Lisa Stokes

Spray Paint, Fireplace Repairs and Ikea Cubbies

One day earlier this year, when I was wasting time pinning things on Pinterest rather than actually accomplishing anything, I came across a suggestion to have the paint store make up spray paint to match your wall colour. I hate cold air returns. If you leave them the original colour they stick out because they are a different colour than the walls. If you try to paint them with a brush, the paint job is always drippy and still seems to end up being a different colour from the walls. No matter what we’ve done in the past they have always ended up being a eyesore.

When we purchased paint this time, I asked if they could make up spray paint to match our wall colour. The clerk suggested the Preval Spray System. It comes with a spray nozzle, propellant and reservoir. You add your paint and some water to thin it, put it all together and spray. I was thrilled with the results.

When we painted Alun’s room in February 2013, we never even put the cold air return back. We started painting it, but it looked so bad we gave up. He’s just had an ugly hole in his wall for almost two years. A couple coats of primer covered the mess. Fortunately, we had a couple ounces of paint left in a jar. Two coats of tinted paint and it looked great. The spray is quite thin and dries very quickly.

After installing it, I even used the sprayer to cover the heads of the screws.

Here’s the one I did for my new sewing room. I highly recommend this product. It’s quite cheap as well as being useful – just $10. You can buy extra propellant. I just wish you could buy extra bottles so I could store the paint in them. There is a contractors’ pack on their website which has extra bottles and a trigger, which I would buy if I hadn’t already bought two of the individual sprayers and an extra propellent.

Does this happen to you? We are very careful about prepping our walls before painting. We clean, sand and repair, but we always seem to find a nail pop when we are done painting. Do you see the one in the picture above between the electrical outlet and the cold air return? I didn’t notice it until I was looking at the picture which I took to show how nicely the cold air return matches the wall. I wonder if painting actually causes the nails to pop?

A few years ago, when we opened the damper on our fireplace, it fell apart. We got a flashlight, found the screw that holds the heavy cast iron damper to the frame and reattached it. It held, but was quite wobbly. A year later it fell apart again and we could not get it back together. This morning we had a chimney sweep come to the house to inspect and clean the chimney (something we have never done even though we’ve been here 15 years now) and to repair the damper. He told us he would charge $125 which seemed quite reasonable. Well, as so often happens when the cost of something seems reasonable, more is required than anticipated. The damper cannot be repaired. It is held in by one screw which goes into a frame which is cemented in when the chimney is built. The frame is stripped so the screw won’t hold. Who thinks one screw holding up a heavy cast iron damper is a good idea?

Currently, the damper is installed at the top of the chimney with a stainless steel chain attached to a control in the firebox. That is what we need. The animal proof one (which we need since we have had many animal incursions into our attic which we have animal proofed at significant expense) is $750. He will have to order it and come back next week to install it. Sigh.

When we moved into this house 15 years ago, we decided to dedicate a room to be a playroom. I wanted to try to keep some order so we bought three Ikea Bonde cubby units to store the toys. Like most Ikea units they have a cardboard back which is nailed on with finishing nails and which gets pushed off when things are pushed against it.

I have emptied those units of toys and will use them in my new sewing room (the old playroom) for my quilting and photography storage. We decided to try to rehabilitate the backs by removing them, adding copious amounts of glue and many more nails than is called for in the instructions. Here they are waiting for the glue to cure. We will set them up and start filling them later today.

Thursday December 4 – Piano Repairs

I have the piano that my grandparents bought about 1920. It is a Heintzman upright baby grand. My mother, who was born in 1926, learned to play the piano on it. In the early 1960s my grandparents gave it to my parents.

My father took it apart and stripped the black finish and oiled it with walnut oil. He had a friend refurbish the sound board. You can see the original colour inside the piano.

About eleven or twelve years ago, Megan was interested in taking piano lessons so my parents, who no longer played, gave it to me. I found a company to move it and made a place for it in my dining room. Megan initially took piano lessons from her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Barnhouse, who was an amazing kindergarten teacher, partly because she played piano and had one in her classroom and used it every day. I remember several of my elementary school teachers playing the piano. I think that is pretty rare in a teacher these days. Most just throw on a CD. I think there is something much more compelling and educational about the teacher providing live musical accompaniment to the lessons.

