We have learned several lessons - some obvious and some not so obvious ones. Very few of the lessons have pictures and I know that those of you who regularly read the blog like pictures so I will show a few odds and sods at the end.

a) Despite your best efforts the over filled wheelbarrow will indeed dump some of its contents where you don't want them despite having put up extension boards on it.

b) Overfilling the vacuum cleaner makes it harder to clean but it happens 75% of the time - need to invent a see thru container so you can tell where the level it.

c) Cleaning up as you go makes sense - as in one type of material out of the pile at the bottom before you start the next stage of demo or rebuilding. Now Spencer (if he ever read the blog which he doesn't) would disagree - says cleaning up is a waste of time and why do it more than once. To which I would add that the only points he lost in his provincial trades completion was in cleanliness and I've seen his kitchen and his truck. Yes - cleaning up as you go is annoying and time consuming but less so than trying to pick the various building materials out and put them in respective piles when they are in a heap.

d) On all sections of the scaffolding always build the ladder to the outside as it saves loads of time always knowing where you are and being able to walk thru easily.

e) Every day someone will hit their head on the scaffolding. And its not always Ron - sometimes it is even short me.

f) Once a session something will drop off of the scaffolding. The chances of something dropping increases if you have just climbed down to get something else and climbed back up - it makes a great cardio workout but rather annoying use of time. In the most common order:
* pry bar
** hammer
*** screws or nails or the chuck for the drill
**** cell phone or iphone
*****bag of insulation
******one of a kind tool that you just hauled up
*******vacuum cleaner or the vacuum cleaner hose
********coffee or water bottle

g) Good weather should be appreciated. Everyday. A few brief moments may be spent in reflection of the landscape at least once or twice a day without feeling like that is slacking. It's called appreciation for a great view. The wind we don't appreciate as much but it is a bit of a given so just accept it.

h) And although it pains me to say this Ron was right (but because he also never reads the blog he won't ever find out) that doing the tough side first was best. So far this side seems so easy compared to the big complex side.

This is the end of the second day of the season. We had to stop early as we had evening commitments but it was so cool to drive up late at night and not see the white staring quite so strongly at us.

This is the end of the third day which was a Bernie day as Ron was at work but that seems rather fitting as I hated that vinyl with a passion. I was tired at the end of the day but pretty darn happy to have 90% of it gone.

We knew that there was cedar shingle siding underneath but we were not aware that it had this double board pattern and by the time we knew it was too late. We did not have the amount of shingles it would take to redo this pattern but it really is quite nice although a titch dirty as you can see. Also note the green trees around the corner of the house - spring has finally arrived.

This is the end of day 3 and we have the attic space de-insulated and reinsulated and ready for Typar. The siding is all down and the trim boards are scrapped and ready to be sanded and filled prior to painting.

Final picture of the work aspect is the wood pile at its ultimate height as from here on out we just burn and don't build it up any more. It's kind of nice that I also captured the sunset and the completed side of the house in the photo. We have had 3 absolutely beautiful evenings and have enjoyed sitting by the fire chilling out and being serenaded by the frogs.

And because I always try to close with an interesting view here is an evening picture of the crocuses. All of the day time ones looked so blah because of the heavy amount of brown grasses but this picture of the late crocuses (which just over 10 days ago were still snow covered)also has green grass so looks fresher and more springy.

This is definitely NOT my most artistic photo but seems the most fitting. I know that everyone likes to see, via here, the crocuses. It was lovely that my mom was up to visit when they were in full bloom as well Greg, Janice and Joyce were also able to come out from the city to see them. They are a harbinger of spring and it feels so good to see the colour after a long winter. Spring took forever to get here but really it turned straight into summer and I'm good with that. Now just to find some time to plant some shrubs and a garden.

OK - more later as there is work to do!

Bernie

On to the basement where we definitely made some progress although according to Spencer it is nothing special. We are pleased though as we have 4 of the 5 t-bar sections in place along with the acoustic tile cut and inserted. We had to purchase more trim wood for the beams so that stopped us from going any further last weekend on section 5. So instead Ron worked on some electrical in the basement and I painted more tin ceiling tiles. Ron has also purchased a special blade for the table saw in hopes of being able to cut down each tile the tiny bit it requires so we shall see in the fall how well that goes. I have finished painting all the walls and will work away at ceiling tiles as time permits.

This shows section 1,2 and 3 with t-bar and acoustic tiles in place.

This shows section 5 which needed beam coverage with fir trim so the progress ended here for now.

This small pile is all that remains in the basement - except for primed outside boards waiting to go up under the bay windows. The room looks amazingly big without piles of supplies in it.

Here are several of the many ceiling tiles primed and awaiting a)to be cut down and b)final coat of brown before installation.

This is it - the last ugly side!! Scaffolding waiting to go up and ugly vinyl waiting to come down!!! Yeah. I have wanted to get rid of this vinyl since the day we set the house down so it isn't a minute too soon.

Just a quick update before we head outside to work. I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Bernie

Even with the farm truck and the car to give the bank definition it is still hard to convey how much snow there really was in the yard.

This is after 10 hours in the bobcat for Ron - we were finally able to drive in the circular driveway. Interestingly enough most of the snow blew off the actual road.

Ron is standing on the ground with the dogs on the bank. They have really enjoyed the snow and especially our snow shoe walks.

