Chim-chimney, Chim-chimney, Chim-chim Cheroooo!!!

Ah-ha....who's that hard-working girl up on the scaffold?? Gosh darn it's me!!! Yes, finally pictures of me hard at work. The reason for so many pics of me this blog is because my camera went ka-phewy. So we have a guest photographer, Nikki. She took some great shots....funnily enough most are of her boyfriend Blake...hmmm, go figure. We had a great few days thanks to all the help from Mick"turty-tree" Dowling, Blake"the snake"Waters, "The Units" and Brad-Leigh"eats worms"Burns.

Hey, here I am again taking down the courses of brick on the second floor addition area. It took a couple of days to remove all the brick and the ensuing mess...one of the many dirty jobs I seem to get. There's alot more brick removal in my future.

Hey look....it's a huge mother f$#%ing gable wall. Mr. Mic arrive just in time to admire it's beauty. He's got great timing...a little late for the erection huh Mic (tee-hee) Enough teasing. See the little gable to the left, he helped with that one. Don't worry, size doesn't matter Mic....they're all important in the greater scheme of things.

A look at the garage entrance and staircase.

This is Nikki's room also known as "the library". The exposed brick and wall to wall(and ceiling)bookshelves will be the features of this room as well as french doors onto the back deck, a private bathroom and walk-in closet and gasoline storage.

Hey, where did I go???? Unfortunately, on to the next messy job but look...all done. Now, Papa Smurf has to fill it back in.

Blake is learning how to frame. First lesson....balancing a piece of 1x2 on your head. " Look ma...no hands!!!!"

One, Two ,Three....heave ho. Notice Ross has the lighter end with

the doorway.

I don't mean to look so happy, but at least I am still on the ladder. Latter in the day, the "evil-doers" will knock me off another ladder on the second floor. I survived the fall with a badly bruised arse and elbow , fortunately no injury to my corny sense of humour....Sorry :).

I have no idea who is being pointed at and what they have done to piss Ross off . If you want to write a caption for me, feel free...I'll post it on the next blog.

I thought Stevie Wonder was black.

This is a great shot of Papa Smurf enjoying his trade.

Blake learning how to lay out a wall...not a platform Nikki

(tee hee).

Now, why would Papa Smurf give

the finger?

Ahhhh...that's why. Brad is demo -ing the

roof over his head.

Blake gets to use the air gun. No trips to the hospital.

Brad has the sheet metal off the left side of the old roof. Underneath are the original cedar shakes. Of course, Blake is in the foreground. Remember who is taking the photos.

Working on the second floor partition walls. I think someone lost a contact.

Place Tab B into Slot A ...What the f#&k???

It's hard to believe ladies but sometimes men do read instructions. Although the temperature is down a few degrees, the humidity is still a killer. Up on the second floor , the sun is unrelenting and it seems every cloud that goes by misses covering the sun to gives us some relief while every cloud passes in front of the sun at the cottage.

Here is our new hydro service....yah!!!! Unfortunately it is not hooked up yet because hydro doesn't trust you will pay their bill ($1700.00) so you have to pay first. We were having our trench dug from the pole to the building...we are moving the service underground and oops....we cut a 50 couple cable. Our operator almost shat his pants thinking it was a fiber optic cable but this was bad enough. Fortunately it was an abandonned line. Nothing like getting your heart racing.

We have the new walls up in the schoolhouse. On the right, we have our kitchen and to the left is Nikki's bathroom and closet. Above will be our loft bedroom.




It's a very unique day when you get to impulse buy four toilets at once. It was a great deal...two for one....$100 /toilet including seat!!!!(dual flush)

Ross is gonna kill me because I said I wouldn't post this pic but I have too. Ross is so small here....I mean....you can't see anything anyway...not that there isn't anything to see but....it shows you the trouble we go through to maintain some form of hygiene. There's nothing like having a lukewarm sponge bath in your backyard to wash off the daily grime. Soooo refreshing.

I didn't want to leave you with the last imagine in your head....so here is the concrete truck pouring the garage and basement floor.

Ross Working Himself To Death

Things are moving along with help from co-workers, friends and family. Thanks to all who have come out in the heat and humidity. It has been some killer heat especially framing out in the afternoon sun. We are now actually constructing, putting up the first floor and garage walls on the addition part of our project. I'm still doing demolition and probably will be for a few more weeks.

This is the new entrance from the new basement into the old one. The walls are two feet wide of boulders and concrete. Thanks to the boys who finished off the job for me.

The first floor on the addition being sheeted. Who is that guy in the girlie pose with his hand on his hip? Oh ya, that's Dan the guy who....never mind.

The first wall is up. Woo-hoo!!!!

Grant, Sam, Dan, Ross and Jason putting up the second wall. It was a good day...notice the beer empties in all the pics. Afterward, it looked like the morning after a keg party

Okay...this is just cute. Fabbie snuggling with Jakie in the trailer.

Chris, Diane and Spencer were back for a couple of days over the Canada Day weekend. We had the crane in to lift the garage beam (25') into place. Five minutes work for $400.00. Ouch....one of those costs that can't be helped.

While the crane was here, we had the bell tower lowered (this happened when I was sent to the bank for cash so I missed the whole thing...sigh...pictures courtesy of Diana). It's amazing it was still up on the building. Only a few nails were holding it in place and most of the structure's wood was rotted. The bell itself is heavy as hell, the dong (ha ha) is still intact and the sound is awesome. A little restoration and a new tower and we will get her back on the roof. It's gonna make a great door bell....and you think I kid.

