This and That

A few bits and pieces...2014 grape crop, more house renos, a quilter visits and the making of a scarecrow!

The racoons are loving us this year! It has been a good crop! We have 2 grape arbours, one over the back deck and one over the secret garden room, both have had a good but sour crop this year. We are still using last years harvest which was made into grape jelly.

They have been here a long time!

House renos continue and thanks to the good weather Peter is making progress re-shingling the worst of the shingles, the south facing back wall. He uncovered a bit of a surprise...birch bark flashing! 

And lots more wide boards and handmade square nails.

After a Google search, yes, Google does know everything, I found it is quite common in houses as old as ours. Creative builders?

I was so delighted to hear from Kay Phillips awhile ago, she and her husband were coming to NS and would have time for a visit. Peter and Gerry went golfing and I gathered together a couple of quilt friends and we had a lovely but too short afternoon talking quilts! Kay shared a couple of her latest quilts, can't wait for her to come back next year!

Now we are getting ready for the Mahone Bay Scarecrow Festival which starts on Friday. Well over 150 scarecrows will appear all over town. If there is one thing this town does well, it is having festivals thanks to a huge crew of great volunteers. More information and the schedule of events can be found here. Our Mahone Bay Quilters Guild bi-annual quilt show and sale happens this weekend too with set-up starting tomorrow.

Please come!!

After moving here last fall, we were determined to have our own scarecrow this year. We get quite a lot of traffic by our house both cars and foot traffic so we just had to have a scarecrow who would advertise our quilt show. Here is her transformation...

This is how she arrived,stuffed with plastic bags and dressed in crimpoline! She is ready for any weather! Thanks to PJ's in Oathill, I had told them she was going to be a quilter and this is what I got! Gray hair and all!

Auditioning outfits!

Thanks to Ben we are getting there! The quilt top was pieced by Peter, a good 35 years ago! Come back to see the final version tomorrow!

More Renovations

First layer of carpet is rolled up, second layer ready to go!

We are gradually making headway with the house renovations. It is a big job but we are making progress. Next on our list after Peter replaced 22 windows was to tackle the floor in our bedroom, get rid of the old carpet and paint the floor.

Second layer rolled, old linoleum revealed.

The carpet was not wall to wall, it was meant to be but it was too small so it was just there! We knew that there was a second layer of carpet underneath, smaller than the first. We moved all the furniture out and proceeded to roll up the two layers of carpet. Our incentive was "spring clean-up" day when we could put anything out at the curb for pick up!

Several layers of printed oil cloth

Closeup of the oil cloth exposing the burlap backing

When we started to roll up the second layer of carpet we realized there was a layer of linoleum. It was quite brittle, no idea how long it had been there. As we started to roll we soon saw more layers underneath. We realized they were a printed oil cloth, at least three different patterns. It was stuck together in several places!

Some of it was "imperfect"!

Not as much variety in the width of the floorboards as there is downstairs.

A few treasures found, a 1964 stamp - the year my family moved to Nova Scotia from Toronto!

It was great to get it all up and out of the house, much healthier for sure! The floorboards in the middle had never been painted so Peter did one coat of primer then 3 coats of paint. We decided to keep it light and airy and I think it worked!

All done!

For now the walls will stay blue, goes well with my "Herringbone Blues" quilt. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted by Donna Hazelton (Digby), she did a super job. The walls will eventually be repainted. They were wallpaper at one time and were painted over, as were a number of walls in the house. That is going to be quite the job to strip the painted wallpaper, a job for another day!

Moving Right Along

L-R: 3 of the 7 doors - Basement door, hall and into the den. And now there are 2!

We tried to save the trim but it was just too solidly built, cut from at least a 2" thick piece of wood, they don't make trim like that anymore. Thankfully the other doors still have the same trim.

L-R: the Pantry cupboard used to be back stairs going up to the "Maid's room". The stairs are gone but apparently the hatch in the floor in the bedroom is still there. The window will be half the size and the stove moves to the right so there will be a range hood over it.

Some of the old charming wallpaper - 1940's maybe?

This seems to be the bottom layer of wallpaper, I peeled it off, it is very brittle. I have no idea how old it is.

Another sample of old paper, perhaps 60's, that wonderful avocado green and orange that my Mom was so fond of! The plaster is full of horsehair! I must look that up on Google!

So, the kitchen renovations are moving right along after one day they have made great progress. The last of the old flooring is gone, the old cupboards and tile are gone. We have moved everyting out, spread through the diningroom and livingroom. We'll be 2 weeks without the stove but I have my slow cooker, electric frying pan and the bbq - and the Pub is in walking distance!

We have a good schedule, we have till the 20th to do all the repairs, get the walls ready, the new window in then the floor gets sanded and varnished starting on the 20th. The new cabinets (fingers crossed) will be installed on the 26th. 

Once the cupboards were gone we discovered several layers of old wallpaper and wide planks on the walls plus some of that lovely 60's "wood" panelling. I forgot to take a picture of that, I wonder why? Maybe I should for posterity! 

We have been thrilled so far with the guys who are doing the work. Wonderful to live in a small community where you can call the plumber and he is here in 10 minutes! Same with the electrician and the building supply store is 5 minutes away. 

There are more pictures in my Flickr Photostream here.