Welcome 2011

It's hard to believe Fall came and went with nary a post. Let's start the new year with renewed vigour and resolve to post more of the on-goings at Shim Farm, shall we?

So, in no particular coherent order, let's get on with it!

We had a little brunch for friends in early December, since Eric's work schedule had him working right through the Christmas holidays. Eric had just returned from a trip with a bag of chocolate Saint-Nick's, as well as the rotund candle from one of the many Christmas markets that abound in Europe in November and December. With a fine cup of Glühwein or four, Eric turns into a voracious shopper, despite the fact I can't even ask him to wait in the car for me while I nip into the grocery store on this side of the pond. I'm like a kid in a candy store when Eric comes home and plants his bags on the living room floor, jumping up and down, asking, "Whaddya bring, whaddya bring?" Eric rarely disappoints, and the candle unwittingly became a symbol of the holidays for me this season.

In older news...

One of our kittens, Pepper, now known as Minou, came to visit us for what was supposed to be a "week to ten days" and became a six-week stay. (I'm playing catch-up here, because he was with us in July and August). The first 3 days, he ignored Popina, BobCat and Schatzie, and then suddenly, on day 3, just as I was about to tear my hair out in frustration, the light suddenly went on, and Pepper emerged from his shell. He and Pop would tear around the house like in days of yore, having 2 play fits a day, mid-morning and late evening, as they were wont to do when they were still kittens. Pepper, like Poppy and Piglet (now Tuxedo) are all curious about water:

Pepper has this perpetual "deer in the headlights" look about him. He's a sleek cat, a stark contrast to his fuzzier siblings Tux and Popina:

Tux's about 8 months old in the above photo, and he's large like Pepper, but he has the silky, long-haired coat of his mom. He's the light of his new family's life, and rules his new domain with a furry fist.

Poppy, on the other hand, is a little fluff-ball:

Popina has proved to be a true Northern cat. She loves snow more than anything, and can be found burrowing in snow banks for hours on end. The fuzzy hairs between the pads on her paws accumulate tiny snow balls, so when she finally comes in the house, she can be heard, tippy-tappy, tippy-tappy, crossing the floor until she violently shakes the little ice-balls off. Yet last night, she fought me for the hot water bottle I put in the bed for my perpetually frozen feet, and won. She's a true feline diva.

Aren't they all, though?

Schatzie, our old hag, is pushing 25. Yes, you read that correctly, 25, in human years, at that. She's so old, I keep joking that we're going to carbon date her when she finally keels over. She's getting senile, and maintains her strict 23.5 hour per day sleep schedule. The rest of the time, she's begging for food, missing the litter box, and meowling piteously, for what I don't know. I just let her yowl, she's not in any pain, and her total deafness might have something to do with her loudness, because she can't hear herself, obviously. The deafer she gets, the louder she yowls. The things I do for this cat, you have no clue...

The poor old thing deserves a bit of air time, too, don't you think? Not to worry, I have her fur under control again, because she's the picture of neglect (oh yeah, riiiiight!) in the above photo. I kind of inadvertently felted her by letting her sleep on a real sheepskin fur. The fur-on-fur friction was too much, and despite brushing her regularly, her fur kept matting into uncontrollable clumps. We removed the sheepskin rug, and by cutting out the mats one-by-one, the old hag's finally up to snuff again. She's so old, she's almost given up grooming herself. She'd much rather I tend to her, so she can spend all her spare time recharging her batteries.

Poor Cooper's feeling mighty neglected, too. All these cats, and just one dog...

Gratuitous dog photo, coming right up!

That photo was taken in 2005, but I feel so much better now that it's released from my laptop.

He's such a good boy!

Well, here's to a new year...I'll raise a glass to that!

May 21st

Like May 14th, May 21st came and went. Winds howling at upwards of 80 km/h threw off the air-tightness test results with such wild variations that the audit was rescheduled for the beginning of June. That means we just bought ourselves a few more days. It also means we can't take the pace we've been working at down a notch.

Eric managed to creatively fix the rotten beam. Here's the before:

Another more detailed photo of the damage prior to cleaning:

Here's the during:

And here's the after:

Pretty crafty, huh? Job well done, Eric. I never cease to be amazed.

Don't worry about the rot on the outside wall - when we get around to changing the siding of the house (not next year, please!), we'll replace the wood. There was no easy way to repair it from the inside of the house, and it won't get much worse. It's probably taken 80 years for it to get that bad anyhow. A year or two more won't make much difference.

