Two thumbs ...almost up!

Another week has come and gone.  This is the last week of June and I'm starting to freak out....just a little.  So much to do until our move.  I have all the packing boxes in the garage and all the packing material but nothing done yet.  I have a good reason for not packing just yet:  I have tendonitis in both my thumb joints, of all places. This little problem is the result of many months of pushing a cookie treat into a very hard rubber toy for Cooper.  I have been pushing these treats with both my thumbs for months now without realizing that I was damaging the tendon in my thumbs.  How silly of me! I have been putting up with this discomfort for quite some time and last week I decided to get some Active Release Treatment (ART) as the pain was becoming quite intense.  I found myself not being able to grip anything with both hands.  This is not a good thing, especially now.  But, something happened during the night as I woke up this morning and noticed an improvement for the first time.  I was able to get the juice carton out of the fridge with one hand.  My right thumb seems much better, the left one is still quite stiff but I definitely see a change. I am excited but I will not go crazy and start packing today....  I will rest my hands for a few more days, get a few more treatments and hopefully by end of this week I will be back to normal. Not so easy for me to do nothing but I have no choice.

Enough said about my thumbs.  Russell had a successful colonoscopy on Wednesday.  Next one is in ten years.  Yay!  Cooper had the runs for a day or so, probably ate too many cherries that keep falling from a cherry tree in our backyard.  We are quite vigilant at removing those cherries when they fall but Cooper managed to get a few just the same.  I gave him some white rice with his kibble for two days and he was back to normal in no time.

Although the sun was out this past week, it was way too hot.  We did not spend a lot of time outside other than for short walks with Cooper.  On Friday, our new bedroom furniture was delivered.  It is beautiful and will look even nicer in our log home.

Last week, we also finalized our internet solution for Huntsville but not before we spent 1 hour and 37 minutes on the phone with Rogers Cable....it seems that it is far easier to send someone to the moon than to try and get internet for a new home.  In the end, we will be using mobile internet, the Rocket Hub, from Rogers and we keep our current email address.  The modem was delivered to our house last Friday. We installed it as we wanted to test it against our existing internet connection.  It is not quite as fast as cable but it will have to do as, although there is cable in parts of Huntsville, the cable doesn't come all the way to our property.  Russell did ask Rogers Cable if they could run it to our house....sure they can, at a cost of $15,000!

On the log home front, lots is happening.  I attach a recent picture of our fireplace, which looks amazing.  The mantel needs to be installed, the chimney will be done this week.  The kitchen cabinets were installed, parging has started and T&G is almost complete.  We made contact with the propane supplier and the tank will be delivered in a few weeks. We even managed to get a deep discount on the propane cost by joining the Lake Vernon Association - thank you Peter McBirnie.

Tomorrow, we go to Huntsville for the day to meet with our landscaper.  We are looking forward to seeing the progress on the home and seeing the landscape design.

Rumble style masonry on the Rumford fireplace....that opening is 42 inches wide

That's about it for this week's blog.  Have a great week!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all fathers, including fathers to loving pets!  Russell got treated to extra hugs and kisses from Cooper this morning as he was waking up.  It is a cloudy Sunday morning but it is warm outside.  As I am writing this blog, we are sitting on our back porch, having our coffee while Cooper is napping after his usual morning play session.  We are also contemplating the next 6 weeks, which will be busy.

This past week just flew by.  We finalized the sconces for our new house.  We landed on Hudson Valley and Feiss collections.  They will be very nice. We bought them at Lando Lighting and we got to bring Cooper in.  We also went to the Linen Chest to buy bedsheets for our new bed.  Guess what?  I asked if Cooper could come in and sure enough, he was allowed to browse the store.  We picked up our moving boxes and they are lined up in our garage, waiting to be filled.

Thursday, we went to Montreal and came back yesterday.  It was nice to see our parents and spend quality time with them.  Cooper behaved very nicely and even got to play in my parents' backyard without a leash.  He had a lot of fun. The weather was very nice.  The road trip was uneventful except for the Toronto traffic, which added 45 minutes to our trip, both ways.  It was the worse traffic ever. Next time we go to Montreal to visit our families, the trip will be from Huntsville and we will go through Algonquin Park.  The trip should take the same amount of time but we expect the scenery to be much nicer!  I got to spend time alone with my parents while Russell kept Cooper overnight on Thursday.  On Friday, I had Cooper while Russell spent the day and night alone with his mom.  My brother Francois prepared a fabulous meal on Friday night.  It was yummy!

This week will be a bit hectic.  Russell is having his routine colonoscopy procedure on Wednesday morning, so no need to explain what he has to do all day Tuesday....  Those two days will be somewhat a write off for him.  On Thursday, we are having our good friends the Sims for lunch.  On Friday, our new bedroom furniture will be delivered.  We will have to store the old bedroom set in the garage until we can dispose of it.  We will donate it to the Child's Hope foundation.  Our new dining chairs will also be delivered so we need to organize our garage so that we can start storing things in there for the move.

On the log home front, progress continues.  I attach a few pictures taken last Thursday.  The fireplace is now up to the ceiling. The hot tub is installed. Board and baton is going on, pine tong and grove is happening inside.  The flooring material will be delivered tomorrow.  We are meeting with our landscapers next Monday to go over the proposed design.  So, things are good and on track.

Awesome progress on the fireplace.

Board and baton on select portions of the exterior

Hot tub installed in the screened porch.

That's about it for this week's blog.  I wish you all a good Fathers Day and a good week.

The list is getting shorter...

I'm a little late this week in posting my blog.  We went to Huntsville on Sunday, came back late afternoon.  So, here I am, with my weekly update, on a beautiful warm Monday morning.

