poplar road

I went for a walk along Stoney Flats this afternoon. Without a camera, though it couldn't have done the landscape justice anyway; but I'll capture it as best I can in words. The sun was setting through a haze, part mist, part woodsmoke, that leant moisture and a tang to the brisk air, more like autumn than spring. The river shone blue instead of its usual dun brown, and the plateau that shadows it was rimmed with light below the smoky blue hills.

Bordering the road the wire fencing in the hay fields glimmered as if beaded with water. There is still ice on the puddles and snow beneath the trees. In the afternoon light I noticed something I hadn't before, about the thickets that line the fence and fill a gully between farms. They are truly the thickets of fairytale, a gnarled impenetrable mass of arching boughs and twiggy shrubs, and mostly of an unfamiliar variety of tree: rough grey bark, reddish new growth, and thorns almost as long as sewing needles and surely as sharp. It must bear beautiful flowers to need the protection of those thorns, so I will keep my eye on the thickets as spring approaches, in hopes of a show.

The land climbs more gently on this side of the river, the wooded hills unfenced above the road, open to the meanderings of deer, coyote, and bear. A chill in the air reminded me how quickly night falls this time of year. Spooked just a little, I turned around for home. As I passed the black nets of the ginseng farm the sun hit the rim of the hills behind me, and suddenly everything turned red and gold. There is a shrub in the pine woods that has bark such a bright scarlet you might think it man-made; I am hopeful it is a variety of huckleberry, known for its red bark, though I don't know if it grows this far north.

Almost home, a row of trees at the brow of the hill were lit golden, with the fading blue of the mountains behind. In another thicket jumbled in rock something shuffled through the undergrowth, and three-tiered nests weighed down the branches. A magpie flitted away across the fields as I approached. Although I didn't find the familiar over-zealous signs of spring I'm used to on the coast, the morning cacophony of birdsong, clumps of earth left by busy moles, and tiny buds on all the trees all shout Spring to me. And spring or not, there are other gifts: as I write, an owl glides to a tall pine outside my window. I'll listen for him later, calling for his mate, and hope that cherry blossoms aren't far away.

Another weekend reno project is nearly done with, and I'm finally rested enough to get the pictures posted. We haven't tried to do so much in a weekend since before Christmas. Thus the title, "Playing House". If you haven't been a regular reader of Poplar Road and want an overview, you can see the biggest projects by reading the Playing House posts, parts 1 through 5. Part six, February 18 – 20, is mostly a peek at my new office now that I've unpacked and (somewhat) settled in; but I've also got the first stage of this weekend's painting marathon to show you. Richard has left with the camera on another road trip so this will be all the photo coverage for a while, though my painting tasks continue. (More white. Oh joy.)

Here are some photos of my new office. I'm very pleased with it so far, although I could use more furniture, and as mentioned before, blinds on the windows. These photos were taken without flash on a grey day – so you can see how bright it is in here. Initially I wasn't sure the choice of colour for the fireplace was going to work; I matched it to a pair of drawings along with the red, but there's no getting around the fact that painting a fireplace is odd. Don't know why the previous owners did that. But this colour looks great with my terracotta plant pots, dark brown wood carvings and black candlesticks, and the deep cranberry walls. The insert is an ugly piece of junk, but we'll have to live with it for a while. At least it isn't a really bright shade of brass. And it does work, though I haven't needed it so far. One of the things Richard did this weekend was open up the floor to an additional heating vent, which made a big difference. Eventually I think a couple of cosy armchairs or a funky chaise lounge would be great in front of the fireplace.

Richard's desk and filing cabinet haven't been moved in yet, because thanks to the sale of the trailer, we're going to get the electrical upgrade done sooner than we thought. The corner of wall to the left of my desk is going to need to be opened up when that happens (in March) so no point bringing in more stuff. I'll have to move my desk etc. out of the way, and we'll repaint those two walls before we put it back – a pain, but we thought it would be September before we did the upgrade. We've decided it has to be done before we install the new heating system this summer. (And of course the heating system has to be completed – involving moving chimney, tanks and ducts upstairs and down – not to mention the plumbing, wiring, and cabling, before the insulation and drywall goes up in the basement. Good thing the upstairs guest room is ready for visitors because the downstairs is going to be a long, drawn-out, expensive project.)

In the meantime I get to enjoy the view and the light, and I finally have my books close at hand. Did I mention I found my missing box of books and other things? That space in the bookshelf below isn't for missing stuff, it's for the next volume in a series I'm reading by George R R Martin – he's a little behind schedule on book four. I know the feeling. I'm kind of glad we've got to take the basement project slowly when this upstairs stuff is done; it will free up some writing time.

Also installed in here this weekend were new overhead lights to replace the ugly brass spots. Just the cheap domes like the ones in the hallway, but twice the light I had before – though I only need them once the sun goes down. Those blinds can't come soon enough, for me and probably for my plants' sake as well. That fig (fondly referred to as the "frickin' ficus") doesn't like direct sun. West sun is fine in winter but I'll have to move it elsewhere come spring. The other plants on the fireplace will get more than enough light from the north window.

