Easter weekend

This Easter weekend we cleaned more nicotine out of the front hall (it took me 3 hours to get the fronthall closet doors cleaner), doorframes, and walls. Ward focused on the yard, and we all did a lot of leaf raking - the front yard looks somewhat cleaned up now. Ward also declared war on the groundhogs by dumping used catlitter in their holes (yes, YUCK...but definitely effective, we haven't seen them since) and stuffing the entrances and exits with used bricks that we had saved from the basement. Let's see if that will get rid of them...
Tree removal quotes for the three dead ash trees have been requested, and we made a start with getting wallpaper of the walls. Thankfully it is only a single layer, but definitely time consuming work!

Ward took on the daunting task of cleaning out the sliding bottom windows (oh... the dead insects :S)... what a difference!!

The kids were wonderful helpers. They carried bricks, collected branches, stuffed leaves into yard bags, and pulled wallpaper of the walls... all the while having great fun :)

The yard

With the snow now gone, the yard turns out to be as uncared for as the house. Years of leaves to be raked...

The grass was very tall before the winter...

But there is some sort of flower bed!

Result of three hours of hard work:

And maybe one twentieth of the property done LOL. 

Asbestos - removed!

This week, CityWide Demolition also came to remove the asbestos. Quite the operation...

But it is all out. And the basement walls look great, thank goodness (other than the repairs we already knew they needed). Whew!

old roof, new roof

Old roof...

New roof! :)

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

This lovely wood chuck (or groundhog) woke up from his wintersleep and apparently lives under our deck. I see a minor hick-up in the garden plans... 

People at work on the weekend of 25/26 March

On the weekend of  25/26 March, we had a babysitter for Ian and Louise on Sunday, so we could have a solid, uninterrupted work day. We vacuumed the carpets, removed all the doors and mirrors and stored them in the garage (to keep them safe when the real work starts), and salvaged a beautiful mid century floating shelving/cupboard unit from the basement. Ward also removed decades of cobwebs from around the electrical panel to ensure proper access and cleaned out the basement windows and hallway from cobwebs and other debris. He also ripped a once very sophisticated but now no longer working security system out to get rid of a lot of no longer required wiring.

Meanwhile, I (Maria) started washing the wood panels in what will be Louise's room...oh the tar and nicotine...😝 2 Hours, lots of murphy's oil soap and elbow grease later, one third of the room was clean(er).

This came off one of the squares:

I made an example out of a switch plate:

Thankfully, they saved a roll of the wallpaper for us!!! :)

Final contractor quotes should be in this week, the demo and asbestos removal set up, cigarette smoke remediation finished. 

Ikebana!

tar and nicotine

The smoke/odour removal company came and did a first treatment. It smells better but the years of nicotine on the walls will require some further cleaning.😐

We will get it clean! Ikebana!