We are by no means the only ones in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to feel this winter but it is interesting to note that the last time we had this type and amount of snow it was 1974 and we hadn't met each other! We have spent a significant amount of time and muscle mass keeping our circular driveway clear and shoveling out when we have become stuck in our vehicles. We have ascertained three things that will occur before next winter: a) we will have a snow blower for the tractor and b)we will have a 4 x 4 vehicle and c)the tractor will be in the garage before the snow flies. But in the meantime we aren't quite where we intended to be in the basement as we have been outside getting a gym work out without ever going to the gym! We have made some progress as you will see below.

There was a lot of cleaning up of the joist spaces and then custom cutting of rigid insulation prior to insulation. All these steps will ultimately be invisible but are none the less necessary.

This was the stage Ron had been working towards for a while and it took all of about an hour to spray foam the joist spaces that required it.

This photo shows the walls patched, primed and final coated. It isn't a striking transformation but it was a necessary step. I just have the stairwell left to finish.

Up next is the installation of spring - haha! Just kidding. Up next is the installation of the L Bracket and the t-bar. Then each ceiling tile has to be cut down by about 3/4" of an inch - the 24 x 24 of the modern tile is slightly smaller than the older one but that is how we are going to suspend it. I wish there was a cutting board and a rotary cutter that would work on metal so that it didn't all have to be done with tin snips as that is really going to be time consuming.

One of the joys of digital photography is being able to experiment. I had heard that photos of quilts on snow showed up the colors quite well so outside I went one day with a heritage quilt that had vibrant colors but no good photos of it as the wall color was skewing the results. So I found out that 4 dogs and 2 cats don't make good assistants as they want to walk in the pristine snow and that according to snow and quilts you can have too much sun even if I think you can't. I ended up with several "flat" pictures that lacked definition so decided to try something a little different.

Set against the backdrop of some fall vegetation the quilt punches up from the snow in an explosion of colors.

Loads of women shop for shoes or purses or jackets or clothes. Me - I get excited buying 60% off paint brushes. It was such a good deal I bought 3!!

The best coat of paint is always the first coat of color - it is so exciting putting it on. This is the base color and the metallic paint will go on over top of this.

The problem quickly became where the heck do I put all of these pieces once they are painted!

As you can see they go on and on and on! It's hard to imagine but I ended up with a sore thumb from holding the underside of all the pieces while I painted. I almost finished but I ran out of drying space for them.

We have decided that the metallic will go on once the T-Bar, L-Mould and the tiles are in place. It will be easier to get a more even coat if it is all done at the same time. Which means that after the second coat of paint is done all the pieces are ready for installation. We need to wait for the weather to warm up so that the spray foam can go in the outside floor joist spaces although I think next week there are quite a few walls that I can do final coat of paint on.

And in the meantime winter hangs on. Every day we get new snow and the country side is almost pristine from tracks between the snow and blowing snow. This does mean that every snow shoe with the dogs burns more calories than walking on grass! It will be interesting to see how long it all takes to melt and when the green will return. It really does look like January 17th not March 17th.

These grouse left interesting snow tracks as they walked from plant to plant this am. I've seen them on walks before but never this close to the house.

All right - that was just a quick update so that progress can be recorded. It will probably be Easter weekend before we make any more real inroads on this project but as spring isn't coming early we aren't going to be outside any time soon working on the siding or landscaping so I guess we will work inside for a while yet.

Bernie and Ron

So this is the "dreaded" door - ready for Ron to work on his portion of it & stacks of wood for assorted spots.

This is the salvaged stair newel post and trim pieces for the basement stairs - sanded and ready to stain and install. We just need to source a banister for the other side and decide what we are or are not covering the stairs with.

Note that the walls are painted but they now need to be washed (yuk - I just like painting not washing!) and the final coat of paint put on them. But before that Ron needs to do spray foam insulation up in the floor joist spaces (yuk - messy job!)

So once the cavities are filled and the walls are given the final coat of paint then it is time for the ceiling. So we had to figure out what we had as far as tin ceiling tiles and trim pieces.

As you can see there are many different styles and not all pieces cleaned up as well as others. So they will all need a base coat (still working on the exact color combo) and then the metallic paint on top.

So once again it pays to have an engineer on the project. He measured the ceiling areas, counted the trim and field tiles and made it all fit.

Here is one of the odd projects that cleaning up lead to. It was the back entrance table in Forest Grove. Ron routered the edge to soften the look, I painted the oak away and put on a new handle. Tada - a new bedside table for the downstairs bedroom.

Two of these five drawers were a steal of a antique deal ($3/each) but they were in rough shape. A bit of sanding, some stain and then a couple of coats of varnish and tada! They are now at work holding scraps in a manner that means I can find them when I want them.

So we actually have been doing something besides just shovelling snow. As we make a bit of progress here and there it then entices us to keep on going. Before we know it spring will be here and there are a couple of big projects to tackle as soon as we can get going. Hard to believe but I actually did two posts within a week! I doubt it will gather me a blog following but that, like the basement progress, feels good to accomplish. Plus it only took me 45 minutes to upload it all, write and edit so that is also progress to accomplish it so quickly.

More tada's later. I have to go wash some t-bar pieces for the ceiling.

