Friday, 29 June 2012
Week 5: Building a floor under your feet
That's the way to wake up. Finally finishing Linden McIntyre's book Why Men Lie, a novel written in the person of a female narrator who is not telling the 'truth' all the time, then to wrap up a column for the Gazette, then to bottle 10 gallons of beer before getting back to the house and working on those floors. Such a satisfying feeling to get so close to an end-product. Always the suspicion that maybe I did something wrong in there and it will persist as the image of my amateur skill-level but I don't think so. This I can manage. Everything is square and simpole. Still it's great to learn to be better, to feel my strength and flexibility improving as I crawl around and heave bits of wood into place... Artists must feel like this as they struggle to make sense of their media. If I could be a painter I would be sloshing it on the canvass. The best I can do is get these 2 by 6 floors...
Monday, 25 June 2012
25 June and creeping on
Just took a couple of days off to watch Euro soccer with 2 billion other people. Amazing how good-natured the English and Italians were: of course, they are all international super-stars playing for the same teams.
The electricity in the houses is done and we now have a front door we can lock. It only took me an hour of fishing to attach two bolts to connect two parts. Going through a list of jobs preparing the way for laying the floor which I will attempt by myself! Amazing how after this house-building experience I can really enjoy 2 hours wandering around Central construction store in Antigonish. Getting used to the tools and the materials... I actually know what a lot of the tools do for you! I can see why handymen find tools so exciting. I would love a Makita finishing nailer...
A lovely Antigonish weekend with Anna and Frances enjoying the cars, the people, the shops, a visit to Bayfield and Rosemary's family houses... It is fun to be away from people, but I have to admit I am a city person. And it's very sad that David and Rosemary have to stay in Princeton to deal with health issues.
A watercolour by Anna Syparek, Rosa's Apples, seen at the Lyghtesome Gallery, is éblouissant. I can't think of an English word that works so well. Anna Syparek is on a par with Alice Reed, both superb water-colorists.
Then back to the Cape and into the house to work on insulating the windows and doors, installing the sump pump, setting up tables, moving wood around, experimenting with floor patterns.
I find a little electrical fault in our wiring and Peter Speak's beautiful light is shining in Cape Breton. It will hopefully shine over many happy and satisfying dinners.
Now to work on Donagh's ship lights.
This is as good as a spa: losing weight, eating great food, stretching, lifting... All my pants fit me. I have to remind myself that I have a faulty heart. Who says?
The electricity in the houses is done and we now have a front door we can lock. It only took me an hour of fishing to attach two bolts to connect two parts. Going through a list of jobs preparing the way for laying the floor which I will attempt by myself! Amazing how after this house-building experience I can really enjoy 2 hours wandering around Central construction store in Antigonish. Getting used to the tools and the materials... I actually know what a lot of the tools do for you! I can see why handymen find tools so exciting. I would love a Makita finishing nailer...
A lovely Antigonish weekend with Anna and Frances enjoying the cars, the people, the shops, a visit to Bayfield and Rosemary's family houses... It is fun to be away from people, but I have to admit I am a city person. And it's very sad that David and Rosemary have to stay in Princeton to deal with health issues.
A watercolour by Anna Syparek, Rosa's Apples, seen at the Lyghtesome Gallery, is éblouissant. I can't think of an English word that works so well. Anna Syparek is on a par with Alice Reed, both superb water-colorists.
Then back to the Cape and into the house to work on insulating the windows and doors, installing the sump pump, setting up tables, moving wood around, experimenting with floor patterns.
I find a little electrical fault in our wiring and Peter Speak's beautiful light is shining in Cape Breton. It will hopefully shine over many happy and satisfying dinners.
Now to work on Donagh's ship lights.
This is as good as a spa: losing weight, eating great food, stretching, lifting... All my pants fit me. I have to remind myself that I have a faulty heart. Who says?
Thursday, 21 June 2012
20 June, sun and GianMajor Inc on his way back home
Well, I would've written something about this amazing last week but I have been working hard since Gianfranco Petrilli arrived in the rejuvenated Subaru Forester (he replaced the burnt-out engine in the winter) with the 44 metres of tech-3 wire to connect the two boxes from the garage and to the house. We wanted to get as much of the electricity done while he was with us.
