Cleaning, Painting & Mudding - 27 January 2012

We got hooked up this morning for 220 service, so that next week we can use some construction heaters. This will really help for paint and plaster drying and for keeping carpenters cozy, so they can keep working.

While Brad finished off the plaster in the upstairs bedroom and bathroom and Michael painted every single piece of molding he could find (no one dared stand still today unless he mistook them for molding and painted them), Colin re-organized the main floor in preparation for drywalling next week. Its super neat!

Walls and Molding - 26 January 2012

There is just so much drywalling that I can show you before you fall asleep on your keyboard. Brad is still working away at it and, of course, it looks good. There are two heaters, two fans and a de-humidifier on the go, too, so that the walls will dry

While Brad continues with the walls, Colin has finished glazing the windows in the main doors and now we just have to wait for the putty to dry. As always, he has done an excellent job with the glass and putty and the doors look wonderful.

Michael has also done a very nice job of painting the molding. They look very nice in their "Seed Pearl" paint. Oil based paint is no longer available, for ecological reasons, but there is something new we are trying called water borne oil paint. If the look is any test, then I think we have a winner.

Storms over, Walls and Trim smooth - 25 January 2012

The storm windows are all made and now the caulking just needs to dry. This freed Colin up to do the glazing for the main doors. Now we'll let the putty dry on them for a few days before we paint them and get them ready to install.

Brad is continuing to tape and put the plaster on the drywalls upstairs. It must have felt like he was working in a sauna today, there was a very high humidity with the wet tape and plaster. We finally found a de-humidifier to help dry things out. It read 86% humidity when it came on.

And whose idea was it to have bulls-eye corner moldings? Oh yeah, that was me. Sorry, Michael, I know they are a pain to strip. I did the initial stripping and now Michael is finishing off removing all the paint. They're going to look great.

More Painting, Storming and Mudding - 24 January 2012

More of the same work today. Colin is almost finished with the storm window production. Michael is painting all the interior trim, having finished priming all four of the main doors. Brad is continuing to make the drywall look super smooth.

Priming and Storms and Mud - 23 January 2012

Michael is the prime man right now. Or should I say, the primer man? He has two of the main doors primed, as well as all of the interior trim. By tomorrow, he will likely have all four doors completely primed.

Colin has continued with making the storm windows and now there are only three left to glaze.

Brad has been playing in the mud. He's taking care of all of the seams in the drywall to fill them in with tape and mud.

Work Never Stops - 22 January 2012

I didn't like the step that we were using. It's too large a step up and down for me and I think it is dangerous, too. So I went out a bought some stringers and made some steps. Nowhere near the quality that the team would do, but I think they will work until we put the final steps in.

The birds were out working in the yard today, too. Even Robins - who I would have thought should be somewhere down south enjoying warm weather. Of course, we haven't got much snow and the temperature has jumped around from low minuses to relatively high pluses, so maybe they figure its okay here.

Priming and Mud - 20 January 2012

It was snowing outside, but inside there was mud being thrown on the walls. Michael continued priming the molding today and then he moved on to priming the main doors (ooooh, ahhhh!). Colin worked on the storm windows. Brad worked on the main doors and then moved on to putting the mud on the seams in the upstairs drywall.

With four big main doors, it is important to keep straight which one goes where. How will we do this, you ask? By indenting numbers on their edges. See the picture for exactly how Brad did this. Nice indention, Brad and also an excellent photo.

Storms, Doors and Molding - 19 January 2012

If a tree falls in the forest, does anyone hear? Sometimes, that's the way blogging feels. Is anyone out there reading or looking at what we are doing? It really shouldn't matter; I treat the blog as a way of recording what went on for us to look back on. But, I also like to think that there are others who are interested in knowing what we are doing. Someone asked me what a blog was and why we had one. I said it is like a diary; one that you want people to read. So, please let us know you are out there and have seen the blog. Make a comment.

