Garratts come to Comox Valley..

Our next door neighbours from Langley, the Garratt's came to visit this past weekend. It was a busy weekend sight-seeing and going to the Comox Valley Fall Fair.

It was five-oclock somewhere. haha you can see Tim in the window as he is taking the picture.


Is the Comox Valley a beautiful place or what. Just one of the beach areas we drove to. Tim and I were reminded again of how lucky we are to live in this place.

After a day of sight-seeing we were off to the Fair. We missed alot of it because we got there later in the afternoon.


Next year I will try to go earlier but we got to see the tables and tables of fruits, veges, flowers, knitting, quilting, photos - everything you can possible imagine that was entered and judged at the fair.

The Comox Valley Fall Fair.

There were all kinds of animals at the fair too.. thought I would show you a few.

Tables and tables of entries.

The animals were pretty cool..

There were some absolutely beautiful horses there too. Didn't get any picture of those.

We also missed the strong man competition. That would have been fun.

How do you like them Thanksgiving Turkeys..... lol

Siding started - but needs painting when done.

Hey everyone. Well the house is just screaming along these days. The siding is underway. It is what they call Hardie Plank siding which has to be painted when it is all up. So don't go by the colour it is now.

The trim is the right colour but that's all at this point. The bottom half is Hardie Plank and the top half is going to be Hardie Shingle. I can hardly wait till to see how it looks when the paint starting going on. I still like that roof. The colour is such a warm brown and it goes with the trim colour really well.

The last picture is just one I took in the living/family room of the fireplace. Well the fireplace is behind the piece of wood in the middle.

There will be shelves on either side of the fireplace up to under the windows. They will run the whole distance from the fireplace to the walls.
It doesn't look like a very big room in this picture but it is quite a good size but not too big either.

The windows on either side of the fireplace look out over out sideyard where we will have the patio etc.

It's all about the porches - as Tim would say

'The Big As_ Timber"

Ha ha - yes that is Tim hugging his big timbers. He loves that wood and wanted to show you how big it is. One solid piece of milled wood.

You can see that the construction at the front has begun. It was such fun to watch these timbers be put together. They were notched and cut to fit with each other. The framers just loved it - because it was interesting work.

WOW - look at the outcome.

It is so awesome.

They really did a good job. The house just comes more to life every week.

I tried to take pictures from underneath so you could see the workmanship.. Under the peak of the roof will be all exposed timber frame like you see in these pictures.

more porch pics..

This is what the underside of the peak over the door looks like. It will be all exposed timber frame like you see. It is so so nice.

These pictures hopefully show some of the cutting and fitting together they did with the timbers. After the work was done they then put up these heavy metal brackets to hold everything together.

In this picture I am trying to show what the overhang on the rest of the roof looks like. The overhang is going to have exposed timberframe also. This was the framers idea. It looks so awesome.
This pictures show that overhang from the front view.

The porch from the side view. Oh am I going to love sitting out there watching the deer.



Ya - watching the deer graze on my front grass and eat at a few bushes likely.

THE COMPLETED PORCH

My room above the garage.....

Hey, are you enjoying the late summer weather as much as I am. I just love these days. Tonite I am going to show you the room above the garage which has been changed from storage to computer, crafts and tv room for Sherry. I can hardly wait to get my stuff organized up there.


There are 4 sections to this room because of the roof - each one has a purpose.
This section is where you come up the stairs - you can see the half wall there with the stairs behind it. The window you see faces out the front of the house.



This second picture is taken to the right when you come up the stairs - this is my craft and sewing corner. The oppposite side of this room is a perfect mirror of this side. The computer and desk etc. will go on that side. Same window etc. and the window looks out over the back door.

The window looks out over the neighbours house and the windows are kind of tucked under the eaves - it's kind of cool.

This picture is taken at the opposite end of the room from the stairs. This is my big picture window that looks over the back.

I am going to put the tv and sitting stuff at this end of the room. It is a great view from here. The tv will go in the right corner from the window.



This last picture is taken at the bottom of the stairs in the breezeway between the garage and the house. There will be a door on the right that leads into the garage and a door behind me that leads into the back entrance.