He also brought with him his professional meat slicer with which he proceeded to spoil us producing plates of thinly cut prosciutto, ham and cheese in a week of gournet eating... Deborah really excelled herself, starting his visit with lobster and ending with scallops and haddock...
Pity he didn't have time to fish up a few trout himself.
The day after he arrived Deborah and I rushed off to get more supplies in Port Hawkesbury while the Master Builder and Gianfranco precisely cut a trench between the garage and the house into which, after much heaving and ruthless twisting, Gianfranco managed to persuade the tech-3 wire to go from box to box. Finally turning this piece of heavy wire into the main panel was quite a feat, involving great strength and determination.
It should also be pointed out that the electrician who sold Gianfranco the cable added 4 metres to our order and thank goodness he did: we would have been very tight, maybe even short without the extra... Sometimes things just go your way.
So on his first day Gianfranco got the cable to go from box to box and for the next four days he ran wires, designed the box lay-out and thought his way into the water issue. After four days filling the box with breakers, on Tuesday we installed the three patio doors and the round window and suddenly the space was sealed from roof to crawl space...
Now the job of finishing it all, the floor, the walls, the siding and the plumbing. That's enough, isn't it?
Gianfranco left at dawn on Wednesday, drove 16 hours right through, arriving at 8.30pm Montreal time. Where does he get his strength from?
He also brought with him his professional meat slicer with which he proceeded to spoil us producing plates of thinly cut prosciutto, ham and cheese in a week of gournet eating... Deborah really excelled herself, starting his visit with lobster and ending with scallops and haddock...
Pity he didn't have time to fish up a few trout himself.
The day after he arrived Deborah and I rushed off to get more supplies in Port Hawkesbury while the Master Builder and Gianfranco precisely cut a trench between the garage and the house into which, after much heaving and ruthless twisting, Gianfranco managed to persuade the tech-3 wire to go from box to box. Finally turning this piece of heavy wire into the main panel was quite a feat, involving great strength and determination.
It should also be pointed out that the electrician who sold Gianfranco the cable added 4 metres to our order and thank goodness he did: we would have been very tight, maybe even short without the extra... Sometimes things just go your way.
So on his first day Gianfranco got the cable to go from box to box and for the next four days he ran wires, designed the box lay-out and thought his way into the water issue. After four days filling the box with breakers, on Tuesday we installed the three patio doors and the round window and suddenly the space was sealed from roof to crawl space...
Now the job of finishing it all, the floor, the walls, the siding and the plumbing. That's enough, isn't it?
Gianfranco left at dawn on Wednesday, drove 16 hours right through, arriving at 8.30pm Montreal time. Where does he get his strength from?
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
June 13 2012 The adventure continues
So I am learning how to wire a house. Not that I'm to be trusted and not that I do anything technical but I can drill holes and pull wire and I'm useful when the MB is in the crawl space and needs someone on floor one to pull something.
Electrification will be a major event: the house will come alive with the possibilities of living there. Gianfranco Petrilli is on his way from Montreal with 40 metres of cable to make the connection and we are fiddling with outlets and swtiches. We will soon be listening to Pat Metheny on the Bose docking station, played at full volume...
The day begins well, with work at 8am for an hour and a half, then off to St Peter's to get the muffler pipe on our car welded back into a sleeve. George's garage is pure fiction: it would cost a fortune to build a stage set like this. Please don't change, George, at least until I'm dead. This is like a Bogart movie. And the actors to match.
Then off to Tim Hortons for coffee and raisin bran muffins, to Blair Landry's hardware for new piping and a conversation in French with an habitant of L'Ardoise. We scoff a little at the English who call this town 'Lordways'instead of L'Ardoise...My first French speaker from this Acadian community and we're being critical of the maudit anglais.
So proceeding with drilling and pulling wire, wrestling with wire. We want to be ready for Gianfranco when he arrives. His ideas might be very useful.
Electrification will be a major event: the house will come alive with the possibilities of living there. Gianfranco Petrilli is on his way from Montreal with 40 metres of cable to make the connection and we are fiddling with outlets and swtiches. We will soon be listening to Pat Metheny on the Bose docking station, played at full volume...
