Merry Christmas from the Michener Manse

The Michener spread as seen from Rumney Rd., Dec. 14

Until well into November,  home was a 12 ft x 60 ft trailer with space heater heat. Needless to say, this situation was a perfect setup for freezing to death when/if the temperature took a plunge, so the heat was put on, more figuratively, to get builders/suppliers motivated to finish up. The sticking point?  A kitchen sink. You can't legally occupy your own house without a kitchen sink and an operating toilet, and if they catch you, the result is $200 a day in fines. Jim, our kitchen guy, finally came through with the counter for the kitchen and plumber Dave installed the sink. Re the toilet, our Johnny on the Spot had been long retired as only the brave or desperate now would chance freezing onto the toilet seat. House facilities, if a hike, were already installed/working and a lot more comfortable.

Finally - finally! toward the end of November we undertook the final backbreaking move from trailer to house -- this time w/o any help whatsoever and slugging it out until 1 a.m. the night before they came to pick up the trailer. It was move #5 in 2 years for long suffering Bob and Pat, who did their pack mule act getting the usual astonishing accumulation of Michener stuff out of the trailer before Armstrong Trailers came along to drag it away across our front field.

Bob & our super builder/general contractor Peter Wanless
in the Michener kitchen.

When the first persian rug went down, the transformation from disorganized mess to home began. Just in itme --- huge storms descended on Georgian Bay, dumping more than 20" of snow and turning the barren November trees and fields into a landscape of amazing beauty. Last weekend, our family assembled at the farm with Greg, our middle child, here from Brazil (though without our lovely daughter-in-law Carolina, still hard at  work in construction management in Rio de Janeiro), Julia, our baby, and Carl and Julie and our wonderful grandchildren Willow and Jean Jacques.

It was a time of celebration, satisfaction and exhaustion, as we contemplated all we'd done and wondered... how did we ever do it?
To all the friends and relatives who visit this blog, a very Merry Christmas ! & super 2011. Come back again... our story is not quite over yet!

On a walk with Bruiser and visiting from Brazil, Greg enjoys his first Canadian winter in 4 years.

Snow fun moving

On Friday November 5, having chosen a day featuring undoubtedly the worst weather so far of the month, the Micheners moved into their renovated new/old farmhouse. A mixture of rain and snow, aptly described by my brother as "sneet" was falling as we waited for Armstrong movers, who had picked up the contents of a locker in Toronto and pine furniture from an office at Eglinton and Laird before setting out for the wilds of Vasey. Though cold, wet and miserable,  everyone had the good sense not to complain and so Bob, Pat, son Carl and daughter Julia , Pat's bro Paul and couple of friends moved cartons that had sat in storage in the new garage since August into the house where -- days later --they are still sitting unopened.

Why? Because no sooner was the mammoth move over then we were onto move #5, getting our stuff out of the trailer so the rental company can tow it away. Are we ready to leave?  Not really. The house is only half done. So far,  the kitchen guy hasn't come through with the drawers/cabinets, the electrician hasn't connected the dishwasher, the vanities are not installed, etc. etc. but....

In the spirit of all veteran campers, we've moved in -- in our standard slow, disorganized, bumbly Michener fashion, we've made it into the new house and are now installed luxuriously in our king sized bed the only oasis in a thoroughly messy master bedroom. It's moving on the instalment plan, since we are still cooking, computing and emailing from the trailer. However, this schizophrenic phase is rapidly drawing to a close  on Friday when the trailer will be towed back to Barrie home base.

Because the weather has been so bright and beautiful, landscaping is underway. The gianormous rock that cropped up when the geothermal system was dug has found a zen-like garden location in the triangle formed by the breezeway connecting garage and house. Friend Steve Ogden, who came around with a variety of earth moving equipment, also miraculously turned the ugly mound of our septic mountain into what looks like a planned and pleasant hill featuring a circular walkway.

Even though all is a mess and the house, cleaned from top to bottom prior to the move, is once more thoroughly dusty and dirty, our house building experience looks to be just about over. Now it seems like an early Christmas as we open boxes to discover items barely remembered from the time we stowed them away, way back in early July.

