Who's This?

What's This??

Spode Rosalie

I took these before Thanksgiving dinner. Here are our new (old) dishes, Spode's Rosalie. I think they suit our LBH perfectly.

Spode Rosalie

Thanksgiving Dinner Table, Complete with Our Youngest Child's Turkey

I must mention that my mum and I found this pattern in North Vancouver's Echo's China. It's an amazing little shop with a huge selection of beautiful, discontinued china and silverware. It's most certainly a dangerous place to visit.

We Finished Insulating the Parlour!

The parlour at our Little Blue House is pretty much insulated now. My husband deserves credit for this, as he's the one who did all of the work cutting styrofoam panels into the quirky shapes you see in these photos. After our contractor raised the ceiling and insulated it, we were able to finish off this next phase.

Now we are waiting for the room to be vapour-barriered and strapping installed. I am "cautiously optimistic" that our electrician (MIA since early summer) may get our wiring done. When? I don't dare take a guess. I simply do not have time to learn to do it myself. Once we have new wiring, our contractor will be able to put plywood ceilings up and drywall on the walls. After that, we plan to install tin ceiling panels (nail-up) and wallpaper... eventually.

You can see the windows leaning against the wall in the picture below - the one on the left is a vintage storm window we found in the falling-down cabin on our property. The one on the right came out of the bedroom. I cleaned, primed and painted them to use as storm windows. More to follow on that later!

Parlour Chaos

Front Door

Mostly Finished

Autumn Walk at Pine Creek

Now that winter seems to be kicking all of us in the ass in the Yukon, I feel it's necessary to share the gorgeous fall pictures we took in Atlin last week. We went for a walk on the "Crocus Trail," near Pine Creek. Our kids love this walk, it has amazing views, is relatively short, and as a bonus, part of the path is called the "Pompom Trail." That's because of the pompoms that people have attached here and there to trees along its length. In the summer, a friend of ours was kind enough to spend time making more pompoms with our kids, and then they hiked the trail, adding their new creations.

Sadly, although we had a fantastic hike last week, we were disappointed to see that most of the pompoms had been removed from our favourite trail! I guess we'll have another project next time we hike there. I should remember to get some yarn...

Atlin Lake

Crocus Trail

Rosehips

Looking up Pine Creek Valley

Bedroom Window

We finally replaced our parlour window! Our contractor was able to install the new, triple-pane, wood frame casement window in the bedroom of the LBH. I had to choose paint colours for the sash and trim, and paint it prior to installation. I settled on Benjamin Moore Origins paint, in Aspen Bark (how appropriate!) for the trim and Beyond Midnight for the sash. My husband laughed at that, and commented on how perfect a colour that is for a former brothel.

The air was blue as I single-handedly wrestled the massive crate into submission. I keep meaning to call the manufacturer to complain about how it was crated. Should you have to use a pry bar and hammer to remove an $1800 window from its crate? Really?? It was all stapled with those big, industrial staples, not screwed together even on one end so you could safely open the wooden crate to remove the window. I was glad that our kids couldn't hear the stream of profanity emanating from the bedroom. Once I settled into priming and painting the window, it was a little more meditative, and I was able to calm down.

We are pleased with how it looks, although we've been hesitant to replace any of the 116-year old home's original leaded glass windows. But the fact that both panes were broken we took as a sign that we were "allowed" to replace this one. Not to mention that a nice, energy-efficient window will make that bedroom super cozy in the wintertime. :)

Bedroom Window Before Replacement

Bedroom, with New Window in Stupid Shipping Crate

Window After Coat of Primer (Tinted Primer for Black Sash)

Here it is!

Parlour Ceiling Raised!

The ceiling in the parlour has been raised, insulated and strapped. We were super happy to see this development, as it meant that we could carry on with insulating the walls before winter sets in. Our contractor and his team did a great job with it (we decided that the ceiling work was way beyond our capabilities)... I have many more photos to post, and will do so in the coming week!

Higher Ceiling, all Snug!

Still Missing a Parlour Window Though...

The Woodshed, with Construction Stuff!

Playing Soccer Amongst the Aspen Leaves