I cannot believe how quickly this repair went - we really gave it a go and worked non-stop for 2 days. The audit on the 21st gave us the motivation we needed to get this job done as soon as we could.
Here Eric is using the circular saw to start the pocket that will accommodate the partly-rotten beam. I had removed the rot from the existing beam with a reciprocating saw, and Eric took precise measurements of the new beam (that weighed about 100 pounds and took 3 guys to manoeuvre upstairs, (thanks JL and Frank for letting us abuse you once again). Eric made a template on a 2x6 that he temporarily screwed onto the formerly rotten beam, and then transferred these measurements to the beam above. I think if something would have screwed up here, we both would have had to leave the house for a few days to help repair our mental states.

It's 9:00 at night - Eric has managed to chisel out the pocket. Now all we have to do is lift it in place...screw it on...and call it a night. The extra work of the template proved to be beneficial, because the beam went up without a hitch.

Today we put up the insulation and finally closed the wall. Here's the before:

And after:

Everything is insulated with 2 layers of Roxul rock wool as well, but I have spared you the sordid photos of yet more insulation. You're probably getting the jist of it by now anyhow.

Yet another before:


And another after:

Tomorrow we are going to finish the reflective vapour barrier here and seal everything well, and then tackle the last exterior section in the stair well. We will have to jury-rig a scaffolding of sorts so we can work safely, and then we'll be on the home stretch.

Eric was going to sub the drywall installation out, but the person who will be doing this work will also be doing structural work on our barn, and honestly, the structure of the barn takes priority over the drywall in the house. It'll give me more time to chose paint colours and figure out what we are going to put on the floor, all those lovely interior details that take hours of shopping trips and leg-work. One more trip to Home Depot and this girl might become unhinged!

Today was an unseasonably hot day - about 28C or 84F - but already we felt more comfortable upstairs. As long as the structural aspects are complete, the insulation and vapour barrier up and sealed, we should be a lot more comfortable during summer hot spells than in the last few years. So bring on the warm weather, we're waiting!

Easy Steps to Create Your Very Own Moat™

Part I - Summer 2004

So, we're pissed. We've (read: Eric's) nearly finished the downstairs, major renovations and paint and all . Okay, so we're still living with plywood floors, but still, the house isn't condemned anymore. And then we notice The Crack. Not just any crack, but a long fissure in a perfectly renovated wall. And then we notice another, and yet another. Eric and I look at each other and know, in our hearts, what needs to be done: the foundation has to be renovated.

In the general scheme of things, the outside of the house was next on the agenda of The Amazing Renovation after the inside was finished. But The Crack changed all that. No point in labouring long and hard inside, only to have cracks appear in the drywall overnight because the foundation was heaving.

So, one of the first things to remember in renovating and restoring a house to it's former glory is this: the house will tell you what it wants done, all you need to do is listen and react. I know, it sounds so simple.

This is how we came to own our Very Own Moat.

Old houses are obviously built on old foundations. Remarkably, amazingly, these old field-stone foundations have survived persistent cycles of freezing and thawing season after season. You gain new respect for our fore-fathers when you've really seen how old houses were built. The cornerstones are huge and perfectly chosen and placed. How all this was managed before the tractor age remains a testament to the perseverance of our ancestors. Where some people have a hard time hanging a picture straight, these builders were living in abysmal conditions, building in inclement weather, and didn't have a warm bath and fresh clothes at the end of a laborious day.

Eric toiled long and hard at restoring our old field stone foundation to it's former glory, and here's how he did it, moat and all.

A field stone foundation is exactly that: field stone and mortar to hold it all together. Our local field stone is called grès de Potsdam which has a tell-tale pinkish tint to it. On average, the foundation is roughly four to five feet thick, and about five feet high. There is no footing, simply well fitting stones piled one atop the other and held in place with mortar. The sill plate is placed on top of this wall, with a metal barrier under it to prevent rotting. That's it, at least that was it, until Eric came on the scene.

The summer kitchen foundation was renovated about 15 years ago. The old foundation was excavated, a form was placed, the concrete was poured, and voilà, insta-foundation. It's nice in theory, but not so nice in practice and I'll get to the whys later.

The main part of the house was a different story. In our crawl space, the wooden beams (essentially, tree logs complete with their bark as you can see in the photo below, upper left corner) were reinforced with metal I-beams that were supported by metal posts that in turn are supported by concrete footings.

