Kitchen Floor

There has been a slight change in plan regarding the kitchen floor. I decided to use a pre-finished blond birch. This way, the floor won't have to be sanded and refinished among everything in the kitchen which would also mean the appliances would have had to be removed from the kitchen to let the floor set up for more than a week. This way, when it's down, it's done. The flooring arrives at the house this afternoon but has to be stacked in the kitchen for about 2 weeks before it can be laid, to allow it to acclimatize to the house to reduce the chances of buckling or shrinking after it is installed. So, the kitchen cabinet installation is on hold again until the floor is put down but 2 weeks will slip by quickly and Mom will then have a real kitchen. 

Below is the ad for the flooring I ordered. I got it from Kent Building Supplies in Montague. I like the variations in colour, and the lightness should add to the brightness of the kitchen. This flooring will run through the Butler's Pantry to the Dining Room. The Dining Room will get the original hardwood that George installed many decades ago. It is an old tradition to treat the Dining Room individually from other spaces, typically in a more formal way, so the difference will be the floor.

Birthday Gift from Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad are doing a fantastic job getting things painted and organized. Dad has been cutting the grass, and if the weather ever clears up they will assemble the garden shed kit that they bought and it will go down by the old barn foundation. The garage has had it and once the new shed is up, Dad will empty the garage and then we will have it torn down.

Anyway, there are lots of things to do and buy for the house and projects for years to come. As more things are completed, more projects pop up. The stairs to the basement are dark, and when I was on the Island in June, we picked out a light fixture for there, so, I get another birthday gift! I don't need anything for myself, but this is a good way to get some details done on the house. Below is the light fixture for the stairs, called a Moravian Star. Eventually I'll get four more for over the front door, hanging over the stairs to the second floor, in the Butler's Pantry, and in the wine cellar.

They also picked up 2 sets of the track lighting for the kitchen. Simple and effective and will provide task lighting over the cabinets, which are still not installed but I'm hopeful that will happen very soon. These are the track lights. They are black and will coordinate with the black appliances.

Thanks Mom and Dad! It's getting better every day.

On this day in 1938...

below are random pictures of Dad taken over the past 70 or so years 

Sandy sent me this a while back. I think it's the first time Mom was ever at the River. It's in Danny and Winnie's front yard, the summer before they go married, 1964. Nice hat.

 Carl and Dad in Hopefield

 Carl, Dad, Sylvia and Betty

Grammy (Janie), Ola, Betty, Grampy (Arthur), Carl, Dad and Sylvia

Ola, Jim, Carl, Loreen, Dad and Betty in front of the house in Lakeburn New Brunswick

 Dad and Sylvia

Sylvia and Dad

Dad and Peter

Air Cadet

Army Cadet

 Dad and Peter again

 

Dad and Betty

Dad in the Parlour, 2005

 Cutting the grass, 2006

with Jim Burtt, 1998

1985, the last time Grampy was at the house

Dad, Ola, Jim, me and Auburn, 1998

Mom and Dad

Dad's 70th birthday party, with Betty. Loreen and Jim

This was the invitation to Dad's 70th birthday party that I made three years ago

Happy Birthday Dad

Painting in the Back Hall

Lois visited Mom and Dad this afternoon and she took some shots of what they have been working on. Mostly inside work because it has been so wet there. 

The shingles in the Back hall are all painted Print Room Yellow, the colour very close to what this wall was 50 years ago.  The ceiling is finished with the blue tinted colour called Skylight. The other walls are in Hardwick White, an off-white with a slight grey tint.

The trim is in Blackened, the white that has a tint of the colour of lamp oil soot.

 

 

 

 I think the yellow is very sharp! Mom painted the shingles while Dad worked on the ceiling.

And the window sashes of the George Lowe window have been painted in Carriage Green

 

 

 

 

I guess painting up in the skylight openings was a chore but Dad did a great job.

The floor paint arrived too. They painted the softwood floor in the closet under the stairs. The colour is called Down Pipe. It looks more like battleship gray here but it is a smokey gray/ black.

This is the first glimpse of the kitchen cabinet and trim colour, French Gray. This is the pantry door. The cabinets should arrive and be installed hopefully next week and they will paint them right away.

Detail shot of French Gray

The transom window sash has also been painted, Blackened. Ready for the trim to be installed.

The inside of the George Lowe window has been painted French Gray.

This is why we call it the George Lowe window. He signed a window pane presumably when he built the kitchen, sometime soon after moving in I would guess, which was 1907.

 

The rain finally stopped so Mom has started painting the exterior sashes of the new windows. One coat so far.

 

And she put a second coat on the front porch door, so that is done now.

The Mock Orange is in full bloom and according the Lois it smells fantastic. 

Thanks Lois for the pictures. I have been dying to see how the painting is going. And thanks to Mom and Dad for doing such a terrific job with everything.