January 16, 2011

• 
  whew, this is an old photo already! this is the birthday lunch we had for Brielle’s birthday on Dec 31 at Le Cafe de la Gare.

  
  The boys at the club. On Tuesday afternoons Judah’s school usually has swimming lessons, which he may or may not attend based on Asher’s sleep schedule since the ladies dont work Tuesday afternoons and if he’s sleeping then i cant just bring Judah to the pool… anyway.. so this last Tuesday when i picked the kids up from school the teacher says to me something about swimming, and i said, ‘yes, yes’ i knew there was swimming and i would try to bring Judah that day… so we walked down to the Club with Asher, thinking that he would fall asleep en route, but he didnt, and then we swam for a while before the school was scheduled to come… and then they didnt come and didnt come… and then i realized that i had obviously not listened very well to what the teacher was saying. haha. he probably told me that there was no swimming that day but i just assumed he was nagging me to take my kid to swimming. Regardless, it was a nice time with the pool to ourselves. Judah is spending increasing amounts of time in the big pool and i suspect that the water wings are just a psychological thing for him by now. I reckon he’s fully capable of swimming on his own, he just doesnt have the confidence yet to do it, nor to use the slide (you can see the slide in the background just to Judah’s left). Here we are, above, having a little snack before we pack up and walk back home. (didnt i just feel so active that day! haha).

  
  This last Saturday Josh, Judah and i went downtown to look for a shop called “Naza” where we went to suss out TV prices. We received some really nice gaming toys this last Christmas and now thought we could invest some of our Christmas money into a new TV that didnt have a smashed in upper right corner. ha.

  
  It was nice to go out for lunch there without Asher keeping everyone on their toes. It felt quite relaxing with only one mature child around. haha.

  
  When we got back from downtown we saw a chain gang of workers tilling under our front grass area by hand. The proprietor has hired a landscaper and apparently they plan to level the area (!), re-plant better grass (without weeds) and then once the grass starts growing they will purchase the gardeners (2) an electric lawn mower so they can stay on top of the grass mowing. ha. i’ll believe that when i see it.

  
  these are the aforementioned kitchen counter-tops. I did dishes today in my raised kitchen sink because it was that exciting. haha. You can see in the back corner behind me that we need some sort of corner counter/ shelving. I would love a corner trolley (like there is, with the microwave, but it’s not long enough) that reached the length between the fridge and the wall, and then i would put the water filter up in the corner on a stand of some sort. Where it is now (see below) Asher loves to play with the spigot and we’ve got none to spare if it breaks.

  

  We still plan to put the cupboard doors back once Josh has router-ed holes in them to allow the air to circulate so that the under counter area doesnt get all moldy like it did before. I think i mentioned that we’re hoping the proprietor will send someone to finish up by replacing the window and cupboard door frames. then we’ll paint the doors and window frames white (in real life they’re kind of an old dirty beige, which looks terrible now with our brand new tiles).

  

  i wanted to include some pictures of the less than stellar finishing job that the ’tile-guy’ did. Apparently it usually takes him 2-4 days to complete tiling these kitchens, but “miraculously” he did my kitchen in one day! this was reportedly because he wasnt bogged down by constant criticism by those looking over his shoulder. it appears i would have benefited in being more critical while he was there! gah!

  
  look at how much bigger a cut he made in that tile by the corner of the sink!

  
  that corner will need some serious filing down or else it will be a health and safety hazard.

  
  the corners, you might not be able to see, dont have very good top cement, and the holes will undoubtedly gather dust and bugs in them. ugh.

  
  under the since there is some rough concrete which, if you accidentally drip – say – some schmont fat gravy while trying to scrape the leftovers into the garbage, it settles into the little holes in the concrete… blech. i’m hoping to also paint the floor of the cupboards with oil paint to sort of seal it a bit better.
  
  the outlet up on the counter-top was a) chipped by the tile-ripper-outter, and b) apparently they forgot to re-install it back flush into the wall… it’s impossible to just push it back in for reasons i havent yet determined. alas. BUT check out the new canisters i found at Shoprite to keep our oatmeal/porridge and flour and sugar and display on our lovely new counter-tops. woot!

  I’m hoping that we’ll be able to afford a new paint job in parts of our house in the near future. Anyone have any brilliant ideas of if i should go “wild” and paint the kitchen a colour other than white? and, what about a new curtain by the window. suggestions?

  • 11:27 am
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