Happy Father's Day, Daddy

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Do I want to post this?



Not really, but I feel I need to talk about it so that it's not so heavy on my heart.
I've been feeling down lately, and I need to release my pain.

There is no need to comment, it's just that I need to release this....
especially since I'm planning a nice bbq dinner for my husband and his father (wishing my Dad would show up as well)





My Father died very suddenly 7 years ago just a couple days before Fathers Day.

Although he was very sick for years and years, he seemed absolutely fine just before he died....... some background is needed, I think....



My Father had Mitral Valve replacement surgery in September 1990. It took him about 8 months to recouperate from it, and then you could hear the replacement valve ticking in his chest, almost like a watch or a clock....

He had a bit of a relapse about a year later, but after that, he seemed strong and healthy.
He stopped his 2 pack a day habit of smoking when he had the first replacement surgery, and he also really cut down on his drinking habit.



After that, he seemed completely fine! Was the strong and healthy bull I remember him being when I was a child....




He came over to visit us for Easter, and then a month later for my son's (then) 4th birthday. At that time, I took this picture of him and my youngest daughter (then just shy of her 2nd birthday) 'talking' and I swear, it's the best picture I've ever taken in my life. You can literally see the love flowing between them.... her just a baby, and him at the end of his life....







Anyway, two weeks later, I got a call from the hospital telling me that my Father's aorta had ruptured and he was in surgery.
I called my family and told them. We all rushed to the hospital and waited and waited.





About 4 hours later, the surgeon came out and asked me and my sister (who at the time, were the only ones in the waiting room) to go with him.
We went into a secluded room where he told me that although he had done everything he could, my Father had died.






Suffice it to say, I still feel the shock of those words.
Even just now when I typed it, I thought, why, why did it happen like that? I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, or to tell him how he was my hero, or to tell him how much I'd miss him.... how much I loved him....





I hate that he was taken so quickly from me...

but he would have hated it even worse if he had lingered... suffering.





Good-bye daddy. I love and miss you terribly!
I think of you all the time, and I remember so many things that you taught me....




Rest in Peace, Daddy.


xoxo,
your loving daughter,
Lynn

Only 1 floor left to finish

Well, I've been painting my a$$ off for the past 3 weeks, and this is where I am today....









I'm completely done the 3rd and the 2nd floors (except for some minor touch ups).

I only have to finish up on the entranceway of the 1st floor, there was an area that was very difficult to reach (yes, even standing on a 6 foot ladder, I couldn't reach!) As well, I haven't done any white painting downstairs.... but it can wait until tuesday, because on Monday, I have a field trip that I'm helping out with for my daughters' grade 3 class (I actually did this same trip with my son when he was in grade 3! hehehe!

It's the High Park ~ Early Settlers excursion.... wish me luck! :)

Poor Guy, what was he thinking?

OMG, I'm still in shock.

I stepped out my front door to go and meet my 2 kids as they came home from school. I stopped for a moment to speak to the two guys that are doing renovations on our home.

Some guy was crossing the street towards my side, not 10 feet away from me. In front of a streetcar. The streetcar driver beeped at the man, and the man then dived down across the tracks and the streetcar would have run him over and cut him in half, if it weren't for the lightning quick reflexes of that poor driver.

I turned really fast, (because I didn't want to see this guy get chopped in half) and opened my cell phone and dialed 911. I turned back to look as the phone rang.... the man was all the way under the front of the streetcar, almost against the wheels.... 911 answered, and I said "I need an ambulance at (where I live), because some man just dived under the streetcar" She asked me if he was alive? "yes". She asked me if he was bleeding? I told her I didn't know. That I was afraid to look. Then I went out and stood near, and told her that they were dragging him out from under the streetcar, and he didn't look bloody. She asked me if he was consious. I told her his hand was moving as a lady was speaking to him, so yes, it seemed that he was consious.

OMG, what could possibly have gone through this poor guys head for him to think the easy way out would be to get chopped in half by a streetcar? And I feel so badly for the driver. Thankfully he was paying attention.... I split second later and it would have been too late.... cause this guy went right under the front.

I'm still shaking, even though I know that the guy will be ok. I hope they lock him up, he has serious issues that he needs to deal with before being let out in public again....

