Saga

Last night was an incredibly bad night.
James wasn't feeling well so he fell asleep around 6pm. There was a super storm to yet again put pressure on my delicate eavestroughing. Also, to keep me awake most of the night. Then James got up at 4am. He seems fine today but was still a bit dizzy in the morning so he'll miss his skating today.

I did get another copy of the wish book but the coupon wasn't what I had remembered and so I didn't use it after all. lol.

Yes, Michelle, I wrote the 1950 post for you. Party at 2000 and you are invited!

liquid yogurt

Yesterday I was soo tired. But I stayed up to watch all of Bachelor Pad. I saw that one of the clips where Graham and Michelle were talking he had the rose before she gave him the rose. Graham also seemed to have had quite a bit to drink. They all must really to do what they do on national tv.

I do have a working phone line. But no internet as of yet.

I have been doing a bit of unpacking at the new house but not much as there is not really anywhere to unpack TO.
I still need to do some packing at the old house. I'm going after work to try to get something done.
Regular maintenance of 2 houses is a bit of an issue as I only have 1 of some things like a lawnmower!
James has picked out the snowsuit he wants for this year- happens to be from the Sears wish book. The wish book came with a page with a code for $5 off but in the moving I've lost the page. Does anyone have the code or do I need to pick up another copy of the Wish Book? lol.

1950

This is post #1950- almost at 2000!

Just a quick update.
The dumpster is gone.
The back deck is almost done.
We have a new phone # that MAY be working.
Meeting with real estate agent tomorrow about getting the house on the market.
Have a fancy new washer and dryer!

Letting you know

It is hard to believe it is Thursday.
I am still crazily working on both houses.
The boys returned on Tuesday = more crazy!
This lunchtime I tried to update my address with important people (ie. people who send me bills, the government, etc). Not to say people who read my blog aren't important, but you know what I mean! I hope!
I updated all banking information quickly and easily by calling 1-800 numbers listed on the bills.
Very smooth. Even got my chequing account to send new cheques.

But the govt.
First I tried the govt of Canada website and did a search and all I got to was the Canada Post subscribe site that you pay to have your mail forwarded. This is a great service, but even though you pay money to get your mail to go to a new address, this does not update your income tax address, etc. which is what I wanted. They are all govt of Canada and you are PAYING to let them know your address so you would think this would be good enough for the govt. but no. So I do another search this time being more specific for an address change for CRA. I need to create an account! So I tried but I need to include the value from line 101 of my 2010 Income Tax. Unfortunately this is buried in all the stuff that was moved to go into my filing cabinet. And I can't set up my filing cabinet until I have a basement floor. So I'm just going to try mailing them my new address instead and hope thy take it :)

On to trying to update provincially (drivers license, health card) - in order to update these online, I need to have the document that I used to get my health card. I'm guessing this was my birth certificate but I can't REMEMBER. Also, birth certificate is also not unpacked. Sooo. Will have to try an alternate method for this as well.

Have just a few minutes of lunch left- going to look at Star Wars bedsheets- see if I can find any cool ones for the James room!

cruising

So yesterday went like a blur.
I woke up very early but must have drifted off to sleep as I didn't get up until 8:30 when Kim called.
I had got most of the furniture ready the night before so there wasn't much to do except drag a bit of it outside and wait for Kim to show up. There is no more furniture in the Nelson home. But the computer and internet access is here until the 24th. And the phone is here until the 17th.
Our caravan arrived at the house to find a work party. There were guys working on the back deck and gals working on the lawn. A few minutes after we arrived Servicemaster also arrived to collect their equipment that was drying the basement (as I guess we passed the dry test- Karen still has the equipment going in her basement - her flooding was worse than mine though) After servicemaster helped Zully carry the filing cabinet down I told him that he had to let them get their stuff up first before he brought anything more down!
Servicemaster got their stuff and left. We finished unloading and headed back for the second (and last) truckload. I am just working on carloads now as I shuttle between 2 houses.
There were a lot of policemen out yesterday. I don't know if yesterday was a special crackdown day on something.
Yesterday was the first evening I slept at the new house. I don't like driving much after dark so I took my last carload over around 7pm. Then just spent time unpacking until it was time to sleep. A thunderstorm rolled in just as I was heading to bed so I watched it flicker as I tried to get to sleep. I eventually did get to sleep. I was woken by some people on Park st in the wee hours, but it wasn't a party, just load people passing by. The new neighbourhood is more people-dense so I suppose it will be a bit louder. I got up at 6, got ready for the day and headed to the old house around 7. I need to go to Canadian tire around 9 and then to Rustle. Will be at the new house in the afternoon. Not sure about the rest!

