Cedar Siding

Spring is officially here! The cat said so!

2008-04-13T16:10:00.007-05:00

Mark your calendars! Spring officially came on April 13th this year!

Each year we know that spring is finally here to stay when our cat, Jazzy, runs outside all on his own with no prompting from us. Well, it just happened. He's never been wrong. (Likewise, when he stops asking to go out in the fall we know that summer is over and winter is just around the corner). Jazzy is our own personal meteorologist.

Also, this weekend our lake finally began its thaw.

This is the lake yesterday. Still lots of ice.

This is it today.

The ice is almost all gone now and we can see and hear the loons too.

Awww... springtime, finally!

Winter Activities

2008-03-08T16:03:00.007-05:00

Here is the skating rink Matt and Mom made on the lake. These photos are from last weekend. Right now the rink is buried under 2 feet of snow!
And the snowman made with the neighbours.
We are currently experiencing yet another winter storm and are confined to the house today. So what's going on? Tearing down a closet of course!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!

2008-03-01T19:37:00.012-05:00

After one year of living with electric heat, and much debate over the various heating options, we finally decided on a forced air propane system. The installation began in January and took a week to complete. They started with constructing all the ductwork in the crawlspace. In the picture below, you can see where they had to knock out some blocks in the foundation wall to run the supply and return pipes. You can also see one of the vents which is heating the crawlspace -- now the floor is at room temperature, instead of a chilly 4 degrees.Due to the limited height in our crawlspace, they had to mount the furnace on its side. It's a pain to access, but it's nice that we didn't lose any living space.And here's our new fancy furnace. The flex pipe is for the humidier.
Our new programmable thermostat! Hey look, we're not freezing! It's hard to imagine that we won't have to adjust 8 individual thermostats anymore. Not that we actually adjusted those, since they were essentially self-adjusting (to random temperatures).Gaylord made us some wooden vent covers to match the maple floor in the living room and...
the ash floor in the master bedroom.
With thanks to Uncle John's electric expertise, we safely ripped out all the old electric baseboard heaters. We eventually donated them to another home through freecycle.
We are still in the process of removing all the wires that ran to the thermostats for those electric baseboards. It's going to take some time and eventually we'll have to patch up the holes.
Our propane gets delivered to three little pigs. Porky, Miss Piggy and Babe?
We are now toasty warm from our feet all the way up!

Bedroom Part 8: A-trimming we will go...

2008-01-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

If you are just looking at the blog now, you should probably stop reading this posting and scroll down and begin the Bedroom story at Part 1.

This will likely be the end of the Bedroom story until next season when it is warmer outside and we can finish trimming and staining. It is too cold to work outside and too dusty/smelly to work in the house.

The blog is now in real time. Matt did this work yesterday and today.

We found this picture in a magazine and Matt is going to try and replicate it.
And this is what Matt came up with. He bought just regular pine and used his new router table to make all the pieces.

A close-up, it still needs one more little piece on.
So maybe in the spring will be finish up the bedroom. We still need window trim, door trim and baseboards and we are still hunting for a new bedroom light. Oh and we have our eye on a new bedroom set. We are still using hand-me down stuff that was supposed to be temporary, oops 12 years later.

The current project underway is our furnace install. They began the ductwork last week and the furnace goes in this week sometime. Once the project is all done we will share it here on the blog.

Bedroom Part 7: Mission Organization

2008-01-13T13:26:00.000-05:00

By this time we had moved back into the bedroom.

We bought a Rubbermaid closet organizer. We threw out the previous closet stuff, although we did like the warped shelves it was time for a change.
This picture is a bit misleading since the closet doors are not attached yet.
And the clothes returned.

Then the closet doors were attached. Much easier to open then lifting the entire door each time you need to get something out of the closet.

Up next Part 8: A-trimming we will go...

Bedroom Part 6: Floor it!

2008-01-13T12:52:00.000-05:00

The day had finally arrived. The floor install. The floor is 'Distressed Ash' stained coffee bean. It was leftover stuff so we got it for about 70% off the regular price.

