Wait a minute!

The photo of the robin from Wednesday was taken on Sunday, when the weather was lovely and warm. It didn't last. By Monday the temperature dropped and it got even cooler on Tuesday. AND then came the snow.

The rabbits sitting on the neighbour's lawn that morning, seem to be at odds with one another as to whether spring is here or not. 

It worked out well for me, as I had things to accomplish in the house. C moved upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms, which necessitated moving some items into the other spare bedroom, my craft room. Monday I moved some things around and then tackled the basement. It desperately needed a vacuum, where his desk had sat for nearly 12 years, and in his bedroom where the bed was set up. (I don't touch his desk and the bedroom wasn't big enough to move the bed very far). 

I washed down the walls in his bedroom in preparation for painting, and patched a small scrape where his bed frame had dented the wall. I must say, I'm getting far better at mixing up the compound, and using the trowel to smooth it on the wall. No home renovation show would ever hire me though, I'm not that good. :) Tuesday morning, I taped around the door and closet frames but left most of the baseboards as is. I believe that is part of the quote to replace the baseboards...if not, I'll paint them later (as I did the upstairs). I figure if they're staying, they'll likely get dinged in the process of replacing the flooring so I don't need the work twice. 

I had paint remaining from 2020 when I repainted the rest of the house. I was really surprised when I opened the partial can, that it had not separated and only needed a bit of stirring. Home Depot Behr Natural gray paint for the win. My first task was to cut in around the door frames, base boards and ceilings. When that was complete, I took a break until after lunch. The walls was repainted in short order. It's really amazing how a fresh coat of paint brightens up a room. I did discover in my cleaning and painting that the room had once been a robin's egg blue. It was gray when we moved in and is now a slightly lighter color.

I had texted the contractor on Monday, but didn't hear back so assumed, rightly, that the crew wouldn't be here on Wednesday. That morning, I woke to snow on the ground (just a skiff at that point), and figured it was probably just as well. Early in the afternoon he called to say that two of his crew, his electrician and tiler were all out due to Covid, and they have a couple of jobs to finish yet. So the start of the job is now scheduled to start April 25th. I'm just as happy not to have them in the house with Covid. Here in Saskatchewan, as long as you asymptomatic you can come and go as you please. I think those with symptoms are supposed to stay home for 5 days or until one doesn't test positive though I suspect many don't.

I had some questions for him; while painting the bedroom, it dawned on me that when the rug is pulled and the laminate flooring is laid, the original baseboards will reveal a part of the wall that hasn't been repainted. We talked about changing out the baseboards throughout the basement but that would add an additional $1,000 to the bill so I'm sticking with the originals. At first I told him I'd repaint after they were done, but after our call finished I realized it would make more sense to pull the baseboards now and paint. I spent an hour or so removing baseboards and pulling nails. I learned a couple of things - at one point there must have been some water in the basement as the nails in the south wall baseboard were so rusty they disintegrated in my hands. Another thing I learned is some idjit added a touch of glue to the end of the baseboards on the interior walls at the corners. Removing the baseboards caused damage to the drywall underneath that had to be repaired.

My list of things to do just got longer! Thursday I need to patch the drywall, vacuum the edges of the carpet along the walls to clean up debris, and wash the portion of exposed walls and paint. I started with the patching, then moved on to vacuuming and washing walls. I knew the patches wouldn't be dry for 24 hours but I went ahead and painted the rest of the walls. 

The snow continued overnight and throughout the day. We weren't getting a lot of accumulation but it was blowing around. School buses in the city were cancelled because of road conditions. It was far worse to the east of Regina, and Highway #1 was closed at the Manitoba border as much of the southern part of the province was hammered. In total, we had about four inches of snow, other areas got as much as 15 inches! It definitely was a blessing to be able to stay at home while this (hopefully) last blast of winter was happening. 

I got as much done as early in the day on Thursday as I could because....there was more curling to watch. There is a Grand Slam of curling event being held in Toronto. Three games on each of Thursday and Friday, then one (that I could watch) on Saturday and two more on Sunday. This is the second to last event for the season, the last will be held May 3-8 in Alberta. I won't be home for most of it.  And that's all I'll say about that for now. :)

Hence I spent Friday and then Saturday morning, watching curling and working on some crocheting. I just have the finishing for the little knit dress I worked on while the Men's worlds wa on - weave in the ends of the yard before I wash and block the dress. Two new dishcloths are done and I'm nearing completion of another tote bag. These projects are using up some of my accumulated stash though there is much more to go.

This afternoon I sanded and vacuumed before painting the rest of the areas where the baseboards have been removed. I was thinking I might start pulling up the carpet but have decided to leave that for the construction crew. Many years ago, my first house in the city was a 1 1/2 story house built in 1925, about 800 square on 3 levels...it was a dollhouse but the kids were small and it did have three bedrooms. The living had carpet and when I figured out there was hardwood underneath I just had to remove the carpet. I pulled it and the tack strips along the edge with no issues until I reached the doorway between the living room and kitchen. There I discovered that the tacking strip had been nailed down with three 3 inch spikes. The first one came out with some difficulty and the second was even more stubburn. I had it almost out when the hammer slipped, flew backwards and smacked me in the mouth with one of it's claws. There was much blood and it didn't want to stop, but I wanted to finish so I stuck a bunch of bandaids on my lip and kept going. I did have to stop and replace the bandaids once more before I got the last spike out and cleaned up the mess. Then I phoned a friend to drive me to the nearby hospital where I had five stitches put in my lip. The doctor who stitched me up did such a good job, even I can't find the scar except in the very best light. I did walk around for about a week with what looked like a beetle on my lip. :p

I've got the Blue Jays baseball on the television and one more load of laundry in the dryer. The sun is shining, though it isn't quite warm enough for much melting to happen just yet.  It's just C and I here for Easter, no chocolate in the house though we've eaten our fair share of jelly beans, and I've no special dinner planned as it is just the two of us. D and Eli are going to the Saturday matinee in their town for the new Sonic movie; that was my gift to him for Easter. 

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend and wishing you a great week ahead.  Happy Easter to those who celebrate!