June 17, 2015 - A beacon to help guide us home (from the pub) was installed today.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 near completion. We've decided to take a few weeks off between Phase 2 and Phase 3. Okay - the building inspector said he wanted the first two phases complete prior to starting Phase 3. At first we were dismayed at having a break in the pace we'd set but once we thought about it, the idea of having a few weeks without the hustle and bustle of work happening and a bit of extra time to get the kitchen contents moved before the demolition started...suddenly seemed like a good idea. Below are some recent shots along with a video of our new crown jewel - The Cedar Crest Beacon.

I'm glad we have some good people working on this project. This is the junction of all the domestic water and heating water pipes that joins the barn to the rest of the house. And the ones that aren't connected to the junction....go somewhere else.

Our new back door and door step leading from the laundry room to the back yard. Audrei wants a clothesline. We'll see.

This is one of my favourite new spots. Where you now see the picture window is where the doors to the carriage house used to be. The lattice make the base for the cedar shingles. In a few days this is going to look very different. We're also getting in a timber frame company to do the pergola that will extend up from the stone pillars. Notice one of our new outside lights beside the barn door.

First test a success. We wanted to make sure that the floor would hold the weight of the Range Rover. The test was successful. Of course, the real test will be if it's still there in the morning (and not in the basement) however our contractor and an engineer assure us that the floor will hold the Ranger Rover and three of four more cars as well - no problem.

The barn looks awesome especially with the new outside lights and the illuminated cupola.

Our beacon to guide us home from the pub. The video isn't great here but if you check Mike's Facebook page he has a better one.

June 12 - What a difference 5 days make.

Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking but, as June progresses, we're starting to see the end of phase II. We'll still be a couple more weeks getting it done. The drywall is all up and and will be finished next week. We jumped back into some of Phase I as the electricians came in and put up the outdoor lights and the concrete guys came back and completed the ramp. We could park in the garage now...if we had a driveway. All in good time. Here are some shots taken over the past week or so:

Here's the new garden door leading from the carriage house to the back yard.

Here is the ramp filled with gravel and dirt that is being compacted.

A layer of rebar is placed over the dirt. This will reinforce the concrete after it's poured.

The truck arrives to pour the concrete. That's Jason - our concrete guy - waving. We've spent a lot of time with him over the past few months.

Jason leveling out the concrete. Once it was all in he created a textured design on the surface.

The finished ramp looks great.

This is the carriage house/laundry room with most of the drywall up. It seems dark at the end of the hall but there is a piece of plywood covering the entrance to the rest of the house so that will open up a lot as soon as that is gone. The other side of that plywood is phase III. It sounds ominous.

The inside of our new garden door is on the left. The long, expanse of wall going along the hallway will give us much needed wall space to hang some of our art.

Okay, admittedly, draped in Typar is not a good look for any structure but try to focus on the new concrete at the bottom of the wall. We mimicked the slope of the existing concrete pad to both conceal the seam and to facilitate water run off from the roof.

This is another view of the concrete slab. The opening on the right is the outside entrance to the basement. We had to order a custom door since the opening is a little wider and a little shorter than a typical door. This will actually help us get larger things in the basement if we need to.

June 7, 2015

This is the corner where the dog shower will be. The pipes you see on the right are the heating pipes coming from the concrete floor of the barn. They will tie into the ones you see coming up out of the concrete floor here in the carriage house. There are also domestic hot water lines in there too (going to the dog shower and out to my studio in the barn). That squared-in area of framing will be an access panel to get to the section where they all connect.

Mike having breakfast in the pantry.

I'm standing on the other side of the closet taking a picture of Mike standing in the pantry. The walls of the pantry and closet are 8 feet high so don't go all the way to the cathedral ceiling. This openness will help with heating and air circulation.

In this picture you can see the doors to the left and you can see how the walls don't reach all the way to the ceiling. The pantry door is going to be across the hall from the TV room door. Both doors are going to be the old style sliding barn-doors using the original, 100 year old,  door roller systems that we salvaged from the carriage house.

Our late-blooming Azalea smells great.

It's been a couple weeks since my last update. Still lots going on - a yard full of vehicles belonging to various tradespeople every day - but, day to day, a lot of the work hasn't been visible. But, over the past couple weeks all together, there's been a pretty significant change. Still lots to come but here are a few pictures to keep you up to date:

This is looking from the house toward the barn. The entire carriage house was gutted and a cathedral ceiling put in. On the left you can see the picture window that will look out over the car park. The vertical boards on the left are the beginnings of the framing for the pantry and closet.

Three days of rain and a yard that doesn't drain well or fast left us with a flood behind the barn where the ramp is being built. Matt pumped it out and everything was fine. Part of the construction of this part of the project includes a drainage system which just hasn't been put in yet.

This is a typical sight in our back yard on any weekday. We think we may have, single handedly, solved the unemployment problem in Nova Scotia.

This is the outside of the carriage house now. It doesn't look like much at this stage but that big hole in the wall will be a picture window. The doorway to the right will lead to the basement.

Through it all my Muscat grapes are doing really well. Patrick and Sol and I pruned them and tied them up a week or so ago.

This is a little bit clearer view of the laundry/utility area leading to the barn. This is almost a foot of insulation in the ceiling and almost as much in the walls. Heating and cooling this space is going to be much easier than the older parts of the house.

We had to re-shingle the TV room during the renovation and since the skylights were really old and only contributed to letting too much light into the room - we decided to get rid of them. This is Jonathan getting ready to board over the hole in the ceiling.