round hill summer 2014 9 comments
It’s been awhile since I wrote about how things are going at the Round Hill house. This has been a big summer here. A lot of work and a lot of money spent on the house, but all for the good. When I arrived here this season, there were pieces of shingles scattered on the front lawn. The roof was badly damaged on the east side, having taken a severe blow from the crazy winds that swept through Nova Scotia in late March. I immediately realized that there was no way that I could repair the damage and the roof had been reaching the point of replacement anyhow. I began searching around for a roofing company to repair the roof. All roads seemed to lead to the same local company, so I gave them a call and they visited to give me an estimate. It was not going to be a simple shingle job as the roof is fairly complex and my own investigations in the attic revealed that there were a lot of rotten planks that would need replacing. Anyhow, I went on a waiting list of houses that needed roof work this summer – many due to the same wind storm that wrecked my roof, and then the tropical storm aftermath of Hurricane Arthur. In the meantime, I put plenty of buckets around the attic to try to catch as much of the water that was pouring through areas of the roof. At last, a bit over a week ago, I got a call saying that the roofing crew would be able to start on my house if that was okay with me. I was more than happy to welcome them to begin work. It took about a week in total, but now the house has a great new roof. I’m very pleased. They did a really nice job of the tower — which is actually a rather scary thing to work on — and they even got the whale back in place after.
Of course, while all of the above was going on, I was busy with house projects too. One of my first projects for this year was to scrape and paint the floor of the downstairs guest bedroom. The hardwood is old and ripply, but I decided it was good enough to leave down, so I got it cleaned up and put down a couple of coats of paint. Above is how it looks. The perennial garden is just beyond the window.
Another big project for this year was to paint the floor in the front entrance hall. It’s actually a fairly large room. I painted the floor with an blue background and then began adding figures similar to those found on old mariner’s maps — mainly fanciful sea creatures. Above and below are a couple of the paintings. There are already several more and I have more to add before I’m finished.
In addition to all of the painting, I added more perennials to the flower gardens and also put in a pretty large vegetable garden. Then there has been all the weed whacking to do to keep the trails cleared around the property — of which there are many up and down to the river.
My other big project was to put down a 25 square foot tiled area in the front entrance hall (photo below) — I chose tiles appropriately named “Sand Dunes” to represent a beach on the edge of the mariner’s map floor. I’m pleased with how it turned out. It’s a great improvement over the punky, rotten, sagging floor that used to be there!
There are more projects remaining for this year. I have to repair a badly damaged plaster ceiling– the result of water coming in through the damaged roof. I’m also currently at work plastering the walls and ceiling of the last unfinished room of the house. It should be nice once completely done. There are more projects as well, but I’m not sure if I’ll manage to get every one of them finished, but my track record is pretty good.
9 Responses to 'round hill summer 2014'
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Yes, Rain, I don’t actually think this house would still be standing, or it would be in really terrible shape and maybe beyond rescue had I not begun working on it. There is a house about a quarter mile away from this one that was in about the same condition when I bought this place. It’s looking really pitiful now — I’d say it’s a tear down. Probably could have been rescued, but it doesn’t take long for old houses to fall apart in the maritime climate.
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I have so enjoyed watching your house evolve into a home- and that whale just makes me smile each time I see it 🙂
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This is just wonderful to see. The painted floors are gorgeous, and the whimsical maritime map figures of mythical ‘beasties’ seem to jump right out of the blue ‘sea’. You need a small sign on entering that says “beyond here there may be dragons.” (grin)
The roof looks terrific and so glad you got it in before the winter months. So nice to see a roofer who is honest and does fine work. Around here it is a crap shoot.
As for maritime, do you still canoe? I’m totally unfamiliar with weather or not you are on an inlet from the sea or on freshwater streams…but you have a nice stairway to water from last year in order to get somewhere if you so desire, and if it’s feasible.
Thanks so much for the pictures of your beautiful house and environs. It was worth the wait.
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Dear Bev,
great to hear from you again and to see yet more progress you are making on the house. I am very curious what the floor will look like once finished, with all the paintings done.
And I was wondering (just like Joan) if you are still canoeing. Don’t hear you about that anymore, nor see any pictures, in case you have made trips.
Did you get the drawings of the creatures out of a book? -
SO glad to see you back posting. I was thinking about you the other day and wondering. I see now why you haven’t had time to post. The house is looking good! I’d love to see pictures of the grounds and trails to the river.
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Hi Loes — I have not used the canoe in a long time. After Don died, I loaned it to some friends who kept it stored in their house for five years. This year, I was missing the canoe, so I finally picked it up and brought it to Nova Scotia. I hope to start using it again regularly the way that I used to when Don was still with me. Eventually, I will write about canoe trips around here. Regarding the creatures on the floor painting, they were inspired by images which I found on old mariner’s maps that I found online.
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Splendid, Bev, to see such progress. Old houses are so often two steps forward and three steps back, and freak storms can heartbreakingly undo work set about with such optimism. But your roof now looks sound and handsome again, and now you have the contact with the roofers in case anything needs doing in a hurry in the future. When you live in an historic property, good workmen are like gold in the bank!
Love the whale on the roof… of course… and the ‘sea beasts’ theme on the painted floor. Painted floors are the BEST!!! (-;
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Hello, Clive. So glad you stopped by to visit the blog!
You are so right about how progress on old houses can work — the two steps forward and three steps back. This year, it was more like four or five steps back, but the house and and I are rebounding from all the damage. Yes, the new roof is quite handsome. There is a sag in the top line that just can’t really be fixed without completely dismantling the post and beam structure — something that is beyond the scope of this restoration — but that doesn’t really have any effect on the soundness of the overall roof. In some ways, it just makes the whole house seem a little more quaint.
I so agree about good workmen being like gold in the bank. These old houses are not at all like modern houses and everything about them tends to be very idiosyncratic. Anyone who works on one has to know just how far to go in dismantling the old parts and when to stop. Also, to be inventive in how to solve problems and find and improvise with suitable materials. We ran into some of that on the roof project. At some point, the sides of a gable had been improperly flashed and shingled with cedar shakes. When the old roof was torn away, it was revealed that the cedar shakes were rotting away and everything was getting soaked inside. After some discussion, it was decided to remove the shakes and replace them with pine clapboard siding, spaced closer than normal to conform with the original ship lap siding on the rest of the house. It was good to have a crew who could come up with workable solutions to such problems!
Thanks regarding the whale on the roof and the “sea beasts”. I have had to stop working on those for awhile as I have too many other pressing jobs to take care of, but hope to get back to them soon. They have allowed me a creative outlet in what otherwise seems to have turned out to be a summer of pretty steady toil around here! Still, I love it here and would not trade what I am doing for just about anything else!
Very impressive and it looks like the house is beautiful. It being a home that could have ended up destroyed by age without someone like you to come along and change its trajectory.