Dormers done

At last the dormers have been painted. We had had some qualms about doing them ourselves as the roof pitch is so steep. However, at a Vancouver Heritage Foundation fundraiser that included a silent auction, we scored the winning bid on an offer of two professional painters for 8 hours and at a very reasonable price.

They came, they painted...

... and another task was completed.

G1S

If you've ever bought a sheet of plywood, you'll know that G1S stands for Good One Side, ie. a board with one finished side and the other left rough. That's the house right now, with the east side finished and the other sides almost all at the primer stage. We make progress daily, though slower during the last couple of rainy days. Still, the good side is a great encouragement to spur on the task of getting the whole house to look that way.Only a couple of months ago it looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

We have restored the original window openings which became visible as soon as the stucco was removed. The replacements are double-hung windows which look similar to the originals, but are double-glazed. They also have that wonderful modern mechanism that allows you to tilt them inwards for cleaning the outside of the panes. We don't really need this on the lower set, but it's going to be very handy for the upper ones.

Even as I write, Michael is putting primer on the back of the house. The west side is already primed and as soon as the rain goes away, supposedly tomorrow, we will start on the first coat of red for it. The west wall is the longest, with only two windows in it. It's also the most difficult to use a ladder on because of the proximity of the house next door. At least it doesn't have as many downpipes to work around.

Only the front porch ceiling and house wall below it now remain to be scraped and sanded, as you can see in the photo.

Pretty as...

Thanks to a spell of warm dry weather, we've made good progress on painting Grand Cottage. The east side has its final coat already and there is just the trim to do. We're very pleased with the way it looks.

Here's one proud homeowner admiring his handiwork.

Although the colour looks quite bright red in full sunshine, it darkens to more of a burgundy in the evenings and on cloudy days. We had initially considered going for a deeper colour, but on seeing several houses in that particular shade, we realised that it turned to purple or brown when the sun was not directly on it.
Bearing in mind how many cloudy days Vancouver has, we chose a more vivid red. We like it, and, to judge by their comments, so do the passers-by.

In the photo below you can see a section of the back wall, still unfinished.

Another couple of days and we will have the trim on this side painted in ivory and black, which will give it more detail.

Looking Good

Although it is only the primer, it's amazing how spiffy the house looks with a first coat of paint.

Replacing the trim around the bay window helps, too.

We are beginning to see the results of the last two months' hard work.

In the Garden

The buttercups were starting to run rabid over everything. All my time was going towards the house, so I hired a young man to clear at last some of them out before they went to seed. From the path, you can't see much difference,

but from the back there's a better view of the cleared ground.

The tall plant in the middle is one of many Italian parsleys going to seed. I've pulled most of its companions, but want to leave one to ensure a new crop next year. In the background is our new composter, already being put to good use.

Progress Outside

With a return of more clement weather, we're working like demons on the exterior walls - so much so that I haven't had time to update this blog for several weeks. Michael power-washed the whole house some time ago, but we still have to scrape and sand every board by hand before putting on the primer. The primer goes on as thick and sticky as molasses, which is hard on the wrists and shoulders, but it does hide a lot of imperfections and we are encouraged by how much easier the top coats will be with this as a base.







This is by no means the final colour, but it is amazing how good it makes the house look.

As I scraped along the front, I came across a set of initials neatly carved into one of the boards. The builder perhaps? We don't know, but will at some point try to find out.

Close to Completion

At least on this single, small room. With the floor finished...

...we cleared all the rubbish out of the shower stall and made it usable.

Harvey, our plumber, installed the new low-flush toilet, and a sink on top of the old pine desk we acquired to use as a vanity. It's great to have a plumber  who doesn't think you are quite mad. Harvey just raises an eyebrow at  our plans and then says "We'll make it work." And he does.

Eventually, we'll find  suitable mirror for the wall behind, although the height of the wall means that only I will be able to use it. Michael is too tall.

Michael re-installed the baseboards and I painted the walls. There's that middle drawer on the vanity to shorten (because of the pipes behind) and insert, and some more trim to finish, but it actually feels like a proper bathroom now.