Kitchen Before and After

Many older French-Canadian farmhouses have a separate little addition to the side of the main house.  We call this the "summer kitchen" because this is the room where workers would have been fed while working the fields, thus avoiding dirtying the entire house with their clothing and footwear.  It could also be closed off during winter months so there was one less room to heat.

We're not quite sure what came first - the proverbial chicken or egg problem - was our kitchen the first part of the house to be built, or was it added on at a later date?  It is reasonable to assume that an entire family could have lived in the kitchen and the upstairs room in days of yore, and then built the larger, main part of the house as things settled.  Remember, we're talking in the vicinity of 1850 here.  Land needed to be cleared and planted, trees needed to be cut and milled.  Rocks were needed for the foundations, probably accumulated as the fields were plowed.  We're reasonably sure there was a wood stove in the kitchen at some point in time, as well as a staircase that went upstairs, so the summer kitchen could have served as a stand-alone building.

Based on the amount of time Eric spent fixing the foundation, he believes the summer kitchen was added on at a later date, possibly as the original homeowners became more prosperous.  It's a feasible theory, certainly.  We know that our house had 2 kitchens, one located in the living room that was gutted, and one in the kitchen we now use.  Previous owners had begun extensive renovations, and the kitchen was the first thing on their agenda.  Had the kitchen not been finished, Eric would have really been tempted to bulldoze the house to the ground and rebuild from scratch, but the first steps had been done...

Here's how the kitchen looked when Eric bought the house:

In retrospect, had I had the opportunity to redo the kitchen, I would have done many things differently.  But some things you choose, and some you don't, and the kitchen falls into the latter category.  The cabinets, floor and all appliances were spanking new, so we played the hand we were dealt.

It's not such a bad hand:

Life could be a lot worse.  I love my kitchen.

(Did I mention I love my kitchen?)

I love the colour of the walls.  Sico's Chinese Lantern, number 4081-61.  That was Eric's doing.  I have the number memorized because I've repeated it to visitors so many times.  I even keep spare paint chips in the drawer below the wall-oven to dole out.  It's going on 8 or 9 years since we painted and I still love it.  In fact, when we have to repaint, we'll probably opt for something along the same lines.  It's nice in the morning when the sun comes up through the picture window I've dubbed my wide-screen TV.  It's a nice contrast in the summer when everything's green outside.  It's nice in the winter when the snow blows, because we need all the warmth and colour we can get at that time of year.  It's nice when we have our candle chandelier over the dining table lit.  I can't say enough nice things about this colour.

One thing that I would love to change is the stainless cook top. Stainless is a pain to keep clean, and those coils?  What's up with those coils?  Maybe I've been spoiled by Ceran cook tops for the past 20 years or so, but really?  When the pot of pasta boils over (and it will...) you're stuck removing the element and drip pan to clean up the mess.  It's just not my idea of practical.  We've priced new cook tops.  What I liked rang up to nearly $3,000. Ouch.  Can't justify that expense.  I always joke the first thing I would do if I won the lottery is rip the cook top out and put it at the street so someone can pick it up.

Since there are windows on three sides of the kitchen and thus ample light, I'd have put in a semi-gloss wood floor, rather than a high-gloss wood floor.  With 3 cats and one dog and muddy paws, every little speck of dirt shows.  Again, if I won the lottery?  Heated tile!  Granite counter tops!  More hanging cupboards! A butcher block island!  A gas cook top!  A bay window with a farm sink centered!  Oh my, my needs are many, aren't they?  Just let a girl dream a bit, dammit!   

Now, for a blast from the past, here's a look at what remained of the "other" kitchen in what is now our living room:

See the plumbing on the left-hand wall?  There was a counter with a sink and shelving here.  I have no clue where the fridge or stove was, and it's not really like it was a planned kitchen anyhow, just something that developed over the years as people introduced electric stoves and fridges and "all of them new-fangled modern thangs" into their lives.  The wood stove was also probably a cook stove at some point in time, but the only wood stove we knew was the one above.  We called him Wilfred. We were afraid Wilfred was going to burn the house down one day, so Wilfred was replaced by a high-efficiency EPA-certified wood stove manufactured in Austria by a company called Rika.  We bought Rika's Esprit model, and we're very happy with it.

Basically, finishing the kitchen was easy.  A bit of molding, some new lights, some paint, and the job was done.  We still need to change out all the windows, but they've still got a bit of life left in them yet.

