On Being Fickle

 

It is extremely rare for me to strip the paper I hang due to a change of mind on the part of the customer. This was a strange case.

The first job we did for Walnut Ridge townhouses was two show homes, where we papered a feature wall in the master bedroom and a main floor powder room. here

 

Then I get a call from the builder saying that one of the show homes was sold but the buyer did not like the wallpaper so the builder hired someone to strip it. Then, the customer, seeing the plain walls, wanted the paper back on the wall, at least in the power room.

 

We went back last week and re-installed the paper. It was easy because our old markings and plumb lines were still visible. The temperature in the vacant suite was intolerable but with plenty of spray bottles and cool water, we kept the adhesive workable and did the job in record time. While we were there, another new home owner came to see what we were doing and that little visit resulted in another job.

Home Construction Project

 

The new back steps project began with a challenge. How do you haul 12' material home in a truck with a 6' box. My Brother-in-law came to the rescue with his load extender which fit snugly onto the hitch on the back of my truck. I was grateful for only one steep uphill grade all the way home.

 

Setting up tools and saw horses in the back yard. The lawn may be toast, literally, but at least there was shade.

 

Old steps down and the first stringer up.

 

Andrew screwing down the second last tread.

 

He doesn't know I took this photo. Hehe.

 

Complete except for painting the rail, some of which we had to replace with new wood.

 

New treads all cut, primed and painted.

 

We used treated lumber for the stringers. They will last beyond my lifetime.

Let the winter rains come now because I have one less thing to worry about.

But now for that roof that is twenty years old next year. The cost of the stair project was under $200 in materials. The roof .... well, my first estimate came in and it is $12000.00

White Coat Syndrome

 

I was at the Allergy Doctor's the other day and soon the allergies became a secondary issue. As is routine, my blood pressure was taken and the nurse was alarmed, but not as much as I was when she told me what the reading was. I was somewhat prepared for this as it happens whenever I go to the doctor. Think about it. Why does one go to the doctor if not for the reason of discussing health issues that may or may not be serious at my age. It is natural for even that small amount of anxiety to raise one's blood pressure.

My family doctor does not even test my blood pressure any more because he knows this. Besides he also knows that I test it regularly at home with my state of the art blood pressure monitor.

This was not good enough for the allergy doctor (Doctor of Internal Medicine) so he prescribed a 24 hour monitor to be worn by me right during the hot days of June. Every twenty minutes it squeezed me. At night it was every hour on the hour.

I was more than glad to say good-bye to it the next day, and more than glad to hear that my blood pressure is more or less normal. The nurse was a little reluctant to eat the crow that I tried to serve up.

As for the allergies, well, that will be posted another day.

My Back Steps

 

I live in a house that was built in 1976. These back steps that lead up to my deck were well built and are still fairly sturdy but the time has come to replace them. The bottom of the stringers are rotted and we have propped up the bottom tread a few times. My biggest headache regarding these steps is the maintenance. I know what to do and how to do it, but the paint job on these steps, no matter how meticulous the prep and expensive the paint, does not last more than two years because of the deteriorating condition of the wood. This year with the very hot and dry temperatures, the wood had shrunk and dried to the point where it is checked and cracked beyond repair.

This whole stair case, left alone going forward, may collapse in maybe two to three years.

 

Only two years ago, there was an impeccable paint job on these treads.

 

The stringer split at a knot and once water gets under the tread and into the stringer, it is a matter of time for rot to set in.

 

The top hanger plate has dry rot and one can poke a pencil almost straight through it. Walking up and down, the stairs are 

 beginning to shake a bit

 

But, mostly, they are ugly. It is time for a home repair project. Andrew my son, where are you? I need your help.

Grass, Again

 

The sellers of Grass Cloth highly recommend that the purchasers of this product do not attempt to hang it themselves. And rightly so. It was a vicious learning curve for me, many years ago, but today with my experience and own personal technique, I quite enjoy it and the only problem I ever run into is the obvious discrepancies in the product from one roll to the next.

