Friday, October 26, 2012

Virtual warming


Tonight is the re-warming of our apartment, and for me a celebration of the end of several months of sawdust and head-scratching as we figured out (with the help of friends) how to make it all work the way we wanted. There are a few items of unfinished business, but no doubt they will nag away at me and I will end up finishing them rather than just forgetting about them. That seems to be the kind of guy I am.

Here's a little picture-journey around our cube:

It started with a doodle, a bit like this one. It turned out my ideas meant only  four standard kitchen units could be used in the design. When I ordered them from Ikea, the nice lady asked if I was doing a laundry room. I replied that "Yes, the washing machine will go in there somewhere".

Seriously dorky 3D rendering of my plans. I should have been an engineer.

Below from left-to-right: The workshop, the kitchen (utility room obscured), the living room, and Lina's gymnasium. Above from left-to-right: Tire storage (?) office, bedroom, and garage.

Our new living room, where we can finally give Krista's stonework the attention it deserves.

The utility room with unheard of in North America under-counter washer-dryer, camelback storage, and welder hook-up (of course I'm joking about the welder - aren't I?)

Kitchen and workshop. Lovely wheely-shelves for all my junk from Timeline auctions,  a fantastic steel workbench from a nice man on Craigslist, and a clever wheely kitchen cart with fold-up leaves which was a right pain to get hold of... but worth it.

Kitchen from above, featuring a free pot rack from another nice man on Craigslist held up with  conveyor chain from the scrapyard down the street. Shelving from a dumpster, cripplingly expensive stove, and extensively hacked Ikea cabinets and sink.

The office. Lina's new desk bashed together by me from 2x4's I found in the dumpster. Pretty birthday-present rug, and some creative bike parking.

And finally, where's all the stuff? Well... the garage is mostly suspended above the bedroom... where seven pairs of skis, eight paddles, six bikes, and one kayak (usually) literally, hang out.





Tuesday, October 23, 2012

My life is ruining my blog

This is getting ridiculous. I'm so out of date with writing anything interesting on here I'm bored of the things that used to be interesting before I've even bored anyone with how interesting they are. What's more, I don't even remember what it was I did anyway... so it can't have been all that interesting, right?

Now I'm confused... but here goes with a canned history of all the things I've forgotten over the past month.

Thing #1: Elk-Thurston Ridge Ride. 
After years of talking about doing it (which incidentally is an excellent way of one day actually doing something) Paul, Lina, and I rode this legendary ridge on our mountain bikes in the middle of a cloud, so no alpine views could be seen at all. There was ferocious bushwhacking, lovely fall colors  occasionally good riding, and plenty of general camaraderie from what I remember... though this did all happen approximately one million years ago so it may have been awful and I just forgot.

I'm smiling, so apparently it was fun.
Oh, and see that jacket? I got that in China and it says "Made in Canada" on it.

Thing #2: Birthday
Since being my birthday, it's also been Lina's birthday... but we'll get to that in the correct temporal sequence. My birthday was spent inhaling mostly sawdust, but I also was lucky enough to inhale some more tasty things including chocolate-covered fruit courtesy of Lina's dad, and a dosa at House of Dosas. I am now unbelievably old and even more drastically need a haircut than I did in these pictures.

Fruitbasket

Dosa and cake. See that writing on the cake board? It's ketchup. No joke.
The last ting I got to inhale for my birthday was some lovely fresh air thanks to Lina who arranged for me to go paragliding from Grouse Mountain with a friend who handily knows how to fly one of those things. I hiked up to the top, and flew back down... which was considerably more fun. I think I have found a future hobby.

Up above the streets and houses...
Thing #3: Lina's birthday
Winter has finally struck Vancouver. There's snow on the mountains, chill in the air, and grey in the sky. We welcomed in the cold season by going to the beach for the weekend. Obviously. We had what turned out to be a very pleasant weekend away in Tofino, staying in the eclectic (and most importantly, warm) Tofino Traveler's Guesthouse. Two-and-a-half days of (occasional) sun, sea, surf, and, err, snow (really) made a fitting end to the summer season, and it really wasn't all that cold in a wetsuit. Honest.

Lina feeling swell (can you see what I did there?)

Temperate rainforest surfing.

Thing #4: The final thing.
Thanksgiving was my deadline to start seriously searching for paid employment. So... I am searching. If you want and data trawled through, analysed, and made into a pretty story for people to read, just let me know. I can fix your bike too if you like. In-between filling out job applications and trawling the depths of job-boards I've been finishing off the last few pieces of our apartment renovation. It's tantalizingly close to being nearly-finished (I think "nearly" is the closest to finished that it will ever get). I'll take some pictures of it eventually... or maybe make a "video tour". That might be fun...

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Lazy blogger

TruthDusty fresh trailChris descending Cutthroat CreekPaul descending Cutthroat CreekLina descending Cutthroat CreekMe climbing Cutthroat
ViewpointReaching the PCTThe signTreebeardPaul slacklineChris with tree help
Lina sunsetMeadow sunsetFools on the hillMore fools?Smoke layers on Angel's StaircaseKevin and Adam, single speed heroes
The summitSmokeLina pretending to be a marmotSun and dust on Foggydew CreekCall me Dollar BillOh no, not again...

Winthrop 2012, a set on Flickr.

I have some things I want to wrote about, namely birthdays, kitchens, welders, bikes, jobs, and whatnot... but while I get around to that, here are some photos of Thanksgiving weekend in the Methow Valley.