Well, I've been back in Ottawa for about 6 weeks now so perhaps it's time for some random jotting - although I've discovered that my random jottings tend to upset some of my relatives. So let's clear up what I was saying way back on September 14th.
I made the mistake of saying there was such a thing as too much company - this comment had absolutely nothing to do with the particular company I had this summer, but rather, with my own failings.
When we first purchased our house in Lockeport, many of the locals asked us whether or not we would continue running a bed-and-breakfast. We did actually consider it - looked into provincial regulations, insurance etc. This was for a couple of reasons: firstly, Lockeport needs all the tourist business it can muster which means accommodations are needed for these tourists, and, secondly, we thought it might be interesting in retirement to meet people from all over the place and see fresh faces. We had enjoyed (mostly) the 10 years we rented out rooms at Pleasant Park - tenants like Andrew, Norm, Fred, Kim, Bryce, Toby, Mary Ann, Nandeesh and Jag were almost family by the time they left us. However, given the number of family and friends we expected to visit us, we decided a bed-and-breakfast wouldn't be very practical since our company would want to visit in the same brief window of time as we could expect any B&B clients - as I have said to several people "who wants to visit Lockeport in February?".
This summer proved we made the right decision - several nights we had all our guest rooms occupied and for an entire month there was always someone visiting. Unfortunately, Wayne wasn't there for a lot of the time (since he has yet to retire) which left me to"entertain" lots of guests, clean rooms, wash linens etc. All of this made me realize I could not have run a B&B anymore - I get tired and grumpy too easily and I feel responsible for my guests enjoying themselves which can be difficult with wildly disparate groups, ages, interests etc.
Some of my guests after reading my blog felt that I meant I didn't want them visiting any more - far from my intention! The comment was "me" centered - the realization that I am slowing down very rapidly and unable to function nearly as well as I could a few short years ago, a fact that becomes brutally evident when I am faced with lots of stair-climbing, late hours or a host of other problems. I often wonder how I managed to take sailing lessons (only 4 years ago!) when the thought of even getting my deteriorating body into a Lazer now seems impossible.
Anyway, guests who have come (and those of you who keep saying you are coming to visit), please be reassured that you are welcome. Our sleepy little town, simple lifestyle and beautiful province aren't to everyone's taste, but I hope you will come and see for yourselves.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
How Much is Exercise worth?
In my Universal Truths, I forgot a very important one - going to a gym is not worth driving 128 km round-trip. That's what I've been doing twice a week all summer to go to Curves in Liverpool.
It's my own fault - last winter when I was looking for an exercise programme which my poor old knees could handle, I thought it would be good to find something which I could continue here in Nova Scotia during the summer. I looked at Good Life, but the Super Stores here don't have any included (and the nearest SuperStore is in Liverpool too for that matter even if it had a gym).
Curves seemed like a good solution - all female, good variety of machines, 10,000+ facilities world-wide and your membership is portable - you can have a visitor's pass to take along for up to a month and if you are somewhere longer than that you can simply switch your membership over to the new facility. In Ottawa, I was going 4 times a week (they recommend 3 times) and found it mostly fun and an opportunity to chat to lots of women, many of whom I knew from various activities over the years. I had to drive about 4 km each way. No sweat - except at the gym.
Here in Nova Scotia, I switched my membership to the Curves in Liverpool which is 64 km away. I have been going twice a week and having to force myself to make the drive every time.
During 6 weeks in July and August, I had a friend, Kathy, from Ottawa to share the driving. I would drive to the car pool parking in Sable River (18 km) to meet her and from there we would take one of our cars - someone to share gas costs and chat with. Those weeks were easy. But since Kathy returned to Ottawa and the sun is coming up later, I am finding it harder and harder to make the trip. The cost of Curves is now $55.36/month for the membership plus about $120/month for gas, and I'm not going 3 times a week! So, when my year's membership is up, or at least when we come back down here next spring/summer, I will have to quit Curves and find another exercise solution.
Or go broke.
It's my own fault - last winter when I was looking for an exercise programme which my poor old knees could handle, I thought it would be good to find something which I could continue here in Nova Scotia during the summer. I looked at Good Life, but the Super Stores here don't have any included (and the nearest SuperStore is in Liverpool too for that matter even if it had a gym).
Curves seemed like a good solution - all female, good variety of machines, 10,000+ facilities world-wide and your membership is portable - you can have a visitor's pass to take along for up to a month and if you are somewhere longer than that you can simply switch your membership over to the new facility. In Ottawa, I was going 4 times a week (they recommend 3 times) and found it mostly fun and an opportunity to chat to lots of women, many of whom I knew from various activities over the years. I had to drive about 4 km each way. No sweat - except at the gym.