Getting a move on

Thanks to Kim and Zully all the big furniture is now moved to the new house.

The back deck was also being worked on today.

The eavestroughing is cracked, which may explain why the concrete underneath is still very wet! I will be calling a company to redo the whole house (it is done with PLASTIC eaves currently)

The Nelson house should go on the market around the Labour day weekend- there's some small stuff to get worked on it first.

Our phone number will be changing too- not sure to what but I think it will be a 613-384 number. It's a beautiful day out now!

fire and ice

In Bob's comment on the previous post, I hope it is the dumpster he is referring to as being gone soon, not me! Actually, when I read it first, I thought he was talking about Rachel on BB. And I was surprised as Bob doesn't strike me as the BB watching type.

Today I woke up very early- maybe 4am ish and was so pleased that I could get so much done but I didn't have enough energy to actually get up and I think I drifted in and out of sleep until 7am, which was an hour later than I intended to get up and then I had to rush to take my shower and get the laundry hung out.

During my lunch at work I went to the metro- it only took me 20 minutes round trip (from my building and back including all the shopping time). I was pretty impressed with the efficiency.

I mowed the lawn tonight- normally in August the lawn is dead but the lawn was so thick today that I have super blisters on my hands. All that rain I guess.

Who will be voted out on BB tonight? And who will reenter the game?

Don't back down

Well, I was a bit disappointed by BB today as Kaila caved to people bullying her.

This morning I biked by the new house so I could put the garbage and recycling out before work. At about 9:30 the flooring guy called and wanted to measure the house at 11am. So I took an early lunch and biked back to the house. The flooring guy told me that the carpet and the tile had been graded "quite high". Did my floor just get a report card? Anyway he said a lot of stuff and what I got out of it is that he sends the estimate to the insurance company and they ok it or not. If they ok it we meet to choose the flooring and then he orders it and gets it all ready for when the walls are done. Then he installs it. That was what I followed anyway.

I got a bit of unpacking done while he worked, then when he finished I biked back to work. Worked on fitting students into courses. Finished work- biked home to Nelson St. Ate dinner, packed the car with 1000 tonnes of books, drove to the new house. Unpacked the car. Drove back, then watched BB!

Dumpster is still in my driveway. I'm sure my neighbours are thrilled as the have to navigate their car around it to get to their garage :)

Chaos

The basement is ripped apart and sanitized. It's going to be a long road back to health yet. They even removed the bathroom sink and the toilet lid cover? The toilet is disconnected. The flooring in the downstairs bathroom and laundry room is all gone. The doors are all gone. It will be a brand new basement when they are done- but for a month it is going to be chaos.

Yesterday I got 3 bookcases ready to move. Kim and Zully were going to come and take them tonight but we skipped moving tonight because of the rain. That's ok- got lots more to work on getting ready. We will do a double load next time.

I am not sure what to think of big brother this year. Let's see who is left:
Jeff and Jordan: cute but they went on big brother so they could spend the summer together? as a pose to say "working"? Jordan has won before and is quite likely to win again if she doesn't get voted out.
Rachel: Not a fan. Likely won't win despite her self delusion that she will.
Danielle: Playing mean, but definitely playing!
Kaila: Out of all the newbies I think I like her best. She seems smart and well spoken. I like that she didn't let Jeff bully her on Sundays show.
Adam: Like that he was an elf but mainly not a fan
Lawon: Who? Not really a fan
Porshe: Doesn't seem too bright but it may be an act, or not. Seems pretty good at switching alliances in a heartbeat.
Shelly: I knew there was one more. Shelly seems nice but a wee bit forgettable!

I am working on complicated puzzles at work which I really enjoy!
I also posted my first job posting. Looking forward to the applications rolling in!

front room ready to move on

I cleaned the front room out today. All the bookcases are empty. There are still books piled to be shipped over to the new house that you can see in the picture. Kim thinks that the orange should be painted over before it goes on the market.

