What day is today?

We have been so busy this past week.....painting, ceiling, more painting, panelling, more painting and on and on. But yesterday, taadaa!!! they put our cabinets together and we absolutely love them. There is not a thing that I would change, mind you, I did sit there staring at my old kitchen for long enough that to have made a mistake on planning would have been almost impossible I think. But now we are feeling so burnt out that today it was hard to get started. All I did was cleanup and put away stuff that used to be in the old cupboards and now must be moved into the new. We still have some ceiling to put up, but first the electrician has to come and deal with some lighting issues. And on Tuesday, we're gonna pull out the mitre saw and begin putting up some crown moldings.

Oh and the vinyl floor that I insisted on, that Don had his doubts about no matter how hard I worked to reassure him, has finally met with his approval. I knew it would look fabulous, but he is a nervous nelly sometimes. I was going to put a few pictures on, but Don wants to wait until the crown moldings are done, so sorry. But we will soon be ready for the unveiling, can you be patient?

A week ago we had some lovely weather, 19 degrees. It was fabulous!!! That was the highest temp. so far. Then it cooled, rained a day or two, and today no rain, but a really chilly wind blew for most of the day. But by early evening the wind had died down and the sky was clear so maybe tomorrow will be warmer and sunny. Everyone here says this has been the longest and coldest winter they've had for several years. Lucky us that it happens our first winter eh? Oh well, we survived. After the mess we've had all winter, and the learning curve of dealing with the cold winter, next winter should be a piece of cake. I'm looking forward to more time to spend on my art, and reading and listening to my classical music (if only I could find my case full of CD's).

So now it is time to go upstairs as my pillow is screaming my name and I am more than happy to obey. Toodle-loo for now my dears.

By the way, do you love chubby babies like the one up above. This little charmer was so adorable I just had to share it with you. If I knew who the photographer was I would most certainly give him or her the credit, but can't. Anyway just enjoy.

Diesel is wandering around the house looking for the best sunny spot in which to bask and soak up the sun. The earth is slowly warming and the buds on some of the bigger trees are beginning to swell as the earths own warmth melts the ice from below. The grass is begining to green the hills here and there. It feels like it has been such a long time since the summer but it is time that has passed quickly because we have been so busy working on the inside of the house. Soon it will be time to move outdoors.

It won't be much longer before I can post some before and after pictures of our kitchen and dining room. Don has always had a fancy for yellow (not my favorite) so when we moved here, I thought I would just let him run with it. I think that lots of my philosophies have changed in the past couple years and the things that were important to me have changed and I've realized too, that the things that were so important, like NOT having my house yellow on the inside (among many other things), really don't matter in the grande scheme of things. But when we put the first coat of yellow on the dining room walls, I began to rethink that particular item. We'd had a coral colored kitchen once that began by being the most horrid pinky-orange but by the second day, the paint had cured to a very acceptable shade of coral so we forged ahead with this original decision to go with the yellow that we'd bought two cans of. And sure enough, by the second day the color was more pleasant to look at. So we're pleased with it and even on an overcast day, it is a joyful room to go into. Soon you'll see the grand unveiling.

Let the sun shine and shine and shine and....

....especially on the cold days! We now have a solar furnace which is really just a box of pop cans painted black. As you can see by the picture, the "box" is about the size of a door and yes, inside are pop cans. They've been painted black to attract and hold the energy/heat of the sun. In one bottom corner is a cold air intake and fan that goes through the wall into the kitchen. In the opposite corner at the top is another vent that allows the heat the builds up to move into the house. As the temperature in the box reaches a set level, the fan comes on and begins to move the warmed air out and suck in cool air from down by the floor.

At this time of year, because of the direction of the sun, it comes on at 8:00 in the morning and will run until about 2:00 at which time the angle of the sun has changed enough that the furnace no longer receives the sun rays adequately. But by that time, the house is warmed in general by the sun. Considering that we are in Nova Scotia which tends to be a bit cooler because of ocean air surrounding this little province and considering that we get quite a bit of cooling winds from the Bay of Fundy, this should prove to be a terrific idea for our house.

Unfortunately for our house, while we have lots of windows, the bulk of them have been located on the north side of the house which is a disaster as far as taking advantage of the effects of solar heat. This solar furnace is one answer to taking advantage of the sun on the other side, when it isn't doable to install new windows on the side due to that also being the location of the kitchen cabinets. Pretty neat eh?!