It's Finished!!

Tonight, at 8:57 PM, Lazy Gnome drove her car into the garage for the very first time--an historical moment!!

To say it has been a long and rather tumultuous road is an understatement...and this post will be brief to focus on the positives! Now that the building is done and is all mine, and there is just niggly business stuff to look after, LG will probably feel better about summarizing the process and coming up with a "in retrospect" kind of lessons learned, sparing her readers the petulant--but justified!!--moans and groans (oh, the agony!) she has been through. But now, she is so happy she has the hiccups!!

Another reason to celebrate is that a very good friend had her third baby in the wee hours today--a shiny, bouncy baby boy. I don't know his name yet but that's okay...

LG should get some shut eye--her big adventure tomorrow is getting the car in for its winterization...smell any irony there? The first freezing cold spell is already upon us, and the car finally gets to sleep inside after two winters exposed--and NOW we are getting it ready for the season? Well, yes--and LG may buy winter tires: even the thought of the occasional trek to her office at the South Pole fills her with dread in good weather--this is craziness! And just in time--with the tires--as LG must drive on Monday in order to meet the furnace repair guy here...long story, and no doubt LG will bore you with it. Yes, there is heat; and yes, there are cats--let's just leave it at that for now!

LG is giving herself a Safeway-made salad, a cheap French wine and the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice tonight...we will see if it is any match to Colin Firth....sigh...

Giving Thanks...and caution

Well, it has been quite a while since Lazy Gnome provided progress report on the garage and landscaping work in her yard...well, she has not only been lazy, but also working through some "issues"....Judging by the last post, LG is guessing that the stress started when the Store began making the errors in delivery...and, as the Garage Guy recently pointed out, each and every error or change delays things.

And so, here we are, October 11 and the garage is not finished. Well, it is nearly finished, but not yet. However, it is finished enough that the landscapers have begun their next phase of work. As it is so late in the year, only the grading and the paving stone pathways will be completed this year. The rest will await until Spring, which is also going to be easier on LG's wallet. (Given that the earth around the foundation was disrupted when the waterproofing happened, the landscaper recommended that it be allowed to settle, another reason to let things sit for a while.)

So, LG has some catching up to do, but will pace herself--and yourselves, dear readers--in providing the frustrating and embarassing details. LG has some concerns that providing a detailed history will cause her to re-live it, and wonders whether continual posting throughout the events would have been better therapy than the bottle that rests beside her now...beer: we might be moving up to gin very soon.

Well. For this first post after more than two months, let us just say this: the mind is a powerful thing and sometimes it really works against you! So, take control of it dear readers, lest you find yourself worried about being institutionalized. Coming out of the haze of stress and "depression" has been interesting; it has not all be caused by the garage, but it has been focused there as LG seems prone to blaming. So, for your enlightenment and hopefully in order that others may benefit from LG's recent experience, offered below is something that I truly hope you DO NOT identify with. Please consider it for its educational benefits, and watch for these signs in those you love:

"Top Four Ways to Tell if YOU are Stressed" [a.k.a., one bad week]:

4. You yell at a contractor working his butt off on your behalf to provide information you asked for and over which he has no control, resulting from a MAJOR change request you made at the last minute. Poor form.
3. Your eighty-four year-old mother has better short-term memory than you do. You phone her to apologize for forgetting to give her some left over turkey, while she is eating a sandwich made of said forgotten-given white meat.
2. You fork over $1700+ to the emergency veterinarian hospital after they treat your 3 and 1/2 year old, huge male cat for a urinary tract blockage usually caused by crystals; however, in your cat's case, the blockage is due to an inflammation which the vets suggest is caused by stress. But he's such a sensitive boy-cat--and you are therefore the stress carrier.
1. At the hair salon, while receiving a scalp and neck massage which is administered by a young man who is wearing more eye make-up than you have ever owned, you start to cry.