Bernie and Ron

What the heck is what we think! Snow and then more snow and then more snow. We've been spending the winter keeping fit with snow removal by shovel. Who needs a gym when you can move snow around for free! Yes - we do understand that a tractor with a blower or a plow would be easier but when did we ever do easier! We are looking for a front mount snow blower for the Kaboda - which should have a garage spot by next fall when all the siding wood is on the house.

AS YOU CAN SEE THE TRACTOR ISN'T EXACTLY ACCESSIBLE - NEITHER IS THE COMPOST BIN

AS YOU CAN SEE WE DID CALL IN THE CALVARY - WELL ACTUALLY SPENCER AND A BOBCAT. BUT THAT WAS JUST ONCE. WE ALSO HAD THE RM COME DO THE FREE RUN UP THE ROAD WITH THEIR SNOW PLOW AND IT LOOKS LIKE WE WILL HAVE TO GET THEM TO COME OUT A SECOND TIME.

OUR STANDARDS OF SHOVELING HAVE DECREASED AS THE WINTER HAS GONE ON - NOW WE JUST SHOVEL WIDE ENOUGH FOR THE VEHICLE AND PRAY FOR NO MORE WIND/SNOW HITS !

AS YOU CAN SEE I TRY TO REMEMBER THAT THERE IS A PRETTY SIDE TO SNOW - SEEN MORE OFTEN WHEN THE SUN IS SHINING AND THE WIND ISN'T BLOWING.

There is a new internet game that loads of people are playing and talking about - 4 pictures that all point towards the same word. You are supplied with the letters (and a few extras I think) and the number of letters in the word and then you need to guess it. I saw one that had A, E, I, O (all made out of weird materials) and the answer was vowels (which I guessed in like 1 second). This entry could obviously be SNOW but perhaps it could also be WORK or WHITE or ENDLESS!

Bernie and Ron

PS I hope to be back sooner than usual with a blog about some actual progress we are trying to make!

Thought I would include one of my "artist" attempts at a photo.

We have also been out doing a bit of "antiquing" - looking for that perfect piece for somewhere. We reluctantly returned Kim and Karin's furniture when they returned home from their around the world trip ((side bar -- in Alexander's having supper with my good friend Peggi from Maple Creek and her co-worker Denise from Cabri who are up for a conference -- mention my around the world friend and she mentions her around the world friend -- yep!! One and the same)) and had a lot of empty spaces in our house or so it seemed. Sometimes those empty spaces are filled up by gifts - such as this pair below given to me by my lovely co-worker Marion.

Aren't these lovely antique quilt bears adorable - they look so cute up in their chairs!

For our anniversary I bought Ron an ice box. At this point in time it is sitting where the lovely armoire was in the parlor and has the brand new wireless printer on it. Not sure what the long term plans are but I'm pretty sure that with some ice it would keep beer cold which means it might be moving to the far back porch in the distant future. Sorry no picture of it - maybe next time.

I bought an old double ring wedding quilt for the upstairs kitchen attic bedroom. The colors are very vibrant and the quilting is absolutely incredible and it gives that room the pop of color that the previous white antique quilt just didn't. (The picture of it crashed when my iphone crashed - sorry). I also picked up two sewing machine drawers for $3/each - these need a bit of a touch up and then they will store fabric pieces in them very nicely. Our friend Deana's fiance - Landon - is an old house lover and has been to our place so he knows the kind of "stuff" we are into. He came across this old sewing machine - sans case - in a back alley garbage pile and knew that it would find an interesting home here!

Ready for some spit and polish!

An old beauty with a few "age" spots!

We brought home all the tin ceiling tiles from being dry ice blasted. I don't have any pictures of the process but I do have some pictures of the tiles themselves. This means that they are now ready to be primed, base coated and then painted - sounds like fun to me (no seriously I mean that). Prior to the installation of them (as a hanging ceiling) we need to clean out the space and put the second coat of paint on the walls. After the ceiling is up then we will install the floor coverings; carpet tiles and cork tiles. We are undecided floor covering for the stairs at this time as we have different opinions. We also need to source a long banister for that area although we have the short one for the stair area that is open to the basement.

Ah yes - it would appear that our children aren't the only ones with stuff occupying space!This will eventually be the fireplace wall.

It is a pretty big pile of ceiling tiles and trim pieces - now Ron gets to put the jigsaw puzzle together!

The banister railing (from the Borden house) is sanded and ready to be stained, installed and varnished.

The pile of flooring - it's been ready to go for a while.

We sourced some excellent wood from Sutherland. It was one of those weird right place right time stories - I was driving to the Forestry Farm to do some volunteer stuff and went down 115th Avenue and then decided "no with my luck I don't want to go through three school zones so I turned left onto Laura Avenue to go back up Central Avenue. At the corner of Laura and 115th is a building that Ron and I have always wondered about the history of - looks like it was once a stone school (but we know it wasn't the Sutherland school) but converted to a house. So now it is obvious that it is being renovated and there is a big pile of interior trim wood on the lawn. Quick stop by my vehicle!! I went in, talked briefly with the workers to get the contractor's cell number. Two hours later I was back to pick through the pile and take what I wanted home. Glad we drive an SUV and that I have the "pipes" to sort and haul lumber. There were several good sections - picture rail, door trim and crown mouldings (although they aren't the same as the ones in the house they would be good for the man cave windows). There was also a fabulous pile of doors by this interesting little old building in the back corner of the lot and I had a chat with him about those also so hopefully we'll have first dibs when the owners finish picking through for the one door that they want as a keepsake. If you know the house I mean and the story behind it please fill us in. Now back to the regularly scheduled blog entry - this was a sidetrack similar to the trip down that street!

