Alright Already!! For Those Who Have Nagged Me To Post

Apologizes to those who have been lost without my blog but progress has been slowed down since we haven't moved in (nudge nudge wink wink)to our new home. No one has been humourously injured although I fell down the stairs a week ago and bruised my ass but I couldn't in good conscious post that picture. Don't misunderstand, hurting oneself in the pursuit of building our home is unfortunate but wrapping it in humour gives me something interesting to write about. Ross was away golfing in Arizona for a week and "The Units" drove down to Florida for the winter. Christmas has come and gone and the girls have celebrated another round of birthdays. Next week they return to University and Ross and I will start the insane job of cleaning and preparing the old maple floors to re-install in the main room. Wish us luck and patience.

We have assembled our cabinets and made several trips to the dump with our s$#t load of cardboard from all the packing. The slate floors are being installed with the help of Jakey as usual.

The first cabinet is installed. The Ikea system is pretty slick and we have silent closers which I recommend for those who do not use cupboard slamming in their arsenal of domestic negotiation(it will leave you frustrated).

Ross doing the electrical finishing. There was alot of head scratching and naughty words going on during this stage of construction.

The cabinets are almost all installed and the appliances are functional. Yeah!!! We have induction cooking on our stove which is very cool. We are still learning to cook on it...I totally mucked up my butternut squash soup but that could also be caused by my lack of cooking for 5 month on anything but a barbeque.

Again, Jakey helping hang the island light. Some of you may be wondering where Fabbie is and why we haven't employeed her in our construction and some of you may not really care. Well....Fabbie does not care either. She'd rather sleep all day and rest because undoubtedly, Jakey will be chasing her all night long. She is a tormented creature.

A view of our granite countertops...."Blue in the Night". It has a great irridescent cobalt blue fleck on a black/grey base. We were fortunate to have the corner piece cut without a seam. Installed by the Ghana Soduka Kings with the techno/rap cell phone ring. Nevermind...my own personal gaha.

View of the kitchen from the front room. It is still a work in progress.

The front entrance with the slate floors installed and painted.

The love of my life. Okay not really but after six months of doing my laundry in the local laundromat, it is a treat. I do miss the weird and creepy fellow laundromat enthusiast and the weekly blockbuster dvd perusing.

The powder room. Now with a working sink, toilet paper holder, light and mirror.

and of course "the toilet". You all know how I feel about it.

The light fixture in the front entrance...

Originally founded in the city of Windsor in 1864 by the Community of Holy Names of Mary and Jesus, with a few nuns from Montreal. St. Mary's Academy was originally located in downtown Windsor on Ouellette Ave. By the late 1920's the Sisters had an old school building on valuable land. The order sold the building and the land to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Corporation, the land is now the site of the Canadian Tunnel Plaza. The original building was demolished in 1929 and the new Academy built in 1928. Designed by a Sister from the order,not an architect, the massive building stood over south Windsor until April 1977
. On April 29, the building was imploded to make room for a subdivision. (see website below for more and better quality pictures)

www.internationalmetropolis.com/?p=96

Ross and I purchased our front entrance hall light from a antique store outside of Windsor this fall. It hung in St. Mary's Academy. These pictures were found during my research of the fixture. We have four more period school house fixtures from various locations in North American to give the renovation some authenticity. Thank you Ebay!

We've chosen to do the ceiling of the kitchen with tongue and groove painted wood to give it the aged country kitchen feel.

This will be the island upper countertop. It is a 16" pine board found in the attic space of the original roof.

A wee look of our living space.

A view of the construction grade staircase stained and painted to give them some jazz.

Although it is still full of boxes and unfinished floors and trim....it's home....and a step up from the trailer....wayyyyy up!!!!

Before the Snow Flies...NOT!!!

About ten days ago, I looked out the back window of the trailer and to my utter disbelief, this is what I saw. For all those skeptics out there who did not believe me when I said we'd be in the house by the time the snow flies, you were right. We should have made it but I think Ross pissed off the weather gods once again. It is Hallowe'en night and I am finally getting this, my twentieth blog posted. It has been a hellish week...fitting for this occasion. The day started off with a devilish turn. Another winter wonderland with extremely large flakes coming down in a blinding torrent. (maybe a slight exaggeration but not much) Poor Papa Smurf, ready to leave for his winter slumber in Florida, had to finish the front gable in this ghastly weather. Friday was bitter cold with heavy winds and only yesterday was somewhat bearable for him. We thank him and mom for all the help. For those who might be wondering if the author of this post is Ross....shake your head....it is not. My heart procedure was a success and I am better than the original model (as far as my wiring goes). It was a very weird experience having someone doping you up with enough drug (a drip with potency of expresso x6) to make you shake uncontrollablly and your heart race. I could actually feel the burning of the heart tissue when they located the accessory pathway and zapped it with the catheter. The best part was the two days following when Ross took care of me and I was able to relax. So we are not living in the trailer....but that's for you to figure out where.

We have begun the board and batten siding since working inside has stopped due to drywall/taping. Check out that snow. The siding looks a wee bit strange because Ross has started and worked on it in three different places, depending on where the wind is blowing. Ross has been a bear. He hates the wind and it is making him crazy...very crazy!!!

It is fab that we have our garage doors on finally. We have security and warmth. Sorry ladies, I know I promised lots of pics of the cutie pie who installed the doors, but my #&%$ing camera decided on this day to shit the bed again. You'll just have to get your own doors installed to enjoy the scenery.

Stairs into the house from the garage. The paint bucket wasn't quite doing the job.

Remember this lovely pile of scrap?? Well it's all gone and so is the picture showing all the work I did cleaning it up. No one is ever gonna believe I've done a lick of work.

