Syrup Season 2017 - Tapping the trees!

As I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before, my parents live on 47 acres in the country on a maple farm. It's just a hobby farm, but every year we do roughly 1,200 taps. And since Ontario made Family Day a thing, it has become our tradition that Family Day Weekend is the time we all go to my parents and tap the trees.

My cousin, Spencer, drilling into a tree close to the Sugar Shack.

It's the little things in life

As I mentioned before, Jake and I spent our Valentine's Day framing up the doorway to the master bathroom. And strangely enough, this was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had (honestly, I loved it)... so Jake has set the bar REAL low for the future (his master plan I'm sure).

We had planned on framing up the door and then working on a bunch of blocking, but we only managed to get the door done. Why? Because one of the most evil things known to mankind intervened.

Math.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Original entrance to the back bedroom. 

So beautiful I could cry

Happy Valentine's day! Jake and I are spending the evening framing up the new doorway into our master bathroom. Super romantic, don't be too jealous! (I'm actually really excited to be getting this done ha ha. I've become so lame)

This past weekend we FINALLY finished demolition in the master bathroom.

You honestly have no idea how utterly thrilled this makes me. This room has been the thorn in our side for quite a while, mainly because we hit a snag and then suddenly didn't want to deal with plaster, or lath, or insulation anymore.

But it is done!

Let's go through it all from the beginning (I can't believe I'm doing a "before" and "after" for this room when literally all that is done is demo... but THAT is how happy it makes me)

Entry to the back bedroom/bathroom.
This is directly at the top of the stairs and will be the future home of our master bathroom!

Too many ideas to pick just one!

When thinking of the design of our dining room, Jake and I have similar ideas on what it should look like in general, but how we achieve that look seems to differ. Jake had suggested using stencils to get our ideal look and at first I was hesitant to go that route (I was leaning more toward wallpaper).

Just search "glamourous wallpaper" and you will not be disappointed.
Photo credit

Why we're doing what we're doing

I read a lot of old home renovation blogs. In the past year it has become something of an obsession. I adore binge-reading them and as I stated in my very first post they are part of the reason I wanted to buy an old house myself.

There are certain bloggers who are complete "renovators" and then there are die-hard "preservationists" and of course my favourites tend to lie right in the middle of those two extremes.

I would like to think that Jake and I fall in the middle somewhere, but perhaps leaning a bit more toward the "renovator" side of the spectrum.

To all of the old house purists and hardcore preservationists, here are our reasons for doing what we've done (which I'm sure is very appalling to most of you).

A necessary sidetrack

This weekend we had a very specific list for what we wanted to achieve at the house:

1. Measure the holes in the floor of the master bathroom and lay (and secure) plywood in them

2. Finish demolishing the master bathroom (holes covered so the debris won't fall down into the study)

3. Finish removing nails everywhere

4. Map out electrical

5. Pick up lumber and tools for dry rot replacement

We got a solid two and a half things done on that list. Sunday kind of threw us a bit of a curveball when we arrived at the house ready to finally finish the master bathroom and discovered that the door wouldn't unlock. 

Yep. 

We couldn't get into the house.

Many hands make light work

If you follow me on Instagram  or Facebook  you'll have seen my photo of the bracing wall that was erected in the living room this past Sunday and a brief description of the things we got done that weekend.

If you don't follow me on those social media platforms, you should. No, really. You should. Not even just for my own vanity's sake (although that is a REALLY important factor).

I post things on Instagram and Facebook that don't necessarily warrant a full blog post so you can see progress or fascinating finds or (I've decided this is going to be a new aspect) beautiful architecture that I come across without having to endure my endless talking.

BUT have no fear if you missed the photo mentioned above because here it is:

A view of the new bracing wall that was put up in the living room, looking toward the kitchen.