Our new extrovert neighbour chats with all the potential buyers of the house next door. I guess he is on the selection committee!

I went to Karens house today and saw her destroyed basement. Yep, it's going to be a long time before the neighbourhood gets back to normal. The house next door to hers still has all their stuff in the driveway.

Going to pack my bag now so I can leave early to be prepared for servicemaster in the morning!

across the road

The house across the road have new owners. The people who moved out were nice- they kept to themselves like most of our neighbourhood does. She was employed by a Geological firm, I don't know what the guy did but he looked like the intellectual sort. Not to categorize people by what they look like, but I did. Sorry.

The NEW owners are extroverts and they sit on their front porch meeting everyone in the neighbourhood. The old owners NEVER used their front porch. I always wish I could be more extroverted like that.

Anyway he seems to have made good friends with the guy next door to him (the one who may have had a drug dealer in his basement apt.) which I think is great as I had worried about him as his son moved out a few years ago. It seems to be good for both of them, which is great.

The extrovert noticed all my moving activity and talked to me about it. I think he may be retired and his wife work for an ambulance company, but I am not 100% sure as I don't ask as many questions as he does.

Kim and Zully helped me take another load over last night. This morning I drove a carload of books over. I still have a 3 more bookshelves to go. Way too many books!

I just got a call from servicemaster, who evidently have to work Sunday with so many basements to deal with. They told me that the wall tear out will occur tomorrow morning. More pics to follow :)

backyard update

In addition to the basement being ripped apart, so is the back deck.

There are cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes growing in the back.

The guy who did the inspection of the walls came by this morning. He was trying to determine which wall were covered by the sewer backup clause and which were seepage (which insurance does not cover)
He said they would make an appointment for the "tear out". (meaning it will get worse before it gets better!). They are still only at the "tear out" stage and he thought they would be all week before they even get started on the restoration part of the project. He thought it would be about a month before the basement was restored so a while to go yet!

Need to get another moving load done now. It's looking a bit like rain though!

Come what may

Some pics of the basement. I have a meeting with another service guy at 8am. He's doing some testing and will check the moisture levels and see how the industrial fans and dehumidifier are doing.

My back porch is also ripped apart on a seperate project. Will get pics of that today.

Kim and Zully helped me move another load last night- we moved a big dresser, the kitchen table and a bookshelf.
While we were loading up, some people came by to view the neighbours' house. This was amusing as they are selling, yet we are moving! The real estate agent looked a bit puzzled as to which house to go to!
We may do another load today- still have beds, tables, an entertainment unit (which I haven't figured out where it might go in the new place so am a wee bit hesitant to move it- but it may fit under the mantle in the front room) and still more bookshelves!

Need to shower as I hope to go to Loblaws before meeting the service man this morning.

My cousin Tammy inspired me to listen to some music from Moulin Rouge on youtube
Come what may

gutted

Yesterday I called the my broker and she put in the claim to the insurance company. I had to explain everything to multiple people. Darryl the service dispatcher told me that he had 200 sewer backups into basements in my area. Things are a little busy in the cleanup world. But at 5pm today a crew showed up and gutted the floor of my basement. They took the carpet and underlay and all that is left is my concrete. Another crew will return to take my drywall.
The drywall that I just spent a week painting. Ah well, hopefully they make it all better than new!
Will take pics tomorrow!
Off to watch big brother now.

Break down

I worked hard all weekend to try to suck all the water up from the basement but today I broke down and called the insurance company as everything was still damp.

I had not been feeling well for the last week or so and had just been eating yogurt and crackers. But today I had my first real meal in a while- chicken, rice and tomatoes. Yum!

Tomorrow I am invited to a goodbye lunch for Tracy. She left my old workplace before I did. So I go back to my old workplace as the lunch was planned before I left. I need to bring cucumber slices. Must remember to make them in the morning!

Bachelorette the other night- I was disappointed with how she handled Ben. I thought Ali handled it much better when she let the runner up go the day before, not after he proposed to her. Not only that but a number of things I think Ashley has to mature on still. I hope she & JP last!

My neighbours put their house on the market today- only slightly larger and a bit nicer- 200K. Wow.

Back to packing!