We have owls

Outside, early morning, still dark, waiting for Brio...and I heard owls calling softly back and forth from three different directions. How cool is that?!

Let There be Light!

We observed Earth Day this year by replacing 12 windows and thus conserving heat and energy. Ridleys (Meritco Industries) came and installed the windows after all. I had no idea how dark and closed-in the basement felt until the old opaque monument glass windows were removed and the new windows were installed. Suddenly the space is flooded with natural light, I can see the trees and the sunset, and it feels like my whole view of life and this project brightened. The furnace is already running less frequently than it was. The whole huge job was done efficiently and neatly by Justin and Shianne, pictured below. They even vacuumed up after themselves.

Inside, before:

Outside, before:

Justin and Shianne, hard at work:

Outside, after:

Now we just need to paint the windowsills.

Jackhammers

Paul Davis is back this morning, breaking up the concrete floor of the utility room about three feet along the outside wall and two feet along the wall between that room and the kitchen (i.e. where the old building meets the 1965 addition). They think the water is coming from below the floor and making its way up between the wall footing and the cement slab floor. They are tarring the footings, applying the blue skin wrap stuff and the black dimpleboard, and then repouring the concrete. Similar to what they did on the outside of the foundations last summer. Hopefully all of this will encourage the water not to come up between floor and wall in future. It should instead take the path of least resistance and filter away through the sandy soil outside.

I am huddled over my laptop two rooms away, trying to hear my teleconference and watching billows of hazy white dust fill the room, despite two closed doors between us. It will be a clean-up job, for sure. But the water issue has to be dealt with; fingers crossed this does the trick so that we can get on to other things! I'm tried of dealing with water.

Music in the air and water on the floor

We came up to the church before Premier Ford announced the extension and tightening of the stay-at-home order yesterday, which is going to change things, I assume, regarding the scheduled delivery and installation of the new windows this week. Non-essential construction is being paused, and I don't know if that will affect home windows. They've been stored at the warehouse since mid winter, so I guess a few weeks longer won't harm them. However, it's a good thing we came up anyway, because once again there's a minor flood in the utility room. The repair guy from Paul Davis has to come out again. No idea what's causing it, but we've had steady rain here and it must be linked to that. It's not coming from the roof. But it's weird if it's coming through the wall, which has been wrapped and sealed. Maybe up through the floor? No idea. I'll let him figure it out. Meanwhile, thank heavens for sump pumps.

Hubby went upstairs to play his pipes for while. There really isn't a place to practise at home, and the church gives him a good space to play in. I lay downstairs reading Laurie King with Brio curled warmly beside me, the music wafting above me, the sunlight streaming into the basement, and was completely contented. Despite the headaches and expense, this place is still a haven of happiness. I look forward to diving into my writing again this coming week. 

One thing I forgot was to bring a camera with me, so I'm afraid the next few blog posts will be boringly unillustrated. Sorry about that!

Stay-at-Home Order

I was meant to be back up at the church right now, but there's a Stay-at-Home order because of rising Covid numbers. So I will wait a few days longer, but then I really do need to go up, because we're having the basement windows delivered and installed. Apparently construction and renovation are essential services. It will be lovely to have unobstructed sunlight pouring in the windows (they're currently opaque).

I'm actually safer up at the church in my solitary bubble, where I don't interact with people the way I have to in the city. And I am itching to get back into my writing flow.

The birds are back

 You can tell we have rounded the corner into spring. When I let Brio out this morning, I could hear ducks in the distance (they always come to stay on our pool at our city house), and the robins -- the quintessential sound of summer -- were in full throat. There is a particular cardinal who always drowns them all out, though, with his birdseed birdseed birdseed bigger bigger bigger shout. You can't help but be happy when birds sing.

When I was young, Dad would take me out birdwatching with him, and we'd spend ages with binoculars, scanning the trees. I was always worried he'd wreck the car, because we'd be speeding along the highway and he'd suddenly say, "There's a red-tailed hawk" and I'd peer and strain and see a tiny tiny speck in the far distance and know Dad's eyes could not possibly be on the road. I remember once he and I went canoeing on Utah Lake. I was in front, paddling for all I was worth, but we were making no headway. When, exhausted, I looked back at Dad, he had shipped his paddle and was watching birds.