CHARLIE - 4 month old golden retriever pup, oh so cute but oh so busy!
When we left the Tiverton farm sit, we immediately went to Dave’s sister’s place near Newmarket to look after their newest family member, Charlie, while they went on a mini vacation. He’s a very cute, golden retriever pup who’s a sweetheart but man you forget how much work puppies are. They keep you on your toes that’s for sure, always chewing on something or you! But he’s learning quickly, I’m sure he’ll be an “angel” once he gets older :-)
After that, we headed back to our friends cottage in Grand Bend to do some work for them. We’ve been here since Oct 14th, staying until close to the end of November. Dave’s first job was to help finish the installation of a new laminate floor in the main living area...looks and smells so much better than the ancient, orange carpet that was in it before.
Next we tackled the painting of the cupboards and walls in the laundry/pantry area to match up with the improvements Sue and Paul did in the kitchen earlier in the year. Never had the pleasure of painting cabinets before...it’s a lot of work. Actually the painting is the easy part, the prep is the hard part. I’ve learned to hate flat screws on hinges, especially ones that are full of paint. They took forever to get off and I was ready to toss them in the garbage and get new ones but I found a great way to get paint off metal hinges online. Just boil them in water with a healthy addition of baking soda and the paint just peels off.....they look brand new, in fact, Sue and Paul thought we bought new ones. Anyways, the room looked great when finished.
In the middle of that job, Hurricane Sandy blew through. The lake got quite rough but the cottage was fairly well protected from the wind. There were a few trees down in town and a small number of residents, including us lost power from midnight on Oct 29 to 3 pm the next day. There’s no other heat source here so it got chilly...had to go down the road to a local restaurant just to get warmed up! We sure miss having a wood stove or insert in that situation....gotta get one of those on Sue and Paul’s cottage “to do list!”
Now we’re in the middle of painting the main floor bedroom. It had carpet in it that had been glued down with some lovely sticky black stuff...probably been there since the 70s. Again, the internet came in handy, suggested soaking it with boiling water and or vinegar and again decent success....with plenty of elbow grease by Dave. By the end of the day his arms just about seized up but at least the crap is off the floor and ready for it’s new laminate.
It’ll look great when it’s done.....I’ll show off the final result in the next update!
Here’s some of our Grand Bend renovations so far...