Friday, June 17, 2016

Good News Friday

Not a scare crow but a scare-sea lion so they don't come on the dock, Ucluelet, BC
Sharing a few more pictures of our trip to Ucluelet and Tofino and some great news this week:

1.  Mom's CT scan came back negative - no issues there so we are not quite sure why she had vertigo but with the help of some medication it appears to have passed after a few days.  The Dr is hopeful it will be 100% a non-issue within the month.  In the mean time she has started driving again but has no long trips planned.


2.  Flooring news.  The manufacturer of our laminate flooring agreed to a 100% replacement due to the flooring we installed last year being faulty (cracking way more than it should).  The install is scheduled for the end of July.  Originally they wanted to do it next week but hubby is away and there is zero chance I am doing this again by myself.  It is really good news - and yet I find myself completely depressed about it.  I hate renos and the first time was hard enough.  Total chaos again for a couple of weeks as everything is moved/fixed/glued/painted.  We are lucky we dealt with a reputable flooring installation company, but yet it makes me wonder if there are other people out there that have this same problem!?!  We upgraded and paid for nearly a commercial grade of flooring.   Lots of money spent to have to have it done twice but in the end I have to write this one off and accept the new floor as good news.

3.  Tomato news - I have small tomato hatchlings on two plants and foresee eating homegrown tomatoes by the first week of July.  We had hot weather in April and May but June has been colder and rainier. That is good news as last summer we had nearly no rain from mid May to October and had extreme water restrictions imposed with zero sprinkling, hand watering only.  That is unlikely this year.  Some baby spinach leaves are ready to harvest.  Does anyone who grows spinach know if it regrows once cut?  My first year at this and I am only using it for salads as do not eat most of my veggies cooked (hated it since I was a kid)


4.  This week is the final week of highschool for kid #4, my challenging stepdaughter.  Marks are not in yet but we are confident she passed all her courses and actually graduated from highschool which is a complete miracle based on the last 2 years of her life (if you are a new reader many a blog post has been spent discussing this).  Now she needs to get a better job and find a better place to live, although she has been actively trying to do both the last few weeks.  We are paying room and board for 2 more months to help her get on her adult feet and then it's showtime, she will be 100% responsible for paying for her own life.  We get a bit more financial freedom and she answers to no one but herself.  A win-win for all of us.  If she chooses to go to college all the better as the funds are waiting for her to do that.  Likely that is at least a year away at this point.
Lady kayaking the waves at Chesterman Beach, Tofino (I am a calm water kayaker, she was crazy!)


5.  We had a great visit with our friends this past weekend.  They came for an overnight on the way to visit relatives and we BBQed up ribs.  We cooked far too many and had to eat them all weekend plus I gave some to Mom.  It was nice to see them and due to their visit the house was cleaned top to bottom.  That is not going to happen again now until after our floors are redone, no point in scrubbing anything except the bathrooms and kitchen.  Let the dust bunnies run rampant as when you get new floors your house becomes a dust-bowl anyway.

6.  We managed to lower the taxes on the condo we own and that my Mom lives in.  By adding her to title with right to occupy rights (living estate) only we can allow the kids to inherit the property should we pass but she can live there as long as she wishes.  They can only sell it once she is done living there (she can remove herself or we can remove her if she enters a senior facility/passes away). We did this for estate planning protection as with 4 kids if we passed away sometimes spouses can put pressure on them to sell (none have spouses currently) and by doing this there is no question as to her right to live there.  She pays us a nominal rent and now the lower taxes mean we get both homeowner rates versus secondary property rates and a senior discount shaving $1050 off the taxes per year - woohoo!  The cost to have the title changed was $250 but may be different in your area.  It will continue to save us money as long as she lives there.  It cannot be rented to non-family so will have to be sold whenever she decides to move out but it is already valued at at least $15,000 over what we bought it for 2 and a half years ago.

7.  BC Cherries went on sale for $2.69 a pound this week and so I ran out and bought some - they are amazingly delicious and are being enjoyed daily.  Less than $2.99 a pound is the magic number where I pull the trigger to stay on our monthly grocery budget.

Ucluelet coastline


8.  I won a prize - details to be given at a later date but it involves an adventure on an upcoming weekend.  That is all I will say for now but the release forms have been sent in and the prize is amazing!  Yes, I still enter contests, only spend about 5 minutes a day on it a few days a week, a hobby of mine.  No large prizes since our last 4 day weekend in Whistler which we went on 4 years ago (amazing by the way, see August of 2012 Part 1 and Part 2).  I only enter contests for companies that I know and like and only for prizes I would actually like to win.  I use the site contestgirl.ca to find out about them.  Most of them you have to sign up to receive their newsletters without unsubscribing so I have a lot of spam email but it doesn't take long to sort through.  I also only generally enter contests that you can enter once so that I am not competing with contesters that enter hundreds of times (a gigantic waste of your time by the way).  I manually enter and use no programs to assist in speeding up the process.  I have also won $4000 worth of furniture in 2010 (see this post).  I actually told hubby on Sunday that I thought I was going to win this prize and to accept a phone call if we saw the company calling as the draw was on Monday.  I heard nothing until Thursday.  I have never quite felt that I was going to win something like that before....premonition maybe?

We are madly trying to finish projects for hubby to fly out on Sunday to deliver a week of training in Toronto.  I hate to say this but I love it when he travels on business as I get so much accomplished at home, both business-wise and personal.  I also get to eat 35 second meals and eat things he doesn't enjoy like quiche.  I plan to clean out the fridge and take stock of what is in the freezer - hopefully a zero spend grocery week unless great deals come up.

