The work on the house stopped about three weeks ago and the Island has been getting slammed with snow, snow and more snow, but the work will begin again next week. First order of business will be to get the cedar shingles on. Then the exterior will be complete for this phase of the work. The installation of the electrical and mechanical systems are under way, and once that is complete, the house gets insulated and drywalled. After that is reinstalling the old doors and trim, and the kitchen cabinets and new trim in the additions that will replicate the original. If all goes well my contractor will finish this phase of the work by the end of April. I haven't booked my airline tickets yet but I'm thinking of getting back to the Island around June 1 for about 10 days. I am counting the days until I get there. Seeing the pictures that Carter, Mike and Lois send me is wonderful but it will be very exciting to see it for myself after all of these years of dreaming about it, and the past 8 months of deconstruction and construction. It will become clearer what I will need to focus on when I'm there as time goes on, but a priority for me will be painting. The new exterior trim is pre-primed and will need finish paint to preserve it, and the old trim will need to be scraped, primed and painted. For the interior, all walls and ceilings and trim will need to be primed and painted. Some spaces will be finished with color while I have wallpaper planned for others, but the wallpaper will have to wait for future summers. It will be a long but gratifying process to finish it off and I have years worth of summer projects to get started. I've mentioned before that I love hanging wallpaper and I see this as a relaxing vacation project for years to come.
In the mean time, here are some old photos taken at the house.
Grammy and her sister Myrtle
Jim Porter
My 12th birthday, July 28th, 1979
Loreen, Kristen, Tanya and Rachelle with Christopher taking a bath
Tanya, Kristen, Rachelle and Shawn
Walter and Hazel, Edith and Parker, early 1950's
My cat Tiger
Grammy's cat Ginger, who was Tiger's grandmother
Todd, Ola and Jim
The summer after the barn was torn down. Must be about 1980.
Uncle Walter grew award winning roses for many years, and always brought a fresh batch for Grammy when they visited.
My 15th birthday, July 28, 1982
Carter took this in June of 1988
Dad and I celebrated our birthdays together in 1988. His birthday is 8 days before mine. He was 50 and I was 21.
Carter took this as well, 1988
The tracks getting pulled up, 1989. Carter and I went to watch and he took these as well.
This is from when I first started working for Don MacKinnon Architect in Charlottetown, where I met Carter. Jill Manderson worked with us as well, and we went to the house for her birthday, June, 1988.
Dad and I repaired the porch roof in 1998
Another shot that Carter took. I don't remember why we were at the house in winter at night. This was 1988.
Dad and I replaced the west roof summer 1998
Taking a break on a hot afternoon after shingling the roof
Dad, David and I stayed at the house summer 2002
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