It's Spring...........

 Ok, so it’s been several weeks since we updated the blog, but it’s been  one of those very busy times. You know the sort of time that seems to rush through your fingers like sand and two months feels like two minutes.

Jenn is now really enjoying teaching at both Champlain School in Granville Ferry and Clark Rutherford in Cornwallis.  To help her keep the position of teaching French, she is going into immersion for all of July at nearby University Ste. Anne.  She's hoping I will bring friends and family down to visit her and celebrate her birthday and our 4th wedding anniversary.

I have just completed a seven week stint with a company called Peopleworx. They provide training courses for those having difficulty in getting work with great hands on experience and job readiness skills to give them every opportunity at meaningful employment. It was a great challenge which I thoroughly enjoyed. For my leaving party, I was made to wear a pair of shorts with "I'm sexy and I know it" written on the seat, and we all played a game of footie (soccer) in the pouring rain for about 40 minutes.  Great fun!

So..what about the house?  Well our trusty contractor, Paul Uhlman, has been hard at work putting in ten windows and two doors in about two weeks. In addition, after we took down the lathe and plaster walls and ceilings in the upstairs long room, he  divided the room, added stud walls and framed out walls and ceiling. One of the new bathrooms, which used to be a small bedroom, has also been gutted and the other partially cleared in readiness for the two new baths.

Paul had to call a halt to the work as he was going quicker putting in windows than we were in clearing the room that needed doing. After that there is just two rooms that need to be gutted, windows added, framed, wired, insulated and had gyproc placed on walls and ceilings. Not much if you say it quickly.

During all this the front of the house need to have clapboard added. The eastern side needs all the rotten boards and clapboard removed, windows added………and the list goes on.

So as you can see we have been busy. We also have some new inhabitants just outside the house - swallows who are nesting in their house for the first time in many years. It was very dramatic to see two male swallows fighting on the grass with jabbing beaks and thumping wings to win the favours of the female, who teetered on the power line chattering encouragement.  She and the victor have settled down and are busy nest building. We are also pleased to see hummingbirds back at our feeder.  

The House undergoing work on the west side. New main boards,  house wrap and clapboard

The inside of the west wall with one of the window openings and the walls framed ready for insulation

The edge of the big double fireplace that is about to go. The room is now divided into two

Jenn enjoying a read on our new steps to the back door

The amateur, but learning fast

The professionals, Paul Uhlman and Chad

 

The west room with one of the four windows in place, insulation next

The west wall and north front. All the doors and windows have now been replaced

 

One of the Holy Lord (HL) hinges that are part of the original internal doors. These will remain in place

Our new well head, finally above ground to comply with well regulations

 

The Swallows that have taken up resident in the bird house, close to our back door. Mum seems to spend alot of the time looking out the door

Mum, with Dad on the roof. Send in your captions

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HOUSE………….

 As we are now into March 2012, I can only apologise for the lack of a blog since January. Jenn has been working almost full time with substitute teaching in Bridgetown, Annapolis Royal and Cornwallis, as well as running art lessons for children at weekends. Thankfully, she now has a job that will take her through to the end of the school term, covering for a teacher on maternity leave. It’s a great relief and has come just at the right time.

Winter is not yet over here just yet, so we expect to have some very cold days, but the days are getting longer.  We have got through our first winter, which we are told was not especially harsh. That we are grateful for! There have been times when even with the wood stove belching out heat and two insulated rooms cannot keep us warm with a howling gale outside and -15c with the wind chill bringing the temperature to -30c. So that’s when you just head for bed with the electric blanket on 9 and watch TV!  The wood stove has done a marvellous job and its working almost 24/7 at the present. The wood pile in the basement and the barn is holding up and unless we get a sustained cold period we should be OK until the spring arrives.

The house is a great place, but don’t expect grand staircases, lofty rooms and servant quarters. This was a dwelling for the Loyalist settlers from New England area of the USA. They built it themselves from the forest that surrounds the North Mountain. It is simple, functional and was the Georgian style house of the time. Other than the handmade nails this house is made entirely of timber. Not just the average 4x2 but huge beams vertically and horizontally. For example the horizontal beams are 25ft long and 9 inches square. We also have two beams that are 33 feet long.

March was always going to be the resumption of physical work on the place, but before I can do this we have had to involve the services of a Building Inspector, whose job it is to make sure that the improvements and changes we make to the property are within that stated code. This applies to almost anything, from the thickness of insulation in the walls, new stud walls, electrics, plumbing, and building material. It also applies to the size of windows in bedrooms, where we have had to order larger windows that the house originally had to comply with fire regulations. To make sure all the work is done to code a set of comprehensive drawings has had to be made. These have now been completed and within the next two weeks we will meet with the Building Inspector to agree to the way forward.  

