Posts from — December 2009

Time to get an update on our blog. Christmas started early for us. Kevin, Tamara, Sage and Conrad arrived on Dec 21/09 and it was great to see them. The weather held and road conditions were not too bad for winter travel. Them arriving a few days before Christmas allowed us to take the grand-kids to do some fun and exciting activities. Over the Christmas period they went swimming 3 times at the Canada Games Pool and also went bowling at Bowlertime. So lots of fun was had by everyone. Unfortunately Sage had a touch of the flu just before they left home in Princeton which was of course passed on to Conrad and the little guy was sick for a couple days while he was here. The bug must have been somewhere in the house because Brenda and Kevin both came down with it on Christmas Night right after dinner. Then Tamara became sick a couple days later, just before they headed off to Vernon to celebrate Christmas with Tamara’s family and friends. For Christmas dinner we had a house full which included Great Gramma and Grampa, Dean and Judy (Brenda’s brother and his wife), their son Blake and his girlfriend Trish and their daughter Sabrina. It was a great dinner and a great family evening; except for Brenda and Kevin being ill. Pictures are attached from the Christmas week.

Well…………. it’s finally done. Today the electrician showed up to wire the bathroom light fixture, connect the floor heating/thermostat and wire the cable for the wall mount wide screen t.v. Everything has worked out great. We have a walk-in closet off the master bedroom and a new main bathroom with granite counter-top, maple cabinets and heated travertine flooring. Pictures are attached.

On Tuesday of this week we headed off to Princeton for a couple days with the Grand-Kids…………. oh ya! we also visited with the parents. Actually we went down to look after Sage and Conrad so Kevin and Tamara could go to the Weyerhaeuser Adult Christmas Party. We had a lot of fun playing with the kids; we also got to see Sage at her Highland Dance dress rehearsal for the Thursday Christmas Concert at the Princeton Fine Arts Theatre. On Wednesday morning, while mom and dad were sleeping in, we took the kids to “Strong Start” at “John Allison Elementary”. It was so great to see them learning new things and playing with other kids. This school district program is amazing; the kids really get a chance to learn new things, do projects, interact with other kids and it’s all in a place where theycan do whatever they want….. so very few rules and lots of learning. Pictures are attached from our Princeton visit.

This morning we headed up to Sun Peaks for our first Snowshoe trip of the season. It was fairly cold in the Village when we arrived; the notice board said it was -14.3c at the bottom and -12.8c at the Alpine Meadow. So there was definitely an climate inversion happening. Although it did warm up once we got into the trees and by the time we left, which was shortly after lunch it was about -7c. Today we just did the Valley Interpretive Trail which isn’t overly long and apart from going up and down a few hills there isn’t really an big change in elevation, it was basically a warm up trip for future snowshoe trips. There was a fair bit of snow for this early in the season and it was really sticking to the trees, so you did get the occasional dump down the back when ducking under branches. Also at one point on the trail they have set up a bird feeding station with some bird identification charts hanging in the trees so you can see the various species of birds flying around. While up there we also checked out the Condo we have rented at Trails Edge for the January and the Family Ski Vacation, it looks good and the location is definitely ski-in and ski-out. Pictures are attached – they were taken my cellphone camera.

This week has seen a lot of progress on the project. The travertine flooring was completed and finished with a couple coats of sealer, which really brings out the beauty of the natural stone. A side note is that we also used this sealer on the slate hearth we had laid on the fireplace and it too brought out some natural characteristics that you couldn’t see before. The plumbers were back to install all the fixtures and connect everything up, so it’s great to have a working washroom again. Other project work included mouldings, touch up painting, hanging of towel bars, curtain rod, installation of the mirror and a bunch of other minor fix up stuff. The only thing we are waiting for now is the electrician to hook up the floor heating system, bathroom fixture and plug-in and cable for the wide screen T.V. in the master bedroom. Pictures are attached.

Today was another big day in the ongoing renovation. This morning the cabinet install guys arrived to put the vanity in place. It looks great and the stain color we selected for the maple cabinets fits well with the travertine flooring. This afternoon the counter-top guys installed the granite vanity top which is Cashmere White granite. You could tell the owner loves the granites and natural stones. He took the time to point out the dark specks are actually embedded agates in the natural cashmere granite that comes from India; he also mentioned they used the agates to make rings and jewelery. Later in the day our contractor dropped off the faucets, toilet and other fixtures for installation later this week. Not too much left……… pictures are attached.