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| Just below the bridge across the west Duchesnay falls, August 9, 2023 |
The first time I visited Duchesnay Falls just outside of North Bay, Ontario, I was fifteen or sixteen years old, had spent most of my youth in a swimming pool, and had learned no fear of the water.
On that fine late summer's day fifty years ago, the Pfahl kids, my sisters and I climbed the trail beside the western branch of the falls. We reached a spot high above where our parents stood waiting. Some of the others in the pack of kids held back, but I jumped right into the surging stream. I'd imagined we would be carried along by the water in a thrilling ride that would not involve being dashed to pieces on the rocks or drowned. Our parents appear to have assumed the same because they had not tried to stop us. Or maybe we forgot to tell them.
The trip down the falls entailed more scrambling over boulders than I thought would happen, but was otherwise as exhilarating and every bit as much fun as I'd hoped, especially when I was caught by a giant torrent and carried into the deep pool at the bottom of the falls. It was like body surfing on fresh water.
Fifty years along, I'm still not afraid of the water, but, well, I've learned many lessons about jumping into things, and the wisdom of holding back.
For example, we're imagining we will renovate our kitchen. We put a budget figure ($50,000) on HomeSense just to see what would happen.
What happened was people showed up at our door with a firm idea of what it would cost us to have them take out our old kitchen and put in new cupboards and countertops ($50,000 as luck would have it) and no details whatsoever about any other costs (flooring, fixtures), saying we could take it on faith that "we would have a kitchen" (that's what one guy said) by the time they were done.
We figured all those undisclosed costs would put us at least ten, maybe twenty or even thirty thousand dollars over our budget. So we held back, thinking there were better options than just plunging in.
Connecting with my inner Millennial (who I have come to trust), I poked around online and found a renovation company that promises to write out a detailed quotation for the whole job, including flooring and fixtures.
They'll be at our door next week.
I'll let you know, after a careful assessment of flow rate, rocks and incline, if we decide to jump in.
Thanks for reading!
Karen
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| The sign said no swimming, so... |
That Duchesnay Falls trip is also a very fond memory for me. Good luck with the potential reno!
ReplyDeleteWe had wonderful luck with a company called Inde-art for our recent kitchen Reno if you still can’t find someone
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! We'll drop by and take a look.
DeleteWow, what a memory you have! I remember the name so DO believe I went on that trip, but I am not blessed with your incredible ability to recall. That said, don't need to remember it specifically to know that I was one of the kids who did not jump in :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your always-interesting posts
Habitat for Humanity will send a team out to dismantle and remove your kitchen cupboards, counter etc. for free so long as you donate them to Habitat. I know this because Dan volunteers on these teams fairly often around here. They do a careful job and could save you $$$.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! I was unhappy about the waste of a perfectly good granite counter (the cupboards, on the other hand, are garbage). I'll check this out!
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