...and what you should do about it should this be your level of stress:

3. Practice avoiding the stress by thinking positively, not obsessing about what else can go wrong, appreciate what you have, and all that jazz. Today, Lazy Gnome addressed her Christmas cards while the plumber kept finding more "surprises" in the pipes under the kitchen sink. The strategy is to avoid the pressure of doing the cards in the third week of December when she will be tired of "Ho, Ho, HO!"; when they get mailed is another question.
2. Seek professional help--why is handling day to day stuff getting more difficult? This must be included in every list.
1. Self medicate with libation of choice. Use your imagination and feel free to share; readers and LG especially are interested in suggested new approaches for gin...

Someone famous said something like this:
How quiet the woods would be if only the birds that sang well, sang.

Lazy Gnome.

My wish is for you and your loved ones to have a really good Thanksgiving weekend!

Lazy Gnome...

D-Day: Delivery, part 1?

Well, Dear Reader: there it is! The parts and bits and pieces that will become my garage! And the Garage Guy has even started to put together some walls, which you can sort of see resting on top of the garage pad on the far left of the photo....it is very exciting!

Lazy Gnome, who admittedly gets excited because she is not really all that big on surprises, sometimes finds projects a bit perplexing. For instance, although she spent many hours in person at the Store and even on the phone with the Store last week, there are a couple of mysteries about the Delivery. The minor one is this: LG was advised many, many times that the whole package comes at once, "except the car door which is delivered later/ on a separate truck" because it is often damaged. Even yesterday when LG was on the phone with the actual delivery division of the Store's organization, this is what she was told. So, upon her arrival home, she expected to find the door. Well, no: it comes a few days later and in fact sometimes you have to arrange for its arrival on a later date. Fairly significant distinction to the surprise-averse.

The second one is the biggie, however. The time spent in discussions with the Store was related to complications due to LG's changing of her mind on the siding. The complications seem to have arisen because she confirmed her siding on a different day, and paid for it all at once. Thus begat a second and separate invoice. Then, later, LG wanted to change the colour of the downspouts but the sample siding colour that she had chosen was no where to be found. So, LG changed to a less expensive siding in a colour they could produce for her at the time. Thus begat what is called a refund. However--well, to spare the reader the details, LG is still unable to have anyone of three of the Store's employees actually find a way to explain what happened to that refund. But, she has been reassured by senior sales staff that everything is in order with her order, and that all would be well. She neither owed money nor was owed money.

Okay; so, the purchaser has 24 hours to confirm the order has arrived....

Well, there ain't nothin' out there that looks like siding to LG.... and so, another round of discussions is what LG foresees for herself tomorrow. It is very unlikely that Garage Guy hid the siding somewhere or removed it from the property; after all, he left his battery charger plugged in outside.

The extra window is there, the name on the shingling looks like the one on the invoice....but, no siding.

The Store, which LG hopes she has left nameless to this point, has never had LG's business before. They appear to be prepared to deal with contractors, not actual people; certainly not people who have never done this type of thing before. They have all been exceedingly nice--that is not my concern (although one I trust not and would actively suggest anyone avoid)--however, there is a chasm between what they know about the business of ordering and construction and what their clients do; lots of room for improving customer service. Plus, the computer system and payment processes are archaic; perhaps they awaiting a systems upgrade, which would probably save their own staff a huge amount of heartache....

Anyway, as my neighbour said, "well, at least you've got lumber!"

And so, the lesson here: LG should look away from projects for that long desired serenity...

Progress!!

Yes, Lazy Gnome is very pleased that things are moving along in her backyard...and it involves none of her own sweat...

The upper photo shows the frame of the garage pad, as well as the road crush and rebar that form the underpinnings of the garage. The middle is the full shot of the poured pad with the frame removed.

It seems so high! Visually it is a bit of trick to realize how much soil and other materials were removed by the landscapers until you can find a point of reference. For instance, the bottom photo shows the back water valve, which is meant to be flush witht he top of the soil, sticks up about 8 inches.