Some prime salvage interior wood here - a great find and worth the load, unload and slivers!

Ah yes - the living space in the basement will have a gas fireplace as we put the rough in for that several years ago. A few years ago we also picked up a mantle from an antique store going out of business. A year or so ago I picked up a second one at Habitat for an absolute song - I couldn't walk by that antique wood and not buy it - some women buy purses, shoes and shirts - me I buy old wood! So now we just need the fireplace. Well one day at work Ron gets a phone call from our neighbor - he used to work for FMD and is busy now cleaning out and downsizing his yard. He has stored the original fireplace inset from the President's Residence at the U of S for several years - he couldn't bear to let it go to the landfill when they switched it over to a gas one. He wondered if it might fit anywhere in our old house (( side bar - his yard and house have since been sold to Brett Husky - who grew up around the corner from us in Forest Grove and indeed baby sat our children a few times)). It is now residing in our garage and we will figure out how to incorporate it into the gas inset.

The distance view - a few cracks in the back liner but the front is amazing!

Check out the details!

Option 1 - from Habitat for a pittance! It does have the side supports they just don't show up in the picture.

Option 2 - the antique store option. I'm pretty sure which ever one we don't use will be snagged up by Alyssa!

So the man cave (aka the garage) is getting rather full of bits and pieces. We did take a weekend to sort and organize but unfortunately we didn't get the horse tack moved so we could shuffle the wood pile down so we could get the tractor in. He did find time to hang the deer heads though as that was a lot easier of a task. That same weekend we also did a ton of outside work and took control of the grass and weeds around the house! Alas they are now all covered in snow but it helped us formulate a plan for spring time work order.

Man cave entrance!!

So that is what we haven't been up to - all I did was go take pictures of the upcoming projects. We don't have any pictures of the invisible things we've been up to but it still feels good to get them accomplished. I've also been busy gearing up for the 100th anniversary of the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park (former Sutherland Forest Nursery Station) and that has been eating up more than it's share of time. Then there are the suppers we've hosted, the dessert clubs we've been to and the drinks we've shared as we have tried to catch up with friends that we missed over the busy construction season. And now, of course, Christmas season approaches and it is time to do more entertaining but we are thankful daily we have the house and the means to provide a relaxing enjoyable evening for all involved. Stop by some time - you're more than welcome. Special thanks go to those who follow and comment on the blog - nice to know you are out there ad enjoying my ramblings and photos.

Bernie and Ron

So without further ado here are the pictures of our work this year.

From near the Ponder's Lake looking up towards the house. This picture was actually taken with the telescope lens as it is actually quite a distance away.

This picture is looking towards Ponder's Lake and the incredible fall scene of thousands upon thousands of snow geese, Canada geese, cranes and swans. We were lucky enough to catch the swans in flight.

This is taken from the walking path - my usual tree with the house photo spot doesn't show the front of the house so I had to move over a little. The fall colors were so intense this year and lasted quite a long time.

The front view - tada! I actually painted the header where the veranda roof line/balcony floor line will be as I wanted it to look finished even though there is more construction to come in a couple of years.

This photo shows the two completed sides and gives you a great idea of what the whole house will look like when complete.

This shows the detail work on the second floor and the nice contrast of colors.

A close up of the attic vent which Ron created and installed. We kept a template so a third one can be created for the remaining side. It was then camouflaged with paint.

We then had a bit of time to do some grounds work like water and weed around the trees. Ron did a serious amount of grass control and then we cleaned up the garden - which yielded very well considering I weeded it twice and that was the only attention that it received. Ron took the scrrens out and I washed all 31 windows which brighhtened the house and got rid of the construction dust. Since the weather has turned cold we have tried to take a bit of time to catch our breath. Ron has been busy at work trying to stay on top and I've been catching up with a few projects here in the house and even doing a little quilting.

It would appear that our nest is actually empty and that the boomerang children have almost settled into their own nests. We miss them but are glad that they are moving on to the next chapter of their lives although they did leave a "bit of stuff" here! Which will make the next project start with a major clean and declutter. The basement commences after Christmas so if they ever read the blog they have been put on notice that they only have 2 months left! We are picking up the cleaned ceiling tiles tomorrow and have scored an amazing fixture for the basement that I will fill you in on with the next blog entry.

Until next time.

Bernie & Ron

As you can see this isn't your usual blog entry - this one has guest appearances!

On Saturday morning I finished up the walk out wall paint job while Ron started building scaffolding on the south side (well south according to him but east to me - but that is another whole story which I have touched upon before). When I finished painting the scaffolding was dismantled and moved around. Saturday afternoon & evening were spent at a delightful and fun filled wedding (but we forgot the real camera - darn it) and then we crashed an engagement party on our way home for a couple of hours!

Special guest appearance but not as a work crew! Jordan and Shelby Hamm and wedding party.

