Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Zari is cooking a Thanksgiving dinner with some roommates. She made browned butter mashed potatoes and coleslaw. Her roommate (from Mexico) is making enchiladas. While it's not traditional, it sounds delicious!

Inga had tryouts for another club team in Indianapolis. Dio and Ivy went to the school choir concert (middle & high school choirs). They had a fun time and Ivy wants to be in choir next year.

Work on the carriage house is advancing. My amazing brick mason / I-can-do-everything-guy is reinforcing all of the roof trusses with 2x6s and framing in the closet/laundry area (on the right) and bathroom (on the left). I have started to sketch out electrical plans because that sort of thing is super fun for me. It's still approximate but at least I have an idea of how many switches, outlets, and fixtures I need and about where they will go.

My vision of this upstairs area is:

• leaving the exposed brick on both gables
• white shiplap on the vaulted ceiling
• hardwood floors
• carriage house lanterns above both windows on the gables (already bought at Restore)
• bubble glass carriage house lamps hanging from the ceiling (already bought at Restore)
• there will be a skylight on the left side that unfolds into a roof balcony. They are super cool! Search "Velux Cabrio."

I'm making good headway through the French translation of Breech Pro. Phew. It's hard to be at my desk all day when the renovations are calling my name!

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My hunter-gatherer lifestyle

Weekends allow me to follow a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. I visited three Habitat for Humanity Restores, hunted down more deals at a huge secondhand store and Facebook Marketplace ads, and gathered all sorts of supplies for our carriage house renovation as well as for a rental apartment I'm redoing. I found...

• A new water softener for $50 instead of $650
• A new shower base for $155 instead of $450
• A new bathroom faucet for $89 instead of $350
• A complete set of kitchen cabinets in very good condition, solid cherry, for under $300 total (for the rental apartment)
• A like-new stainless steel electric range for $300 (rental apartment)
• Several boxes of ceramic tiles (rental apartment)
• A new Miele dishwasher for $225, normally $1,800
• 10 amazing carriage house seeded glass light fixtures between $10-$20 each
• 8 dimmable & adjustable LED spots for $2.50 each
• a box of 8 spot housings for under $5 each
• a hammered silver vessel sink & faucet for $75
• a rain barrel for $40
• -an antique marble-topped washstand and mirror for $135, which we'll turn into the bathroom vanity
• a privacy lockset for the bathroom

I am beyond thrilled with my finds.

What else? Ivy was at a sleepover last night and stayed up until 3 am. She was kaput today. Dio went on a class trip to the historic reenactment fair (Feast of the Hunter's Moon), then had a soccer team party & barbecue, then went to a play at our local theater with a girl-who-is-a-friend.

We made a fire & Smores tonight and enjoyed cuddling with our adopted stray cat, Radar. We had a fire last night as well with lots of cuddles. Ivy had a packet of chemicals that turned the flames blue and green. The colors were much more vivid in real life than in the video.

We finished the evening by watching an episode of Quantum Leap. It's cheesy but fun.

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Sleep? What's that?

I had one of those nights where I lay in bed, tired but wide awake, until about 3:30 am. Ugh. Somehow I made it through the day without falling asleep and having things mostly together.

Inga's school team lost sectionals 2-1. They were ahead 1-0 until the last 15 minutes. She was so disappointed and came out of the field crying.

Zari continues to be very social, going to all sorts of activities and clubs, talking with classmates and professors, doing things with roommates. We are thrilled!

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No games today. School soccer is finished for Ivy and Dio. Indoor soccer starts next week for Dio and then in a few more weeks Inga's club team will start. Inga has sectionals tomorrow. If they win, they advance to regionals (?). If they lose, that's the end of the school soccer season.

Not a whole lot to report for work--lots of computer work, meetings, etc.

Good progress on the carriage house. They've reinforced most of the roof joists (sistering 2x6s onto the existing 2x4s, which will also give us the needed depth for R38+ insulation for the unvented vaulted ceiling via closed cell spray foam).

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Sectionals and building permits

Every time after we finish a big renovation project, we say "No more." Then...a year or two or three passes...and suddenly we're starting something again! This time it's our carriage house, which we've been wanting to finish into a proper apartment for only 14 years.

Our brick mason turns out to also have worked as a licensed plumber and electrician and he has built his own house start to finish. He's eager to help us with this project, which is a first for us. We've always done pretty much everything ourselves. But his prices can't be beat, and his quality of work is great. (Plus he gives us free tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden! Bonus!)

