indiana jones & the

Friday, October 8, 2010



the living room/dining room, new wall unit entertainment centre ;-) reno has begun

indiana jones & the temple of brick
subtitled - the smartest man I know

my father would have loved him

What's that darn cowboy been up to anyway, you may be asking ? this will be the first post in a series of posts documenting the remarkable restorative renovation of this old brick house. I hear the clapping of hands (& paws) from far away NuT. And yes (sheepish look) I turned my comments back on. I need to stop validating my existence by the number of thoughts and opinions left here each day. I think I can do that ... or at least I'm gonna try.

So ... what's Doug been doing ? if you remember we last left him in the basement. The cleaning out of the world's most frightening, most dark & dingy, completely filled with crap contractors had left behind, basement. This daunting (to me anyway) job included cutting apart a 1 ton cast iron boiler and schlepping that beast up and out and into the awaiting black steed (pick up truck). Then there was the dismantling of the redundant & tres expensive propane - double hot water system. Yes my hot water was being heated twice ! Uh Huh ! and our lovely Saturn (boiler) got a new shiny copper coil, one she'd been dreaming of for years. He moved the thermostat on the main floor to a new more sensible location away from the fireplace (?) and suddenly, as if by magic, we had efficient, even heat in every room & plus de hot water - Hooray! Hooray! Be still my beating heart.

Nothing daunts him - the more daunting the better. He's like the Indiana Jones of ... everything.
He's my Indiana Jones.

He turned the gigantic overgrown field-like, about to turn to forest, fenced in dog yard - back into a green, mowed regularly, fun to fetch balls in, park like setting. Miss Dee and I even have a secret room inside the trailing branches of our big willow where she and & often sit to ponder life and drink ice tea (and lets not forget the small pond to lure toads and red winged blackbirds). In order to complete this job he had to move, hundreds of wheelbarrows full of top soil to fill the huge ruts left by the tractor owning, bush cutting guy who I thought had decided to wait until the ground was frozen and no longer sopping wet before driving around the dog yard in a very heavy machine. Ne pas. Rutville. And the reason we had a giant pile of top soil in my driveway in the first place, waiting patiently to be used for rut filling material was that Martha (Madam Invincible's first name) had the crazy idea oh, 7 years ago or so, to have a dump truck load (Uh Huh !!) of top soil delivered in her driveway because oh ... she thought she might do a little gardening, hmmm.. maybe make a few new flower beds. Sheesh.

Then there's the sawing, cutting, snipping, hacking, pruning (lovingly I might add) and taming of the overgrown & tangled lands of 29 Black Street. The place that we can take garden debris around these parts is only open two days a week and Indiana and the black steed make three trips each of those days, come hell or high water, laden with cuttings, branches, logs, trimmings etc. Beautiful park like gigantic property soon to emerge.

Now it's on to new ceilings, no more 50's acoustic tile or dated painted wall paneling, it's gyp rock and a new structural arch with a proper support beam, a downstairs closet (we don't have one), a new door to the downstairs bathroom so that you don't have to travel .5 miles to get to it and a new built in entire length of one wall-shelves-cabinets-drawers-bookcases - tres fabulous entertainment centre is in the works. Sigh. He works fast, he cleans as he goes, he's a maniac and a maniac of the very best kind.

Somebody gave my fairy god mother a mighty big & tres long list and she hasn't missed a beat.



11 comments:

  1. good morning! The SUN is shining here, hope it gets up your was soon!
    What JOY to have this wonderful man in your life and so enthusiastic and competent... what a combination! hot da^^n and hallelujah! (can you tell I feel your excitement?)

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  2. Looking forward to following your renovation adventure. Wonder if you will find any treasures like I did when my kitchen was done. Several layers of antique wallpaper and stuffed in the insulation, a 1929 CN Rail newspaper.

    What good fortune to find your very own Indiana Jones... sigh. I want one, too.

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  3. Holy Cow that is a lot of work. I'm so glad the couple that looked at buying your house did not. Karma. You are a very lucky woman and I suspect he is a very lucky man.

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  4. How exciting! And I admire your good cheer through the process. Living in the middle of a demolition/renovation zone can be trying at times, but the end results are worth every bit of it, especially when you have such a wonderful and skilled man in charge!
    I look forward to more progress reports.

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  5. We are so lucky to have men like this!!

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  6. Ok, so here's your publicly-announced invitation to come for a working holiday, full bed and board and cat hair thrown in for free, when I buy my next house.... You must have been very good indeed in a former life, Susan, to have deserved all this. Although I suspect Doug says the same about you having come into his life.....

    Keep the photos coming of how things progress, won't you!

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  7. Woot! The Peanut Gallery is back!!!

    Your cowboy leaves me speechless.

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  8. Keep him well fed and allow him plenty of rest.....because when he is done, I want him to come and visit ME for a little spell!!! I can challenge him until his heart is content. You come, too.....we can visit in between fetching him tools and water! He is AWESOME!!!

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  9. Damn, woman! I'm jealous. ;)

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  10. I hope you'll be salvaging thatleafy wall paper for crafty projects :)

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