I've been had!

Twice, as a matter of fact!

Late last week, the maintenance guy that comes once a week at our store, came to ask me for a cash advance. I don't usually do this but he gave me some sob story about his hungry children and so I prepaid him the following week's pay. Would you believe that he didn't show up this AM???

On the same day, one of our tenants shows up handing me the keys to her apartment trying to explain to me in her broken English (she is Vietnamese) that her husband left and she cannot pay the rent. Now, normally, you cannot just pack and go. You are still responsible for the lease. But when she started sobbing, I began to really feel sorry for her. So today, we went to check out the apartment and put it on the market for rent and what do we find?!? She didn't even pack her stuff. She just literally went! It cost us over $600.oo for the 1-800-GOT-JUNK guys to come clear it all out!

So now we are out $650.00 and we still have a dirty store and a messy apartment!

Oh so close!

But yet, oh, so far! We have been living the bathroom renovation from hell. It was to be a minor overhaul of our en-suite bathroom as we were keeping the tub sink, toilet and wall tiles. Basically we wanted to change the vanity, the tub surround and the lighting. We started it back in May when the fellow came to take measurements for the vanity. Then we had some work done on the ceiling as I wanted recessed lighting. That took a while. Then we waited for the specific granite tiles to come in, then it was a wait for the heated floors to come in. Then we ordered the granite countertops (which were returned once due to wrong colour). During this time, the existing tub (which we are re-installing) was living in my bedroom. Yes, right next to my side of the bed for app. 3 months! One wrong move during the night and I'd end up in it. So much to my excitement, the tub left the bedroom last Sunday (yes, hangover Sunday as it was the day after Gord's party) and returned to its rightful place. If you ever feel that your room is too small, place a large tub in the little free space you have and live like that for 3 months. Let me tell you, right now, I feel like my bedroom is the size of a football field! Which brings me to last night. The boys called me up to decide the height at which I wanted the mirror at. All seemed OK and I returned back to my dishes. Lots of hammering and lot of noise later, I hear, Oh SH*T! I'm not exactly sure what happened as no one is speaking but there was suddening a large hole in the wall above where the mirror was supposed to be. So instead of posting pictures of the before and after, I can only post a couple of the process instead with hopes of having it all complete very soon! Oh and did I mention that poor Alexia has been bathing in the kitchen this entire time. She doesn't even remember what a bathtub is for, I am sure!

The Cat is FINALLY out of the Bag!

I can FINALLY talk about what I have been up to since my last post. I just didn't know what to blog about if it wasn't what was taking up so much of my time. You see, Gordie turned 50 last week, and this past Saturday was his surprise birthday party. It was a last minute plan but I managed to pull it off. I knew that I would use this particular local caterer for the party but since I had last seen him which was some time ago, he moved into a nice locale not too far from us. His commercial kitchen was at the back with this funky art gallery kind of living room kind of room in the front. A perfect spot to hold a party for 50 or so people. You can't really tell by the photos but there is photography and art work hanging on all the walls. The room had some couches here and there and lots and lots of candles. It was beautiful! And not to mention that the food was outstanding! The platters of hors d'oeuvres just kept coming with every one tastier than the other. It turned out just as I had hoped. And the best part... when I woke up this AM, there was no mess to clean up!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GORDIE!