Well there’s something you don’t see everyday. Thank God.

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Russ Anthony

Well, I guess I had that coming.

Shame on me for jumping the gun last week and started singing the praises of the spring-like weather. That’ll teach me. Call it karma, Murphy’s Law or just dumb luck, we got walloped with the biggest storm the Maritimes has seen in 10 years.

More of a hurricane disguised as a blizzard, I think. A blizzicane. Or snownado.

I thought it would be fun to document the day with a series of photos showing the progression of the storm.

After three sets of pics, I changed my mind and thought I’d leave it to your imagination. There was no way I was going out in that mess unless I absolutely had to. And I only had to twice: once to collect our airborne garbage bins (thought to be securely fastened to our front porch) and once to let Murdoch do his “business”.

Such a sad picture

It was after that trip that Murdoch said he wouldn’t go out there again unless he absolutely had to. He didn’t.

“Outside? Nope, I can hold it.”

Kidding aside, it was pretty intense. Par for the course for local islanders, I’m told. But with a half-gutted, one-hundred-and-thirty-year-old house, we felt every wind gust. And we didn’t get away unscathed.

We lost quite a lot of shingles on the north side. The shingles were quite sparse on that slope to start, but now there are even less. Oh well, it will make stripping them off in the spring much easier now that they’ve all been deposited in our yard.

Probably the highlight of the day was seeing our neighbor and his snow blower backing into our driveway.

God bless you, Orville. I don’t think I’d have the strength to do the driveway today – after shovelling the snow out of our second floor.

Wait. What?

Have to admit – I didn’t see this coming.

Yep. With all the wall and ceiling finishes removed from the second floor – and with the 100 km/h wind and snow – and with more shingles blown off, well….

Come on – you got to laugh. Or cry. I laughed and thankfully, so did Vanessa. After the storm, this was a cake-walk. And with our neighbors help, we hardly had any snow to shovel anyhow. It was a breeze (a gale-force breeze, mind you, but a breeze nonetheless).

But enough of that. You’ve seen the footage, I’m sure, and we survived. That’s the main thing, right?

As far as the house goes, until yesterday, our weather has been beautiful – sunny and clear – but really cold and windy, so needless to say, we didn’t do any of the demo I last spoke about: removal of the porch and rear addition. They say the next couple of weeks will be milder, but wet. Whatever the forecast holds, we’ll need to buckle down and get this done in anticipation of the foundation to start in May (or sooner, hopefully).

We haven’t been idle though. We started a number of vegetable plants inside in preparation for the planting season.

Leeks, asparagus, peppers (sweet and hot), and some tomato seeds have been sown – and are starting to germinate. We’ll move them to our grow-lights shortly and start the next round of plants after that.

For now, I’ll bite my tongue about spring. We know it’s coming. When it’s ready.

It’s official – spring is here! Time to start the garden plans

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Russ Anthony

Well, Vanessa and I have been enjoying a few days off from working on the house. After a bit of a snow/ice storm last week, the past few days have been beautiful. It’s been sunny and clear – albeit a little cold – so we’ve been enjoying some time outside.

We’re just back from a long two-hour walk with Murdoch on the Confederation Trail

Murdoch discovers the sunroof

and with a quick coffee-to-go, a drive up to Cavendish and along the shoreline.

….to see the sights

….and a little wildlife.

And with the official first day of spring on us, we’ve been ~~thinking~~ ~~planning~~ dreaming of the planting season and the gardens.

We went to town over the weekend and got all of our vegetable seeds from Veseys for the spring. One of my earlier posts (https://ouroldislandhome.com/2014/01/18/spring-dreaming/) outlined all of the vegetables we would be trying – and that hasn’t changed much. I know it all sounds very ambitious – and it probably is – but we have nothing to lose. It’s not like we’re pressed for space and don’t have the time to tend the garden. We’ve settled on the back south-east corner for the garden – it’s a clear and wide-open area that receives sun all day. The space around the house is being reserved for flower beds, patios, BBQ and entertainment area – and around the barn is the driveway, shop and (eventually) greenhouse area.

So with the location of the veggie beds determined, we now need the snow to go (who doesn’t, amiright?) and we’ll prep the area. We have two huge rolls of black poly (plastic) to roll out over the bed areas. We’re planning on eight beds – each measuring 10′ x 25′. The black poly serves two purposes: first, it will inhibit any grass and weeds from starting to grow as the weather warms, and secondly, it warms the soil in anticipation of planting. A number of our plants need warmer conditions: sweet potato, corn, tomatoes and peppers don’t like their feet cold. Other crops are less fussy and can be planted as soon as the soil is workable.

