Productively Relaxed

I opened my eyes at half six and wish I hadn’t. I had made plans with the Chef to meet up for breakfast on his turf at eight today and knew I should shower and had to fuel the truck. I couldn’t fade back to sleep, who knows when I’d have woken. I got cleaned, dressed and fuelled the truck I was over there in good time and apparently he had been up early too, having already gone to the dump with a load before I was even on the road. That’s craziness from him, he’s always been a ten in the morning wake up guy. Regular workdays seem to agree with him, or he had a terrible sleep like he said. Who am I to judge?! We made our way to Country Girl in his town for breakfast. I traded him some vitamins for this meal. I’m not disappointed. I got the classic eggs benedict and did the “supreme” to my homefries. That is just some shredded cheese and more hollandaise. That really tied the plate together. It was tasty. We didn’t stay to chat for long as it was busy and I was going to tour his place anyways. It would be the first time I’d see it in the last ten months or so. Actually this was the first time I’d seen him in over four months. Pretty crazy.

First stop on the tour of his work was the backyard. You can see that he’s put new siding on the garage. He has a nice pad poured at the top, this is the first tier of the yard. You can see his retaining wall below that. It is built with neat blocks that are filled with concrete that he mixed and poured himself with his own cement mixer. A lot of labour to do that. The wall extends around the second tier but I didn’t include any pictures as the weeds were pretty nasty when I was there, if he shares a picture of it trimmed I’ll add that later. For now, this is what I could see of the back yard.

The front entry way has been finished or close to it for some time now so I didn’t look at it much. What I wanted to see was the progress in the kitchen. The last time I was through it was back to the studs and he was having to re-do the plumbing and electrical before sprayfoam insulation then drywall. It appears those things are done and he’s starting to get his cabinets in place. The last big piece for the kitchen is to get the tiles put it, something on his list for today actually. Eventually he will replace all the windows in the house but that will be once some other expenses are handled.

The Chef has completely rearranged the layout now. The new sink is under the window, there is counterspace. The stove is moved and an upgrade is planned, the fridge I gave him got sold and his new subzero unit is to my left in the below picture. Also to the left that I neglected to photograph is the island, well penisula actually. It comes out from the wall the stove is on and makes a breakfast bar as well as a lot more counter space. The kitchen didn’t have any at all before and that is being fixed. He shared that he is not planning to have upper cabinets but rather shelves. I told him that’s very chef kitchen of him.

His bunny still roams free around the main floor. I think she was a bit frightened of me. Which is fair, to a little critter like that I’d look like a giant.

Next on the tour was the upstairs bathroom. It has been a bit gutted for awhile. He is getter all the board up still so it has been all the way non-functional for a long time. He’s removed everything and has it all lined up the way his new design needs it. He is working on the shower currently and waiting for the toilet to come in. Supply issues are part of the reason he is still working on this project.

I moved to the opposite end of the room to take a picture of the toilet nook. The tank is there against the wall, apparently it will be concealed in the wall. I’m not sure how that makes me feel. Where it will sit is where the stairs to the loft used to be. I like this use of space better. You can also see the shower, he got the base and installed it yesterday and will start work on putting up the boards for the inside of the shower soon. Then he has to tile it and hook the water up. I like the design but it will take some time before he has a working shower again.

The upstairs hallway was mostly finished before but it looks more complete with the painting done now. There is some trim left to go but it’s getting closer and closer.

The attic or loft has been the part that I’ve been giving him the most grief about all winter. I can see now why he was so hesitant to work on it. There are so many lines, angles and weird sections that doing drywall for this had to be a nightmare. The dormer alone would have discouraged me from attempting this. He went hard the last couple of weeks and got it to the point that the first coat of mud is done. There is one corner not complete, waiting for the bathroom venting to be done before it can be closed up. Not sure when that is happening. After that he will have to build stairs up here, this will eventually be his sleeping quarters. The flooring is already done and installed so as soon as the drywall and painting are complete then he’s ready to move things up there. The room that will have the stairs will become a bit of a walk-in closet. It’s a unique idea and I’m looking forward to seeing the end result. I think it’s a cool use of the space, rather than just for storage like the previous occupant.

We went down to the basement too. He is in the process of re-doing this bathroom also. The last piece is to change where the toilet pipe is but he can’t do that until the other toilet is working. Living in a house with no working toilets feels too medieval. Once he rotates the can and removes the old sink this room will get closed up and will be a nice little powder room. He also showed me the wine cellar. It’s a work in progress as he adds special insulation to really keep the humidity at the right spot for controlling expensive wine bottles. There are still a lot in there but not as much as previously.

He also finally gave me my Christmas gift. It’s a bit different that I was expecting but in a good way. Its a deeper pan that the one it is replacing. Same base though, which is perfect. I’m looking forward to getting this pan into the mix and making some interesting things in here. The extra height will mean more stirfry probably. I thanked him for the lovely gift.

Once my time at the Chef’s wrapped up I had to hustle home. There was rain in the forecast and I was planning to cut and fertilize the lawn before that happened. The rain kept moving up in the forecast and it felt like a race against it. I cut the lawn first while listening to a podcast called Exit Scam. It was suggested to me by my real Facebook Friend. I’d already heard the tale on another CBC podcast but had mostly forgotten that experience so dove right in, consuming the whole thing before noon. Once the grass was cut I spun on some fertilizer at the cost of my thumb’s comfort. I went a couple directions. The forecasted rain finally showed up, a few minutes after I got back in the house. Hopefully it washed all the fertilizer in. That’s the second feeding. I’m going to try another in September and another in October. I want to make sure that fertility is not an issue for the lawn every again. Something is happening. Big dead patches are happening and I haven’t sprayed anything so that’s not the issue this time. I’m not sure what is killing it, just that it is dying slowly.

I had worked up a bit of an apetite by this time so I grabbed the leftover pizza, a thermos of ice water and headed to my lair. I took down another couple of AP Bio episodes before working on Musings. By the time I was done I was feeling like I could use a nap. Napping is for the weak though so instead, inspired by Ronny Ronks, I fired up Red Alert 3 Remastered and played a pair of skirmishes. I’m still a couple of workdays behind him in hours played but if I’m quiet about it, I might be able to catch up to him. It was quarter past four when I finished up with that and decided I’d better go see what was left in the larders to prepare for dinner. But rather than do what I ought, I did some online shopping and ordered a couple of items of the Amazon. While I was on the computer I decided to write up my D&D characters in a format I can post. I finished one and started a second. This exercise came about as I thought that I needed to start thinking about my drafted backup character, in case I die in our current game. Things are getting serious and I’m told it’s good practice. Before I realized it, it was six and I hadn’t even thought of dinner in all that time. Because of this I decided to have a mindless meal. I warmed up some Stouffer’s Bistro Crustini Mozzarella and Meatball paninis and enjoyed a cold, refreshing Pepsi. That will have to do for tonight.

After slamming this trifle of a meal into my gob, I returned to the basement to enjoy some more AP Bio on the Netflix. I soared through the end of season one and had some good laughs. This show is pretty entertaining. I got about halfway season two before closing things off just ahead of ten. About three quarters of an hour later my brain was about ready to pack it in.