Response To Light

I love my wife. As she is fond of saying, she saved me. Sometimes it’s debatable exactly what she saved me from, I have to agree. As part of the proces of

Things I have learned from my wife….

Women never tire of hearing how much you love them…if you mean it.

Women don’t just like hearing how much you love them…they like to feel that you love them as well.

‘Popping a nip’ isn’t a funny term for touching a woman’s breast. Apparently it has racial overtones.

Of course what she needs to know is that by being black, I’m already exempt from the racial card.

Kisses should be soft to the touch, firm for the lips with gleam in your eye.

Kisses on the cheek are useless.

Comments of any sort regarding a women’s time of the month is forbidden.

…unless it’s to say you hope she’s feeling better.

Buying her gifts is nice.

Spending time doing something she really enjoys is better.

Getting up to get her something to drink is an opportunity to show her how much you love her.

My mother came to visit us last week. It had been two years since she visited us for the first time in Canada. Just like the last time, I literally had moved in all of my stuff two days before she arrived. Every room in our old house was full of boxes. And in a addition to everything arriving just before my parents arrived, we were getting married that weekend. It was crazy!

This time things were a bit easier. All we had to do is finish off the kitchen and straighten out the rooms in the new house. I have already shown the end result. I think she was surprised (Tim Dorcas? Handy? My son?). I also think she was pleasantly surprised. Even in the state it’s in, it shows well.

The visit itself was amazing. First it was just wonderful to see my mom. While I absolutely think of Lynne’s family as my own, there’s an extra special feeling in being with someone who has seen all stages of your life and has been through all of the ups and downs of the journey of life. Actually I think the words don’t fully explain it but I guess I just miss my parents and God parents. Talking to them on the phone just isn’t the same.

Anyway, I was saying that the trip was amazing. We went through the entire Calgary Stampede experience from the parade in the morning to the Grand Show and Fireworks at night. We went up to the Calgary Tower and looked down on the city through the lookout glass in the floor. And we went to Banff for the day so my mom could get wool. Below is a picture of the two of us (Lynne took the picture), hanging out in Banff.

Thank you so much Mom for coming to visit, letting me share my life, and letting me get to show you that all of your hard work has paid off!

I love you!

Tim

With my mom coming I wanted to at least try to finish the kitchen. This included installing the new sink and faucet, laminating the rest of the counters and finishing off the trim. This had to be completed over a weekend and a couple of days. I am happy to say it all got done!

If you look at the before picture, this is certainly not a horrible kitchen but it’s obviously dated. You can see the old light fixture, the white lino floors, the blue laminate counters and the white sink. I’m sure in its day, this was considered a great kitchen if not a high end one. Mostly we found the blue and white overwhelming.

As I have mentioned before, the limiting factors for redoing the kitchen were the appliances and the cabinets. We only had so much money to spend on the house and if we had go ahead with a new kitchen, over half of it would have gone to this. Considering the appliances were only a year old and they were higher end appliances, it didn’t make sense to replace them. Once we made a decision to keep the appliances, it then became obvious that the cabinets were staying as well.

Now you can see the kitchen in a state where it’s 90% completed and 100% functional. The cork floors have been installed and I have to say I really like them. They are incredibly forgiving on the feet although you do have to be careful about spilling things on the floor. They were a little bit harder to install than normal laminate floors because they don’t quite give you that satisfying click when you put them together. On the other hand they were much easier on my tablesaw and miter blades.

We have changed the cabinet knobs to brushed nickel which helps to give the cabinets a fresh spin. New light fixtures have been installed to give the kitchen a more modern feel. One of my favorite views of the house is from Main street across the creek. The lights help to define the space in a more modern way.

All of the counter tops have been laminated and trimmed. The island was our test bed and surpassed my expectations. We used Minwax Polyshade Gloss which is an all in one finishing product. It took about 10 coats to get the desired look. While I am sure that as my woodworking career continues to grow and I get better with ‘finishing’ my projects, the product really worked well for the look I was trying to achieve.

The sink has been installed along with the new faucet.

I still want install new under cabinet lights and long term I can see putting in pot lights and moldings.