So Sunday morning was not an early start - not at all! We started at the top like usual and took off the vinyl and the cedar siding on the dormer. We were just starting to remove the ship lap and un insulate when a red van pulled up. Helen & Lorne - complete with work gloves!! Helen played groundskeeper - a job I usually do after the whole day of demolition. She moved cedar shingles, dona conna board, vinyl siding and pulled a swack full of nails from trim boards. Lorne got the dirty job of helping Ron and I to un insulate. Our lucky day so despite the tardiness of the start we had extra help for two hours and what a difference that made. To top it off Helen left us puffed wheat cake (one of the two baked items she is famous for) and watered the planters.

Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Helen and Lorne helping but thought I would include the view they saw from up top (note how green everything still is). Helen climbed up for a look around and Lorne is an old hand at climbing to work.

Monday we got cracking a lot earlier and put in a 12 hour day but didn't quite reach our goal for the day. We managed to remove both sidings on the next level, the ship lap and partially insulate our way back up on the second floor. We were so lucky that the weather held while the wall was exposed. No grounds crew that day so the place was seriously looking worse for wear.

Tuesday we sprayed our way back up the wall until we ran out of spray foam. We had to make a city run to return extra scaffolding, drop off salvage tin and pick up more spray foam. Once home Ron got back to work spraying and I started pulling more nails from more trim boards. We then hit the main floor and stripped off the vinyl and this is when Bhavna showed up. She helped me finish that up while Ron moved the scaffold supports. Then we played grounds crew and loaded up the truck! The only thing left laying around is a humongous amount of cedar shingles and siding!

For this she was awarded a BBQ steak supper with new garden potatoes and some time in the country.

Wednesday we awoke to light rain so that sort of changed the plan for the day as we didn't feel we could strip back the main floor with rain in the forecast. We did remove the cedar siding and all of the trim and had a discussion (but no decision) about the height and depth of the veranda and balcony. We also removed all the fascia board and scrapped and sanded the soffit on the third floor. Then Ron set to work using the little cans of spray foam around all the window cavities as well as the doors while I primed the new fascia and trim boards, soffit and windowsills (outside as the rain clouds disappeared without any precipitation). Spencer showed up and helped his dad put up Typar on the dormer.

That earned him of his favorite suppers - sausages and home made pyroghies.

Thursday we got back at the un insulation and re insulation portion of the program. Pulling nails on the ship lap endlessly it seems and then bag after bag of old insulation. I had managed to keep up with boxing the tar paper and all the dona conna board is stacked up ready to burn but the wood under the scaffolding is out of control.. We look like we are losing the battle with keeping the fire wood pile under control! We were able to finish most of the insulation but didn't get all of the ship lap screwed back on.

Friday was filled mostly with some of the invisible jobs - deck screws in ship lap and the window framing boards back up,etc. Finally late late in the afternoon (technically it was early evening) we started putting up the Typar building paper on the main two levels. Saturday had a lot of rain in the forecast and we wanted to get it wrapped up so onward we went despite the howling wind. It actually went very well and we were able to complete it although the light was failing and it had dropped about 10 degrees since we started. Persistence was a good thing though as we had 1 1/2 " of rain with winds on Saturday and it was nice to know the "envelope" on that side of the house was intact.

Erica's helping hand earned her some cash and our thanks.

Georgina's helping hand earned her a huge thanks from us - no food or drink and as an added bonus to me she came bearing a gift of some landscape quilt embellishments! I feel bad as she got the ugly job of scrapping trim boards but thanks to her they are now sanded, primed and some even have two coats of paint on them already!

Rain meant we woke up and went back to sleep on Saturday am and then we watched soccer for a little while! It was actually a very productive day though as we cleaned up and organized the garage so we would have space to work and then we restored window trim boards and painted. So that meant on Sunday we could start the rebuilding process although soccer, post game drinks and discussion rather cut into our Sunday afternoon work day. And this was followed by our helping hand supplied by Greg and Janice Hales - a fabulously delicious home cooked meal complete with garden veggies and great company. It was a wonderful way to end a long week.

No picture of our evening meal out but a photo of the weeks worth of work instead.

I would be remiss if I failed to thank the following colleagues who turned up at work for me last week so I could be at home. Found out that there were those that did miss me - which is always a nice feeling. The theory is that the heat savings will outdo my lost wages in no time at all.
Monday - Shelley
Tuesday - Chelsey
Wednesday - Kim B.
Thursday - Brenda
Friday - Lori L

Our week went very smoothly and it was such a treat to have some helping hands and smiling faces show up to brighten our days. We have faced the reality though that this will be the last side we do this year. It will take us a couple of weeks to finish the rebuild and get it all painted and chalked. That leaves us in late September and weather could be a big factor in that to use the spray foam insulation the temperature must be 20 and it is hard to guarantee that late in Sept. So we will turn our hands to a few other jobs that need to be done around the yard and perhaps even get some footings poured for the retaining walls. We even have another weekend off planned for those who think we work too hard.

Many hands do make light work as my mother says and it was a pleasure spending time with our guests this week.

Bernie and Ron

As yes - the words to a famous Shari Lewis song - don't remember it? perhaps you are the wrong generation or blocked it out! I've attached the link so you can refresh your memory about Lamb Chops, Charlie Horse and the dog who's name I don't know or can't remember!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0&sns=em

One fine summer day when we were working away on our respective "assignments" I said "this is like the side that never ends" and then spent the rest of the day with the song stuck in my head. Still there when I bounced out of bed the next morning so thought I would do a blog entry as a take off. And the added benefit - you all now have that song stuck in your heads so maybe after a week it will leave me alone!

