koehnkronicles

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Location: BC, Canada

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Non-cruise vacation

Hola.

You may recall that our last blog mentioned that we would have some renovation updates after our vacation. Well, I don't have a reno update yet but we did take a vacation. It was't exactly like we had planned... in fact it was nothing like we had planned. Ten months ago we booked a Panama canal cruise with Princess cruise lines leaving Monday Sept 24th. Our bags were packed, our house sitter was arranged, our shore excursions were booked, we were eager to leave. Six days before sailing, Brenda receives a call from our travel agent. The cruise has been over booked. Would we mind not going? What do you mean would we mind not going. OF COURSE WE WOULD MIND! We would mind a lot. Ten months of anticipation worth of mind. THEN she dangled the carrot. Most of our money back AND a free cruise with extra perks at a later date. Being Mennonite, we naturally said of course we wouldn't mind not going, thank you very much.

All of a sudden we had vacation time booked with nothing to do except stay home and work on the house. So with that thought in mind I called Flight Center on Friday and we left for Cancun on Sunday. We had a great time in Mexico. Here are a couple of pictures of our non cruise fill in holiday.


This is where we spent most of our time. Beats renovating.









We spent a whole day at Xel-Ha snorkeling, tubing, sunning, and swimming. Lots to do at this all inclusive water park.












This is a view of our resort from the pool. A 4 star all inclusive in Playa Del Carmen. It was nice to have lots of lawn and trees. Our hotel was on the north end of 5th ave which is a street about 34 blocks long of pedestrian trafic only, lined with shops, restaurants, street vendors, all open to midnight. Brenda had a great time. She shopped til I dropped.


Another day we took a bus, taxi and catamaran to the Isla Mujares. We rented a golf cart and toured the whole island which is only 4 km long and 1/2 km wide.






Between long walks on the beach and lots of swimming during the day, and the sights and sounds of Mexico on 5th ave by night, it turned out to be not a bad vacation for Brenda and I after all. Not exactly what we had originally planned but we have found that anywhere we go together is a great holiday.

Our best vacation is still coming up. We are off to to Saskatoon to see Brad and Karla and Carter in November. Now there is a holiday worth waiting for.

Bunny's Nacho's (my spanish needs work)

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Facelift 07

Well, its been quite a while since we have posted anything to our blog site. Its not that we have been living in a cave and never get out and do anything. Its more like we have been so busy living our lives that we haven't had time to sit down and write about what we have been doing. One of the things that's occupying our time right now is we are remodeling our cave, I mean our house. After 24 years of looking at the same old face, we decided to do a face lift on the old girl. (the house that is.) Our trustworthy contractor Shaun has been busy adding a roof over part of our deck, installing new facia's, changing some rooflines, building a front porch, and re-roofing. Here are a couple of before and after pictures.















Here is the hard working crew with our general contractor. (Note the boss in the green shirt.) New vinyl siding, updated gables and posts, and gutters are next. Hopefully when we get back from our little vacation, Shaun will have gotten a few more things done. We are quite happy with the design suggestions he is coming up with even though when he says "how do you like this idea" the dollar signs seem to echo his words. Stay tuned for more updates. Hopefully the next one won't take as long as this one did.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Are we moving???


We had a little suprise on our front lawn the other day. Apparently our house is for sale. I shouldn't be suprised by this because typically I am the last to know about things around here. I conferred with my dear wife about it and found out that it was news to her as well. We then wondered who in our neighbourhood was wanting us to move. I know that I haven't had a chance to cut my lawn yet this week but other than that, I thought we were reasonably good neighbours. We decided to leave the sign there for a few days to see what would come out of the woodwork. Numerous calls and visits from neighbours wondering why we were selling, narrowed down the possibilities somewhat. One neighbour did phone the agent listed on the sign to enquire of the price. Upon confirming that the address given to the agent did not correspond to any listings that he had, this prompted him to come and remove the sign and place it back on the property a few doors down where under the shadow of darkness it had mysteriously transported itself to our humble estate. No suitable offers were received so we shall be content to remain where we have been for the last 29 years. Our own home, sweet home.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Basement reno's

A couple of months ago we started renovating our basement rec (wreck) room. We turned it in to a comfortable family/media room. Other than blinds and pictures and decorations and such, it's done. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product.


Here is the reason we renovated. A 5.1 surround system with 62 inches of pure entertainment.


It looks quite comical behind the old tv we used to watch. Apparently while I was setting up my new surround sound system and testing it out on an action packed portion of a DVD, the bathroom upstairs was shaking. Thanks for the good advice on my purchase, Brad. We have enjoyed a couple of movies on it already. Now if only the Canucks would do something worth watching.

Shauns water ride



Shaun had his boat home for a few days to do some work on it so I snapped a couple of pictures of it. Pretty quick looking ski boat. It should be. It has a Chevy 350 in it. I hope he lets his dear old dad have a ride in it. His mom isn't too sure though. She's afraid that Shaun might go too fast.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Help Me

Hey Brad

Here are pictures of the backs of my new components. So many places to plug, so few cords. Do your wizardry for me and show me the way. Thanks for the Blogger tips by the way.