Al Zylstra

Alex has a new pair of friends:  Our new washer and dryer.

However, we had a challenge getting everything hooked up yesterday.  We did not realize that the dryer needed a water hose attachment.  Since when do dryers need water?  Well, this one does.  Apparently, it has a steam setting….

So, we went to Home Depot to find the”Y” connector and the stainless steel hoses that were recommended.  

So, yesterday was the first full day that Alex was in the house by himself (well, Nykie is there).  He is a man on a mission.  The amount of work he has put into the place already is incredible.  He has stripped wallpaper, patched holes, tightened things, repaired things, removed a myriad of screws, hooks, nails, pulled up baseboards of every shape and type.  

He has tackled the living room.  He ripped down the chair rail – which for some reason sat at 24″  up the wall instead of 36″.  We think it was because the previous owners were confined to a wheelchair and therefore everything was set much lower…. It is a theory which works for us.  

Up went the anaglypta wallpaper which looks like beadboard.  It is at the 36″ level and he will be putting up the chair rail to coincide with the height.  

As you can see from the photos, he has his work cut out for him, but, he knows what he wants and what has to be done.

Once the rails are up, then he will begin the painting of all the wood.  It is going to look spectacular once we are done.  

I am so proud of my husband for the energy, creativity and enthusiasm he has for this project.  Like he said to me last night:  “This place is ours and I can do whatever I want and I want it to be our home, the way I want it….”

More power to him.  

Next week begins the moving of some of the furniture.  What fills me with a degree of dread is the aquariums.  We have a tank that is 88 US Gallons.  AUGH!!!  Moving it is gonna be a freakin’ nightmare.  First, we have to pull out all the plants and fish and store them…. somewhere.  Then drain it, pull out all the gravel (120 lbs), all the decorations (approximately another 75 lbs), and then bring it downstairs to a waiting van.  Load it, the stand, the gravel, decorations, fish and plants and take it to the house where we will then have to reassemble the whole mess. It is gonna be interesting….

Well,  here we are in our new home. We have just started to move boxes in since Friday of last week.  We have no furniture here except for our air mattress but, we thought we would give it a shot.  Almost like camping except we have a furnace, bathroom, a function kitchen and carpeting.   Nykie seems ambivalent but, as long as his Pappa and Daddy are there, along with his blanket and favorite toys, he is content.
We started renovations on Saturday.   Went out and bought paint,  anaglypta wallpaper (paintable), a new ceiling fan for the living room, and and bunch of supplies. On Sunday, wd began stripping wallpaper off. Wow what a horrible job. So much badly installed paper.
After a few hours of that, we welcomed our first visitors. Our good friends, Tony and Tyna Meier along with their two youngest daughters, Alex and Dominique.   We chatted for a bit while they ooohed and awwed over our new digs.
The next few weeks are going to be hectic but, well worth it.  I have one last show to do at the Metro – Murder on the Nile which runs until March16 and theni am done with shows for therest of the year. I will be devoting all my free time to making our home what we need it to be.
We have a lot to do here but, it is for us and not a landlord. Homeownership is all it is cracked up to be….

Today I have good news and well, not so good news.

First the Good News!

Today we are that much closer to realizing our dream.  We met with the bank on Saturday to sign the mortgage documents and today we met with the lawyers to sign the conveyancing.  All the paperwork has been completed.  All the inspections, stresses, documentation, and of course, the waiting is over!

We only have one more thing standing in our way:  getting the keys.  We are picking those up on Thursday!!!! Well, I am picking them up.  Alex will be waiting at home by the phone to hear from me once I have the keys… Hooray!!!!

We drove by the place today on our way back from the lawyers and we were thrilled to see “SOLD” signs in the windows of our home…. What a great feeling.  Alex looked like he was going to break out in song.

We can start moving stuff in as early as Friday…. Yippee!!

Now for the “Not So Good News”

Friday afternoon, I got a call from Alex.  He was panicky and out of breath.  Apparently, Nykie had another relapse.  (Expletive deleted)!!!!!!

While taking Nykie for a walk in the early afternoon, he experienced another “attack”.  It took Alex over 30 minutes to get him home.  As soon as he got Nykie settled in, he started experiencing chest pains.  So, he called me right away.

 Fortunately, I was on my way home.  I got home around 3:30 and took him straight to the ER.  I dropped him off and took the car home.  Once home, I looked in on Nykie and made sure he was okay.  He looked so tired and frail.  His eyes were doing that darting from left to right in a rapid pace.  But, a huge sigh of relief came over me when I noticed they were moving much more slowly than the last time.  He also gladly took some cookies from me and ate them.  TWO HUGE SIGNS THAT ALL WAS GOING TO BE OKAY!