The goal this fall is to get all the framing, plumbing, and electrical done, and maybe also the insulation. There are only a few small areas to frame (2 bathroom walls, 1 kitchen wall). Anyway, I submitted the plans today to the city planning department so we can officially start.

Next summer and fall will be the finishing work, which I'll be a lot more involved with because I'm super picky that way.

The history of the carriage house is interesting. The living area next to the garage was labeled as a "gardener's quarters" in the paperwork, and it used to be a gorgeous finished living space. We met someone whose family bought the house in the 1920s. Soon after we bought the house in 2011, he was in town for some sort of school reunion. He was in his late 80s at the time. He recounted all sorts of memories from living in our house, including that they used to have a maid who lived in the maid's room (now a laundry room, off the back staircase). The gardener's quarters back then was a music room with a piano.

When we bought the house, the previous owners had left a 7 foot wide hole in the roof of the carriage house when a tree fell on it during a tornado. I suspect they collected the insurance money but never repaired the roof. We had to rebuild the roof and unfortunately the entire room was in ruins. We had to pull out everything: decorative moldings, flooring, furniture, woodwork...everything was rotten. We took it back to the bare studs and floor joists and are essentially building an entirely new living area.

Dio and Inga both had sectionals today. Inga's team won, although apparently they didn't play very well. Dio's team tied 0-0, went into overtime, and lost in a shootout.

Zari called tonight and related that she was a bit tired: "I stayed up until 2 am talking with my roommates." Ah, college life!

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Fancy French Food

Eric and I were invited to a fraternity dinner. When the kids were little, we used to go to these several times a year. Since Covid, though, we haven't had the opportunity. The university fraternities regularly invite faulty & their families to have a special dinner with them. This one was by far the most impressive we've ever been to!

They had fraternity alums helping cook and serve, which I thought was a lovely gesture of loyalty and solidarity.

Zari has found a used bike and today she trekked to Canadian Tire to get herself a bike lock. Now she can explore Toronto on the next level!

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Victory & nuit blanche

Ivy had another game today (#5 this weekend), winning 6-0. She scored 2 of the goals. This was for her club team and was out of town, so it was just Eric and Ivy.

Inga had a tryout for a club team in Indianapolis, Indy Premiere, and they are interesting in taking her. She has two other tryouts next week. Looks like a lot of driving in our near future for practices & games. Sigh...

Given that there are between 30,000-50,000 extra people in our little town, it hasn't seemed very crowded except for Friday's parade. I wonder where they all are?

Zari went to a Nuit Blanche outdoor art exhibit in downtown Toronto last night. She wasn't sure if she should go, not knowing what it would be like, but her roommates wanted to check it out. I encouraged her to go and she loved it. Among all of the interesting/weird/cool art was a wrestling show.

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Champions!

Ivy had an all-day tournament, ending with her team winning the conference championship! They scored 7-0, 8-2, and 3-1. Ivy scored the final goal in the final match. It was beautiful. I brought Inga and Dio to the second game. Dio wasn't feeling great, so I took him home and came back to watch the final.

 

(Dio is now sick with a fever and has been in bed most of the afternoon and evening.)

I did yard work and house cleaning this morning.

Zari ran a 9k this morning with a university running club. She reports that her legs are tired and wobbly. But I'm proud of her for doing it! Here's a video and a picture from her run along the waterfront.

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It's been a busy past few days, with (guess what?) soccer and work.

Our little town of 16,000 is hosting the Motocross of Nations this weekend, bringing in over 30,000 people! We can't believe that people are flying in from all over the world to come HERE.

There have been all sorts of events getting set up, including a parade downtown.

Ivy had a club game this evening and scored a lovely goal. Since Eric isn't coaching this team, he was able to film it! She has a school tournament all day tomorrow.

Inga and Dio went to the high school football game this evening, Inga to help her soccer team run the concession stand and Dio because some friends were going.

Zari made borscht today. When she cooks, she often ends up feeding her roommates! She learned that they had never eaten beets and had to remedy that situation. 

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Ivy's team had a game yesterday, winning 9-1 with Ivy scoring and assisting several goals. Inga's team played today, winning 1-0 when the other team scored an own goal.

More video editing for me...not much else to report. Oh, Zari called and founds some suspicious looking bugs in her bed. I had her take pictures, capture a bug and put it in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and then start emergency precautions: first, call her landlady and show her what she found. Then wash & heat dry everything on or near the bed; saturate the bed frame and mattress with isopropyl alcohol; and the treat the bed, mattress, and room with diatomaceous earth. Ugh.

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