Seriously it did feel like the side that never ends but now the great reveal moment!! Tada - featured below the house as it is meant to look.

On closer inspection you would see that the walk out siding now needs to be cleaned, patched and repainted. It had a few things bounced off of it - nothing that wood couldn't handle so it just needs some TLC. Hence the fact that the scaffolding is still there at the bottom level.

The biggest time element on the walk out side was definitely these bay windows and the roof/shingles on them. The amount of cutting time was astronomical on both siding and shingles as was chalking all of those joints but they look so darn good! I'm really glad we went with the trim board the contrasting color even if it was fussy painting.

Spencer said the house was harder to spot from the highway now and he is certainly right - the white stood out but the red and green blends into the country side. I love this picture!

The scaffolding sorted and waiting to go up. We have done the ground work and prepped a work area made out of pallets. It's DEMO weekend - time to strip it down. Bored and need something fun to do - come on out! Demolition is very satisfying albeit dirty work and not all of it will be done from scaffolding.

This next side looks so small and so easy compared to what we just conquered. Hm - my philosophy is still do easy first and work your way up to hard but perhaps "his way" will serve well as we have learned so many lessons on the other side and we are seriously motivated to get cracking on these last two sides. Unfortunately the days are getting shorter and the evenings cooler but we'll push hard and see what we can accomplish. We have decided to replace all of the fascia board fairly quickly so that we can then get the eavestrough guy back out so that will slow us down a little as well but we can "factory" paint all the boards at one time and installing them isn't usually too difficult (famous last words). The amount of trim boards to redo on these two sides equal the number on the side we just completed which puts it into perspective how darn detailed that side was.

So that's the scope. If you happen to know the dog's name please leave me a comment - I tried looking it up on Wikipedia but wasn't successful. And of course any comments are welcome.

Bernie

So, even though we are seriously behind our "projected" schedule, we took 5 days off and went down to Diefenbaker Lake for some serious R & R. On our rain day there I actually had a nap - it was more like a SNAP (short nap) but still I laid down and went to sleep even if I did wake up 10 minutes later. We both did quite a bit of reading, relaxing in front of the fire, a game or two of backgammon and lots of walks for the dogs. The weather (after the first rain type day) was perfect and so we had two great afternoons at the beach with our friends the Hales and the Stades plus of course Breeze and Lucky. We cooked over an open fire and drank a little bit of beer (well OK maybe quite a bit of beer!) and had a killer game of Dirty Queen's with the our dessert club friends.

Home away from home - our trusty tent trailer. It required some work this year and so I made cushion covers and "bedroom" curtains. It still requires some electrical work but I guess that will be next year before we pull out.

Appear to have lost our axe so required a new one - the Master Chopper picked it out and man it's solid! Good thing he enjoys chopping wood as I would have had to use the hatchet! Even on the rain day we kept the fire going all day long and cooked supper on it.

We also required a new Kong for the dogs because no beach time is complete without Breeze swimming for long periods of time to fetch the Kong. Lucky is the stealer of the Kong as she hits the shallow water. He actually can swim but it puts a worried look on his face and he definitely doesn't like waves. Nothing slows Breeze down.

Once we convince the dogs they are tuckered out then we lay around and read or chat or nap along with a snack and a liquid refresher - a great beach afternoon. The water level is so high that there is very little beach and so we are actually just up on the other side of the dune.

A good time was had by all and we returned home ready to turn the corner - of the house that is. Well that's what we wish but it isn't a reality yet but that is the next blog post.

Bernie and Ron

Each little piece had to be cut and placed. Then I primed them all and Ron chalked any gaps. Then I did first and second coat of yellow and final coat of green (when the boards were down they were sanded, holes filled, fixed if necessary, primed and first coated with green) on all of these tiny little angles. The double color makes it a fairly time consuming paint job.

This photo shows the trim boards and the angles they had to meet at as well as the siding above it. Those vertical trim boards are bevelled as are each and every cedar siding board. The verticals were salvaged and then taken back to first coat of paint only to turn up too short so new ones were created. Ron suggested I paint them green - I said NOT!

This shows just a tiny little bit of the first bay with two coats of yellow and two coats of green (needs one more - darn dark colors!). It looks amazing (just how I imagined it) and the second one if starting to show to it's potential. It has all of the siding on, the green is all first coated and so it is waiting to be primed. I think I will wait until the two sections on either side are complete and do all the priming at once.

So the right hand side of the walk out (*the single story part) is called section 5 and it is almost complete. The yellow is 100%, the green probably needs that darn third coat (66%) and the red is at 33%. One piece is intact and the other had to be removed so one is easy to paint while the other is very exacting. Then just the fascia board to go in that section!! Yeah.

So this is where we are at with two days left of July. Man - it feels like we've been working away on this side forever and yet it's only been - what hm -- 3 months!! OMG - yep. The hard side first but soon we'll be ready to move on. In fact today as I waited for the boards to be cut I was doing site preparation in my mind for the next side!

And for those that think we don't stop and smell the roses I have tons of other pictures to chose from for the remaining shot. I could show the dogs playing in the grass after a swim, the prairie vista, tons of prairie flowers but alas no new sunsets (Ron says we have enough sunset pictures so I'm waiting for that perfect one!). I do have a picture of the some prairie flowers (so many types and I know so few names).

