Oh Busy Day...

 We got a project going. 

When we purchased this over 100yr.-old house back in 2009, we thought of it as a summer residence only. Well, we were snowbirds and never thought that we would stay here during winter.

Well, as we now know. that wasn't really in the cards. We have been staying north since the winter 2014. And during those winters we learned that old houses without insulation in the walls can be..well, a bit drafty, to say the least. We always had enough firewood to heat the house, but you know when the fire dies out and you don't want to incur massive electricity bills for using that badly engineered furnace, the place gets cold pretty quick. The Norwester is a bad enemy out here and the house is in his way - in a way of speaking.

So, enough said, we decided this year would be the year when "project insulation " would be launched. But we had made us one promise: No construction mess inside the house! The living area has still old-time plaster on the inside of the walls so we really didn't need all that mess to come loose. So the job would have to be done from the outside.

Above: The boards under the shingles

                   Above: Almost ready for insulation

Getting covered with OSB Sheats

Like most eastcoast houses, ours too has white-cedar shingles, nailed on to massive 1-inch thick spruce boards. And all that, including the big boards, had to come off. The most handy tools of the day is a crowbar and a hammer with which I have to pry off both the shingles and the boards. Being more than a hundred years old, the boards are nailed with giant square, hand-made nails and all of them are rusted, meaning very hard to remove. With other words it's a back-breaking work I have started. Most days I keep at it for about 5-6hrs only. And I am doing it in sections. After that I am feeling like I am 85years old. The 4-inch wall is being brought up to 6-inch standard, by nailing 2x3s crosswise horizontally to the studs. The extra thickness should warrant a much better insulation against the cold. At least it did when we renovated an upstairs bedroom the previous winter. Difference was, that the work was done from the inside then.

Bonus of this project: We are getting heaps of kindling into our wood shed. Matter of fact we are almost out of space. It's gonna last for years, especially if we can start going south again this winter. But we can talk about that when the time has come and the border will be open again.

Meanwhile, we have both gotten our first Covid shots and are due for the 2. shot soon. 

Tourism is still a ways off and if any we will only see folks from our own province, as it is impossible to travel here from other parts of Canada, not to mention the U.S.

Bea is still cultivating her garden and has recently started selling tomato and bell-pepper plants. Her customers keep coming back year after year. Our greenhouse has become the most important part of her operation as it really makes a huge difference in protecting plants from cold temps at night.