Essentially, what kills old foundations are 1) water, and 2) cold. In preventing water from reaching your foundation, you need a good french drain and water-proofing, and to keep the cold from touching your foundation, you need proper insulation. The insulation needs to be placed on the OUTSIDE of your foundation, not inside your crawlspace, and proper drainage AWAY from your foundation. I'll explain what we did:

The first summer (it took three...), we excavated around two of three sides of the summer kitchen, removed the old french drain that went no where, and placed 2" polystyrene foam on the existing foundation wall with expanding polyurethane foam for a tight fit.

Here are a few handy tips: when foaming, wear rubber gloves. The comment on the foam tin says "foam will wear off with time". Heed the warning. You can clean your tools with lighter fluid, so buy 2 bottles while you're at it. Your foam gun will need to be cleaned profusely. Use the lighter fluid, and those bamboo shish-kebab skewers both you and I know you have rolling around a kitchen drawer that you never use. To prevent your glue gun from blocking while in use, find the longest screw you can find that fits the tube tightly, and guard it with your life. In fact, use a scrap piece of polystyrene foam as a holder you can jam the screw into, and you can thank me later. Olfa box-knives come with several types of blades, so go ahead and buy the LBB blades in the black box. They cost more, but you'll get more life out of them. And if you're like me and jam the blade into your leg by accident, you'll appreciate the clean cut once the scar heals. So will your surgeon. What the heck - go ahead and get your tetanus shot while you're at it, as well.

You'll need a good straight edge, a carpenter's square and levels. We like the Stabila brand, a really nice but not so cheap level. But you get what you pay for, and in this case, you get more.

You'll notice that while the adhesive foam is curing, you need to keep the foam panels on tight. Just gather every pole from every broom, rake and like instruments, and jam away, using a scrap piece of foam to prevent damage. The foam cures within an hour or so, and then they can be removed.

You'll also need to add a french drain around the perimeter. Here's how:

Create a solid, straight base for the drain. In our case, we used sand. The french drain needs to be wrapped in landscape fabric to prevent it from clogging. In the above photo, you can see that the drain leads to a cylinder. Inside this cylinder is a sump-pump that pumps the collected water from the french drain out to the ditch in front of our house. That's how we get rid of our water.

 
On top of this landscape fabric wrapped french drain you need to place gravel to promote good drainage and keep the whole shebang from moving.

In the above photo, the pink foam insulation covers both the foundation and footing, since there was a footing here. The gravel is on top of the french drain, and the sand beside it will make the perfect base for more pink foam insulation. Using this method, you can rest assured that no frost will reach your foundation, and your house will not move. Ours hasn't, since we've insulated and drained it, that is.

On top of this, we placed 4' sheets of foam insulation, and a polyethylene barrier glued on to the foundation with foam wall adhesive. The end result looks something like this:

At this stage, we're finally ready for back-filling. That's the easiest, and most fulfilling part. We'll get to finishing what's above ground later.

Oh. But what about the moat? We'd love to add this wonderful water feature to our own lovely property, you might be thinking. Well...it's simple. Just excavate your foundation and pray hard for torrential rain. That's all there is to it. Enjoy.

(And for the curious among you, the antidote to a moat is simple: you see the pail in the moat photo? Well, it's just an ordinary 5 gallon pail we drilled 325,279 holes into with an 1/8" bit, and submerged. Into said pail we placed a sump pump. Pump away, and all you're left with is mud. And you think I call our property Muddy Acres for nothing, yea of little faith!)

La vieille dame

Welcome to our Threesome!

Hello and bonjour! My name is Ann, my husband is Eric, and we are owned by a house we like to call "la vieille dame", or the old lady. We like to treat her well which is why this blog was created, among other things. We like to think we're quite innovative and creative with regards to looking after her and renovating her, and we'd like to share our experiences with you.

Our interests are varied: I'm into knitting, cooking, baking, my dog and cats, and pretty much everything and anything in and around the house and garden. Can you tell I don't get out much? Oh, I should probably mention Eric in that sentence too, because he's the reason I'm here, n'est-ce pas? My focus varies with the seasons, and this spring I will be trying my hand at carving a vegetable garden out of the landscape. I'm gonna make the 100 Mile Diet the 50 Yard Diet. Top that! Right now it's still wood-stove season, so I tend to hunker down and knit or read.

Eric is into planes, boats, cars, bikes, pretty much anything transportation-related, and of course, home renovation. Eric will try his hand at pretty much anything - and when he wraps his mind around something, watch out!

We are both curious as hell, love to read and research, and basically like to find the best ways of doing some uncommon things, and become pros at stuff we'll probably never get a chance to do again. Did I mention Eric is very, er, particular, about home renovation, which is why the road we're on is very, very long?

Let me show the way!