Flooring is down and the walls are painted….
It’s amazing how nice it all looks with the walls painted and the floor done.
Next…… pantry wall unit♡
Wordless Wednesday – more updates on the addition
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Tag Archives: weather
Making Peace with Winter
Call it the winter blah’s.
Last year, writing about our new life on the east coast came entirely easy. Everything was brand new and an adventure we wanted to share with our friends and family – and anyone else who cared to read about what we were doing. But now that we have a full year under our belts, the challenge is to keep writing about what’s happening and how we’re progressing without sounding too redundant.
Take this winter for example. We’ve had a pretty easy cold-season this year, up until last week that is. Four storms within a week-and-a-half dumped almost 5 feet of snow on our old homestead. Writing about the storms, the snowfall, shovelling out (and our good neighbor bailing us out with his snowblower) would sound too much like any of the storm posts I wrote last year.
I’m starting to rifle through the mail-order seed catalogues and could tell you about what we want to plant in our gardens this spring – just like I did in my post last January. But does that make for an interesting post? I’m not sure.
The one different variable we have this year is that both Vanessa and I are working full time. I’ve already written about where we work and what we’re doing – and the job itself holds no interesting stories I can share. We’re just doing our time there to pay the bills.
Sounds pretty winter blah-ish, doesn’t it? The truth is, I’m no fan of winter. I don’t really follow or play winter sports, I don’t care for the snow and cold and I’d rather be outside than in. By the time February rolls around, I want it to all be over. I’m sick of the snow and ice. Bring on the mud!
But as I write this (in front of our wood stove with the outdoor thermometer reading minus 18 degrees), I remind myself that spring is just over a month away and we have so much to do in anticipation of the upcoming year.
So I’ll say this much: at the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll simply post what’s happening and if there are still readers who want to know some of the (slightly) more mundane aspects of our adventure, then you’ll be happy to read-on in the upcoming days and weeks ahead.
Like I’ve said about the house renovations – it will be a long and arduous task to (essentially) demolish and rebuild our farmhouse, but it’s the memories that we will hold forever. Perhaps this blog will help remind us of every step we take.
Even if we’re up to our waist in snow.
“and how the heck am I supposed to poop here” – Murdoch
Winter Preparations
We’ve just passed our one-year anniversary since making the move to our old island home. About this time last year, we had our new well dug, the moving truck unloaded and were getting settled in for what was going to be the worst winter PEI had seen in almost fifty years.
Fast-forward a year or so and we’re making preparations for what’s going to be a milder-than-average winter for PEI – that’s if you choose to believe the Farmer’s Almanac’s winter outlook. (I choose to believe). With Vanessa and I both working near full-time hours now, the work around our house has slowed considerably. Our projects are broken down into manageable, bite-sized jobs that we can tackle in the couple of daylight hours remaining after work or what we can fit into a Saturday between grocery shopping and other errands to run.
Last week it was to finish insulating and sheathing the lower exterior walls left open from raising the house for the new foundation and sill replacement from the summer. We had the open portions enclosed with an air barrier in the interim, but with the temperatures dropping, we needed to infill with insulation and enclose it with sheathing.
I was able to find full-dimension 1″ x 12″ rough-sawn pine boards for the same price as 3/4″ plywood. So, in keeping with the original construction, and not needing to build out the thickness of the studs to match the old remaining sheathing, it was a simple decision. And it made for a simple (read: quick) job. In the spring, we’ll be building a wrap-around deck and porch, so for now this will get us through the winter. Shingle and siding repairs to follow the porch-build. We also managed to get our first load of firewood into the house. Vanessa passed it through the window…
…and I stacked it in the basement.
We’ll go through about five of these piles this winter
No more trudging through the snow to the barn to collect our daily firewood needs. Nosiree! Now it’s just down to the bottom of the basement stairs to gather up what we need. And with the season’s first snowfall in the forecast, it’s one more job off the list – and not a moment too soon.
Thankfully, that’s not going to last. With temperatures on the plus-side for the better part of next week, we’ll be able to do a few more things outside before winter really arrives. Somewhere out there, there’s almost sixty pounds of carrots, onions and cabbage to harvest. The cold temperatures are just sweetening their flavors as the plants produce natural sugars to act as their antifreeze. For now, until the thaw, we just stoke the fire. And I have to admit – there’s nothing nicer than wood-heat on a chilly day.
The storm passed. Everyone’s happy.
Well we survived our visit from Arthur – the first Atlantic hurricane of the season – although it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm by the time it hit the island.
We lost power last night and have been without for about twelve hours now. (Note: I’m currently writing this blog entry in my notebook to be transferred to the computer once power is restored).
We’ve only been without power for a few hours now, but it certainly drives home the point of how reliant we are to the grid. Since we’re so deep into the renovations, and we’re going to rewire the house anyhow, I’ll be hardwiring a few critical circuits to run off a generator if needed – the fridge, well-pump, a few lights and plugs, etc. Nothing extravagant, just enough “juice” to get us through a lengthy blackout if needed. With a well, no power means no water.
Not that we had any issue with this storm – there was lots of advance notice of the impending hurricane. We had filled a couple of water containers we use for camping with water – and the bathtub as well.
So other than the power outage, we came out of things unscathed. The roof was finished on Friday – one day before the storm hit….
….and thankfully we didn’t lose a single shingle.
Not to say the house didn’t rock in the strongest wind gusts – because it certainly did – but there were no significant issues. I’ll admit it was pretty unnerving how the house shook in the strongest gusts – probably made all the worse because the house is completely gutted on the second floor. One gust tore off the Tyvek building wrap from the exposed area on the back of the house and it’s now M.I.A. The way the wind was howling, I suspect someone in Prince County is picking it up from their yard today.
Before the storm came, I closed in the floor of the addition to prevent and wind from gusting through the basement. We didn’t need the basement filling up with water before the concrete floor gets poured, either.
So suffice to say we’ve now got our work cut out for us. Everything we’ve been doing to date has led up to this moment. The demolition was in anticipation of the new foundation. The new foundation allowed us to get the roof re-sheathed and shingled, which now allows us to finally get the upstairs renovations underway.
In fact, we had a big lumber order delivery on Friday to start restructuring the attic floor, install the roof vents for the cathedral portion of the ceilings and rebuild the partition walls. This week, we’ll be getting our clawfoot tub, shower unit and associated hardware.
But it’s not all work, no play either. We had a surprise visit from a good friend and former co-worker, Skip and his beautiful daughter Brooke.
Skip and Brooke. Not an accurate representation.
They had an east-coast road trip planned and paid us a totally unexpected visit. Skip was our lead-carpenter back in my Ontario life so I was tempted to shove a hammer into his hand when he walked in our front door.
Our work days have been lengthening as of late to get as much done as possible before our family arrives in August for vacation. I’ve been preparing them that they shouldn’t expect the Royal York Hotel here, rather more like the Hav-a-Nap motel. Either way, it’s going to be great to see family again and show them what we’ve gotten ourselves into.
In anticipation of their visit, we’ve been exploring the island ourselves for ideas to bring them. Murdoch on the other hand is quite happy to just go to the beach.
Insanely happy
Oh yeah, and to wrap things up, my birthday came and went. We just did a small celebration this year….
Oh, wait. That was Canada Day in Charlottetown. For my birthday, we just sat in the dark.
Thanks, Arthur.
Our Old Island Home 