Blast From the Past, New Roof and Our First Window Installed Sep 15 - 23, 2019

This week was all about preparing for windows, getting a new roof and a really fun blast from the past. 

Beginning with the West wall the push is on to get closed in. Our new layout is different from the original house which means every window location on this wall is changing and we need to close up the gaping hole left into one of the bedrooms where the kitchen had been.  

Next year, a screen room will be added out this side of the house, however it will not be in the same location and the peak won't go as high.  Previously the edge of the kitchen framework had been cut off about a foot out so the excavator didn't take the whole place down. This framework was almost intertwined into the rest of the house and it took no small amount of Scott's brain power and finagling to get it off.  Strangely, once it came off the roof edge came down in one piece. 

Original kitchen interior wall and the "roof" which came off in one piece.

Notice the wall above. It was the original kitchen wall and without shingles and Styrofoam like the rest of the walls is a good 2 inches thinner. This all needed to be built up to match as it was now going to be part of the exterior wall.

The original builders really didn't want this piece of wood coming back off.
The handmade square nails they used were massive.

We were able to save some of the large beams and look forward to seeing how we can use them.  I've also kept a good collection of the old nails in a variety of sizes to display somehow.

Working and sometimes not seeing other people for a few days at a time my hair has taken on a lesser priority, clearly evident here where I spent a day cleaning up the apple tree remnants.  Have to say I'm okay with it.

On the left is the frame of a re-positioned living room window and  just to the right is where the sliding door will go.

Before repairing the outside, Scott framed in the first new window and the hole for the sliding door (eventually leading to the screen room).  

This was he would know what parts of patch up and which to remove. 

I had cleared the tree remnants in time from a bulldozer to spread the topsoil pile back over the septic bed and grade the rest of the yard.

With the area around the house graded I spent hours walking around spreading grass seed. Sounds tedious but it was easy work so not too bad. The place will be a bit muddy when it's wet however the grass should fill in nicely next year. 

I'll go over it with grass seed a couple more times.

Scott working on the upstairs bedroom windows which became a whole lot larger.

The two large holes left and right are where the new windows will go. The hole in the middle was one of the old windows and will be patched over. 

We are planning to rent the house out in the summer while we live in the motorhome and PEI has some interesting rules about summer rental homes. One of them insists on bedroom windows in rented homes being bigger than those required by general building codes.  It makes no sense and appears to apply only to summer rentals but we weren't taking any chances. The bedroom windows are huge and on the plus side afford much better views than they did before. 

Don and I - 40 years of friendship. I don't think we look that different LOL!! Maybe a little different but we're still smiling.

1979 - Estevan Saskatchewan. Don is far left and I'm in the top row, second from the right.
This is our original Katimavik group along with our Saskatchewan leader.

Blast from the past.. Don Brook whom I met at 17 in Katimavik was on a whirlwind trip of the East Coast with his mom, brother Gord and niece Olivia when he called to say he'd "pop" in. It was truly whirlwind but great to see Don.. we figure the last time was about 18 years ago.. and to meet his family. They were all so interested in the house and Olivia joked about moving to PEI. We even waved them off at the ferry which is only 10 minutes away. Come back anytime. 

Until we meet again

Back to work. The roofer is coming Saturday and there was a little more prep work.  Scott added in the sun tunnel which will be the upstairs bathroom which doesn't have a window and a sewer vent.

Old roof and view from the other side.

Another one of my jobs is removing the siding. With doors and windows going in different places as well as some walls needing repair ... big surprise!! we decided to remove the siding and will likely single it with cedar shingles next year. We're keeping the siding to cover the sheds. It would be difficult to reinstall Scott doesn't like the look of it on the house.

Rough opening for the sliding door

Patching up the rest of the wall.

The 70 Mile Yard Sale happens in September every year and centers around our area. Since we have no furniture for our place and have in mind to mix old and new we planned to head out and see what we could find. By co-incidence, the roofer was also going to be there so we'd be out of there way as well. There are so many sales to go to there is no way you could visit them all. We went out Saturday and a bit on Sunday as well and had a great time.

We have plans for a variety of chairs - some work ahead.

A $5.00 chair - need a seat and maybe a paint
Country rug too.

We came home to unload Saturday morning - a textured black metal roof going up.

Normally Sunday morning is reserved for the blog however the roofers came back and we needed to go into Charlottetown for some supplies so we headed out. 

It was fun hitting a few more sales on the way there. On our way home we went via our nephew Jacob and his girlfriend, Kennedy's new house to help paint for a couple of hours. 

They got it Friday and have 2 weeks before moving in.

Is it level?

Happy for a new ladder

Sliding door - first of the closing in

Monday was fantastic. The wall was all patched up and the sliding door went in. 

Real progress. Love it!!

It's already the weekend as I haven't gotten back to the blog during the week. Rather than add the full week on to this one, I'm going to do it in too parts so you'll see next week soon with quite a few more windows in. Thanks for following along.