Field Of Dreams

Long time no see. Well fortunately we sold our house in Ayr. We had a two week closing time reduced to ten days once the conditions were closed. We packed and moved our belongings to a nice couple of storage units in Alliston. Our leather furnishing and electronics are comfy in an air conditioned room (nicer living arrangements then ours). We are living in our lovely tin box with all the comforts of home minus air conditioning, heating , dishwasher, shower, walk in closet etc... We wash in a bucket on the side lawn. ( if you have a black hose in the sun you can even get some nice warm water) We do our laundry at the laundromat. We haven't done that in twenty years...it takes alot more quarters then it did then. As of yesterday, we purchased a new turbo wifi internet thus a new posting on my blog. I now it has been quite some time and a lot has changed at the schoolhouse but you must be patient. I'll try and post everyday or so to catch up with our progress. ( and there has been quite a lot) By the way, the picture above is of our neighbours ...the potatoes...we ate some of the little buggers tonight.....Yummy!!!!!

This is Steven....he is our neighbour and he has done the back filling for us. It may be hard to believe but it took nine loads brought in to do the job.

Here Ross is compacting the fill in the garage looking all buff and manly.

The back of the school house.

A view of the garage.

This is the stone slinger filling the basement and garage with clear stone in preparation for pouring the concrete floors.

This is Ross watching the stone slinger thinking how happy it makes him to know he doesn't have to wheelbarrow and shovel 22 ton of stone. If he was facing the camera, you'd see a grin from ear to ear.

Jake "the ferocious kitty"

Okay...this has nothing to do with the schoolhouse renovations but he is sooo cute. This is Jake the newest member of the Turner clan. He's about 8 weeks old and a cousin of the late, great Chico. (R.I.P.)

We spent a couple of days at the schoolhouse last week with my dad in tow. He is a mason by trade and we enlisted his skills on repairing the damaged brick on the original building. Ross, as seen in this picture, is removing the form on the garage door by using the kicking and yanking method while balancing on said form. What a brilliant man, my husband. This could be one reason why he is always falling and hurting himself. Ross attached the black plastic wrap stuff (not it's official name...it escapes me at the moment)and wheelbarrelled (is that a real verb?)the gravel over the weeping tile. We had our inspection and now we can back fill.

This my dad, Al Burns. He is 74 years old and learned his trade in Liverpool, England following in the footsteps of his father. He re-pointed the stone foundation and removed and reset the loose and damaged brick.

The brick arch on this basement window fell forward and had been repaired with a slop of cement. Arches were used to support an opening. Today we use steel lintels, they provide the support but lack the decorative nature of the arch. By the way, Dad isn't a lazy mason. He fell down the stairs at home and hurt his coccyx. (for those who think I'm talking dirty...shame...it's his tailbone) Anyway, the chair puts him at the perfect height. We feed the seniors we have working on the job site and ply them with beer, wine and provide comfy sleeping arrangements on our kitchen table/extra bed in our trailer. So don't you feel too sorry for him. Feel sorry for us...he snores...loudly!



The finished arch ready for a new window.

The finished corner repair.

This is only the beginning of the brick work. There will be alot more in the coming months so Dad....we LOVE you...you are sooo talented.(this is me kissing up)

Foundations!!

Ross and I spent finally began constructing this week after months of demolition. On Thursday , Ross worked with the excavator to dig out our foundation and build our new driveway.

This picture is taken from the side door of the existing building. The footings are poured and Ross is placing rebar in the bench footing. It looks like Ross might have the start of a smile on his face....he's so excited about all the work we have ahead of ourselves. (written sarcastically)

The foundation walls are not done until Tuesday because of the long weekend, so we are back to working on.....demolition. Under the oak strip floor is maple hardwood. We are lifting both floors and eventually will replace the hardwood later. The old square head nails are into the tongue every 2'. They are coming out relatively easy thank goodness for me since I get the glorious job.

This is Chris and this is Chris's tool. It works on C02 cartilages. Ross has to attach his to a compressor. He probably has tool envy. (BTW Chris...that bald spot is looking a lit bit larger.) The next picture stars Spencer, our godson who so generously helped me de-nail the floor boards. Notice the left foot cast. (he broke his foot walking backwards...ha ha)Notice the fridge....guess what's in there....your right. I'd also like to thank Dianna for making Ross a fantastic grill cheese sandwhich for lunch. She is such a wonderful cook.

Tuesday morning 7am. We have forms up.

This is the bench footing looking striaght down from the old schoolhouse. It is there because the old basement is a foot and a half higher then the new one. This will shore up the old foundation wall.



Finishing the forming and pouring the concrete.

We Have Permits!!

Finally, we have our permits and are a go ahead. So while we wait for the excavator to schedual us in, we had more demolition to finish. Taking down the lathe and plaster involved Ross climbing into the attic and sledge hammering it from above. It took about a half hour on each side...quick but it produced clouds of dust that billowed out the windows.


This is about a third of the lathe. We spent two twelve hour days burning the stuff. It kinda looks like a beaver dam.

This is the mess inside.

And this is the schoolhouse with everything removed from the main room. The ceiling joists are 30 feet long and 9"x3". The wall studs are all pegged and notched into a 9"x9" beam that sits on a 2' thick rubble foundation wall. They don't build them like this anymore...I'm not quite sure if that is good or bad.