another wet fall day

Although not terribly cold - it was a very WET day today - rain came down in buckets for about 1/2 an hour this afternoon. More of the same for the rest of the week - except colder, apparently!

Yesterday took us back up to Griffith to take down some signs on some lots on the Madawaska that I listed last year - unfortunately not one of them sold - so the signs must come down. It was was a pleasant drive though - we took the truck as the road into the lots is not much better than a logging road.

Today was a long day - home inspection in the morning at 8:30 a.m. (I was filling in for an agent away at a conference) and then helping another agent (who is camera and computer challenged) get a property listed on the MLS and then at 6:30 a showing for two of my clients looking for a house in Renfrew. oh well some days are like that!

Today's pictures are of the Madawaska River near the village of Griffith

Super day!

A lovely day in the Valley - a bit cloudy - but fairly warm - a PERFECT Fall day as far as I am concerned - I could be quite happy with this weather year round

Today's picture was taken near Shamrock, a "don't blink or you'll miss it" village about 10 minutes outside Renfrew. I was showing a little farmhouse and Rick took a few pictures while I "worked". Although probably a century old, the house wasn't too bad and came with a garage, stone root cellar and small barn - not bad for $118,000!!! (the pictures isn't of the house, BTW - but a neat log barn across the road - notice the leaves starting to turn)

Had a fabulous visit on Thursday and Friday with our ex-neighbours Pam and Terry, who drove in from BC in their RV with car in tow. It was a quick visit as they flew out Friday afternoon to England for a few weeks - we are caretakers of the RV in the meantime. Great to see them again and looking forward to an even longer visit when they get back from their trip

renovations nearly done!

Pictures today are of Rick's hobby/music room. This was Kris's old bedroom - it used to have an ugly striped carpet and blue paint and had not been touched since the mid 90's at least!! Lots of holes in the walls from posters and things. So Rick tore up the carpet, refinished the floors and painted the walls. Looks pretty good - notice his "wall of sound"????

So, now the upstairs is pretty well back to normal - it was a big job but worth it.

It was a humid, wet day today - at times anyway - and other times it was quite sunny. But, when it rained, it rained in buckets! I put a few miles on the car showing properties in the Dacre area - I noticed the sumac trees are turning red and the maples are turning too.

Rick and Kris were in Ottawa today to see a dental surgeon about two of Kris's wisdom teeth that need to come out. The big day is scheduled for October 15th. They'll do it with local freezing - should not be a big deal - (easy for ME to say!) I imagine Kris will feel differently about it....

Whew - a busy weekend!

Today's picture I guess you could call "a sign of the times" it is what is left of the huge magnesium mining operation located just down the road that has been in operation since the 1920's. When we moved out here 23 years ago, there were over 400 people working there (including myself for several years) In the last few years it became apparent it was cheaper to buy mag from China and other Europeon countries than it was to mine it locally - and so it has now been officially closed down.

Busy weekend - although I did manage to watch the NASCAR race on Sunday (my driver, Jeff Gordon, not doing so well) the rest of the weekend was taken up mostly with real estate.

Rick continues to work hard on the house - painting walls and re-finishing the floors. He is on the 3rd and last bedroom - the floors look great!!! The work would go much quicker, if we didn't start so many "mini" projects in the middle of other jobs. Like last Friday, when I discovered a really cool door at Home Hardware. It has 12 panes of glass - but each pane is a different type of glass - etched, bubble, smokey, frosted, etc. - it was a demo door to show off the various types of decorative glass people could get.

I saw it and HAD to have it - ($40 cash and carry!!!) - so now "we" (Rick) have to paint it and install it.....

Can't wait 'til Thursday when our friends (ex-neighbours) Pam and Terry come for a visit. We only see them once a year since they traded their house for an RV 8 or 9 years ago. They winter in the South and spend the summers in BC. But for the last couple of years, they have been making an annual trip to the Ottawa area in the Fall and since we have a very large driveway, they park their RV here. I really look forward to seeing them again! Pam and I have great "chats"

Up to Westmeath!!!

Pictures today come from Lookout Point in Westmeath which is also not far from Whitewaer Rafting on the Ottawa River. Lookout Point was established in the late 1950's and it is simply a very high point on someone's property that has been set up with a gravel road and a gazebo at the top to get a 360 degree view. Very neat, actually. here is a link to a better explanation http://www.rossmuseum.ca/sgt_wm_lookout.htm

Funny, how we tend to forget or overlook the really cool things in our own back yard!!!

