Heat

It's that time of year again, where thoughts turn to heat.  This is Canada, after all, where -20C isn't a curiosity but a reality.  Although we're reveling in beautiful weather these days, the advent of colder days is inevitable.

Eric just started a three-week vacation, and one of his main goals during that time is to cut and split a trailer's worth of logs, some of them over 20' in length.  The going rate for a cord of split hardwood in our area is anywhere from $75 to $95 delivered.  We're paying about half of that, and Eric gets his exercise as an added bonus.  We heat primarily with wood, and we can easily go through 4 cords of wood per season, which lasts from about October to May.

Our wood stove is an EPA2 certified slow combustion stove.  Our model is the Esprit, made in Austria by Austroflamm for Rika.  Curiously, we bought this at a local wood stove dealer.  It was the only one they had in stock, and so different from the more traditional Vermont Castings-style wood stoves common on the market-place, that we were immediately sold on it.  It has a much more modern look, and is SOLID.  Seriously, this is one well-made wood stove.  We call him Wilfred.  I'm in love with Wilfie.  Wilfie is my BFF.

We built the wall behind Wilfie out of copper, when copper prices were still reasonable.  I'm sure if we were to price up a similar project today, we'd be in Yea Olde Poore Hause.  Our home insurance required we built a fire-proof wall with an air barrier behind it because of space constraints.  Copper was the one product we found that was not only esthetic, but easy to install and light.  Eric designed rails that are mounted vertically onto the bare wall, onto which he hung specially designed clips that holds each interlocking panel into place.  Everything was cut and bent at a local coppersmiths, all we needed to do was supply our idea, some cursory drawings, and give exact dimensions.  Eric and I installed everything in a quick afternoon.  Child's play.  And our insurance agent was over the moon.  Nothing dissipates heat like copper.

At some point in time, we're going to have to break down and polish the copper wall.  I kind of like the patina it's developed over the years, but the fingerprints from people going, "ooooohhhh, is that copper?" as they smudge their greasy digits on the metal drove Eric nuts for many years.  I kind of find it funny - it's like people mark their territory without meaning to.  And it's a house, after all, things are going to get pinged, dented, smudged, scratched and tarnished.  Or maybe Eric has an unhealthy obsession with the copper wall - I don't know -  but I do know he ordered special polishing pads for our new Fein Multitool specifically to clean it.  I plan on popping a batch of popcorn and sitting back and watching as Eric polishes the copper wall.  I will revel in every last second of watching Eric clean.  That was part of the deal when we installed it - ain't no way I was going to add "polishing of copper wall" to the already long list of menial home chores.

We don't count on our wood stove to heat the entire house, though.  When we rebuilt the upstairs, we decided we wouldn't skimp on heating.  We had had enough of paint cans freezing because it was so cold upstairs.  Eric slept with a tuque on for the first few years (no, I'm not kidding!), and used a feather mattress TOPPER as a duvet.  I'm a bit happier, because I enjoy sleeping in a freezing room, but still, there's the problem of my pillow freezing to the outside walls when it gets to -20C.  There's got to be a happy medium.

Years ago, at a home show, we fell in love with Calorigen's Flex radiant heaters when we were looking at solutions for upstairs heating.  Radiant heat is different from the heat of regular electric baseboards that most people have in Quebec.  Radiant heat warms the objects in a room, and not the air, so it's not nearly as drying as regular baseboards.  While doing the renovations upstairs, we wired everything in to accommodate Calorigen's heaters, and when we were ready to make the purchase, we came up empty.  Calorigen was nowhere to be found.  We called around - I mean - the company was there one month - and next month - poof! they were gone.  Eric dug a bit deeper, and found a distributor that was liquidating Calorigen's stock.  Cash 'n carry - at a substantial rebate.  They even threw in extra temperature control probes for good measure, so we're good for the next 40 years, give or take.  Calorigen is still in production, but they moved their manufacturing facility, hence the fire sale.  Sometimes, taking time to make a purchase pays off.