The day begins well, with work at 8am for an hour and a half, then off to St Peter's to get the muffler pipe on our car welded back into a sleeve. George's garage is pure fiction: it would cost a fortune to build a stage set like this. Please don't change, George, at least until I'm dead. This is like a Bogart movie. And the actors to match.
Then off to Tim Hortons for coffee and raisin bran muffins, to Blair Landry's hardware for new piping and a conversation in French with an habitant of L'Ardoise. We scoff a little at the English who call this town 'Lordways'instead of L'Ardoise...My first French speaker from this Acadian community and we're being critical of the maudit anglais.
So proceeding with drilling and pulling wire, wrestling with wire. We want to be ready for Gianfranco when he arrives. His ideas might be very useful.
Saturday, 9 June 2012
2012 Blog: the real story on June 9
A good day goes something like this:
first sun streams in through the 6 am window and you don't have to leap up and start a fire before circulation returns to acceptable levels. No problem getting up because I've been in bed 10 hours trying to recover from the fatigue of 8-hour days. And the book I'm reading (Anne Enright, The Gathering) is Irish, brilliant and bitter. Can only be taken in small doses...
Second, you are able to sit at the computer and compose a really cool column for next week's West Island Gazette about doing door-to-door and meeting a world-class Italian tenor who is also fund-raising for the Lakeshore Hospital.
Third, the Master Builder, who will again be referred to in 2012 as the MB, is in a great mood and you can chat with him about our electrical requirements knowing a bit more about the process, then he plunges into a 6-hour stint of drilling, pulling wires, stapling, scratching his head as he tries to read the labels he left on all the other wires, and I am able get him a couple of tools before I vacuum the chalet for 4 hours so that we can see what we're doing.
Fourth, you get a garbage bucket full of dry firewood back to Cabin 2 which you don't need because it's too warm, and you still have the energy to wander over to Cabin 3 (Janet and Wayne) to nibble some of Janet's cheese and make up another 5-gallons of beer, Pilsner this time. It's so easy to make these new kits... Pity it takes a month before you are shamelessly swilling it with family and friends.
Fifth, you eat a great meal of barbecued chicken and okra cooked in a delicious sauce.
That's a good day, and there are variations almost as good. A day in Sydney in the rain buying toilets and gathering electrical wisdom from an old lineman who's back working in Home Depot because he couldn't stand being with his wife all day long. She was probably delighted too when he went back to work!
And by the end of a four-day week, the chalet is nearly wired. The wiring should be essentially finished by the time Gianfranco gets here next week.
first sun streams in through the 6 am window and you don't have to leap up and start a fire before circulation returns to acceptable levels. No problem getting up because I've been in bed 10 hours trying to recover from the fatigue of 8-hour days. And the book I'm reading (Anne Enright, The Gathering) is Irish, brilliant and bitter. Can only be taken in small doses...
Second, you are able to sit at the computer and compose a really cool column for next week's West Island Gazette about doing door-to-door and meeting a world-class Italian tenor who is also fund-raising for the Lakeshore Hospital.
Third, the Master Builder, who will again be referred to in 2012 as the MB, is in a great mood and you can chat with him about our electrical requirements knowing a bit more about the process, then he plunges into a 6-hour stint of drilling, pulling wires, stapling, scratching his head as he tries to read the labels he left on all the other wires, and I am able get him a couple of tools before I vacuum the chalet for 4 hours so that we can see what we're doing.
Fourth, you get a garbage bucket full of dry firewood back to Cabin 2 which you don't need because it's too warm, and you still have the energy to wander over to Cabin 3 (Janet and Wayne) to nibble some of Janet's cheese and make up another 5-gallons of beer, Pilsner this time. It's so easy to make these new kits... Pity it takes a month before you are shamelessly swilling it with family and friends.
Fifth, you eat a great meal of barbecued chicken and okra cooked in a delicious sauce.
That's a good day, and there are variations almost as good. A day in Sydney in the rain buying toilets and gathering electrical wisdom from an old lineman who's back working in Home Depot because he couldn't stand being with his wife all day long. She was probably delighted too when he went back to work!
And by the end of a four-day week, the chalet is nearly wired. The wiring should be essentially finished by the time Gianfranco gets here next week.
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