The New Coffee Room

@Mik I’m having flashbacks. Never again will I live in a place with sliding glass door on a tub.
I prefer full 1 piece acrylic tub-showers and large single shower units with non sliding glass doors (like for new builds). I dislike cleaning tile this much, and just use tile to the ceiling above and as an accent for surrounds. Saying this, I did do a stand-alone rectangular tub in the most recent master bath. For resale reasons only. I searched quite a while finding one that was long enough & shallow enough .. like retiree friendly. That area got half height large format rectangular tile on 3 walls. Good for hanging wet towels on both ends I suppose.

@89th .. Your updated kitchen is modern, yet your choices will endure through what’s trending now for a long time. Good design decisions.
I’m still a split sink person. I don’t know why .. maybe because I don’t use or wash many large pots? or cook much? Lol. No grate for me either .. I’m good with scratches. But I need that garburator. I’m a heavy gauge stainless girl too. In the most recent (2025) house build, I decided to heck with the tile backsplash and went full-on Vicostone (I sourced their hush-hush price list & chose an older thus cheaper neutral pattern for the island, counters and backsplash). I get so upfront stressed with interior designers & design decisions, then get easily bored afterwards with the color & pattern of tile. And I don’t want to spend $$ & time to upgrade. I also spent 3 decades worrying of sauce & grease stains on grout, so here, now, it’s full-on same-on backsplash & counters for me.

@89th You’ve a beautiful kitchen. Stunning. I really like your countertop. The tile goes really well. Good choices! ️

83. Way different crowd in this rural AB town. Different from the upscale YYC neighborhood. All kiddos in were in costumes. Teenagers too. And parents. Many cows. Some dinosaurs, ninjas. One really cute mini RCMP officer. All, yes all!, said “Thank you”. There were no van loads of kids with parent chauffeurs. Everyone walked.

Wow. @89th. Beautiful. I wish we had the climate to grow cedar like this. Our chinooks aren’t kind. I love your maples. Fall and spring are my favourite seasons.

Memories of my folks outside on the patio. Kinda makes me smile. I was mixing Caesars, martinis for my parents from a pretty young age.

@Mik I refuse to believe you’re 70.
All of us here are younger.

Terrifying! I saw some of this footage yesterday. Did I hear the building behind is a hospital? Can you imagine being a patient there watching out a window as all this unfolds? Yikes.

Wow. Impressive and inspiring. Both of you!
Your muscle gain is awesome @Horace . How old are you, btw?
I remember doing the InBody thing in my 50s. The results helped motivate me.

Wow. That’s a lot of work completed in the heat of summer!

You’re pretty patient @brenda . Messing on my sewing box would be a serious offence for any critter on my porch!

@89th We’ve a couple of similar homes on our street. One has obvious hail damage on the back & I’m betting leakage within too. Kind of hard to judge absent homeowners’ situations because being out of country can pose multiple complications. Although I’m kind of sick of shovelling absent homeowners’ sidewalks in the freezing winter, I do it anyway, because there are old people having to walk down the street to get their mail from our common mailbox location. I don’t want them to slip and fall. Our lots are only 25 ft wide.

@blondie said in What else is new?:

@AndyD You’ve a really cool house! I love the inlay on your piano too.

@AndyD You’ve a really cool house!

@Renauda Interesting what you say of drywall corner beading. I’m going to re look at the front porch (which is covered btw). Where I’d really first like to put Trex on this house is on the front and back door Stair treads because they are exposed to snow and rain.

Ha. Around 1980 I remember a professor having me sit down with her secretary to learn to use a word processor. I’d never used anything like this before. No backspacing with correction tape. Words were justified. But it seemed slow in contrast to typing on an IBM Selectric and even the little electric typewriter I used at home. Faster than a manual though .. oh my!
I wonder how many kids today know what “cc” stands for, or have seen carbon paper?

@89th .. You’ve a lot of work on your plate. I so remember those days of yard work. Good to see you’re growing little worker bees to help you!

@Brenda .. You’ve the stamina of a 30 yr old. Like wow. You get a lot done.

Trex is good. I did trex with my most recent build, but I’ve a question for @Doctor-Phibes : Did you have to replace those joists under your deck? I ask because I want to rip up the unfinished cupped and split front porch boards on another house (built in 2023) and redo it with Trex.

Happy 40th Brenda! Happy 70th to you Mik!