Spring is here!

Snow is gone!  Lake is thawed!  Daffodils are blooming!  It's nice to finally see the land in springtime.

It was windy today on the lake.  The bay faces north, so we expect some strong winds funneling down the cove.

We finally got a look at the shoreline... not too bad!  Little pebbles and not too much seaweed.  (Lakeweed?)  I'm eager to get in with my snorkel and mask and see what the bottom is like.

We sorted our comic book treasure.  Nothing of great value, but still fun to go through.

We continued to demolish the back portion of the house.  Parts of the structure are completely rotten - the wood disintegrates if you touch it.

We removed all of the electrical, salvaging most of the wire and boxes.

The plumber is coming next week to teach me how to prime the pump.  Until then, we get water from the well the old fashioned way.

I never thought I'd say this, but we had a book bonfire.  We salvaged what we could, but many of the books were too damp, musty or moldy to be saved.

The kids books were especially difficult to burn, but the consensus was no one wanted to give their kids books that were covered in insulation fibres and mouse poop.

First Dumpster

Beautiful weekend, and nothing but blue sky as we drive to the lake.

As demo continues, we thought a dumpster was in order.  We managed to fill it in one day, with the help of my brother and sister-in-law.

We've discovered that delicious snacks are very important when working all day.  Girl guide cookies are especially critical for morale.  :)

When we bought the place there was a lot of cut brush piled around.  Since this was the last weekend we could burn without a permit we had a fire going all day.

 We took a break to explore some of the previously snow-covered gems on the property, like this cute little stream.

Our well... in need of repair!  We'll have to add a proper concrete topper.

At the end of the day we decided to roast some hotdogs over the hot coals of our brush pile. Om nom nom nom!

Pretty sunset as we drive home.

Attic Treasure

 We demolished two more rooms, and we found some sweet treasures!  It's amazing the amount of stuff these people had hidden away in their attic.

 

Eight tracks!

  Cassettes!

 We found a family of fat cats living in the attic! 

 This kid knew how to have fun: a bag full of lego, a baseball glove, a bottle of Crown Royal.

Dropping items out of the attic until we could barely move.

 My new pillowcase!  :)

 George Carlin!

Creepy dolls.

 I could have sworn this things was staring at me all day.

 Books galore!

 The greatest find of all!  Original, generation 1 Transformers, still in their boxes.  

You think these are worth anything?

 Finally the pile of junk is gone!  Glad the floor didn't collapse any further, with all that weight.  Unfortunately there is still a lot more attic to clear out.   Next time: comic books!

Tracks in the Snow

Outside we often see signs of wildlife in the area.  We've seen lots of deer tracks criss-corssing the property, and walking out on the frozen lake.

These raccoon tracks were found in the side yard.

It's interesting buying a property in the depths of the Canadian winter.  We're not quite sure what it will be like in the summertime, but as the weather warms up we get excited by the potential.  Can't wait for all this snow to be gone!

Demolition

Our current plan is to build a small cottage on the concrete foundation at the back of the house.  Currently on that foundation are two bedrooms and a hallway, for a total of 400sf.  The drywall is mouldy, so we decided to start dismantling the walls and ceiling while we still have a floor to stand on.

The ceiling joists and roof rafters are dry!  Phew!

There appear to be plenty of nice, straight 2x6 - we'll be salvaging as much as we can for use in the new structure.

This corner is by far the worst.   This is where the floor had collapsed and we could see in from the outside.  The studs disintegrate when touched.  Not good!  I think we'll be investing in hard hats!  Seriously though, there is enough strength in the rest of the wall to support the roof while we work.  This, plus the rotting floor, make this part of the house unsalvageable.  We'll save what materials we can, and build again from the foundation up.

One room - 27 bags of garbage.  Yikes!  I think next time we'll get a dumpster.

Treasure

My idea of treasure and my wife's idea of treasure are two very different things.  She has taken a liking to yelling "Treasure!" every time she finds any artifact from the previous owners, including a broken christmas ornament, a bottle of vitamin C, and a child's sock covered in mouse droppings.  She seems to get a huge kick out of it.

But I've found my own treasures, including a newspaper from 1976 and some old photos showing the owners enjoying the house in it's better days.  We managed to track down a family member and returned the photos to their rightful owners.

Playing archaeologist, she found more "Treasure" outside in the snow, when she should have been overseeing the septic inspection going on in the background!

Good news!  The septic is in working order, although it needs a new lid.  We'll add that to the task list for this spring.

Investigation

In this part of Canada we get a lot of rain in the springtime, so we were not surprised to find our garbage can nearly full of water when we returned.  Imagine!  That much water would have been collecting in the ceiling!  No wonder it was collapsing.

Today's task is to investigate the back portion of the house, which we think might have a useable foundation.  The older parts of the house are build on stone, but the newest addition (about 30 years old) has a poured concrete foundation about 14' x 30', which we think might suit our needs.  We just need to get into that back room that has been boarded up.

From the outside we can see into this back room.  That's right, from the OUTSIDE.  There is a hole between the siding and the foundation, and we got a glimpse of what was inside.  Seems the floor has fallen in, leaving this gap between the floor and the wall.  In the photo we can see a dresser and chair, and also the underside of the door, which appears to be floating a good 6" above the floor.

Our suspicions were confirmed when we got into the room.  The floor has fallen in, and is spongy in parts.  We decide to pull up a section of floor and see what we are dealing with.

The floorboards are resting directly on the concrete foundation, with no joists to be seen.  The investigation was halted temporarily when we met these little fellas:

And by little I mean frickin' huge!  That's a four inch nail she's playing on. "Meta ovalis Gertsch", the Cave Orb Weaver... they like dark, moist areas, free from disturbance.  Hopefully we disturbed them enough that they will find a new home.  I wouldn't dare stick my head down in the hole as I imagined a throng of spiders waiting for me, but I did risk my hand and camera.

No wonder we couldn't see any joists... they had practically disintegrated in this corner of the room.  Seems the floorboards are holding up the joists instead of the other way around.  A lesson in the damaging effect of humidity in crawlspaces.  And those white things?  Egg sacs. *shudder*  But in general the foundation looks solid, and with proper ventilation we should be able to avoid this debacle happening again.

When our backs are sore we start to wonder what we got ourselves into, we like to take a walk around the lake to remind ourselves why we're here.