Bernie and Ron

PS Nice ad there for Wallace Construction in that bay window picture!
PPS wow - all the pictures uploaded easily, the text flowed along and in less than an hour here is an update!

There is a saying that Saskatchewan is easy to draw and hard to spell. Well - saying we are "residing our house" is 3 words but it's 3 stages (demolition of existing/insulation and cover up/application of new siding and painting) over 14 sections of the house. So here we are at some of those stages below - still at it ~ and we will be for the rest of the summer!

This shows the new shingle siding on the second floor with the original cedar siding on the main floor. On with the new - out with the old. Demolition included removing a lot of the 1930's dirty thirties dirt from Davidson!

There are always surprises and detours when doing restorations in old buildings and the bay windows was ours. The visible part will be that they end up with new shingles after we tore off the old (which were actually in really good condition) so that we could insulate the space from above and below. They are temporarily covered with poly right now as we await the flashing that we had to order. Fortunately we have cedar shingles and shingle caps to apply when the time comes.

The kitchen attic wall needed to be done and this east side was the place to access one portion of it. So we sent over a plank and walked it a few times. We had several rain delays over those two days - loads of trips up and down to cut shingles and some tough spots to paint!

So moving down a level we took off the cedar, the ship lap and started removing insulation. Then it was time to protect everything and spray foam our way to warmth! We'll be warm in the winter but trust us that we were warm while doing this as there was a summer heat wave on.

We actually found couple of empty cavities and one with wood shavings in it. This was between the two bay windows and the wind created a bit of an updraft so it actually rained wood chips ~ not really all that pleasant!

The spray foam is a great product as it provides insulation and a vapour barrier all in one application - perfect for old houses. The application of it is a bit tricky and any overfill must be cut away so for a while it was "snowing" insulation on the warmest day of the year as we cut away any overspray!

This is where we finished to on Saturday evening - the main floor has the "Typar" building paper on it and is ready for the siding. But we awoke to rain this morning (and shall go to bed to rain) so alas no siding was applied today.

So on the final day of holidays we worked on all the trim pieces - 30 door and window trim pieces plus the bay window little corner pieces (too many to count!) as well as the all the trim board pieces. Ron pulled nails, filled holes and glued cracks while I sanded and sanded and sanded. They are ready to be primed and painted before installation.

It was mostly all work but there was an afternoon walk/swim for the dogs every day and I managed to get lots of pretty prairie flower pictures but I chose to include a picture of the flowers in the back door flower pots. They are really looking quite spectacular this year. A big thank you to Sandy Cook at Sutherland Garden Mart for help picking out plants designed to grow for someone without a green thumb and a windy environment. I tried my hand at a close up of the flowers (which of course I have no idea what it is!)

We sat and had a beer one evening as we finished up work and made a list of all the lessons we have learned from the hard side - the point of this being to make the next two sides easier as we apply the lessons learned. So now it is all about keeping up the momentum as we return to work for three weeks before we start all over again with the next round of holidays.

Thanks for stopping in to view the site - feel free to leave a comment or come on out and visit in person if you are in the neighborhood.

Bernie and Ron

Though commonly called a cedar, it does not belong to the scientific family of trees that are classified as "true cedars". Western red cedar from Thuja plicata, is soft red-brown, aromatic, decay-resistant wood, used for outdoor construction, shingles, and guitar-making (don't think we'll take that up!). Western Red cedar is native to the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada - we bought ours directly from a mill in the lower mainland.

An old cedar tree in Vancouver - Stanley Park is full of them.

The soft red-brown timber has a tight, straight grain and few knots. It is valued for its distinct appearance, aroma, and its high natural resistance to decay.Thujaplicin, a chemical substance, is found in mature trees and serves as a natural fungicide thereby preventing the wood from rotting. This effect lasts around a century even after the tree is felled. However, thujaplicin is only found in older trees. The experienced roofer who did our garage, was very impressed with the quality of the wood and we are thankful to Dave Szydlowski for the lead on purchasing this direct from the mill. For its weight it is quite strong but can be brittle as we are finding with the century old material we are removing from the house. We believe that if the shingles and siding had been properly cared for over the years they would have been good to go with another coat of paint. Of course then we would have had to rip out the inside to the studs and insulate from there so I suppose this worked for us.

The info above is from Wikipedia as I didn't really know that much about cedar except they used it 100 years ago to side houses and make cedar chests. I certainly didn't know the part about the guitars.I think doing a school report these days is a lot simpler than when we went to the library and found books, took notes and then hand wrote it out and drew a picture! Wikipedia just helped me do the whole thing complete with a photo!

I do know that I love the hue of cedar - the variety in the boards is endless and quite incredible. It goes from a rose color to black but along the spectrum it shows as blond, cinnamon or muted red. The patina it develops after a year or two is a very distinct silvery grey. If we ever built a cabin (no that is not in the works!) I would definitely side it with cedar and leave it unpainted as it ages so beautifully. We have chosen to paint ours and are using a product called Sikkens Rubbol Siding Stain. I find it amazing that it goes on the cedar with such even coverage despite the different colors of the individual shingle.

This shows the 2 year old cedar shingles on the garage and the color they turn after a rain storm.

This photo shows the color range of the new shingles - sitting on a 94 year old shingle. Quite the color ranges!

