Week 4 - More Plaster, Lath and Shed building (June 10 - 16, 2019)

We enjoyed a nice BBQ with Scott's mom, Veda, Sunday night at her place. Unfortunately although Scott did pull the BBQ away from the wall of the house, it wasn't far enough and the siding ended up somewhat distorted.  We're lucky it didn't do more damage. I'm thinking he just wanted a side project...NOT!! Anyway, the replacement siding has been ordered and repairs we hopefully take place in a week or so. Lesson learned - pull BBQ's far away, especially when they are back venting. Pictures to follow with repair.

On the homefront, progress has been steady. Scott worries, thinking it's not going fast enough because of the scope of the job but I think, one day at a time and think we're doing well.

My focus has been the upstairs which is currently 4 bedrooms, a storage room and centre staircase/hallway. Basically the week has gone like this.

Remove Plaster 

Remove Lath

Remove Debris

Repeat

Interesting stud

Looking from one bedroom into the next

Wallpaper coming down on it's own

It's a lot of fun seeing the results. The bedrooms either side of the staircase are now open to each other with only the studs left.  Most of the studs are small trees, flattened with an axe on 2 sides with bark still on the other 2 sides. I remember a few years ago we were outraged when we started getting 2 x 4's with bark on them. So used to getting them without, it was a shock. Now it is commonplace which is funny as it appears we've come full circle.

You may notice they are not always straight nor placed at uniform spaces.
To make it easier for the electrical and putting drywall up, we'll replace these studs as none of them are load bearing and re-frame the walls.

Driveway before

PEI is known for it's rich red earth. The contrast between the blue water or sky and green grass makes for gorgeous pictures. For everyday life in a motorhome it just means a lot of dirt being tracked inside. To help with the tracking and to make a nice spot to set up camp over the summer we had a load of Nova Scotia gravel brought in. What a difference. Eventually the driveway will have gravel on it as well but for now having it on the part we're living on has made a world of difference. We'll set up camp with mats, BBQ and table for real this week.

The septic bed started this week too. We'd asked MacKay's to come at their leisure since it would be a while before we get to hooking up the plumbing. Having coffee Tuesday morning, we were surprised to see trucks arriving to get it done. It may take awhile since the trucks can't get to the spot when it's been raining. We've had fantastic weather except for rain overnight a couple of times which still takes time to dry up enough for heavy loads.

Scott has been busy on the "shed" or more specifically the "mini-barn".  

The 2nd floor is in and rafters are ready for plywood.  He wishes he hadn't sold his nailer. 

It's all being hammered by hand now.

The rafters have been built since this picture.

Cruise ship sailing by. We'll be seeing this quite a bit over the summer.

Since rain had been forecast for Friday we drove into Montague to run errands: laundry, groceries, talk to a heating and cooling company, order replacement siding for the BBQ burn to name a few. It took us most of the day and with Scott feeling antsy about our progress we decided to work on Saturday.

 A couple of runs to the dump, another full load of metal and one of ???? What else, plaster and lath. For anyone worried this is all going to landfill don't worry too much (Robyn, I'm thinking of you but there may be others too). Some does but PEI has a very high 95% diversion rate. When we go to the dump the metal goes in the metal pile, wood (lath) in the wood pile and so on. It is set up to recycle anything which can be recycled.

Then it was yard cleanup time or a least let's make an effort to cleanup the yard time. For whatever reason there were several old tarps partially buried, barbed wire, plastic tubes, plastic bags, carpet, rotting wood and tires lying around. All this makes mowing difficult so while Scott did some tractor maintenance I collected everything I could find. He helped once he was done cutting up fallen branches with his new chainsaw and tractoring it over towards the fire pit. 

For a little socializing, we went to see Pam and Trevor at Seal Cove, protected from the mosquitoes in their screen tent.

Panoramic .. motorhome behind the trees, house and septic bed to the right


Sunday - A day of rest and relaxation

Sarah called Scott for Father's Day and they really enjoyed catching up.

We headed out to Wheatley River were our RV friends Evelyn and Ken are staying until the end of the month. Had a wonderful lunch  and Evelyn's homemade Key Lime Pie.  It was hot enough to sit outside without the mosquitoes bothering us ( I took my flannel shirt off right after this picture). The mosquitoes were vicious in the woods on a walk after lunch though. LOL.. Short walk.

On our way home we bought a screen tent of our own hoping to enjoy more outdoor time without losing too much blood. With family and friends visiting over the summer we'll get some good use of it.

So you'd think a delicious key lime pie would satisfy the sweet tooth for today. It would have if we hadn't been going to say hi to Veda on our way home and passing right by "What's the Scoop", a favorite ice cream spot in Montague.  

PEI promotes "Burger Love" in April, restaurants look to out burger each other and guests vote on their favorites.  Piggy backing on this idea some ice cream places are participating in a similar  "Sundae of  Month" in the month of June. All that to say we decided to try the Sundae. I'm not always a sundae fan but it was delicious.  

We stopped by at Veda's and she'd already made us dinner. 

Luckily it was fairly light and we are working hard during the week.

Great day, yummy food... ready to start a new week.