During the install, with Otis helping as usual.
A close up. We mixed 4" and 2 1/4" boards since that what they had left in the discount section.
Framing in the trap door to the crawlspace in the closet.
And then it was done. This floor install was a lot easier compared to when we had the floor put into the living room back in April.
We love the new floor. But just a note for everyone, dark hardwood shows every little fluff.

And it bedroom saga continues with Part 7: Mission Organization

Bedroom Part 5: A little dash of colour

2008-01-13T12:35:00.000-05:00

December arrived and we were down to crunch time. The floor install date was almost here. Time to get painting.

The colour was Soft Gold. We had bought the paint for our bedroom back in Guelph but just never got around to using it. So when we moved we brought the paint with us.
We also changed all the receptacles to new white ones. The paint was more yellow than I remembered so I was a bit worried that it wouldn't match the curtains that I had made in the summer which have gold in them. But thankfully, they match.

With a few days to spare, we were ready for the floor install.

Next up is Part 6: Floor it!

Bedroom Part 4: The calm before the paint.

2008-01-13T12:21:00.001-05:00

We got a good deal on some hardwood flooring and booked the install. So now we had to get everything done. When we removed the carpet we found the access hole to the crawlspace below the bedroom in the closet. We always figured it was there but we just never looked. So Matt ventured down into the hole and we discovered that the crawlspace below our bedroom was not insulated. Brrr... that would explain why our toes were cold last winter in that room. Conveniently, our neighbours were getting their basement spray foamed so we had our crawlspace sprayed too. Ahhh... much better.

Next up was to get the walls in order. With the removal of the sliding bedroom door we had some drywalling to do. And although I don't think I mentioned this before, we moved the lightswitch for the bedroom actually into the bedroom - What a novel idea! Before you had to turn it on and off in the living room, how annoying. This adjustment also needed drywalling fixing. And finally, the closet door opening had to be adjusted to accommodate the new non-louvered closet doors.

With drywalling complete, time to prime the walls with our good friend Zinser.
Stayed tuned for Part 5: A little dash of colour.

Bedroom Part 3: The closet doors - Louver or not to louver?

2008-01-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

It was now November.

As I mentioned I'm really not into mirrored closet doors. And besides they really didn't go with the cottagey-wood look we are trying to achieve. Getting rid of the mirrored doors wasn't the problem, the problem was finding something to replace them with. Matt wanted bifold doors, I didn't really care as long as they were wood. Do you know how hard it is to find wood bifold doors that aren't crazy expensive? Impossible we learned, we weren't going to spend $1000 on closet doors.
I guess I lied a bit, you CAN find wood, bifolds that are inexpensive but they are louvered. The problem is I can't stand louvered doors. I don't know the reason, I just know that I don't like them. So Matt, really not understanding my dislike of louvers, proceeded to improvise (I guess it's better than listening to me complaining I don't like louvers, go figure).

We bought two louvered bifold doors. As Matt promised all the louvers came out (now we have tons of paint stir sticks) and replaced the openings with pine panelling.

To compare...
Glued the panels into place. It's always nice to see Matt's education being put to good use (ha ha).
We still need to trim them to hide where the louvers were once, but all in good time.

Next up (can't you hold back the excitement?) Part 4: The calm before the paint.

Bedroom Part 2: Carpet removal

2008-01-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

So we were now at the end of October (ok ok I'm just a few months behind) and it's time to start really renovating the bedroom. All the bedroom furniture was now all over the house. Our closet stuff was hanging just about everywhere you could think of and we were sleeping in one of the spare rooms. The goal was to be back in the master bedroom before Christmas.

Here are the before pictures.
The well-used blue carpet. Yucky!
The mirrored doors. Not really my thing.
The piece of drywall tape on the ceiling that you could see every time you were lying in bed.
And the last remaining bit from the sliding bedroom door removal (see Part 1).
And then it was gone...
But we weren't done yet with that carpet. We had to cut it up into tiny rolls that would fit into a billion township garbage bags. No more loose items allowed at the landfill. And we thought that garbage would be easier here than back in Garbage-complicated Guelph.

Stay tuned for Part 3: The closet doors - Louver or not to louver?

