RVing

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Quick Round Trip Into the Laurentians

This afternoon, I set off for Deux-Montagnes, on the north shore of the Saint-Lawrence in the Laurentians, to help an aunt with her computer issues (she’s a Mac user, obviously).

I had fewer than 70km to drive to get there and it took me two hours. It’s amazing that there is a bridge linking PEI to the mainland, but there is not yet a tunnel or bridge linking the two shores of the Saint-Lawrence to bypass Montreal. What a nightmare of construction, potholes, traffic, suicidal and murderous drivers, construction, more potholes, more construction, and more crazy drivers. I have got to stop taking the 10/Champlain Bridge/Décarie Expressway/40 west route. It was good back in the day (and the most direct route to Ottawa/Gatineau), but it has been a nightmare for many years now.

The trip back was slightly better, but I had dinner first to let the bulk of the rush hour traffic go past. I tried out Tako Sushi in Saint-Eustache as it was on the way home and I liked the name (tako is Japanese for octopus, my favourite kind of nigiri).

It was good, if a little expensive, but I was given three pieces of octopus instead of the two that came with the order. I didn’t ask why, but I checked the bill and I was definitely charged only for two. How nice of them!

The spicy tuna roll was good, too, but I could have done without the tempura. And I really like the mango roll (rice, nori, mango) in lieu of cucumber. Mango in sushi really works for me even if it’s not traditional.

The miso soup was hearty, but had way too many mushrooms. I’ve decided that since miso soup is usually close to $4, I am going to stop ordering it in restaurants and get an extra nigiri instead.

For the drive home, I took the 13 south, amazed that the 13 north was at an absolute standstill. The 40 was backed up several kilometres before the exit, so I continued on the 13 to the 20 to grab the Honoré-Mercier bridge to take me to the 30 on the South Shore. Traffic on that route was slow, but better than on the 20 in the other direction, which was also at a standstill.

I still managed to miss my exit after the bridge because there was too much traffic for me to merge into the left lane and I had to get off at the next exit in the wrong direction and loop around. I got all the lights through Sainte-Catherine/Saint-Constant/Delson. Needless to say, I was thrilled to get onto the 30 and speed eastward. Forget grabbing the 10 (construction), so I took the next exit, Grande-Allée, to arrive at my mother’s via Salaberry Boulevard (basically the ‘back roads’ way). All told, the drive back took only 75 minutes.

My mother and I did some renos when I got in. I’m now off to collapse.

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Mastering the Wardrobe

I’m not sure what exactly triggered the AHA moment as to a resolution to my ongoing wardrobe woes, but I finally found the solution!!!

I couldn’t figure out how to best use the area below the clothes for storage because it’s such a deep space. Things would get lost on shelves and baskets wasted too much space. I would forget what I owned until the seasonal purge and then find myself holding a pair of jeans or a sweater and going, “Hey, I forgot that I have that. Why don’t I wear it?”

I know I could have fewer clothes, but what I have fits in the space, so I had a hard time believing I couldn’t make accessing the items easier. Even with fewer clothes, I’d still have the problem of things being piled on top of each other or having to pull everything off a shelf and having to stack things two deep.

For the solution, I was partly inspired by all the images you see on decor sites of towels rolled up in cubes. I know that that alone didn’t translate to a solution for the wardrobe, but it probably got the ball rolling.

I took all the clothes out and determined that I needed for divisions; one four sweaters, one for jeans, one for skirts, and one for bags. My mother built me this tonight:

I then folded the sweaters semi neatly and stacked them so I could see the ends. As for jeans and skirts, I rolled them up! This way, there is less of a chance the clothes will wrinkle and I can just grab the end of a roll. Ta-dah:

It might look a little messy, but it really isn’t. I can see all my clothes and bags at a glance and it’s easy to pull out what I need. And instead of having to dig through everything to find a pair of jeans the odd time I decide to wear a pair, they are contained to one area.

Next, I need to find a place to store my scarves. Right now, they are rolled up neatly in the pocket organizer, but they are a pain to put away. I really like this idea of using a couple of towel bars. If I can find narrow ones that fit inside my wardrobe doors, I will give that idea a try.

My wardrobe will always be a bone of contention, but it’s almost functional! 😀

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New Water Pump Access Panel

The entrance stairwell is no longer an embarrassment! My mother cut a new access panel for the water pump/rear of the stairwell:

She cut the top of the board on a bevel to make the edge less catching. Notice the two little pulls for removing the panel. I gave the board several coats of dark brown spray paint today.

The board is held in place by two roller catches:

A visual check of the fresh water tank is the easiest way to monitor levels, so an easy access panel was important to me. This fits the bill!

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New Shelving

I recently did a huge book purge and eliminated all but my cookbooks from the three driver’s side overhead compartments in the front room. I was tired of having my kitchen stuff squeezed into a few cabinets, making it a hassle to grab a mixing bowl or the rice cooker.

I left the cabinet fairly bare but slowly started to migrate things over there. One of the compartment doors was open the other day and looking at it from a fresh perspective, I was hit with a realisation: a shelf could double my storage space in that cabinet!

The cabinet is about 75″ long and 13″ deep. My mother has had some boards in her garage for over 10 years; they were part of a shelving unit she had made me for my second apartment. The wardrobe project will require six boards and there were eight. The two remain boards offered a total length of 72″ and a depth of 12″. Close enough!!!

I grabbed a bunch of brackets and screws from my hardware bin, a paint can to use as a shelf holder, and a screw driver. Less than an hour later, the new shelving was in.

It turns out well that the shelves are a bit short length-wise; I have just enough space at the end to stand up all my cookbooks.

Now, it was time to start filling the shelves and, of course, containerize the contents:

The huge corner cabinet in the kitchen now feels a lot more open:

I have a lot less stuff than I did when I moved into Miranda and it’s nice to be able to start spreading it around more thinly. I’m sure I’ll find more things to store in those compartments as time goes on, but what a great feeling it is to create additional storage and not immediately fill it up!

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Wonderful Post-Sales Service by AM Solar

I had one question mark for my battery bank project: what to do with the temperature sensor for the solar panel system. I had no idea who to ask and then I realised I was an idiot. AM Solar has stellar staff; surely they would welcome feedback on one of their installations and be willing to answer a quick question.

I sent this email last night (Saturday):

You installed my 150W panel in March of 2011. The system has been working wonderfully and beyond my expectations. I am in the process of modifying my battery bank, starting with the addition new batteries that have more amp hours than my old ones. I believe I have everything figured out except the temperature sensor. I am including a photograph for clarity. It’s the wire held by silver tape. If I move to another battery, do I need to replace this sensor or can I just carefully cut it off this battery and tape it onto a new one? If I need a new one, do you sell them?

Since AM Solar is closed on weekends, I didn’t expect a reply till Monday at the absolute earliest. But, no. I got one late this morning (Sunday) their time!

I’m glad the solar has proven its worth!  The quick answer to your Temperature Sensor question is yes, you can carefully remove the foil tape and release the sensor.  You’ll need another piece of the foil tape, which we can send if needed, to re-attach the sensor to one of the new batteries.

Another important consideration to keep in mind is that if you upgrade to an Absorbed Glass Mat battery, you’ll want to re-set the Charge Controller for the appropriate charging strategy.   If you’re replacing Flooded Lead Acid batteries with the same, no changes to the Charge Controller set-points are necessary.

Let me know when I can be of further assistance.

What a perfect response: answers my question and provides extra information that I might need. I am once again thrilled that I fulfilled my dream of having a solar set up installed by AM Solar!