DISASTER STRIKES!

ok, this actually happened in early december, but it was just so terrible that it took us a month to be able to write about it. the tale starts like this.
once upon a time, jenny was doing laundry for once, instead of ian, and she happened to notice that there was water on the basement floor.

i actually thought it looked soapy, so i assumed the washing machine was leaking (although upon reflection, one of the first things the house inspector told us to do was to fix the main water drain from the house. ha, shows what he knows...A LOT!) but it turns out as per my brackets that it was the main water drain pipe thing, which was probably built about 80 years before our 80 year old house was built. basically there is a pipe, then a box that is supposed to be leak-proof that turns into another pipe. the box thing started to leak b/c the gasket was cracked and old and basically non-existant. i feel like i have to ask, why wouldn't they just keep it as one consistent pipe going all the way down to the sewers? why mess with a connection b/w a pipe and a box and then with a box and a pipe? SO DUMB!

<----so, the box in question is that rusty brown thing with white squishy stuff coming out of it. that is silicone, of course, and this is how you apply it----->

i wish you could see my hands close up; i had just got a manicure an hour before. we came home and realized how bad it actually was, so like the trooper i pretend to be i rolled up my sleeves and got my glittery nails involved. and what was ian doing? thinking up new brilliant strategies for stopping the leak of course. note the above "2 by 4" fashioned to act as a clamp to hold the box on while the silicone dried. and below, a take on wind power









(good thing i stole that fan from george when we moved from sherwood park...otherwise out home might be a houseboat now)
both very smart ideas, both failing only b/c no one could remember to not flush the toilet for one hour. in the end we got it fixed with an entirely different solution, which closely resembles the one continuous pipe that i think they should have used in the first place 100 years ago, but that is beside the point i guess.

i put the first coat of paint in the dining room today. ian is at work, so i think some people may see it even before he does. what do y'all think of the colour?














ok, haha, this is just the primer. it will actually be Alyssa-Red. after the red is on 3 walls out of the 3.5 walls we have then we are putting up brick on the .5 wall. not red though...more like a garden earthy mixture of greens and browns and tans, so that no one goes crazy and starts eating cats.

i think i will tell ian that i changed my mind about the colour, and see what happens. probably he will say "great, let's do that in the bedroom too". he is a man who loves pink.

*what have we been doing while we have NOT been updating our blog? lots and lots:
ripping up disgusting carpet on the stairs ----->
pulling the carpet up was the most challenging part in my mind. you really have to yank on it, and it can cause you to fall backwards down one-seventeen stairs if it ever does give.
pulling the nine million staples and nails out was not nearly as bad, although we did have to take turns with the "good" pliers, as we have one pair of needlenose only. the other ones were about as useful as my fingers on their own.

and here is a shot of the lovely yellow tile that we found underneath the carpet and underlay. yes, that is some sort of FUR on top of the lovely yellow tile. i had a lot of fun pulling that stuff up. far easier than pulling carpet and it made a great sckooching sound everytime you got a good piece off!

...and here is what the stairs currently look like, although i did start sanding last week. using the sander is a lot of fun actually, but it makes a terrible noise (this is UNLIKE the great sckooching noise...don;t be confused!). if i can figure out how to add video i will include an audio sample of the sander in action.

and what about these last two pics? they are the first two holes that we have knocked in our wall. hurrah for just-going-for-it!