Day 54

Final coat of paint on the floor of the office and it’s done! It takes so long to get anything done since I’m not usually here for long but now we’ve moved in so I’m hoping to achieve more quicker…the paint should also dry quicker now that the heating has been cranked up. There is still no more word from the septic guy, it has been a week since he put in for the permit, and nothing from the plumber or the HVAC guy either L Maybe next week…

The finished product

Office view 2

Day 52

I stopped by the house on my way back from dropping James off in Brampton. I did the last bits of painting on the walls in the office, the colour is unusual. In natural light it has a pinky tinge but with the lights on it is definitely a beigy colour. Either way, with the dark floor it looks pretty good. Clean up, a quick coat on the floor and I headed home.

Is it pink or is it beige?

Day 50

James, Jean-Marc and I headed to the house sometime in the morning. I did more cutting in while JM and James took turns rollering the office walls and floor. James also had a go at removing the shrub roots with an axe, I’m sure he loved that! This will be the last time he sees this place for two years!

James painting the floor

James again

Day 46

This was our Christmas day. Who needs to wait for the 25^th to celebrate? As long as we’re all together we can choose any day to do it! Breakfast, pressies, a roast  for lunch and Christmas crackers was all we needed to enjoy the festivities in our new house J

Day 45

Today was the big reveal as far as the septic system. The guy came over and boy was I glad I was sitting down! Of course it was more than we expected but it’s a top of the line system - I’d certainly hope so at that priceJ  JM was off work so we decorated the Christmas tree, tidied and mopped ready for our Christmas celebration.  I left him alone in the house for his first time while I picked up the kids and he had an experience we were hoping to avoid... He was sitting and reading when he heard the scratching or scurrying of a rodent, I guess the mice have moved back in for the winter! Just wait until our cats get here, they’ll chase them out of town!  The whole family was there for dinner, the tree looked beautiful, we watched Christmas DVDs, then the tree fell down (eek!) Much glass was broken but we got the tree fixed back up and continued our celebrations.

Day 44

Not much to say for today really, more painting of the office walls… It is starting to look really nice.

I think the photos are on my other camera so not even any pics L.

Day 43

I’m still waiting to hear back from the septic guy. I have a plumber on standby for whenever we get this new septic system and I have an HVAC guy coming on Friday so we can make sure we have decent heat to the whole house. Again it was a late start because I had some running around to do in the morning. In Shabana’s room I started the cutting in and was just over halfway through when my friend Tree stopped by and brought me lunch. A delicious soup was just the distraction I needed… I like it when visitors come over. We had a good natter then she helped me with the painting. I finished the cutting in, she rollered the walls and we were done pretty quickly- another room finished. I cleaned up all the paint gear and left for the day. I hope I hear back from the septic guy tomorrow…

And we're done Shabana's room!

Day 42

Slight glitch in getting to the house today, my car decided it didn’t really like heading the direction I was taking it on the ice so it decided to take me for a spin onto the verge between the feed on lane and the expressway! Not what I had planned…  A quick stop at Canadian Tire to get the underside of the car checked out then I was back on the road. Now I really want to move up there… More painting today, Shabana’s walls got another coat and it looks way better but I’ll give it one more coat to finish it off. Clean up then painting the office walls. It’s funny that I thought both colours were kind of beige yet on the walls Shabana’s looks more yellow and the office is kind of a mushroom colour. I guess a little paint chip can be deceptive. Another day with not enough time.

Second coat of paint in Shabana's room

First coat in the office

Day 41

I spent the morning running around so by the time I got to the house it was lunchtime. JM came up to remove the old dishwasher for the big item pick up this week then we shared some lunch before he headed back to work. I painted the ceilings in the office and Shabana’s room with another coat of paint, gave Shabana’s walls their first coat of paint then headed home. Slowly but surely it’s all coming together.

First coat on the walls of Shabana's room

Day 39

We decided that today was the day to take the wood stove out of the bedroom. With a little help from the boys and their friend Anthony, it was somewhat dismantled and relocated in the laundry room for the time being. Reassembled and the boys’ work was done, they headed outside to start another fire while we got on with painting. We managed to get the ceilings in Shabana’s room and the office painted in almost no time at all. The boys headed home with Shabana and JM and I then tackled the smaller jobs-firstly, starting the snow plow. JM filled it with petrol, followed all the instructions and nothing happened! We noticed a plug area so we plugged it in, tried again and success. It turned over, hurray! Now we can prepare for the onslaught of winter… Next was JM’s attempt to remove the stump from the large shrub we had taken out by the laundry room. Armed with an axe and a pickaxe he went all out…much chopping, levering and digging later and we had hardly touched the thing! It was not budging so we declared defeat and will try again when we have a chainsaw J  Preferably in the spring when it is a little warmer. We searched the perimeter of the property for markers of the boundary and only found two so we’ll have to get the survey out and measure to get an accurate placement of markers. It is nice when we can get more done, I’m looking forward to moving up to the house so we can be there fulltime.