The neck and neck race to beat winter

 It's close to the end of October, and with the help of a couple space heaters loaned by helpful neighbours, we are still in our not-so-cosy trailer. A light dusting of that white crap fell a night ago. It was an unpleasant reminder that soon we could be moving our possessions into our new/old house in the teeth of a roaring winter gale, which, in these parts you really have to see to believe just how bad that could be.

Part of the holdup is our kitchen guy, whose mother is very sick. This is an excuse for being two weeks late on delivery that only a jerk would dispute, and so we wait. But that is not to say nothing is happening, in fact, by all but the kitchen guy there is now a mad rush on to get finished, and get paid!

Check out the action for tomorrow, Monday. Plumber Dave will be here installing toilets, a work crew is coming in to finish up the stairs & balcony, install door hardware etc., the electricians are putting in the last potlites and fixtures, the painters will be doing the finishing touches, to deal with the filthy fingerprints, grout and stains left on the walls by guys who should know better, and friend Steve is arriving with his dozer to adjust the earth around the house and spread topsoil.

Another reason Steve is here is that our driveway recently claimed another victim. The poor sod that was delivering the flooring for our kitchen decided to back in and in the process fell into the gaping maw of the ditch along the south side, barely avoiding overturning and racking up a $400 towing fee. Steve will fill in the man-eating potholes and fix the ditch.

Despite its many deficiencies, of which the lack of a kitchen is only one, the house is just about finished! It's beautiful and full of light and space. Maybe it's tempting fate, but who cares. We've set November 4 for move-in date -- ready or not -- a phrase that also describes not just the house, but us.

Painted into a corner

As I probably said (just checked & yes, I am repeating myself), there is a fairly inflexible

sequence to the way houses are built and renovated. Before floors and trim can go on, the place must be painted. We are now at the painting stage and it's definitely crazy-making -- not necessarily for us, but for our painter.

Back in April, I told our general contractor that we would be painting everything in a Benny Moore colour called marble white. That is no longer the case - we have gone wild with colour. Bedrooms are blue and green, the pantry is flaming red, one bathroom is a bright gold, and we are driving our painter, Ingrid Hartsink, crazy.

Bruiser takes a stroll on our new deck.

The idea of having a nice neutral background throughout was very sensible. But then I became a Benjamin Moore colour book addict. With all those choices, suddenly off-white became, well, boring! It's totally necessary in the main room, where a jumble of highly colourful paintings, persian rugs and furnishings will all have to lump along together. But those colours and their seductive names, like Greenmount Silk and Summer Harvest, did me in and now for anyone who visits it, our farmhouse is likely to deliver the visual equivalent of electroshock.      

While the painter is hard at work, our construction crew has taken off after installing doors and locks. It's not like they haven't got lots to do -- the deck must be finished off and it sure would be nice to use steps instead of a concrete block, e.g. -- but other jobs urgently need to be done before freeze up. It takes a very rainy day indeed to get them back here and working inside, instead of running around the county pouring concrete and doing framing. Next week, however, they are all ours -- our contractor is going fishing and wants them doing something simple like putting in our flooring, while he's away. 

Not a bowling alley - the deck across the back of the house.

Meantime, almost every day we conduct a tour for friends, neighbours and occasionally even perfect strangers who drop by and want to see the manse. Should start to charge! And, as the weather gets cold, the heat is on to get into the house. Note to self: phone kitchen guy and tile guy and do some creative nagging! My squeaky wheel routine is about to get underway.

Work speeds up when there's a chill in the air

There's an appreciable nip in the air these September mornings. It's invigorated our hardworking team of young guys. Although the crew managed to keep up the pace even in the sweaty depths of a steamy August afternoon, now they've doubled it with the cooler weather and the end of the job in sight. Yes, our old garage covered in ancient insulbrick has been rejuvenated with the last of the siding. The construction team has now turned their attention to one of the final chores, completing the decks. This is  a new Trex product, Accents, that is wrapped in polychloride vinyl, not my favourite material but seeing as it will prevent problems like mold and staining etc. and involve NO WORK to maintain, we will manage to overlook this small environmental crime.

When the crew goes, I will miss them, their cheerful can-do attitude, real applied concentration on the job, friendly smiling faces and colorful language. In fact it is from them I have learned the amazing versatility of the work F**K, which, it seems, can be used, not just as an exclamation but a verb, adjective, noun, adverb, a gerund... you get the idea!