Correction! I dug out Richard's compass: the street is south (not southwest) of us, and my desk faces west to the river, not north. So our house faces directly south, with the main living areas on the west side. I'm suddenly glad I didn't paint this room white! And glad we bought that portable air conditioner, because when summer weather hits 40 degrees Celcius and the sun is beating down on the glass it's going to get hot.

Below is the west-facing family room window, which I've included to show off our new lights to either side. These match the dining room chandelier, but with the back third cut off so it fits against the wall. One of the chandelier globes appears on the right edge of the shot. We also bought a torchiere with three brightness settings that works with a flourescent bulb – you can see it beside the couch in the right-hand image. Notice the wall of the hallway: I spent most of Friday getting it primed and putting on a first coat of "fossil stone", a greenish grey. Richard's choice, not mine, though I don't mind it in daylight. We have to replace the hall lights, a hodge-podge of old fluorescents, with the whiter variety, because the existing ones turn the grey walls a horrific neon green. I got the last coat on yesterday afternoon and can see it will look quite nice once the white doors and trim go on. Richard ordered stair, bedroom, bathroom and closet doors on Saturday, as well as replacement glass for the dining room French doors.

We ordered those doors from the place that made my office French door; we'll sure never custom order doors from HD again. Here, after two months' wait, is the proper new front door, with zinc, not brass, in the window, and a few less obvious scratches on the primer. Richard refused it initially because it was also scratched; but not as badly as the original, and HD's supplier will not guarantee unblemished product because they assume the customer will paint it. Who paints their front door? But we had to accept it, not worth waiting even longer. Richard even managed to control his temper one last time, to find nickel screws to match the hinges. The dolt at the doors desk had the nerve to ask him why on earth he'd want nickel-coloured screws instead of the brass ones? The guy is lucky their CSR had calmed Richard down before he got there. When you've heard "it'll be in next Thursday" every week for two months, even something as simple as the right colour screws can send you off the deep end. I'm so glad that's over with.

That was Friday. On Saturday morning, I walked down the street to buy eggs, and Richard finished work on the vent in the office floor. When I came back we hung the front door, and then I cracked open a can of tinted purple primer. What you see here is the second primer coat in the bedroom. I didn't get the final colour on until after Richard left yesterday, so no photos of that until it's all done (which is probably a good thing, it will look best when the bed's back in there and the moldings are on for contrast). This looks almost pastel, but the final colour is called "dark aubergine", close to eggplant but more red than blue. The first coat of it looks ghastly, and it's so dark that by the time I was done in the hallway at 4 pm yesterday, I didn't have enough daylight to be able to ensure a good second coat. With luck and enough light three coats should do it. I think that's what I'll be doing on Wednesday. Evenings are out of the question. Still to do is a lot of white on insides of two closets, plus the doors and trim.

While I was priming, Richard disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door... Not what you think! He finally installed the chrome shower curtain rod, two towel racks and a ring, and discovered that the box of parts for a hook behind the door is missing pieces. He also switched the wooden toilet seat lid for a white one, which looks much better. Now we just need to install the magnets on the mirrored vanity doors and we're done. Until we rip it up completely when the master bedroom reno gets going (next year?). That's how it goes.

Richard's final project before making dinner was the stairwell light. The bulb burned out just after we moved in, making the steep staircase gloomy and treacherous. Thankfully, my sister and brother-in-law donated a chandelier from their new place that happens to match our white & silver décor perfectly, and with three bulbs in that, the stairs are almost too bright. I didn't like watching Richard balance on a plank supported by a footstool and a borrowed ladder; actually painting the stairwell ceiling and walls is going to be a project from hell. Putting that off for another day was an easy decision!

I've got lots of painting to do over the next few weeks. When the new doors arrive we'll buy trim for hallway and bedroom and that will finish off the upstairs projects for now. Oh, and we'll have to set up the new bed Richard got at Costco on Friday in the spare room. Dagny, looks like you're not sleeping in the barn after all! There are a few other little things we can do, but our schedules are busy with work and a couple of trips to Vancouver, and the electrical upgrade will eat up our remaining reno funds, so don't expect a "Playing House, Part VII" for quite some time.

One final shot just for fun… The aubergine room started out pale pink when we moved in. Under that was a bright teal blue, and under that was greenish yellow. Under that, was this wallpaper. Amazing the history you find when you take moldings off of windows…

We sure got a lot done this weekend, little things that needed to get finished before we move on to the next big project. This French door in the dining room doesn't look like much (especially with the discoloured molding and the claw-scratched pane) but it represents a few finishing touches, finally: trim in the dining/living area is nearly done, and all finished in my office; the kitchen has new sockets and faceplates on all the outlets and switches; all our new knobs are installed on the exterior doors, with interior ones to do next weekend; Richard put in high-efficiency fluorescent valence lighting under all the cabinets; and we mounted our two new "torchiere" lamps that match our chandelier on either side of the living room window. They look gorgeous. We had company last night, so we even cleaned up.

