Everything Old Is New Again!

I must admit the duct cleaning went pretty well, much to our dismay. The rep from Kleen-Flo was quick and efficient. We were also pleased how quickly the dryer vent was sucked out. Having never been cleaned since the house was built, we were lucky, as the vent was pretty disgusting and getting close to hazardous!! Good thing we thought about it when we did!! So now you could say the ducts are clean and good to go again for another round.

The new rug arrived a week ago today and, again, really pleased with how it looks. After looking around a few places, we found exactly what we (I) was looking for at Lowes.ca. I’ve fallen in love with certain oriental-style rugs and this one seemed to fit that bill. It was extremely hard to find an oriental-style rug in the colours I wanted (green, beige, burgundy) but I finally found it, after looking for months on end. From the web site the colour combination was perfect, the size was just a tad larger than the one we have in the Living Room now and the price was right. After consulting with Nat and with the stars all aligned, I pressed “Add To Cart” on the Lowes site hoping like Hell it would look as good in the house as it did online!! I got extremely lucky when it arrived and we rolled it out this past weekend. We were both really pleased. We now had a punch of colour and pattern in our plain Living Room which makes it look cozy and inviting. Out with the old rug – plain and simple – and in with the new one – patterned and pretty!!

Some Colour & Character

Some Pattern in Living Room

Colour and a Little OOmph

A Little Pattern Along With The Plain

After what felt like a relatively busy week, we took a break and drove to the Marshville Heritage Festival on Saturday for a look around. This festival is the first sign of Fall weather for me and the start of good Craft Shows – Balls’ Falls, Vineland, etc. which I love going to. It’s also the only time I can buy those fabulous, deliciously crunchy red Candy Apples. I usually buy 2 whenever I can and savour each one while watching a good show on T.V. in the evening. YUMMMM. As things went, that was about the only thing we did buy at Marshville along with a set of hand-sewn yellow-blue combo placemats. There really wasn’t anything too new or exciting that floated my boat this year, but I’ll keep going every year I can in case something new and exciting does show up. Can’t Buy if you Don’t Go.

With a good walk-about in the warm summer air on Saturday, Nat and I stayed home on Sunday so I could get caught up with house work – laundry, dusting, etc. In between loads of wash we began to discuss the Van. Nat’s mentioned on several occasions over the past year that the Van is getting older (2005), that it’s still mechanically sound but time is not on it’s side and we really don’t have much use for a van-sized vehicle any more. Besides, knowing Nat the way I do, I could tell he was long overdue for a new vehicle. We discussed the pros and cons back and forth, along with the financial end of things and decided that we could wait for another year, or we could do something this year (and even take advantage of the good year-end sales). I knew in my heart of hearts it was a done deal. I told Nat there was no use waiting for a whole other year – the van would be that much older – and the deals were out there now. Who knows what would be out there next year?? It was decided – we would take a look at a couple of dealerships on (Labour Day) Monday. The dealerships would be closed and we could walk about without any hassles.

Since I’ve been married to this man of mine, he/we have always owned brown vehicles, or a variation thereof, and Nat dearly wanted a big change. He’s very drawn to the colour red, and who wouldn’t be. A very vibrant and uplifting colour. And so it was when we arrived at the second dealership, Niagara Motors in Virgil., it was just sitting there in the lot. A beautiful red 2014 Buick Encore in all its glory just waiting for us. Naturally, we didn’t get over-excited, we took our time and had a good look around. We also checked out other Encores with different options and higher in price range. Not actually being able to see all of the extra options, each and every vehicle seemed to be the same to me!! We kept going back to the red one. We then stood in the car lot and discussed what steps to take next. Nat wanted to take a test drive and see how the actual vehicle handled, which is understandable before buying a new car. We decided to return on Tuesday, talk to a salesman who could answer all of Nat’s questions and perhaps give us a bottom-line price.

More discussions Monday evening and a final decision was made. We returned Tuesday afternoon, was introduced to a nice salesman (as salesmen go!!) and took off for a test drive down the QEW (to check for ‘pick-up’) and along a good straight-away to test for comfort and check out any doodads we could find while headed back to the dealership. As it started to rain, we also had a good chance to try out the windshield wipers – a lot quieter than the Van’s which was a little bonus. Looking over at Nat, I could read his face. He had that little tiny smile hiding inside his big blue eyes! He was enjoying the look and feel of his favourite vehicle – Buicks. This was a done deal and he looked at me for re-assurance that this was the right time. I told him we’re best to do it now as you can’t predict the future. Besides, I now wanted this vehicle as bad as he did. It was really nice – a good soft/solid comfortable ride, quiet inside, easy to handle and had that cute little “sporty” look.

We’re now sitting in the salesman’s little cubicle discussing details. Not having bought a new vehicle for 9 years, everything was newer than we remembered. Everything was now computerized and our salesman kept jumping up and down to go to the printer to pick up copies of his calculations, bottom-line price, discounts, add-ons, taxes, etc. We reviewed everything and after going through the usual rustproofing spiel we were now signing on the dotted line – well, Nat was!! No matter how computerized any car dealership, the whole “buying process” seems like an eternity!! We’ll pick up the little beauty on Thursday afternoon and, as I was reading our copy of the Bill of Sale, I noticed the name of the colour – Ruby Red. My mother’s name was Ruby. I turned to Nat and remarked this was meant to be!! The stars were in align again!

Let me introduce you to “Ruby”

2014 Buick Encore