It’s hard to believe that 5 months have passed since I was last at our property in Nova Scotia. Last summer was incredibly productive and many major jobs were completed on both the raw land and house. After purchasing the property without seeing it in person, we knew there would be some major work needed and we relished the opportunity to polish a diamond in the rough. I think deep down everyone has this romantic feeling of giving love to a seemingly unloved/derelict property. Maybe part of this idea comes from the movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, where the abandoned old house becomes their forever home. It’s a romantic story if we can pull it off but not everyone has the ‘cajones’ to undertake project like this (and that’s a good thing!). I’ll likely write about our previous experiences which prepared and propelled us in this direction - but even with that experience, we’re still shaking in our boots.
How do you eat an elephant?
That’s an easy one - one bite at a time. The big picture would suggest that this is way too much work for what it’s worth and that you could save yourself time and stress by purchasing a more complete and well kept property. What I’ve learned over my life is that you cannot dwell on the enormity of the situation you’re in. Take it one minute, one hour, one day, one week or one job at a time. Adjusting your focus and energy this way helps to block out that fear or nagging voice in your head telling you that you cannot possibly do this. It’s kind of a life hack that helps compartmentalize what needs to be done to achieve the bigger picture, which in this case is a livable house and property.
Last year the focus was on the following:
- clearing portions of the land specifically around the old house (to ensure no dead trees fell)
- setting up a simple off grid power system and satellite internet (so I could work remotely)
- making a temporary composting toilet/outdoor shower
- securing and improving our garage/storage situation
- getting in professionals to lift/pour a brand new house foundation basement and install a new metal roof
- starting the internal gutting process
- starting to prepare/examine the exterior cedar shakes on the house
While I am certainly happy with that progress, we now shift our focus on pushing to get this house livable. Last year there might have been some excuses on why we couldn’t go further on some projects surrounding the structure. “We need to wait for the foundation first. We need to wait for a proper roof otherwise we’re just throwing our money away”. Now there is no excuse - it’s go time!
After seeing the impacts of hurricane Fiona first hand and knowing the limitations of Nova Scotia hydro, we are now moving forward with being fully off grid instead of re-establishing our power grid connection (which may have required additional clearing and installation of power poles). It was very comforting to know that in the hours after the storm passing, I could simply flick a switch and still have power available to me while neighbours struggled for weeks, if not months, to get back online. Some folks might call us “preppers”, but there is something to be said for future proofing your life in the wake of increasingly uncertain times with the climate (and who doesn’t want to be ready to fight off zombies!). This adaptation has caused us to re-think our strategy on how to develop our off-grid system to be able to support a full house. Additional battery packs, solar panels/wind power and intense research on home essentials like hvac, hot water heater and washer/dryer have been looked at. It’s safe to say that heat pump technology will be our best friend and we’re also looking at having dual systems in place in case of failure. A centralized wood burning cookstove is now in our plans to ensure we have options on ways to cook/stay warm. We have an abundance of forested area and recently downed trees to make use of so it seems like a no brainer.
So how are we breaking down the upcoming Summer projects? Well, many of our days off during the winter were spent researching and looking into unique ways of laying out our bathrooms and kitchen. There are still several tasks that need be done before we can get to that point, but it’s nice to be forward thinking so we can prepare accordingly.
We’ll be focusing on the following projects in the first portion of the summer(which are broken down by area):
-Exterior of house - This encompasses installation of new windows, repairing/replacing cedar shakes, trim work, painting
-Interior of house - Continuing the gutting process, framing out any new interior walls, rough in of plumbing/electrical
-Land - New Laundry line installed, permanent outdoor shower set up, forest clearing/tree pruning, planting new orchard trees, preparing and building nutrients in soil for future gardens
The hope is to have the majority, if not all, of these done by end of July and start on insulation, finished walls and design choices. We won’t tie any of these jobs to a firm timeline as some jobs can turn out to be longer than anticipated - which is more often than not with an old house. While it’s unlikely the house will be livable by the end of this season, it will be fairly close which will set us up nicely for a 2024 move in target.
- Nik