(Our neighbours came over to purchase our trailer, which we're very happy about: funds for the next project!)

We didn't get to the bathroom to mount towel racks etc, although Richard did consider it long enough to realize the tile hiding behind the newer beige tub surround was going to make drilling holes for the shower curtain difficult. So the thing is still sitting there 'til next weekend. Ah well. Richard got distracted, helping out the neighbour who is trying to retreive his broken pump from 300 feet down in his well. Didn't work. I was making sauce for lasagna while painting trim, running back and forth from kitchen to office, but I got both tasks done, and Richard mounted the French door for my office.

I had cleanup to do after painting, and then we had dinner and company, so that was it for the night, no moving furniture. I hoped to get quite a bit done today, though, so I convinced Richard to leave me the camera when he left this morning on an overnight trip. I think the fact that we woke up to three inches of snow this morning helped. Yup, more snow pictures…These two are the view from my new office window, looking north and west. You might be able to see a swatch of the river on the north (left) view.

I hadn't got very far with the move into the office before the light faded, so I'm only posting one picture of it tonight, but more to follow as I finish unpacking the rest of this week. One thing that hasn't changed after several hours of unpacking, moving plants in, and arranging my desk: my stuff is dwarfed in this room. It's got 9 foot ceilings, which makes my tallest bookshelf suddenly look short; it's got two windows both over 10 feet wide and 5 feet tall, which makes my 5 foot desk look tiny. And no curtains or blinds yet so I feel very small and exposed.

But the fireplace looks excellent, I'm enjoying arranging my more light-loving plants on it, and unpacking candlesticks and things that I haven't seen in a while. Just wish I could find my last missing box of favourite books and DVDs, it's distressing. I unpacked 10 boxes tonight and most of it is put away, but my bookshelf is missing half my fiction and I can't think where else to look.

I'm exhausted, it was so exciting to finally unpack but that wore off about 3 hours ago… So here's one last picture of the snow and deep blue sky.

It was a gorgeous day, starting with a glimpse of the snow by starlight at 3:30am. Then at 7:30 as Richard was leaving we spotted four short, narrow-faced deer ambling along in the woods out back. This afternoon the sun came out and just look at that sky. Tonight I'll be listening for the pair of owls the neighbours told us about last night.

I might feel odd sitting in sight of the whole neighbourhood, especially at this hour, but as Richard said to Bud and Maxine yesterday, what a great neighbourhood it is. More on the wonderful neighbourhood next time I'm on the topic of spring.

Hi all. Since my last posting that flu I mentioned has taken hold of Richard one more time, and he hasn't shaken it yet. On the contrary, he was still coughing up a lung this morning when I woke up from an awful nightmare in which someone was gripping me by the throat... to find my throat sore. Which would explain why I was ready to go to bed at 9 last night.

It took me the entire day, plodding along with an upset stomach, to finish cleaning, vacuuming, and priming the office floor yesterday. On Saturday, Richard finished the trim around the second window and caulked them with latex. We discovered that the "paintable" silicone he had been using resists even the hardiest primer, so all the trim I've been finishing over the past week needed sanding and caulking to redo anything with silicone in it. I'm still not done all the inside edges nor the baseboards, which have tonnes of nail holes to fill, but here is a pic.

I'm afraid I don't have new photos of the office; it was dark by the time I finished priming the floor, and with the poor lighting in there and my total lack of energy, I didn't get the first coat of "cardamom" paint on there, so not much to see anyway. I'm going to try painting it tonight, though, despite the poor lighting, because I suspect I won't have ANY energy left by the end of this week if this cold knocks me off my feet the way it did to Richard. With such a long drying time on this deck-quality paint, I have to get the second coat down by Wednesday morning at the latest if I want to move in next weekend. Assuming I don't spend next weekend curled up with a box of tissue.

I knew we couldn't keep up the pre-Christmas momentum for long, and neither of us get that excited about the little chores like caulking nail holes and touching up paint splodges, but I had hoped we'd be further ahead by now. We did have an exciting little conversation before he left this morning, about our master bedroom/ensuite bathroom renovation. Just dreaming - it won't happen for a while.

Oh, and some good news - we sold the 30' 5th wheel trailer to our neighbours, Bud and Maxine, for their vacation property. I think they'll take it away next weekend, once we've unpacked our stuff; suddenly the front yard will look huge. And it will pay for one of several things on our growing list of expenditures. Hurrah.

Richard is away with the camera, I'm still stalled on the renovating with the onset of this cold, and there are no other distractions in the way of wildlife, weather, or machinery, so that's all, folks, at least until next weekend.