De-Construction and apple blossoms!

The essential cable has been found, so this will be a pictorial blog more than a text blog (thank heaven's for that, I sense you thinking, that woman doesn't 'alf go on!)  The weather is warmer, sunnier and less rainy, so that is a great improvement!


Marmalade exploring one of the ancient apple trees

 

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Wooden pegs hold these beams together in the kitchen

Marcia and Brian, the wrecking crew!



There will be walls and windows here in the kitchen, hopefully before snow flies!

 


The lathe and plaster ceiling has been ripped down and is now on the floor of the living room.  The large plywood rectangle shows the location of the large front window,  the only one we lost during the house lift.  A replacement has been ordered.

 

View through the room we're using as a kitchen...the bottles were found during the digging up of the basement.  The apple trees have lots of bees and hummingbirds visiting them.



Trapped in the corner of the kitchen, surrounded by boxes!!!

STILL NO PICTURES....now need to unearth the essential, missing cable!

Hats off to Green's Removals on the UK side, and Thompson's here on the Canadian side - wonderfully pleasant and efficient movers!  It took just under a month for our stuff to arrive, and we are glad of the long room (about 30 feet long) to put boxes in that won't be unpacked until the house is done.

Brian has been hard at work taking down the walls and ceilings of both the kitchen and the living room.  We are choosing windows for those rooms now, and hope to have a huge picture window in the kitchen, as the view from the river is wonderful.  Many thanks to Marcia, our dear cousin who loves deconstruction and was the other member of the work crew.  English relatives assumed Brian's helper was male, and due to the crackly Skype line, thought the name was Mike.  So, that is now Marcia's nickname!

The beams in the ceiling of the kitchen are wonderful, 9 inches square and 25 feet long, going the length of the house.  The adze marks are visible, and we hope to keep them exposed when the ceiling is redone.  The boards on the walls are huge, the widest one measures 23 inches. 

Next step is replacing rotten wall shingles outside with clapboard, and there are a few boards that need replacing as well.  Then the new windows will go in.

We need to think about heating systems...a wood burner is a must, but do we go for oil/electric???  We are researching it, but any suggestions comments would be appreciated!

Went for a lovely walk up the logging road into the forest yesterday, and the big puddles are full of little tadpoles, with racoon and deer footprints at the muddy margins.  The mountain is starting to have a green haze as the leaves bud.  The Canadian geese are returning to the river as the warmer weather approaches, and we have seen turkey vultures cruising above the fields looking for prey.