A hike on Quadra Island........ what a day

Today was the best day - can you believe that Mr. Stewy was actually out hiking on a Saturday in August. Tim and I just chuckled all day thinking about what his life was like last summer compared to this year. It was such a great day - but I know you won't believe it unless I show you pictures to prove he actually was hiking... lol

Bring on the hiking pics. Mr. Stewy on his first hike - he has a 'New Life Now' - isn't that great.

Ha ha - I merged this one together... you can tell but the only way to get us both in a picture together.

Morte Lake on Quadra Island is where we were hiking.

The lake is so beautiful and we ran into only 5 or 6 people on the trail. We walked around the whole lake - it only took about 3 1/2 hours with a short lunch break. We stopped at this beach briefly but then got back on the trail as we really weren't sure how long it was going to take to walk around this lake.

Tim leading the way on the trail. Kids you would have loved it. Lunch is coming up - another beach on the lake.

Finish Hike and then onto other sites on Quadra

One of many bridges on the hike that we had to cross over. Oh man, it was so nice to be out in the woods after so many months. When you hike here you have to let out a loud hoot every 5 min or less because of the wildlife. We never had to worry about that on the mainland but here - well - you are in there territory and there are deer, bear and cougars and lots of them.

What a beauty view we had - I actually didn't take a picture as it was about the same as the other beach shot only from the opposite end of the lake.



After the hike we went to Harriet Bay to the Inn. What an amazing place this is. It is out in the middle of an small island and is like paradise. I couldn't believe my eyes. You can't really tell from this picture but the building is just beautiful and wait till you see the boats and water etc.
Check out the chess game in front of the Inn on the lawn. And look and that view.

The air was warm and as I said the atmosphere was so relaxing it almost felt like I had gone on a holiday to some resort.

We sat on an outside deck and had a cool drink and just feasted on the view.

Look at the porch on the front of the building - oh my goodness - I just loved this place.

This next picture is taken looking into the bay - look at the chairs overlooking the water and boats.. People were just sitting - sleeping, reading books etc. Does it make you want to visit this place or what.



The flower beds and hanging baskets were just amazing too. What a lovely day we had.

Remember there is an open door here if any of you want to come for a visit.

A Close Encounter of the Third Kind. lol

If any of you remember that movie - there was a part where Richard Dreyfus was building a mountain out of mashed potatoes in his house. He worked on it all day. Well yesterday I had my 'own encounter of the third kind' - I re-created our fireplace to exact scale with 5" tiles and all to figure out how many rows of tiles would look best etc.

YES, I spent all day and I mean all day painting paper and cutting into into squares (5" tiles), taping brown paper together to make a big background and then drawing my fireplace to exact scale. Then I cut out the 5" tiles and taped them onto and around my fireplace. YES - It definitely was 'AN ENCOUNTER OF THE THIRD KIND' hahaha

I invited our friends and landlords Bill and Dororthy for supper and to join us around our new fireplace.. Did we laugh or what.

I have since made a few changes to the design at the top... Tonite I cut the green painted paper into 1" pieces and smaller. I am in process of making the fireplace on a hard piece of paper that is 12'x18 but still to scale only smaller.. I am making one for me and one for the builder so that he can give it to the tile guy to show him what I want. I guess now that I figured out what I want I can order the tile on Monday.

Tim decided he should a picture of the crazy women. It is just way to funny. I have all the little pieces cut out and the fireplace drawn on two pieces of paper so when I get a glue stick tomorrow I can put my masterpiece together. I will take a picture of the smaller version tomorrow.

Here is a picture of what the fireplace really looks like (without the tile of course).

When I was on the mainland I drove way down to west 10th to a tile place. It was a worthwhile trip as the builder said that is just what he had in mind for the fireplace.

We have both looked and looked for tile that has the look of the tile in the old days but with no success. So when I came home with a few samples it put a smile on his face and mine of course. I had a picture in my mind all this time and these fits the bill perfectly. This place only stalks the field tile (plain ones) so I have to specially order 4 decorative tiles to put with the plain ones.

I took a picture of sample field tiles to show you. 5" and 2" for the border. The color doesn't look too close to the real color in this picture.. But they are beautiful tile. They are double glazed and not perfectly flat on top. In all the books I have taken out of the library I saw variations of tiles like this and had almost given up trying to find them. Was definitely worth the trip downtown.

