Brrrr! Now I am remembering why we headed south in Nelleke three years ago – to avoid this stuff. A cold snap came through and we had to turn on the furnace and put on overcoats and for a blessedly short time there were, dare I say it, snowflakes. Oh well. I guess that is what you inherit when you are a Canadian. I have been spending the day reminding myself that I really like our house, I really like the community that we are living in, and that the reason that we are here is so that we can get Barb all ship shape for a departure again next fall. In fact, with any luck, this should be the last winter for several years.

I am really enjoying my workshop, except that I now realize that I am going to have to get some sort of heater to put in it for when I am out there for the next few months, otherwise I won’t be able to use it from November to March. Now that Barb realizes that I have the necessary tools she has been helping me to make a list of things to do. So far I have three bookshelves on the list as well as a headboard for our new queen sized bed in our room. All depending upon the estimate that we get it looks like I will be off the hook for the kitchen cabinets but there is still a lot of plastering and molding to do as well as restoring our living room which alone is a pretty big job. We are hoping to throw a party before Christmas this year so my goal is to get the downstairs area all plastered and painted in time for that. We have decided to add a fireplace to the living room as well. I had been resisting this as I had thought that it would require a new chimney, at the very least a Selkirk which would really spoil the appearance of the outside of the house, but Barb researched and found that propane fireplaces have a small non-descript vent that is very unobtrusive and will fit the living room perfectly. We are getting one that mimics a coal burning fireplace and I will build the hearth around it. I am pretty sure that with some small blowers carefully placed we should be able to reduce the oil bill significantly, especially since Barb and I both prefer the house a little on the cool side, especially at night when we are sleeping all sniggled up to each other. The repair of the living room ceiling will most likely be the most challenging of my projects as it will involve rerouting of some of the existing wiring, fixing some gaping holes that someone left in both the walls and ceiling, putting in a ceiling beam and repairing some of the ornate molding work that the same clot just butchered when he put in the suspended ceiling. It is a very doable project, just a little time consuming. Of course everything will have to be painted but hen at last we can unpack all our paintings and hang them about the place.

I am trying to persuade Barb that the back yard needs a stone patio and a koi pool, but that argument can wait until next spring. Maybe by then she will have had her knee surgery and in her weakened state she won’t be able to put up too much of an argument.