Well, here's the cottage scoop:  The fireplace saga continues. The model Lorenzo was interested in buying retails for $2100. Then you have to buy a liner for the chimney, a vent kit, etc. Add another $1500 at least. To have someone install it on the island, you're looking at around $1200, and that's a conservative estimate. Then you have to hire someone to do a "wet inspection" for the insurance company - they won't accept an inspection from the person who installed it: conflict of interest.

 

I sent Lorenzo all this information in an email and was very careful in my wording. Lorenzo hates being told that we can't afford something. He especially hates it when I tell people that I buy clothes in thrift shops. I think it's a carry-over from his poverty stricken ancestry or something. So I gently reminded him that we have a perfectly functioning wood stove, we're on a tight 20-grand budget, and that what we'd be spending on a new (and unnecessary) fireplace would end up costing three times the amount of our entire kitchen. Which we haven't purchased yet, as I'm waiting for the next Ikea Kitchen Event.  All this money just to have an elevated fire-watching experience. And we'd end up with a wood stove we're not using and a fireplace insert that we bought by mistake. And finally, although the one he wanted is very nice, it looks a bit too contemporary, in my opinion...

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                

A few hours later, after he'd had time to curse and rail at the universe, he called. He grimly agreed to tear out the fireplace he built. All his hard work will be dismantled. I feel for him, but I'm very relieved. I really don't like spending money foolishly. Thankfully, neither does my husband.

Today, he worked on the ceiling. You'll notice that he installed a band around the perimeter. He did this because the wainscoting comes in 8-foot wide sheets. He didn't want seams, so he decided to make a border going all around the ceiling...

Then he began installing the panel sheets. I believe this is Poplar...

He said the frustrating thing is that nothing is square in the cottage; every wall is slightly out. This means that every sheet had to be fiddled with in order to fit perfectly...

I can't tell you how exciting this is. It's only Tuesday and he's already done one half of the cottage...

He says his back is a bit a sore...I wish so much that I could be over there helping him, but my three teenagers are not to be trusted, I'm afraid. They would disagree. Maybe I'm being paranoid. In any case, I was thinking about showing up at the cottage on Friday...Lorenzo would be pretty happy. But can I leave my kids overnight? I'll have to think about this. I wish they had grandmothers. I just remembered that I can't go over on Friday. I think I have to sign the payroll cheques...

Tonight, I had to drive my son to his drum lesson. When I approached my car, I saw that someone had slipped a red rose, a sprig of fresh rosemary, and a bunch of basil underneath my window wiper. Who would do this? I was quite touched, actually. The rosemary smelled wonderful, and Marcello got to eat the basil. The rose is sitting in a glass of water on the kitchen counter - it's very pretty. I said, "Look kids! Look what someone left for me!" My son suggested that perhaps I'm being stalked.

So, that's the kind of day it was. Two of my kids seem under the weather, so I plied them with cayenne pepper, tea-tree oil, and made them hot lemon water with honey to take to bed. I am a big believer in essential oils, and I have to share my favourite place to get them. Did I already mention this? Oh well.  I buy my oils on-line from New Directions Aromatics. (newdirectionsaromatics.ca)

In the past, I have paid $15 for a tiny bottle of Indian Frankincense. Now, I'm paying $3.19 for a bottle that is twice the size. I cannot believe the prices and the quality of these oils - I've told everyone about it. Today, my order arrived. I bought black pepper, pink grapefruit, cedarwood, lavender, tea-tree, blood orange, and bergamot. I use my diffuser everyday, and I love the way my house smells. And if you have a headache, diffuse some lavender oil or rub some on your temples. If you have a burn, lavender oil takes the pain away. If you're stuffed up, add a few drops of eucalyptus. Cinnamon stimulates the immune system, and Clary Sage is wonderful for tension. But my favourite is Frankincense - it makes my home smell like a woodsy cottage.

There is an oil for everything. Why would anyone pollute their home (and their bodies) with Fabreeze, Lysol, or some other chemical concoction? I don't get it. All these commercials you see for Glade Plug-Ins and all kinds of synthetic garbage. It smells awful and much of it is carcinogenic. I have become intolerant to all smells that aren't natural. I hate perfume, cologne, body-spray, etc. When Lorenzo puts on his after-shave, I feel ill. Does he care? Not really. He breezes out of the house every morning on a dense cloud of artificial fumes...with his leaf-blower tucked under his arm...

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In this month's issue of Cottage Magazine, I read an interesting article...

Peter Robinson, the CEO for the David Suzuki Foundation, has a cottage on Mayne Island. And it's waterfront. Lucky guy. He shares this incredible home with his wife and two daughters...

Their cottage features a rain-harvesting system, solar panels, solar hot-water, and was built using many local materials including cedar wood and stone...

Vacuum-tube solar panels collect radiant energy from the sun....These folks only need to use back-up power for three months out of the year. Amazing. I really admire people who are doing this...

This is the future. Bill Clinton always stressed that the Green Economy was a trillion-dollar untapped market. There will be a huge demand for services such as this - solar heating, solar water pumps, wind turbines, rain-collection systems, etc.

I think Lorenzo should figure this out. He'd be good at it...he's a very smart guy. Reading this article made me wish our cottage could be off-the-grid. The problem is retro-fitting an existing structure. It's much easier to start from scratch. Furthermore, Peter Robinson's cottage took about 10 years from beginning to end.
Maybe when the kids move on, we'll sell our home in the city, sell the cottage, and Lorenzo will build us an off-the-grid, totally green eco-friendly house. Somehow, I doubt he'll have the energy to entertain this idea.

Awhile back, I was having a huge dispute with BC Hydro. I was getting bills for $225 for a shack on Mayne Island that was empty most of the time, where you couldn't shower, do laundry, and that is heated by a wood stove. I kept telling them that something was wrong. I would get a form letter. Finally, after demanding to speak to a supervisor, they decided to investigate. My last bill was for $33. So I wrote another letter, asking what's going on. Do I get reimbursed? How does a bill go from $225 to $33 ?!  What's the explanation? Guess what - you don't get one! Hydro sends you another form letter, basically a carbon-copy of  the first one. In other words, Hydro can do whatever it wants. I'd love to tell them to kiss my  * * * and live entirely off the grid. It should be privatized - these crown corporations are accountable to no-one. We spent hundreds of dollars for power we never used and it's just so unfair.

*     *     *     *

I'm reading a book called "The Bookshop" by Penelope Fitzgerald.  It's an English novel, and it's very well-written. An older lady decides to open a bookshop in a small village that has never had one - it's a quiet story, and not a lot happens, but it's strangely compelling...

Well, this is evening number four without my husband. He sent me a very sad picture today...

There he is, all alone at the Springwater Lodge, drinking his lonely little beer...or maybe he wasn't lonely. Maybe some hot looking Mayne Island organic-farm-woman was sitting there...telling him all about the origami she makes out of recycled twist-ties.

I have to pack the lunches now. If I leave it to my kids, they'll throw an apple into a paper bag. I'm also packing an extra lunch for a boy at school who never has one. His parents divorced, his father lost his job, they're on welfare now, and things are pretty grim. I packed one for him today and he was thrilled. Ham & cheese with alfalfa sprouts on brown bread. My kids would have complained - way too much health.

Until tomorrow!