 

You can even see the difference between panels in the above photo. They are off two rolls of same pattern and batch number. This variation cannot be seen when stretching the paper on the table or floor as the wrinkles and unevenness prevent seeing it accurately. Once it is on the wall, two adjacent panels are stretched and smoothed onto the wall and the variation is very obvious.

 

In this one that we did on Saturday, I pointed it out to the customer and she was perfectly fine with it. There was a large screen TV going on the wall and the transition was going to be right behind the TV.

Perfect.

Thank the Dogs

Estimating over the phone is a risky business, especially when I have consented to drive almost 100 km. one way to do a job. He described the room, together with accurate dimensions and told me how much wallpaper he had. Based on that information, I calculated that there would be enough and that I could finish the job in about 6 hours and it was a 'go'.

Things are not always quite the way a customer describes them on the phone. He and his very pregnant girlfriend (fiancé) had decided a week prior that they would do the job themselves and had hung two pieces starting from behind the door. After having great difficulty, they called me.

I have always disliked fixing other's mistakes. I make enough of my own that I am obliged to fix. In this case, they had a major problem with seams not lying down and not being quite together from top to bottom. Pre-pasted paper can be that way, and most often is. Good news was that the mistakes were behind the door but the bad news is that I do not work from left to right. It is in my DNA to work from right to left. Here I had no choice because there was a pattern that now had to continue from where it was started.

Add to that was the suspicion that there was not going to be enough. I asked him why there was so little paper left on the roll when he had only hung two strips. Apparently the dogs stepped on the paper as it was lying on the carpeted floor and their paws 'n claws had ripped a substantial amount of paper. He had thrown that damaged paper in the garbage. We promptly measured the wall area and determined how much paper was actually on all the remaining rolls. The original amount would have been perfect but now we were going to be short.

There are always options and one of them was that we could fudge the pattern in four inconspicuous areas and thereby not lose paper when matching the pattern. If we did that, there would be just enough. At this point, the customer informed me that they were only renting and that mismatching was fine with them. I do not like putting my name to something like that and told them so. But the alternative was to drive back at a later date, and customer laying out more money that could go for something else for the new baby room, so they insisted I mismatch.

After giving it careful thought, I did just that. When the room was completed, I called the lady in and challenged her to find one of four mismatches. Her initial confidence of being able to do that quickly turned to disbelief as she could not find a single one.

Photos and Food

 

I was treated royally on Father's day last weekend. Andrew had just returned from Victoria and brought me a bag of chocolate goodies. The photo is a caramel and chocolate covered apple with a spray of white chocolate and marshmallows on the top. There was more.

I got a nice shirt and some monster cookies from Rachel and her family, plus a nice drop-in visit in the afternoon.

busylizzy took me to a Tuscan Garden in Mt. Lehman and told me to bring my camera. The garden is only open in the middle of the day when the light is at its worst, but I still got a few worthy photos, as you can see from below.

I have treasured my roll as a father throughout the years and without taking any credit, I am more than thrilled to see and experience the wonderful family I now have. I am proud of each and everyone of them and love them all to bits. And, because I also had a good father, this day is a good day for me, something that not everyone can say.

 

 

Cherry Run

 

A last minute decision was made and off we were to the interior for our annual cherry run. We heard that the cherries were very early this year and we did not want to miss them.

We went to Cawston and found the fruit stand where we purchased the Christalina variety two years ago. They are so much better than the Vans of last year. We missed them by three days, but the Lapins were coming on strong so we purchased 100 lbs. of them and then it was back on the road.

We had only left home at noon so we did not have too much time to dally, however, we did stop in at our friend's in Hedley. The 'good' restaurant was not open Mondays so our friends graciously invited us to share a meal with them. We also had a box of cherries for them.

We noted how much greener it was in the interior than in the Fraser Valley. This is a reversal of the usual pattern. We drove through numerous showers on the way home.

The next day we canned all the cherries we kept for ourselves, 42 quart jars. Of course, we still have a good supply of fresh ones in the refrigerator. These Lapins keep really well and are very firm and juicy. One of the best things about summer is all the fresh fruit and produce that comes on stream. We have certainly got off to a good start with the strawberries and now the cherries.

