January 27th 2022...Massive snowstorm in Hamilton.

after about an hour of snowblowing I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.  It was Ellen from Thamesvalley brick asking if I would be willing to talk to Adam Brooke the owner.  Well of course I was!  After some interviews and video meetings on zoom, we knew enough about each other and the business that a deal was made and now3 1/2 months later, I am mostly settled in, with great and supportive coworkers, a business model that works for us and 50tons of stress off back.  

 March 21st, Tara and I went to Jamaica with Kris and Jax and Nadine and Greg Pavey.  We stayed at he Bahia Principe Luxury Runaway Bay.  The hotel and grounds were beautiful!  It was the most relaxing vacation ever.  No stress, no trips, just sand, water and beverages.  Oh and the 40+ doobs I rolled with some great Greens and some Hash Greg bought from the guy selling at the lagoon named Smokey (theyre all named Smokey)  Great trip!

 Declan starts spring hockey this weekend.  Back with Nice Stix, and he changed his number for the first time.  #63 instead of #14,  Its weird seeing him in anything else.  SO tomorrow him and I are off to Toronto for a couple games.  I'll take him downtown after the first game.  I will have a customer to drop some samples off to.

  Life is Good, almost great, big things to come.

Wowsa!

So....after years of:

-talking over people to get in my thoughts on a conversation or correlating idea

-Cutting off people(mostly my wife and family)

-Hyperfocusing on a topic, art project, wood working project

-Losing motivation on renovation projects when 98% done

-Not being able to go to bed before 1am

-Spacing out when being talked to

-Not starting anything unless I have every step worked out in my brain

-Leaving a task to start another that I just thought of or was reminded of

-Having 5-12 trains of thought going, along with the melody of some song or other at once

-Losing keys, wallet, phone, charger at least 3 times a week.

-Having conversations in my head with friends, family and customers over possible situations in preparation of that conversation actually happening.  Which most of the time it doesn't manifest.

-Not doing jobs at work unless there is definitive timelines attached

-Avoiding jobs requiring more time and focus, and instead doing less important jobs that can be completed quicker.

-Being sucked into something on my phone and saying, okay 5 more minutes, okay just 5 more minutes, stop playing this game, stop scrolling, put the phone down.  WHY WONT YOU STOP! JUST STOP! TURN IT OFF....and then realizing its been 2 hours.

I realize that I have ADHD.

I was told a million times as a kid that I probably had ADD. I was never diagnosed.  My focus issues were masked by excellent test marks because I remember almost photographically.  Although I didn't follow through on homework often.  I was hyperactive.  But also had a hyperactive mind.  I did feel focus.  Usually doing art or playing LEGO.  OMG creating with LEGO saved my life so many times.

But now, It is stopping my  personal growth, now I see the connection between the symptoms.  IT IS LIKE A NEON SIGN TURNED ON ABOVE MY HEAD! Get help with this....NOW.  I've made an appointment with my family doctor, for next wednesday March 24th.  I will write again after that.  I can't even imagine feeling normal, because I always felt normal and dealt with my personal challenges or ignored them.  But as I get older I realize...MY Brain is not normal.

FINGERS CROSSED!

Oddly enough, when I expressed this to my parents, they made a million excuses why they never tested me as a kid.  And told me I just have to learn to manage my time better......WTF?! I know how to manage time better, I just CAN'T!!!

when I expressed this to my friends, to a person they all said...You're not shocked by this are you?  We've just always assumed it.  My friends are the best.

So Here we go again. Its 2020! Almost the end actually.  What an absolute shit show this year has been.  It started out amazing...Trip to StLucia with Kris and Jax, Rob and Amber and the Guders! Amazing everything about that trip.  But in the background was the world news of COVID19! There was one confirmed case in Canada at that point,  The virus has started off in Wuhan China, And was thought to be a species crossover virus from eating bats or something (no one knows really still)

But by the time we got back from St Lucia the second confirmed case was here.  

Declan was playing AAA Hockey for the Huskies and our team just couldn't score to save their lives.  But Declan was stuck playing Defense and was really unhappy about it. I only just realized how unappy he was in October when he asked to play for Coach Jamie and the AA's so he could play forward.  

So...the end of March, April, May and into June the COVID19 numbers were growing Daily, and we were starting to learn some things about the virus.  Grocery stores and big box stores were open,  Ferrell has stayed open since day 1 of the mess and people visit just to get out of their houses.  Most of the province was in lockdown except for essential workers.  Ferrell somehow fell into that category.  Eventually numbers dwindled and we got to have something of a summer. We didn't really take advantage of the trailer and just used the pool.  It was scorching hot at the end of June and that was kinda nice.

In July we got to use Wes's cottage.  It was fun as hell.  Us and the Kennedys were fishing and enjoying the lake and the cottage.  I really do love it up there.  We decided to spend some money in the backyard.  So we drew up a plan that incorporated a new 16x9 storage shed to keep the backyard tidy.  We had Reg Slotuik and PPM do the work to put in a drainage system to get rid of all the water.  They did 1000sqft of pavers and also put in new sod in the front and back yard.  It looks great!!!!! About the same time we had our first hot tub delivered...what a treat thats been.  Addison is in it the most, but I'm a close second with my late-nite tubs!