That wasn't too hard now, was it?

Some "During" Photos

Looking at the "before and after" photos, nostalgia has struck, so I have to throw in a few "during" photos, just to give you a bit of the "OMG-what-the-hell-are-we-doing?" vibe that shows how we got from point A to point B.  I'm even super-sizing the photos, just because I can.

 This is how things looked when Eric gutted the downstairs. 

Here we are early on, during the phase of our lives we've come to know as "The Knotty Pine Purge".  We're not quite out of those woods yet.  No more knotty pine to tear down, but finishing work?  Oh yes!  Lots of finishing work remains to be done.  The house is toasty warm though.  That helps.

See the tar paper?  Well, the siding of our house is right behind it.  And no, the hole wasn't small.

Eric's gone rogue with the reciprocating saw, cleaning up the rotten boards so he can repair them.  What you're looking at is the structure of our house, not just some paneling.

Ah, yes.  One of my many contributions.  Many fond hours spent working in this corner.  Eric was busy rebuilding in one corner, and yours truly was busy in another, tearing down moldy drywall, tar paper, and finding one load-bearing beam that had turned to sawdust. It was a new low for us.

Upstairs after all divisions had been torn down.  Note the furniture we're (regretfully) working around, notice the plumbing that we've tripped over endless times, and the 5 gallon pail that held the nails we'd pulled out of the wood during the renovations.  Said and done, that bucket weighed about 100 pounds by the time it went to the metal recyclers.

Are we ready for the insane asylum yet?  Are the men with "I-love-me" jackets walking up the drive?  If this doesn't strike fear in the most hard-core renovator's heart, I don't know what will.

That we lived like this for months on end is unbelievable to me.  Everything is rebuilt, insulated, and even though the final finishing isn't quite done yet upstairs, it's nice to know we'll never have to deal with dirt, dust and debris the likes of the above again.

More than one person came upstairs during the "purge" and declared we're living something worthy of a reality-TV show.  So, there you have it folks: an intimate, behind-the-scenes look, the stuff they don't show you on TV, Shim Farm-style.

...and I forgot to mention...

That our bedroom below is so flippin' cold at -20C that our pillows FREEZE to the walls.  I could not make something like that up!  Serious frost forms inside the knee walls, and Eric surmises, based on his observations when he installed the Velux window, that our walls are totally under-insulated.  Why should our bedroom be any different than the rest of the upstairs, after all?  There might not even be any insulation in the knee walls, we're not quite sure.  Eric is threatening to tear all the drywall down to the studs and beef up the trusses like he did in the main part of our house upstairs, but first he's promised to finish the other bedrooms upstairs so we're not camping in our own house.

In the spirit of full-disclosure, I also forgot to mention one detail we did wrong when we varnished the floor:  the gap between the boards are about 3/16th" wide, and we used a latex-based silicone caulking to fill them.  If we were to do it again, we'd either not bother to fill the gaps at all, or we'd do it AFTER varnishing.  With time, the varnish has yellowed a bit, and although it's not obvious on the wood, it is more visible on the caulking.  The wood also contracts and expands, so the varnish has cracked over the caulking, and one day, when we're in the mood to refinish the entire floor, we'll probably painstakingly remove it all.

We'll see how we feel after the main part of the house is finished, and knowing Eric, I just know he's going to re-do the drywall and insulation in the master bedroom.  Well, the fact he's already bought the insulation is a dead give-a-way,  but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

May 21st

Like May 14th, May 21st came and went. Winds howling at upwards of 80 km/h threw off the air-tightness test results with such wild variations that the audit was rescheduled for the beginning of June. That means we just bought ourselves a few more days. It also means we can't take the pace we've been working at down a notch.

Eric managed to creatively fix the rotten beam. Here's the before:

Another more detailed photo of the damage prior to cleaning:

Here's the during:

And here's the after:

Pretty crafty, huh? Job well done, Eric. I never cease to be amazed.

Don't worry about the rot on the outside wall - when we get around to changing the siding of the house (not next year, please!), we'll replace the wood. There was no easy way to repair it from the inside of the house, and it won't get much worse. It's probably taken 80 years for it to get that bad anyhow. A year or two more won't make much difference.