Megan has Mrs. Barnhouse for Senior Kindergarten. Alun had her for both Junior and Senior. Trystan had her for Junior Kindergarten and then she retired. At that time teachers were still able to come back as a substitute teacher after retiring, so even Owen was able to experience her as a teacher, although not her wonderful piano playing.

I read that a piano should be tuned after moving and then, depending on how much it is played, it should be tuned a couple times a year. My dad told me the piano hadn’t been tuned since he rebuilt it in the early 60s. I asked Mrs. Barnhouse to recommend a piano tuner and she suggestion Robert Mayer from Georgetown. He has perfect pitch and tunes by ear. He sat down and played beautifully upon his arrival. He then declared that there was very little tuning required and I would not need his services again in the near future. Apparently, this piano is known for being excellent at holding its tuning.

About a year later, my father was was playing the piano and pedaling exuberantly. There was a loud crack and then every note played was sustained even though the pedal was not depressed. I called Robert and he came out to take a look. He thought the frame was cracked but did not have his “piano cradle” with him so couldn’t turn the piano over to check or repair. He asked me if I had some magazines. I provided him with a pile and he slid them under until the frame was supported and the sound was back to normal. He said I could just leave it like that.

Fast forward ten years. Our dining room ceiling is a mess of water stains and cut-out drywall. Thirteen years ago, when Alun was two years old, I was on the phone one afternoon. I could hear the toilet in the master bathroom refilling. After a while, it occurred to me that it had been refilling for too long. I went upstairs to check and found the floor of the bathroom covered in water and most of a roll of toilet paper blocking the water from draining. Water was flowing over the top of the toilet, spilling onto the floor and down the heating register! I quickly turned off the valve and started throwing towels on the floor, but it was too late, the water ran along the joists of the dining room ceiling, dripped through in a few places and created long brown stains. We didn’t have the skill or money to repair it so we just left it.

Some number of years later, I heard a dripping sound from the dining room and went to investigate. There was a huge bubble of plaster full of water in the ceiling beneath the shower. I grabbed a pail and poked a hole in it. What a mess!

Michael cut out the wet drywall, determined what was leaking and repaired it. That worked for about a year, then it started leaking again. We got an estimate to repair it: $5000. We decided to leave it and shower in the main bathroom. We did that for years until last January we decided it was time to fix it.

We found a contractor through the Home Service Club. He recommended ripping the shower out completely, pouring a cement foundation, putting in waterproof drywall and re-tiling. Greenpark, the home builder, had just put a fiberglass pan on the subfloor. It had always shifted and creaked when we moved around in the shower. No wonder we eventually had a leak. When Dean ripped out the tile and drywall, he also found that the drywall had been installed backwards, with the waterproof side away from the shower – another possible reason we had problems.

That was in January. We have been showering all year with no more leaks. It’s now time to fix the dining room ceiling. In order to do that we will have to move the piano. In order to move the piano the frame needs to be fixed, so I called Robert once again and asked him to bring his “piano cradle” – a clever contraption that allows him to rotate the piano onto its back, by himself, to work on the frame.

Turns out the frame wasn’t cracked. There were two long screws that were stripped and no longer holding the bottom tightly to the sides. A little wood glue and he was able to tightly re-seat the screws.

I pointed out a key that was sticking and asked him to see if he could fix it. He said it was probably a nickel. The next time I walked into the room, he told me he had been wrong, it was a quarter and handed it to me. He also asked me if middle C had always been sticking up. As long as I can remember it has been. He also fixed that. It was apparently some dirt under the key.

I can date the last time Robert visited from the fact that the magazines were from 2004. Here’s the quarter he found.

The piano did not need to be tuned.

If you ever need a piano tuner I would highly recommend Robert.

Renovations Finally Continue

Almost a month ago, I posted Renovations, a blog about moving my sewing room to the main floor playroom, Trystan to the bedroom sewing/guest room leaving Owen where he is and the boys each having their own room after sharing for seven years. Our progress was interrupted by Michael having to fly to Britain unexpectedly. His mother was hospitalized and determined to be terminal. Michael was with her when she died Thursday evening, October the 30th. He stayed to plan and attend the funeral and clean out her house to ready it for sale. We didn’t feel like jumping back into the renovations right away when he returned.