Since I'm the chief cleaning-woman in our house, I appreciate the fact I don't need to dust the tops of the baseboards upstairs.  They always collect so much dog and cat hair, which is not the case with the Calorigens.  Regular baseboards also make this somewhat annoying tick-tick-tick sound as they heat-up.  It's not prohibitive, but it is a bit annoying.  The Calorigens don't do that - they're totally quiet. The are also slim and unobtrusive, unlike standard baseboards.  They're also not the same price, in case you're wondering.  They're way, way, way more expensive.

One day, we'll get around to making the window frames.  Eric's in charge of that.  For now, you'll have to be satisfied with the vapour barrier and a Glad garbage bag curtain that is happily out of sight in the photo.  Our house probably looks like a grow-op from the outside with curtains as natty as that.

In case you need reminding, this is the blight we had in this room before:

Oh how precious!  This was taken after I took the baseboard heater off the wall and marveled at the dust, dirt, sawdust and general lack of craftsmanship that ruled upstairs.  I never did figure out what those brown streaks on the heater were; it must have been baked-on Varathane.  I sure hope so, because no amount of scouring made them disappear.  I should have tried acetone in retrospect.  When I finally cut the wire to that baseboard, I didn't even bring it downstairs.  I threw it right out the window, into a snow bank.  It landed with a satisfying thud.  Hasta la vista, baby!

So, with our renovations completed upstairs (give or take a bit of trim), R44 insulation tucked into every nook and cranny, Wilfie going full-bore downstairs, you think we need nice radiant heaters upstairs?  We barely need to turn them on.  I guess we did a better job insulating than we anticipated.

August 33

I refuse to acknowledge the month of September.  There might be school buses on the roads again; the days are getting markedly shorter, but I'm keeping August going in my head as long as I can keep up the conversion.  That would make today August 33. 

Honestly, I have no clue where the summer went.  It's the same thing every year, summer just blows by, and before you know it, there's frost on the ground.  But it was scorching hot again today which is why I can fake August easily.  We measured 30C in the shade, and it was so humid the slightest effort caused me to break out into a sweat.

And what, pray tell, were we up to today?  Thinking about heat, that's what:

Our trailer of firewood was delivered today.  We've got about 6 cords on here, give or take.  Eric puts the forks on the tractor and off-loads everything in one happy pile:

 

Over the next few weeks, Eric's going to haul out the chainsaw and cut everything into 16" logs.  That's the maximum size our wood-stove can take.  He splits the wood when he feels like it.  During the winter, when the mood strikes him, he'll grab his favorite Gränsfors axe and have a swinging session.  This stresses me out to no end.  My parents lived in Sweden before moving to Canada, and the woodpile beside the front door represents not only a comfort, but a necessity.  I want everything chopped and stacked, and I want it done yesterday, but I'm willing to compromise.  Eric likes the exercise, and it gets him out of the house in the middle of winter.  Me?  I'd rather be beside a hot wood stove with a cat on my lap, a good book within reach, and some knitting by my side, knowing I've got 6 cords split and stacked.  C'est la vie!

 

With it being August 33rd and all, it's hot in the kitchen.  I'm busy canning, making another batch of my golden bread and butter pickles.  This time, I bought a 10 pound box of seconds.  The thought is much less daunting.

Since the last batch was such a success, I'm putting these in the fridge overnight.  I should be able to get about 18- 500mL (one pint) jars out of the crate.

Speaking of heat, Robin at Farm Folly blogged about her candied jalapeños.  I was in the mood to try something new, and these sounded so delightful I had to try them.  Off I went to the grocery store again, for some more canning jars and of course, the requisite jalapeños.

