Author Archives: dlau

Yard work…

At one point we had a decision to make with our home. Do we reno the bathrooms or do we do the yard?

The yard was in ok shape, but it did have a few annoyances- first was a volkswagen sized rock in the middle of the yard, second were 5 trees in the 40-50 ft height range.

The trees definitely gave the yard privacy and a park-like feel, but at the same time they took up a lot of room, blocked a lot of sunlight, and continuously rained needles and pinecones onto the deck and grass. Here’s a few pics showing what it looked like last fall.

Backyard Oct 08

backyard Oct 2008

We decided to bring in a landscaper to see what they would recommend. Maybe take down a tree and see if we can level out the yard and bring the grass back to the point where I could practice putting on it.

The landscaper takes a look and recommends we take down the 2 trees to the east, and the one big tree on the NW corner. When they took down 1 tree, it showed signs of inner rot… and if 1 tree shows signs of rot, then there is a chance that the other trees could also be sick, yet show no outward signs of being so. Down came the trees and 2 out of 3 show signs of rot. They then recommed we take down the 2 trees by the deck.

At this point, the cost of taking down all these trees were a lot more than we had anticipated when we bought the place. The inspector said they looked ok, but it’s hard to tell without bringing in an expert. The danger is if the trees are not balanced (leaning to one side) and if they are sick, then it just takes a wind or snowstorm to knock them down… into the house.

So we decide to take them all down.

tree stump

goodbye trees

Then came winter, and the worst snowstorm in 10 years. Our yard looked like this.

snow!

In hindsight, it was a good call to take down the trees given the heavy snowfall.

When spring finally came, we had to decide what to do with the yard. Basically it was cleared out, but it was also a mess and not safe to play in.

A winter with a hyper toddler also gave us incentive to create a safe yard to boot the kids outside and burn off some energy, and save our sanity. Therefore we decided to dig up all the stumps and try to do something about that rock. We hired a backhoe to come in and do the work, and our yard ended up looking like this-

Mighty machines!

504 paving stones removed

Mass destruction

The backhoe trampled over everything, and ripped out all the stumps, but could not turn over the big rock. In the process, what little grass we had was pretty much destroyed. We then had to bring in dirt to level out the yard and lay sod.

laying sod

Laying sod

After the sod went in, they said to water it like crazy for about 3 weeks straight. When they said water it like crazy, they weren’t kidding! If you see seams opening up between the rolls, it means that the sod is shrinking from lack of water. Luckily we had a few good days of rain, and that plus some fertilizer really helped. We probably should have added another inch or two of dirt to help level things out, but that can be done later.

Tomorrow the grass needs to be cut, and I’ll post pictures of how the yard looks after whacking down all the trees, digging up all the rocks/stumps/concrete/paving stones, and laying down new sod, which has been in for about 3 weeks now.

A lot of work, but we figure that everyone can get enjoyment from the yard. Next up- a “slip and slide”, hammock, and wading pool!

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483492

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Feist- learning about the number 4!

Samuel Harry Lau

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It’s January 18th, I’ve finished chores for the day and both kids are down. I have a warm drink, and nothing needs immediate attention. What to do?

It then dawns on me that I haven’t written anything since Sam was born, and years from now, he’ll be asking why I didn’t write anything about when he was born? Oops.

Thinking back over the events since last summer, I cannot remember a time when both Evonne and I have been this busy, given the events leading up to the move, the move itself, having Sam come along, and then Erica entering the Terrible Twos (TT).

I remember watching ‘The March of the Penguins’ and seeing the parent sit there in the worst winter weather anywhere on this planet- with an egg perched on their feet. They have to go without food for months to take care of that one egg, while their mate travels miles, on foot, through some of the worst terrain to get to open water and while facing predators, feed like crazy to be able to feed their chick upon return to the nesting site.

The thought crossed my mind- “are they nuts?” Why would they go through all that? Why not swim up to Australia and have a nice life there?

So yeah, during the tough times we sort of ask a similar question. It’s funny how you hear that 2 kids are more than twice the work. You don’t understand that until you go through it, and then it feels like 100X the work. Taking care of one kid seems like Club Med, but for whatever reason, the second one changes the dynamics, and if your older one is still in diapers… then Ai Yah! As one parent put it when asked what having 2 kids is like- “it’s terrible!” 🙂

Everyone also says that it’s tough now, but it will get better. Maybe they are saying that just so we have hope and won’t flee to Australia… but we can see that once Erica is out of diapers and the TT stage, things have to look up… or will it be like month #2 of an Antartica blizzard with an egg on your foot?

