Major construction,finishing touches, lost loves , dreams and "where's Waldo?"

new support wall

I don't have a lot to post this week. The weather was cold and miserable and rainy. Francis continued to work on the barn. It was our 12th anniversary on June 11- I took the day off from work so we could spend it together. Our plans were to go to our trailer (RV)on the Ottawa River ( Leblanc Island to be precise) and get things ready for the new summer season. The trailer is our summer escape- Francis' get-a-way and favourite place! It is an idyllic spot- ( I will try and find a picture to post). Well, the weather did not cooperate as I have mentioned so instead we went around to nurseries looking for flowers to plant at the trailer and to finish in some holes in my containers at the house. I am an avid gardener you see, and I rarely get Francis to come with me, but as it was our anniversary he had to spend time with me (LOL). However, that works both ways, and he made me spend time with him in the barn.......I sat in a chair and observed him continue his work from last week building the new barn walls. It is quite a job-- he has to build a new supporting structure ( wall) from floor to ceiling to support the barn floors above. The he has to remove the old support posts on the cement foundation wall ( original supports for the barn) and then rebuild a new wall on the cement foundation wall. We ( he) are putting in new windows ( 10 of them) down that long side of the barn so he also has to build new window frames. I decided they are going every 10 feet...


Francis is so amusing... my birthday is this week and he just could not wait to give me a present that he had for me. While I went into the house to change into riding clothes ( I decided to go riding once the rain quit), he went and brought a gift to the barn and covered it with a blanket... he then unveiled it for me with glee and delight. His eyes light up like a child at Christmas when he is excited about something... anyway his gift caused me to get what he endearingly calls "shiny eyes" ( an old joke between us as I am a mushball and cry with any deep emotion- whether love, laughter, sadness, joy). His gift was a print of a painting that a lady had commissioned for herself of my old horse Romy. I had previously ordered a plaque to hang in the barn to acknowledge his memory and all he meant to me and my life. Romy was the horse I had from the time he was 6 until age of 33 when he was put to sleep. He was a part of our family and I lost him ( ie had to rehome him)at he same time other huge losses and changes occurred in my life. He died the same year as my father and I have learned that it matters not if family is near or far, or has not been as active in our lives for several years, the love does not change, nor the pain off loss when they die. So I have a endearing photo of my Dad on my cupboard in the bedroom ( my favorite picture of him- how I remember him from when I was a little girl) which my Mum gave to me the Christmas after my Dad died.  And now I have an amazing picture of Romy- it has been hung in the barn on the wall of the tack room. All this hard work and me wanting a horse again has been because of my love for my old horse Romy. He was the reason for my passion for horses- I never thought I would find another but just as I have found another dog to love ( Phoebe)when I lost my special Grrl, I have found another horse which is also going to be special- different, not my Romy, but still loveable and special. The heart is an amazing thing--- it has an infinite supply of love to give - it never runs out. So despite losing loves, whether to death, divorce or just from distance.... the heart remembers and seeks out new loves.......new dreams...

Okay so this post has not been so much about barn construction, but it is still about my journey that has come about because of the barn reconstruction.......it is about reconstructing lives and love ....building new from the vestiges of old..........so yes still appropriate I think. 

PS..... other finishing touches were done on Sunday and I came home from work to have to play "where's Waldo?" , but in this case it was "what has Francis done today?"- so he 1) added a bigger solar panel for the lights 2) put the restored door knob on the tack room door 3) cut a hole in the rubber mats near the door for a drain hole 

PPS....  so HONOUR THE PAST, LIVE FOR TODAY AND DREAM FOR THE FUTURE......( Sue's new wise words for today)

Ugly duckling becomes a swan and "let there be light!"

door- BEFORE- blue paint and peeling

Well the weather was super hot and humid this past weekend- Francis got to work in the "airconditioning" all weekend. Okay, its not air conditioned really but because the stable is in the undercroft of the barn and has a lovely stone foundation, it always much cooler in the stable than outside. 

Door -AFTER- absolutely love the finish - this is au naturel-
no stain, or any other produce on it

This weekend had some finishing touches done to the tack room. The door was hung after being lovingly restored to its former glory. The door was repurposed/recycled. Years ago this old wooden door was the door into the garage. This is an antique door I had painted it blue ( you know how it was in the 80's??). Anyway, Francis painstakingly removed all the old paint with stripper and heat gun to  reveal all the wood and its wonderful engravings. Its has crenellations around the glass. He decided that as it took him two full days to get one side done, he would leave the other side as it was. "You can paint it as it is on the inside of the tack room". "Yes", I said-- little does he know that I am not going to paint it but rather will ask him to restore that side as well, but at a later date ( maybe next year?); for now "it will do". Francis says these are my famous words....lol when I am working on something and am fed up with it.Anyway, he bought wheels for it so now we have also repurposed one of the old stall door sliders so the door can slide open/closed. You see, sliding doors are much more user friendly in the barn- can be opened with your foot when your arms are full of tack; don't take up valuable space in the tack room; don't bang into the horses when they are tied in the alleyway.....PS don't look at the dirty glass-- I still have to clean that