Blogging is Back! Bedroom Part 1: The Door

2007-12-01T17:49:00.000-05:00

I guess summer is now officially over. We've had two snowstorms and a third is on its way. And the lake is already frozen! Matt won't be able to go canoeing a couple of days before Christmas this year. So it's time to resume my wintertime hobby of blogging.

As always, we have to change/renovate where we live. I like to use the term "de-uglify" for our current residence. So the latest project is the master bedroom. This project actually started back in June when we got rid of the purple sliding door (did I mention things were UGLY!). The project was moved up since when we installed the hardwood in the living room the door wouldn't close without scratching the new floor. So the door was in a permanent state of open. Not so fun when you have visitors coming and going all the time.

The before...The during...
The after...

So next a door would be great... since this wasn't much different from the door that wouldn't close.
Ahhh... much better. We have purchased all the doors for all the rooms but only installed this one. We decided we'll go with wood doors and eventually wood trim in the house.

Then October rolled around and we decided it was time to fully renovate the bedroom. After all, we already had the paint. (The paint we intended to use in the bedroom at our previous house but never got around to it).

The room needed some fixing before painting. It's all the prep work that takes all the time. There is no such thing as JUST PAINTING.

Stay tuned for part 2.

We haven't forgotten about the blog...

2007-07-23T21:26:00.000-05:00

It's funny how as soon as summer arrived, updating the blog seemed to be put on hold. I can assure you that we have been busy enjoying our first summer on the lake and doing the occasional home reno and trying to get the yard under control. As usual we have been documenting our destruction and construction with lots of pictures and we will share them all with you eventually... say on a cold rainy weekend perhaps.

Anyhow, I thought I would post these pictures just cause it was so beautiful and amazing. The rainbow appeared out over the lake at the same time the sun was setting. We ran outside to grab some pixs before it disappeared.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Until the next blog post...

Birthday Weekend

2007-05-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

Birthday month is officially underway.

Yesterday, Matt took a little pre-birthday canoe trip with Otis.

And a little birthday nap today.

And the birthday continues...

Welcome Tommy!

2007-04-28T17:12:00.000-05:00

Introducing the new addition to our automotive family. Tommy the Toyota! For those of you who are counting, yes, we currently have four vehicles. Three tiny hatchbacks, one of which doesn't run anymore, and one large (to us) 4x4. Here's a side-profile of Tommy.

Note the tarped boat in the background, which is one of the reasons I wanted the truck in the first place.

Here's Tommy from the front.

The front bumper is slightly smushed, but apparently that is not part of the safety. Tires are, along with holes in the body, emergency brake cables, windshield wipers and windshields. I know this because those are things that had to get repaired before I could license the truck. Seems to run pretty well, we'll see how it holds up.

Here's a picture of the boat and trailer which the previous owner of the house was kind enough to leave us. Actually, we figure he just didn't want it anymore and giving it to us was the easiest way of getting rid of it! Last weekend was the very first time we took the tarp off and looked at it.

It has a 25 Hp Evinrude two-stroke motor (cough cough). Hopefully the boat floats and the motor runs. It is kind of ugly, but hey, it was free. Maybe it will look better in the water.

Other reasons I wanted a truck? Well, the lumber company is no longer 1/2 kilometer down the road and it's pretty impractical to carry sheets drywall on the roofracks of a little hatchback for twenty minutes at 80 km/h. Also, carrying large loads to the dump will be much easier. Not to mention that Wavie (the Pontiac Wave) and Leroy (the Daewoo Lanos) always felt out of place at the dump, next to Ford F150's and all the other humongous pick-ups. I also have to say the potholes in the dirt roads become much less of an issue when driving a vehicle with such big tires.

This is a view of the water from our front 'lawn'.

We've been out canoeing a few times already. Anyone who wants to visit is more than welcome anytime! Plus, I need to test that motor boat in the water, and I don't want to be the one who sinks to the bottom in it!

The Flooring Saga

2007-04-26T18:51:00.000-05:00

Last time I promised the flooring saga so here it is!

Back in March we ordered the floor and requested the install for mid-April. It should be warm and spring-like by then, right? This was an important point considering that our back up heat, our propane stove, would need to be disconnected and removed prior to the install.

