Sunday, March 15, 2015

The weekend update....part one


SO this weekend was my first proper commute up after work.  I was lucky enough to get out on Thursday and head up, taking Friday off.  As someone who has always traveled through Penn station, i finally realized what a difference a train station that is beautiful can make.  Grand central really makes all the difference, and re-confimrs what a disaster penn is.  The escape from the city starts soon as you get to the station!
So all was smooth, the truck started at the station like a dream, it was still there and all was great, more on that later..


The snow is finally starting to melt around the cottage, and its slow reveal is beautiful. I have never seen the place without its blanket of snow.  Look at the stone walls.  My property straddles this river so i have land either side which is brilliant.  


Here is another view looking up into the conservation land.  I haven't really realized just how beautiful it all is, a little slice of Narnia on my doorstep.  Lets get that antique gas street light in there somewhere for mr Tumnus.  The land toward the back heads up pretty steep, i can wait to explore little more




This is the room i was working on last weekend.  The dividing wall was next to come down, or just this side of it to try and contain the mess and dust (pointless, plaster dust gets everywhere).  It rather lovely as it looks with the lath revealed from the back, sadly it had to come down.


Its amazing how much crap it causes..


In an attempt to try and contain it all i have been putting a tarp down and then also card board to protect the floor.  At some point it all just becomes rubble.  There is a lot to be said though for going slow and trying to bag up as much as you go.  The pulling it down is the easy bit, the boring bit is bagging it up and lugging it out. 


Talking of lugging it out.  It was friday the 13th after all.... I had a great start to the morning, one truck load to the dump, all smooth, making great progress, up at 7am.  The battery light was on i noticed, but thought nothing of it.  Made a call to the garage and planned to stop by to check out the battery and replace it...all cool.  Off i go to load up a second truck load to the dump, driving the 5 mins to get there and the truck dies. Literally going alone and the dials all drop to zero.  Luckily i rolled off to the side of the road, and luckily i have roadside assistance.  There was some swearing also going on at this point, i was not a picture of calm under pressure.  After a few more calls (frantic?) to a few local garages i found a guy who would help me out.  The tow truck picked me up and we dropped off at the garage.  Then the nice mechanic took me home and i took my aggression out on the rest of the plaster.


As seen here


and here ....


and then finally here as the room is opened up.  Incredibly satisfying.  So anyway the day goes on and then the mechanic man picks me back up with his friend (?).  Everyone is so friendly, even if the friend did f bomb ever second word.  I think he was retired and bored so they wanted to come along for the ride.  Everyone who sees the house says how great it is, then goes on to say how big it is and how much work it is....yeh i get it.  Right now it not so much the house thats the money pit, but its the truck.  The mechanic, who is russian and has a resemblance to doc brown from back to the future commented on how "pretty" my truck is.  Not sure how to take that.  Also the bubbles on the side, i think he meant the flared rims.  Who knows, but at any rate he fixed her and she's up and running again and all worked out just fine, until the next problem.  After all that the room was pulled apart but i got to see how giant the living room is going to be !


Oh just pulling out some electrical work, wanted to keep this picture for future reference.


I had to put the deer head up, it was motivation.  Look how good she looks right there!! (its a he but i think he looks like a she, only males have antlers but  i digress).  Also i have been having some debate over where to put the fire place and actually funnily enough where the surround currently is works rather well.  Its between the 2 doors so for now it kinda looks okay.  I think i am going to go with a propane fire stove, this means no venting.  Its the most economical version that will work for me at the moment.  In an ideal world i would have the 5k to but the dura vent out the side and get a proper wood burning stove, but thats just not going to work at the moment.  Either way there is no rush so i am going to get the furniture in and see, by then it will be spring so it can probably wait till next winter.  What happened next?  well my friend David arrived for the weekend and he was amazing. We cleaned this room out, went to the dump and then vacuumed the crap outta the place.  I even got around to starting the plastering of the holes and using the amazing foam filler to block out the drafts.  Its amazing how long this stage takes.  We scrubbed down the ceiling and pulled out and enormous amount of nails.  Its going to be great, but i am so impatient, i want it done.  I have to remind myself this is the second weekend, as in 7 days.  So far, so good.


























I kept a lot of the old lath as this will be amazing repurposed as a wall covering or ceiling or something? Oh and a candid shot of me puling the ceiling out...I have never seen water that color run off me in the shower, so gross after 165 years of dust all over you, with a little horse hair throw in for good measure.  The plaster back then was made with horse hair in it to bind it, and you could see it all in the plaster, i know you wanted to know that right?

All in all a really productive day and the room is really getting there.  Hopefully i can get i painted soon and furniture in there so the living room is set...

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