Alas, the pad, as pretty and innocuous as it may seem, does reveal one of the main issues in a large project such as this: communication helps eliminate false assumptions. The garage guy and Lazy Gnome didn't talk details before this stage of the construction was undertaken--Lazy Gnome hasn't built a garage before and he didn't ask. As a result, the opening in the curb around the edge of the garage pad is not where Lazy Gnome's plan had it. It faces the house whereas LG wanted it on the side.

Plus, there is an issue behind the garage pad. LG did not include a driveway in the items for the garage guy to build so he said that he assumed she was putting in a road crush area and left a large area of rough concrete there as a base for that.

Well, now, Lazy Gnome has been planning for a new product that allows grass to grow through it but has enough support to drive over. It can be shovelled and the lawn can be cut--it's either a rubber or concrete type of lattice-work just below the surface or something. Well, that does NOT involve a concrete base, so that may be impossibly now. Argh.

Anyway, garage guy and landscapers have to talk....

But, today the supplier is to deliver the rest of the package, and when LG gets home from work, there might be signs of a structure reaching for the sky....!!

It is kind of exciting!! However, the rabbit in the bottom photo doesn't seem to appreciate the significance of all this...he's just happy to have some roots to nibble on....

And the Garage Begins!

The landscaper finished trucking away debris a week ago between bouts of rain. Now it's dry enough for the garage to begin. The photo shows the beginning of the forms--the frame into which the garage pad will be set. It is somewhat stalled because Lazy Gnome didn't think about what was happening enough to consider calling in One Call to mark the gas line, so the Garage Guy has done so and is going to wait to ensure he avoids an explosion. Yes, Edmonton has been the City of Exploding Houses this summer, and we don't need one here!!

After the forms are finished, the road crush will be set down then the concrete will be poured. It is SO exciting to see something positive, something going up rather than being torn out.

However, we must return to the evils of water: more in the basement last week. Why? The Usual Suspects: Poor grading still. Eaves troughs are hosting wee trees. Possibly weeping tile full of sediment. Today's worries: drain/ re-do the weeping tile? Put up new eaves troughs? There's little point in fixing the grade if the downspouts aren't working!!

Wonders of water....

Well, dear readers: Lazy Gnome's frustration over the weather might soon turn to outright melancholy. She must be strong, and remember that water gives us and the world as we know it life, beauty and strength. As events this weekend in Newfoundland and Labradour have also reminded us, water is stronger than we are. At risk of getting partisan, LG would just remind everyone that water is a precious resource but far more than a commodity and that the pundants assume the next great war will be over it or because of it.

We cannot live without water. This much is true. Here are a couple other thoughts to ponder:

~"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."~~ Albert von Szent-Gyorgyl (1893-1986)

~"Now I would give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground." ~~William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

~"The biologist passes, the frog remains." ~~Jean Rostand (1894-1977)

If you are terribly bored and frustrated over this weather and feeling creativity pent up inside you like cabin fever, feel free to write a 50 or 500 word essay, or a limerick or even a Haiku celebrating water or anything that comes to mind after reading the quotes, above. At the very least, guess which play the Bard's quote is from! (LG just finished reading a book that takes place in the late 1800's Japan which is full of images of balance and beauty, and all the strength and conflict it takes to create a moment of serenity. Highly recommended: The Teahouse Fire. Water figures prominently in the world of Japanese gardens and of course in the making of tea.)

Anyway, feel empowered to pen an ode to your basement flood or an elegy to the picnic that never was...or , if you are a Street Performer, well, you are allowed to just wail a bit.

Red Hot!

Well, nearly red hot, but large it's definitely not. Still, it's like a little miracle: with all this rain, and having been moved from the sun-drenched south side of the house to the shade-dappled West side to accommodate the landscaper guys, who would have guessed this wee tomato would be looking ready to pluck so soon!

Lazy Gnome bought this plant at the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market and plunked into this pot only about three weeks ago--and look!! LG feels like a real farmer! Well, maybe not so much but, it's a tiny step toward really local eating.

It's so cute, though, I can't really imagine eating it...oh, wait, yes I can!

Hope your garden is growing well; at least everyone will save on water charges this year, although we may bemoan the actual yield.

Cheers!