When we were taking off the second floor section of shingles we found 3 pieces of shingles that had writing on the back of them. I then started looking for them as we pulled them off in hopes of finding one totally intact piece but no luck on the two sections we have done but there are 5 more sections to look in. In the meantime we have pieced them together and it states
Barclay Shingling Mills Ltd.
XXX Clear
Port Hardy BC

The Port Hardy doesn't come thru on this one but it is intact on the bottom of a different one.

My initial Internet search hasn't turned up anything specific to this company but I have found a couple of companies milling shingles in Port Hardy at the correct time. It's interesting that their product branding was directly on the product. I also have the current product info - it comes on a piece of paper in every bundle of shingles and the bar code can even be read by my IPhone4S (that is if I knew how)!

It is interesting that their company copyrighted the ? name ? in 1963 (top left corner) and that the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau has been the authorized authority since 1915.

So this blog might seem like a random tangent direction for me to go but I went there. My closing thoughts about cedar are that the colors could certainly inspire a Bargello quilt with those beautiful hues.

I have included a picture of a Bargello quilt so that you can appreciate the beauty of it and see how the colors of the shingles would work so well. IF only I could sew every day!!.

I will close with a little preview of what we have been doing on the "hard" side over the last 10 days that it has taken me to do this blog entry (I wrote it while we were just starting the second floor shingles - took me that long to get back to the computer and get the pictures uploaded from the iPhone and the camera and then to find them!

This photo shows the kitchen attic wall on the final stages of construction. It has now had it's final coats of paint and looks outstanding!

Ah - the view from the walking trail. It's starting to look as Ron and I envisioned it 5 years ago. It's just going to take a little bit more blood, sweat and tears (on a day like today there was plenty of sweat with the temp heating 32! - fortunately no blood or tears) to make it so.

Bernie and Ron

PS - thanks for all the comments on the last entry and thanks for letting me know in person that you read and enjoy the blog.

PSS - Sorry for the issue about not being able to find the entry - it entered it chronologically! I had started that entry eons ago while we were working on the attic but was having trouble uploading pictures from the camera and the phone (and then finding those files and making them work for the blog) and so it ended up behind the other three. I moved it now and have deleted the other one - this blog works as a communication with those that like to follow our progress but it is also a great reference for me. Which is why I moved it - in two years I won't be able to figure out what the heck is up with the pictures that have 2 stories redone before we have taken it back to the studs!

BC

Hm - but if I move it and then hit unpublish what will happen to the comments! Ah - the learning curve! I was just really impressed that I actually could cut and paste the whole thing (the pictures can be a bit of an issue sometimes) and keep it intact.

HM - so I tried to move the 5 comments from the deleted entry to the current entry as they are in a different section in the "back" of the blog platform but it didn't seem to work. But thanks to Raelyn, Ashley, Pam and Cyndi for their comments. Special thanks to Cyndi who is a librarian and is doing some research looking for the milling company in Port Hardy - I'll keep you posted on what she finds.

Regina Downtown after the 1912 Tornado.CBC.ca/Sask has some really good archive photos.

Rare mammatus cloud formation with the Regina refinery in the foreground.

Tornado touched down near Mortlach. This photo is by Prairie Fire Photography - look up his site - he takes some amazing photos!

Tuesday was super hot and muggy so it came as no surprise when a thunderstorm rolled in over the hills here. We got an 1 1/2 " of rain in about 2 hours along with high wind gusts as well as a bout of decent sized hail. One of those gusts picked up a plank on the very top of the scaffolding and tossed it to the other side of the house where it landed about 15 feet from the front door with a smack that scared the heck out of me.

Wednesday was the day of the big forecast for the tornado. The weather networks kept everyone abreast and even the hospital announcement system informed us all of the tornado watch (which fortunately does not mean we need to remain at work). The wind was pretty intense when I left work and I'd been in touch with Spencer during the day as the wind in Vonda blew out the back window of his truck We had left the dogs outside though as the weather had seemed very nice in the morning and fortunately they didn't do the Toto thing and end up in Kansas. . In Saskatoon the wind picked up Taylor and Alyssa's brand new BBQ and tossed it around. So needless to say we faced the driveway with a bit of trepidation - easily some scaffolding could have gone through windows.

Serious luck on our side! Two of our patio chairs upside down in the fire pit, an established tree leaning seriously sideways and the wood pile rather scattered. We'll gladly handle those minor items. Plus all 4 dogs obviously behaved themselves outside during the wind/rain and were very happy to see us home! We had no power but with a gas stove we still managed hot food and cold ice cream cake (good thing the boys ate it all up). Power was restored the following day sometime and the contents of our freezers and fridge survived.

I'm amazed that all the flower pots and flowers survived in one piece including the succulents (which I moved to the patio table to keep away from the cats). We had planted four tomato plants in the garden along with a rhubarb plant and the worst damage seemed to have been to the asparagus (which is in it's second year and "established"). All of our little stick trees are managing fine.

The weather before and since then has been phenomenally nice! And Canada Day seems to be shaping up for some nice sunshine as well so I'll close the blog to get back to the painting. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I took from yesterday and today.

Here is our progress on the second floor - the siding is all on and in keeping with Canada you can see the red paint and the white primer!!

The benefit to sleeping poorly last night/this morning is some amazing sunrise (plus the fact that I cleaned up my email inbox and did the blog entry)pictures.

Bernie