I cannot believe how quickly this repair went - we really gave it a go and worked non-stop for 2 days. The audit on the 21st gave us the motivation we needed to get this job done as soon as we could.
Here Eric is using the circular saw to start the pocket that will accommodate the partly-rotten beam. I had removed the rot from the existing beam with a reciprocating saw, and Eric took precise measurements of the new beam (that weighed about 100 pounds and took 3 guys to manoeuvre upstairs, (thanks JL and Frank for letting us abuse you once again). Eric made a template on a 2x6 that he temporarily screwed onto the formerly rotten beam, and then transferred these measurements to the beam above. I think if something would have screwed up here, we both would have had to leave the house for a few days to help repair our mental states.

It's 9:00 at night - Eric has managed to chisel out the pocket. Now all we have to do is lift it in place...screw it on...and call it a night. The extra work of the template proved to be beneficial, because the beam went up without a hitch.

Today we put up the insulation and finally closed the wall. Here's the before:

And after:

Everything is insulated with 2 layers of Roxul rock wool as well, but I have spared you the sordid photos of yet more insulation. You're probably getting the jist of it by now anyhow.

Yet another before:


And another after:

Tomorrow we are going to finish the reflective vapour barrier here and seal everything well, and then tackle the last exterior section in the stair well. We will have to jury-rig a scaffolding of sorts so we can work safely, and then we'll be on the home stretch.

Eric was going to sub the drywall installation out, but the person who will be doing this work will also be doing structural work on our barn, and honestly, the structure of the barn takes priority over the drywall in the house. It'll give me more time to chose paint colours and figure out what we are going to put on the floor, all those lovely interior details that take hours of shopping trips and leg-work. One more trip to Home Depot and this girl might become unhinged!

Today was an unseasonably hot day - about 28C or 84F - but already we felt more comfortable upstairs. As long as the structural aspects are complete, the insulation and vapour barrier up and sealed, we should be a lot more comfortable during summer hot spells than in the last few years. So bring on the warm weather, we're waiting!

May 14th

May 14th came and went. We had been looking forward to this day, you have no clue how much, so when the auditor called to cancel his appointment and reschedule a week later, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...

You see, we are no where near finished. By the 21st, we should have the upstairs air-tight, even if the Gyproc is not finished by then. Frankly, the Gyproc will be but a minor detail compared to the rebuilding we have done up until now.

Here is a brief synopsis of where we're at and what we found:

This was the former guest room, the 2x4 on the ground is where the wall is going...

And a view in the other direction, showing the window that was added above the front door at the turn of the century, completely screwing up the structure of the house.

Slowly, the division is taking place. Studs are up, the wiring follows, and soon we have:

...a new division! Complete with wiring and insulation. The only thing missing is the vapour barrier and the Gyproc.

I completed my tear-down of the wall on the left side of the window above. Lovely surprise behind the pine paneling:

More rot and mildew...worst we have seen yet! Wait, wait...there's MORE!

How's that for discouraging?!? Once everything was cleaned up, we assessed the whole situation:

I went wild with the reciprocating saw, and let's just say we're not exactly looking forward to rebuilding this. Part of the outside wall will have to be replaced when we take down the siding on the house because the rot is just to big to attempt from this side. The rotten wood literally shatters into splinters between my fingers, so working here needed a new set of rules. I call it "finesse", whereupon Eric rolls his eyes and puts on his hearing protectors to cut down the din...of my incessant complaining.

But forge on is what we are doing:





And yet another wall is completed!

And yet another! Can you tell we're just storming along? We finished the vapour barrier in this room also, so now we have matching disco rooms!

(And yes, we are aware the ceiling above the window is a bit crooked...we could have shimmed the living daylights out of it, but we decided it adds "character").

At least that's what we like to call it!

Reno Day 16/17

More photos than anything else to describe the past 2 days:

Behind the pine panelling, more painted cardboard. This is NOT Tentest - it is truly 2 layers of painted cardboard with tar paper behind it. All moldy and mildew-y, quite disgusting in fact.

An exciting view of what's behind - tar paper - and gives you a idea of just how many nails were used to fasten this stuff.

Once the cardboard is removed, we move on to destroying the wooden boards that make up the inside. We had hoped to recuperate this wood, but it is too old and brittle, and splinters like the dickens. The sawdust comes from the attic where it was used as insulation. Time, the great equalizer, has ensured that the sawdust has settled down into the walls and every crack of the drying wood, and when we tear the tar paper down, this is what sails down down on us. Lucky us.
There's a lot of rot in this room. Maybe because it is the North-West corner, that corner of the house most battered by wind, rain and snow? At any rate, it also seems the nails used here were of the industrial kind, because we needed a lot of muscle-power to remove everything.