It has been a busy week and a lot got crossed off my "to do" list such as advising the utilities companies of our move date, getting the "work order" with Bell organized so that our phone will be set up for when we move (that in itself is no small feat if you know what I mean).  We also set up our new house insurance which will be converted from our current builders insurance.  Our security system is now up and running.  We feel good about that. We are told that there has been a lot of "lookie-loos" driving up to our house and even enjoying a beer or two in our kitchen (that was when the temporary doors were not all installed).

We did see some good progress on Sunday.  Two coats of stain have been put on most the logs and we can now have a better sense of what our house will look like from a colour perspective. I attach a few pictures that we took yesterday. The fireplace is well under way and we are happy with what we see so far. The cedar shingle roof is now complete except for the area near where the chimney will be.

All of our faucets have now been chosen, we purchased Russell's claw foot bathtub, our sinks are on order.  We also chose the tiles for the showers and the colour scheme for the kitchen countertops. We still have to buy a few sconces and we plan on doing this next week. So, for the most part, we are in good shape. But there is still lots to do such as the floors, which will start next week, the lighting protection system will be installed early July, landscaping will also start early July and the kitchen cabinets are being made.

On Saturday, we went to Woofstock in Toronto, the largest North American dog festival.  It was being held around the St-Lawrence market area.  Our breeders, Nathan and Darlah, had organized a meeting place at 9:45 for all of their Havanese puppy people.  We all had a good time and the weather held up.  It was a lot to take in for Cooper and he was seriously tired when we got home.  By the time we left, there were thousands of people walking around with their dogs.

This week will also be busy.  We will pick up our moving boxes tomorrow and I will start packing, a little bit at a time.  We are going to Montreal this week to visit our parents.  It will be nice to see everyone again.  Cooper is looking forward to the trip. The weather forecast is looking really nice.

The Rumford fireplace taking shape.

Stain going on and roof near completely shingled except for chimney area

Roof lines and tower in a tarp to protect stain form the rain.

That's about it for this week's blog.  It is now 8 am, Cooper is having a nice nap after his breakfast ( which had some tasty filet mignon sprinkles added thanks to his human Mommie) and playing around a bit.  It will be another hot but beautiful day.  Have a good week everyone!

Lots to do.....and it is all getting done!

This past week went by very quickly.  I honestly can't remember all the things we did.  I will start with Monday, which was beautiful and very warm.  We spent a lot of time outdoors in the shade.  Russell cleaned the pond filters.  I finished reading a very good book (on my iPad) and I started a new one.  Cooper took it easy also because of the heat. Tuesday was uneventful other than Russell going to the dentist.  Wednesday, we decided to go to Toronto to buy the shea butter soaps that we have been using for years.  When we go there, we buy 24 soaps and they last about 7 months.  So we thought it would be a good idea to stock up before moving to Huntsville.  The store is uptown, on Yonge Street, North of Eglinton.  So it took almost one hour to get there with the lunch hour traffic, only to find out that the store is closing and had no soaps left.  We walked a bit with Cooper then went home.  We will not miss the Toronto traffic once we move to Huntsville. I will have to find shea butter soaps elsewhere.

Thursday, I registered both Russell and I with the newly opened North Muskoka Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic in Huntsville, ten minutes from our new house.  Since we have not found a doctor in Huntsville yet,  we will be able to go to that clinic for our annual physicals, refills of prescriptions, etc.  Once we move, the clinic will arrange for a Meet and Greet appointment.  We are quite happy about this as we really did not want to have to drive to Mississauga just to have prescriptions renewed or for routine doctor appointments. Now, we need to find a new dentist as well as a veterinarian.  It should not be too difficult.

On Friday, although it was pouring rain, we took Cooper for his weekly bath at Fur Babies.  Speaking of rain, Cooper doesn't really like to be outdoors in the rain so he does his business very quickly  and runs back inside.  At some point, we actually took him out to the front yard, on a leash, with a golf umbrella over our heads so he could do his business without getting too wet.  Precious doggie.....

Saturday, we went to PawsWay at Queens Quay in Toronto.  There was an event called Meet the Toy Breed, which is meant to promote various small dog breeds. Nathan was there with Roxie and Panda, promoting the best toy breed ever, the Havanese dog!  Darlah was also there as well as a few of their puppy people.  There were also also other small dogs such as the Miniature Manchester Terrier and Chinese Crested.  Cooper had a great time.

While all this took place this week, a lot of work was being done on our log home.  The cedar shingle roof is 85% done.  The log staining process started, framing is complete and has been inspected.  We now have a calendar from Matt of "things that need to be done" in the next seven weeks.  Tomorrow, we will meet with EverGreen Cast Stone to finalize the colour of our kitchen counter top and island.  Lots to do still both on the log home front as well as for us in order to get ready for the move.  The little details involved in any move are now starting to emerge...my organizational skills will come in handy.

Earlier this week, the buyers of our house asked if they could move the closing date from July 31 to July 25.  After giving this a lot of thought, we agreed.  This means that the day we move out is the day they move in.  Although this leaves no wiggle room whatsoever, it is best for us.  Since we  had no intention of coming back to Mississauga for the actual closing (paperwork was to be done prior to), it meant that we would have had to leave the empty house unsupervised for 6 days as well as we would have had to shut down the pond.   Now, we will be able to move to Huntsville without worrying about the Mississauga house.

So today is Sunday,  we will relax and enjoy the rain free weather, so far anyway.  We may take Cooper to the indoor park this afternoon, depending on the weather.  Otherwise, it will be a quiet day.  I may make a list of the things that I have to do in the next seven weeks.....or I may not.

View from future garage area...front porch and tower in blue tarp.

Looking at the Muskoka room and eyebrow dormers being shingled.

I include a few pictures taken of our house last Friday. Have a good week!