What Lies Beneath.... Day 1 - Emergency Sewer Hookup

This morning, Brian heard that awful glub glub noise in the en suite bathroom while I was in the shower in the main bathroom that was the indicator of all our troubles a couple weeks ago. Sure enough... drains were plugged again and we had to call the plumber at 6am. Brian headed off to work, I stayed and waited for the plumber who arrived at 7:30 already knowing that today was going to be a big job if we said go ahead. He had people on standby ready for a dig if I said the word. I called Brian and we gave him the go ahead. The plumber started making calls and things just started happening!

City of West Kelowna finding water lines and Fortis BC detecting gas lines.

Septic guy is here!

Once the tank was opened, you could see... it was completely full and solid... this is NOT a good thing... the sewer connection is absolutely necessary so we didn't make the wrong choice on this.

Fence panel has come down, lucky we have the other fence to hold the dogs in!!

We have a permit on our house! 

Excavator is here!

The start of the dig right under the kitchen window

We had a whole crew at our house for most of the day... all those vehicles are our workers! Crazy hey?

Because of how cold it is and that we decided to do the water lines at the same time... the dig really slowed down at the front of the house due to permafrost... when you are paying by the hour, permafrost is not your friend!

They have made good progress!

The sewer line dug out

The water line dug out

We have no water at all in the house currently and have our camping bucket (the lugable loo) set to go. The guys worked right till after dark around 6:30 pm and will be back at 7:30 am. I have been really impressed with what great service they give and how hard they work! Wish us luck for day 2... its supposed to be cold out!

What do you want to have happen when you buy a new Motorcycle?

Poor Brian slipped on the ice and snow today while taking in the garbage bin. Obviously this is a pretty bruised and swollen sprained ankle. We hope it heals quickly as there is that brand new bike that is just begging to be ridden....

A Personal Fitness Journey for me...

Last Thanksgiving when Doug and Lorissa were out for a visit... there was a conversation at the table about loosing weight. I don't remember exactly what was said, but something about it struck a chord with me. I had already been feeling badly about myself that weekend. Even though it had been an exciting year, it was a really hard year in so many ways. I had wanted to be in better shape for the wedding but I had so much to deal with, it was the last thing I could concentrate on, so I didn't. I didn't even step on a scale cause I didn't want to know. The morning after Doug and Lorissa went home, I stepped on the scale and was shocked at what I saw.... I have never in my life been so heavy. That was October 15. Today, Feb 15th, 4 months later... I am happy to say I have lost over 26 lbs. I joined weight watchers and started working out at home. I kept this all very quiet and only told a few people around Christmas what I was doing. I had to laugh because I was getting so many nice compliments from people about my clothes and hair... but no one really realized it was because I was getting in better shape. Today I think the difference is a bit more noticeable as I am quickly running out of my clothing.. everything is too big instead of me buldging out of everything. I am fitting back into all my old clothes that I haven't worn since Brian and I first got together 6-7 years ago. Its kind of crazy. I still have over 30 lbs to go to meet my goal so I want to ramp up my workouts. Brian has agreed to let me set up a mini gym area in the garage so I got a gym floor mat for skipping and working out on (so I am not killing myself on concrete) a kettlebell and an exercise mat. I already have the Bosu ball, medicine ball and various free weights. I am really excited to be getting back in to weight training again, it really was a passion of mine for many years long ago and to this day, I still love it, I was just lacking the motivation. Wish me luck, I am hoping to hit my goal weight by the end of summer!

My mini gym is in the living room until we can get the garage cleaned up and its a bit warmer!!!

Birthday kids with their cookies!

Mom took my cookies for all the birthday girls and boys back to Abbotsford last weekend just in case the weather is too bad for me to make the trip next weekend. I think everyone liked them, I got lots of pictures texted to me!

Birthday girls with their cookies!

Cali with her huge hello kitty cookie!

Sophie getting in on the action!

Aaron and Declan with the head of his cookie! I heard they decided to use the cookie as the topper on his birthday cake!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a nice Valentine's day... Brian and I both gave each other 'Husband' and 'Wife' Valentine's cards which was fun cause its the first time we have gotten to do that... Brian gave me a pretty bouquet of flowers and we even got some pretty cute Valentine's in the mail fro Cali & Sophie!!

Last minute guests and a plumbing disaster!

Brian, Mom and Elliott at Breakfast!