Here in Nova Scotia, I switched my membership to the Curves in Liverpool which is 64 km away. I have been going twice a week and having to force myself to make the drive every time.
During 6 weeks in July and August, I had a friend, Kathy, from Ottawa to share the driving. I would drive to the car pool parking in Sable River (18 km) to meet her and from there we would take one of our cars - someone to share gas costs and chat with. Those weeks were easy. But since Kathy returned to Ottawa and the sun is coming up later, I am finding it harder and harder to make the trip. The cost of Curves is now $55.36/month for the membership plus about $120/month for gas, and I'm not going 3 times a week! So, when my year's membership is up, or at least when we come back down here next spring/summer, I will have to quit Curves and find another exercise solution.
Or go broke.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
More Universal Truths
A few items I forgot yesterday:
you can't help those who won't help themselves
I REALLY don't like dogs!
creativity begets creativity
Nova Scotia is an extremely friendly place
I kind of like genealogy, frustrating though it can be - here's my great-grandpa, James Spencer Hoodless
you can only boil a kettle dry 5-6 times before you need a new kettle :)
being retired is hard work so far!
loneliness is a cancerous growth
There are likely others I have missed, but I'm going to go lose some more Scrabble games for a while.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Universal Truths
At least for my universe.
The last four months I have had lots of time to be introspective since I have spent several weeks all by myself (except for the cat who tends to sleep much more than he converses). The following are some of my universal truths I have discovered:
the most important thing in my life is my family
updating an old house is a lot of work
there is such a thing as TOO much company (not a non-sequitor - there were times when I had 7 other people here, none of them my husband)
immediate family make great guests 'cause you don't have to "entertain" them
28 windows is a LOT of caulking
caulking inside a built-in bookcase is impossible (Christine might be small enough to do it!)
I'm not anywhere near as good at Scrabble as I thought I was
lawyers can be great chefs / don't judge a restaurant by its bowling alley
The last four months I have had lots of time to be introspective since I have spent several weeks all by myself (except for the cat who tends to sleep much more than he converses). The following are some of my universal truths I have discovered:
the most important thing in my life is my family
updating an old house is a lot of work
there is such a thing as TOO much company (not a non-sequitor - there were times when I had 7 other people here, none of them my husband)
immediate family make great guests 'cause you don't have to "entertain" them
28 windows is a LOT of caulking
caulking inside a built-in bookcase is impossible (Christine might be small enough to do it!)
I'm not anywhere near as good at Scrabble as I thought I was
lawyers can be great chefs / don't judge a restaurant by its bowling alley
Nerd Test Results
After seeing this on Kev's blog, I thought I should try it. Disappointingly middle of the road, I would say.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Let the Games Begin!
Today we will start doing some of the serious renovation work for our energy improvements.
Yesterday, Wayne arrived back from Ottawa and cut a hole in the ceiling of the north parlour so we could examine the condition of the walls above the dropped ceiling. Surprise! The wall is bare studs above both windows in the north wall and there is also a small strip where you can see the lathe above the east window. This means that when the blown-in insulation arrives, it will fill the entire ceiling cavity - rather expensive and messy if we ever want to fix up that room.
So, we need to move all the junk out of the way - if you've seen the room you know that that in itself is a major job. Then tear out the ceiling along the wall, install new wall board and hope it's tight enough. No problem - except the insulation firm called last evening to say they would be here on Monday.
A busy weekend ahead. Oh yes, the results of our energy audit - on a scale of 0 to 100 our house made a resounding 6 - our target is 57 in the next 18 (17 now) months.
On the plus side, the original ceiling above the acoustic tile one looks to be in very good shape.
Yesterday, Wayne arrived back from Ottawa and cut a hole in the ceiling of the north parlour so we could examine the condition of the walls above the dropped ceiling. Surprise! The wall is bare studs above both windows in the north wall and there is also a small strip where you can see the lathe above the east window. This means that when the blown-in insulation arrives, it will fill the entire ceiling cavity - rather expensive and messy if we ever want to fix up that room.
So, we need to move all the junk out of the way - if you've seen the room you know that that in itself is a major job. Then tear out the ceiling along the wall, install new wall board and hope it's tight enough. No problem - except the insulation firm called last evening to say they would be here on Monday.
A busy weekend ahead. Oh yes, the results of our energy audit - on a scale of 0 to 100 our house made a resounding 6 - our target is 57 in the next 18 (17 now) months.
On the plus side, the original ceiling above the acoustic tile one looks to be in very good shape.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I think we failed!
Well! Our energy audit was very enlightening. It took 3 1/2 hours for the engineer to poke into all the corners of our house and measure everything. On the plus side our windows (replaced in 2002) were great as were our choice of low flush toilets, the appliances we have replaced and our programmable thermostat.
