Yes, I know, it's been quite a while between posts. Blame it on the traffic. Lots has happened since I last wrote a detailed entry here, yet oddly the house may not look much different. The thing about houses is that all you notice are the walls and the floors and maybe even the fridge, but there is an awful lot of behind the scenes stuff to deal with and that has been taking up all of our time recently.
I'm happy to report that the windows are all in and what a project it was. Most people just go for inserts, which fit inside the old frames. We figured, correctly, that the frames might be damaged so we went for full-frame replacements. This is a lot more work, a lot. Particularly when you're not replacing the siding at the same time. After installing a few, we realised that we wouldn't get it done in time for the bad weather. Well, Moira realised it while I maintained an overly-optimistic view (she might say stubborn). In the end she talked me into getting us some help. We had the guys from McAdam, who did our stairs, do the upstairs windows and the side door for us. We did the downstairs windows and the back door. We were happy to see that it took them quite a while for each one too, due to the vagaries of previous methods and materials employed by the good captain.
The other big project was the back wall of the kitchen. Since we wanted a door to the yard, we had to rebuild the entire exterior wall. This is quite an undertaking, for some of us anyway. I had to build a temporary supporting wall, remove the siding, cladding and existing load-bearing studs and then re-frame the entire thing to accommodate the door and the new window size and location. It was a fun and rewarding few days. Check the slideshow below to see the progression.
I'll skip over some of what is happening for brevity (though I think I passed that a paragraph ago) but suffice to say that we are ensuring the rest of the behind the walls type stuff is good to go. Soon we will be ready for insulation and let me tell you we can't wait for that! It is cold in there working without heat or insulation. Motivation to work late in the evening is hard to come by when you're hand is frozen to the hammer. By the same token, having your hand frozen to a hammer sure motivates you to get the project done. I'm becoming suspicious that Moira may not in fact be as busy at work as she claims and is just trying to avoid the frigid temperatures in the house.
Soon enough we should have a heat source, I hope. A mini-split heat pump was due to be installed a few weeks ago but was delayed. Then delayed again. Then they ran out. We're having difficulty finding a woodstove insert that will fit our fireplace so it looks like we're in the cold until January at least. Working in the cold is either making us tougher or shorter (from all the hunching down into our jackets), I'm not sure.
Anyhow, that's it for now. Too much to catch up on to go into detail but I'll make it my third-week-of-December resolution to write more frequently.
I'm happy to report that the windows are all in and what a project it was. Most people just go for inserts, which fit inside the old frames. We figured, correctly, that the frames might be damaged so we went for full-frame replacements. This is a lot more work, a lot. Particularly when you're not replacing the siding at the same time. After installing a few, we realised that we wouldn't get it done in time for the bad weather. Well, Moira realised it while I maintained an overly-optimistic view (she might say stubborn). In the end she talked me into getting us some help. We had the guys from McAdam, who did our stairs, do the upstairs windows and the side door for us. We did the downstairs windows and the back door. We were happy to see that it took them quite a while for each one too, due to the vagaries of previous methods and materials employed by the good captain.
The other big project was the back wall of the kitchen. Since we wanted a door to the yard, we had to rebuild the entire exterior wall. This is quite an undertaking, for some of us anyway. I had to build a temporary supporting wall, remove the siding, cladding and existing load-bearing studs and then re-frame the entire thing to accommodate the door and the new window size and location. It was a fun and rewarding few days. Check the slideshow below to see the progression.
I'll skip over some of what is happening for brevity (though I think I passed that a paragraph ago) but suffice to say that we are ensuring the rest of the behind the walls type stuff is good to go. Soon we will be ready for insulation and let me tell you we can't wait for that! It is cold in there working without heat or insulation. Motivation to work late in the evening is hard to come by when you're hand is frozen to the hammer. By the same token, having your hand frozen to a hammer sure motivates you to get the project done. I'm becoming suspicious that Moira may not in fact be as busy at work as she claims and is just trying to avoid the frigid temperatures in the house.
Soon enough we should have a heat source, I hope. A mini-split heat pump was due to be installed a few weeks ago but was delayed. Then delayed again. Then they ran out. We're having difficulty finding a woodstove insert that will fit our fireplace so it looks like we're in the cold until January at least. Working in the cold is either making us tougher or shorter (from all the hunching down into our jackets), I'm not sure.
Anyhow, that's it for now. Too much to catch up on to go into detail but I'll make it my third-week-of-December resolution to write more frequently.