So The second term of the hockey training started,  Declan was happily with Jamie and then......wave fucking two of COVID19 kicks in.  Hamilton was put into Red status.  Rinks could only have 10 people in them so training has gotten expensive and hard to come by.  Until this week...the week before Christmas...Premier Ford has put us into Grey LOCKDOWN MODE!  Essential only work and play, no gatherings of more than one household.  LIFE SUCKS...the vaccine is starting to be shipped to Canada.  I dont feel good about it, but I might have to take it just to get some resemblence of normalcy.  2020 wasn't that bad. But 2021 better be an improvement!

 

HOLD UP......WAAAAIIIITTT!

WTF!!!
So, we think we have it all figured out...cabinets, colours, door styles, functionality things, and little details that will make this look BOSS!  
Then Gino comes over to measure, and we get another price

EEEEEEEEEERREEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!!(my version of a car braking)

And it is like $$5000 more than the inital price.  So I dont need to elaborate to much, but I had to go in and make Tara proud.  We ended up getting everything we origianlly wanted for within our budget number.  But we have changed door styles.  THANK GOD!

I was started to look at the door style and wonder why we were doing this, it was sooo similar to whats there now.  We originally liked the Shaker style, its classic and contemporaryish all in one awesome package.  So here are our two choices in Maple still.  White for the main cabinets and dark for the island still.

This isnt the Dark we chose....or the white

So then we go down to LOWEs, Tara scouted out some flooring at Lowes onsale!  I love onsale, especially if it means I can get Maple for the same price as OAK or ASH (*making face like Im sick and throwing up)

Its a lightish Brown Colour, and it is beautiful!  And the price was killer.  SO we say, we're here lets just pick a tile.  LOL  WHat do we get?  Fricking 6"x24" tile that looks like hardwood.  Should look cool, funny thing is because maple isnt grainy, the tile looks more like Hardwood than the hardwood. LOL

Anyways.....so you know whats going on, I ripped out the upper Cabinets and the bulkheads.  I borrowed Bills purple truck to take the trailer to the dump, and sure enough I blow the brake lines on it.  SORRY BILL!

This weekend is going to be rewire certain areas weekend and on Monday drywall is getting delivered for the ceiling and wall repairs.  Fred and his buddy Joe can get it done all next week and then floor and lower cabinet demo the weekend following.  Hopefully I can have the flooring in before we go to Florida on the 3rd, but if not.......whateva!  Cabinets are 5 weeks away anyhow!  WTF

Kitchen Operation FLITCH BEAM

So today was probably not the best day to be doing this...Grieving still for Gram...But the material is here, the people showed up to do it.  So what the heck.  THE WALL MUST COME DOWN!!!

So Freddy "CRASH" McDonald and Kevin "BASH" Miski come over and execute the plan.
The wall was braced on both sides with 2x6's and Shoring Jacks. Then some ripping and cutting followed.

One wall Down, that was the easy one...Send in the muscleNext the beam was built with 2x12x20' lumber and a 1/2"thick steel plate with staggered 1/2" bolt holes drilled in it from my good buddy Mike Condello at the Ferrell Builders Supply Steel Yard 905-575-8524.  

Getting this beam up was NO treat and took all our strength and patience.  It was a snug fit to say the least. BUT...it's up and GOLDEN!

 So it's all insulated and needs the vapour barrier and sheathing tape on it and Operation FLITCH BEAM is complete.

The Kitchen rolls along

So.....a tough time to be sure.  Work is crazy busy, family life is also busy.  The kitchen planning and effort must go forth.  However, I've taken a few days off really even thinking about it to cope and deal with the loss of my amazing grandmother.  She'd be proud of whats going on in this kitchen.  Here's Whats been going on.

Kitchen Cabinets.
After getting several prices and talking to cabinets makers of various qualities.  We have decided to go with CR Technical Kitchens and woodworking.  They were recommended by my favourite local builder.  If you need to build a house or want to move to a new one.  Racing Construction and Homes Built by Mike and Mario Restauri is the way to go.  Ultimate class gentlemen...Also if you need any renovations done large or small they do that too.
MIKE RESTAURI 905-971-8631, mkmrestauri@hotmail.com
Back to the cabinets, as I started asking around the verdict was clear that the new home industry trust CR and wondered where else I could possibly go.  Here's a bit of whats going on here...

This is the style of door we are using, and the rise and crown.  And on either side of the fridge is a sneaky area to stash brooms.  We are not using this colour though.  Our main cabinets will be off-white.

The island however will be...

this colour, other style though.  All Maple, with some fun functions added in. like.........

SPICE RACK!! and GARBAGE PULLOUTS

And don't forget the big slide out Pantry!!!!

So....things will be looking pretty sweet in 5 weeks +/-.  BUT WAIT

There's a ton to do to get to that stage.  And by the way CR Tech was almost $3000 cheaper installed than the next best Cabinet place and that was comparing apples to apples..sorta.  Its hard with these cabinet people to get an identically quoted kitchen.

CR Technical is on Arvin Ave.  In Stoney Creek.  just east of Grays Rd.

THE KITCHEN

BEFORE

I am going to repeat these four shots over the life of the job.

The funny thing is that you can't even see the before kitchen in them.

I have been leery about starting the kitchen of our dreams.  Changing our main floor into complete open concept.  BUT....enough dragging my heals.  It occurred to me that it is going to happen one way or another, so might as well get going.  I'll keep adding stuff on here, pics updates, companies that i am using for my cabinets and granite and flooring etc.etc.etc...  

THE START OF DEMO