The biggest Christmas present...

Two Fridays ago, I arrived home from a work retreat to find my crazy parents had been slaving away on their knees for many hours grouting our newly stained and sealed floor (I say "crazy" with a lot of gratitude and amazement at their energy). I quickly donned my grubby clothes and got to work - we finished that night!

We were scheduled to move in that Sunday afternoon, but the weatherman (I have several other names for him that I won't use publicly) was forecasting the storm of the century... of course. We haven't had this much snow in December in many years! We couldn't switch to Saturday because it was the only time Dave & I could get into a prenatal class before our birth due date, and lord knows we need all the help we can get in the "soon-to-be-first-time-parents" department.

Once again, my parents surprised us and moved a large load of furniture while we were tied up and helped us load up our vehicles so that we were ready to go early Sunday morning. With the help of our friends Charles and Phil, we finished moving in mid-afternoon on Sunday. And, yes, it was storming...*a lot* by that point, but we finished ahead of the dangerous part and everyone made it home safely on the snowy roads.



This week has been as hectic as ever with the usual Christmas preparations still to do - only I did them WEEKS later than I normally would have each evening after work. Note to friends: our Christmas cards will come in the form of...hmmm...well, they may not come at all, even in the the new year. Now we have to finish unpacking, preparing for baby, and making the transition to take a year off from my university gig. Dave and I have always agreed that we enjoy a challenge...good think we're both on the same page here...

Above, a glimpse of our newly arranged dining room. Still some finishing touches to do, but this gives you a view of our finished floor.



An image of our fireside seating area in the same room. Miraculously, between unpacking many, many boxes (and there are still many to go) I managed to decorate the Christmas tree after my Dad and the tree finished WWIII (hmmm... my Dad and tree stands have never gotten along well... it brought back many childhood memories of me trying to watch the classic Rudolph and Grinch cartoons amidst flying fir needles).

The artwork above the mantle and on the next wall are Bruce Stonehouse originals...couldn't resist the plug for Dad Stonehouse...

We still have much to do in preparing our other rooms for the long term, so look for more of the story to be posted in photos later this week as I work my way through each room over my holiday week (while Dave works away at the newspaper).



A Carol Taylor angel snuggled into our living room nicho seemed like an appropriate bookend for a Christmas eve blog post. Happy Holidays all!

A test: the acid stain

After moving the three pets with us out to our little cottage last Sunday to enable us to finish the floors, the week brought more snow than we've seen in a long time. More snow meant we had to move back in the straw house b.c our cottage in the country would leave us in peril of not getting to work (at least not safely, or perhaps not at all). It snowed off and on all week, messing up our floor staining schedule drastically, but this week, we'll finally get things wrapped up.



Above is a pic of the acid stain test patch we mopped on with a sponge mop. I like the colour and it's a lot less messy than spraying it on with a garden sprayer.



This is the StainAstar product we're using to colour the concrete to look like tile. It runs about $65/gal which covers 400 sq ft. We'll apply a concrete sealer after we stain it, then grout the cracks. The grout is the most expensive part.



This is a test patch we did using the garden sprayer. A lot more liquid was required to cover the surface, making the overall colour much darker. Having liquid sit on the surface was bad for our wood work and plaster - it soaked right through the painter's tape and stained both surfaces.



A little view of the beauty brought by the multiple snow storms around our house.



Believe it or not, I wouldn't give up a view like this for anything. When I lived in the American South (yes, it must be cap'd), I desperately missed winter of this kind.



Here's a sneak pic of the antique wall sconces my Dad installed in our master bedroom in the little nichos we carved in the wall.

A brief update in pics before we move in...

The soon-to-be new babe's room (10 weeks to go!). None of the main floor is finished yet.



Dave working the phone in the living/dining area with lots of junk piled 'round.



A partial, poorly photographed take of the kitchen. (Who has time for tripods and good composition when you're desperate to move in??)



One of our new fan fixtures installed in the loft.



The master bedroom with some wall scones still to be installed.



The west end of the loft (where we're currently sleeping). Possibly a spare bedroom or home office...or both. The debate is still on.



The east end of the loft to become our movie/reading room.



The dormer area in the loft and top of the stairs.



Dave hard at work scrubbing the concrete floors in preparation for the acid staining. Most our free time will be spent cleaning and taping off the walls and woodwork in preparation for acid staining...