In the meantime I have taken out the ceiling from the long bedroom (25ft x 12ft), plus all the walls etc. These were of lathe and plaster construction and had 250 years of accumulated rubbish above and behind them. Once down the plaster was bagged up (around 750kgs or 1600lbs) they were moved by our car to the tip. The lathe makes great kindling so that was taken to the barn for storage. Then there is the matter of removing thousands of handmade nails from the beams and generally cleaning up the mess.

Next job is to build out any walls that are not the regulation thickness with 6x2 studs. There will also be a small shower, bath and toilet so I need to start the stud work for as well but only after the Inspector has given the OK. To save on the physical nature I have also bought an electric mitre saw, which is going to help a lot and with any luck will allow my arms to repair themselves (I was diagnosed with both tennis and golf elbow from too much sawing and hammering!).

The house from the river bank

Another wonderful sunset

A Blue Jay visits the bread table

Plaster was already coming off in large chunks

The compound mitre saw - It will save Brian's arm

The ceiling now on the floor

The beams, hidden for 250 years and all in fantastic condition

Brian with the plaster bagged up - filthy job. He had a beer or two that night.

Amongst all the rubbish, these are corn husks taken to the attic years ago by racoons for snacks!  They also came down with the ceiling!

Sunset on a very cold day

Jenn is in there somewhere!

The railway bridge that once carried a railway in Annapolis Royal

almost Happy New Year - 2012!

Our blog has a New Year's resolution, we'd like more followers...if you read it, please become a follower!  We'd like to thank Emily for the faithful comments....and other people commenting would be very welcome as well.  On the tinfoil tiaras blog you will see Emily (daughter) looking lovely in front of our barn and with Marmalade on the bench by the side of the house. 

We had a great Christmas Eve, enjoying tortiere (a wonderful French Canadian  meat pie) and wonderfully decorated surroundings at our dear neighbours' home across the street.  Snow had steadily fallen all day, so the walk over was magical, indeed.  We shovelled the car out and enjoyed a beautiful candlelit service at our St. Luke's in Annapolis Royal.  Brian was one of the readers and did a fine job, I love singing the carols at this joyous time of year.  We came home and watched the Black Adder documentary before falling into bed.  Brian awoke me wondering if I'd heard the shouting in the night. No, I'd slept soundly.  He then wondered if I'd heard the scraping noises on the roof.  Good heavens, I thought, are the shingles blowing off...will we need a new roof on top of everything else!!!???  Well, he then surmised that I must not have heard a voice yelling "Damm it...the chimney's hot and there's a lid on it!"  A stunned moment later I cracked up...he always can tease me!

I have to admit to snuggling under the covers again, while Brian made some phone calls to England.  We finally opened lovely presents before arriving in Granville Ferry to enjoy my friend Kim's fantastic eggs benedict, a new treat for us, and the fun of checking out their daughters' new toys and goodies.  Next stop was Aunt Marg's, where there was more present opening, a fantastic turkey dinner with the best gravy I've ever had, a domino game where I got the worst score I've ever had, and all in all...it was a marvellous Christmas!

Boxing day included a hike in the sunny snow covered woods, and a pot-luck gathering at Aunt Thelma's where her adorable great-grandbabies got cuddled and 19 family members opened even more presents! 

We were delighted to host a surprise birthday party for cousin Marcia (of de-construction fame this spring) and she was very surprised indeed.  We attended a great party, where Brian learnt the uniquely Canadian game of crokinole.

Tomorrow is chores day...there's been far too much frivolity and chocolate..time to get some work done!  I need some shelves in the kitchen for my cookbooks, the beam in the basement needs adjusting, the drip from the shower needs sorting, and there is a towering pile of paperwork to be dealt with.  New Year's plans?  None yet...but vague intentions (I find "resolutions" far too vehement and terrifying) include the annual 1. get in shape  2. produce even more art than last year  3. get this house finished so I can start up my British cream teas (yummy) business, and have a WARM studio...Brian's resolution is that he doesn't make resolutions.  A PROSPEROUS, HAPPY and HEALTHY 2012 TO YOU ALL!

Pictures follow, and remember....become a follower of our blog, puleeeeese!

I enjoyed making a mini-cupcake tree!

The river starting to freeze.





A prickly fringe of icicles.

Brian NOT impressed with a Thomas toy!



The house in the snow.




The snowy mountain.





A flock of starlings highlighted against the snow.



One Christmas Day down...one to go!