Anyways, I hope to get a bit more time to write about stuff. For sure there’s lots going on, and the days/evenings are pretty full. I found the birth announcement for Sam, which I’ll post here for the record. Also for the record, Sam is doing very well, and he’s a good baby. I’d say he’s “Textbook” for those who use the rating system from “Baby Whisperer” book.

This morning we woke up and was running through our plans for the day- a nice brunch, pick up some end of season sale items from Canadian tire, have a nice afternoon nap, head on over to Caris’ birthday, movie, etc.

Then E tells me that she’s feeling some “cramps” since 7:30am. Ok… it could be the Pecans and ice-cream we had last night, nothing to worry about. We’re not due til September 13th.

Then the cramping becomes more regular, maybe a ‘3’ in intensity. I start packing and rounding up stuff for the hospital real fast, just in case. Around 11am, E places a call to Burnaby General- moderate cramps, but every 5 or 6 minutes. She can still talk through them, so Burnaby General advises to wait until they are every 5 minutes and last a minute. I then head off to McD’s for a breakfast run and when I return, things get a little more intense. Gulp down food fast, we’re heading in after breakfast.

At this point, we’re very grateful that Elaine and Lauren stayed for one more night instead of going home last night as planned. After we ate, I packed everything up and we headed out. Elaine then took Erica to stay at Grandma’s.Finally, a chance to gun the big Merc down the road, but E reminds me that we’re not in “that much of a hurry” 🙁 We left the house at noon, and hit construction along the way, but still managed to arrive at 12:20. I drop E off at admitting and parked the car.I run back to admitting, and find that it’s closed- go to Emergency. I scanned Emergency for E, couldn’t find her so I assume she was already admitted. Up to the Birthing suites. E was already being monitered for the non-stress test, and the nurse tells me to go back to Emergency to check her in. Run back down, deal with the chaos in Emergency to get the paperwork done, and back up to the suites. When I go there, E was GONE from the monitoring bed, so I stood there waiting for help. A nurse tells me to grab our stuff and head to #7, which looked really familiar, and it turns out it was the same room Erica was born in!

They had already broke her water, and she was on the bed with her old friend- laughing gas. Ok, this is going to happen a lot faster than last time, so… I’ll get the ice chips. No CDs, no tennis ball, just get down to business. Lots of 60-70 second contractions about a 90s apart, full dilation, transition phase, pushing about 30 min, and at 1:57pm, Samuel Harry Lau was born Sept 6th, at 7lbs, 1oz!

Again, witnessing the pain of birth left me speechless, and seeing our son being born, and taking his first breath was every bit as special as the first time. I’m going to grab some ZzzzZzzz, grab some essentials, take care of the cats and back to the hospital tomorrow. We should be home Monday AM if all goes well. Mom and baby are doing very well, and attached is a picture!

(Apparently when E arrived that the birthing suite, the nurse (Shirley) said that E looked a bit too comfortable, meaning she may be early… however they would take a look since E was Asian. Apparently they expect things to move along very quickly if you are Asian, and the second one is supposed to be faster since your body “knows” what’s happening. At this point, E was 6cm dilated, and they decided to break her water to move things along even faster. Our Doctor this time wasn’t Carrie, but Dr. Dy who looked liked she just came from a Yoga class and did a great job.

After we Sam arrived, we hung out for a bit and went downstairs to Maternity. What a difference! There was only one other family and we got a room to ourselves! The other interesting thing was meeting the nursing staff, some of which we recognized from our first time through- and since it was our second time, they left us alone a bit more. We stayed the one night, and was discharged the following day. In and out in just over 24 hours. One final note- how did E respond to the laughing gas? I would say she was a bit less chatty than last time, but I found her asking questions of a “personal” nature of the staff (Where do you live, are you single, are you seeing anyone, etc.) Ironically, she does this after a few drinks as well)

2 more sleeps…

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The other day I got that same feeling you get as a kid that is just a few days away from going to a new school. You’re looking forward to it because everything will be new and different, but at the same time there’s some anticipation because well… everything will be new and different.