Where the wood stove used to be...



Caught in the act- JM painting



Muddy footprints thanks to the dog!

Day 37

Today was another short day at the house. I was only there about 2 ½ hours, just enough time to prime the ceiling and walls in Shabana’s room and to give the office another coat of primer on the floor. Clean up, the most time consuming part of the process, a little look around in the basement then done for the day. I was hoping to have heard back from the septic guy with the results of the soil test and a plan to move ahead but nothing yet, maybe tomorrow.

Shabana's room primed and ready to paint
 

Office floor with two coats of primer, what a difference!
 

Day 36

I didn’t get to the house until lunchtime so I washed the office floor down with TSP and grabbed a bite to eat while it dried. I primed the floor, no more blue floorboards! It looks so fresh and bright in there! I then headed to Shabana’s room, sanded the patches and did all the cutting in (walls and ceiling) with primer. I didn’t have time to do any more but little by little we’re getting there. JM stopped by after work to lug the boxes of plaster out of Callum’s room, we’ll take them to the dump on Saturday.  Another day gone so quickly...

No more blue

Shabana's room has been started...
 

Day 35

First on the list today was cleaning up the rest of the plaster in Callum’s room. There wasn’t too much, we had already taken away six boxes. It only took a little while, I now have five boxes to take to the dump and I can see his floor again J  Next was a bit more sanding in the office then painting(priming). I managed to finish all the cutting in before lunch with JM. As we were eating he saw our first squirrel outside, but not just any squirrel, a RED squirrel! How cool is that? We raced to the window to get a better look. I can’t believe it has taken 5 weeks to see any signs of wildlife… After lunch I primed the office ceiling and walls. The plaster is so smooth, the primer went on really well and quickly. Got to love that! Now the writing on the walls is most definitely gone but will not be forgotten. We’ll print off the photos and frame them as a reminder. Clean up then home.

5 boxes of plaster and the floor is clear!

Ceiling and walls primed, the floor is next...

Day 34

Today was the big reveal as far as the septic system. The guys turned up on time (makes a nice change) and we checked out the septic system. The tank is OLD, they said handmade which is never a good sign. It took all of twenty seconds to find out that yes, we need a complete system. Am I surprised? Not at all, unfortunately. We checked out the well and the areas around to find the best spot for the new system. We need to make sure everything is within regulations.They need to take a soil sample to best determine the appropriate system then we can go ahead and get our permits, hand over a ton of cash then flush to our heart’s content J I did a little sanding then joined JM for lunch at his work to fill him in on the news. Back to the house, more sanding and filling walls then I gave the office floor a light sanding ready to prime and paint. Even with an electric sander it took a couple of hours. Time to clean up and then home…

Floor sanded and ready to paint



Scary looking septic

Ewwww! In the septic tank...

Day 31

James didn’t have work today so he came with me up to the house to help. I got started on the sanding while he grabbed some breakfast. It turns out that sanding is his least favourite job at work so he didn’t hang around doing that for too long!  I was filling the walls while he sanded the ceiling then he moved everything out of Shabana’s room and began patching the cracks in her ceiling instead while I continued to sand. I got a message to tell me that Callum was knocked out of his wresting competition L . Change of plan, I decided to leave early to pick him up. James and I shifted three boxes of plaster from Callum’s room into the car and headed home. Time for me to make some phone calls- No luck with the contractor about the sill plate. I spoke to a septic guy and booked an appointment for Monday morning, success! If we can get the septic sorted then we can put in for planning permission for the new bathroom J

Office - Cracks filled and ready to sand and prime

Day 30

Went up the house in the morning and cleaned the wood stove in the kitchen. I took some pictures so I can post it on the internet and sell it. I love the idea of it and I’m sure it kicks out a ton of heat but the size of it doesn’t fit in with our plans for the kitchen so it has to go. Next stop, the office…I finally finished scrubbing down those walls! The sun was streaming through the windows so it was a hot job but who doesn’t like the sun in winter? It seemed to make the job much more bearable. I spoke to the electrician, if we are taking out the fuse box I need to take advantage of the space and replace the sill plate behind it at the same time. That is the only structural job that needs doing in the house, the rest is updating mechanical systems and cosmetic finishes. JM and I are very wary of the amount of work that may entail so we’re going to try and find a contractor to do it for us. I was finishing up cleaning the office walls when I got a message- JM was on his way over. He brought noodle soup and baby bok choy so we had a delicious lunch together, such a nice surprise J After lunch I began patching the plaster in the office, at this point I was fairly sore so it wasn’t the neatest of jobs but the cracks were covered and I can always sand it down… another day under my belt.