This coming Monday the painter starts work on the inside, following the departure of the drywallers and the mudders who filled in the cracks. Or, I should say, "mudder" since it was mostly one solitary older man with a moustache covered in finishing compound dust who put in 12 hour days working from daybreak until after dark with the aid of a work light.

I'm in awe of the work ethic of most of the tradepeople who worked on our project., starting usually at 7.15 and knocking off at 4 or later with only the shortest of breaks for coffee and lunch. The attitude was summed up by our lonely drywall finisher, who said, "when work comes along, it's take it or lose it." Like most, he was going on to another job on a tight deadline.

The final stages of outside work included a major mess made of our lawn by trenching for the new hydro line. I'm now re-planting all the peonies that had to be uprooted or else get squished by machines or heavy work boots, but the grass is a project for next spring. Local stone mason Pat Secord has done a fine job of the surround for our wood stove. In order to get this stove put in, however, even though our wood stove installer is certified, and the stove is certified, I had to get yet another "permit", which should roughly translate to "tax grab" in any language.

So... once the painting is done, the floors will go in, then trim and doors are installed, and, provided our kitchen guy comes through, who knows?  We might be into the house and out of our trailer by the end of September (and pigs might fly.)

Top photo: The Michener ranch in almost finished form. 
Second pix: Bob shows friend Mike O'Kane the progress since his last visit.
Bottom, the guys working away on the deck.  

One month later....

Why so long between posts, people have asked?

Well, until now progress was sort of incremental. But today this reno is storming ahead, so let me explain that building is sequential and nothing can happen until each individual step has been completed. For example, once the roof was on and framing completed, framing and plumbing inspection could take place. The furnace went in - a geothermal unit despite huge price tag and mess it created when field was dug up for piping. Ducting was installed. Then insulation could start - Dr. Foam arrived in a big truck for this job -- and soon, drywall will arrive.

The night before the plumbing inspection, one of the Sonitrol security system installers drilled a hole in a pipe by mistake and water pressure fell to zero. After a wild scramble, the hole was successfully repaired and next day the inspector gave it his stamp of approval.

Outside, siding action is slowly moving around to the front of the house, a bit of a problem spot it seems. Our contractor thought our "green" siding would clash with the blue roof but looks OK to me -- maybe I'M colourblind but the predominant colour appears to be beige. Did I mention that this is a new product, Naturetech see ? Underneath is another new product DELTA-DRY , which keeps rain/wind out while allowing the siding to dry & inside of the house to breath out excess moisture.

Amazing! The stuff you can order online! Our kitchen fan is being fedexed from Burnaby, B.C., internet marble vanity tops have been spec'd and will be delivered in 2 weeks. Whatever steps we can take to keep out of stores so as to stay in the sun at the dock, we will take!

Roof and windows, walls & doors

Great! We now have a front and a back door, and windows! A procession of trucks has been lumbering up our well-rutted farmhouse road and the most recent delivery, our Elite brand windows, have now been muscled into place by the Wanless Construction crew. This was a completely smooth operation, except for some cliffhanger moments when hefty double windows were handed up to a single second storey worker weighing considerably less that the windows he was hauling in.

Meanwhile, our dedicated puzzle solvers Randy and Louis of Mac Roofing continue to piece together the jigsaw of our multi-angled steel roof. Underneath the roof is not the usual flimsy tar paper but an underlayment called DELTA-TEK, an ultra tough membrane that repels water but still allows the new wood of the roof to dry and breathe. Randy has found he likes this new product from Cosella-Dorken and says he'll use it again.

By now, Bob and I have smartened up to the fact that if you don't tell tradespeople exactly what you want, good chance you won't get it. So hours have been spent poring over plans and plainly marking/noting each and every outlet, switch and light fixture, appliance and suchlike to be installed, an exercise that left me totally limp and drained from decision-making overload.

In fact, there still are a great many decisions left to make, the biggest one being the furnace, which will impose a major wallop in the wallet if we go geothermal. I will add that this decision should have been finalized long ago (but was not mine to make.) Intense heat has settled on the countryside and desperation has finally driven a few workers to splashdown in our pond. That's where I'd like to be -- if I didn't have to drive to town and choose a toilet and light fixtures. As I occasionally say, next time around I will come back as the family dog... so I have time to stop and smell the flowers.