Here Eric is doing a number on the angled part of the ceiling. The amount of dust is prohibitive. Even with face masks, it becomes a bit overwhelming at times. My new best friend is the Shop Vac, a saving grace if there ever was one. It was also mild outside, the temperature even hovered above zero for a bit, so we were able to open the window and breath some fresh air. A welcome change.

During the destruction, given the prohibitive amount of sawdust and bit and pieces of paper, tar paper, splinters, nails, and what not, I hit the "reset" button and vacuum the entire space. The Sears Craftsman vacuum pictured above is like a member of the family. We can wholly endorse this vacuum as being a reliable work-horse, an item no renovator should be without. I could probably turn the thing on, leave the room, and come back and find everything clean, it is that powerful. It gobbles everything in its path. The only downside - it is VERY loud - hence the hearing protectors hanging on the handle. This should be sold as a set.

Every so often, you find something that makes you go, "Huh?":

And this is one of those things! An old pine branch, stuffed between the walls. Our only guess is a squirrel brought it in to make a nest.

So that's it in a nutshell. Today Eric will start to rebuild the outside wall with 2x6's, and hopefully be able to motivate one large beam into place. There are 3 to put up in this room, so he has his work cut out for himself. I will start to cut the wood we tore down into wood stove-friendly lengths, and act as gofer as the need arises.

Onward we plow!

Reno Day Whatever

So, it is official. I have lost count.

Today is Wednesday, and if I do a bit of mental math, it's probably a cumulation of Reno Report Day 12/13/14/15, or thereabouts.

Eric finished insulating the second section shown above, and now we are at a logjam of sorts. We have several issues to deal with.

Our first issue is what to finish next. Logic dictates it would be the third section, however, this section contains the door to access to the knee-wall. It is through this access door that we need to exit when we finish the insulation of the knee wall, ergo, this section will have to be done last.

The second issue is the problem of the tool room that we have to deal with (hiding behind the wall in photo below).

The only logical thing to do is to start at the opposite end of the wall and work our way back. This is easier said than done, given that the tool room at the opposite end contains each and every single tool we own, (correction: those that aren't lying in the living room), and is therefore chock-full to the proverbial brim.

It would have been nice to leave this temple to the reno Gods untouched for a bit longer, but alas...

The tool room is so hideously jumbled that I keep the door closed at all times, and when guest touring our home point and inquire what is behind "that" door, I change the subject and shuffle everyone along quickly. Our very own little shop of horrors.

Last weekend, I went into the tool room in an attempt to move everything out, but it soon became clear that this would be Eric's job. I don't want to be the keeper of the tools, having to answer to "where'd you put the stapler/drill/toolbox/router/etc." ad nauseum for the next several months. I hung my head and left the tool room dejected. I was ready to start swinging my crowbar and take out the panelling, but I needed to wait for Eric to work his magic.

So Eric was the organizational guru who re-arranged all the tools in every spare nook and cranny of our house. I am surprised I didn't find any in the dishwasher or wall-oven when I came home from work today, because believe me when I say there are now tools everywhere. One detail sadly lacking in many old houses is an attached garage, a basement, and an accessible attic that can hold all these possessions. Hence, the need for the tool room.

But Eric plugged away, and this is how things look today:

Prior to being the tool room, this used to be our bedroom, a detail I am embarrassed to admit. The lamp, soon to be a Piñata, I despise with a passion reserved for very few things in my life. I truly hate this lamp. I am tempted to swing my crowbar at it, however, I will give the lamp a second (or more likely third) incarnation and try to find a home for it. So to whoever is willing and game...come and get it and the two others I have stored already.

When I saw the mold behind the panelling, I suddenly realized why I used to have sinus infections all the time when we slept in this room:

There's a lot of mold in this room lurking behind the panelling. Above we have a Gyproc wall, and on the adjacent wall, we finally have some Tentest:

I say finally, because it's seemingly the only finishing we haven't come across yet.

I said we were going to have a life-time supply of kindling; well, I lied, okay? We burned through the panelling like you have no idea. We have been in an interminable cold-snap that still has us in it's grips (with added snow, to boot!), so we heated the house almost exclusively with the panelling for the past few weeks.

It's now time to cut some more!