Changing spiders for snowflakes - and its dirty work

 Unbelievably its been over a month since we got back from our trip tp St Johns, and its been a really (without swearing) fucking busy month. 

The kids have been on call for 2 weeks as well as completing installations for work and covering for Buffy as she has been teaching at the University of Winnipeg over the last few weeks. This also means that she has been working evenings to catch up on her actual work! 

The kids have been going to scouts on Tuesdays as well as other scout events such as the Beaveree Ollie went to one Saturday afternoon. 

Ollie has a new best friend from school - Bosley, so theres been the usual play dates to organize for that plus a few birthday parties to attend for other kids. Hannah has also been going to Bike club after school and she even has her first sleepover this coming weekend!

We have also been attanding a kids therapy class - for us not the kids - Its basically a weekly meeting to talk about teh kids and better ways to beat them! Haahaa actually I may have gotten that wrong - hahaha

We had thanksgiving at our place this year, too so we had to get that sorted out and in the middle of all this we have been renovating the sunroom. Well, we have been destroying the sunroom....

The sunroom is a room off our bedroom, which teh kids were using as a playroom. But it had no insulation, so was pretty cold in winter and boiling hot without windows open in summer. We know sooner or later the kids will need their own rooms too, so we decided to insulate and renovate the sunroom to at least give us more playroom or office options for when that happens. 

So, literally a day after we got back from St Johns we started ripping the old walls down in the sunroom, in preparation for a new (level) floor, new (level) windows, spray foam insulation and drywall. We had about  a month to do all this before the sprayfoam and window guys were booked - plenty of time!!

This is what it looked like when we started - 

Then we started to get into the nitty gritty of it - including the 23 squirrel nests we found squeezed and packed on every horizontal surface behind the walls... These fucking rodents must have been living in these walls for years and years. 

It was good to get it all cleared out and even the kids got involved, whacking and taking down walls wit a hammer!

At one point I was at home alone pulling boards out and what I thought was a head appeared - I shit myself and slowly continued to pull the wal lout. I discovered a 3 foot high hornets nest - luckily the hornets had left a while ago - It was huge and disgusting, but also beautiful and scary. You never know whats inside your walls - Buffy also found a dead squirrel in a wall, but I aint going to post that photo. 

As we headed into the second week October we started to get teh last of the walls down and clear of squirrel mess. But we also had a big eavestrough running through the room and wondered what to do about it. We made a few phone calls and a good family friend who happens to be a building contractor came round to take a look - Chris not only helped with the fact that the roof was apparently not being help up by anything, but he removed the old eaves and then just for good measure also offered to rebuild the floor - which dropped 5 inches over 9 feet!   

There was also the issue that the garage ceiling below was not secure enough to hold the spray foam insulation, so we pulled that down! Then me and Buff (with the help of a cool bit of kit called a drywall lifter) hoisted new 8ft x 4ft ceiling panels up and attached them to the new joists I had fitted earlier in the week - this was turning into a proper job!!

Once that was done we could remove the old floor from above in the sun room in prep for making a new one! After that Chris came in and after a bit of shopping (twice cos we bought the wrong wood) we got to putting in the new lever floor!

Unfortunately the floor wouldnt fit up eth staors, so we had to hoist it up a ladder and through the old windows!!

Anyway after the floor was cut and done - we had to remove it, just for a day to spray foam the new insulation under it, before putting it back overnight as the windows were being installed the nest day - and they need a floor to stand on - obviously!

I refitted the floor after the windows were installed and next was wall and ceiling insulation. This was a whole thing as there were gaps everywhere in eth old exterior that we had to fill or patch with plywood to stop the insulation just popping out like elephant toothpaste! We did a good job on that though - cos absolutely none came out!!

That was just earlier this week and now we have the drywallers in - The drywall is fitted and theres probably a week or so for him to pop in and out and mud and tape and rub and mud it all so it looks smooth and ready to paint. 

