Author: Leah

Well, as you can see, it has been quite a while since we have done any HOH updates besides the events. There have been a few things going on the last few years with family illnesses and deaths so working on the building has not been the priority. Once we were finished with the roof (that was a biggy) we had to save and plan for the brickwork (and wait until the bank would lend us more money). Well, that is scheduled to start at the end of May – yeah! It is a BIG job and we will be posting photos of that for sure.

The roof was a HUGE deal. There was a bad wind storm and we lost some shingles. Actually – you could see the old wood underneath so it needed a fairly urgent fix. We ended up getting a metal one so we shouldn’t have to worry about it ever again. Mike picked the green colour and it looks great. You can see it as you approach Fingal.

We have been doing small projects like the vegetable garden and stuff like that. I began a sourdough starter a few years ago and have been enjoying the yummy bread and other sourdough recipes. I found a great recipe to be able to use the sourdough as well as the abundance of zucchini from the garden. Also, if you have ever enjoyed roast beets – you will know how amazing it tastes. If not – you should try it. This weekend I finished planting the garden for this year. Looking forward to more fresh vegetables in a few months.

We planted a Fringe tree as a memorial tree for our friend Kevin Johnston who passed in 2016. It was because of Kevin that we were able to find this treasure of a home.

We have been playing music and also found a bit of time for travel and camping and visiting people as well as the usual music festivals etc. We love to play board games and play music and have people visit.

We got the septic emptied after 5 years and it was hardly needed at all. I guess we can wait another 7-10 before we need to do it again. It is a bit bigger than we needed it to be but they went by square feet for the calculations rather than the fact that there are only 2 of us 98% of the time…

We had a few exciting things like when the backup battery for the hardwired smoke detector needed changing and we didn’t have a ladder tall enough. Poor Roxy didn’t like the beeping every few minutes for a whole night. Thanks to Dan for the ladder and for Jayne for letting Roxy sleep over until we fixed it!

There is never a dull moment with a big old building – that is for sure. We will try to update more often.

Sign up for the mailing list to hear of upcoming concerts and we hope to see you soon.

We have been quite busy – both with things around the house and living life!

Mike and I made some shelves to use upstairs that can be put on the sloped windowsill so we could put things on the sill. I painted them to match the rest of the wood and they look like they belong there. I bought some light sensitive candles that come on at night and shut off during daylight hours. I have already received several compliments about the candles in the windows.

Painting, painting, painting
I have been painting more of the interior doors and finally got to the front and back doors. The front doors were quite a chore. They had to be scraped and some minor repairs made. I chose “dried basil” green for the front. We removed the hardware and I spray-painted it black. While I was out painting several people stopped to say how much they liked it. Someone from the municipal office even said that she almost called me to say how much she liked the colour choice.

I started on another room and began by filling some nail holes. However, then we had to move all the paints and chairs back in there so that project is on hold.

Railings
Scraping the rust off railings is NOT easy – I’ll tell you that right now! My back was killing me from using the wire brush and sanding off the rusty bits. I sprayed it black and am really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully that will last a few years!

Sheers
I bought a bolt of fabric from Lens Mills and spent several days sewing sheer curtains for the front of the church. We cannot do the repairs required to the walls at this time so I made some long sheers that drape across and fancy it up. Mike helped me hang them (which was quite a chore) and even the tallest ladder was barely high enough. Those ceilings are TALL.

Celebrations
We have had a couple of parties to celebrate events of friends and family. It is a great space to be able to have people over. My family loves the large kitchen which is great for potluck suppers.  Whether an anniversary party or just a games night with friends – we are liking this space!

Mike has recorded a couple videos of himself practicing upstairs too!

This post is many months late but the summer has flown by and I am just doing some catch up now.

It was interesting going through the first winter season here. The temperature wasn’t bad and we learned to wear slippers and housecoats. We know which doors are best kept closed and the fireplace kept us cozy on supper chilly evenings.

Our first power outage
Well, it was bound to happen. We had our first power outage this winter.
We were ready for this. We sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, lit a few candles and played one our favourite games – Carcassonne. It turned out to be a nice relaxing evening.

Ravioli
We are enjoying the large kitchen and making some homemade ravioli was an enjoyable use of the space. Mike and I rolled, stuffed and cut out a huge batch of ravioli. We cooked up some for supper that night and put the rest in the freezer. I think we are going to do that again soon – yum!

Well, as I mentioned earlier – we bought a shed. It  is a pre-cut kit and made of wood. What they don’t really make super obvious is that the floor isn’t included and extra reinforcement for the floor and screws are needed. You also have to buy shingles of course.