The last step was to do a partial vacuum test for drafts. This our poor old house failed miserably - partially because of all our mid-construction projects so there are air leaks from open walls and ceilings sucking in air from the attic and the uncovered original floor boards at the back of the house and in the library let air in from the basement. Since we have R0 (except in a couple of spots we have renovated), there is lots of air flow through the walls and attics. It was so bad that I don't think we got a valid base reading from which to improve.
We did discover lots of small leaks that we can fix (in addition to the obvious ones mentioned above). We need to caulk all our baseboards and around the trim on a couple of windows. We need to spray foam insulation around all the electrical breaks in the attic (before the insulation is blown in). We need to put the little foam sheets in our electrical outlets and switches and Dave also recommended using the child-proofing electrical plugs for outlets not in frequent use. None of our 3 fireplaces have dampers - we planned to do something with the living room one (either block it off or put in an insert if one can be found) but the surprise was the other 2 in the dining room and north parlour - neither is functioning but there sure was lots of air coming out of them when we thought they were closed off. Yet another project.
We also found a couple of holes - in the back of our clothes closet in our bedroom is an old stove pipe circle which is cemented over, however the wall is far enough from the chimney that a gale blows down from the attic. In Will's room, there is a vertical shaft in the closet wall (very strange construction seems to be the problem - probably using whatever pieces of wood were around) which had another gale blowing down it.
Besides the insulation of the attic and walls, he also recommended insulating the basement walls in the header spaces and partially down the wall - this is feasible for part of the basement anyway; there is a several hundred pound metal cistern in the way for one corner - how we get that out of the way I don't know. He also wants us to insulate the crawl space, either from the outside (doable but an expense we can't afford), from the inside (completely un-doable since most of the crawl space is inaccessible) or insulating the underside of the floors above the crawl space (also un-doable due to the access problems).
We also got about 5 pounds of literature to help us save energy, do these projects and/or cure any insomnia we may have. There is info on lots of topics including grey water recycling, all types of heat sources, how-to books and lots of little tips. There are government grants for many of the improvements that one can make and we'll qualify for a few of them is we can get the work done within 18 months. Anyone who wants to help out with the work is welcome to volunteer!
In a few weeks, we'll get the written report on our home and an energy guide rating for the present condition of the house and a target we should be aiming for based on the construction, age etc. of the building. I'm wondering how high we will be.
Lots of work to do!
The last step was to do a partial vacuum test for drafts. This our poor old house failed miserably - partially because of all our mid-construction projects so there are air leaks from open walls and ceilings sucking in air from the attic and the uncovered original floor boards at the back of the house and in the library let air in from the basement. Since we have R0 (except in a couple of spots we have renovated), there is lots of air flow through the walls and attics. It was so bad that I don't think we got a valid base reading from which to improve.
We did discover lots of small leaks that we can fix (in addition to the obvious ones mentioned above). We need to caulk all our baseboards and around the trim on a couple of windows. We need to spray foam insulation around all the electrical breaks in the attic (before the insulation is blown in). We need to put the little foam sheets in our electrical outlets and switches and Dave also recommended using the child-proofing electrical plugs for outlets not in frequent use. None of our 3 fireplaces have dampers - we planned to do something with the living room one (either block it off or put in an insert if one can be found) but the surprise was the other 2 in the dining room and north parlour - neither is functioning but there sure was lots of air coming out of them when we thought they were closed off. Yet another project.
We also found a couple of holes - in the back of our clothes closet in our bedroom is an old stove pipe circle which is cemented over, however the wall is far enough from the chimney that a gale blows down from the attic. In Will's room, there is a vertical shaft in the closet wall (very strange construction seems to be the problem - probably using whatever pieces of wood were around) which had another gale blowing down it.
Besides the insulation of the attic and walls, he also recommended insulating the basement walls in the header spaces and partially down the wall - this is feasible for part of the basement anyway; there is a several hundred pound metal cistern in the way for one corner - how we get that out of the way I don't know. He also wants us to insulate the crawl space, either from the outside (doable but an expense we can't afford), from the inside (completely un-doable since most of the crawl space is inaccessible) or insulating the underside of the floors above the crawl space (also un-doable due to the access problems).
We also got about 5 pounds of literature to help us save energy, do these projects and/or cure any insomnia we may have. There is info on lots of topics including grey water recycling, all types of heat sources, how-to books and lots of little tips. There are government grants for many of the improvements that one can make and we'll qualify for a few of them is we can get the work done within 18 months. Anyone who wants to help out with the work is welcome to volunteer!
In a few weeks, we'll get the written report on our home and an energy guide rating for the present condition of the house and a target we should be aiming for based on the construction, age etc. of the building. I'm wondering how high we will be.
Lots of work to do!
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