We never quite understood why they installed the stove in the middle of the room in the first place. It totally disrupted the flow of the room. Anyhow, once the stove was removed, guess what happened? Two snowstorms and the temperature hovered around zero. So much for planning ahead. Despite the timing, the removal of the stove completely opened up the space.

Now it was time to lose the plush white carpet. Thank goodness. Pets and white carpet do not mix. I cannot put in words what we thought when we discovered what was under the white carpet. Look for yourself.

Isn't that lovely. Linoleum that was glued directly to the sub floor. And in the rest of the living room we found blue indoor/outdoor carpet also glued directly to the sub floor.

The blue carpet part would peel off relatively easily, but the foam underpad, being glued to the sub floor, would need some serious elbow grease to get it off. Would we need more time to prepare for the installation?

And so the scraping began. We finally decided to let the installers deal with our floor preparation. It was too chaotic having our entire living room stuff crammed into other rooms.

The installers arrived and scraped off the foam. Then they needed to level our sub floor, so up it came.

[As an aside. Jazzy (our cat) had been hiding the entire time the installers were here in the storage loft. But during lunchtime when the workers were not around Jazzy ventured out. Ventured through the hole in the floor down into the crawlspace. And so when the guys returned, Jazzy was scared and jumped up out of crawlspace and ran to his safe hiding place. Needless to say, he scared one of the guys big time. Oops. Maybe Matt should have mentioned that we had a cat.]

And finally, it was time for our new floor to go in. We chose 'Maple with Colours'. Half of the floor is the regular grade and the other half heritage grade. Heritage grade has knots and things like that and we figured it would suit our cottage-look house. We also got the Dog Finish, which helps hide scratches and dirt. Perfect if you have, say, a dog.

Then it was done! It has made a huge difference, the room feels so much brighter and spacious.

We love our new floor. Someday we will do the same in all the bedrooms. But not now, we already know that some serious preparation work will be required in those rooms. So another time.

All that is left to do is reinstall the propane stove. We are moving it to where the chair is in the picture above in the corner. Oh and baseboards and trim. The list is always never ending.

And that's our flooring saga. Hope you enjoyed.

Long Swamp Road

2007-04-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Would you take a road called 'Long Swamp Road' even if Google Maps told you to? Matt did (even I agreed it looked good - on the map). At first it was really good - nice and paved. Had we found a short-cut to Ottawa?

Then the road changed to gravel, but still much better than the road we live on. And how bad could the road be, people had built homes on it? Then Matt saw this...

Cause for concern? Maybe, but still the road ahead looked good.

And by now, Matt had driven many kilometres and it just wasn't worth turning around. And so, Matt keep driving. He noticed the absence of houses and the appearance of swampy land.

Then the road became puddly, but nothing major, afterall the spring thaw was underway. Then gradually, it changed to this...

But Matt was still able to keep one set of wheels on the gravel. And it was now really too far to turn back. And then the road changed to this...

Ok, it didn't look exactly like this (that's the Napanee river). (These pictures are several days later when Matt drove me back to see the road for myself. Matt didn't want to go back to the part where the river was flowing over the road to take pictures. Go Figure.) Matt said the entire road was submerged in water and the water level was up to the top of the tires on my Wave. Yicks! Too late to turn around? Fortunately the road ended and Matt vowed never to drive on 'Long Swamp Road' again.

So the lesson is, don't drive down something called 'Long Swamp Road' in case it actually is a Long Road that goes through a Swamp . And don't always trust that Google Maps knows best.

Stay tuned for our continuing flooring saga...

Skeletons, woodpeckers and curtains. Oh my!

2007-03-25T17:20:00.000-05:00

Today we went for a long walk to what is called "The Point". I brought the camera in hopes of seeing a beaver. We're pretty sure there was a beaver out on the lake going in and out of a hole in the ice right out front of our place. We totally need to get a set of binoculars!

The lake is still frozen but the ice is getting very thin.

Here is a view of our place from "The Point". You can barely see a bit of the house and the roof in the center of the picture.

Otis really wanted to go on the lake. He didn't understand that it's not safe anymore to stand on. Silly dog.

We went off the regular trail today and found a tree with fresh woodpecker holes. Maybe Matt's friend was hammering at it.

