Home stretch

We're juggling a bunch of things this week. The electrician finishing up the whole house rewiring soon. The floor guys are supposed to start Thursday morning (job will take 5 days), and in anticipation of that we pulled up the laminate floor in the second bedroom so they can do the whole shebang.  Still trying to get nails/tacks up and Greg is patching some holes.  Wed morning, got a bunch of garbage carted away, including the drop ceiling that Greg pulled out of the second bedroom over the weekend. And we're packing up the apartment so we can move out on Tuesday. Whew!

I hope to find time to post photos from a fabulous lunch we had on Sunday; Lighthouse Lunches at Cape Spear.  The event is completely booked for its run.  So fortunate that Greg booked in when he did.  Fantastic food and presentation; they had the last lighthouse keeper (he retired in 1997) to give a chat between courses.  Gerald Cantwell was the last in the line of eight generations of the same family to tend the light.

It's Alive!

I bought a clematis about a month ago.  I have a tendency to kill plants I purchase.  I've been watching this, waiting for it to succumb to my usual charms.  But lo and behold, after just having some new leaves, I finally have a flower.  :-)

I hope to plant it in our backyard against an old clothesline post.

The wind

It's been really windy this evening. 
And anytime it's windy, I think of Aunt Pat and the wind upsetting her as she walked home from school in Riverdale.

"Superstitious or skinny ?"

That's what our plumber asked me this afternoon when I backed off our narrow staircase as I started for the top step as he was coming up.  It made me laugh and also called to mind my Grandmother's penchant for "leaving by the door you came in".   I wanted to look up this superstition and some of the searches turned up a verse I like (it also creeps me out a bit):

'Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away'
  ~~ Antagonish, by Hughes Mearns ~~

Today in History

On July 18:
1861    Union and Confederate troops skirmish at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia, in a prelude to the Battle of Bull Run.
1877    Inventor Thomas Edison records the human voice for the first time.
1872    The Ballot Act is passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.
1935    Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urges his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.
1936    General Francisco Franco of Spain revolts against the Republican government, starting the Spanish Civil War.
1942    The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, makes its first flight.
1971    New Zealand and Austrailia announce they will pull their troops out of Vietnam.
1994    In Buenos Aires, a massive car bomb kills 96 people.

Born on July 18
1811    William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist and satirist.
1887    Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and Nazi collaborator during World War II.
1902    Jessamyn West, American author (The Friendly Persuasion).
1906    Clifford Odets, playwright (Waiting for Lefty).
1913    "Red" Skelton, American comedian and actor.
1918    Nelson Mandela, civil rights activist, first black president of South Africa.
1921    John Glenn, Jr., American pilot, astronaut and politician.
1929    Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American blues singer.
1933    Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet.
1939    Hunter S. Thompson, journalist.

And today is my mom's birthday and Janet & Jonathan's 25th wedding anniversary.  Wish I was there to celebrate with you.

Nice pipes

Greg & the plumber get started today.

And last night, we found out we have vintage spruce floors - not something many people refinish.  They'll replace it with a hardwood (spruce is a softwood).

After spending all the time and effort pulling up all those nails, this IS my floor, damn it.
We're debating to stain or not to stain.

(another example of spruce floors here)

Checklist

Iceberg
Moose
Caribou
Whale
Puffin

Crossed off #1 two months ago.
And now can cross off #4.  On our walk along the Biscan Cove Trail in Pouch Cove, while taking in this view:

Greg spotted two humpback whales (heard their spout before seeing them).

We watched them (and took lots of shots) for a while.  They swam down further to another cove and we sort of followed them.

I turned my attention to trying to find a geocache and chasing some butterflies.

The whales didn't breach but Greg did get a shot of a tail at one point.

Day off from the house

Going for a walk in Pouch Cove - hope to have some nice coastal shots later.

Let there be light

In anticipation of needing new fixtures to hang in the vestibule, and living/dining rooms, I've been on the hunt for things that might fit the character of the house and our furnishings.
We were up to the ReStore, a Habitat for Humanity operation, to look at doors, tools and everything else they offer (Greg picked up a wooden swivel desk chair for $20 while I was in NY).   You have to hunt and you might get lucky.

Purchased for $18

This is a Virden lamp (I know because of the label in the cap).  I'm planning to spray the metal parts with Krylon to a more appealing color than the faux bronze it is now.  Will need to be rewired before we can put it up; I'm going to try that myself too.

Originally wanted it put this in the vestibule but given the swing of the front door and the lower ceiling, I realized it won't go there.  So into the main hallway it goes.   Didn't really want to have something amber-colored in that area but decided to embrace it.

Going to look at painting the wall running the length of the first floor a shade of yellow and the other wall going up the stairs a shade of cream/ivory.  Have taped up color swatches to see what we like best.  Right now, Martha Stewart's Yellow Magnolia (top row, 4th from right) is winning for me.

