February 16th Week ... Basement is finished.

Well almost finished. lol Other than blinds, kitchen backsplash  (Jason is doing for us at Easter) and the deck tiles ... we are done. Saw the back end of the painters this morning.

The Big Melt is On!

As the temps have warmed, we left the last 2 inches of snow to melt. Threw some Alaskan Snow Melt on it and it's doing a pretty good job of clearing it. All the main roads have been cleared and salted as it does get to the minus temps overnight.

Friday night our new kitchen table for the basement finally arrived. We had the guys carry it downstairs for us. They were only supposed to take it to the door, but they graciously did it. After dinner, Ray and I got it out of the box and put the legs on. It is stunning. Love the live edge. The basement is now done and ready for family and guests. We have a one bedroom suite available at Kristi and Jason's house for us and so now they have one at ours.

Just love this table.

Everyone sure likes the finish we have on the floor ... us too.

Saturday morning woke up to the heat pump in defrost mode again. With the overnight temps about -2 C, the dripping water from the upstairs dormer roof has it all frozen up again.  We proceeded to pour hot water on the sides later  and out the bathroom window. I think it was worse before we put the snow guards on the roof to prevent huge hunks of snow and ice coming off the metal roof. Apparently last year a huge lump came down right on top of the heat pump. Now it collects the snow on the roof, forms icicles and then as these drip,  they land directly onto the blades of the heat pump and freeze it solid so they can't turn.

Called Exchange Energy yesterday and sent them a picture ... they will be having a confab with their guys as to how to solve the problem with a roof/overhang. Need to get this solved as we are planning to not be here next winter. We now monitor the heat pump daily to keep it ice free.

The extended forecast is for four more days of snow starting next Friday, so I will make sure all the previous snow is shoveled off the driveway and sidewalks if it does not melt in the meantime.

Sunday after the fog burned off it was a spectacular sunny day. By the time Ray did the "dump run" I had our fire going in our outdoor wood stove to enjoy the sunny day. Finally the sun is high enough in the sky to give us a couple of hours of sun in the backyard.

An absolutely beautiful afternoon. I have taken this picture many times ... but not with snow. lol

Our neighbour decided to take his aluminum boat out to his dock with his son to shovel the snow as it has started to list on one side.

They started a campfire too as they had all of the kids this weekend. At 3 pm we came in as the sun had gotten too low in the sky to shine on us. Freya sure enjoyed the fact that we stayed outside for 3 hours throwing her stick.

Monday, Family Day. Ray and I headed into Duncan at 8:30 am to get in and out of town before it became busy on the highway. I had grocery shopping and he had Canadian Tire Shopping. On the way back we had a bit of snow flurries. Back home by 11 am watching all the traffic going to town. lol The sun came out after lunch. We both just lazed about occasionally getting up to do odd jobs and Ray giving Freya a short walk.

Tuesday, Pat and I went to Nanaimo for a Costco run and I had a doctor's appointment. The predicted flurries did not amount to anything fortunately. We were up and back home by 1:30 pm so Pat could pick up her grandchildren from the school bus.

Ray was asked by Greta our glass etcher to take a picture of her work installed in our front entrance. Here it is. A much better picture than I took previously. lol

Wednesday, Ray played around making the trim for the small vault area in our great room. For some reason this area was never trimmed out and you could see the cut drywall edges and light coming through the beam and wall join. This has been driving Ray crazy since we first noticed it last June. Now with his functioning "man cave" i.e. workshop he can do some odd jobs.

Later in the morning we decided to head out into Duncan as it was such a beautiful day with the sun out. On the way back just before coming into Lake Cowichan this vehicle was completely in the ditch for no apparent reason. The roads were clear and dry and this was a completely straight stretch??

Traffic was reduced to one lane with a flagger to stay out of the wrecker's way.

Later in the afternoon we sat out on our sundeck with the heaters on and the propane fire table. It was nice to get some fresh air and Freya enjoyed being outside in the snow. Saw this guy go by in his inflatable zodiac. Burrrr.

Poor Freya. We were watching a TV show and there was a sound of fireworks and that was it. The shaking and crawling on your lap started. I put on her Thunder Jacket and wrapped her up with a blanket on the couch and she was fine. After half an hour she unwrapped herself, we took the jacket off and that was it. The jacket certainly seems to work.

Thursday, another cold morning at -4C but sunny. Possible snow to come overnight tonight. I don't see much change in our temperatures in the long range for the next two weeks. It is not until March 7th before the overnight temperature warms up to 0C! I went for a walk with Ray and Freya to the park.

Now that's a stick!

Later on I decided to make Ray a Seafood Feast. Cioppino. What else to do on a cold blustery day.

Friday morning we were supposed to get a snow event but it did not start hear until around 7am and was done by 10:30 am. I didn't even have to get out my new snowblower.

Fat flakes, this is Freya 10 seconds after brushing her off!

By noon the sun came out and melted all of the new snow. Chris from Coulson's arrived at 8 am to replace the rotted patio door with the new and newly stained door. This turned out to be a real finicky project and took Chris until 10:30 to finish.

A little cold with the door completely out. lol

That was our week at Kyle's Kottage.