We were up in Westmeath to do a market evaluation on a cute cottage on the Ottawa River. Then back to the house for quick lunch and off to Mt. St. Patrick to show a farm I have listed. We put nearly 180 kms on the Pony today (and, yes Revenue Canada, my mileage is freaking documented with names, phone numbers, addresses, dates, times, reasons for going there and then signed in BLOOD!!!! - whew! I'm a little bitter (can ya tell???) I was audited for 2006 and 2007 - my first years in real estate and Revenue Canada didn't like my mileage log book as it didn't give enough detail - so I'm now writing a nice little novel for each trip I make - hope Revenue Canada doesn't mind reading my "rural ramblings" when they process my next income tax return... hahahahaha)

Okay, enough bitterness...

So that was pretty well our day - nice day for a drive in the Pony - may not be many nice days left, so we'll take each one we can get!

And in case you're all wondering what Rick does while I'm showing houses and meeting with clients - he brings along our Nintendo DS. A super little hand held gamer that we are both pretty well addicted to! I bought it in the winter and we play it a LOT!! I highly recommend it - a huge improvement over the old Gameboy (which we had too)

No, we're not too old to be gaming.....

Feeling much better, thank you!

Rick and I are both feeling pretty well back to normal (whatever THAT is) today. Whatever we had seems to have cleared up. Unfortunately Rick is blaming the pork chops we ate and has now thrown the offending chops out and vowed to not eat pork chops for a looooooong time. sigh

Quite a cool day today - only around 16 degrees, I think. but, of course, I'm still wearing "scandals" I hate switching to shoes and socks in the Fall.

Rick got out the snow-blower for a tune up today - he had to order some new parts for it and now it is ready to go. Bring on the snow - NOT!!!

According to a friend, the wasps are nesting close to the ground, which measn there won't be much snow this year. I had not heard this one before, although Kris says he's known about the wasp thing since he was a kid. hmmmmm..... Anyway, it will be interesting to see if it holds true.

Todays picture is an older one - it is Buddy when he was about 6 months old - he is now over a year and bigger than his mother, Nibbles. Buddy was one of Nibbles' kittens - was always Rick's favorite and although he brought our "brood" up to 5 cats we are very glad we kept him. Oh yeah and a neat sunset picture Rick took tonite.

sick day!

Rick and I both woke up sick this morning - I'm waaaaaay sicker han he is though. We weren't sure if it was something we ate or the flu. I'm leaning towards the flu - my day was spent between bed and bathroom. I had zero energy. But, now it is around 6 p.m. and I feel like I am starting to come around even though I have the "chills" - at least water stays down! A big improvement. I may try some plain soda crackers in an hour or so.

Rick wasn't quite as bad as I was - he just felt lousy and very tired all day. Whatever it was, it certainly hit us hard and fast. As Rick says "we're running on empty"

Today's picture is Missy and Nibbles "playing" in their house. Well Nibbles is playing - Missy takes it a bit more seriously - which usually ends up in someone's feelings being hurt!

Warm summery days

Today's pictures are Nibbles (white and calico) in a rare quiet moment - she's always "on". And the other silvery/grey cat (not ours) just one I saw at a house yesterday that seemed quite different from our cats. A very lean cat with large ears. quite unusual looking.

Thank you to all for Rick's birthday wishes! I baked him a chocolate cake - probably the first cake I have baked in a very loooooooooooooooong time! It was pretty good.

It's a beautiful day today - I have a showing this afternoon in White Lake - maybe Rick will show up with the Pony to drive me there. I don't think there are too many days left when we can drive around with the top down so we might as well enjoy while we can!

day off!!

Nice weather - but here's a picture from last winter to remind us what's coming in a few months

Today was fairly quiet - I basically took the day off - other than setting up a couple of appointments, I just pretty well relaxed.

We did take the convertible for a quick trip to Home Depot looking for a new ceiling fan for the upstairs hallway. I preferred one style, Rick liked another. After much discussion and looking - (and BTW I really hate that Home Depot puts all their stuff up so freaking high that you have to crane your neck to see anything) anyway - we finally found one that we both liked - it was out of stock!