So, off to the hospital I went.  After being stuck in the waiting room for, what seemed, FOREVER, I was allowed to go and see him.  Talk about looking “frail and tired”…. They had Alex hooked up to a number of pieces of equipment and were getting ready to hook up an IV.  They didn’t take any chances this time and began pumping drugs into him.  First came the morphine, then the lidocaine, and then something called “pink lady” (how appropriate).  Within minutes of the morphine being pumped into him, he started to observe that his lips were numb and he couldn’t feel his fingers…. Good signs, apparently.

Once the drugs kicked in, we began to wait.  And wait. And wait. And wait.  And guess what?  We waited some more.  

Around 7:00, I told Alex I was going to go home and check on the dog and grab a bit of dinner. So, off I went.  I stopped in at “Fatburger” on Davie.  OMG!!!  What a great barbecue bacon burger with rings…. But, I digress….

I got home in time to take Nykie for a walk and tried to feed him a bit.  Nope.  Wouldn’t have any of it… AUGH!!!!

After sitting with him for about 45 minutes, I went back to the hospital to check on Alex.  When I got there, what did I see?  I saw my husband!  He was grumpy and impatient.  My husband was obviously feeling better.  We sat there for about another 45 minutes and finally a nurse came by and told us he could go home.  

You didn’t need to tell us twice.  So, we got his clothes back on and headed for home.When we walked in the door, master and dog were united.  They both breathed a sign of relief.  

As did I.

And how was your weekend?

Well, the home inspection went better than I thought it could have gone.  Arne Larsen – West Coast Home Inspections – you are a god!!!!  You were so good.  All of my nagging concerns about the place were put to rest.

Sure, there are things we will need to do to the place in the short and long term, but, they are all manageable and the bulk of them can be done by Alex and myself.

The roof is in great shape, the electrical is good, the plumbing, on the other hand will need to be replaced sometime soon.  Fortunately, being in a mobile, the access is not in the walls but in the crawl space underneath so much easier to get access to.  Hooray for that.

The one cool thing that Arne commented on was the this mobile was handicapable.  So, there were some interesting things added to the guest bathroom.  The fully functioning electronic toilet is so cool!  It acts as a bidet, enema, dryer and… get this!  It has a MASSAGE FUNCTION!!!!

Alex wants to take it out and get rid of it, but, I say, “not until I have taken if for a test-run!!!”

I simply gotta try the Massage function…. I think…..

Regardless, the conditions came off today, we sign the mortgage documents on Saturday, the deal closes on Tuesday and we get the keys next week!!!!  We can’t wait….  

Yesterday, you would have thought Alex had become a Papparzzo with the number of pictures he took with one of our cameras.  But, he wanted an accurate representation of each of the rooms and so he could plan how we was going to tackle each of the rooms.

My husband has BIG plans…..

So, with that burden off of my shoulders, that leaves me with two more major events happening:

1)  The final three performances of “Barefoot in the Park” happen this week.  Tickets are still available for Thursday, Friday and closing Saturday.  I am very proud of this show.  We have an amazing cast and crew working on this show and I strongly encourage everyone to support the Metro Theatre by coming out.

2) Next week begins “tech week” for Murder on the Nile.  This show runs from February 16 – March 16.  Again, another great show.  I hope you can make it out.

Al

After a bit of a stressful couple of days (again) last week, we are getting sooooo much closer to realizing our dream of being home owners…

Our bank, once again, decided that having 4 different documents was not enough, even though they were the ones that told us all they needed was the 4 documents to complete the sale.  They came up with a 5th document requirement.  AUGH!!!  

This latest document was a bill of sale to be filled out by the seller and signed by her.  She reviewed it and refused to sign the document as it indicated that she had already received the funds of the sale of her mobile home.  *sigh*.  I had to agree with her as it didn’t make sense for her to sign that document.  So, we went back to our bank and after a tense exchange between myself and the bank, our realtor and the bank and then the BIG GUN, Alex and the bank, they agreed that the document didn’t need to be signed until after the sale was completed.  No kidding (note definite sarcasm here!!!)!

So, we were back at the point we were supposed to be at before all this document hellishness arose… We confirmed our home inspection with Arne Larson from West Coast Home Inspections for this Tuesday at 10:00 am.  This is the last hurdle that we can foresee.  Hopefully, the inspection will go well.  I am confident that it will.  

Once the inspection is finalized, then the conditions will be coming off on February 12th.  Very appropriate date… it is my mother’s birthday….  We will get the keys on February 14th – Valentine’s Day.  Another appropriate date to close the deal…..