Mom and Elliott made a last minute trip up this weekend because my Uncle Bob was taken to the hospital with kidney failure on Thursday. I tried to see him Friday but was unable to as he was having tests done. I figured I would go see him with Mom and Elliott on Saturday when they arrived. Saturday morning, I was in the shower and was noticing the water wasn't draining. Might be a hair clog right? Well, I really try not to let my hair go down the drain... either way, got out the plunger and started working on it. Brian then comes into the bathroom asking if we had a plunger, not thinking... I handed him the one I was using seeing that their was hair in the drain that I could pull out. He left, I tried to flush the hair down the toilet and the toilet didn't drain either!!! Oh no! Then it clicked, I ran into the bedroom where Brian was trying to get the ensuite toilet to flush...unfortunately, there was an overflow and stuff overflowing you would never want to overflow.... so now we have guests coming and no toilets. Haha... Long story short, after Brian trying to figure out what the issue was... draining pipes from the crawl space (and a lot of screaming and yelling... not at me!) We called a plumber! Mom and Elliott arrived just before the plumbers did around 3pm and promptly headed off to the hospital... I didn't go, I was a bit stressed over what we were dealing with. The plumber and his apprentice were here for over 2 hours... did I mention at this point we had 4 dogs in the house too? (taking care of Mom's 2 dogs also) The bill came to $375 for a clog that was just in between the main line and the septic field. Honestly, I was unhappy with the price... it could have been way worse and, the great news is, we got an estimate for our sewer hook-up and found that it is much less than we were anticipating. This plumber will do the whole thing... dig the trench, hook things up, fill the septic field, get the permits and even fix our sprinklers that they have to dig up... 1-2 days $2000-$4000... so that's not bad at all. I am sure we will call them up in the spring! Wow! Long story hey? Anyhow, everything is working great again... we had toilets for our guests and I finally got to see my uncle today and amazingly he did not have to do dialysis, all the fluids they were pumping through him were working! Basically what happened was, he had the flu, got dehydrated and took way too many ibuprofen. If he had not gone to the hospital when he did, well...we are just glad he went!!

Bathroom Reno... a year in the making

So its been about a year in the making, but I am very excited to say that our main bathroom reno is 'almost' complete! When we moved in last February, we had to deal immediately with a broken short toilet. We had to remove part of the counter to put in the new toilet. In October I finally had a chance to paint (after all the wedding craziness). Then, over the past couple weeks, we were finally able to install a new vanity as the other one was so short and there was no storage! Very proud of me and my super handy husband for doing such a great job on our own! The final phase of the reno will be when we replace all the floors in the house, including the bathroom (not for a year or 2!!)

Bathroom before we moved in

Bathroom before we moved in... lots of ugly pieces to remove!!

Broken short toilet... not sure what the previous owners did to break it, but we needed to replace it!

The removal of the old toilet and part of the counter

Brian replacing the toilet

Before the paint job... time to get rid of that awful mustard color!!!

Ah.... so much better!

Brian removing the Vanity! Finally... I have waited so long! I hate how short this counter is as well as the fact there is no drawers for storage.

I got to fill and paint again!

Beautiful... a taller more narrow vanity that allows for so much more space and storage! Brian has since put new light switches and electric outlets in the bathroom and it looks just great!

I am so happy! :)

Big Cookies!

I had a bit of time today to work on some birthday cookies for a few upcoming February Birthdays... Julie, Cali and Declan! Probably obvious who is getting what cookie! I decided to make these guys big so they would be easier to decorate... yes, bigger does mean easier although more time consuming. The Lego Character needed to be bigger because of the details...

Here are the finished products... they look small though right? They aren't!

Emmit measures in at 10" tall

Hello Kitty measures in at 8" tall

Here is the original picture of Emmit that I used to design the cookie

And the original of the Hello Kitty

I used the pictures of the characters printed out on paper and then cut out as stencils to use to make the shape on the sugar cookie dough. I was lucky enough to have received a rather large cookie/pancake flipper from Julie for Christmas so moving these big cookies around was reasonably easy.

One cookie per pan!

I used black melting wafers (chocolate) to draw the outline of the hello kitty on the cookie. Not bad for free hand!

For Emmit, I used edible markers to draw out the design because I was using flood icing to fill in areas without using a border.

Here is Emmit partially filled, I have to do it color by color

All done!! I used the black melting wafers to fill in a few of the final details

Anyhow, I am super excited they turned out so well... they just have to dry over night and then I will pack them away in the freezer until I can give them to the kids (& Julie) for their birthdays!!

The main bathroom reno - part 2

After almost a year of dealing with a tiny, very low counter, we finally bought a vanity to install in the main bathroom. I am so excited, I can't tell you how frustrating this bathroom has been space-wise.

Brian starting to remove the old vanity

You would think he was a pumber! So impressed he can do all this!

We set the new vanity in the bathroom to discuss any potential problems and how we are going to get things done....

It looks great so far... :)

Now it's my turn... I always get the fun job of patching, sanding and painting! This one was a really big job this time around.