The change of life...

Back to work in September, 2009, ending up one home and creating another.  Our current home was in a great state for showing and the pool and big, treed lot displayed nicely for the end of August and all of September..... but it didn't sell until March.  Which was actually a good thing... the cottage needed everything done - asap - just to make it habitable for good weather, let alone a Canadian lakefront winter.  Almost immediately we cleared and cleaned it out, having a yard sale of what we wanted to get rid of from both houses, giving and selling some to friends, relatives.  We were lightening the physical load of a two children, 35 year marriage from a 2000 square foot ranch with full basement, 2.5 garage and attics to 1650 square feet, no basement, no garage (but a shed the size of a single garage).

Of course, we were taking pictures right and left, each pre-project, during-project, post-project.  Looking back, the one constant non-human item in all pictures, the one eternal presence - wine, followed by beer.  The amount of wine I went through.... the days were work, followed by three to five hours more work, after work.  If family or friends came over, a break was a godsend.  And this past year, a certain trio of friends kept me, well, sane enough that no one came to harm.  Never underestimate southern Ontario, North Shore wines.... excellent choices, therapeutic almost.

We investigate federal and provincial programs for energy refits and make the appointment for an energy audit.  The auditor erected his barriers and fans, amazed at the tightness of the old place, while shaking his head at what was in front of us. We received a report, with a list and guidelines of what should be done, what we could get back from our energy upgrades.  Almost all of the money we spent in insulation comes back, so that cost paid for itself and again.  Toilets - we were turning the miscellaney room into a third bath, so buying three dual flush, water efficient toilets would return about 40% of their cost.  The hot water heat of the cottage, running perfectly up to the crack of the boiler, would run efficiently again with the installation of a 96% energy efficient boiler installed in November and would return a large portion of its' cost.  Sometimes I like to just open the boiler room door and look at that little white box mounted on the wall.  The large, rusting electric water tank would be replaced by an on-demand tankless heater and pay us back a good chunk of the cost.  These were the major rebates, even the audit itself was rebated.  At this date, November 2010, we've done all that except the tankless water heater and that'll be in before the end of the year.

Every day after work, I'd change and come down to the lake.  Kee would be here already.  He'd dig out and mud cracks, day after day.  In the front bedroom, almost the entire lakeside wall was ripped back and back, then rebuilt, replastered, sanded, and then repeated to Kee's satisfaction, then painted.  Room after room, I'd follow his work.  I'd get a room painted and then come home to find fresh mud on my fresh paint.... exasperated, I called him my "crack whore".  He sees cracks everywhere, was obsessed and possessed by the cracks.  We go through tubs and tubs and tubs and tubs of mud. 

Then our son, D, a chip off his dad's skilled trade block, rewires the entire house, saving us thousands of dollars.  He's up in the attics, under the house in the dirt-floored crawlspace, running cables, drilling holes, rough blueprinting a re-wire of the entire house.  D puts in outlets, breaker-style, where there are none, co-axial outlets everywhere, the new electrical panel grows and grows.  While not an electrician, when we get the official inspection done, everything has been done perfectly and to code.... he's amazing.

After buying the house - I swear, after buying it, I noticed - there were no outlets in the small bath off the master.  How could that be?  D put that right, along with outlets down the halls, in closets, all, and I mean all, over the kitchen.  Kee follows with his mud pail, I follow with the paint.

In the time between August and March, we work on the cottage, keep the current home prepped and continue on with life on three fronts:  cottage, home, work.  My sister, owner of a busy quilting, embroidery, high end sewing machine store, lends us her large van she uses for travelling to trade shows.  That, along with the shed, the newer end bedrooms and my father-in-law's basement are soon filled with "stuff-in-transition"... things that will be used, things that need to be given to our kids, stuff that needs to disappear.  As we move into the cottage, some will come down to the lake - into the house, into the shed.  The piano goes straight to Kee's dad, to be used first by his sister's kids, then given to our daughter, for her and her baby daughters' use.  I can only play "Good King Wenceslas" and don't know how to stop.

The fall nights darken early and it's month after month of a 20 minute ride at dusk, change at home, work until 9 or 11, close up, go home, shower or just pj it and fall unconscious.  Small peaks, like finishing a room, a floor, seeing the insulation go in, are checkpoints of accomplishment.

Hallowe'en passes.  One brave treater knocks on the door... I'm sure Kee looked like a chainsaw massacre plasterer when he answered.  He tells me, "all I could have offered her was a Coors Lite".

The fireplace burns each night, with fans helping circulate warm air in the unheated house.  As the winter progresses and the lake winds pick up, we add heater fans, not only to warm us, but to dry the plaster.  Pictures of bundled up visitors, holding wine, looking cold.....  In the living room, there is only a large threadbare oriental rug, two good quality, old armchairs left behind and a low rustic coffee table.  We cluster these around the fireplace.  Our diet is reduced to telephone and car food - order it or pick it up.  I love to cook, but am too tired, still, I make a good meal on Sundays, at home.  I'm determined that life at our current house will be regular, if in appearance and Sunday meals only, until we leave.

Christmas for my side of the family is at our house - our last Christmas here - and there's no time for nostalgic, lingering moments, but mention is continually made of our last Christmas here, the 25th one.  At the cottage, a ceramic tree lights up a window.  New Year's..... 2010....