Christmas is coming early

I have had butterflies of excitement in anticipation of finishing the house and moving in. HUGE milestone reached this week: the last spot of mud was covered in lime plaster and the finishing touches (blending seams of plasters and touching up small spots along trim work etc.) have been mostly completed. Thanks to Charles and Phil for sticking it out with us and doing some gorgeous finish work. My trowelling and surfacing abilities are much inferior to theirs!

Charles has also been assisting us by sanding and oiling the loft floor and stairs. We are using tung oil on the floors as opposed to a varnish. It seems healthier and easy to maintain.

I had hoped we would be ready to acid stain the floors tomorrow, but there is *so* much clean up work to do! Plastering is indeed dirty work, and a year of mud and lime dirt requires a lot of vacuuming, sanding, scrubbing, sweeping....scraping....scrubbing..you get the picture.

We will likely move in with a bit of finish work left to do like filling nail holes, varnishing trims etc., but I can do a lot of that over the Christmas holidays. How different life will be not living in a construction zone....

Visions of a clean, settled home are dancing in my head...

(photos to come soon).

Pumpkins and our porch floor

It's Halloween night here and we await the little gobblins of the neighbourhood. Being our first Halloween in the 'hood, we're not sure what to expect. Without subdivision masses nearby, we may have a few hundred mini candy bars and such not to feast on for the next few months!

Monday, the crew from Lafarge arrived and began preparing the base for our porch floor and main entry door step. We decided to go with stamped concrete so that it would have natural cobblestone or slate look, but without the uneven ground that stone usually offers. It's close to the same price as installing a deck, only we won't have to replace it in 10 years or less and we won't have much maintenance.

On Tuesday morning after our first snowfall, the crew poured the concrete and trowelled it smooth as you can see here above. They ran into a brief snag when the snow began running off the roof like rainwater as it melted and splashing back onto the wet concrete. Fortunately, I had some extra plastic they could use to create a barrier.




Then they applied a powder they call a "release agent" which enables them to apply a stamped pattern without pulling the concrete apart. It also colours the crevices of the concrete to give it depth.



Here's one of the stamp pads they used yesterday.




Here's a glimpse of the pattern on the porch floor before they seal it.



A wide angle view of the porch floor before it is sealed or landscaped.



And a view of the front entry before sealing and landscaping. I'm thrilled it's done before Spring! It will make the house feel so much more finished.

This week we'll be applying flashing over the exposed rigid pink insulation that wraps around our foundation. We hope to finish spraying the drywall with plaster.

And, Charles and Phil are back in town, so we're hoping to make a big dent in plaster the straw walls. The countdown in on... Can we move in before the end of November??

Ah, at last. A night at home. Work has been incredibly intense for a couple of months now, sucking up all free time, but we're beginning to get back at it. Fortunately, I also seem to be moving into a "nesting" phase with more energy than I'd had earlier in my pregnancy.

We've had two friends - Charles and Phil - working on interior plaster work for more than a month, though they've both been away for the past two weeks. We decided that we couldn't handle this alone and they have been a great boost. They finished the earth plaster first and have been working on lime plaster in recent times. At top and to the right, you can see their work in the east gable end. It's amazing to me how the house has brightened up with the lime plaster. I love it. In contrast, here you can see the west gable end with the earth plaster still.

Dave and I, with my Dad and Mom in the lead, have been focussed on applying plaster to all of the interior drywall to give it a textured effect that blends it in with the style of the house more. We're more than half-way complete. Two more days of work (and most of it spent on covering wood beams, ceilings and floors to protect them from plaster drips and spray) and we'll have all of the drywall complete. Here are a few photos of the plaster before it was completely dry.

I'll share more once we've finished next week.

Here's a photo of the kitchen entry door that Charles plastered. We've put in a decorative arch to provide an interesting niche for a piece of art.


The great news of the week is that we found a company to install our porch patio on the north side and a small stamped concrete doorstep on the east side by the arch door. The better news is that they believe they'll be able to install it this week since the weather is so warm, as opposed to next Spring! A few pics of the outside.





Next up: sand and oil the loft floor, and acid stain the main floor!

Hampton EnviroFair

I know, I know...I've been totally delinquent in posting updates! I will *soon* post some new photos and details. In the mean time, I'm putting together a presentation for the Hampton EnviroFair on our straw bale building experience. It's happening this Saturday, October 13th at Hampton High School. Check out the Town of Hampton website for details on presentation times and other activities at the fair: http://www.townofhampton.ca/content/17684.

Other activities at the EnviroFair:
􀂾 LIVING OFF THE GRID
􀂾 SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY IN NB
􀂾 BAKING WITH SOLAR OVENS
􀂾 BIODIESEL CONVERSION