Last Sunday we decided we had delayed long enough and I chose and paint colour and we went to Bramalea Paint and Wallpaper on Torbram Road to buy it. I like dealing with them. It has been the same owners the whole time we have shopped there, which is almost 15 years. They keep files on all the paint we have bought and in which room it was used. After telling the owner that I wanted to paint a pale yellow I asked him to look up the colour that was on the walls so he could advise us as to how to proceed. He couldn’t find it in the first computer he used, so he went to a second computer where he keeps the archives and there it was. “Yellow and blue don’t play nicely”, he told us, before advising we do two primer coats in white, then two top coats in the tinted paint.

This is what it looked like before we began.

This is after removing all the furnishings.

Here is Michael ready to paint after the wall repairs have been made, the walls sanded and washed and the drop cloths placed.

Michael cut in the first few feet and then showed me how to roll. He has always done the rolling in the past while I played the support role.

I only got a few feet done, not really honing my skill yet, when Megan appeared and wanted to help. Alun painted about 48 square inches before becoming bored and disappearing back into his room.

When Megan got bored after two walls I took over. By the end of the first coat of primer the walls looked pretty bad. Three different people rolling with different techniques and skills levels, with the dark blue still showing through, more in some places than others. However, I felt I had improved my skill quite a bit by the time I finished.

Michael, Owen and I went for a walk. It was a relatively warm afternoon at ten degrees. We stopped for a coffee at Davide’s Bakery, a local Italian bakery, which, I am pleased to say, is doing well. Most of the restaurants in our area are Indian or fast food.

Once we returned the walls were dry enough to do a second coat. It was getting dark by the time we finished and we were casting shadows, so it is hard to tell for sure, but I think we got pretty good coverage on our second coat. We will wait and view it in the light before decided whether to buy more primer for a third coat or to move on to the tinted paint next. We want to make sure we don’t have to do a third coat of the tinted paint as it costs $61 per can versus $25 for the primer.

Michael made us a great stuffed pork roast with crackling and all the trimmings for dinner.

Friday November 21 – I’m Green

Today I received my prizes for being Brampton’s Greenest Resident and I have the certificate to prove it. As the Brampton resident to submit the most actions in the Let Your Green Show contest run by the Region of Peel last summer I earned the title.

The prize is a family season pass to the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) parks and the Credit Valley Conservation Authority parks (CVCA).

The TRCA parks include Albion Hills, Boyd, Bruce’s Mill, Glen Haffy, Heart Lake, and Petticoat Creek, as well as Black Creek Pioneer Village and Kortright Centre. I have been to half of these parks. This will give me the incentive to try the others.

The CVCA parks include Terra Cotta, Island Lake, Belfountain, Ken Whillans, Elora Cataract Trailway, Limehouse, Meadowvale, Rattray Marsh, Silver Creek and Upper Credit. I have been to all but two of these parks. I will have to revisit my favourites and get out to the two I have never visited.

When I had my wrist in a cast last winter I discovered that at Island Lake Conservation Area in Orangeville they clear a long circular path on the lake for skaters. I had planned to visit this winter. Now I won’t have to pay.

Brampton’s Christmas Market

Last night Brampton’s third annual outdoor Christmas market began. Michael, Trystan and I attended this evening. It is not to often that we spend time with just Trystan on his own. It was the first time we have been to the Christmas market. When we arrived about 5:45 there were very few people around.

We headed to The Works, a burger restaurant, in the old Dominion building at Four Corners for dinner. They had so many options – I think the waitress said there were 45 toppings – it was hard to choose. Michael had an elk burger, while Trystan and I stuck with the traditional beef. We started with a tower of onion rings.

By the time we left the restaurant there was a line-up to get in and the square outside The Rose had become crowded. We headed over to City Hall to check out Ken Whillans Square where the Christmas lights had been turned on this afternoon and Gage Park to see what else was going on. We found this Brampton Hydro truck dressed for Christmas in front of City Hall.

City Hall was open for warming up or to send Santa an e-mail.

There was a musical performance from the movie Frozen which drew a large crowd.

A long line formed for the polar bear inflatable slide.

The lights were beautiful.

Santa’s reindeer were visiting.

There were marshmallow roasting stations.

You could sit and watch Christmas shows on glowing chairs.

There was dancing in the gazebo.

The ice carving was fast and impressive.

The trees along Main and Queen are all lit up.

This drumming band was marching around downtown entertaining the crowds.

There was a long line for the carousel.

