My Renovation Projects – Part 2: The Fireplace

On October 21, 2023October 20, 2023 By Widow BadassIn Move to Dragonfly Cottage, Renovation52 Comments

Read about Part 1, here.

Funny story about my fireplace…I can’t have a wood-burning or gas fireplace where I live so that leaves me with electric as the only other option. I’ve had an electric fireplace before, and it was…OK. Pretty, but noisy to run and very obviously fake flames. So last winter I researched electric fireplaces and decided that the Dimplex Revillusion fireplace was the realest fake on the market and the one I was most interested in. However, it is not to be found IRL (in real life) anywhere near where I live. I didn’t want to buy one sight-unseen as they are not cheap. So I shelved the idea and went on to other projects (of which you might rightfully guess I have many! 😉).

Then I went back to Ontario in June to attend a special event for a friend’s daughter and while I was there I visited my good friends Kenn and Jonathan (who now live in my old apartment, above their museum). They show me all the changes they have wrought in my old place (all magnificent!) and lo and behold they had built an electric fireplace into a wall of bookshelves and IT. IS. THE. DIMPLEX. REVILLUSION. I practically screamed when I saw it. (Another funny story: they had also bought the exact same washer/dryer unit as I did. Can you believe it? What are the chances???).

Anywho, I got to see it in action and was convinced it was the unit for me. So I ordered one in late August.

Now I had to find a mantle to fit around the firebox. I went to good ol’ Facebook Marketplace and searched and searched. Nothing would fit it exactly. Then I found one that almost fit…and it was FREE. What did I have to lose? I could try to fix it and if I failed… well, it was FREE! I picked it up.

I had to remove the shelf in order to fit the firebox so that means I needed a new front piece. I went to Home Depot to buy a piece of wood and the helpful guy in the lumber area suggested a piece from the “FREE pile” (did you know they had one???) and he cut the perimeter to fit. So far so good! My expensive firebox is getting enclosed in a free mantle with a free front piece. Whee!!!

And here’s where it started getting expensive…Home Depot couldn’t cut out the inner piece to make it snugly accommodate the firebox so I ended up buying a jigsaw so I could do it myself ($75). And then I bought some peel and stick stone tile to decorate the front (2 x $60).

Inner piece cut out by *Yours Truly* and her new jigsaw. The tiles I bought to finish the front piece are in the centre. The tile is called “weathered granite” for some strange reason. *It sure looks like slate to me. And I am not mad about it!*

And then I stupidly bought way too much paint for this project ($85). But I was able to use it for the long overdue painting of my 2nd hand drop leaf dining table, and I will also use it to paint some other 2nd hand cabinets I have (yet another future project…sigh).

The colour is Potting Soil, by Behr – a deep earthy ~~goose poop~~ olive. I picked it to match the undertone of the ~~slate~~ *weathered granite* tile. I bought the top of the line paint-plus-primer because this piece really needed the ~~coverage~~ love.

Beginning to apply the stone to the front piece and checking how it is turning out…I just love the look and gorgeous colouring of the slate…uh…I mean *weathered granite*. 😉

Closeup of ~~slate~~ *weathered granite* tile.

I also used the jigsaw to cut out a bit of the base of the mantle so it could fit snugly over the baseboard and against the wall.

Finished project, with Bowser photobombing once again! *He MUST be in the middle of all things I do, just like a cat.*

My new living room setup – a very *Grandma’s cozy cottage* vibe, doncha think? 😁 Future plans include perhaps some built-in looking shelves on either side of the mantle (after all, I have lots of paint! 🤣). My TV, bought for the much larger living room in my old apartment, looks a tad out of proportion here but it will have to do.

Me dreaming up new projects as I enjoy my new fireplace.

I am so pleased at how this turned out. The DIY gods were certainly smiling down at me for this project. ~~Or maybe it was Beginner’s Luck.~~ I hope I am this lucky with my next project: The Cloffice. Stay tuned!

Rock on,

The WB

p.s. for those wanting to know without doing the actual math:

My FREE mantle ended up costing:

$75 for the jigsaw
$120 for the peel and stick tile
$85 for paint
Priceless: pride and satisfaction

Grand total: $280

My Renovation Projects – Part 1

On October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 By Widow BadassIn Move to Dragonfly Cottage, Renovation36 Comments

I’ve been in my little cottage just over a year now. During that time I’ve had the kitchen renovated,

Completed, almost. At this point I was still waiting on the tile backsplash.

and new flooring laid,

A much younger Bowser inspects the work.

painted walls, and created a new laundry room and a backyard oasis. Also on my to-do list for my home this year was finishing off the unfinished entryway and getting myself a fireplace before winter.

Here is the entry way, before:

View to front door (and Bowser photobomb 😂)

And here it is after engaging the services of a talented family friend to finish the space, and painting the walls myself:

I’m lining the space with old furniture (including from my daughter’s teenage bedroom!) to provide me with much needed storage.

The only piece I bought for the entry is this tiny pantry cabinet, and some shoe cabinetry from IKEA.