I didnt even mention our old neighbour and pal Mike - who ran a new electrical circuit from eth basement and is fitting lights and power sockets for us! Thanks Mike!

Its all been a hectic few weeks with late nights and multiple showers daily - especially when covered in the dirt and crap that we had to dig out from the squirrel nests - we are nearly there though and should be able to start decorating in the next week or two!

In other news, the kids had a great Halloween - lots of evenings out looking at decorated yards and houses and a really good Halloween night - it was warm and no snow - so there were hundreds of kids out and our kids as usual decided to start giving away some of their collected candy after they got tired walking the neighbourhood. Hannah also has a scary mask and stod still by the tree shouting boo at eh trick and treaters to scare them! We also had a night at Boo at the zoo with our good mates Mia and Eric and their kids Jane and Tully - good times!

 

One of our favorite parts of Halloween is visiting the really well decorated houses - This year amongst many others,  we visited one that is normally decorated for Christmas with lights and music -  its crazy - We went this year as its decorated for Halloween too - The nice bloke that lives there came out with candy for the kids and I asked him how he moved from Halloween to Christmas lights and his simple answer pretty much sums up this time of year in Winnipeg -

  'I just swap out the spiders for snowflakes' 

 

QUICK NEWS

As well as all the other stuff we did this in the last few weeks...

Took the kids to the indoor Golf driving range...

Found a big leaf pile on an autumnal sunday walk....

Had a picnic up a tree with Ollie

and Hannah is on her very first sleepover tonight - so Ollie has his best mate Bosley around and we are watching Minions movies while I type this! 

Thats its for now - Tatty Bye!

10 year trip to St John's

 

10 years go we got married. So we thought it was time we deserved an adult holiday with no kids So we got up and were ready to drop the kids at school around 8:50, waiting for the teacher to come out, and then we were off. Grandma and grandpa are looking after the kids for a few days while we head off east - to St Johns Newfoundland - Mainly cos they have good pubs. How else do you expect us to celebrate?

​Getting through the airport was fine with no delays, and we got on the flight. We were told that we would get a free beer in a glass on the flight, and to our surprise, there actually was free beer in a glass! 

​There were loads of empty seats, but for some reason, Buffy made us sit in our assigned seats in row 31 instead of lounging out in all the nice empty places where we could have had lots of room.

​Anyway, we arrived at Montreal MET, a brand-new little airport with really comfy seats—though for some reason, they don't work because all the cables to recline are broke!. We found a couple of comfy ones and I'm sitting in one doing this now. Then we are having a kip cos we are here for 4 hours!

​There’s one place to eat called Café Dépôt, and it cost $38 for two sandwiches. They were OK, though. There is another place that's a normal airport store selling shit like pizza in a bag, as well as crisps, chips, and all the usual stuff. Overall, it’s a nice, brand-new little airport. Anyway we flew from there to St johns...

After getting off the plane in St. John's, at 1120pm, we decided to head straight to a pub.  We already knew Uber had surge pricing active, bringing the fare to around $50 or $60, so we went straight to the taxi rank, which offers a $35 fixed fee to get into town. When we got to the taxi stand, we told the driver we wanted to go to the Duke of Duckworth pub. He immediately gave me a smile and a fist bump. We hopped in, and he dropped us off right on the far side of the pub. We had drinks before midnight!!

We happened to stand next to two other people enjoying the night—a guy named Trevor and his partner, Isabelle. It turns out they had driven from Montreal over the last few days in a moving van with a trailer, hauling stuff for his boss, who is relocating out here. We stayed in the pub until 2:00 AM, then walked back in a light drizzle, which felt really nice. We found our hotel easily and were in a nice, comfy bed just after 2:00 AM.

We woke up around 7:00 AM but stayed in bed until about 10:30 local time. We thought we had missed breakfast, but when we went downstairs, all the food was still set out. We had some croissants, cereal, and coffee, and sat in the hotel's pleasant kitchen with the sliding doors open to the backyard. There was a nice, cool breeze blowing in.

