one picture while they were there. Though Samantha and I talk almost daily, we hadn’t actually seen each other since pre-COVID. It was a great visit that really took a load off our minds.

Sunday, Mom came out to help me strip wallpaper.

We decided to strip the dining room and upper part of the livingroom first, before tackling the stubborn wall in the sunken part of the livingroom.

That went exceedingly well and we didn’t need the new steamer at all.

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I don’t have pictures of the stripped dining room but bare walls look pretty much like bare walls.

Finally, there was nothing to do but tackle that other wall. The new steamer was much better. It produced a lot more steam, held a lot more water, and covered a bigger area. But unfortunately, we didn’t get much better results. That green Caribbean wallpaper was just THAT stubborn.

Dave and my Dad had already removed the bottom half of the wall due to some mold we discovered (we knew about some in the house but have uncovered a few other spots). Mom and I looked at the progress we made, calculated the time and effort it would take to remove the green wallpaper vs, demo and rehang…. and well.. what’s a few more sheets of drywall?

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You’ll notice a few other things missing from the livingroom. Dave and I got all the hideous carpet out after Samantha, Michael and Dad left on Saturday. Then we were left with that bare “window seat” under the window. Dave and I had been debating what to do with as soon as we started renovations.

For me, it was one of the things I loved about the place. I envision it covered in plants and maybe a cat or three…. But we couldn’t agree on how to cover it. Dave wanted to use the laminate flooring we have ready. I wanted drywall and paint. Somewhere along the way Saturday evening, we wondered what was underneath it. Dave thought it might have been built to hide something (plumbing or ducting maybe?). So we decided to investigate…

Well.. one thing you need to know about this house is that everything was put together with nails. Hanging drapery rods… 3″ nails. Hanging drywall… HUGE ASS nails. Not a screw in sight. And this window bench… you betcha big ass nails. Now that’s fine to hold it together, but it makes taking it apart a bit of a pain.

It took Dave about an hour to get the top off to discover that it wasn’t hiding anything. It must have just been built as a window seat. We sat and talked some more and decided it would be easier to just remove it than try to recover it. It gives us another six inches of floor space the full width of the room. I can always get another plant stand or two.

Monday, we were back there to continue demolition. Both Mom and Dad joined us, and we got some more demo and some small tasks done. The biggest accomplishment of Monday was the stripping of the wall by the stairs.

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At the top of the stairs, there was a window that leaked, and quite a bit of mold on the wall. Sadly, that wall was lath and plaster (not drywall), so Dave chipped it all out. the wall was also covered in three layers of wall paper. Most of it came off pretty easy, but there are a few stubborn spots I have to hit with the steamer.

(I’d also like to point out that all this work has been done during a record-breaking heat/humidity wave. We have two a/c units going in the house, but with all the going in and out, the best we’ve been able to do is keep the house at a balmy (and sticky) 25C/78F. )

Now we are mostly through our demolition phase (though I still have to pull up the carpet on the stairs, upper living room and dining room.) In the second picture, you can see our new drywall piled up. Dad bought us a drywall lift, and hopefully on Friday, we’ll start getting that up.

Today, Mom and I will be at the house – just us girls. We are going to give the kitchen and bathrooms a good deep clean to get rid of all that nicotine.

Hurrah! The first one is done! As a reminder, the pattern is Mr. Dress-up, and the yarn is some leftover Wollmeise. The second one is started, but I don’t expect it to go any quicker than this one.

If I knit too fast, I’ll have nothing to knit because ALL the yarn is packed up!

If I’m not working on the new house, or working on my day job, this is pretty much my life right now…

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My world is just a sea of boxes and stuff that still needs to be put in boxes. And yes, that’s my pretty little sewing machine (Miriam) all cleaned and put away in her cabinet. All the sewing supplies are in boxes and won’t emerge again until after moving day. I feel a little twitchy about that, but it has to be done.

When we first knew that we’d have two full months between the house closing and it seemed like it would make everything so much easier. And it might have. If we just had to go in an paint and clean before moving, it would probably feel a little more leisurely. But, as you know, we’re doing a fair bit more than that.

Add in the fact that the because of the cats (as well as the lack of internet*), we can’t stay there for long periods, and it’s a four hour round trip each time… the whole thing is downright exhausting. Part of me thinks we should have moved first, then renovated. But then I think of having to move Dave’s (large and heavy) amplifier collection around to renovate his studio… sigh…

At least some one is enjoying this whole thing… just wait until he learns he can go harness-free in the catio!!!

* I called last week to get the internet hooked up, sothat both of us could work from there if we had to, allowing us to go during the week more. It turns out fibre internet is in the town (brand new!) which is wonderful. But as it’s new, it’s only at the street. It gets hooked up to each house as service is requested. It’s a full 10 business days to do the locates and digging required. So… sometime after this weekend, we should be able to get online there!

Last Monday saw the release of the June block for the flower QAL I’m joining with Coriander Quilts.

I managed to squeak in an hour or so during the week to make them. Not having any time to sew has been driving me crazy.

I tend to forget that my crafts are one of my stress relievers.

This will definitely be the last of the sewing, probably until August. After I finished these beauties off, I started packing up all the sewing stuff.

I think Burton was a little sad to see it all go in boxes. He really enjoys our sewing time.

But when it all comes out again, these beautiful will have a bigger room and lots of space to grow!

June rolls on and the flowers are blooming.

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The shasta daisies are opening. I feel like they are little late this year. I always think of strawberries and daisies at the same time, and the strawberries have been out for weeks.

The daisies will be one of the plants I’m not taking with me. A few years back, I tried to split this clump up, and the roots are so thick and strong, it was near impossible to dig them out. That’s ok, I started these ones from seed and they are very easy to grow.

The tickseed (coreopsis) are also blooming. I have two of these – one out back and one out front. They are slightly different shades of yellow

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The one out back is more lemon, while the one out front is pure mustard.

The pink Bee Balm always makes me think of fireworks. I have purple too… but I like this pink one better. It’s more compact, and doesn’t spread like the purple one. It also blooms more.

The daylilies are covered in buds, and this yellow Stella D’Oro was the first to open.

A few of the common orange ones were next

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Soon the front garden will be awash in orange and red.

And seeing all these blooms on the blackberry bush makes me a little sad about leaving it behind. This is going to be the best year for it yet! Of course, they don’t ripen until well after were gone from here. They will be a sweet treat for the new tenant!