Weeks 28-36

So here we are again. I’ve failed to keep the blog up to date; partly because we haven’t been doing as much, partly because we had visitors so we took a holiday and partly because I just haven’t been on top of it.

Now where were we…

The washroom is now tiled, painted, wallpapered and installed with a mirror and a light. All it needs now is trim and a lock.
 

 The bathroom has the in-floor heating laid, self levelling concrete on top, more self levelling concrete on top of that because it wasn’t level(grrr!) and all the drywall up. The cement board is in the shower area so the next step is tiles. Ah, the tiles!  After much contemplation, I decided that I’d really like to do something in keeping with the style of the house. I think that small black and white tiles laid in a diamond pattern will look really nice. The only snag is that you cannot get small black and white floor tiles in Canada! I’ve been to multiple suppliers and followed up on their recommendations only to hit a brick wall. It seems my best bet is to order them through an American company and pick them up in Buffalo (incidentally they are shipped from the UK).What a palarver!


Infloor heating=warm tootsies!

Shower stall
 

Callum's room has had the wall fixed (where we took down a dividing wall) and been patched and sanded and patched and sanded and patched...you get the idea!





 

The pool took much time and effort to get it usable, many lives were lost in the process (chipmunks, squirrels and mice all tried to swim and couldn’t get out)! It is in need of a new liner ($$$) which we’ll have to live without for now. We did get a new filter since the old one leaked and didn’t really work. Now we can go for a dip whenever the weather decides to be nice, which isn’t nearly often enough for this time of year!

 Since the weather had been warmer, than winter anyway, there has been lots of activity outside: we planted our little trees, weeded, pruned many dead branches, took down a few trees and mowed and mowed and mowed! We’ve discovered apple trees and plants we didn’t know we had. Now that the plants have grown and filled out, everything is green J
Also, the septic guys came back to grade the soil...

Apple Blossoms

Sunrise...

 

 Septic done!

Look at all this space!

 

On the wildlife front, other than the casualties from the pool, we’ve also had to bury a few squirrels and birds L

We had a couple of swallows build a nest on the side porch.

We had an up close encounter with a robin's nest, it was at eye level near the barn so we saw them grow from eggs to fledglings.

 

 A family of baby red squirrels were orphaned and we tried to help them but the dog killed two of them and one fell from a wire so only two survived(we think). Here (-well down there, this blog won't let me move the picture here!)is a squirrel house, designed and built by moi on the spur of the moment to give them somewhere to stay, not sure if they took me up on my offer.(Yes I may be just a little obsessed with these guys)

 

 

Baby squirrel, wet from the rainFeisty little things 

 

 

We also had a baby bat in the kitchen (I think it fell from the attic through the hole where the chimney used to be and the cats brought it down) which squeaked and squeaked.  We put it in the attic in a box and it was gone when we checked so we think the mum must have found it J

JM found some baby mice under the seat of his motorbike (newborn, so pink baked beans with legs!) which he had to fish out. The problem was that while making the nest, the mum chewed through some wires! We think they are all in tact, we’ve taped them up so fingers crossed…

 

On the whole, country living is all I expected and more. We’ve seen deer close up, as well as raccoons, birds, squirrels etc, oh and a tree frog. This is why I wanted to move here. The property is beautiful and the location is so convenient to everything. It has been a year since we put our Ayr house on the market, how time has flown!