Alex is so ready for this event.  We went fabric shopping this weekend as Alex wants a whole new color scheme in our new home.  So, $232 later… we have some amazing fabrics which Alex will turn into draperies, cushions and so much more.  

We have started collecting boxes as Alex will start packing as soon as I get the keys…. Then the real job starts… Moving!!!!  Alex and I will take a load over every morning for the balance of February and the first week of March.  We will also do 3 or 4 runs on Weekends.  I will drop Alex and Nykie off at the new home and Alex can start painting, cleaning, unpacking the load of boxes and generally get things going.

We decided to do it this way as it gives us more time to move in gradually as well as allows me to finish up my last show of 2013:  Murder on the Nile.  Nice segue, huh?

To anybody who reads my blogs, I would love for you to come and check it out.  It is a great Agatha Christie “whodunnit” and features a great cast.  I am equally pleased to mention that Alex is one of two costumers for this production.  He has done a great job making everyone look good.  I have always been so proud of his talents and this just further reinforces that.

To see pics, show times and ticket prices, check out the website at http://www.metrotheatrevancouver.com

The show runs from February 16 – March 16th.  I hope to see you all there.

On the Nykie front, we took him back to the Vet’s on Saturday.  This is his last visit for a while, I hope.  His recovery from his most recent affliction is bordering on the miraculous.  He is eating well, he is sleeping better, he is gaining the weight back that he lost, his sense of balance is back, he walks well again and only ocassionally trips but manages to catch himself very quickly. Alex and I are so grateful for each day we get with him now.  We now know for certain that his final years will be spent in a home with a yard where he can sit and sun himself and not have to be on a leash.  That is worth the price of the property alone….

Finally, on the personal front, Saturday was the 10th anniversary of my father’s death.  I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so out of sorts on Saturday.  Alex even commented on the fact that I wasn’t being very helpful with the fabric selections.  I couldn’t understand it either…. It wasn’t until I got home that it dawned on me…. I had forgotten the date!  So, I spent the next few hours remembering my dad.  What a card he was!

He loved to tease my mom.  Almost to the point where she would have loved to hit him with a frying pan! 

He LOVED his daughters in-law as much as his own daughter:  Sharon, Nadine and Shelley were the apples of his eye.  His own daughter, Anna was the one person who could make my dad turn into a superhero in the blink of an eye.  The women in his life were his life to the exclusion of all else. Until the grandchildren arrived.

The women graciously took a back seat to his attention and affections.  He truly doted on the grandchildren.

Then there was the dog!  My youngest brother brought my dad and mom a tiny German Shepherd puppy for Christmas in 1986.  That began the sage of Shanki – the adorable tiny puppy who became this massive monster who loved to knock over the grandkids, reveled in being vacuumed each morning by my mom and would sit on the sofa next to my dad while dad watched WWF.

My dad was a spirited man who loved to travel.  He was happiest behind the wheel of his car flying down the highway heading to Vegas.  

It was always an endurance test for the rest of us who were unfortunate enough to forget to go to the bathroom before we hit the road.

Dad and I had a distant relationship.  He never quite got me.  He knew I was gay but, didn’t want to talk about it.  He didn’t disapprove of me but, didn’t know how to talk to me.  I was fortunate to fix that.  On Christmas Eve, 2002, dad called me out of the blue,  After the customary discussion of the weather in Vancouver vs. Edmonton, he paused.  I could hear it in his voice that something was up.

“Are you happy, son?” Those 4 words changed everything about my relationship with my dad.  He was actually talking to me…. about me!  Suddenly, my vision became blurry.  I had to stop and sit down.  The tears were coming and I couldn’t stop them.

“Yes, dad.” I managed to whisper. “I am happy.”  

Those words were all that I needed to say.

“Good.  I am glad.  I will talk to you soon.”

6 weeks later, I managed to make it home in time to say “goodbye” to him.  By this time, the emphysema had taken its toll on him.  He was in the hospital, a shadow of the man I knew.  His labored breathing tore at my heart.  My mom and some of my family were there.  Mom leaned over to dad and told him I was there.  His breathing seemed to steady for a few minutes.  

I was able to spend a few minutes alone with him.  I held his hand and told him that I loved him and that if he needed to go, he should.  No one was going to stop him.  I could feel his hand tighten on mine ever so slightly.  

I went to my older brother’s to get some rest.  Around midnight, we got the call from the hospital that my father had died.  I sat up in bed, said a silent “thank you” to the powers that be that allowed me a final moment with him.

I wish that we had more time but, I will be eternally grateful for the time I did have with him.