Bringing Morality

 

The environment was in the news again today. That is not new, but what is new, is that the pope has stepped up, wearing his scientific hat, and proclaimed that we must collectively put an end to anthropogenic climate change, a.k.a. global warming. You can read the article here.

What I find fascinating, no, make that predictable, is the response he is getting from the generally liberal media. They are praising his words and thoughts. "He is putting 'morality' into the climate change issue", as if the pope had a corner on morality and there were no moral issues already present in the ongoing debate.

Is it not interesting that this man is suddenly given credibility when in the past he and his church were denigrated for their stance on abortion? Was he not putting morality into that issue? And how about the issue of the sanctity of marriage? Was he not denigrated for his old fashioned views? As I see it, he has been given token respect, but his views, even though they are becoming quite liberalized, are still demonized because society in general is becoming more averse to religion in any form.

Most recently, he got a lot of publicity by stating that capitalism is the bane of the world and the wealthy should share, in order to alleviate poverty. Nobody took him to task on the fact that the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church is the wealthiest entity on the face of the globe, and as a church, whose mandate it is, to help those less fortunate, is hording its wealth as never before.

 

We are certainly getting mixed messages from our media outlets. What I would like to see is a bit of consistency in those messages.

Far and Away

 

It has been a few months since my last Charles Dickens novel so I thought I would tackle something similar but by a different author. I do love reading the classics.

Written in the late 1800's, the setting is rural England and the subject is a young girl's struggle with the three men in her life who are pursuing her. Yes, it is basically a love story, but the reader gets a good feel for life on an English sheep farm at the turn of the century.

The character development is excellent, and unlike a Dickens' novel, we are made aware of the place in the story of each character as they are introduced.

Bathsheba Everdene has inherited a substantial farm from a dying uncle and being intelligent and head strong, she attempts to run it on her own. She has already been sought after by Oak, a young man from her past who now becomes her foreman. The neighbouring farmer, a handsome yet stoic bachelor by the name of Boldwood, is drawn into Everdene's life as a result of a foolish and girlish Valentine's prank. And then there is the dashing and romantic, but somewhat evil Troy, a soldier, who chances on Everdene one evening and sweeps her off her feet despite the protestations of almost everyone in her life.

There are some good plot twists and an ending that satisfyingly ties up all the loose ends. Hardy is an excellent writer both in his descriptions, humour, and his ability to draw the reader into a somewhat emotional involvement in the story.

I give this one 4 1/2 stars.   

A Changing Perspective

                                                                 Central Washington State

Life tends to catch up with us.

We often make decisions in our youth which give no indication that there will be long term consequences. This comes about partly because of ignorance and partly because of the eternal optimism of youth.

This can happen in all areas of life, in our relationships, our health, our finances, our occupations, or our spiritual development. We are flawed beings because of this. Few of us have the wisdom throughout our lives to determine what is ultimately best for us. And if we did, would we have the fortitude or discipline to do the right thing. Most of us just learn to deal with the fallout.

We need not look any further than our own lives to see how this plays out, although it is more obvious and less painful to discern it in others. Who has not said at one time or another, "If only I could do that over again"?

None of us wants to live life with regrets, but it is inevitable that there will be some. We cannot live our lives over, but we can make new starts, even though the consequences of past decisions will always hang over out heads.

As an 'older and wiser' person now, I would love to dispense my wisdom among the young people I meet, but I am nagged by the memory of how it was when I was young. Part of youth and integral to the maturing process is making rash and rapid decisions, often resulting in mistakes, and ultimately that is how we all learn. It is the long term consequences that I would want to save them from. Not being able to see any further into the future than a year or two, most young people would say that it will just all work out. And, to a degree it does, if lessons are actually learned and acted on.

The Media Room

 

After spending more than an hour measuring and consulting, we were anxious for this wallpaper to arrive so we could get at it. It took almost a month, and we arrived 10 days before the big wedding. The very large addition to the already huge house was for the purpose of viewing movies and only viewing movies, although it would also make a great social gathering place.

