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.

So many things to do

Yesterday I finally said "stop" and did just that for the weekend.  So I putt'sed around for the day and got my little work room all set up and Tyler's bedroom curtains made.

My new work space.  Waiting to be painted come winter.

There was an beautiful old velvet bedspread that I washed and thought I would like on my bed but after trying it for a night decided it was just too heavy and it made great black-out drapes for Tyler instead.  I'll post photos of them after Tyler gets the curtain rods up and we can show them off properly.

Over the last 2 weeks we have done a lot of cleaning and figuring out where everything goes, and how (or if) everything works.  We have a bit of a mystery going on with the upstairs shower.  No water.

The mystery shower

The bath tub fills, the toilet works as does the sink but not the shower.  I know it did at one time as I cleaned all the old soap residue off of it when we first moved in.  Tyler and I have both checked everywhere for a shut off valve to no avail. From the basement up... no shutoff taps.

Look! the stain glass piece made it and looks great in the
bathroom window.

Thinking they are in the ceiling of the dining room but until we can take off the ceiling tiles we just wont know.  I think we will move the lines to go around and under the tub when we redo the upstairs bathroom.  And put the shut off valves where they can be found.

I think we finally have a roofer coming in 2 weeks to re shingle the roof.  That will be awesome and a big piece of mind taken care off.  Most of the contractors here where busy until fall; so here is to hoping that the fellow does a great job and we will not have to worry about a leaky roof over the summer.

But I must say it is beautiful sitting here in the mornings looking out onto Barrington Passage with coffee in hand.  Watching the fishing boats go out.  The crab boat collect his traps and all of the sea birds coming and going.

Fishing boats

Tyler even managed to take a picture of a deer waking through the yard.

Deer in the front yard.

Getting Comfortable

Well we have been cleaning like mad! There's a lot of decay in an empty house that collects over 6 years but we've almost cleared it out. Pulled up the carpets, vacuumed the floors, washed the floor and walls, and scrubbed and scrubbed. Oh and had my first experience with turning on the water for a well system. It was actually a lot easier than I thought; just remove the screw on the top and add water till its full then turn it on but don't forget to put the screw back (whoops its a fountain!) and the little drain screw on the bottom. Surprisingly it all turned on and pressurized the house (well after I ran around frantically turning all the taps in the house off).

On another note on night two the front door magically opened up sometime in the middle of the night and the kitties wandered off. Poof gone we hung around all day calling them talking to neighbors but of course no results! We left the doors propped open all day and that night right after dark guess who popped in meowing to announce his arrival! Sam! Of course he's starving and headed right to the food dish having checked us out. So here we are excided to see him wondering where Carl is and mum headed outside to call him when I saw him out the window well of course he sees me and heads right for the window trying to jump up to get in. I can't open the window (has to be replaced) so I'm yelling at mum that he's there so she can grab him. Looks like they hung pretty close to each other all night and hunkered down someplace for the day so they could wait for the safety of darkness before returning home. 

Makeshift lock to make sure they can't escape again

 Needless to say they were very happy to home! Mum used the old knife in the doorframe to keep the door locked. But down't worry I've ordered new knobs for the all the doors. Meanwhile the kitties have a lot of exploring to do:

So many exciting things to check out

I've got the entertainment center set up and amazingly enough my 70" TV survived being strapped to the headboard of my bed in the motor-home for 5 months. And finally, internet! 100 Mbps internet which is really surprising for being in such rural area.

The IT Crowd, watch it, understand, & enjoy!

Our new washer/dryer stacking combo arrived today and we packed the old ones to the curb and no more than ten minutes later someone was hauling them onto their tuck. It was awesome!

Tomorrow we're off to the big city of Yarmouth to check out Ye Olde Stove Shop and see about a propane heating system...

A House to be had

We've finally got a place to call home and are moving in today! It's all very exciting! Lots of exclamation points!!!

The house (and my new used car)

We've been spending the last three weeks in a Campground along Upper Clyde River. Ruth and Fred were gracious enough to allow us to stay there a solid two weeks before they were open which was amazing! I can't imagine wandering the area in RV from parking lot to parking lot with no power for three weeks. Heh, I can see why the province doesn't open until mid May. On our second night in the RV park it froze hard enough to freeze the water line from the tap to our RV. Thankfully the hose we use is flexible enough to handle it and didn't break under the ice. Internet was, well, non-existent. Even the cell phones wouldn't work unless you stood in just the right pose. But We're now parked in our new back yard! I've got 4 bars on my phone and can make a post finally! And Eastlink is showing up in a couple of days to hook us up with 100 Mbps Cable. I haven't had home internet so fast!

It's been a lot off excitement and a lot of down time. Poor mum is very impatiently waiting for the green light to get into the house. Atlantic time is a lot like Kootney time. Nothing happens fast around here and you need to give a lot of gentle nudges here and there to keep things going. Speaking of I have to call my car insurance place, again. 

Ooh and our new place is oceanfront property! There's a cranberry bog and bushes between us and the ocean but we plan to clear a path down. It's also really neat here as the fog is a common occurrence and even this morning I woke up to a nice fog bank and couldn't see the other side of the inlet; or even a few houses down. It didn't stick around this morning and has already almost totally lifted. 

Our ocean front view

Oh and here's my new used car! She's been great and I've really enjoyed driving her around. I have plates and our drivers licences are in the mail... Official Nova Scotians! 

My new Car! A Kia Rondo (I call her Lucy)

 It's going to be a busy next few weeks as we clean up the house and get renovations started. We have lots to do as she needs a new roof, repairs to the shingles on the walls, water damage, new flooring throughout, a new kitchen, new bathrooms, a few new windows, a well and septic to take care of. And talk of installing propane water heater, stove, and heaters. What have I gotten myself into?! ha!

Today's goal once we get the keys is to clean up enough to move in and to get the well water turned on. Oh did I mention it's been empty for 6 years?

On a side note as you may have guessed this will be an intermission from our travel blog to a home reno blog for a while. But stay tuned we've got lots of adventures coming up to share!

Once we're in and settled a bit (with actual proper internet) I'll post a few pics of the house.