Life's a Stitch

Renovating and lifetime learning

Warning: this post has formatting issues beyond my control. Typepad's numbering system gets messed up once you insert a picture. I give up trying to fix it. Apologies.

Years ago I managed the positive mental health aspect of a public school system continuing education AKA lifetime learning AKA edutainment program. I'm a firm believer that you never stop learning and should benefit by the acquisition of knowledge, intentional or not. Well, this major renovation has been an educational opportunity par excellence. Granted it's a course in First World Problems.

What I've learned to date:

1. It's difficult to keep track of our stuff given that it is in storage in four five locations. A tarped stored vehicle counts as a storage unit.
2. A contractor's approach to the buying process is different from mine. Example: you are taken to a plumbing fixture supplier with no visible price tags and told don't worry, you get our discount. Then the estimate arrives. I would much prefer to be told the price of items in advance and shop accordingly.
3. The budgeting process in the building world is much different from the non-profit universe, where I spent 39 years of my life. In my professional role I used to write multiple page grant applications worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, so my hackles were up at an estimate that was entitled "proposal." Beware the nine page "proposal" for low voltage electrical items, which were budgeted at $4,000, and came in at $13,000. Really? 
4. It's bad enough that we don't know where items are in storage, but when Chuck wakes up unsure of his location... We have stayed in eight locations since the end of May. OK I'll give the guy a break. Here are some recent photos of our stay in West Vancouver, apartment/kitty sitting for our Camino Pal, Denise. The first is the Capilano River shrouded in the smoke of BC's forest fires:

Sunset at Park Royal Mall on our way for a Five Guys burger:

Watching the ships go by from Denise's balcony. Who knew that Disney cruise ships, when leaving port, sound horns that play "When You Wish Upon A Star" ?

          5. You can teach an old dog new tricks AKA maybe it is possible to outgrow cat allergies. Here is C sharing some kitty lovin'. His words: take a picture because you may never see this again. She was an easy cat to love. Plus that crystal kitty litter makes life with a feline a pleasant, non-stinky experience.

          6. "On the fly" costs money. When a builder suggests that it's easy to make adjustment during the building process rather than planning ahead,      someone's got to pay for it, one guess who?

         7. There are bound to be mistakes. Expensive mistakes. So many decisions concentrated in a short period of time. The house was framed, but we    didn't note the window placement. We bit the bullet and agreed to pay for a new larger window so I could see out one side of the house. 

         8. No house doesn't mean no stash. We creative types still manage to amass supplies despite no place to put them. Yarn, art materials, they fit in a Rubbermaid. But a woodpile? C did a good job of building a shed and sealing away his wood stash in preparation for our move. But during our recent stay in West Vancouver I noticed weatherbeaten boards occupying a place next to our car. So much that it required a special trip to the woodshed, an hour each way, for storage. West Vancouver was paradise for a beachcomber.

         9 . Denial doesn't work. How many of you told me that building projects never come in on time? You are correct. I really really believed that we      could be in our house for a family Christmas. Magical thinking that was. We're working on January.

       I'm not complaining, some life lessons are harder than others, but I know they turn out well in the end.

 

Orange on the palette

A double entendre, what could this post be about? Flavours or colours?

The picture gave it away, it's about the colour, blending red and yellow. When we're together, daughter Mari, cousin Lene and I take time to do online painting tutorials. In Calgary we did a fall scene, mixing a variety of proportions of red and yellow, choosing a spot for a light background and adding a variety of tree trunks. 

When I showed it to my friend, Denise, who we met on the Camino, she pointed out that we had passed that scene while hiking. She showed me a photo she had taken in Spain and sure enough there was a resemblance. I thought I was painting the tutorial subject, and adding a bit from my imagination, but what I added was a treasured experience buried in my memory. 

Denise is currently on a part of the Camino Portugues, that C and I did last year. This year we've had to stay close to home while the house is under construction, but after two consecutive years of Camino walking, it felt as though something was missing. We've remedied that with plans for a shorter hike in New Zealand in the fall, and Denise and I are planning the Canadian version of the Camino together in June, 400 km. 

 

Creature feature

Last fall I wrote about the animals we encountered while walking the Camino de Santiago Portuguese route.

Our current lifestyle, hopping here and there, leaves no room for pets of our own. Although we loved our animals dearly, there is a freedom that comes with not thinking about getting home for the dog, or who's on late night walk duty. It's sort of like loving your children, but realizing there will be no more of your own. In our year of drifting though, some special creatures have played a role in our lives. 

This is a very pregnant Pepper, a Belgian Shepherd, close to her due date. She was the house dog at the very interesting Air B&B where we stayed near our construction project during its framing stage. One day we woke up to find that there were now 14 Belgian Shepherds occupying the house, equalling weightwise, about a peck and a half of Pepper puppies.

My son-in-law commented that they looked like a drawer full of socks.

The other residents were ten week old kittens:

That accommodation included 100 blueberry bushes, in season, where you could pick and eat to your heart's content. There were equal quantities of raspberries, strawberries and peas. 

Besides the human actors on our most recent day of work on set, there were two dogs. I wonder what they were getting paid? This one deserved a bonus for personality.

And now we're kitty sitting dear Miso, while her mistress is trekking on the Camino Portugues.

That is one easy going little cat.

 

 

Moonlighting

Vancouver is known as Hollywood North, as the Canadian dollar and landscape variety lend itself to reasonable film production. Within the Vancouver area production companies can shoot city scenes to rural settings within a half hour drive at a 25% discount as compared to the US dollar. 

When I retired I was asked what I was going to do? Many people told me of my potential to work as a consultant in the nonprofit field, given my years in management. Retirement means no work I'd reply. But, lo and behold, work in some form or  another, seems to find me. I've done some helping out other non-profit managers and I've sold my pantings and taken on an occasional commission. The one I wasn't prepared for was the work Chuck and I have secured in the film industry as skilled extras.

There is a demand for extra work here in Vancouver. Paying higher than minimum wage, it's an interesting way to spend a 12 hour day and the food is fantastic. Possessing a skill in demand, doubles your pay rate and currently the demand is for real artists to act as vendors at craft fairs. The beauty of this is that both C and I can work at the same time, he as a woodworker and me with my watercolour art. I understand the craft fair thing in the wholesome American greeting card company movies for which we've been hired, but this last one was for a science fiction TV show, premiering this fall. 

We're getting used to the drill. Show up at your call time, sign in, hit wardrobe and makeup, eat brekkie, set up your booth and report to holding until you're called for filming. We recently had a 15 hour day with not one minute of filming, it was all eating and hanging out. The days usually top out at 12 hours, and include two meals, snacks whenever you want, and most of the time spent socializing with interesting people including a fair number of knitters. 

We have just been booked in for our 6th film shoot.  Here are some examples of our setup:

Look closely, the entire process results in a blurry glimpse of us and maybe our artwork:

It's given me an appreciation for the complexity of film production. And I thought Taking My Parents to Burning Man was a complicated process.

I guess we're moonlighting, retirement being our first job. Literally moonlighting. Last night we arrived home under the light of a 1:30a.m. moon. Not a bad thing.