Since it was pouring rain outside, we decided to head up to a museum called The Rooms, which is where we are now. It’s a pretty cool museum—the architecture is a bit like the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in terms of its shapes, but there are lots of different exhibits to explore. Right now, some kids are playing musical instruments, including what looks like spoons. We also found a massive window with great views for photos, overlooking St. John's, the harbor, and the low, misty clouds, which look pretty spooky and cool.

After an afternoons kip to try and sleep off my bad back from the plane trip, we walked to Quidi Vidi for dinner. A cool little fishing town with one really posh restaurant and a really cool dive bar. The food was expensive but good - Cod tongue, the smallest pie you have ever seen and a good portion of Italian summat or other. Then we went to Lindas bar - The shittiest grottiest most wonderful homely pub you could imagine with a crazy crew of staff serving drinks from the fridges and just talking any old nonsense. It also has the silliest reviews on google!Sean, the main barman on this night was great - just a mellow chatty Irishman who obviously just wanders through life having fun and making friends. The bar is dingy and resembles a hoarders spare room with all kids of shit on display and covered in dust. It felt like home and chatting with old friends. We stayed far too long and only left because we thought we might not if we didnt  - if that makes sense. 

The next day we made breakfast and met some of the other guests including a couple from Sydney about 10km from Gareth and Traceys place! The hotel owner is a helicopter pilot and had a story for every occasion! Everywhere we went we were meeting people and just telling tales - It was excellent. 

Today we had a walk planned along the North Trail head and up to Signal Hill - It was also my 56th birthday! First stop of the day was at the supermarket to get painkillers for my back and then Buff gave me a massage to ease my crappy back before we headed off on the walk. 

It was a lovely sunny day and wandering along the cliffs chatting and enjoying the clean air and gorgeous views was a great way to get older! We stopped often to sit and chat and just enjoy being 'sans kids' - we did miss the kids a lot, but its so peaceful and easy to be away without them. 

After Signal Hill we continued along the track and found ourselves back in Quidi Vidi where we had some burgers for dinner before stumbling back into Lindas bar again for a few drinks.

Later in the evening we were back at the hotel and had a nice video call with the kids before heading back out into town to savour a couple more birthday drinks before bed! Happy birthday me. 

On the next day we had brekky and Buffy had then arranged a 2 hour photo tour of the town and Jelly Bean houses with a local photographer. It actually ended up being a 3 hour tour and was lovely to see another side of town and and hear stories about some of the locals and business people who are fighting over whether or not they can build what they want and who can do what  - Maurice our guide also showed us pretty much every house his ex girlfriends lived in!! Haaahaa. 

Guess what we did that night - Yep - a few more good pubs, chatting with locals and drinking local beers surrounded by the sound of traditional Irish music - Trad nights as they are called. First in a pirate themed dive bar and then in Erins pub where our mate Sean from Lindas bar was on stage later in the evening singing. It all started with a huge fish and chips at a local chippy though with gravy and dressing (which is actually stuffing that you put on your dinner - it was so much better than the posh food we had earlier in the week!)

For our last day we got a rental car and drove around to see the sights - First to Cape Spear - the most easterly point of North America and then to a few little bays and villages - Like Flat Rock where we sere surprised to see that Pope John Paul 2 visited a few years back!

It was a lovey day driving around but we couldnt end it any other way than back in a few pubs and another night chtting with new friends and enjoying proper good pub hospitality. 

Our last stop was back in the first pub we had visited The Duke of Duckworth and another fish chips gravy and dressing dinner before heading home to bed. 

On the last morning we grabbed some breakfast and were at the airport by 730am. Our flight took off at 845 and 3 flights and 12 hours later we were greeted by our two crazy kids who were waiting for us on the 'hug rug' at Winnipeg airport with their grandparents. 

It was a fantastic little trip and we got exactly what we wanted - peace and quiet with a whole bunch of eating and drinking and just the right amount of tourism. Roll on the next 10 years and the next trip.