Whoa Whoa Whoa a whole month is just gone!

Well... Nearly a month since my last post! Bad Tyler! 🙊

It's been a busy month! We've completed a deck and installed the front door. We also set up an Etsy shop for mum's jewelry! Hrm putting it down in writing makes it sound like nothing!

The first big project we completed was our new deck! Mum built the plans and drafted the blueprint for us. Home hardware delivered everything we needed... They must love us by now. 

First was the fun part of removing the bottom two rows of shingles; Which turned out to be relatively easy once I worked out I could take the circular saw and set it to be just under the thickness of the shingles and ran it along the bottom! Lickety split the tiles were detached and nails, omg so many nails, were removed. After fixing up a few boards that needed to be replaced we installed the metal flashing and blueskin protector.

The first deck beam laid

 Mum's design made the deck just over 8' wide so that we didn't have to cut any of the joists. Which saved a huge amount of work! 

Base of the deck. Complete.

Starting the decking.

We decided to go with a 30 something degree angle.. because why not?

We set up the mitre saw and began cutting the boards until something when ptwang inside the saw and it stopped dead in it's tracks! So back to the circular saw to finish up cutting. Mum has a steady hand so it wasn't bad (unlike my inability to cut a straight line if my life depended on it).

We ended up running out of decking just before the last corner was finished! Initially we had planned to put a step at the end but decided to extend the deck out to the edge of the house which used up a bit more wood than we had planned to. So we had to call it a day and get a few more planks ordered.

Aaannnnddd we've run out of boards! 

Mum surveying the edge overlooking our junk pile.

 You can just see the little pile of remains that we had to take to the dump. It was about a moving box and I was quite pleased with how little waste there was despite cutting at an odd angle.

We took the old storm door and turned it into the back rail which added a great rustic look that matches the house nicely.

Completed!

 A few things I didn't get pictures of included digging the post holes which were actually really easy as the earth is quite soft here and there are hardly any rocks. As it turns out when they built the marina down the street they took all of the rocks from most of the nearby properties and so they cleared off our property of almost all the big rocks. It's been so dry here the last month that made digging really easy as well. Funny that the grass is all brown and the soil like powder even though the fog and humidity are quite high. Our dehumidifier still pulls 20 pints of water out of the air every 6 hours. Which, as my mind wanders, brings me to the well. Our hand dug 25' deep well that despite there being no rain and many wells in the area going dry still continues to supply us with water! Heh we've been stocking up on dehumidified water buckets all over the house just in case though!

Our doors and windows arrived and we've installed the front door. It took us all day and nearly killed us in the process I swear and I don't have any pics of the door install because of it. I'll post a shot of the front doors when its nice out (Finally rain!).

Our new front doors

We had actually planned to have the second door installed this week but grandma arrived and while taking her on a tour of nearby Shellburne the brake lines in my car failed, well sprung a leak. OMG really!? So it meant taking Lucy (My cars name) to Kia in Yarmouth so they can fix it. I'm just waiting for the call to let me know that I can drive back and pick her up. They were good enough to give me a courtesy car in the meantime to use. Which I almost have to duck to see out of the windshield. Oh, right, and now its raining *yay* so no installing the second door or windows for a few more days *aww shucks 😏*.

In other news I tried my hand at making an acrylic pour using silicone spray to make a really cool cell pattern in the paining. It's pretty funky!

My first acrylic pour

 And I'm closing today with a shot of mum and grandma hanging out near the causeway.

Back to work

Geeze it's been almost a month since our last update! Time flies! 

It's been pretty quiet the last few weeks. We took a trip to Halifax for mums birthday and wow do I miss the city. The house is great and all but yeah... I think I might be a city person.

We've almost finished power washing the outside of the house. It's taken way longer than I expected but we're still on track for finishing the outside of the house before winter. The big livingroom window is sitting in Home Hardware waiting for us to give the OK for it to be delivered but I'm hoping to start the deck later this week.

Meanwhile Sam has decided that he's going outside and has been very adamant about it. So it's harnesses back on and out we go. 

Mum keeping an eye on Carl while he grazes.

Me keeping an eye on Sam while he grazes.

Sam of course is super happy to be outside and does this bounding hop with his tail straight up in the air.

On another front we've been playing around with acrylic pours and making cell patterns. It's really cool and you have no idea what it's going to look like until it dries (Which takes a few days). Even overnight it changes colours as the cells develop. 

One of mums creations	Toxic pond. Another one mum has made
My first attempt!	A close up of the cells

And a final little note we opened an Etsy shop to sell mums wire wrapped jewelry and our paintings. But more on that next time... I see mum is climbing the scaffolding outside so I better get my butt in gear and finish the last bit of power washing!

The House is coming along beautifuly

You can really see the difference that the power washer has made and replacing a few window trims and windows.

Thought I would just do a bunch of photos today so you can see all the hard work and the prize at the end.

And he's even smiling

Tyler up on the scaffolding with the power washer.

Look at the new attic window.  We had fun making it from a resin pour.

It has been so wet with all the fog that picking a sunny moment is important.

Sure looks nice with the 3 windows updated and looking fresh.

Kitties loving the new big space.

Time flies!

Whoa... I can't believe its been almost a full month since our last post! The roofers have gone and we now have a brand new roof over our heads yay!

they were kind enough to leave the scaffolding here for us to use as they don't need it for whatever job they are doing right now. It's been super handy and I've gotten quite used to climbing up and down on it.

Here's a shot of one side half done.

We've finished one side of the house now and you can really see the difference in the above before / after shot. It's been fairly uneventful over the past few weeks. We kind of overdid it one day and needed to take the last week off just to catch up. We've played a lot of video games in the past while and I think mum is addicted to Planet Nomads.

