1918_Eaton's_Eager

It finally feels as if spring is in the air and with it a renewed optimism and energy. We have been doing some more work on various projects and I decided not to let it be two months before I updated it again so here we go. Lots of pictures if it all works well and not a lot of text.

The attic was not adequately represented in pictures so I went upstairs with the camera after I took up my sewing boxes. Now all I need are some tables,friends, appetizers and drinks to make it complete!

The kitchen also was crying out for some contents so I unpacked a bunch of boxes into the glass cupboards. I will probably have to move half of it when we actually move in but it felt good and it looks homey.

Spencer has been back working on the island. With his dad's assistance and Lorne's clamps they put the maple trim pieces on the island.

The island then went downstairs (again) for the final work on it. Feels incredible and is almost ready for the finish sanding and application of the beeswax compound. Then it can actually be installed permanently!

The main floor has been sitting at about 95% complete and we have commenced the big project. We found a salvage screen door for the pantry and new wood for the frame for it and the transom window. We are taking votes about painting it the russet brown (lower half of the walls you can see in the picture)versus the green of the dining room. Undecided at this time but I do know I have a fair amount of green left over and not a lot of russet so that might make the decision.

No picture to show the little project from the main floor but I did finally scrape, sand, stain and finish the top of the picture rail in the dining room. It is interesting to note that the tall young guy in my family did notice, right away, that I had done it. I suspect that is one spot that I will forget to dust on a regular basis as I can't see it. Apparently, according to Spencer, it looks so much better!

This picture shows Ron creating the door frame. We have been lucky to salvage all of the other ones we required for downstairs although we are short a door so if anyone knows of a 5 panel fir door let us know. It is a smaller size (28" I believe). Habitat Restore has very little in their new location and Handyman Haven is closed so we may have to work hard to source this.

In the meantime we have been busy scrapping, sanding, staining and finishing the doors that we do have. A couple of them were not in great shape so don't look great but they do look better. We are now on the look out for some salvage trim as we have gone through almost all of the extra that we brought from the Davidson basement. We are hoping to get out to the Hosegood farm again once the road is open and pick up some more salvage there. If anyone knows of any other demolition projects that we could access please let us know. Old wood is hard to find.

While I had that batch of stain mixed up I wanted to do the new windows and doors in the basement so that they would match as close as possible. The day was so dull and "white out" that it was hard to see to stain and the picture reflects that.

We are trying to get the basement ready for occupancy and I talked about ordering the carpet tiles in the last blog entry. I had a few queries about what carpet tiles are so thought I should show a picture. They are carpet that are cut into 20" x 20" and secured with sticky "dots. It arrived safely although the boxes were in rather bad shape. Alyssa has also been out sourcing lights for her room. In the meantime I am, fruitlessly it seems, trying to get the piece of tile that was missing from our August order (I've been working on this since January!@!)

Hopefully on Easter weekend we can put down the floor in her room which is a mixture of the carpet tile and tile. Then it will be on to the ceiling (although perhaps it makes sense to do it the other way around but I guess it depends on the supply of materials). We are working on securing t-bar and panels but that hasn't been an easy process. We all want the basement to complement the heritage house above it and regular acoustic ceiling tile lack a certain amount of flair. Alyssa has other more descriptive words for them! So we have been looking on line and at stores for another option. We have found a couple that work in style but are rather expensive so we are continuing to work on sourcing an option that is compatible with the budget, the heritage elements and the room "designer". i am sure that there will be more about that in the next blog update.

Another lack of progress is the completion of the drywall/plaster. It would appear that there are contractors out there that don't stand behind their work or their word and refuse to come back and finish up. The great news is that my friend (Joanne the famous painter from Edmonton) also does plaster/drywall. So she is once again going to be in Saskatoon and we are the lucky recipients of a day with her. Ron thinks she should fancy paint lines but I really want to see the nine window trim spots and the two door trim spots get their final coats of compound so that we can prime, paint and then put up the last few trim boards. I am looking forward to spending the day with Joanne but I do hope she remembers to show up with coffee!! I will supply the butter schnapps and seafood tarts for lunch.

Another area that hasn't seen much progress is that of the "blown" radiator. It was picked up and sent for repair but is not salvageable which puts us back to square one. Our options include an original from the house which is significantly too big for the room, a hanging one from the Davidson basement or sourcing another one (not again!). We will have to see whether either of the first two pass their original pressure testing and then make a decision. The fact that spring is almost here means that it isn't as timely an issue as some other items.

With spring just ahead we have our fingers crossed that the house will sell. If it does we have a huge list of projects for this summer which includes the garage (which Ron is sketching even as I type), siding, windows, veranda/balcony and that should be enough to fill our warm season with activity. In the meantime we are open for tours whenever we are on site but please remember to call ahead.