A New Day & A New Project

As you the reader will remember we had our fingers burnt on our last project, in fact our fingers were still raw and stinging from the (ongoing saga) roof painting catastrophe and understandably we were reluctant and apprehensive to start something new. However, there were some big projects scheduled for the next couple of months, so we had no choice but to wipe the slate clean, put the issue with the roofs on the back burner and jump right back into the fray.

By this point I was at work full time so we had planned for Martin to start looking for work closer to fall which would allow him time to oversee these new projects and ensure we did not end up with any more disasters.

A new day is here. Yesterday is a memory. The future is unknown. Now is the knowing.

The roof painting saga aside, we were excited about what was to come once these new projects got underway and could not wait to start seeing the transformation on the house and barn, these projects were going to pack a punch when it came to the visual aesthetics of our home and workspace. The upcoming projects included the chimney repair, the installation of the vinyl sidings, windows and doors, foam insulation sprayed in the barn and the basement cold store, and the solar panels fitted so that we could finally generate some much-needed money off our electricity bill.

We also had a couple of our own projects to complete like sanding the entrance stairs, painting part of the laundry room, building a new post box and decorating the blue room (like the fifty shades red room but instead of adult toys and red walls picture brightly coloured blue walls, storage cupboards painted in the primary colours and a chalk wall, whatever floats your boat I suppose!). The to do list is quite a bit longer than this, in fact I would go as far as to say it was extensive, but we would be here all day if we recounted everything that needed to be done, not to mention the multiple panic attacks we would have at the enormity of the task ahead of us.

As the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and this became our mantra when we were frustrated, overwhelmed, or plain exhausted at the thought of the long slog ahead of us.

First on the schedule was the wonky donkey chimney, the same wonky chimney that the home inspector failed to notice when he carried out his inspection. If we are being honest there was some trepidation with regards to what to expect from the contractors we had engaged, so far, we had not had much luck with contractors! We had already engaged a bunch of clowns to paint our roofs so I am not sure our judge of character could be trusted. We were keeping everything crossed that these contractors were not working at the same circus as the last lot!

Learn to trust the journey, even when you don’t understand it.

In fact, the guys who arrived to repair the chimney could not have been further away in both looks and work ethic to Krusty and Coco the clown. Not only did their work truck pull up onto the drive exactly on time but we were amazed to see Thor step out of the vehicle. He strode towards us on powerful legs carrying his lofty frame, tendrils of his L’Oreal worthy wavy long blonde hair caressed his sun kissed face while his ocean blue eyes twinkled in the sunlight.

Now far be it for me to spoil any fantasies brought about by my description of Thor the builder but if you picture the out of shape version of Thor played by Chris Hemsworth in Avengers End Game your daydreams might be a little more accurate.

Instead of carrying Mjölnir in his hand he carried a can of soda and was accompanied a small black dog obviously stolen from Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and a shorter, dark haired and more average looking guy. Thor the builder God of bricks and mortar introduced himself as Tobias from Sweden which really made us laugh, he really was an honest to goodness Viking. We even told him we thought he looked like Thor (obviously not the heavier set version of Thor) and he found it hilarious too, he had a sense of humour which was a tick in the box as far as we were concerned.

With the introductions complete the guys set to work straight away erecting the scaffolding, after which they carefully removed all the bricks taking the chimney right down to the foundations.

Over the next few days Thor, the builder, his colleague, and Toto always turned up on time often working until 5pm. Martin would regularly sit in the garden in-between painting to chat to them while they worked and gradually as they layered and pointed the bricks, we began to see our new chimney take shape.

While the building carried on at a steady pace Martin, when he wasn’t chatting that is, started the preparation on the blue room. Whilst the multicoloured cupboards truly were a joy to look at they did take up quite a lot of space in what was already a small room, so we decided to change this by ripping out all the built in cupboards and moving part of the wall making the room smaller … yep you heard that correctly! We were making the smallest room slightly smaller.

I know this doesn’t make sense, but the cupboard was recessed into the wall and by removing the recess and bringing it forward in line with the rest of the remaining wall we were not only giving the room more useable space but increasing the size of our bathroom which was next door. I lent a helping hand when not at work but in the main, this was Martin’s project and involved demolition (Hulk smash!), the installation of studs and noggins (and not the head type of noggin apparently), the erecting of dry wall, the taping of seams and then the decorating.

A Handyman’s Prayer

Our Father, who art a craftsman,

Perfectionist be thy name,

Thy power tools hum,

Thy walls are plumb,

Upstairs

As they are in the basement.

Give us this day,

A utility shed,

And forgive us our borrowed tools.

As we forgive those who borrowed tools from us.

And lead us not into renovation,

But deliver us from moving.

For thine is the hammer,

And the skill saw,

And the duct tape,

Forever.

– Courtesy of Red Green

Martin is incredibly talented, and his talents are not limited to his expertise in Silversmithing and unique and natural ability to press all my buttons at once, he is also great at building and DIY too. Despite Martins daily recital of the handy man’s prayer, whereby everything had to be measured and measured again. Where technical and complicated plans were drawn, scribbled out and then drawn again, where phone calls made to friends who were builders, hours of YouTube videos memorised. Not to mention the hours of preparation, precision cutting, hammering, and smoothing (Martin is a little bit of a perfectionist). I was shocked to see the blue room transform in a brief period (instead of the six weeks I was anticipating) from dark, dingy, and oppressive into a light, bright and airy space.

What was most surprising was that although we reduced the floor space in the room, in lining up the wall and choosing to paint the walls white with light wooden flooring we had in fact made the room appear bigger, big enough to fit a double pull out bed and allow for some storage. Not only that but Thor the builder, Toto, and associate had completed the chimney and much to our pleasure and our utter relief they had done a superb job not only with the chimney, but with restoring our faith in Canadian/Swedish contractors!

With the chimney and blue room projects a roaring success we ticked them off the to do list and started to look forward to what was coming next which was the spray foam insulation.

While all of this was taking place I was getting to grips with my role at Cumings Fire & Safety, I was amazed by how much there was too learn, there were so many different aspects to the company whether it was the inspections and cleaning of fire fighters bunker gear, the checking and maintaining of fire extinguishers or providing a service to the customers that came into the shop or called on the phone.

Although this was not what I had come to Canada for, and I had not anticipated working full time and learning a new role from scratch my new work colleagues were not only helpful, but amazingly supportive and encouraging too, which made all the difference. But the thing I liked the most was that we all had a laugh, these were my kind of people and my kind of crazy, I was enjoying my job and felt like I was fitting in well.

Although, having said that there was one work colleague who was a little slow to warm to me!

You don’t have to be crazy to work here, we’ll train you.

Safety Steve is one of the quieter members of the team, often just standing there, hovering over my shoulder, unsmiling and judging me with his silence. It took a while but with my winning personality and persistence (not to mention a sharpie and post-it notes) I finally managed to put a smile on Steve’s face.