We’ve planned an eight crop rotation. Different vegetables can be grouped together in similar families. Utilizing crop rotation, you change the location of each vegetable group from year to year. This reduces the likelihood of a pest or disease problem overwintering and attacking the same crop in the same location of the following year. For example tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and potatoes all belong to the same family and, as such, are susceptible to the same pests and diseases. Because these plants all belong to the solanaceous or nightshade family, you wouldn’t plant tomatoes in the same plot that potatoes were planted in the previous year. The goal is to have at least three to four years before the same crop-family is planted in the same location again.

So, here’s our rotation plan – the eight beds will be:

Legumes: beans and peas
Brassacas: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip
Nightshades: tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, tomatillos
Umbeliferae: carrot, parsnip, parsley, celery
Lettuce and sweet potato
Cucurbits: cucumbers, squash, pumpkin
Goosefoot: beet, chard, spinach and Alliums: onion, garlic, leeks, chive
Corn

And in addition to these eight beds, we’ll have permanent locations for the perennial plants: asparagus, rhubarb and berries.

Yup – that’s a lot of produce. But think about this: one seed packet of broccoli costs $3.00. A packet of 1000 carrot seeds cost about $4.00 and for $8.00 we bought 1000 corn seeds. The list goes on and on. For what we would spend on groceries in one week, we bought the potential for the same grown by ourselves – one hundred times over!

We realize that’s far more than we’ll ever need – even canning, freezing and preserving as much as we’re able. So we’ve already decided the surplus would be donated to needy families or a food bank. Either way, our needs will be met and others will be blessed with the surplus.

Over the next short while, we’ll be starting some of the plants inside in anticipation of the last frost – transplanting around the end of May. I’ll show you how we’re geminating and growing the plants before transplanting – and how we prepare the beds.

I’d love to hear what you grow in your home gardens – and any helpful tips you might have. Until then, enjoy your spring!

Spring is in the air….man, I hope so

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Russ Anthony

Well, we’ve completely finished the demolition on the second floor.

Awesome

That is other than the stairwell. I’m debating whether or not to gut this area – as it’s adjacent to our living space on the main floor. It would be easy enough to demo this little area when we tackle the entry/hall on the main floor when the time comes.

Master Bedroom: before

The Master Bedroom was previously gutted as part of an older renovation so when the first swing of the hammer revealed drywall instead of lath and plaster, I knew this room would be quickly gutted. And it was.

Master Bedroom: after

In one day, we had this room stripped and cleaned up – whereas the rest of the second floor took about three weeks! It was just nice to wind up the demo with a relatively easy job.

When we took up the laminate floor to uncover the original plank floors, we discovered an area that appears to have been a secondary stairwell. Lath and plaster runs continuously down the exterior wall and a section of the floor has been patched-in.

Right under the window….

When we gut the kitchen ceiling below, it will undoubtedly show us what was originally there.

For now, it’s just really nice to have the demolition phase done inside the house – at least until the new foundation is in place.

We’ll be meeting with our foundation guy next week. I want to show him what we’ve done to date and see what his timeframe is like to getting things underway. At this point, I just want to get this house in the air and start excavating for the new basement. Our repairs will be on-hold until the house is back on a firm foundation.

Vanessa and I went to the PEI Provincial Home Show last weekend. It’s funny that we already knew a couple of the vendors there. We also made contact with a spray-foam insulation guy. Without a doubt, I’d like to foam the house: there’s no need for vapour barrier, it will plug up any holes, it maintains continuity of the insulation/vapour barrier around the balloon framing and it will essentially “glue” the frame together giving some rigidity.

I also had a chance to chat with the owner of the local Winmar in Charlottetown. Winmar would have been the competition to the company I worked for in Ontario – CRCS Disaster Kleenup. With my certification and experience, I’m sure I wouldn’t have any issue picking up some work with any of the local restoration contractors on the island. Ultimately though, I’d want to pursue my own renovation company – or perhaps “freelance” my restoration experience. Although for now, all I can think about is the house.

So with the demo finished upstairs, where do we go from here? Well, to lift the house, we’ll also have to remove the front porch – so we’ll start there.

Got to go….

The small addition and deck on the back of the house will also have to come off, and we’ll carry on with that.

This too.

That will bring us very close to the time to start the foundation, I imagine. I’m just hoping and praying for decent spring weather until then.

We took a bit of a mental break last week too and went ice fishing. I promised pictures if we caught anything, so….