Three pounds of jalapeños is a lot of jalapeños:

  

Proceeding with caution, I actually used rubber gloves to clean and slice the jalapeños.  My hands are so raw from all the slicing and weeding and window washing I've done lately, that I didn't want to risk the burn.  It's hot enough as it is.  I even managed to restrain myself and not gnaw on the seeds.  Last time I made habañero pepper jelly, I was a bit too curious, and bit down on one lonely seed.  I felt like taking a paring knife to my tongue to ease the pain, it was so hot.  I had tears streaming down my face, and even though these jalapeños don't have as much bite, why risk it?

I had a one 250 mL (1/2 pint) jar of syrup left from canning the jalapeños which I processed in the hot water bath.  The remaining syrup is in the fridge, and I'll probably brush it on some BBQ pork tenderloin or chicken.  The taste is simply sublime.  I had a few teaspoons' worth, and it is fabulous.  If those candied jalapeños are only half as good, we're in for a treat.

Little Dude has to be segregated on the other side of the kitchen while BobCat eats.  I've got 3 cats, each on their own diet, and meal-times are a bit of a logistical nightmare.  To top things off, Schatzie is on antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and just trying to give her a pill, let alone do it 14 times this week, is challenging.  Tesla's digestive system was a bit upset also, which is why I don't want him hoovering in BobCat's food dish.  I'll save you the sordid details of how many times I cleaned his messes off the kitchen floor the day of tropical strom Irene last weekend.  I had my own tropical storm Tesla inside the house.  The poor kitty had NO control.  If diapers for cats existed, Tesla would have been wearing them that day.  He's now on a boiled chicken and rice diet, and he's getting better and friskier every day.  He's a very cute little guy with good manners, the kind of cat who rises on his back paws when you go to pet him.  All he wants is affection.  He slept with me last night, and woke me by licking my fingers.  It didn't thrill me that it was 3:30 AM, but what the heck.  He's really gentle too, and knows enough not to use his claws when he plays.  Slowly, they're growing back in again, as well as his whiskers.  The wound on his jaw has healed remarkably well, and when the hair grows back, he'll be good as new.  We'll give him a few weeks of recuperation and then we'll have him neutered.


Tomorrow, I have more canning on the agenda.  Some crab apple jelly, maybe some mango chutney, and a few more batches of bread and butter pickles.   I'll keep you posted of our collective misadventures.

...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.

More Before and After Photos

Obviously, the photos in the post below tell but part of the tale when Eric gutted the downstairs in 2001.

What you don't see is the magnitude of bad.  Can we all say "condemned", boys and girls?

Nothing says "Home Sweet Home" like crime-scene carpeting!  The inside division that held the door to the room above had separated from the floor, and when the door was shut, the entire wall swung to-and-fro.  The above room was used as a bedroom and didn't even have a window.  That's too claustrophobic for me to entertain, so I'll move right along.

And do you think someone would have the fortitude of mind to put down the toilet seat before taking this photo?  The floor here was so rotted after Eric tore out the tub and toilet (which I actually Comet-ized before putting out to the road, and yes, someone picked it up), Eric ended up replacing a good part of the floorboards in the blue room in the "after" photo below.

Here's a photo of the repair-in-progress:

Essentially, the tub and toilet were located in the furthest corner of the "after" photo below, which also happens to be the northwest corner of the house.  I can only imagine how cold that old cast-iron bathtub was in the dead of winter.

Here's a view once the pink bead-board (shown in my earlier post) was torn down.  Eric rebuilt all of the outside walls using 2"x3" studs, insulated using fibreglass pink insulation and used polyethylene sheeting as a vapour barrier.  The main structure of the house is comprised of 3"x12" Eastern Hemlock beams that are joined by tongue-and-grooves horizontally.  The inside of the house was clad in vertical boards, many of which had rotted over the years, hence the repairs above. Note the old newspapers, which date from January 1899, most probably used to cut the wind.   Since our house dates from the 1850's, and the newspapers from nearly 50 years later, they were probably glued to the walls during one of the many renovation attempts over the past 160-odd years.