Still a nice day for a drive - even if all we came home with was cat food. Mind you, we rarely go into a store, that we don't have to buy cat food! The babies sure do eat a LOT!!

And here is a quick story I'd like to share - that once again clearly demonstrates the difference between men and women:

This afternoon I noticed the toaster crumb tray was in desperate need of being emptied out, so I pulled the tray out which made a bigger mess and left a ton of crumbs stuck in the toaster and alllllll over the counter. Rick picked up the toaster, took it outside - emptied in the back yard (the racoons will LOVE him) and then proceeded to finish the job with a couple of shots from the air compressor which did a super job! Crumby dish cloth vs. air compressor....hmmm.....men ARE from Mars..... (his way is better though)

another busy day!!!

Lots of driving today - in to the office - off to Calabogie to get an offer signed and then back to the office. Tons of paper-work in real estate these days. Lots of faxing, and e-mailing - whew!

Then this afternoon out to Mt. St. Patrick for a showing - and after the showing off to Pembroke to look for a ceiling fan for our newly painted upstairs hallway. We went to Home Depot, they had 2 ceiling fans that we liked, but neither fan was in stock :(

We then tried Canadian Tire, but no luck there either. So a quick stop at Timmy's for tea and home. All in all we put about 300 kms on the Pony today - but I'm not complaining - it was a gorgeous day for a drive! and part of the business!!!

Todays pictures are from our travels today - some condos at Calabogie, Calabogie lake and a partially submerged old barn in the "gone in a blink of an eye" village called Balaclava that we passed through on our way to Pembroke.

kids - don't try this at home

Silly cats(Nibbles & Tigger)like to sit right under our cars - preferably right up against the wheels!!! not smart!!!

Today was a rather long day for me. Started out with a home inspection that didn't happen as scheduled. I had a home inspection set up for this morning at 10 a.m. - but the inspector didn't show up. And although several calls were made to Amerispec, no calls were returned or explanation forthcoming for the no-show home inspector!!

I was NOT amused!!

My buyer and I sat around for 2 1/2 hours waiting for him. Then I spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to round up another home inspector at the last minute. I did get one, but not until 5 o'clock - so I didn't get home until 8 or so. whew!!! like I said a looooooooooong day!! And by the way, still no call or word from Amerispec regarding their missing home inspector!

Note to self - take Amerispec off list of home inspectors!!!!! Always better to stick to local guys!!

But, super weather today - tomorrow I have to go to Calabogie and if the day is as nice as today was, Rick and I will take the Pony! Top down allllll the way!

Update on music/hobby room renovations - molding and trim going on soon! One man-cave coming up (pictures to follow when all done)

I took this picture on the way into the office this morning. I always like this time of year with all the bales of hay lieing in the fields - really pretty. I bet the farmers are liking this stretch of dry, sunny weather - nothing worse that soggy hay!!!

My day was busy enough (again) showed a house or two in Renfrew and a couple more tonite. As I said earlier this week - seems like an odd time for real estate to be busy - but hey, I'm okay with it!

Rick is getting close to finishing up the spare room (it's official - it is going to be a man-cave (music and hobby room)

Jamie tells me he likes his course and plans to move ahead to the level 2 Automotive Technician as soon as he is allowed to - hopefully early 2010. (wow - nearly twenty - ten!!! imagine that!) Anyway - you go, Jamie!! don't forget to do your homework.

Oh - THAT'S ATTRACTIVE!!!

Don't know why - but our "flabby tabby" Missy likes to lie on her back and stare at us (or fall asleep) She's the only cat I know that can manage to do this- the other cats try to imitate her, but they just seem to roll from side to side without attaining Missy's elegant pose.

As the days get shorter, Rick continues to work on the spare bedroom - I think he is very close to putting on the final coat of paint. We've decided to continue on with a taupe-ish colour that we have used elsewhere in the house.

Although the original plan was to keep this room as a guest room, I think Rick's plan now, is to turn it into a music/hobby room and we'll use one of the other "empty" bedrooms as a guest room. Although not in use, those rooms are not exactly empty. We keep acquiring more stuff that has to be put somewhere. and, of course, at the same time, we talk about down-sizing......

I have had a busy few days showing houses and writing offers - it is a strange time to be busy, but not un-welcome! And it has been nice weather for driving around. Still sandal weather - I'm happy!