A lot of repairs and great times with the neighbours. - July 14 - 20

 My gardens have new flowers blooming every day. Hydranga now blooming, as well as some gladiolas. With the plants growing so tall, our irrigation is not reaching the back of the garden in some places. As June next door, has an irrigation company doing their's right now, he suggested extending our sprinkler heads to 1 foot instead of 6 inches and that should fix it. Should happen next week.

The week turned out to be a busy. Wednesday night, Pat and Darryl accompanied us for dinner and the show Footloose at the Chemainus Theatre. Another great performance.

Home by 10:30. I woke up at 2 in the morning cooking .... checked heat pump and it's 23C in the house and the heat is blasting out of the vents. Turned system off and opened up window, fortunately it's 16C outside, so tolerable. Called Exchange Energy in the morning and they sent someone out. (Levi) We just had our system serviced 5 days ago by Mike.....

Turns out the thermostat installed 2 years ago March, has a short in it and keeps calling for heat. It's warrantied for 5 years, with their professional installation, so it shouldn't cost much for replacement. Meanwhile, they've disconnected the heating part, so at least we still have A/C until the new one is installed and they deal with the warranty with Honeywell.

We are still waiting on a date when Exchange Energy will come back to fix the ductwork for the powder room fan and kitchen fan. We've known that they share the same vent!!!! You can imagine when someone uses the bathroom and turns the fan on, the smell comes into the kitchen! There's definitely been some weird things done in this house during construction.

Also, this week, our main water valve in the basement started screeching everytime you turn on the water. It's not reducing the PSI  pressure from 100 down to 75 psi to protect household appliances, so needed replacement. JS Plumbing are great and someone came the next day. While Will's here, I asked him to check out the toilet in the powder room. Sometimes there seemed to be a little water on the floor. 

Turned out that the toilet doesn't have a big enough wax seal, and it's not even touching the toilet. The toilet isn't screwed down to the floor tightly. We could have had a much bigger mess .... that problem now fixed. He checked the 2 toilets upstairs and apparently the bolts have been glued to the toilet so you cannot get the toilet off to check the seals..... Wow! If we ever have a problem, the toilet will have to be broken to change it out. Fortunately, they seem solid with no movement. 

Our neighbour is using a tiler, so we asked to come over and check our ensuite shower, as we noticed some black coming through the grout.  Apparently the concrete pad was poured for the shower and instead of a waterproof membrane put on top, it's painted black. It's the same material used to paint the concrete on the outside of a house to prevent moisture coming into your basement!  So we need the floor of the shower redone, which won't be until the fall. Fortunately we have 20 of the 12x12 tiles left so the floor will look the same when replaced. Always something! He also showed us the drain pipe is loose and this play caused the grout to break off. So when Will came, we asked him to strap it tighter to the basement ceiling.  Ray sealed it with clear silicone.

Our neighbour Todd came in the helicopter for a visit to his house this week. Pretty cool. He constructed a landing pad made on the empty lot he owns beside his house.

Smallest houseboat on the lake.

There's been a couple of cloudy days, so I played in my kitchen. I baked a fresh blueberry tart and have a brisket going on the Traeger.

Ray went into town on Friday afternoon to pick up a gallon of stain for our bench Jason gave as Ray's Christmas present. Ray noticed the Rock and Gem Show is on, so did a quick visit to look around. Certainly not the size of the event in Quartzsite, Arizona.

Saturday night, Pat and Darryl hosted a Tapas Party with all the neighbours. What a great night. I made a Spanish Seafood Paella. (Chorizo, Chicken, Mussels and Prawns) Think I have enough ingredients??? I prepped in the morning, and Ray went into Duncan to get me the fresh mussels. It takes about an hour to make the dish, but it certainly helps having all the ingredients ready to go.

Our hostess, Pat.

Pat's grandson Ashton, helping serve. Her granddaughter, Emily, also helped serve and she baked various desserts. Great kids.

Sara, Karsen and Ashton

Ashton, Pat, Darryl and Todd

Sara, Karson, Tyler, Debra, Joe and June

June, Roy and Mike

Pat made some delicious tapas, ginger beef, bruschetta, desserts and more. June made prawn skewers. The party lasted until 10:30 and moved to Mike and Debra's with their kids. I came home to bed. :) Ray left at 10 as did June and Roy. Darryl snuck away earlier in the evening too, so just Pat's left to tell everyone to go home. lol

Sunday and the sun's back out. We decided to take a boat ride and cruise down the lake. There sure are some beautiful houses. We putted along for 1.5 hours, enjoying the views. Got back home just as the wind came up and became quite choppy. 

Houses along Point Ideal Road we pass on our way home

Houseboats for rent at the marina.

More housing along Point Ideal

One of the best houses along the lakeshore at Honeymoon Bay

We thought troubles come in threes, not with us! Along with all the repairs mentioned earlier, the next repair this week, our dishwasher. It's struggling ... with the pump is showing error codes. I cleaned all the filters, and it chugged along some more. After doing more research, to have the pump fixed is around a $500 bill According to the model and serial number, it turns out the dishwasher is 14 years old ..... not worth it. I ordered a new one from Home Depot and they will install it in about 10 days and take the old one away. Hopefully I can convince the dishwasher to hang on a few more days. :)

That's our week!