Nothing spectacular. Half a dozen smelt – which we kept, cleaned and fried up. Vanessa (who is not much of a fish-eater) tried them and liked them. We’ll give it another go in the next week or two, but really, it’s only a month until trout and salmon season opens, so given the option, smelt will soon be off my radar.

We got our last load of firewood this week – and I’m counting that it will be the last for the year.

I have no idea where it’s all going….

Finally, we’re getting the odd spring-like day and it feels like winter is slowly departing. I’m not too optimistic that yesterday was the last winter storm we’ve seen, but it is nice to see the days lengthening We had another beautiful day here in the valley – so with that, here’s how our day ended.

View from our Bedroom

Spring-wreath and the new Lee Valley catalogue

The moon rising over Pleasant Valley

Almost full

Small victories (and sore backs)

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Russ Anthony

Whew!

I mentioned briefly in my last post that we’ve finished gutting the second floor of the main cape. I can’t tell you how good it feels to get that completed.

At times it felt like the demo-that-wouldn’t-end (much like our winter) and frankly, it’s been very tiring – and extremely rewarding at the same time.

We started in the Spare Bedroom. The ceilings were already falling down, so it seemed like the obvious place to start.

From there we went into the Bathroom….

Then the Den/Office/Bedroom….

And finally the Hallway.

I figure we removed approximately 18000-20000 pounds of drywall, lath and plaster from the second floor in the last few weeks. That’s if you believe Google’s opinion that lath and plaster weighs about 8-10 pounds per square foot. My back is telling me that sounds about right.

And that doesn’t count the lumber and framing materials removed – nor the trim, doors, hardware, nails and 64 contractor-sized garbage bags of loose-fill insulation either. All in all, we filled three 20 yard dumpsters to date – although to be fair, the first dumpster was mostly filled with junk left behind from the previous owner.

With the main cape now complete, we’ll move into the Master Bedroom to start removing the wall finishes.

A previous owner at some point in the past had attempted some renovations/repairs. From what I can tell, the Master Bedroom was previously gutted, insulated with fibreglass batts and drywalled. That’s going to make our job of demolition exceedingly easier in this room. We should have that done by next week, easy.

Once the bedroom is done, I’ll frame in a temporary platform and remove the last of the lath and plaster in the stairwell. That will complete the demolition of the second floor.

I also mentioned previously that the partitions on the second floor were built under the original lath and plaster.

Once the finishes were removed, the stud wall had no top support since the plate sat almost 1-1/2″ below the ceiling joists.

Simple enough to reframe the partitions, so we removed the walls, too. That affords us an opportunity to tweak that layout slightly, too (add a closet here, move the wall there, etc).

Unfortunately with the floors out of level and some sagging here and there, we won’t be starting any reconstruction or repairs until the house is raised and on it’s new foundation in the spring. Not that we’ll be short of things to do. We’ll finish gutting upstairs then move outside: I have to remove the front porch and small rear addition before the house can be lifted. That will be our next big step.

For now, I’m happy with what we’ve accomplished. Vanessa’s been solid help with the demolition. Aside from a few aches and pains, we’re still smiling and having a good time. Although the winter is wearing on our nerves, we realize spring will be on us in no time, so we keep pressing on.

I think we earned a day-off, so the plan is to go ice fishing on Friday. That’s part of the reason in making the move we did – having time to spend together and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. We’ve talked about going fishing for a while now, but with the windchill in the -20 to -30 degree range for the past few weeks, we kindly postponed those plans. It’s supposed to warm up (to near-zero) on Friday, so that looks like the day. I’ll let you know how that goes.

The view from our Bathroom window

For those of you who have “Liked” our Facebook page, you’ve seen some of the posts Vanessa has shared from Reclaimed Wood Blog and other design sites. RWB has a great website with lots of design and project ideas using old wood reclaimed from different locales. I’ve got quite a collection now of old reclaimed wood from our demolition and lots of ideas.

For now though it will go into the barn for storage.

Once again, I just want to thank everyone for the great feedback and comments. I really do enjoy reading each of them. We’re also approaching 1500 page views on our little blog. That’s exciting! And from all over the world: Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and throughout Canada and the US. Amazing!

Hope you all have a good remainder of the week and a fantastic weekend.

Our Old Island Home

Sharing our adventures in Pleasant Valley, PEI

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Well there’s something you don’t see everyday. Thank God.

It’s official – spring is here! Time to start the garden plans

Spring is in the air….man, I hope so

Small victories (and sore backs)