Posts

Structural Repairs update

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  The space between the first and second floor. So, my last post I talked about the need for a structural engineer and we've had him over. To say the information was not good is putting it mildly. When we had the repair done initially it was in the second month that we lived here. We had our structural engineer out the day after we bought the home. And he said yes your house needs new supports underneath. He gave us a plan; he told us the required building materials we needed and so we got a building permit (thank goodness.) He said we could do this work ourselves, but we didn't think so. It was early days into the renovation of this home, and we were just so overwhelmed by the extent of the neglect in this house. And how inaccurate our home inspection was (in Canada you are not allowed to sue your home inspector). Our neighbour recommended a firm to us that they had used to shore up their barn. We showed this company the plans from the structural engineer and the business ...
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Information about our House!

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 Went to the library and asked if they had any records.  They had this which is a start!  Now off to the land registry because the MPAC records say  this house was built in 1899- but maybe not!
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2 Years and two months-Where we are and what we've done

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  It's almost 2 months since I should have written this post but as usual life has been busy and there have been lots of changes. We bought this house 2 years ago in October 2023. And I'd love to say everything in the second year went right but it didn't because it never does. What's interesting is work that we did two years ago has either stood the test of time or it hasn't which is extremely frustrating when you are on a budget and want to finish up the renovations. The biggest blow was that at the end of September when Chris was finishing the steps down to the basement from the exterior entrance he was checked the beams supporting the house. We had noticed that some cracks had begun to appear in plaster walls that we had already prepped and painted and some floors had become spongy again. Unfortunately, it looks like when they jacked the house and put in the new support beams they hadn't put in strong enough beams. We really needed 8x8 posts instead of the 6x...
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The 8-8-8 rule

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Today, I learned the 8-8-8 rule of lavender pruning. On August 8th take off 8 inches of your lavender (if it has finished flowering). I have not pruned my lavender today. Instead, over the last few days I have been plant removing. Our fascia is finally being replaced with the use of a lift truck. Which means that all round the house, I am frantically digging up plants with the help of Peter. Hostas, Siberian Iris, Astilbe and Rose Mallow. And bulbs, so many bulbs. And anything I planted this year. All back out. Sigh. Fall Crocuses Hosta hole with bulbs found underneath Siberian Iris former resting place with all of the bulbs from underneath. This area will be covered with stone when we widen the drive way.  Area where hosta, rose mallow and astilbe were removed. This is going to become part of a path to the backyard. Once upon a time, it was a driveway to the barn.  My buckets of plants soaking away while I figure out...
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Invasives! (Second May 2025 post but life got in the way)

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  It has been a while since I have written anything about the house. That's not because we're not doing stuff because we are! It's just that it's summertime and we have so many different projects on the go that I just don't have time to write. (Plus I have started making art again so priorities!) This year is very different from last year. Last year was finishing the upstairs bathroom starting the kitchen and just getting a feel for what our issues are around the outside of the property. Fixing the things that absolutely had to be done. I cut down a lot of cedar bushes, I made a huge growing mound out of all the dead trees, I tidied up the yard and observed. This year is really about trying to wrest the yard from Mother Nature. I have been in a Non-Stop battle against invasive plants. I am losing. There are many reasons why I bought this property, some of them sensible and some of them silly. One of the reasons was that when I walked through the property it was like...
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May 2025- Part 1

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  It has been several months since I have posted anything about the house. My mother has come through her heart attack but continues to have bouts of illness. My sister, as mum's primary caregiver, has been an absolute rock throughout. During this time Christopher and Peter have been doing most of the renovations  themselves. I have been home for almost two months, since mid April. So what's been happening? After much discussion and gnashing of teeth on my part, I have agreed with Peter and Christopher that our beautiful soft Pine Floors covered with lead stain cannot be refinished at this time because a) we want to live in the house and b) lead dust is not good for anyone, particularly our grandchildren. So, I now have lovely cork floors in the dining room. Chris put a subfloor in over top of the pine that will allow either ourselves or a future owner to just lift them and sand the floors later. Why cork? We used cork in our last home in the walkout basement area. We noticed ...
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