The final job was to have lighting put in.... you see I (um , we) don't have electrical service to the barn. But "Francis fix tout "( for those of you non- French people "tout" means all" or everything").This is an ongoing joke between us- you see all week I break things, cant' get things to work etc and he comes home on the weekend and fixes everything so I can find more things that need fixing for the next week ( No seriously, he likes to be kept busy  lol) . We joke around that I keep finding things for him to renovate/fix so he won't leave me... he is too much of a gentleman to leave a damsel in distress......In fact, that is how we started going out together. We met at a motorcycle club, and he and friends dropped by as we were supposed to go biking. Unfortunately, I was trying to get my pool open for the season for the first time on my own. He sacrificed the bike ride and stayed behind to help me deal with the winter cover and get it going etc. and the rest as they say is history. He is always whining about the pool and how much work it is ( grrhhhh)..........but you see I know he really doesn't mean it  as without the pool we would not have met ( hehe). Francis has been renovating/fixing things for the last 12 years!! In fact our "anniversary" is soon approaching- 12 years on June 11 ( and no I won't tell you why we picked that date but I'll leave to  guess). Oops, sorry went off on a tangent there for a sec.. so back to the barn..........anyway I came home from work on Saturday evening at 1115pm to find Francis waiting outside. He wanted me to go  and check out his accomplishments of the day.......and hey presto we went into the barn and he flipped a switch and the place lit up! So exciting!! He has installed LED 12Volt lights hooked up to a solar panel... ingenious I say. What a difference they make when trying to muck out stalls on a dreary rainy day. I can even bring the horses in from outside after sunset-!! ( OK it may not seem like a big deal to non- horsey people but do you know how hard it is to get them in by flashlight??).

the barn at night-- lights, glorious lights

Hard to believe this is possible from a tiny solar panel that is

14" x 4" long and some 12 Volt LED lights

A real tack room!

Not a lot to say this week, and I am aware this is actually almost two weeks late but you see it was a long holiday weekend and Francis took Tuesday off from work as well. I have been working and busy trying to get the gardens in to shape as well as ride, do chores and try to keep up with the laundry. As to housework, well, that is far down on the list these days......

Again he would say that he didn't do much, but it all takes so much time between running to the hardware store to pick up the bolts/screws/drill bits/ and other paraphernalia that is required to do all the " little" things, plus coming to my rescue when I need help with this that or the other thing. I also dragged him away to open up the swimming pool for the season. It is all rather a blur now. 

The picture on the left shows the current tack room space "BEFORE" we started the project. The tack room sits where a stall used to; the floor has been levelled and cemented over previous weeks.

repair of the joists-

He spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning preparing the structure. Joists of the ceiling ( floor above) had to be "lifted" and  repaired. In the afternoon framing of the tack room  commenced. It included "dry fitting" the two windows in to the spaces they would take up when the room is finished. Please note carefully the lack of safety equipment in the above photo-- no glasses, gloves etc. And YES he did injure himself and require immediate first aid as shortly after the picture was taken he injured himself!!!

We are repurposing one of the old windows from the house for the tack room wall that faces the alleyway. This window is not "functional" ( ie does not open) but will provide natural light. The second window isn't functional yet either as it is in the new inside wall he has built to help maintain the weight of the barn in preparation for fixing the leaning outside wall.  


We had discussed that we wouldn't be able to finish /close in the tack room this year due to finances. I had wanted tongue and groove pine and had priced it out and decided it was prohibitive to my budget, so would just wait- especially to do both the interior and exterior walls of the tack room. On Sunday we "played hookey" from the project and went to the trailer for the day. This is our summer getaway place and is on the Ottawa River on LeBlanc Island. Francis loves being at the trailer and his dedication to the barn project has robbed him of his precious trailer time, so this weekend I said we must go. Besides being a holiday Monday there was no hardware shop open to buy material anyway ( or so I thought). However, I came home on Monday night after working a 12 hour day to find my tack room not only framed ( he had done that earlier in the weekend),but also enclosed with a paneling that looks like barn boards. WOW! what a difference it makes.  He had carried all the saddles/ saddle racks, bridles and boxes of gear into the tack room and "organized" it- complete with nails on the studs to act as temporary bridle holders, etc. I have a tack room!! 