Painting - Part 1 almost done

OMG, what did I get myself into?

Well, part 1 of this massive paint job is almost complete!
I started on the 3rd floor and worked my way down to the ground floor, painting the top portion of the walls, the chair-rail, and the bannisters (3 of them!)

The chair-rails will be redone in white, but they were dark bright yellow, so I thought I'd 'lighten' them so the white will work on them... :)

The ground floor has 15' walls! You can see the coat hooks - they're almost at the 6' level! Anyways, I've got 2 ladders, a 6' ladder and a 4' ladder.... And, there was an area that I was unable to cut in as I couldn't reach, so I ended up just stretching... using the roller with an extension on it. Up on the very top step (allowed) and stretching..... a little scary, to be honest, but you do what you have to do!

And me up on near the top of the 6' ladder down on the 1st floor:

And here's a better picture of the 1st floor:


Here's a shot of the 2nd floor (this is the opposite view of the image I posted in my last thread):




Well, I've just got one area left to finish..... going to go do it now....
And tomorrow, I'm doing ceilings! Then when they're done, I'll do the bottom portion of the walls. Then to finish, I'll do the baseboards and the chair-rails.

Painting

Well, I finally started with the hallway painting in this old junkbox of a house! (It was built a hundred years ago, and is a pain in the a$$ to paint, especially since I had to do MAJOR repairs to )

I'm doing three floors of hallway, two staircases and a 30 foot ceiling (in the main entrance, there is an area that goes straight up the height of the house [what were they thinking?])

I'm doing white baseboards, ceiling and chairrails. I'm doing 'rice paper' on the top portion of the walls above the chairrail. I'm doing 'Egyptian Papyrus' on the bottom portion below the chairrail. (Earthtones)
(The chairrail runs through all the hallways!)

I'm hoping that when I'm done, it won't be too dark for my liking...

Right now, the top is 'moonlight' (soft light powdery yellow), and the bottom is 'sunspot' (bright, dark yellow.

here is a pic of the 2nd floor hallway (notice the electrical outlet & piping outside the walls? WTF!!!)



Wish me luck.... I'll post some pics as I'm done!

Bedroom Makeover

Ok, so I mentioned that I was going to re-do my 10 year old son's bedroom. Well, I'm almost done. Except for re-arranging his room to accomidate the drum set we're buying him for his birthday next Friday.....

So, he shared this room with his younger sister, A from when they were really young.... the room was painted 'mystical green' and 'sunspot yellow' trim/ceiling. Remember, they were like 4 & 6 when the paint job was done :)

So, anyway, last spring, my oldest daughter, M, moved out. So we ended up fixing up her room for my youngest daughter, A. We re-painted it (needed 6 coats of primer to cover all the markings on the wall (lipstick, pen, marker, etc), and bought her a 'new' bedroom set.

So, here is a picture of S's room a month ago....




So, my 2 youngest kids, S and A had a bunkbed in their shared room..... Since S no longer needed a bunkbed cluttering his room, so we sold it and bought a 'new' bed frame for him. I proceeded to sand, prime and paint it from this:


to this:





(Please click on the pics, (especially the first one of the completed makeover)as for some reason, they get cut off when i post them here.

Well? Anyone care to comment?

May

OMG, I cannot believe that it is May13th already!

I've been so busy the past couple months. It's been unbelievable.

First, my company (that I worked for) closed. On February 15th, my boss told me that we'd received an offer on our space, and it was only good if we could be out by the end of February! he then asked me if I was still willing to help him out by clearing out the office. He meant selling everything off! So, craigslist & kijiji helped me out quite a bit, and I sold $100,000 worth of office (furniture, equipment, supplies) within 2 weeks. He had offered me 4 weeks as a bonus for sticking around and helping out. Well, guess what? The 'bonus' was not paid out as I had assumed it would be (I thought they'd just pay me normally for the following month), instead, it was lumped all together along with my vacation owing, and taxed at the unheard of (for me) rate of 48%. I felt so cheated. I still do.

So, I've been job searching, going on interviews, etc.... and still nothing yet.

Also, we've had some huge problems with our home. We have to get our roofs (there are 4 of them) fixed, and our chimney was falling apart.

And I'm almost finished S's bedroom makeover.

I'm tired.