Michael waiting for freshly cooked tiny donuts.

Today Daniel, of T By Daniel, was dressed as Santa. We have seen him at the Farmers’ Market dressed as Elvis and dressed head to toe in a royal blue suit. He makes a great chai tea.

It was great to see the crowds downtown on a cold November evening. Great job Brampton Downtown Development Corporation and City of Brampton.

Tuesday November 5 – Bike Assist

Michael is away planning his mother’s funeral, preparing her house for sale and wrapping up her affairs. The kids are at school and it is a cool, but bright, November Day – a good day for a ride. I read about the Pan Am Path last summer. The path, when completed next summer, will stretch from the Claireville Conservation Area in the northwest to Pickering. It will be over 80 kilometres long. Most of the multi-use trails already exist, but the missing links will be constructed to create a path over 80 kilometres long. I decided to explore the northwest portion today.

I drove to the Toronto Public Library on Humberwood Boulevard – about 15 minutes from my house where I parked just a minute ride away from a trail entrance. I rode a kilometre north first to the beginning of the trail before heading back south and east. The trail follows the Humber River and passes the Humber Arboretum, Humber College and a William Osler Health Centre. I rode about 10 kilometres before I came to a road.

Under one of the bridges is a colourful mural.

There were still some colourful leaves on some of the trees.

The signage is very good. The trails are numbered and distances to roads are given.

When I saw the road I thought I had made a wrong turn so turned back. However, I still wasn’t certain where to go so I stopped, removed the bungee cord holding my trunk bag on my rack and pulled out my iPad to consult Google maps. Once I figured out where to go, I replace the iPad, zipped up the bag and was on my way. I quickly came to a sudden stop. My inattentiveness and desire to be on my way led to me cycling off with the bungee cord hanging loosely. It wrapped around the rear cassette. Fortunately, I have gotten much better at un-clipping my shoes from the pedals and I didn’t fall.

I was able to pull part of the bungee cord out, but the hook was wedged in too tightly between two gears for me to pull it out with my fingers.

Fortunately, I won a CAA membership with Bike Assist in the Let Your Green Show contest. At the time I didn’t think it would be likely to be of use to me (our van is just three years old) , however, it was very useful today. I called CAA, told them where I was and half an hour later (just as I was starting to get quite cold) a huge CAA truck pulled up.

I explained what had happened and asked for pliers. The driver tried to pull the bungee cord out but soon realized a tool would be needed. He pried the hook out with a screwdriver, then I tried out the bike and there was no damage so I was soon on my way.

I rode a couple kilometres further south, however, I needed to be home by the time Owen arrived from school for lunch so I turned around at Weston Road and headed home.

I hope to return soon to explore more of the trail. It was sparsely used, which is a shame, because it is a treasure. Once all the links are complete I hope to ride it end to end.

Saturday November 1 – Snow Day

The view that greeted me as I stepped out the door this morning brought a smile to my face. I love snow and I am looking forward to a cold, snowy winter so I can enjoy building and maintaining a community ice rink again. I love the sight of my two favourite seasons colliding. It’s not often I see snow when there are still leaves on my red maple tree.

Patti and I ran this morning. She was a bit reluctant, but once we got going it was quite pleasant.

After a quick coffee I returned home to pick up Trystan and Owen for skating lessons. It was still snowing!

We had just returned home when Alun needed a ride to DECA competition, which is a youth business organization. Alun placed in the top ten out of almost 80 competitors in this afternoon’s Regional competition and expects to advance to the Provincials in February.

We decided to go to Montana’s for dinner tonight. Once seated it took a while for someone to take our order and then over thirty minutes for the food to begin arriving. It was about five minutes between Alun’s meal arriving and Megan’s meal arriving with the others arriving in between. Mine, a steak ordered medium rare, arrive cold, congealed and overcooked. I complained. The manager came over and offered to bring me a new meal on the house in twelve minutes. I accepted and the new meal was hot and tasty. The manager returned to offer free dessert, but we were all too full to accept.

Michael has begun cleaning out his mother’s house. It is a formidable task as she was a pack-rat. Peter and Caroline are helping as is Donald, Michael’s father, who has come down from Scotland to help.

The shed.

The box room. The door of which had to be forced open as the room was so full.

The living room with the contents of half of the kitchen cupboards pulled out by Michael for sorting.