Day 29

I took the morning off to plan kitchen layouts and get ideas for finishes with JM since it was his day off. It’s always nice to dream of these things even though it will be a few years off before we get to the kitchen. JM headed to Cambridge and I went up to ‘The House’. I had an appointment to have a guy clean the heating ducts and he called to say he’d be an hour late(3pm instead of 2pm)…no sweat. I had dug up a few favourite plants from my garden in Ayr so my first job was digging over a raised bed and transplanting those. I hope they survive, it was fluffing it down with snow when I got there, the house looks so pretty in the snow! I tackled a bit more scrubbing in the office, I can only tolerate about an hour at a time, then decided it was about time I clean the kitchen. At this point it was 4pm and the duct guy was already two hours later than originally planned and an hour later than he’d said, grrrr! My phone was about to die so I gave him a call…another 45 minutes to an hour! There go my plans to pick up the kids, make dinner, etc,etc. The kitchen cupboards got a deep down clean, yes there was evidence of mice in some places, yuck! They will not be welcome in my kitchen, that’s for sure! The guy finally arrived around 5pm, had a quick look, yes the ducts need cleaning but he can’t get his truck up to the house and the mobile machine (not on the truck) is fully booked until January! What a waste of time. I need to learn to be more patient I guess… headed home tired and frustrated.

Day 28

More scrubbing down plaster walls in the office, very slow going. I got fed up with it after finishing the wall I’d started yesterday.

No more writing on the walls...

 

 I decided to wash down the trim in the living room instead. Deep baseboards and detailed window trim meant it took me two hours to clean but it looks fresher and clean. The bucket of water was filthy! My hands are certainly taking a beating this week. I added a couple of bits of furniture to make it seem like a proper room then headed home.

Starting to look like home...

 

Day 27

More painting… Another coat in the living room and I’m done! One room down…  I spent HOURS scrubbing down the plaster walls in the office. I wish we’d washed the residual wallpaper paste off on Saturday. At this point it had dried and hardened and did not want to come off. After two hours I had only done one and a bit walls, I need more elbow grease for sure. This is going to take longer than I thought…  I had an electrician come out and take a look at the place in the evening. Other than the fuse box needing updating to a breaker panel, he wasn’t too scared by what he saw. He said the rest was just ‘little jobs’. That sounds promising. We’ll see what happens when I get the estimate.

No pictures for today...

Day 25

The weekend! We had a very slow start due to JM’s gig last night. We finally got to the house around lunchtime then we left James with the dog while we took Shabana and Callum to pick paint colours. They both wanted very bright colours but we managed to tone down the choices to something acceptable. A quick stop at Canadian Tire for a saw and new reciprocating saw blades, a visit to the local library ( just 3km away) then back to attack the wallpaper.

 JM and I had a fun time discovering history on the walls while the boys chopped down another tree sized shrub. The signatures hidden behind the wallpaper dated back to 1906! How spectacular! We snapped photos since we’re going to be painting and the writing will never be seen again.

2001



1964



1906

 1947?


 

 The boys enjoyed removing the shrub, boys with their toys eh? It had to come out, JM had named it the poo tree since it was located right next to the septic tank. Another plant in the wrong place. Another quick bonfire then we headed home. A very productive day.

Day 24

Painting day! Today was the day I finally got to paint the living room. With 9 ½ foot ceilings it took me a bit longer than I’m used to but it looks good. I wasn’t too motivated today so once the painting was done I did a test patch for removing wallpaper, it wasn’t too bad at all, then headed home. I’ll be back tomorrow to tackle the wallpaper…

Before

During

During

 After

Day 23

A day off from working on the house but we went up in the evening while our other house had its home inspection. Our first family meal together at the new house- baked potatoes and chilli with muffins for dessert. Not too shabby. After dinner we lit a huge bonfire with the 112 year old lath, it went up so easily as one would expect. Next time I’ll remember the marshmallows!

Day 22

JM and I were able to get to the house together, gotta love that day off in the middle of the week lark J. By the time we picked out paint and headed up there it was lunchtime so we only had a small window of time to work with. We gave the living room ceiling a coat of paint and it looks much better. JM tackled a twelve foot shrub outside the laundry room window, afterwards of course we discovered the plant had caused damage to the bricks L Why do people insist on planting things so close to the house? Without the right tools it was a bit of a challenge but he managed with a hand saw and reciprocating saw (whose blade was too short and broke before we were finished). I imagine there will be a bit more light in the laundry room now.

Before

Before

After