Well, I keep singing the same tune, and so, here it is again: “What a difference a day makes….”

After one of the most angst ridden weekends of my life, things are slowly looking up.

Alex went for a series of Stress Tests at St. Paul’s Hospital on Tuesday.  They put him through the gears.  They made him run on a treadmill for a rather lengthy period of time.  They plugged him into a variety of gizmos and put him through the paces.  After he completed all the tests, the evaluator looked them over and told him that he was in GREAT SHAPE!  No damage to his heart muscles…. What a relief! He  needs to find some way of relieving his stress, though. That last part is my diagnosis and not the hospital’s.  

Next, Nykie.  He is on the way to recovery.  His head no longer tilts to the right, he is not wobbling when he walks and “Praise BE”… he is eating on his own.  Alex has discovered that Nykie doesn’t want to eat chicken or his tinned dog food anymore.  He is now demanding marinated steak!  With brown rice!! Sheesh!  I should eat so well….  But, I will not begrudge him his food.  Since this whole debacle with the “Old Dog Syndrome”, he has lost 1 1/2 kilos!  That is way too much…. So, if it is steak he needs to keep his weight on, steak it is….

On the home front, we met with our banker on Saturday and he advised us that all 4 documents they needed for the Chattel Mortgage were now complete and that they were being sent off to Toronto for approval.  We have been approved for the mortgage and it is just a matter of paperwork being approved.  Talk about pins and needles!!! Hope we hear today.

Getting into the home stretch on “Barefoot in the Park”.  Only 6 more performances before it closes.  For those theatre buffs out there, it is a great show.  Well, acted and if you watch closely, you will see my stage debut in this production.  For tickets and information, check out http://www.metrotheatrevancouver.com

Once this production closes, I have about 24 hours before I start on Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Nile”.  Again, another great show, with fabulous sets and really good acting.  Fortunately for me, I don’t have to be on stage for this one.  Hooray!!!

This show runs from February 16 – March 16.  Again, check out http://www.metrotheatrevancouver.com for tickets and show times.

Well, that is about it for now.  Will send updates on the hubby, dog and house as soon as I get ’em….

Well, yesterday was a truly momentous day for Alex and myself.  We put an offer on another property.  We met with the realtor yesterday morning and went over all the details of our offer.  We hemmed and hawwed and debated for what seemed like forever before we settled on a price.  Our realtor, put the offer in and while we waited, we went over to the park where we met the owner of the park.  Lovely man.

We presented him with the agreement that our bank needed signed.  This was the same document which scuttled our first offer.  We held our breath while he took the form.  He glanced at it briefly and then without a second thought, pulled out his pen, signed it and handed it back to Alex.  I almost fell over.

As soon as the document was signed, Alex and our realtor went out for a cigarette.  As soon as they lit up, the phone rang and it was the seller with a counter offer.  It was still more than we were prepared to pay.  We told our realtor our final and I mean FINAL price. He presented it to the seller’s real estate agent.  We waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  It seemed like an eternity, but, it was probably only 5 minutes when the phone rang again.  The seller accepted our offer!!!

We were ecstatic.  Alex looked like he was going to cry our of sheer happiness and relief.  So, our realtor got us to initial the new offer and he took the documents and ran away to his office to fax them over to the seller for a signature.  They were then to be sent to our bank for processing….

We decided to go directly to our bank with our copies of the documents just so that he could start working on the forms.  But, as soon as I got in the car, I looked at Alex and he looked at me.  We drove to our new home…. just to see it!  We are hoping to close by the beginning of February with a possession date of February 14th…. how appropriate!

This one requires so much less work.  It has a small garden in the front, a HUGE covered patio on the side, a lanai off of the covered patio and a small back yard!!!  

Now, the packing begins….

But, we still have one small thorn in our sides.  Nykie is still making a miraculous recovery from his recent affliction of “Old Dog Syndrome”.  He is wobbly but his eyes have stopped doing that constant shifting, he doesn’t throw up anymore and his vertigo seems to be disappearing.  We just need him to eat.  He went almost 5 days with no food.  So, yesterday, Alex pureed some chicken and wet food, put it in a large syringe and force fed him.  Boy, was he pissed!  The dog, not Alex….  But, we got food into him and it stayed down!  Hallelujah!!! Hopefully, Nykie will decide to eat on his own soon, but, if he doesn’t then we are prepared for that.  

I want him to experience our new home.  Especially the deck and yard where he can sit out by himself and enjoy the freedom of the outdoors. We take him back to the vet’s on Saturday for another evaluation.  Keeping our fingers crossed the vet will give us good news…. I remain ever hopeful that we can have the pleasure of his companionship for a while longer.