Discovery of a Blarney Stone and a Reverse IKEA Problem

Francis persevered this weekend through wind and rain/sleet- although most of the work this weekend was done inside the barn he still had to battle the elements to mix cement. As I was working 12 hours day shifts all weekend, my friend Marina acted as my surrogate and supervised the goings on and did the barn chores for us.

Friday afternoon say Francis removing the rest of the cement pad where the tack room will be. Remember last week he said it was coming off so well, he would take it all off and use the nice level cement beneath for the floor as it would be cheaper than building up about a 3x10 section up by 3-4 inches with cement? Well, it would have been except for some surprises found beneath the slab. We have always wondered why the slab was there... we know now ( or we think we do). You see Francis discovered 2 huge boulder/outcroppings of bedrock underneath.

The "Blarney stones"-- notice the are above the level of the
 surrounding cement

Stones after Francis has jackhammered the
points off so they are below floor level

Obviously when the barn was built over a hundred years ago, there was no such thing as jack hammers. So they just built "around" the boulders. Guess later when cement was added, they made it a bit higher in this one section to account for the outcropping of rock. So our cheaper strategy didn't work. Francis had to play with his new jackhammer toy and demolish part of the rock so it wouldn't jut up above the new floor he was going to pour. Of course, I said he may just have covered up our Blarney stone and the pot of gold that is underneath will now never be found. This all resulted in a new cement floor that is now roughly 10x 11 feet.... cheaper no- lovely? most definitely! AND he put some of Romy's old horseshoes into the cement where the doorway will be...( NO he was not artistic enough to make them look like a horse had actually walked in the cement-- he thought of this after the fact hehe).This project took the majority of the weekend.

Ready for new cement

Pouring new cement floor

    

Notice the horseshoes embedded in the new floor....

Lovely new "tack room" floor!

 You can see that Marina and I have already moved some of our tack ( riding gear) back into the "tack room"!! walls or no... trying to decide what to make the walls from is next design dilemma...

new "tack room" -- see we already put
our saddle racks and saddle it it!

On Sunday Francis went to town "cleaning" the barn. He moved an old car stored in the barn further down the alley. You see he so wants to get rid of this car, but my two boys don't want it thrown away-- it is an old VW Jetta and was my car and then their car in their teen years. Even Marina's two sons have memories of that old car taking them around the area to "various social functions" shall I say. If that car could talk I'm sure it would be x-rated most of the time....hehe . So for now, it is still in the barn, but now further down the alley. He rehomed a support post where the current feed "room"/area is. He moved all the old stall doors/lumber further down the alley to  open up a lovely space near the "used" area of the barn. Oh and he installed a drain into the floor near the door for when the rain/snow melts in spring and water may come in.  

temporary feed room and tool storage

He cleaned out old debris and yes he found evidence that I had indulged my passion for chocolate many years ago. While cleaning up garbage he found an old wrapper ( must be at least 12 years old and I haven't frequented the barn in all that time) of a Cadbury Snowflake--- if any one knows about Cadbury Flake bars-- they are sinfully delicious and melt in your mouth-- but the Snowflake was even better as it was made from white chocolate----oooh I do love white chocolate! I have introduced Francis to Cadbury Flakes (any British person will know what I'm talking about) and my children as well. They all have fallen in love with them. A favourite childhood memory of mine while growing up in England, is buying ice cream from the man on the beach- a "99"---   ice cream in a cone with a Cadbury Flake stuck into it-- bliss !!! Funny how suddenly something sends memories flooding back......

He finished the weekend by finishing putting the barnboard back onto the side of the barn that he had removed the first weekend of the job. If you remember, he removed it to do the new windows and put waterproofing wrap under it. Anyway, somehow between then and now we have a reverse IKEA problem. You know the one I mean.... when you buy something in a box that comes with instructions and bolts etc and at the end you have "extras" left over??? Hmmm- well, Francis had the opposite issue--- he has "lost " boards since he removed them- not really possible but somehow there were not enough to cover up all the wall now. So either they shrank with all the rain ( not likely), Pippa ate them ( she has taken to standing at that end of the barn everyday and had decided she doesn't want anything in her way--I had bought chairs and place there but she "moves them out of her way" everyday; or ?????? Anyway, we will now have to find some ( steal)  from somewhere else in the barn to finish off the one little corner...actually I think I know what happened-- Francis dug down ( note pile of earth at far corner) in order to get to the sill plate to replace it when he did the windows. I think the old "ground line" came up to where the barn board finishes as it is level with the top of the hill. 

Francis says he didn't do much this weekend- but the transformation in the barn is AMAZING. Even more so we can see the vision turning into reality......