Then the building of it begins. Working all day and only having 90 minutes or so of daylight after work makes it take longer than the weekend project it is supposed to be. Also, rain days slow down the project quite a bit. So Mike has started working on the shed when he can. He is doing almost all of it by himself. He does have the help of the 6 year old neighbour boy on occasion. He comes over and says “I am good with tools – can I help”?  Heehee!  Mike will probably share more on this when he is finished the shed.

October already…
Well, we have been busy and lately it seems that we’ve been doing mostly painting
and other things that don’t look like big changes. How many photos of me painting
would you like to see?

We were especially focused on getting ready for Thanksgiving. We hosted
Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people. As you can see, the floor is a mess and that
side still looks very much like a construction zone. We cleaned and tried to tuck
away some of the painting stuff that we would still be needing soon. Painting
continued until days before the event. Then there was more cleaning to do. There
has been so much drywall dust in this building and do you know that it gets
everywhere? So, I washed the entire kitchen – took 2 days. Scrubbed every surface
and the cupboard doors and the floor and the appliances. The 8 burners especially
took some time. Then, before the celebration I washed every dish, glass, cutlery
and serving container before setting the table. People are teasing me about being
“Martha” now. I was very excited to be able to celebrate something we are very
thankful for with family. We set two tables end to end. One was kindly left by
the congregation and the other was given to us in early October by Mike’s
parents. They are both fairly long with extra leaves for each. It worked
perfectly. It was a bit tricky to find nice but inexpensive tablecloths for them
but I did. Then I made several centrepieces. You need several with a table that
long. We washed all of the chairs and set everything up. Then I also had an idea
to add a Maple cookie to each place setting. I was happy with how it turned out!
Yeah!

We purchased a couch, loveseat and chair for cheap on kijiji. It really is just to fill the space that looked so empty. We had the coffee table and end table but nothing much for visitors to sit on. It is sort of a Victorian style but I am sure it is from the 80s. It has cat scratches on the sides (may seem funny to some when they see it – they will think we have a cat hiding somewhere). I cleaned them up thoroughly and they fit in the space fairly well. That allowed us to set up some of the other things in the livingroom. I have started unpacking some of my hobby books and fibre art. We put a few bookcases in there and a cabinet for a few of my music boxes and other collectibles. It is feeling more and more like home. We took a short break from painting. It was nice to not wear painting clothes for a week. Mike assembled the wall mount for the television and put in some cable plates that allowed the cables to run inside the wall behind the television rather than dangle down between.
Mike’s parents came down for another visit. We were able to use their truck and pick up a garden shed for outside. I hope to get my tools garden stuff out of storage soon. We are plugging along.

Today we stopped by our storage unit and took a load of stuff that is delicate and wouldn’t stack well in the moving van. It was hot and muggy from the get go!

The guys from Construct 3 were there early and working on building the floor and starting on the walls. Inspector came by to see the footings after they were poured. Yeah, we get to start closing off the outdoor toilet. 😉

We met with the new septic guy to sign some papers and give him a down payment. That will be starting on Monday – yeah! Finally some progress on that!

Today there were many motorcycles driving by heading to Friday the 13th in Port Dover. A lovely but maybe too hot day to be riding – we had things to do.

I painted some more trim and Mike got dirt and spider webs from the places where we will store things. My parents came by to see the place for the first time. That was nice. My Mom even made it upstairs and played the piano a bit. That made me happy! We went for lunch at the Wayside (it was both tasty and reasonably priced!). We had another visitor – Julie came by for a quick tour. We spent more of the afternoon painting and cleaning. We got quite a bit done today. I was too tired to blog last night so I am writing this morning. Today we are renting a van and moving stuff! It is gonna be a hot one – wish us luck!

Leah

Well, it was a day of excitement that is for sure. We took possession today. We received the keys – usually you get 4 or so – we got something like 18 (see photo). We changed the locks this afternoon. Here is a photo of Mike opening the door for the first time – yeah!

The heating/cooling guys came in and removed the old furnaces. They are very efficient – and so will the new furnaces be! heehee. Then they placed the new ones in the building. First they need to change some things before hooking them up. We drove back to London mid-day to pick up our tub which was waiting at Home Depot. It fit in the back of the van with about two inches to spare (see photo). Some of the exciting things: there was a bat in the room we were working. He was hanging on an extension cord on one of the posts – kept hissing and squeaking at us. I don’t think he was impressed by all of the drilling, banging and other noises we were making while he was trying to sleep. We eventually caught him (very gently) and sent him on his way – outside.
Then, the most exciting part of the adventure today. Mike was removing something from the ceiling and a got a piece in his eye. He knows that he should have had safety glasses on – he did have glasses but that didn’t help one bit. We tried to flush it out but after over 10 minutes it wasn’t coming out. So – now we know where the nearest ER is – in St. Thomas. Corneal abrasion is the renovation injury for day one. They said he should be fine in a few days. I am not sure if he is trying to get out of renovations or just wanted something printed with his name and our new address first (the hospital card)