Tim and I are going to Quadra Island tomorrow.. We are going to go hiking - how about that and it was even his idea. This is a first for the Stewy's. We are both looking forward to it and will take some pictures while on our excursion. Talk to you tomorrow.

I just lost the post I was working on.

Okay it's late and I had already uploaded to pictures and then I lost the whole thing. I am too tired to start over.

Sorry folks..... but tomorrow is another day. This dialup absolutely ...SUCKS....

A completed roof ...

I have been getting a bad time from the kids about not being up-t0-date on the pics of the house so I am going to try very hard to catch up to the builder as quickly as I can.

I really love the roof - it was between two colours at the end and I am so glad we went with the one we did. In real life you can see just how well it goes with the trim. It is a really nice warm brown with some specks in it.

Everyone keeps saying how huge the house is - but really it only looks huge from this side because of the garage being attached to the back of the house the way it is. If you look at the house from the other side it looks quite small.

I thought this was a cool picture. It gives you a closer look at the roof - I think I took it from the roof up above the garage.

I haven't seen any deer at the property lately - hopefully they haven't been scared away forever. I might regret saying that one day. haha

Actually my landlady and friend Dororthy is sure they have all moved to their house. They are visited every nite in the middle of the night by the deer - lots of them. The dog wakes up and starts to growl. She goes downstairs and barks and barks and Bill gets up and looks outside with the flashlight and the yard is full of deer munching on poor Dororthy's garden.

A trip to ... Nymph Falls Nature Park

Tonite I went out with the hiking class I signed up for. It's on Tuesday nites and usually only hike for about 11/2 hours but at least I get out in the woods and get to see some of the trails. My friend Flora (that's Laurel) joined also - she says she is going to get in shape to snowshoe with me this winter. I can hardly wait. The falls are in the background.. they aren't like a big waterfall but you can see the man made fish ladder in the middle there behind us. I guess in the fall it can be pretty busy with fish.

It was a lovely nite and very relaxing. Not hilly at all - just a nice walk in the woods. Maybe some visitors would like to go for a walk there sometime. You guys know I am game anytime for a walk in the woods.

The sound of the water was so nice. Part of the trail is along the river and the other part is in the woods where we found the coolest looking trees. I learned to tell the difference by the bark of different trees tonite.

Tim says - oh no - now you are going to become a 'tree hugger' hahaha... thought that was pretty funny.

I just had to get under this tree and take a picture... There were all different kinds of trees and they all had different kinds of looks about them.. Some were full of moss, some looked they belonged in a horror movie..

I was cool - very cool.

This picture is actually a piece of wood that has been carved or whatever to make like a couch.. we sat in it and it wasn't too bad.

It kind of looks like stone doesn't it. Well, enough for tonite. Kind of tired. Talk to you all tomorrow.

TJ has a new cell number for those who are interested. New cell 1-250-859-4389. Now that he is a permanant resident of Kelowna the Stewy family is spread out a bit. Kind of sad in a way - but I guess that life works that way sometime. I am very happy for him and I know he is going to love living in the OK. It's is my favourite place.

Home Sweet Home...

I'm back home on Island soil... I had such a great visit with my mom and dad and the kids while I was in Langley. My mom and I had a chance to go out shopping, have lunch out and some good tea visits.

TJ and Chelsey arrived in Langley on Friday nite after TJ finished his first week of work in Kelowna. Yes, the kid got himself a new job. We were all pretty proud of him and very thankful to zoobs for introducing him to the right guy. Thanks zoobs.

On Saturday nite Kate and Chris and Lil Kate came over for a big family get together. My kids have to be the funniest and they sure no how to have a good time. Let me share some of the nite with you.

Aren't they a great looking bunch!
They really know how to ham it up too.
There was a lot of laughing going on.

More family fun...

I don't know who was happier to see who - Jessie or Lil Kate. They are good pals and there was alot of excitement when they saw each other.

The nite was full of laughs, pizza and good times.

Lil Kate - we miss you too. The only one I didn't get to see was Brad. He recently moved in with a buddy and doesn't have a phone - as TJ would say he is MIA right now :-) - Hey bubba - if you are reading this - give us a call and let us know how you are doing.