Somebody had a good day.

While I realise that for the most part,  this blog thing is all about me me me.   However,  it's worth mentioning that T.C. had a birthday last week (a week ago, to be exact)  and it was sort of a "milestone"  type of thing.

Anyhoo,  we had planned to go golfing that afternoon,  with the thought of then "going out to a restaurant"  later in the evening.  Long story short,  it was a total ruse.
Not the golfing part.
We did do eight holes at Victoria Park Valley Golf Club.  Had a great time.  I only lost two balls.  Um,  the loss of golf balls is pretty much my benchmark for whether I've made out OK or not.  Scoring is another matter.

(I took down the photo)

I have to be a little careful here,  as T.C. does NOT like her image posted to the net.

So,  when we later got to her sister's place up in Guelph,  she did make a comment about a car in the driveway with Massachusetts plates,  which I pretty much ignored,  as I suspected that there just might be a host of people waiting for her in the house.

And there was.

She had no idea.

The car from the States was being driven by a couple of folks we had visited in Slovenia,  who are now in the process of doing a little tour of Canada and the States.   A friend of theirs in Mass.  lent them a car.  Pretty awesome that they were able to work their plans in such a way as to be there that day.
Needless to say,  T.C. was "gobsmacked"  (to use the U.K. term)  when she saw everyone waiting for her.

I'll only be so bold as to put up one of the pics that they had assembled for the occasion.

The last time I saw photos assembled in this way was at a funeral, so this was a nice change.

So it's been cards and letters,  and dinners out.


Meanwhile,  I just keep plugging away here at The Ponderosa.

I've finished my set of "cubby holes"  for the bathroom.   When the tub was in there,  the space at the end was pretty much wasted,  and when I put in the wall for the controls and such,  I knew I wanted to take advantage of that space.

So here we go:

Right next to the "tooth brush charging station".

Now I just have to replace that door.   It's only back up there because the new one will be getting its finish over the next few days.   Then I just have to do the rest of the painting.

I think that's it.

It's been a bit of a long haul,  but here's the thing:  A similar endeavour taken on by one of my sisters-in-law was in the neighbourhood of thirty thousand dollars.   T.C. added up all the costs so far,  including about a thousand bucks for a wet saw,  and we still came in at around eight grand.

No accounting for my time of course.

I suspect that if I had the patience/tolerance/whatever to let trades people come into the house,  this job may very well have exceeded that amount. (30k,  that is)
But then,  nobody is going to make truly custom mill work.

And I know this,  'cause one of my brothers-in-law,  who happens to be an architect and would therefor have all kinds of contacts when it came to having custom work done,  had to hire me to do some cabinets for their rather tiny galley kitchen in their Toronto home once upon a time.
I  must have done an OK job,  as they are still there and in good shape.
The bonus was,  not only did he pay me almost twice what I was asking,  but also supplied me we some awesome plans to follow.
I so love it when someone else makes all the decisions like that.

I think that's about it for this go around.

I'll pipe up sometime when I think I have something worth saying.

Thanks for stopping by.