This Old House - Maison d'Être

Ok... I name my houses. First there was BFRH (Big Fat Rent House), then Miralago (Look - a lake), and Pura Vida (the Pure Life).  When we bought this place, it took awhile to come up with a fitting name.  We settled on Maison d'Être, which plays off the popular saying "Raison d'Être" as well as the pronunciation "debt''.  I name my cars too, but that story is for another blog entry. 

A lot of this summer has been spent doing house repairs and projects during these crazy Covid social distancing times.  Seems like most everyone in our neighborhood is doing the same.  Being in a house that is 93 years old, we have no shortage of things to "fix-up" to keep us busy. Since the summer is so short here, I wanted to spend as much time as possible on our back deck and front balcony. My plan is to soak up as much warmth from the sun as possible and bank it for the winter.    

Exposed
Counter weight

 So.. we started with the windows. Almost all the windows in this house are       the old double hung types where you can raise one window and lower the   other, which allows the air to circulate and keeps the house pretty cool. The   windows would stay up, as long as a block of wood was available to keep it   propped open. I have lived in old houses before that also had this problem   and I never thought about how to fix it.  Well, Dave is really good at this kind   of stuff.  In the process, I have learned all about the counter weights that live   in little hidden doors inside the window frames.

 Apparently, they require functioning ropes and pulleys to work properly. Dave   was even able to locate a replacement pulley from a store online, which I   think is really cool since these parts are very old. 

 

Once the weights were working, screens had to be custom made and installed. Many of the windows needed re-glazing as well. That involved scraping out the old glazing and applying new glaze.  The glazing is the part that keeps the glass from falling out, a very critical component, I have learned.  

In addition, I doubt that anyone had ever scraped and sanded the inside window frames before adding a new coat of paint. Silly me, I thought I could just scrape the old paint off, but it actually required a heat gun to literally melt the paint to get it off. The burning smell was kind of intimidating, so that was pretty much Dave's task. 

Once all the paint was removed, there was lots of sanding, caulking, spackling, wood filling and re-painting to be done. 

We did this to process to five different windows so it took awhile.  

We painted the back door to the deck and then sanded the entire deck, hand rails and balusters. I actually vacuumed out all the leaves that were between the slats. That was a once in a lifetime task!  Then we sealed it with Thompson's water seal.  The deck is my go-to spot for my morning coffee.  The top picture shows the wooden privacy screen that we installed. This summer I have been able to keep plants blooming and thriving. Since I am at home more, I actually remember to water them regularly.  I love sitting out there, looking at my flowers and watching the biker squirrels (as Danny calls them) running along the squirrel super-highway, aka the electrical lines.  Our neighbour's porch is close enough that Purrcy has jumped over to it (twice now). This has resulted in his losing his deck privileges, until we can either find a kitty harness that he cannot Houdini his way out of, or we get him micro-chipped. 

 

The back deck gets a bit warm in the afternoon, so we often eat dinner on the front balcony.  We painted the floor of the balcony and David replaced some rotten wood around the columns.  We completely redid the windows and the balcony door also. 

Shelves have been another big addition!  I have a new shelf in my office.  David has a new shelf in his office.  And we added four shelves to the spare bedroom closet. I have already managed to fill them all up.      

Many of the improvements are not things anyone would notice, but are super handy things to have, like...slow closers on the kitchen cabinet doors, an electrical outlet on the deck, wood floor repaired inside a closet and in the hallway, freshly painted shelves in the utility closet and hinges in the door to the living room.     

I really want to do some upgrades to the kitchen next, but we've decided to take a little break and maybe tackle that for a winter project (along with several new puzzles I've been swapping out).  We have another short trip planned to Tadoussac next week, that includes a whale watching tour.  So, be sure to check back, and maybe I will have some great whale stories to share. 

I hope everyone is staying healthy, and safe, and finding new ways to enjoy life and stay connected.  Ça va bien aller!  Everything will be all right! 

 

Here are "before" and "after" pictures of the window frames.