 

We started in the washroom because the countertops and plumbing were on hold until the wallpaper was installed.

 

The poor lighting does not do justice to the rich texture and shimmering gold of this product.

 

This is the theatre and that is the screen at the back of the room, looking north. That is a normal 6'6" door beside it. This is a house, not a new Cineplex Odeon. Those strips on the right are treads for sub trades with mud on their shoes.

 

Looking south gives scale to the enormity of this media room with the luxurious commercial grade carpeting. The beverage and popcorn center is at the rear as well as a stairwell going to the top floor of the addition.

 

After completing the powder room on the first day, I did not want to leave until we hung the two first pieces of the theater wallpaper. This way, I could either lose sleep over it, or look forward to working with it in the morning. As it turned out, the only challenge was spending so much time on the ladder as the highest sections were 12' from floor to ceiling.

 

It slowly took shape and by the end of the second day it was done. I had estimated for 2 work days and I was right on.

 

Kudos to Andrew for keeping me going with the next piece just when I needed it. It was a bit of panic getting the paper on without losing the 'wet edge' on the adhesive because of the warmth of the day.

 

I have done a few media rooms in my day, but never anything quite on this scale before.

Variety

 

This job was close to home, about three minutes away. It involved painting a feature wall in the main bath, and wallpapering a feature wall in the ensuite. But it was not too straightforward. The new heat registers had to come off as repairs had to be made under and around them. It took a while to figure out how to do that. Also, the towel bar was dangling on the wall so we had to place new anchors and re-attach the bar solidly.

 

The wall was deep purple in a mauve bathroom. We also did fills and touch-ups in the kitchen which had the same colour. The previous painters were not very good at all.

 

Meanwhile, in the ensuite, I got the paper hung, and it was beautiful stuff. There was enough left over to do a small wall in the entry too. The lady of the house showed me the silver peel and stick tile splash kit she had bought. I asked her if she wanted me to install it and she jumped at the offer. I told her we running ahead of schedule on her job and I would just throw in the extra little bit of work. I had never done this before but I thought that the principle was the same as paper hanging. It was and it wasn't. She would have had a terrible time, and there was no second chance with this product. But it turned out great and I had a 4" strip left when I was done, just barely enough! It was fun to have a bit of variety on this one, and, as always, meet another wonderful person.  

Sunday Mornig

 

A beautiful Sunday morning and busylizzy beside her Mother's Day hanging basket and our Begonia BBQ. No, we do not BBQ Begonias, but we do use some old things as planters on our property. The big vine is a Hops Vine, which provides wonderful shade on hot summer afternoons and provides busylizzy with Hops Tea in the winter time.

Before the Baby

 

About a month ago I got a call from a fellow in Mission who wanted to book me for the end of May. He said he would have his paper by then and he needed to get it hung before his wife gave birth. I told him to call me the minute he got it in and was surprised to hear that it actually came when it was promised. It was the feature wall in the master bedroom. It was a plain paper but was what they wanted.

 

It had little rigidity to it so it was stretching and wrinkling a bit. Any warping becomes a big problem on a long wall as the problem accentuates with each piece. I managed to hold it together without any wrinkles or splicing

 

Here you can see the shiny wet adhesive and also all the 'orange peel' texture from a bad paint job.

 

In the end, it was an elegant and understated look, and the last thing I heard was the expectant mother squealing with delight as we walked out the door. Apparently she was too self-conscious to show herself while we were working, and we never did get to meet her.

Cleaning Things Up

 

We were called to a very old farmhouse on Sumas Prairie. The basement office was in bad need of an overhaul. We primed the walls in this case because of the patches and the different colours on the wall, and then hung this very plain textured paper. The photos do not show what a big difference this made to the appearance of the room.

 

It was not really decorative, but more or less just cleaning things up. It had been a very dark and dingy room before, with dark walls and chocolate brown shag carpet on the floor. The owner was amazed at the light and airy feeling and was very pleased.

 

As you can see, it was not much of a pattern, but it did the job. It was rather stiff and hung like cardboard, but that went a long ways to hide all the small flaws on the surface of the walls.