The dogs and horses are developing a rather parasitic type relationship--- Bonhomme has figured out that Raphi's feed tastes great and so he takes every opportunity to go in and scavenge... Raphi seems quite content to share his breakfast and supper each day. He even seems to forgive them for barking and chasing him during the day...

Another perspective.......

Earlier in the week, Fiona Brown did me a great favour.....she agreed to do the evening chores and bring the horses in for me one evening as I was working 3-11 and Marina was away on holiday( in Iceland no less!). I met Fiona at Canyon Creek Farm, where I boarded Raphael for the winter. Fiona is a "photo bug" and "just happened to take some photos" while she was here the other evening. She shared them with me and I thought it would be interesting to post them here.....a view of the barn and its inhabitants ( and the dogs), through another's eyes or "lens" ( pun intended).

You can see this is the side that needs fixing............

This side needs fixing but you can't see it--- the middle part of the foundation is falling in-- part of the project

Pippa and Raphael - their "hang out spot" to sunbathe every day

Phoebe and Bonhomme

Hmm- horse poop tastes so yummy

Bonhomme - on the prowl

Some of the scenery.........views from the barn

part of the machine shed-- horses have one section to go into for shelter but they aren't  using it...

the "dog park"( on the right side) and overlooking the neighbouring farm ( Dave's- my ex -husband land)

Francis' workshop/garage-- he restored this 2 years ago--- the roof was half off, replaced beams, rafters.It was previously a piggery. He had to rip out concrete and wrought iron pig stalls............He's put in a wood stove ( you can see the chimney) that was repurposed from my mum's cottage....There are two double garage doors on the far end.

Mother's Day Weekend

Not a lot of work got done this weekend as Francis decided he needed to spend time with me for Mother's Day. In his mind anyway not much was done, but actually progress was made on several fronts.

Friday evening was also busy looking after a member of the family who was ill--- Francis' VW Golf that he bought in 2003 is sick. He had ordered a part to see as he was "trouble shooting" from YouTube again, but alas to no avail. Hence, Saturday morning saw us driving his car to the local VW hospital ( Woody's Garage in Cobden) to have tests done. We are still waiting for a diagnosis and treatment plan. Francis says if anyone wants to visit he will check to see what the visiting hours are. Francis spent a lot of time grieving over the weekend as he is afraid it will be a terminal diagnosis.... 

Saturday morning saw finishing touches being done to the barn doors-- now you can open all or none or the doors, they have fancy new handles ( made of Romy's old horseshoes that I painted) with a design by Francis to attach them to the doors. The new "Z" boards were attached as well. These add esthetics but also cover up the small gap between the upper and lower Dutch doors so no more drafts coming in! It is actually getting quite cozy in that part of the barn now.....ok so the rest of the long wall is full of broken windows but they too will be replaced in good time. Francis and I had a design conference on how to put the "Z" boards up--- you see there were 4 possible configurations.... We finally chose the one that has them looking like a "X". He drew all the possibilities on the white board we put up in the barn, and then had me sign it like a contract( you see I am notorious for coming along after he has something made with- " We should have done it like this...." or " I don't like it like that, can we change it to ......? much to his frustration.

These were the design options and the agreement--hehe

Sunday being Mother's Day and all, he only spent about 4 hours in the barn total. I managed to pry him away to come and have lunch with the family- my Mum, Dutch, Adam.Kristen, Rowan and Brynja all came. 

After that, it was out to Home Depot to shop for windows for the remaining window in Raphi's stall. Installation will take place next weekend ( maybe??). We found two that will do the job nicely. We also made a spontaneous purchase of two plastic Adirondack chairs for the barn-complete with cup/beer holder! Francis says they are for Marina and I to site and watch the horses, but I know his secret.........they are really to encourage me to come and hang out in/around the barn while he is working!! ( which I will be happy to do once the weather improves, but sorry yesterday we actually woke up to snow on the ground!!). I am a fair weather kind of girl......as he should know by now after all these years LOL

When we got back with our lovely purchases, he set to work removing the cement pad that sticks out into the alley way. The original idea was to cut it back and use the rest of the old pad as the floor for the new tack room. However, the pad was coming up so nicely, Francis has decided to remove the entire pad - this means he won't have to pour new concrete for the other part of the tack room ( you see the slab/pad is not as wide a s the tack room will be).....there is an old cement floor that is intact under the pad he is removing(not sure if this makes sense to readers or not) that we can just build directly on. He was happy as a pig in S... as he finally got to use his new toy( well , he bought it about 6 weeks ago for just this occasion, but just broke it out of the box yesterday)---a new jackhammer!!Boys and their power tools.......