Today we finished up that side of the house and moved the scaffolding to the front of the house. I need to remember to take the camera out with me so I can take more shots.... The attic window is totally rotten and needs to be replaced. And the lumber for the deck is all here and waiting for me to dig some post holes. But I want to get as much of the exterior cleaned up while we still have the scaffolding. The pressure washer has been amazing and saved me so many hours of scraping and sanding.

The upstairs bathroom is on hold while I decide what tiles I want to use. Mum thinks the ones I was planning using won't work very well as they are too thin in some spots and quite thick in others and won't hold up to a bit of abuse (We're looking to make them out of concrete). So I'm back on the lookout for something interesting that we can make. Having the 3D printer is handy as I can model and print samples out to compare.

Well I'm off to find someplace cool this afternoon as it's uncomfortably warm in here today. Looking forward to the fog returning!

Roofers and Bathrooms

Well the roofers came and are still here.  It has been 2 weeks of banging and shingles and nails.

Tony on the roof.

They have been doing a awesome job on a hard to do roof .  That and the rain and having to re sheave the roof it is slowly getting done.

Great shot of the before and after new shingles.

We ended up having to put 43 sheets of plywood as the existing roof was starting to dry rot and we unsure whether or not it was safe enough for them to be climbing on.  They looked great from inside the attic but were powdery on the outside.  Better safe than sorry.

lots of discussion about what needed to go where and how it was to be done.

Sure looks nice.

In the mean time Tyler and I have been putzing around not being able to do much outside. Important to stay out of the roofers way........ raining shingles.  The other day we started on the upstairs bathroom.

Old musty wallpaper and wainscot. 

It was time to take it all down and start from scratch.  Going to take lots of prep work to be able to paint and tile though.

Needs new drywall.

Much of the original dry wall will need to be replaced as the paper on the outside of the plaster is pealing off.  That is what happens to old houses that are left for 6 years without heat or love.  Condensation builds between layers and everything comes apart.

A little color to the day.

It is amazing how much larger the room looks once the wainscot has been removed.  How much better the bathrooms smells as well.

Tyler hard at work...worried about his plumbers but. LMAO

Everything comes apart.

Now comes the fun part.  Fixing holes, replacing drywall and ripping out the mystery no water shower. 

The mystery no water shower.

Looks so much bigger

And of course the kitties had to get into the thick of things.

Sam helping with the wall paper removal.

Our New Toy

So over a year ago I helped fund a kickstarter campaign for a 3D printer, Laser Engraver, & CNC Machine. The Snapmaker! It's a tiny but as it turns out so far very good 3D printer.

The Snapmaker with enclosure

Putting the 3D printer part together was very easy but the enclosure was a total nightmare. But I got it together and that's really what matters right!? Anyone at CHS will recognize my favorite test print object the Companion Cube sitting on top:

It's not super fast... that little 1" cube took about 45 min to print but the quiality on normal setting was quite impressive!

Mid print

Hexagon tile on the build plate

A closeup of a 3D printed flower pedal

 This next one is a medallion I printed for mum. It worked out really well and to my surprise even with such a bowl shape the print didn't need any supports underneath.

An intricate, medallion

Sure the bottom is a little messy but not too bad

Right now I'm toying with making custom tiles by making molds but that's for another day... However mum is really excited with the idea about making molds that she can use with her resin jewelry. I haven't had a chance to try out the laser engraver or CNC part but we'll keep you posted on our progress!


In other news we have a been working on sanding the siding of the house. Progress is slow but to our surprise the shingles are actually in good condition and so far there's very few that will actually need to be replaced and once cleaned up they look great! We've decided not to paint them and rather let them weather to their natural blueish colour.

Hard at work

Oooh and one last thing! We spent one day cutting our way through the brush to make it to the ocean.

mum digging her way through the brush

the end is in sight!

360 view from the shoreline

As you can tell mum is the busy bee and I just wander taking pictures 😜

The out side

We have been busy cleaning up the yard and a little test on the siding of the house to see how it would sand and clean up.

First I have to show you a photo of our neighbors yard.  A iconic picture of a fishing way of life.

I loved the contrast of the beautiful cherry tree in full bloom with all the colorful floats pilled underneath. The floats were only there for a few hours before being put away until next season.  The end of lobster season had arrived.

Tyler mowed the lawn and we managed to plant 2 purple rhododendrons in the front yard.  Along with 2 urns on the mudroom steps.  They look great and makes the place finally look like someone lives here.

A little bit of color added

They will look beautiful when filled out

The cats keep an eye on us while we work out side and are so funny following us from window to window making sure we don't go to far.

Carl and Sam making sure we haven't traveled to far.

I'm pretty happy with how well the shingles on the house are sanding up.  After doing a little test on the back of the house I discovered that they were still in pretty good shape and I don't think we will have to replace many of them.  Mostly on the bottom 2 rows.  They seem to be the worst.

My scraping test on the back of the house.

I had to laugh yesterday though...... I had cleaned out a bit more of the RV (getting it ready to sell) and had just been placing the items and baskets on the stairs to take up next trip to the top.  Sam discovered the bags of cat nip in one of the baskets and was in his glory by the time I discovered him.  lol.  He even drooled all over the floor trying to open the small bags.

Very happy kitty.

We ordered a roll of fabric so I could make drapes so last week for a few days I made curtains for the upstairs bedrooms and drapes for the downstairs living room.  We wanted something that blocked out the glare for watching tv or playing video games but that was not dark.  I think this fabric was a great idea.  Simple tab curtains that are about 6" above the heaters.

They should go with just about anything.

And check out the new chairs we ordered for the sitting room.  Perfect for morning coffee watching the ocean fog roll by.

Our new peacock chairs.