We Stayed Home this Summer

This is the first summer that we have chosen to stay home all summer, work on our yard and actually watch our garden grow keeping the weeds under control.  I so enjoyed Lynda's lilies last year, while we visited with her, that I decided we would order lilies for our front garden.

At the end of last summer once again I dug everything up in the front flower bed, I moved all the delphiniums to the back of the bed against the house, then I placed the Monkshood in front of those and a row of Tiger Lilies in front of all that.  We knew the Delphiniums would bloom first, then the Monkshood and then the Tiger Lilies doing this left a large section of garden to plant plus where the path to the front door had been.   We did have a day lily in the corner by the step, then a primula (the flowers had never really fully opened up) which I am reluctant to dig up.  The chives, white Speedwell (Veronica) and purple Speedwell were well established so I left them where they were and added a Columbine to the mix.  I ordered three new small day lily plants which were planted in the fall just before the ground froze.

In the spring we discussed what to purchase from Vesey's plant catalogue.  They had a really great deal on for spring; purchase $200 worth of plants and get $100 credit.  Because I wanted to add different lilies to the garden I purchased a mixture of early Asiatic lilies; mid to late blooming Oriental lilies and a few different day lilies.  We added to the mix, Liatris (Blazing Star), King Kong Poppies, Sea Holly; Bell Flower and a few other plants.

Although we marked where each bulb was placed we did not draw a sketch in order to know what would come up where and when they would bloom, so there has been confusion as to the names of plants, what did not grow and why certain mixtures appeared to be all the same colour and definitely not what we had ordered.  You will see what I mean from the pictures.

We had at least three Asiatic Lilies of this colour

There were two or three of this colour with just the one flower

'Patricia's Pride' we chose this colour with 3 bulbs all planted on this corner

This was the first 'Patricia's Pride' that opened

The Day Lilies were all this colour not a mixture that we ordered

'Exploding Pumpkin' Day-lily specifically purchased one plant and got one flower only.

This and the previous picture although loaded with buds most did not open

The first Oriental Lily to bloom

2nd Oriental lily was pink

Full complement of the white with better detail

Speckled pink Oriental Lily

From a distance this oriental lily really stood out

Managed to actually plant a mixture in one spot

These pictures do not give a true indication of how big and lush the Oriental Lilies actually were

'Majestic Hue' Day Lily blooming as we left for vacation

This is the last of the new lilies that we planted, the 'Majestic Hue' was a specific purchase.  The majority of the day lilies did not bloom this year which was very disappointing.  For a first year though I think we had some lovely colours although not as good a mixture as we had hoped for.

Everything else that was already in the garden did fairly well and some we will have to move as they have grown so big and are now crowding out each other.  We shall leave the Delphiniums where they are, they ended up covered in mites of some sort and had to be cut down to the ground, but they had finished for the year.  The Tiger lilies were the best they have been in the past three years.  Rather than just talk about the flowers let me show you.

Tiger Lilies are hard to photograph because of their dropping heads

My wonderful Columbine

White Veronica and purple behind it.  The Chives had finished

Stella D'Or Day Lily planted last year

Irish Moss planted last year and spreading nicely

An indication of how many Tiger lilies we have and the Monkshood blooming behind

Yellow Poppy...

Orange Poppy... sent instead of the King Kong Poppy

Purple and white Liatris (Blazing Star) 

Poppy and Liatris are new this year. 

'Manitoba Rose' planted last year but moved to the front this year

Flash went off so washed out the actual colour of the rose see above

Basically that is my front garden but I have more plants in the yard in various areas. I will post in another blog.  We added a lot this year and wanted to be home to see the results of our labour and complete other projects outside.

Renovations; On hold... sort of.

Not the best title but really there is not much more to report.  We mapped out all the electrical and what additional receptacles we need.  We have discussed the layout of the kitchen.  The bathroom is smaller than we realized because we want to retain the original fireplace and that takes up the majority of one side.  We have a window that fills another side.  Then of course there is the doorway on the third wall and radiator on the last wall.

The plan now is to get quotes from a general contractor, electrician and plumber, that is the holdup.  Richard is supposed to be phoning various individuals that we have obtained the names for, but it does not appear to be a high priority on his list.  He did phone the plumber but has not heard back from him.

In the mean time we are working outside in the garden... but that is another blog, for another day.

Ceiling is Down!

Looking towards the east

Southeast corner

West side

Today Richard took down the last pieces of framing for the dropped ceiling in the bathroom.  We originally were only going to work on one room at a time until we discovered that our home still has live knob and tube wiring which means we have to rewire the house.

I posted pictures of where we were with the kitchen so these are pictures of the bathroom.
 

Pipes from upstairs bathroom

As you can see the original ceiling is a mess.  I want to save the moldings around the ceiling edge and strip the paint from them so they match the hallway and the living room moldings.

A lot of work to be done, we need to have access to the wiring to remove and replace t all.  I'm thinking while we have the ceiling open then why not have our plumber replumb the pipes up into the ceiling cavity. Not sure it can be done, but maybe they can be placed higher up and then boxed into faux beams.

This tub has to go

I am going to advertise this jet tub on Kijiji for sale cheap if they remove it.  I can't use it and we want to put a shower in here that will be easier for my use.

Need more doors like this

Remodeling a 100 year old house I want to retain its original character.  So I'm looking for doors like this for other parts of the house.

Finding hardware like this is also hard.  We need to clean paint of most of ours.

So there we are, our renovation adventure continues.

What is Next?

It has been a few weeks since I posted an update on our renovation.  The kitchen is demolished as much as we want at this point in time.  These next pictures were taken on February 17th.