I realize I said amazing quite a few times in this post but life is good here and I hope the same for each and every one of you!

26 comments:

  1. It's nice to see that companies still stand behind their products, good news there. Also a clean bill of health for you mom is perfect in every way. Looks like we're in for sunny days...

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    1. Yes you are correct, things are good. This flooring company is island-wide and a long-standing family company and the flooring manufacturer is one of the biggest names so both had their reputations to protect, thankfully. We still have a 15 year warranty after it is replaced the 2nd time too

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  2. I loved catching up with you and all you have going on! Praise God for the good report on your mother!
    I stand amazed at what a great life you lead while sticking to a pretty strict budget!! I want to be more like YOU!!

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    1. We try and stick to the budget because we take 2 salaries out of the company and as a result try and keep it reasonable. Thankfully everything is paid off, when there is no debt you sure can live better.

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  3. Lots of good news, but I'm especially happy to hear that your mom is okay. Not so happy that you have to have your floor redone, but it's pretty amazing that the company is doing it at no cost. That's almost unheard of these days. I rarely enter contests because I would think that if I won, that the notification would be fake and I'd probably delete it. lol

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    1. I always check out the contests before I click on anything, some call you and some email. This one emailed. I try and stay away from anything fishy or companies I don't know for that reason. Yes, the best news is about Mom, she had me worried.

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  4. Sounds like things are going pretty well. Glad your flooring company is standing up for it's product...despite the headache to you. I think they shoud supply you with a bottle of wine as well when all is said and done!

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  5. I'll take some of your amazing please. Things are fine in my life but amazing would be a good change. Curious on your big win.

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  6. Can't wait to hear about the prize. I've never won anything worth mentioning. Great news about the CT scan!!! Such a shame about the flooring but glad they're replacing. So far so good with ours. I chose the highest grade commercial flooring for interior and tile for exterior... and paid the price!

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    1. The new floors are pretty, other than the creaking we were happy with it. It is worth paying more for better quality (unless it creaks lol). I am not a lucky person- just persistent. I lose at every game.

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  7. Good news on your mom. Did the floor people discover why it creaked so much? Hate for you to go through a redo only to end up with the same result.
    Hopefully nice weather by Monday.

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    1. Really good news with Mom, we were both really worried about it but her side of the family tends to live a long time (98 ish) so hopefully she has lots of healthy years to come. The floor people were pretty tight-lipped. Not sure what the issue is, maybe just a bad batch. They are gluing each piece in this time (they don't normally do that) for extra insurance this time so hopefully it will be a non-issue. We have a newer house so uneven floors is not the issue. They took humidity tests, really not sure.

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    2. I'm sorry you have to go through this but glad there is a solution to the creaking. Can you share with me what kind of flooring you put down? We are coming up to our one year inspection of our new home and our floors are really creaking as well. We had engineered hardwood installed. It's so beautiful but the creaking is starting to get to me! You can send me an email if you're more comfortable sharing privately. My email is hippymamax6@hotmail.com. Thank you for sharing your experience!

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    3. It is Armstrong, and I think not very many people ever have this problem. I still believe in them.

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  8. Lots of wonderful news from the beginning to the end of your post. Yeah the floor is a pain but what if they refused to do anything? Winning the contest is like the icing on your cake. Those tomatoes are going to be so tasty.

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    1. Yes, Contessa, it was a good week. I hope for good news for you so you can relax. I hope to harvest a few spinach leaves for tonights supper - love growing my own food.

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  9. Wonderful news about your mom. Also, great estate planning for your tax benefit as well as long term planning. I have seen too many issues when things are not nailed down. Super mart move!
    Looking forward to hear about your "win".

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    1. I didn't want to share too much on the win until my release forms are accepted and my prize package comes (should be just a couple of days) - so excited!

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  10. Good news about your mom. I had a dizzy day not too long ago. I don't know what brought it on, but the next day it was gone not to return. Just pick the larger lower leaves and the centers of your spinach will continue to produce until they start to bolt and go to seed. You can still eat the leaves until they start to get a slightly bitter taste. I have pulled all of my original spinach that I planted in early April and have planted one more round. Hope it will grow even with the hotter weather coming. I bought seeds for a different kind called New Zealand Spinach. It's not a true spinach but can be used in the same way. It grows in hot weather so I thought I would give it a try. - Margy

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    1. Let me know how your new Zealand Spinach works out, I will have to replace this mid-July :)

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  11. Glad to hear that your Mum's tests came back all-clear, great news.
    Weird question. I was polishing our wood floor yesterday and thinking of your laminate one which I'm happy is being replaced. Does it last longer than a lifetime like wood (ours is 266 years old) or will it ever need replacing?

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    1. No, none of the new flooring will ever last as long as your 266 year old wood floors. I don't even think the real woods they are using these days will last like that. This is laminate, expected life 25-30 years hopefully if we take good care of it. We didn't go with real wood as it scratches so easy with the dog.

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  12. So happy about your mom! A friend of mine had vertigo last summer but it passed eventually. She has no idea what caused it either. Having to get your floors redone is a royal pain but a necessary one. Hopefully you can get out of the house a fair bit while it's going on. Congrats on winning - can't wait to hear about it!!

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    1. Thanks - Mom is doing well, no hint of vertigo right now and if it comes back she still has medication she can take on an as-needed basis. I just shared what I won in todays post

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