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A simple finish for my basement

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I’m trying to think of the simplest way to semi-finish our basement. I’d love to go all out and do a really big basement renovation but that’s just not going to happen.

Our basement has a low ceiling so if I wanted to do the basement right one of the first things I’d need to do would be to dig the floor down a foot or two! No ..I’ll just have to keep hitting my head. LOL … Well .. at least when I get a new furnace sometime in the near future I’ll make sure that the duct work gets moved to the sides of the basement instead of running in the center and pretty much all over the place. It’s no wonder I keep hitting my head when I’m down there. If the duct work was moved over the ceiling would still be low but I’d just clear my head in most places.

One nice thing about our basement is that it’s been very dry. No leaks and the walls are intact. Perhaps I could keep them the way they are. They are painted white .. maybe just repaint? Just put down some kind of basement flooring, perhaps paint the ceiling rafters white to lighten up the basement and that might be ok for a simple reno?

Redecorating and refurnishing

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Do you ever feel like just redecorating? I get that urge every once in a while. Certainly more often than I’m able to afford to redecorate I’m sure.

My brother and his wife apparently are going through redecorating mode. They just sent an email full of photos of their new living room. I guess over the last few weeks they repainted the living room, got new curtains or window dressings and replaced their old furnishings with some very nice looking French furniture.

Their living room has a very formal look now, but then it always did have a formal look. They use their den for more informal gatherings or for watching TV, their living room is for getting together with visitors and entertaining.

I can’t wait to go and see their new furniture in person.

Concerned about a sweet neighbor

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My neighbor across the street is a widow. She’s an older lady who lives alone and she’s been having a hard time lately. Luckily for her she has two great sons that look in on her frequently and come over to do yard work and get her groceries etc.

For a lady of her age she normally pretty spry. I mean, I see her out walking around every day and even driving her car once or twice a day. I think for a lady in her mid to late 80’s that’s pretty darn good! And no – she doesn’t appear to be a scary driver.

The reason I said she’s been having a hard time was because she just had surgery on one of her eyes and it didn’t go all that well to begin with so for a week or so she had blurry vision and couldn’t drive or even walk around very easily outside. I felt bad for her. I was offering to do extra things for her if she wanted. She did call me a few times to help her out.

One of the times I went over to help her with something we end up sitting down and talking over a cup of coffee and I noticed her mothers ring. She has a stone in it for each of her kids and each of her grandchildren. When I was a jeweler I used to make rings like that quite often. We called them Family Rings though.

My neighbor seems to be doing well now. She got the stitches out of her eye a few days ago and that made a huge improvement. That sounds funny to say “stitches out of her eye” doesn’t it?

Whoa massively salty soup!

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I think I just had an overdose of salt! I had some soup early today – some Campbells Chunky soup and after I started eating it I noticed how salty it was so once I finished I looked at the label and nearly fell over when I saw how much salt was in it!

The salt they listed on the label was only for a 250 ml serving. That’s about a cup of soup. Now if you are only having soup for your meal I think you generally have more than just a cup, especially when the can has twice that much in it. Right? So the sodium listed for a 250 ml serving was 650 mg. It was even higher in potassium at 750 mg per 250 ml, yet if I’d only had a cup of soup I would have only had 130 calories which isn’t a lot when that’s all you are having, particularly if you haven’t eaten in several hours and don’t expect to eat for several more hours. So I had the whole can of soup and ended up having over 1300 mg of sodium.

That’s horrendous! That’s more sodium than some fast food burgers!

I’m in Canada and in a recent fast food study they said that Canadians have the most salt in their fast food and I’m starting to think that we might have the most salt in our canned and processed food as well. I tend to read labels and stay away from overly salted foods but this time I didn’t read the label before I purchased the soup. Shame on me. I certainly won’t be making this mistake again.

I feel bloated already! I’m going to have to stay away from anything salty for a couple of days. Hmmm it’s warm out … maybe I should go sit in my neighbors metal building and use it as a sauna to sweat out this overdose of salt? Nah that’d probably be as bad for me as the soup was!

Oh well – lesson learned – Read the label before buying or opening!

You can tell it’s spring around here

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It’s that time of year again when people start working on their houses. Whether inside or outside, it seems spring is the time to either renovate or repair the house or yard or add something new.

I’ve noticed a lot of changes in my neighborhood as I walk around with my dog. Some houses are getting painted or having a new fence put in. Others are having some landscaping done. Still others must be having either some home repairs done or some renovations because I can hear hammering or sawing as I walk by or I see those big bins in their driveway for reno materials.

One house that I walk by regularly just got a new metal garage put up and it’s kind of cool looking. It has a sign on it that says – metal residential buildings and I guess they’re the makers of the building. No idea how much that would cost but it’s going to last for a long time I think.

Anyway you can definitely tell it’s Spring around here, there’s lots of work getting done! I’ve been working on my garden and getting some work done in the house – with more to come … How about you?

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