I state the obvious when I say the above is the "after" photo!  Even with plywood floors (which have their benefit, more on that later), the downstairs living room is comfortable and inviting.  The "blue room" is the stereo room.  We don't have a TV, but we do enjoy music, so this is where we spend a lot of time.  The french door leads to the utility room, where we keep our washer and dryer, and where the hot water tank is located.  There is another french door mirroring this one on the opposite end of the sofa which leads to the bathroom.

You can also see the ceiling a bit better in the above photo.  Eric added every second ceiling joist.  Walking upstairs was so spongy, previous owners were scared to put any furniture up there.  Given the fact the upstairs was virtually uninhabitable 4 months of the year because of the fierce cold, they were on to something, and from a structural stand-point, they were rightfully cautious.  The house was far from being up to code, and structurally unsound to boot.  The ceiling joists are 2.5" x 7", and in doubling them up, the finished structure now has them spaced every 20" instead of 40".  Eric added sound attenuation batting (Roxul Safe'n'Sound) between the joists, and finished everything up with 5/8" fire-code drywall, but not before sanding and varnishing each and every one of the joists to a shine you can see yourself in.  Eric has a way with varnish.  Friends joke he can work as a piano varnisher if his day job doesn't work out!

As for my plywood floors: well, with renovations still underway upstairs, we'd rather deal with plywood downstairs than finished floors.  It's relatively easy maintenance, save for the odd pet accident (Schatzie, I'm lookin' at you, girlfriend!), yet even the most offending stains can be readily sanded out.  It's washable, scrubbable and affords me the option of keeping my cleaning standards enviably low.  As long as everything is organized, I can deal with the dust buffalo, as I affectionately call the wafts of dog and cat hair that abound...

Before and After Photos

I haven't shown any before and after photos of our renovations downstairs because all the photos before the tear-down were lost in a hard-drive crash way back in 2001.  That was the year Eric took possession of the farm.

Imagine his surprise when he went to the bank recently, and the account manager pulled out a file of photos the building inspector took in times of yore.

Lookit what we found!

Before:

...drum roll, please:

And after!

I am giving you the Reader's Digest sanitized version of the renovations.  What I have neglected to show is tearing down all the bead-board, rebuilding the exterior wall and re-insulating, rewiring, replacing rotten floorboards, tearing down the drywall on the ceiling, adding every second ceiling joist for structural support, replacing the windows and and and...ad nauseum.

I'll be scanning in our photo album later which contains sordid photos of how the above came to transpire.

All 8,734 steps of the way...give or take a few details.

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 Update

Things are chugging along upstairs. We are busy rebuilding the final outside wall and are slowly edging towards the last corner.

We have a D-Day of May 14th; this is the day the auditor will be coming in to do the air-tightness tests. Based on the results, we will receive a rebate under the federal ecoENERGY initiative. The cheque better be greater than the audit cost in the first place, which I think was around $180. But let's face it: we're not doing this for the ecoENERGY rebate, we're doing this for the long-term comfort of our house, our heating bills, and the quality of our life. The audit was just a bench-mark and proved that the air loss in our house was akin to leaving a door open 24/7, heating the great outdoors.

The facade of the house features a Widow's Peak that was added in the early 1900's. By adding this little feature, the look of the house changed dramatically from a typical French-Canadian farmhouse with the front porch running the length of the house, to a steep-roofed Victorian Gothic Revival-style. Unfortunately, in making these changes, major structural work was also done, not necessarily to the benefit of the house's main structure. It is due to this work that the facade of the house has bulged out by probably 4" or so.

Here's a view of the window directly above the front door:

Last weekend I removed most of the remaining interior pine paneling; I started to remove some of the old pine boards in behind, but wanted to go slow and steady as opposed to taking the Rambo approach and destroy everything in my sight. With warmer temperatures, things are getting easier because I simply pitch everything I tear down out of the window, and cut everything to wood-stove size outside with our trusty Dewalt circular saw. This invariably keeps the interior of the house much cleaner and easier to navigate around. It's enough to have to deal with piles of wood for the rebuilding, having to step over piles of broken wood full of nails becomes prohibitive and dangerous. The floor is sometimes very slippery; with a layer of sawdust, it nearly becomes a skating rink.