I’m super pleased with how this turned out. And how much more spacious my entire place feels with this area finished and providing extra storage for me. My entryway is now so much cooler in the summer and I anticipate will be warmer in the winter, thanks to insulating and finishing off the ceiling and walls.

Stay tuned for Part 2, and my fireplace dream come to life!

Rock on,

The WB

The Sunday Schnauzer – Looking Pretty

On July 16, 2023July 15, 2023 By Widow BadassIn Adventures with dogs, Bowser the Schnauzer, Move to Dragonfly Cottage, Renovation36 Comments

Bowser here. Oma has been pretty busy the past couple of weeks so I’ve had to stay over at Mommy and Daddy’s more than I am used to, during the day. There have been big white trucks in the front yard and strangers over at Oma’s. Here is a picture of me looking good at Oma’s – she just washed her ~~kitchen~~ yum-yum room mat and I am decorating it.

~~Not so~~ Patiently waiting for you, Oma. Let’s do something fun please. At least drop something tasty!

Oma asked me to show you what she has been busy with.

It’s behind that solid door in her entry way. *The entry way is currently in the process of being renovated as well – Oma*

Here are the before/in-progress photos.

View of toilet with wallpaper border scraps decorating it

And here are the photos of after.

Walls repaired and painted, plumbing and electrical in, floor laid, baseboards done

Oma is so happy! She says now she has another useful room in her little house.

Bowser says he hopes you have time to play this weekend. Oma says she will be busy painting the entryway.

Rock on,

The Bowz 🐾

Word of the Year Update for April 2022

On April 28, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Health Transformation, Move to Dragonfly Cottage, WOTY59 Comments

Ye Olde Sigil carved into a candle to remind me of my WOTY: *Limber*

Waaaaay back in January (late December, actually) I made Limber my word of the year, for 2022. My focus is on being limber not only in body, but in mind. I think most would agree that if we are not actively and continually working on our flexibility and strength (mental or physical), we will surely start losing it. And that has certainly been true for me, mostly in the physical sense…(but I do also worry about getting stuck in a mental rut).

So far this year, I have been sticking with my daily Qigong, and also am still working on my deep squat. In working on the latter I realized how weak and out of shape I was overall, despite being someone who gets “out there” regularly, and walks and hikes whenever possible. Walking is great exercise of course…but does very little for flexibility and strength overall. I was also dabbling with occasional and brief videos involving free weights, but without any real plan. Naturally, I wasn’t seeing much in terms of results or change.

Then I received an email in March from a fitness YouTuber I follow that changed up my Limber plans for this year. Jessica Smith was offering a digital download of a 3 month program called Lift & Shift she designed specifically to help women of any age improve strength, stamina, and functionality in all aspects of their lives. I checked it out, saw that it would help me reach my goals in a way I could never do on my own, and out came the credit card!

The program started March 28th so I had time to purchase the extra equipment needed to begin, in advance. I already had some weights, but I added a heavier set because ~~I am delusional~~ GOALS!

I also got a bigger mat (yoga mat on steroids, basically), a step, a squishy ball, sliders, and a resistance band. The mat also came with a bonus pair of gloves, for lifting weights with.

At first I was skeptical of the gloves, but they are surprisingly comfortable for gripping weights, and are now a welcome addition to my routine.

So my living room looks like this now, most of the time:

*Badass Anytime Fitness*^TM Home Gym set up. 😉

Before I started the program I gave myself a stern talking to. Self, I said, you are going to do this right this time. You are going to listen to your body and stop before you injure yourself. You are going to take your time – it’s a marathon not a sprint – and slowly but surely you will make progress.

I knew it was going to be a very rough start, so I thought I should document how each workout went and how I felt during and afterwards, so I could have a record of the progress I was making.

Made a gym journal with some cute stick-on letters from the Dollar Tree.

OMG, the first few sessions were SO. DAMN. HUMBLING. Even though I thought I was mentally prepared, I was not prepared to feel physically ill partway through each workout video. Not only humbling, but discouraging! Starting this routine was way worse than I had imagined. Yet I persevered with the daily workouts even though I couldn’t come close to completing them, and the sick feeling went away as my stamina improved.

An early entry. First time I noted that I didn’t want to hurl partway through or after a session. 🙂

Eventually I got strong enough to complete one of the longer workouts.

What I enjoy about this program is the variety of the workout videos and the calendar that tells you what video to perform, and in what order. There are lighter days (yoga-like stretching workouts), medium days (fine toning routines) and heavier days (lower/upper/core days, compound superset days and HIIRT). There are “rest” days each week where there are no scheduled workouts but you are encouraged to remain active and/or do a cardio session of your own choosing. So far the cardio session I choose is NO DAMN WAY as I need those days for my body to recover from ~~all the abuse~~ the challenges I am throwing at it. 😉 But I am getting stronger and my stamina is increasing, so that could change.

It is a 3 month calendar of exercises, and of course you can repeat it as often as you would like. As someone who wants to remain strong, flexible, and independent for as long as my body will allow it, I can see me incorporating this into my daily routine for life.

