Progress

Well, progress is being made. We now have running water (and a dishwasher!) and electricity. The floor is done and looks beautiful, we are so pleased with it and I am so grateful Peter persevered to get up the 6 layers of various floors from the past. Removing the old cabinets revealed many layers of this kitchen's past life right back to the wide board wainscoting to the 5 or 6 layers of old wallpaper. There must have been an old oil cook stove at one time which leaked in a corner and stained the floor black. Some came up but we didn't worry too much as the refrigerator and cabinet covers most of it. 

New window, wide board wainscoting and some wallpaper

Patching and covering up the old 60's wood panelling

The door is gone

Painting is done, Dusty Miller walls though not much will show when the shelves and cabinets are installed

Old floor revealed

First swipe with the sander

Rick did a super job

First of three layers of verathane

The bones of the cabinets

All ready for butcher block (handmade using NS wood), sliding shelves and doors. 

We'll see more progress this week, the cupboard doors and drawers are being painted off-site. The pantry cupboard will have sliding shelves - finally some easy access storage!

Moving Right Along

L-R: 3 of the 7 doors - Basement door, hall and into the den. And now there are 2!

We tried to save the trim but it was just too solidly built, cut from at least a 2" thick piece of wood, they don't make trim like that anymore. Thankfully the other doors still have the same trim.

L-R: the Pantry cupboard used to be back stairs going up to the "Maid's room". The stairs are gone but apparently the hatch in the floor in the bedroom is still there. The window will be half the size and the stove moves to the right so there will be a range hood over it.

Some of the old charming wallpaper - 1940's maybe?

This seems to be the bottom layer of wallpaper, I peeled it off, it is very brittle. I have no idea how old it is.

Another sample of old paper, perhaps 60's, that wonderful avocado green and orange that my Mom was so fond of! The plaster is full of horsehair! I must look that up on Google!

So, the kitchen renovations are moving right along after one day they have made great progress. The last of the old flooring is gone, the old cupboards and tile are gone. We have moved everyting out, spread through the diningroom and livingroom. We'll be 2 weeks without the stove but I have my slow cooker, electric frying pan and the bbq - and the Pub is in walking distance!

We have a good schedule, we have till the 20th to do all the repairs, get the walls ready, the new window in then the floor gets sanded and varnished starting on the 20th. The new cabinets (fingers crossed) will be installed on the 26th. 

Once the cupboards were gone we discovered several layers of old wallpaper and wide planks on the walls plus some of that lovely 60's "wood" panelling. I forgot to take a picture of that, I wonder why? Maybe I should for posterity! 

We have been thrilled so far with the guys who are doing the work. Wonderful to live in a small community where you can call the plumber and he is here in 10 minutes! Same with the electrician and the building supply store is 5 minutes away. 

There are more pictures in my Flickr Photostream here.

Let The Renos Begin!

The joy of buying a 150 year old house is that there is always something to do, something needs fixing, something needs changing/updating. We have been lucky, we have been quite comfortable and feeling settled in our "new" house here in Mahone Bay. Given the amount of snow we have had this year we are very glad not to have to shovel the long driveway we had in Fox Point! Here we don't even have a sidewalk to shovel, just the back parking for the cars!

Another Wednesday, another snowstorm with up to 30cm expected. This is the view from the mudroom window looking out to the side garden past the deck and grape arbour. It had just begun to snow.

We decided to start with the kitchen. Our kitchen in the Fox Point house was small and narrow, like a galley kitchen. We got used to it, this one has 7 doors and a window! Another challenge. We can get rid of two doors, the one jut to Peter's left and one in the right corner which was a second staircase and is no a pantry cupboard. We have a great design (we hope!) we didn't have a whole lot of choice about where things would go. One thing is for sure it will be better than it is now. The final measurements have been done, the main demolition of the cabinets will happen next week, then the floors will be sanded and varnished. Peter has cut away and torn up 6 layers of old floor coverings. We had no idea what was underneath...

So far so good! The boards are all different widths from 6" - 14". We aren't sure yet what wood they are, perhaps hemlock or spruce. We shall see, can't wait!