So Eric was pretty crafty with the repair of the mega-rot. These boards are joined with halved lap joints and joined with screws and washers. The 2 metal stays in the above photo are screwed into the joists with 6-1/4" Spax screws. This wall is going nowhere. In fact, with periodically re-torquing of the stays, Eric managed to bring the wall back by a 1/4":

It's not sophisticated, but there's the proof. We started at 2-1/2" and are now at 2-1/4". Slowly, we are bringing the wall back in. It's like architectural orthodontics.

I thought I'd seen enough sawdust to last me a lifetime when we cleaned out the attic, but apparently there is no rest for the wicked. I must be very, very bad because but when I removed these boards, the sawdust was so tightly packed it didn't even fall out from between the studs. I just banged it out with my hammer, scooped it up with a dustpan and threw it right into the garbage. This quantity of sawdust in the vacuum would have warranted an immediate emptying of the canister. Sometimes, the manual method is the fastest.

This last lovely photo shows a detail of the knotty pine, which if you are observant, you will already have noticed the 2x4 used as a shim to add the illusion of a straight ceiling. Nice try is all I can say. Under the knotty pine, we have the added bonus of a vapour barrier, moldy Gyproc, and tar paper. Hopefully by the end of April I will have taken down most of these layers. Removing the pine is simple, generally I just tug at one end and can rip the entire length of panelling down in one fell swoop, but the Gyproc is a different matter. Not only is it dusty, dirty, moldy, heavy, joined by rusty nails every few inches that need to be pulled out, it's back breaking because I have to work on a ladder or step-ladder. I will have a perma-kink in my neck by the time this job is done.

Eric is off the first week of May; hopefully during this week he will have managed to accomplish most of the work. I can just visualize us putting up the vapour barrier in the wee hours of the morning before the audit.

May 14th will be here before we blink - wish us luck is all I can add.

Mega Rot

That could be the name for a heavy metal band (and maybe it is already!), but Mega Rot is what Eric found when he opened the knee wall on the south side of the house. Happy Birthday Eric!

What a lovely surprise! The tar paper you see through the hole is actually the tar paper that is behind the siding of the house if you are standing outside. Basically, what I am saying is, if I wanted to put my fist through the wall of the house, this is the place I could do it without any effort.

Eric has to fix this before moving on...

From the hammer in this photo, you can get an idea of the scale of the hole. Eric cleaned everything, and using our small circular saw, straightened out the ragged edges in preparation for the rebuilding. I am not sure exactly how Eric is going to repair this, in fact, I am not even sure Eric knows how he is going to repair this, but I will be sure to let you know with a blow-by-blow account.

On the bright side, spring is right around the corner, the days are getting longer, and the geese are overhead and in the fields, enjoying last years' corn. The Robins and Red-winged Black birds are back, but the swallows' return is still several weeks away. It might have been my imagination, but one field had a tinge of green today.

The fields are still too wet for walking, but I did a little foray with Cooper to test things out. By the time we got back, the dog was ready to be hosed down, he was that wet and muddy! I think we will have to wait another week or so before resuming our regular walks. And on a totally different note:

The Howarnator is so funny. Sometimes, he likes to sleep with all of his paws and tail tucked in beneath him. Our blobbular cat, sleeping happily on his sheepskin, dreaming of squirrels and birds. Howie looks like he needs a diet, stat, but he's all fur. In fact, he is the most unmotivated cat when it comes to food; all the others run to my side when I go in the kitchen, waiting in anticipation, but The Nator just sits on the back ledge of the couch and looks at the desperation of BobCat and Schatzie and Baby Grey with disdain. Those poor souls, he must think. No, The Nator comes into the kitchen, sits below the drawer that holds the cat nip, and meows his little demand. The meow comes out sounding like this: Ack mack. That's the cat nip call. He's my little junkie, what more can I say?