Brad spent the whole day sanding, while Colin worked on storm windows and Michael primed the moldings. You may wonder if it isn't too cold to prime (it was -9 celsius today). I wonder, too. I think I will volunteer to paint the pieces so that they can come inside with me and be warm by the woodstove. Michael will wish that he could paint them - inside!

Drywalling and Storms - 18 January 2012

Windows, not weather, those are the kind of storms we have today. Brad and Michael continued working on the drywalling and Colin is installing glass into the storm windows. The stairwell is all drywalled and the main floor has been begun.

Drywalling - 17 January 2012

The guys were drywalling the stairwell today and its a hard spot to take photos of, so no photos. While Brad and Michael focussed on the stairwell, Colin cut glass for the storm windows and the main doors. There is lots and lots of glass to be cut, but it looks good.

Drywalling - 16 January 2012

Drywalling continued today with Brad and Colin making all kinds of progress on the second floor and even moving towards the main floor. Its a bit of slow going around the dormer windows, with lots of smaller pieces to be cut to fit all the angles, but they have done an excellent job, as you can see.

It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine, but also quite cold (-10 and with the windchill, it felt like -20). Of course, the guys are out of the wind, but I can't imagine how they can manage to stay relatively warm with only a few lights to warm up the room in which they are working. Hard work makes a big difference, I guess, because they said they were pretty comfortable. We stayed inside near the wood stove!

Main Doors & Drywalling - 13 January 2012

In the past 24 hours our weather has gone from blizzard and below zero to fog, rain and 10 above zero. Regardless, the work has continued in the Firehouse. Michael was away today, so Colin and Brad finished off a bit of drywalling upstairs and then worked on the main doors. In the one photo you can see three of the four door halves, while in the other photo you can see the fourth.

Not bad for Friday the 13th - no bad luck, as far as we know.

Drywall - 12 January 2012

More drywalling today and thank goodness that progress was not held up by the homeowners, who had forgotten to make clear their desire for insulation in the inner walls of the bathroom and bedroom, before all of the insulation had been returned to the supplier. All you homeowners out there, consider this a tip for being a good consumer. If you forget to tell your craftsman something, try not to make their life difficult when you do tell them.

So, while Colin, Brad and Michael continued with the drywalling, Will and I went off to Castle - Nova Scotia Building Supplies, to get more insulation. Later today we came back and started installing it. While we took care of that, the guys were able to finish off the bathroom, the bedroom and large parts of the collection room on the second floor.

Drywall - 11 January 2011

Well, of course the walls are dry! There are walls and a roof and everything is well made. No, just kidding. Brad and Michael started drywalling today. Colin was away, but even with two guys they made good progress. They were able to complete the ceiling of the bedroom, almost all of the bathroom, even though it had lots of places that had to be cut out and its a smaller room. The small room just makes the job finicky. Notice that the bathroom drywall is green. Its water resistant drywall - so dry, drywall, I guess. What will they think of next!

And lest you think that wierd red thing is some kind of exercise equipment, it is really a crogometer (or so Michael has named it), also known as a tool for helping support the drywall in order to save the backs of wonderful heritage carpenters who do not need to be worn out before their time.

Main Doors - 10 January 2012

I had meetings most of the day, so I didn't get to see much of the Firehouse or the team. Not that it matters, really, the guys just keep right on working and they don't need me to get in their way. The main doors are looking better and better (I wouldn't have thought it possible, but its true). They are also getting ready to do the drywalling.

Molding - 9 January 2012

First, I'd like to show you the bathroom vent (how exciting, eh?) that was installed last week. Thank goodness Brad had his camera with him when they were up on the roof installing this. I would certainly never have gotten up there to take this photo, so you are only seeing it because Brad was there.

Today, work continued on the main doors and on producing the moldings that will be used throughout the interior. You can see on the main doors that the interior panels are beginning to be filled in and all the detail pieces added. While Brad was working on these on the main floor of the Firehouse, Colin and Michael were working upstairs on cutting and sanding molding. Look closely at their photos. That isn't a gray picture, that is all the dust in the air from the saw and sander. Thank goodness for masks and eye protection.