where I explain what happens when hubby doesn't work

My husband, being a carpenter often employed in replacing windows or completing additions to homes, requires a minimum outdoor temperature to make the occupants comfortable while this happens. He is usually laid off during the coldest months of the year, regardless of who he is working for (or in what city). So for the past tree weeks, he hasn't been going to work. As a result, our schedule has gotten incredibly wonky. Average time arriving to work is probably 11 am. One luxury of my job is that I can make my own hours. Being a recent grad, I am paid with a government grant for placement among industry, and I was told the grant covered five 7-hour days. (NB: recently informed I'm under the grant value, so I can log more hours if I feel like a pay boost). When I work these 35 hours is entirely up to me. I could work 12 hours on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and have Thurs-Fri-Sat-Sun off if I wanted to. Lots of molecular biology techniques don't work that way though, so mostly I stay consistent and go in dutifully everyday. With the alarm clock decommissioned, I lazily wake around 9 am, hang out with the dog, shower and then get out to work around 10:30-11 am. The past week I've been staying from 11 am-7pm at work with one hour lunch (around 3:30 it seems). Late dinners are not cumbersome these days thanks to the all-day-cookfest I undertake on Sunday. We eat alot of soup. Last night was a three-bean salad (that tastes better the longer it marinates-yum!) and some (formerly frozen) pork souvlaki I cooked that morning while showering.

Evenings are varied-Tuesday a Nobel Peace Prize winner gave a talk at the university. Wednesday nights are vegetarian/gluten-free/lactose-free potlucks with a half dozen girlfriends, where we consume wine and talk about books, fashion, sex, food and boys (and radio shows, taping birch trees and unemployment insurance). Friends visit the farm and we make good use of the snowshoes gifted to us for Christmas-we went walking in the snow on Saturday, Sunday and again yesterday. My legs are sore from walking so bow-legged.





With no job, hubby is able to tackle the demo downstairs. It is a fine balance between using his free labour while it is available and removing the air barrier (ie plaster) from our walls, effectively exposing ourselves to the cold harsh winter outside. We are averaging $500 month in oil, and that's with the thermostat set to a balmy 12 Celsius. This is what the downstairs looks like these days:




We have narrowed down a floorplan for downstairs, including an open concept kitchen-dining-living room. The front parlour will become a library, and we will add a half-bath and mudroom in the current kitchen location (as well as lots of currently lacking closet space and pantry space). I've contacted the bank to explore financing options related to inceasing the mortgage, as we would prefer to do the bulk of the work in the next 18 months with loaned money instead of a slow renovation over many years. But that may not fly, and we may have to fund it ourselves with tax returns and line of credit. There are pros and cons to each method, so I am okay with whatever works out in the end.

Oh, and I turned 26 years old. My friends threw a surprise sushi party. Awesome!