Saturday fun in Lunenburg

This is a busy weekend in Lunenburg and all around this area – Christmas festivities are in full swing, and the big event in Lunenburg yesterday was the Santa Claus parade. It was the first time I’ve seen traffic jams in this town that doesn’t even have a traffic light! I ended up finding myself IN the parade walking with the ElderDog float and handing out brochures to people along the route.

The ElderDog float is so cute!

The stars of the ElderDog float were Lynn and her little 16 year old furry elf, Clarence :-)

Judging by all the people watching the parade and the smiles on their faces, it seemed to be a big success :-)

Because I was in the parade, I didn’t really have a chance to see or take pictures of the other floats.  I did manage to snap a shot of the old fire truck at the end of the route…

And of course, I snapped pics of some of the dogs with the ElderDog float. This is Orea, Sophie, and Poppy, who are all rescues.

And for some crafty fun before the parade, I was at The Lunenburg Makery creating a new buddy to join Mr. House, Humphrey, and Pip – meet Slow the Sloth :-)

Here he is with his other slothy friends…

Yep, that’s what we do for fun around here!

Window pains

Wow, who knew that choosing windows would be so hard! But they’re something that we have to get right, because once they’re in, there’s no turning back. We’ve been going over all the options for a couple of months, and each time we finally came to a decision, we hit a road block.

As you can see, there are a LOT of windows…

 

The first plan was casement windows, but Brian was worried that the open windows and doors on the south side might bang into each other. Plus big open casement windows could be a problem in higher winds. So we decided to go with fixed windows with awning windows at the bottom. But the awning windows didn’t meet the egress requirements for bedrooms. So then we moved on to cottage style single hung windows – top third fixed, bottom two thirds go up and down. But our windows are too tall for the 1/3 + 2/3 style. ARGH!

And then one day a few weeks ago we went to a friend’s house, and right there in front of us was the solution to all our window pains – tilt & turn windows. YAY! They open into the house  instead of out, so no problems with the doors & windows hitting each other and no problems with the wind. They meet the bedroom egress requirements. And as an added bonus, the dogs won’t be able to push the screens out and escape in case they see a deer that they want to take off after.

So the new plan is:

• Combination of tilt & turn windows and fixed windows for all main floor windows on the south & west ends and the second storey windows on the west end.
• Single hung windows on the two east end windows.
• Fixed round window in upstairs bathroom.
• Awning window in closet next to front door.
• Adding a skylight to the front of the house.
• Skylights on south side and in the second storey bathroom

I’m a totally visual person, so I did some rough mock-ups of what the windows will look like.

 

 

The first batch of windows for the south side have been ordered – probably a few more weeks till they arrive, so it’s not looking good to have the house weather-tight before winter. But, we’re still truckin’ along – no shortage of work to do, that’s for sure!

Like the story of the tortoise and the hare

It feels like it’s taking forever to build our house. But like the tortoise, we may be slow but we keep chugging along! We’ve actually made some good progress over the last couple of weeks. This was the front of the house two weeks ago.

Since then, we’ve installed Tyvek and vent grid. I seem to have forgotten to take pictures of the back of the house, but that side is done too.

The really big job is sheathing the front side of the roof. It’s more complicated than the back side because of the two peaks for the porch and upstairs bathroom. Plus the roof for the screened porch is a lot of room to cover.  There’s no way I’m going that high up off the ground, so Brian is the sheathing installer and I’m the sheathing cutter and hander-upper.

We made a last-minute decision to add a skylight the the north side of the roof.

This might be the tallest screened porch ever!

I can’t wait till we can start the finishing work. I’m planning to paint the ceiling in the screened porch blue and install horizontal wood planking on the walls and either paint it white or do a whitewash. Looking forward to sitting on the porch and laughing at all the mosquitoes on the other side of the screens! But that’s still a while away.

A few more days progress…

Getting close! Hopefully the roof will b done by the weekend. Maybe wishful thinking, but we’ll try!

Remember

The 11th month on the 11th day at the 11th hour…

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

The Living Beach – November 1, 2016

The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
Jacques Cousteau

What a difference a month makes! The beach has changed a lot since the beginning of October. A few weeks ago, it was sand as far the the eye could see, and we could walk all the way to the end of the beach even close to high tide.



And now, all that sand has gone away and exposed the rocks that were hidden all summer…


And speaking of rocks – the big ones reappeared in October after a few months of being completely buried under the sand. This shows you how much sand has been washed away from the beach. Couldn’t see this rock at all a few weeks ago!



Still a fair bit of sand, but way more rocks then there were before.






Comparing October to November…