We’re now a couple of days from our move, and our place is filled with boxes, labels, and things are just a bit chaotic right now. Erica and the cats have been noticing the escalating change, and the past few mornings e has woken up and not been happy. All her familiar things are now in boxes. Her room is filled with boxes and garbage bags. The cats are also needing extra attention and reassurance. I’m guessing the move will be hard on them as well- I read that cats get attached to places whereas dogs are fine as long as their humans are around.

As for the move itself, we severly underestimated the number of boxes. In the end, E went online, at Jennifer’s suggestion to Frogbox. They are a company that drops off these green, stackable, sturdy plastic boxes (similar to ones we used to move at the office) and pick them up again when you are done. No need to go out and buy cardboard boxes (they are expensive!), tape them together, collapse, or recycle them. I imagine they are a lot more environmentally friendly. We very much recommend them.

I think back to when we moved here almost 8 years ago, and how much has changed since then. We weren’t married, we had hand-me-down furniture including a used futon and sawed off love seat for the living room. We had E’s double bed on an ikea frame… and a foosball table with a cover and 4 bar stools for a dining room table. We were one of the original owners here at Madison, I think 4th or 5th to move in. We’ve seen neighbors come and go, and neighbors turn into really good friends. As with any strata, we’ve also seen our share of drama, but also a strong sense of community.

Tomorrow is Erica’s last day at Cecelia’s daycare, and if we’re emotional about missing daycare, then I’m sure the same goes for Erica and all of her friends (Fay-fay, Cah-is, Di-da, Annabelle, etc). We know she likes going there and playing with her friends. It’s definitely one of the reasons why she’s so well socialized.

For us, the location has been great. E works nearby, and for a few years I worked about a mile away from Madison. Family lives nearby, good restaurants and grocery stores, Brentwood’s an ok mall, Metrotown is close by, the Heights is a 10 min walk, my local fishstore is on Hastings, Making Memories (the place where E should work!) is by Safeway, lots of nice parks nearby, Eileen Daily pool, Burnaby mountain golf course, 8 rinks, skytrain, North Van, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re looking forward to the new place, finding new amenties and friends… and I think we’ve found a good place for our kids to grow up. Many milestones in our lives happened while we lived at Madison… a lot of really good memories. But in a few days, we’ll be starting out in a new environment, and part of the fun will be discovering all the things that will turn into more good memories in time.

Yeah, tomorrow’s going to be a tough day.

Dan-cing

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It’s been quite the weekend. First off, my family flew into town the day before Alex and Jen’s wedding. Erica was picked to be the flowergirl, and we weren’t quite sure how this was going to go down, especially since the ceremony would be during her naptime, and a lot of people will be present. I’ll save this story for a future post.

Recently, she learned the word “Dan-cing” and does this hillbilly stomp/flying seagull move whenever music is played. At home, pretty amusing. At the wedding reception, hours past her bedtime, this is what she was doing for most of the night… with

everyone.

We tried taking her home at 10pm, but as soon as the music came back on, she pointed at the dance floor and said “Dan-cing!”

Anyways, congrats to Alex and Jen. I’ll post whatever pics I have, but it was a very genuine, funny, moving, and all-round memorable day.

Randy Pausch

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A few weeks ago I didn’t know who Randy Pausch was, and I admit that I stumbled upon his speech and his story quite accidently. After learning the backstory, I watched the speech, and was just captivated. Although titled ‘Achieving your childhood dreams’ it boils down to passing on all the lessons learned on how to live a good life. When he revealed his true intention for giving the speech at the end, I just had a lump in my throat and it was one of those rare moments where I was truly moved.

Anyways, I’m not sure why it’s no longer on youtube, but I did find a shorter version of his speech here-

If you have an hour to watch the entire speech, or want to read the book (I’m halfway through); both can be found here-

http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

I highly recommend checking it out, it’s time well spent.

Madison Gardens

Our new home!

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So here are the pics of our new place, near Como Lake. Of course our furnishings aren’t anything like what’s pictured, but it should be fun to see what it will look like in a year once we’ve settled in.

I’ll have to say that getting to this point has been one of the more trying exercises I can remember. It started off with us stumbling upon the house at the end of a string of open houses and drive-bys. We stopped in and just felt that it was “it.” That evening we did some more research, discussed the pros/cons, and made the call to put an offer in a couple of days later. Our mantra was “if it’s meant to be, we’ll get it…”

Our first offer was accepted subject to inspection, financing, and sale of our place. We knew the first two wouldn’t be a problem, and with the track record of sales in our building, we felt our chances of a quick sale would be good. The paperwork was signed, and then the real work started.