Old plumbing and knob and tube wiring

Closer look at the old drain pipe

The bedroom above the kitchen has a sink in it so we did know there was more recent plumbing but had not idea that there was older drain pipes in the ceiling.  Why were they never removed?

Who would do this to a major floor joist

At this point I could have cried.  That is the top of the wall that separates the kitchen and the dinning room.  The joists run front to back meeting above this wall and doubling up.  From what we saw as we tore down mainly drywall from this wall, obviously the radiator upstairs was moved and to make that possible they cut right through a major floor joist leaving about two inches at the top.  We don't want to take down the dinning room ceiling at this time, our question is: how do we fix this reinforcing that joist and the ones on either side?

Richard pulling down the ceiling and had a surprise

 Richard was careful while pulling down the ceiling and it was a very good job.  Near where he is working in the above picture he felt a pipe that was loose.

Galvanized Pipe

An idea how big that pipe was

That is the loose pipe that he felt, if Richard had just ripped the ceiling down without taking care that eight foot piece of galvanized pipe would have come down on top of him.  Again you have to ask; what were the people thinking when they left that in the ceiling?

 

The rubble that had to be cleared out

We covered all the cupboards and appliances with plastic the openings to all the other areas were covered with plastic.  Even with all this care we were still left with a thick layer of dust everywhere.

These tiled counters will also be replaced

The dust is everywhere not quite as bad as this in the other parts of the house but we are still cleaning up.  We can wipe surfaces down and by the end of the day  there is another coating of dust.  I can see why the DIY shows on TV move people out of their homes when they are doing this type of work.  The dust is in every room and will take time to get rid of it all.

The knob and tube wiring is live, some of the new wiring has been run from it, this means in all likely hood that the house was not rewired as we thought, indications in the basement were that someone had rewired the house.  With the kitchen ceiling down we now know that there is still knob and tube probably through out our home and it will all need to be replaced.  We decided we will not just cover everything up but will rewire.  We will get the necessary permits and find an electrician who will over see Richards work, probably help, hopefully we do as little damage as possible in the rest of the house.  Lots of work to do and very little free time to do said work.  So I think we are living in this mess for some time to come. 

Pictures of the bathroom to come.

Kitchen Ceiling is Coming Down!

We had to take apart the faux beam in order to remove the rest of the plaster on the wall we have been working on.  What we saw under that beam did not make me happy.

Part of the ceiling was gone with a crack running out wards

Once I saw the crack running out into the ceiling, there is no way we could just patch and put back the faux beams.  We also realised that the faux beams were poorly erected and it would take a lot of work to put that same material back up.

We had the opportunity to l look back to 1951 and see the colours and wallpaper that were used in the remodel which explained the tile colour that was chosen.

Peachy-orange ceiling and bold coloured flowered wallpaper

Lots of bold colours beige, brown, muted green, etc. not sure I would paint a ceiling with such a dense colour.  We know the remodel was done in 1951 due to the papers we found stuffed in the side of the door frame to the back door.

Simpson's (Sears) 1951 Christmas Catalogue

Not easily seen but the year is 1951

The reason we began this renovation was the awful lime green walls, this was painted embossed paper.  The paper was coming off the walls in many places.  Just a reminder; this was just going to be a painting job; the walls and the cupboards.

Lime green we hated from the moment we saw the house

We love our home a bit of painting was nothing, you do not walk away from a house because of the colours someone else has chosen.  I digress; this is what the ceiling was like originally.

Faux beams would need a darker stain.

Light fixture would need to be replaced

We did not plan on removing all this, just change a few things.  This is where we are today.

Lathe removed showing an unknown product

That is the outside wall the lathe was attached to those thin pieces of strapping.  What ever that product is it is really warm and there is no draft coming through the wall.  

Yes... that is knob and tube in the ceiling

All the nails are removed

The pile of lathe grows as we pull more and more off the walls.  This will make great kindling for those fire-pits that many of our friends have.  We are hoping that the knob and tube is not live, our understanding is the home was rewired.  It may just be a case that they did not remove all the old wiring and we will be pulling dead wiring out of the walls and ceilings.  If it is live then time to call an electrician to rewire properly, this will cost us a few thousand dollars.

Faux beams barely held in place, just a few screws

The ceiling is coming down with the beams

As we pull more of the beams down we realise that the decision we have made was correct. 

Hidden junction box and plumbing

 We have found a hidden junction box, extra wires, plumbing that needs to be removed from upstairs. 

Not happy with this wiring and the line hanging down

Insulation - why is it sitting on the lathe

 This section of the ceiling will release insulation when we remove the lathe from the ceiling in this area.  It is from a boxed in area in the bedroom upstairs, which will mean opening up part of that bedroom to add fresh insulation.

Central venting chimney

We are not going to continue removing the cement and junk off this stack.  We have purchased the wood to build the frame to box it in and drywall over it, no more messy brick work.

Upper cupboard doors going to be switched out

 I don't like the style of cupboards so we are changing the doors; either cutting out the center and putting a straight line style panel or glass, depending on which cupboard.  We are adding another layer of cupboards above these.  With nine foot plus ceilings we are taking advantage of the extra room to add more storage.

Microwave/vent combination is going

This microwave is too low, all the vent does is blow everything back into the kitchen.  We are removing this piece of equipment placing in a proper vented hood to the outside or take that cupboard out and put in a vent that is more in keeping with the style of the house.  We are keeping the tiles on the wall, at least that is the current plan, but removing them from the counter tops, probably putting butcher block on the counters also replacing the sink and taps.  I want a farm style sink in white.

Lots more work than we ever imagined and this is just the kitchen.  Good job we don't mind taking our time and doing most of the work ourselves.  Plumbing and electrics are not part of our skills so we will have to get professionals for those things and permits. 

Another update sometime soon, maybe...lol