Bloomin' Fantastic

The peonies have finally bloomed. I won't show a long shot of the side garden because it's crowded (very, very badly) with weeds. If the rain stops tomorrow then I'll tidy up a wee bit and show off a lovely perennial bed that was here when we bought the house.



The garden beds at the front of the house are a tad more presentable. Look at these gorgeous Cheddar Pinks. I love this little perennial, it forms the most perfect mounds of fine blue-green grass-like leaves, then bursts into tons of these tiny cerise pink flowers which bloom for most of the summer. I should have planted nothing but these in the front beds.



Instead of PLANNING to make a new Tangled Yoke Cardigan with the pink Baby Alpaca I mentioned in the last post, I decided to ACTUALLY START the project.



Don't be fooled by the enormous number of stitches on the needle, that's for the back and both fronts. I'm not SO, SO big.

Here's a few obligatory reno shots:





with all the fuss and bother going on in the back garden (by the two big spruce trees) a Pine Sawyer Beetle was displaced and found it's way to the side of the garage. They must be fairly shy, because in all my years around these parts, I've never seen one. Though, to be fair, I'm not the most outdoorsy woman in the world.



Very "Tim Burton-esque", no?

Here's the wall before the concrete is poured:



and after, with the moulds removed.



This week there were frequent opportunities to take pictures of shirtless, sweaty young men, I can think of a few readers of the blog that would have enjoyed that, but opted instead for this:

Hooray for Concrete and Yarn

Can you believe it's nearly July and the peonies still haven't bloomed. That spring was truly dismal, cold and dark. Soon though....soon...

The reno continues. Our concrete boys were here earlier than I thought (fantastic!), though due to the aforementioned spring weather, they're madly running between a whole lot of jobs (poor things).



There were lots of chalk lines run between wooden stakes.



Then a great big auger came out and drove the piles that the new foundation will sit on. This photo was taken from the second story window.



That's a pile (of concrete)...



The boys left their Bobcat on the back lawn through the week-end. That's Ian having a go behind the controls - thankfully they didn't leave the keys in the ignition.

They're outside today building the plywood mould for the foundation walls. Tomorrow should see the final bit of concrete poured, and then we'll REALLY be off and running - framing, roofing, windows, doors, and then all the inside bits (the fun part).

I've been distracting myself with online shopping. Don't worry Nigel, I only buy bargains.

Little Knits out of Seattle was having a sale on two yarns I couldn't resist.



Rowan Baby Alpaca DK in soft petal pink. Normally this yarn would sell for about $100 for 10 skeins, but it was on for $25 for 10. Imagine! I bought 20 skeins. A cardigan or pullover should take about 13 or so. I'm very happy.



Also on for the same sale price (same regular price too) was Rowan Scottish Tweed DK. I bought the 14 skeins of the lavender colour. Oooo, very, very happy.

Hooray for happiness!

My Girl is Da Bomb

Elly has been back in town for a week and a half and she's making her presence felt. She's been complaining that she only packed "one" pair of shoes and is shipping the rest - however, the front entrance looks like a bomb's hit it. Those are all hers, people. She's like a nuclear explosion.



The reno has hit a standstill. After the de-construction of the old additions, the foundation and piles have to be poured before the re-construction can begin. Our concrete boys had another foundation booked this past week and we weren't scheduled for our work until late this week or early next. The weather has conspired against us though (rain through most of this week) and so the other job has no doubt been delayed, putting our work at late this week or early the following week. Must. Be. Patient.

I've been busying myself with knitting.

I bought some lovely Sublime Organic Cotton in pale, natural shades, and I've been knitting dishcloths (for my new kitchen, dontcha' know!) Cream, pale beige, cocoa brown and pale pink. They look like shades of gelato. Yummy.



Oh yes, and the Big Needle Wrap I mentioned in an earlier post, Ooooo, bad, bad, bad....I gave out bad instructions. It's not "increase one stitch each end, every OTHER row", it's "increase one stitch each end, EVERY row" Bah! It was knitting into a long skinny triangle. I had to rip it all out and start again. This "easy, peasy pattern", "takes only an evening or two to knit", has been going on now for weeks. Ack...

(looks pretty good now though).



I've also been distracting myself with knitting up a wee creature. This one is more of a, hmmm...let's call it a "work of art". Perhaps with the potential to become a "Work of Art". We shall see...

But I AM Knitting

Just in case you're getting a tad bored of the reno (I'm not!) I thought I'd let you know that I'm still knitting. I'm working on a replacement Big Needle Wrap that I shrank in the wash earlier this year. You can see the original here, on my 100th blog post. The colours on the new one are slightly different, but not by much. The original was a wee bit more violet-y purple, the new one is, hmmm...., grape-y?

I like it, that's all that matters.

The first wrap was knit up in a couple of evenings while in Dublin, this one is taking MUCH longer. Perhaps I'm distracted...



yesterday's view out the second story window...









Today marks a momentous occasion - the return of my first born. Elly's plane gets in tonight after the better part of a year in Dublin. In honour of her return to this city, and in particular, to the Dirty Old City Lot that is currently our home; The Pogues...

A Touch More Destruction

Aren't these tulips lovely? In the background of the shot you can see some reno rubble..



Andrea mentioned in the comments of the last post that the house looked as though it had been built in bits and pieces, which is absolutely true. Back in the '80's someone owned the house who thought they were quite the "Mr. Fixit", and added a little here and a little there, until finally the entire back section of the house was a sort of Frankenstein-ish monstrosity. Our contractor has told me that our house is considered a "bad" house according to our local land titles department due to all the work that's been done without permits. However, we're putting it all back to right.

Let's pick up where we left off, this is the house first thing this morning...

Below is the stove portion of the kitchen before today...





then windows gone...



and stove gone...



gas fireplace gone...



some fancy new plywood walls (who needs windows?).



These are just temporary...



A little al fresco dismantling...



and by the end of day, the little section where the stove was is all gone.



Tomorrow should see the end of the morning room.