Mike here with another quick update.
Sunday, or day 6, was a day of rest of sorts. We had a family picnic on Leah’s side, and since we have missed it for a couple years due to being on tour, we figured we had to make the trip. It was a fun day on the shore of the St. Clair river. We had a great lunch, and played games and enjoyed sitting down for a change.
On Monday Day 7, it was back to the grind, so to speak. We were up early, loaded up some of the stuff from the apartment that we needed to take with us, and stopped off to pick up some of our helpers for the day. We got some coffee and hit the road.
When we arrived we were greeted by our electrician, our crew from Construct 3, and our sheet metal worker, already plugging away. We also received a big delivery of drywall. Shortly after two more helpers arrived.
A lot of stuff got done today. The guys from Construct 3 broke through the main bathroom wall into the shed area. That whole wall will be pushed back a few feet, and they started digging the footings for that too. While they were digging they found an old pile of coal that must have been spilled when the place was still heated by a coal furnace. You can see the door they shoveled it in from in side the shed. The men’s bathroom is now a more open air experience if the shed door is open. It kind of feels like a TV studio, with the fourth wall removed when you look at it from the other side.
After lunch, they started hanging the drywall inside. It is amazing how quickly these rooms are taking shape, I can almost see pictures hanging on them!
Our electrician, Peter, met with us and went over our plans. After checking out the existing building we came up with some solutions to challenges and he started mounting electrical boxes and running wire. As easy as the steel studs look to put up, they must be a pain for electricians. He was running BX shielded cable (the stuff with the steel casing over it) and it makes one heck of a racket when it gets pulled through.
Dave managed to get the second furnace in place and most of the sheet metal ready for them to complete its installation on Wednesday!
Meanwhile our friends Lionel, Juan, Jen and Paul helped us by priming the upstairs office and most of the west entryway. Leah and I played a supervisory role, as we often had to go and answer questions form the different crews working.
At one point in the afternoon I discovered that there was a full unopened can of coffee and decided to try and make a pot. It appears the drip coffee machine was just there for decoration, even though the light lit up, not much else happened. We decided to try the big aluminium coffee maker they use for social functions, but we don’t seem to have the knack for that one, and the coffee came out undrinkable.
Even though we didn’t get a lot of paint put down ourselves today (we will tomorrow!), we are both pretty wiped. Hopefully this will be a busy week, as we are back to work next Monday, and will have to fit the remaining renovations into our daily work schedules!
P.S. Thanks again to our friends who came out to help us paint today! For those of you wanting to come and help, there is A LOT of wall to go around! 😉