Ho...ho...ho....It's -6c outside, toasty inside the bed here with the thermal fleece sheets (compliments of Aunt Marg and Uncle Bill...many thanks!) and an orange and white hairy hot water bottle by the name of Marmsie.  It's snowing, and Brian is grumbling about the "bloody snowplow" as he gets ready to go shovel.  The plough roars along the road outside the house, depositing a small mountain of snow along the width of the driveways as well as clipping any mailboxes that lean into it's path.  It's just shot by and we can see the ridge of the snow left in it's wake above the fallen snow.

This is quite a contrast to last week when we trudged up the Longley Mountain Road with Uncle Nels to cut down our Christmas tree.  Very green and mushy underfoot then.  The tree is sweet, decorated with ornaments from my grandmother, mother, my childhood, some from England and some made by Em and Steph,

I picked up Em, Steph and Maher from Wolfville on Friday the 16th, where Steph had just finished her last exam.  They wedged in between groceries just purchased and a lot of suitcases.  We descended upon the warm house, where Brian and a roaring fire in the woodstove awaited us.  The open house the next day saw fifty people dropping in, and although we forgot to take pictures, a good time was had by all. 

Sunday included a church service and pot luck lunch in the church hall followed by decorating the church.  Emily, Steph and I then walked up the street to the Art Gallery where we enjoyed a closing reception for the Member's show.  Emily bought a decorated tree and purchased a photo by Lisa Proulx, a talented local photographer.  Brian and Maher skipped the reception and gleefully trotted down the street to the pub where they flirted with the waitresses, drank and ate fried cheese sticks and chicken wings.  We dragged them home and had a Zumba practice in the living room, as Emily was wanting to rehearse for the class she was giving invited friends at the Tupperville Village Hall. 

On Monday, the three ladies went shopping, leaving the men ensconsed in the warm living room with computers.  That evening we had great fun at Emily's Zumba class...she is a talented, enthusiastic instructor with great moves and music. 

Tuesday was our first Christmas.  We slept in a bit, Brian got some emergency groceries, and we opened presents.  Dinner preparations then took place, with Brian master-minding the timetable and basting.  We enjoyed a great feast, with the vegetarians having mock chicken fajitas, and the veg from the turkey meal.  A super day ending with laughter as we watched "An Idiot Abroad" that Maher had downloaded. 

Wednesday we dropped the kids off in Wolfville to go onto their father's for the rest of the holiday.  It was great to have spent time with them.  Brian and I then went to see "Sherlock Holmes 2", and went home to a quiet house!  I was impressed with Maher's delicious lentil soup, Steph's cupcake tree, and Emily's shepherd pie and dish washing skills. 

We are looking forward to more festivities today, Christmas Eve and tomorrow, Christmas Day with church services, and visits with family and friends.  We hope you have a joyous holiday.

To ensure our guest's comfort level in un-insulated bedrooms, Brian moved the basement heater to the long bedroom that Emily and Maher shared.  This involved some re-wiring, but it worked well.  Steph relied on an electric blanket. 

All the old, original windows in the house now have a layer of thick, clear plastic sheeting called vapour barrier on them to help insulate.  When there is a high wind, they suck gently in and out...showing how much draft they trap! 

Brian was on the roof of the summer porch last week, hammering and caulking in place the metal L-shaped strip that will prevent the rain/snow/bats from coming in the crack between the main house and the porch.  When the house was lifted, the builders were unable to get the summer porch to settle back properly against the main house.  Some work has been done to fill the gap, but extensive work on the roof and house sides will have to be done next year. 

We will be starting work on the house again in March 2012, with the removal of ceilings on the second floor.  This may be hazardous, as the ceiling cavities are full of mice, racoon and bat poo, not to mention the overall sad state of the ceiling!  When Brian and the electrician were in the attic, checking on wiring, Brian wondered about the large amounts of old corn husks under the floorboards.  Another wacky type of insulation?  No, the electrician explained, racoons must have wintered in the attic over the years, and the corn was their food.  I hate corn, so am grateful for truffles.  Note to self:  start fitness program on Jan. 2



Nels and Brian on the Longley Mountain Road in search of the tree.





Interesting patterns on the freezing puddles.





The men with the appointed tree.



On the way home with our prize!



A little Zumba rehearsal in the living room.





Lovely Steph making delicous salmon spread.





Sisters chatting.





Em looking lovely as Brian does her fashion photos outside in front of the barn.





I recently hosted an ArtyParty in the studio...we painted Maude Lewis cats!



My favourite Christmas treats...homemade truffles!





Marmalade on the snowy step.





Brian took this shot from the warmth of the gallery overlooking the rink where he curls.




View from the back step.



A beautiful winter sunset.