We also found a skeleton of what looks like a bird's head.

With our deal we got on curtain rods yesterday, I was inspired to break out the old sewing machine. I only had enough fabric to make a set for the bathroom and the colour doesn't really go, but hey you gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes.

We always get excited to change things when we are renovating/decorating and we sometimes forget to take a 'before' picture. Argh! Here is the best 'before' picture of the bathroom I could find. This is how it looked when we moved in. Notice the lovely polyester pink curtains and vinyl beige blinds (which are available to any one who wants them).

And now, here are the curtains I made today. I hope it's an improvement.

Matt is almost done stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen. We still need to pick a colour for the kitchen. We're currently thinking yellow again, since we have a lot of yellow and blue themed kitchen items we brought from London Road (not to mention our blue pearl countertops). Any other suggestions would be welcome!

Spring has sprung!

2007-03-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

We found a picture with Angeline in it! Yay!

Here we are in metal form! We rode the conveyor belt at the A&P. People were not impressed with us. It was like we were on those moving sidewalks at the airport. It was too funny!

Today we stood in line for the Grand Opening of JYSK in K-town. JYSK is some kind of Danish-based knock-off of IKEA. Funny enough the first JYSK store was in Aarhus (where I worked one semester - although I never saw the store there). Got a bunch of low priced curtain rods. Here is one that replaced the pull string kind that Matt has trouble figuring out. Just ignore the curtains - they are temporary!

Awwww... the springtime sunrise. Things are thawing quickly here, although the lake is still frozen. Looking forward to getting on the water.

March Maple Madness!

2007-03-18T16:55:00.000-05:00

My brother and his family came up for a visit for a few days over March Break. Everybody had a great time!

Here's Jesse and Jun practicing their Texas Hold'em skills. Does a "Go Fish" beat a flush???

Stew and I played another more serious card game: cribbage. The March Break series championship came down to the last day, with yours truly pulling out a victory using my much vaunted strategy of "Offense Only"!

Obviously the rest of the family, Otis included, did not find the championship quit as thrilling. By the way, Angeline took all these photos (thanks!) but somehow forgot to include herself in any of them, just in case you are wondering where she is.

Susan skipped off work, uh I mean, took a long lunch break, in order to join us at the Maple Sugar farm. All those pancakes with maple syrup sure made us giddy!

We made sure to take the educational tour on the history of maple syrup. Unfortunately, the tour guide missed the part about not standing downwind from a smoking fire.

Angeline took a lovely shot of a sugar maple on life support. Nurse!

Now here is one handsome guy! Oh wait, that was a girl.

We stopped by a horse stable one day while touring around. The owner let us inside the fence, whereupon all the horses trotted over to look at us. They were very friendly. One even played a joke on Stew and bumped him into a big puddle of slop. Not funny (to him anyways!).

Our visitors have piled into their "minivan" so our house is empty again. Thanks for visiting!! They was some good times, y'all.

P.S. On a completely different note, we ordered the hardwood flooring for the living room. Countdown begins for the demise of our lovely plush white carpet (which we've managed to destroy in a short while. Dog and/or cat + carpet + country living = disaster).

Looking out the window....

2007-03-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

As Matt sat in his home office today, he paused for a minute to look out the window. He then screamed out loud in complete terror, "What is that Monster outside! It's Ginormous!"

It turns out it wasn't a monster at all, it was just a Pileated Woodpecker (or Dryocopus pileatus for you bird enthusiasts). It is one of the largest woodpeckers in North America at 16-19" long with a wingspan of 26-30" and weighs in at 250-350 g. So no wonder Matt was so scared-- That's one BIG woodpecker!

One more interesting fact - Did you know that the famous Woody Woodpecker was based on the Pileated Woodpecker?

Poor me, I didn't see it. All I see out my window at work is buildings and Lake Ontario.

Brrrrr, It's Cold Out!

2007-03-06T21:04:00.000-05:00

Man it's cold today. Woke up to -35 with the windchill. Frost bite anyone? I sure am hoping that spring is just around the corner. Selby Sam predicted an early spring (he didn't see his shadow because he didn't get out of bed!)