The last of the bricking on the back gable.

Ross painted two boards and I painted the rest but you'd never know that now would you. Ross is always to busy to take any pictures of me working and when he does...don't tell him I said this but he is a lousy photographer.

Drywall and taping are finished and we get back to work inside doing all the finishing.

Another view from up top. I believe there was 20 boxes of mud and around 10,000 board feet used to finished the house.

And here is Ross spraying the primer. I did my two days of priming with a roller...because I am a) stupid b) unable to use a sprayer or c) untrustworthy with paint under pressure. All three really and I had to prime all the areas that are not spray worthy like around the brick walls and in the crawl spaces. Of course, when the sprayer malfuctioned, it was I who was nailed with primer under pressure in the face (in my eye, up my nose, ear...you get the picture).

Mom rolling the primer on the board and batten. Shortly after this picture was taken. A can of primer exploded on me. What's with that... for most people they need to pry the lid off but for me....the lid magically flies off at the most unfortunate time. Second time in three days I am covered in paint. Yes...I am whinning ....and???

Jake has decided that climbing ladders is the greatest thing in the world....climbing down....not so great.

Ross taking a little time out of his day to play twister. "Right hand on first tile......". And now, anyone for a game of leap frog??

"Did someone yell beer break?

Mom telling Ross how to lay slate and Ross giving her the finger.

Construction Workers of 2010
Introducing

Mr. November

Papa Smurf

Slower than a boat to China. More powerful than a butterfly. Able to pee off a building in a single stream. Look! Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Masonman.

Papa Smurf is a true artist at his craft whether he is laying brick, painting portraits or spelling his name in the snow. As you can see he wears his wife's purple hat to show his support for gay and lesbian rights and because his ears are really really cold. He is a renaissance man born in the bullring of liverpool and living each day to the fullest in an ongoing attempt to appease his wife so as not to be yelled at too often. He is rich in spirit yet poor in wallet but that's a good thing since he is forever losing it ( the wallet that is). Enjoy your winter in Florida Masonman and may the Golf gods favour your sorry ass.

Fall and the First Frost is Upon Us; Yikes!!

As you can see in the photo above, fall is upon us and with it comes the cold nights and blanket wars. The little heater is striving to keep up and the decision whether to make the middle of the night pee run is becoming more difficult. Unfortunately, this aging body plays a greater role in the decision then I'd like; although I hear they have something called "depends" that might be helpful in this situation. If all goes as planned, the drywall tapers will be done the middle of next week and we will be painting soon after. Then, I am told by the "bald one", we can sorta move in.
Tomorrow, I'm off to visit Dr. Wulffhart (great name!) to have some faulting wiring zapped in my heart. Sounds like fun eh but you have to look at the bright side. I get three days to laze around and relax, my heart gets a 30 point inspection and most importantly I get some t.v. time (haven't seen tv since June) to watch them thread a catheter through my groin and up into my heart. Reality television starring little old me. I hope it's a good episode. Then they are going to make my heart go crazy, then zap and kill that mutant pathway. So if all goes well, and you'll be hoping for this (you don't want Ross boring you with his insights), I'll be back to blogging in a couple of weeks.

This is the first step in the B.I.B insulation process. Throw some cardboard in the ceiling. I know what you're thinking so just stop....this is a high tech installation. Axel Rose....I miss our time together, you're awesome and "Welcome to the Jungle"....great tune...loose the country crap, it messes with your vibe.

Don't worry if you don't understand...keep shaking your head and move on to the next picture.

This is the insulation being blown into each cavity from a big hose. There are a few other steps....stapling the fiber mesh and vapour barrier but my pictures have disappeared and I just haven't got the mindset to go putting them back on the blog. I am so computer fustrated!!! How about you all just imagine what it looks like and get on with your life.

Now....don't you all wish you were a cat....I know I do.

Okay...this is what I've been doing this past week. I call it "toothing" or
dentistry but my dad laughs and corrects me when I say toothing. Then he tells me what it's called and it sounds like he is saying toothing so I still don't know what it's called but doesn't it look like you knocked out someones tooths (teeth). Whatever...it is fun cause I get to use an impact drill with a long bit and destroy brick.

My beautiful propane tank. It took four men to put it in place. One to stand with his chin on the shovel, one to keep him company, one to direct the mover thingy(he's invisible at the moment) and some young guy fresh out of his diapers that did all the work. He's probably looking out over the potato field (peeing).

Ross and his mistress up on the bell tower. If you look really close over his left ear, there is a pencil. It's always there and I don't know how he gets it to stay there and with such a bald head. It's one of life's mysteries.

Ross is shingling the bell tower. It isn't a very flattering position to be pictured in but it is neat how I'm always there with a camera in the most opportune times.

Tada!!!

Delivery of the drywall. It's a brand new truck but someone lost the key to the remote control so the boom had to be manually manipulated. Someone's in the dog house....oopppss!!!

Cutting off the steel plate. It made some cool sparks.

This man has just too many ladders. The strapping is almost finished and the board and batten is in the process(by me) of being painted.

Our potatoes are being harvested. They aren't really ours, we just like to call them ours. It just means summer is over and that's just sad, so sad.

The front wall in the beginning stages of drywall....quiet dull yeah without any pomp.

Work buddies.

Introducing

Construction Workers of 2010

Mr. November

Ian McGrinful

Ian always shows up on the job site safety conscious and with a positive attitude. Ian goes to great lengths to protect his beautiful manicured hands with special order "subcontractor" mittens and will not pick up his tool without first strapping on his protective cup. His philosophy "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is good". When not helping out a buddy in need, Ian can be found at the local laundromat matching the socks left in the dryers.