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A fine day's work

We pulled the carpet and linoleum from the upstairs bedroom, upstairs hallway, and off the staircase.
Too tired to say more....look at some pics:

Harbour Symphony during Sound Symposium

This week, as part of a 5-day music event here in St. John's, the harbour and the boats docked are used as an orchestra.  Music has been written to be played by the ships' horns.  It's very interesting but not exactly something I'd want on my iPod.

And the Indonesian Tall Ship, Dewaruci, is docked here for a few days.

Link to Harbour Symphony

Link to local news on Dewaruci.

"By this time next week..."

I'd hoped to have all the flooring up as noted in a post last week; was just a few square feet shy of that deadline.. 

Ah well....target dates and deadlines are nice concepts when it comes to home reno, I guess.
One thing Greg noticed when this stretch of floor was uncovered was how long the boards are.

15 feet 9 inches

Would love to know what kind of wood it is.   Oak, fir, pine or maple ??
Hopefully, a floor refinisher coming next week will be able to tell us.

Something else:  The plumber commented on the floor and said he'd heard it was rather common for homes to have a rug tacked down in the center and the floors stained only around the perimeter.  So that may explain this shot:

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Almost done...

...with the floor that is. 
Got the rest of the tile/backer board off the dining room floor. 

Just need to go back through both rooms to pull some errant nails.

Then onto the hallway.  Which requires hammer and tong; the backer board is something stronger....and it seems like it's nailed down every other millimeter. 

Greg's attacked it with the circular saw that he's calibrated to just cut through the tile and board (after some trial and error).   It will be so nice when these are refinished.

Before and after

Pulling down walls and floors in the downstairs bathroom and vestibule to expose the plumbing has been Greg's focus the past week.

basement bathroom:  bye-bye icky stall shower

foyer

Plumber is coming tomorrow night for an evaluation.  Our hope is things are to a point where he & Greg can put in flex piping, and eventually a new bathroom downstairs.

From the floor up

By the time you see this, much more will be ripped out.

I've traded stripping wallpaper for pulling up the flooring (linoleum tile on backer board over the hardwood).
Oy vey my aching back.  And legs. 

And hands.  I can't grip the handle on the front door when I come back to the apartment.  Had I known about this flooring removal issue, I'd have been working one of these for the past few months:

We're cooking with gas now.

The electrician started on Tuesday.  Instead of having battery mounted smoke detectors, he's putting in lines to put in wired detectors.  He's had good success snaking wiring above the plaster ceiling in the living/dining room.

And we learned today that there's no asbestos in any of the building materials.  WOO HOO. 
All that linoleum will be up and out by this time next week (fingers crossed).  We can then get someone in to refinish the floors.

We also got a guy to the house this morning to cart away all the carpet, padding and paneling we pulled.

It's been a really good day and it's only 10:30am.  :-D

Dropped the dropped ceiling

We'd pulled the painted, wallpapered (it's a theme) paneling in the vestibule.  Vestibule, a word our plumber said his mother preferred to 'foyer', with his tone inferring to use 'vestibule' is putting on airs.

Plumbing stack behind Greg's head

Anyway, we found the spot where the stack continues up from the basement to the bathroom on the second floor.  We also discovered the spot where a transom used to be featured over the front door.  We suspected one would be there since the house next door has one.  Also found that the vestibule had been enlarged at some point, sacrificing some of the plaster crown molding from the hallway.

Almost want to move the wall to recover it.  Almost.

The ceiling will go back up after plumbing and electric are complete.  Can't decide if we should put a ceiling fixture back up or do sconces on each side of the door.

The Canada is spreading.

Stealthy infiltration documented.

A belated Happy Canada Day to all !

I'm a Buffalo Sponge

Which candy are you ?

NPR Quiz: Which Americandy are you?

Walls

Since I can't pry up the ugly tiles in the downstairs rooms, I'm back to stripping wallpaper upstairs.  The paper in the master bedroom was a newish vinyl paper.  The top stripped off leaving the backing behind.  I got the backing off near the door and light switch with DIF and a scraper.   I thought I was down to plaster that was painted a minty green.  Upon closer inspection, it appears that that minty paint is on top of more wallpaper.
:-(

I tried scoring the painted paper and scraping at it but only got a tiny bit off.  Greg's encouraged me to just get the backing from the first layer off for now.   It's like to resist scratching an itch.

Fun.

When we discuss the bathroom demo or steps we need to take to complete the any of the house's renovation, Greg will say "fun, fun, fun".

And to that I reply:

Floors

Now we have piles of carpet and padding around.

I pulled up a bit of the linoleum and tile in areas - different treasures underneath....

In the dining room, alongside the fireplace, found some nice hardwood we hope will refinish well.

But first, we need to get some of this stuff tested; tile and glue from this era can contain asbestos.  Won't be pulling up any more until we know what it is.

Another conversation

S:  After this reno, I might be persuaded to consider the charms of new construction.
G:  ROTFLOL