Jo Edgett

I write this during my final days up in the ‘bedsit’. Both B and I are itching to get our house back, and the Phils should be finished tomorrow. Then it’s a week or so of painting and moving furniture and untangling the chaos.

The old subfloors beneath the old pine floors.

Acoustic tiles down! Hello 2009.

Mouse? Rat? Chipmunk? Opinions vary. S/he’s old, that’s all I’m sure of.

Gadzooks! A 1920s Congoleum Art Rug (linoleum) beneath my office floor. I’m lucky there were so many nail holes and raggedy bits, because otherwise it would have become the biggest challenge of our relationship to date, as I would have begged, begged, pleaded, cajoled, and, uh, BEGGED to keep it even though we had just spent considerable bags of silvers on the new wide plank flooring. Alas, there was no challenge as it was old and unsaveable. But super-gorgeous all the same, and the greatest of all our renovation surprises.

The Phils dragged it outside so I could cut out usable bits to make floorcloths.

Underneath the Art Rug was some even older canvas floorcloth. I plan to use one of the designs as stencils for painting our stair risers (sometime in the future…don’t hold me to it).

The day Janet and Dave surpassed everyone else on Garden Street to become Our Favourite Neighbours. We were without a stove & fridge fairly early on in the reno, and they took pity on us and brought us dinner. That’s chicken stew, rice, an amazing salad, the best tomato soup we’ve ever eaten, home baked bread, and yes, a chocolate ganache cake. For dinner. !!! We stretched this out to make 3 days of meals. God bless Janet & Dave.

My bit of the bedsit. At least B and I will have some experience when we’re old and have to downsize to a single room dwelling. Hopefully that experience will keep us from going mental or killing each other.

Rooster, in the windowsill.

Monkey, sleeping in our cutlery drawer.

New wider doorway from kitchen to dining room.

Fraser, maker of floors, delivering the goods from Musquodoboit Harbour, with Philip, unloader and installer of floors.

First boards are go!

Woot!

I had a beautiful fall day to sit outside and stain and, seriously now, hand-rub each and every tiny wood plug. Floor, this is how much I love you, and we barely even know each other.

Our tree in all its autumnal glory. A week and two hard frosts later and all these leaves were in our garden.

Floors with the first row of screws & plugs (and lots of sawdust).

B and I took a break from the bedsit and reno chaos to go hang out with a fuzzy little bee.

Griffin! So cute! First hallowe’en! Tiger socks!

The collection of jack-o-lanterns: scary-fierce (David’s), slightly deranged (Jai’s), mopey-sad (B’s), and dopey-happy (mine).

BOO! Wait, make that, ‘boo-hoo’. Poor little oblong pumpkin. He’s terrified of hallowe’en!