November-ish

     We have been having exceptional weather, with the temperatures much higher than usual for November. But we have also had quite a bit of wind, and this means that the leaves have mostly left the trees, especially in exposed areas. Our linden in the front yard is still in leaf, however, and the glorious yellow-and-gold really brightens up the view.

     We are coming down to it with the kitchen renovation - our carpenter says next Tuesday to start. We have dismantled most of the cupboards, with the sink sitting proudly in the middle. Carpenter says he will finish the dismantling of that if we want. I would like to be able to do it all ourselves! One surprise is that there is no plywood underlay under the base cupboards - they are in the former boys' cloakroom-and-toilet area and were never tiled, I suppose. There is a hole through to the basement where the toilet was removed - covered with a board, but still! 

We will put underlay over it, but I am thinking we should repair the hole first - after all, not all of it will be under the new cupboards, as they are 24 inches wide, not the mammoth 30 inches wide ones we built 35 years ago and are now tearing out. Just one of the things to think about, when we have an evening to work on it!
    We are very excited to be getting cork flooring for the kitchen - we found some at Markan that seems to be just right - a medium colour, easy to put down (it's in floating-floor format) with cork on the top and the bottom so it should be easy on the legs & feet. Now to see if it wears well. It is guaranteed for 25 years (probably Markan will be long gone by then).

     Our solar panels are coming tomorrow, and then the water-heater/plumbing gets done Monday. I am hoping this doesn't mean we're without hot water all weekend. Luckily I'm mostly enjoying the whole camping aspect of our existence at the moment, seeking food in boxes, stashing a minimum number of dishes on the sideboard - and washing them promptly so they can be used again. Of course, we still have the sink and the stove! I am planning to prepare some ready-meals tomorrow and on Sunday, so we can just heat them up. Fred thinks we may have an opportunity to try out Boomburger next week. It's a new restaurant on the shops on the North River Causeway, apparently using locally-sourced ingredients. We shall see!
      I have joined GoodReads, and am having a great time looking up favourite books, and finding out what other materials are available. I found an essay by Diana Wynne Jones about the heroic antecedents of Fire and Hemlock - so I dug it out last night and started to read it again. I can see some of the same influences in the Homeward Bounders, too. A source of fun for quite some time to come.