At the beginning of month 2 as of writing this post, I am starting to see some real results in my day to day activities and Lift & Shift is even helping me get closer to my deep squat goal:

Making progress on my deep squat goal. Could not have done this back in January. Photo taken pre-new haircut. Speaking of my hair cut…

I LOVE MY NEW HAIR CUT. Wash and wear hair. Just let it air dry after my shower and then ran a brush through it. Did I mention how much I LOVE it?!? Of course, it wouldn’t be long before THIS happened:

Used up the last bit of my Vibrant Magenta Overtone hair colour on my new, shorter hair. 🙂

As for working on being mentally Limber, I have my upcoming move to help me with that. How to make do with a smaller indoor space? How can I make the smaller space I will be inhabiting do everything I need it to do, and still look inviting and uncluttered? Planning, scheming and dreaming about all of this has indeed made me look at EVERYTHING I currently own with a very critical eye. I am suddenly aware of and questioning any assumptions I hold about what I really need, in order to be happy in my new space.

I am loving my new hair, my new workout routine, my upcoming move (challenges and all), and most of all my WOTY. I love how it serves as a touchstone of sorts for me as I journey through 2022. As change happens and opportunities and challenges come up in my life, I can judge them against my WOTY and that helps me to decide if/how it contributes to my big picture for this year, my Limber goal.

How about you? Got a Word of the Year? Doing good things with it? Do tell!

This month I am joining the 2022 WOTY Link Party, from my buddy Donna’s site…maybe I’ll see you there. 🙂

Rock on,

The WB

The Photo Project (and What Precipitated It)

On March 25, 2022 By Widow BadassIn Adventures in Retirement, Move to Dragonfly Cottage73 Comments

It ain’t easy being the family matriarch, I have realized. When my mother passed in 2015 I took on the role (willingly, I might add) of being the keeper of my parents’ photo albums, slides, and home movies. I had always meant to go through all of this media methodically and judiciously, at some point. To carefully – and with as much information as possible – get them into a digital format, so as to preserve them for sharing with my siblings as well as future generations. I had planned this to be a nice, leisurely retirement project.

I suppose you may have guessed by now that I had to box up all of the photo albums, slide boxes, and reels of film and haul them along with me, to my new home on Vancouver Island. Because – despite being retired for almost 6 months prior to my move – I had yet to begin the process. Oh, how wonderful it would have been to just have all of this stuff whittled down to a couple of photo boxes, some DVDs, and a home on the cloud somewhere! Alas, I had to sacrifice the shelf in the spare room closet of my new space for all of this stuff. That remained untouched as I approach my second anniversary here…until just this past week.

So what finally ~~kicked my lazy ass into gear~~ spurred me to action, you may well ask? Another move, of course! This summer I will be moving to a new abode, after my daughter and son-in-law take possession of the property that they have signed a deal to purchase. They are currently living in the home I will be moving into, which is on the property they are purchasing from their landlords. They will be moving into the landlord’s home (right next to where they are living now), and I’ll be moving into their space. We’ll be together on the same 1/2 acre property, but in completely separate dwellings.

This new dwelling-to-be of mine is even smaller than the apartment I’m living in now and quite dated, but I am looking forward to the challenge of updating it and making it work for me. To have a yard (and future garden!) and the potential to have a dog again (!!!), as well as being even closer to family…well, these are things that fill me with anticipatory joy, even though it will be a summer filled with packing/unpacking and renovation work. I’m looking forward to updating Ye Olde Blogge with all the Befores and Afters!

OK, back to the Photo Project: I’ll be damned if I am going to haul these photo albums to my new place, I have decided. This past week I finally dove into it. I have set myself a restriction of only 1 photo album (two if they are not too big – emotionally OR physically-speaking) per day. This work is hard let me tell you…so many memories are being revived as I go through the pages of the albums, and not all of them are good. And if they are good memories, for the most part the persons in the photos are long gone…and that brings up a renewed sense of grief and loss.

But – I am putting on my big girl pants everyday, and gettin’ to it! Yay me! So far I have managed to condense this:

To this:

I did start out with some of the easier albums – the ones full of pictures of the various cruises my parents went on. Plenty of bad shots of scenery (neither of my parents could take a picture worth a damn) and other cruise guests they met onboard. Meaningless except to my parents, both of whom have left this world…thus easy to ~~ruthlessly~~ cull. One album was full of pictures of my first wedding…I managed to get through that in one go and kept most of the shots. I was so young ~~and delusional~~ back then….sigh.

I can’t rest on my laurels though, because I still have all of this to contend with:

And this:

So many boxes and albums that they couldn’t all fit into one photo!

Phase 2 of this project will be digitizing as much as possible. I’ve been looking into my technological options, and so far this appears to have the most favourable reviews online (and not just on Amazon):

In the past I’ve used an app on my phone (Photoscan, by Google) to take the odd snap of an old photo and digitize it…but it would be incredibly tedious to do so for all the photos I have in my possession. I need a better solution. The Epson might be it, but I want to ask you – Dear Readers – for your advice. Have you digitized your old photos? What worked and what didn’t? What was your strategy or what would you do differently if you had a do-over? Please do share if you can, in the Comments.

Rock on,

The WB