I won’t post any pics of our place before we started decluttering, only because it would have been pic after pic of baby stuff. It was clear we had to move stuff into storage, and so instead of renting a truck, filling it up, and driving stuff over to a storage facility, we went with a company called “Ah so easy…” They drop a container off on the street, you fill it up over a day or two, then they come take it away and store it until you need them to drop it off at the new location. Thanks to GB for that tip!

We packed that weekend like mad, and also did some repairs to finish off the stairs, and other maintenance work. I’m so glad we had the extra help to declutter and move things out. When the decluttering finished, my sister came out to help stage the place (pics in another post) and get things ready for the open house. It was at that time that I came down with a nasty flu. Sigh…

Mom and Vennie did a great job staging the place and so all we had to do was maintain things, get some sunny weather, and get a sale to complete the deal.

First open house we had 10 people cruise through (a few of them neighbours). A couple of bites, but nothing. Next open house (Father’s day), we had 1 person show up. 🙁

Here’s the interesting thing I did not know before. Our offer on the house isn’t binding until we remove subjects. Even though we have an accepted offer, another party with a stronger offer can come in and trump us. If that were to happen, we have 48 hours to make a big decision. Lock in or lose the house. If we lock in without selling our place, we can be carrying 2 mortgages, and with #2 coming in September, not a great position to be in.

2 1/2 weeks in, finally an offer! It is a reasonable offer, but subject to the sale of her condo. This means that nothing is binding until she officially sells her place, and if the offer on her place is subject to sale of another place, then the chain continues until someone down the line comes up with a strong deal. This chaining effect can go on for quite a few deals, just like a domino effect. The day she comes in for a second viewing, we had our open parking area vandalized for copper pipes… Obviously this has an effect on her, and on the day of her subject removal (July 4) she kills the deal without even reviewing the strata meeting minutes. Back to square 1.

Another open house the following weekend and we get 6 visitors, and a couple more private viewings. On July 8th, we get some news… someone else has a strong offer on the house, and we have 48 hours to decide what to do! That same day, we also get another offer, no subject to sale. That deal however, would not conclude until July 15th, and means that if we decide to lock in the house on July 10th, there is a risk that the buyer for our place could back out and leave us in a tight spot! We talked about it at length, and decided that this is the house we want to raise our family in, and we’ll take the calculated risk.

So we take the plunge and sign the paperwork. All we need to do is wait for the buyer to complete inspection of the building and meeting minutes. That Friday night, the buyer calls off the inspection. :-0 Apparently there was some concern over the type of businesses that could go into our retail space. That evening was spent talking to our strata council and pouring over the bylaws and amendments to find out what controls we had over the type of business could go in.

When we bought, we never thought about this. Most of the retail has been there for years, and they are pretty harmless- print shop, massage parlour (not the kind found on Kingsway), nail and hair place, cafe, etc. In the end it took a call from the prospective buyer to one of the council members to calm things down, and the inspection was on again. I can say there was a fair amount of drama over that incident!

Next up was the physical inspection, and we knew that would go well. Just a few cracked tiles and a lock that needed adjustment was all that was reported back. The last bit of drama that went on was the buyer’s realtor threatening the deal over the replacement of the tiles whereas we saw it as regular wear/tear. Once we got over that bit of annoyance, the deal went through and everything was locked in. Whew! That was probably the most challenging 6 weeks to go through the ups and downs, plus the work to get our place ready to show.

I will say that in the future, it’s better to sell first, then go shopping for a place since coming into a deal with no subject to sell really enhances your position and makes thing a lot quicker. Notch one on the belt of experience.

Our move date is August 30, which is less than 2 weeks before our official due date. E had her ultrasound yesterday, and our baby is about 5lbs now and is quite a mover/shaker!

We’ll be really sad to leave our complex, and our friends. When we were scrambling to get information we had to call upon our neighbors for help. Even though they do not want to see us move, they did everything they could to help us sell, including digging up old documents and taking calls late in the evening. That’s what kind of a community exists here, and one that we’re going to miss very much. When we did finally sell, they were all congratulating us and ut was all bittersweet. We’ve been there for 7 years.

As our neighbour Patsy put it as she was explaining the situation to her 4 year old daugther, Ming- “we’re no longer neighbours, but we’re still friends!”