Hello my dear friends,
in my last post I mentioned that things have been crazy here so I thought I would tell you a little more about it.
So, where do I start? ...
... A few months ago we suddenly had water come into our basement through an old and not well repaired crack in our foundation wall. We ended up having 1/4 inch of water under the laminate flooring in three room. The flooring started to swell with the moisture and the furniture had to be taken out of those rooms very quickly and is now sitting over the house. The entire flooring had to be ripped out including the floor leveling concrete which is still an on going job for me. Drywall that had gotten wet had to be cut out. We thought that we had found the problem, but we were wrong! We then discovered then that we also had a sewage pipe that had a crack and had been slowly leaking in the basement powder room. Repairs were needed and thankfully have now been done. The powder room was a quicker fix. Because of the crack in the wall and the way it would need to be repaired (digging up 14 feet of the wall all the way down to the foundation floor) we had to remove our air conditioner which was the original one and very old. Because of that a new one was required and because of that we then also needed a new furnace (it was older too) so they could work together properly. Thinking that was it, we were yet again wrong! Out of the blue our water heater decided to join in and stop working properly. The hot water would come out of the taps steaming hot and after an inspection we were told it needed to be replace too. After weeks of waiting and days of work, all the all of the new equipment is installed and pipe and wall are fixed but our basement and parts of our backyard are a total mess. I feel somewhat overwhelmed on where to start with the tidying up of things. The basement reno will wait until next Summer to make sure all the repairs are doing their job and I am going to work on the garden bit by bit this year. In the end, I know I will get there and everything will be OK and I can't wait for that day right now.
And we still weren't not done yet with because to me the thing that happened is a real heartbreaker.
Most of you know of our beautiful willow tree Salisbury.
This Spring our arborist had informed us that we would have to have our beautiful tree cut down! She had become unstable and dangerous due to her size and the rot at the bottom of her trunk which was caused by being hit by lightning 9 years ago. It took over 3 months to get everything organized and I was already under so much stress after the other things that were happening here. Then the day came. The street had to be closed off and we had to hire a 250 ton crane to lift her huge 2.5 ton pieces over our house because she was too big to take out of the yard through either of the side gates.
It was a sad day for me but it had to be done.
She is now gone and there is a huge emptiness where she used to be.
I miss seeing her every time I look into our backyard and it is going to take some time for me to get used to it. I am sad because my critters are without a safe place to hide and live in our garden. I made sure that we saved several larger branches because we are going to try and regrow a new willow tree again. Fingers crossed it will work.
And now you know what has been happening here these past few months. Here is to better times heading this way I hope.
It was so nice that you stopped by today and visited me here at Todolwen.
I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.
Have a peaceful and creative day.
