Hello’s and Goodbye’s

Through all our excitement of arrival and getting started on ‘our project’, we almost missed our 47th wedding anniversary! Mark arrived on Saturday to help with the house and presented us with a bouquet of flowers and said happy anniversary from Terri , I & Ali and we looked at each other & said oops. So, on Monday, we decided to take a day off and celebrate with dinner out. A neighbour had told me that there was a particular Chinese restaurant that made excellent food so we decided to take the leap and try it out. Well, it was excellent, good food, good service and of course, good company – just the 2 of us at a window table overlooking the Niagara River and Buffalo. It was a nice evening but a few days later, we found out we went to the wrong Chinese eatery – so now we have another one to try out.

 

After all the work done on the weekend, we filled the dumpster and had to have it taken away and a new one dropped off. That was an experience in itself. Taking it away was no problem but bringing in the new one was a bit different – we have had lots of rain and the ground was real soft and the truck got stuck part way in and couldn’t really drop the box due to overhead cables. The driver called his office and they sent a back hoe/loader to push the truck in a little farther and then pulled it out after he dropped the new bin. The driver of the back hoe was the owner and he pulled up to where I was standing and introduced himself and asked where he should send the bill to, me or the truck driver! Of course, I said the driver, he’s the one that got stuck! We had a short laugh and then the back hoe started to repair the ruts that the truck left – great service and I would recommend Jim Flake’s service to anyone.

Now that excitement is over, back to the job at hand. We have the centre and the front of the house to remove wall panels, drywall and insulation yet. It only took Barb & I 2 days to remove and clean up the rubble and the house is down to the ‘bare bones’. For the most part, all above the foundation was in good shape but there has been moisture issues over the years and we will have to re-build one corner of the house. At the foundation, there is extra work that we did not anticipate, some blocks were left out for venting and we’ll have to replace a few rim joists that sit on the foundation. The floor at back of the house where the bathroom and leaky hot water tank were located has to be taken up and most floor joists replaced. The tank must have been leaking for a long time for this much rot and weakness. The floor joist were built in an unusual method, forming a series of rectangles, sistered together instead of the standard joist structure with supports at the ends and a beam in the centre of the span. No wonder it sagged badly!

May 2nd we were invited to the service placing Gerry’s ashes in the niche the family choose at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in London. After some pivoting around about travel time during rush hour.  We would be heading to London in morning rush hour, Ann invited us to come down on Thursday night. As we were getting ourselves organized, friends dropped by to say hello and welcome us to the ‘Hood’ – they live in Crystal Beach. We chit chatted, showed them our new hobby and chatted some more. It was a nice visit though short and we hope they didn’t feel we pushed them out the door  so we could head to London.

It was a cold and rainy day as we gathered at the cemetery to remember Gerry as his ashes were placed in the niche.  Thought we had cried ourselves dry but the tears once again flowed. After a great lunch at Sunnydale we went to Anne’s sister Rose’s house for the afternoon and supper.  We watched movies of life with Gerry and our Ellis Family Roots DVD.   We stayed with Ann until Saturday and headed out to see Vicki & Ron in Sparta. Vicki & Ron have a challenging time ahead and we wanted them to know we are here for anything they might need.

On the way home, we stopped at Lowe’s to pick up some materials – we’re excited to be starting to build! Almost all the de-construction is done except where we have to replace joist etc and ripping up floors but we are gonna be cutting and nailing!

We hope all is good where you are…..