This past weekend was a busy one. My mom and dad drove up to visit on Saturday and show off their new sporty car.

While they were here, they helped us change some of our ceiling lights. This light was in the kitchen/dining room (although it is just on the floor in the pix - Jazzy is confused by that).

And finally, my chandelier is back!

And we replaced the ugly ceiling fan in the master bedroom with the one from the kitchen since it's not quite as ugly.

Before:
After:

On Sunday we drove to Ottawa to check out IKEA. Did you know that Ottawa has the smallest IKEA in North America? (At least that's what the customer service person said.) We managed to get almost everything on our list (recycling center, towel racks and coat/hat storage unit). On the way back we detoured to Smith Falls to check out the Hershey factory. Mmmmm... chocolate. The whole area smells like chocolate, inside AND out. If you love chocolate, be sure to visit soon because they are closing this plant next year :(

Our continuing house project is stripping the wallpaper. Bye bye wallpaper.

Surprisingly, the wallpaper is coming off easily. Thank goodness.

We've decided to lose the wainscoting in the kitchen. So now we just need to agree on a colour. Anyone have any suggestions?

A Walk Down The Lane

2007-02-25T19:23:00.000-05:00

Ignoring our renovations for the day, we decided to take Otis for a snowshoe walk along the lake. This is me, just out front of our house.

Unfortunately, Otis tore his nail yesterday, and it would bleed every time he stepped into the deep snow. So we just walked up the lane instead. Here is a picture of our laneway, just before you get to the cottages.

There are lots of signs on the lane: slow, dead end, private road, crazy man with snowball...

This is a picture of the barn across the road from the entrance to our lane. The sky was very blue today. And was that the warmth of the sun I could feel?

Here's Otis, looking very dashing as always.

Can you believe he is almost 10 years old? I think we need to get him a doggy friend to play with, as he seems bored and lonely these days. A few weeks ago, I told him that people were coming over to measure for our new countertops, and he sat and stared out the window for 45 minutes straight. Hey, it wasn't my fault they were late! Of course, I didn't even let him out of the bedroom when they finally showed up.

At the end of our laneway is our first rural mailbox, with a flag and everything!

We've only managed to put our names on the one side, so you will only be able to find us if you're coming from the one direction. Is it really true that we can mail stuff just by putting it in our mailbox and leaving the flag up? Country living sure can be confusing.

Kitchen So Far

2007-02-18T19:58:00.000-05:00

So we've decided to start with the kitchen. Here is how the kitchen looked when we first viewed it during the house hunting phase.

Not really our taste. We replaced all the old handles and hinges (still working on the hinges) with a more modern stainless look. Also, we're pretty sure harvest gold went out of style years ago. And despite what the previous owner thought, 30 year old appliances may work but they are UGLY not to mention inefficient. So the appliances were the first thing to go. Pam-O helped convince us that we should go with the stainless steel appliances. We thought they might look too modern for our cottagey house, but we looked through some magazine photos and saw that one could combine the stainless steel appliances with a more traditional look.

Which forced us into our first major renovation, the countertop. Didn't want to install the cooktop twice, cause the old countertops definitely had to be removed at some point. So we priced things out and finally decided to spend the extra money and get something we liked -- granite. Dark blue pearl was our favourite, and on sale too! We got it from Cataraqui Granite Co. in Kingston, who also threw in the kitchen sink for free. We had to pick up a new faucet as well, which we got from everybody's favourite place, Home Depot. So here is how it looks today...

It's hard to see in the pictures, but the walls are covered in a 'lovely' wallpaper which is the next thing to go. Other things we want to do soon are a tile backsplash, lighting and window treatments. We'd welcome any thoughts on those, maybe send us some links to stuff you think would look good! We're still not 100% sold on the honey oak colour of the cabinets, but we're keeping that for now anyways (we still have to stain the new island post to match). Susan thinks that the pine wainscoting may need to be turfed. If so, we can probably recycle it in another room or the bunkie. We would also like to re-hang our pot rack which we had on London Road, but we're not exactly sure where it should go.

Welcome!

2007-02-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our blog!

Come back soon to see pictures of our renovations, before and after.