Friday October 24 – Autumn and Les Miz

I had a lovely ride this morning to Downey’s Farm to see if I could catch a glimpse of my friend Gail leading a school group. I was not disappointed and learned all about how pumpkins grow in Gail’s very entertaining fashion. The kids loved her.

In the afternoon I took a walk in the woods near my house to take some autumn pictures. There is a lot of trash and graffiti in the woods, but when photographed carefully in the right light at the right time of year I can create quite magical images.

In the evening Michael, Alun and I went to see his friend Taurian performing in the Etobicoke Musical Productions version of Les Miserables. Aside from a few issues with the microphones, it was excellent. Taurian was very impressive and we enjoyed watching him enormously. You can see Taurian in a red and gold braid jacket here. We had dinner at Boston Pizza beforehand.

Friday was the day the body of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was murdered while guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa, was transported to his hometown of Hamilton. We ended up on Highway 407 ahead of the hearse and witnessed the crowds on the bridges waiting to pay their respects. It was quite poignant.

Friday October 31 – Hallowe’en

I was at the school today for a teacher parent interview and on the way out stuck my head into the kindergarten classroom to which I donated, on behalf of my Dad, the dollhouse he built (which was modeled on our home) for Lara and me, when we were children. The wallpapers and fabrics were all ones used in our home. The pink and white striped room was mine; the green one was Lara’s. I didn’t think to ask what happened to the stand which had a swimming pool on it. It was higher than the one they are using.

It was a cold, rainy Hallowe’en. Trystan elected to stay home and hand out the candy. Owen and I walked around for an hour before he got too cold. I was wearing a winter coat and fleece hat. I discovered when we returned home that he was wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt under his costume. No wonder he was cold.

After we got home some friends of Trystan came by and convinced him to go out for a bit. I told him to get a costume from the costume box in the basement as he was not going out as a surly teenager. This is what he chose.

Thursday October 30 – Niagara College Welland Campus Visit

Today Megan and I visited the Welland Campus of Niagara College. It took about 90 minutes to drive there so Megan would live in residence if she attended. The campus has 5500 students.

We arrived about 1pm, checked in, got a parking pass and directions to the cafeteria. As we found at both Humber and Sheridan College fast food chains predominated the food options on campus.

There is a nice new light filled building where we first entered. All the buildings, other than the residence, are interconnected. The building where Megan’s classes would be held was older and the studio equipment did not seem to be as up-to-date as Sheridan’s or the equipment she is used to using at Rogers, where she volunteers. Of the colleges we have seen so far, this would be Megan’s third choice.

The landscaping around the buildings was nice and created by the college’s horticultural students.

Here is the campus bar.

A view from the second floor of the newest building.

A view of the residence which is a short walk from the teaching buildings.

The set-up of the residence rooms was similar to Sheridan’s, but not quite as nice or up-to-date. For example, the TV is an old CRT model on the dresser rather than a flat panel on the wall. Basic cable is provided. There is ethernet, but no wifi in the residence. There is wifi in the teaching buildings. Each pair of students shares a small kitchen and bathroom and has a private bedroom. There are shared kitchens with stoves. The cost is $6760 this year. We were told a dining plan is offered, however, when I read the pamphlet it appears to simply be a pre-paid debit card. If you put $1990 on the card apparently your purchases are tax exempt which saves 13% over just using your debit or credit card to purchase you meals. There is also a 5% discount on non-branded items but that doesn’t apply to Subway, Tim’s, Pizza Pizza or Extreme Pita – half of the restaurants on campus. However, as Megan said, it wouldn’t take long to put on weight eating at fast food restaurants every day. She would rather do her own cooking.

The woman giving us the tour is a student and lives just off campus in the private Residence on First which is marketed to students. She told us it is $5000 for eight months, a large savings, a newer building and nice kitchen/common areas. However, the students do have to provide their own bedroom furniture and desk/chair. The pictures on the website look quite nice, but I discovered when I went to the website that the monthly rate is much higher if you pay for eight months, not twelve. For eight months the price is within a few hundred dollars of the on campus residence.

The library.

The study commons.

Students receive free local public transit included in their tuition. The tour guide told us about the company Megabus which offers cheap long distance bus rides. There is a bus from Welland to Mississauga which is just $6 one way which Megan could use to get back and forth when she wants to come home.