Duty distribution

Having emptied the attic of the dreaded vermiculite, it was now time to take stock and decide where oh where to begin. The problem with a reno of this size as my Mr. felt the need to point out to me, time and time again ad nauseam, is that one project links to another. That being said my meticulously organized brain was having an issue wrapping my mind around that, I wanted to tackle one room at a time, one bathroom at a time etc. That was not going to happen as evidently creating 2 new bathrooms involved pretty much doing the plumbing for both simultaneously. Ok fine but I wanted to start in the largest, front room first, so with visitors imminent to help with our "project" we, and that is the "royal we" prepared to begin the demo of the wall that would be the entrance to the new bathroom.

A note of caution here, if you have friends willing to help, fantastic! However if you leave them to have at it make sure your instructions are very clear as one day we went out for a few hours to come home and discover the wall that was going to be partially removed in the first bedroom was now eliminated. As it turned out this was ok as the design changed repeatedly with regard to this ensuite.

I made the executive decision that multi tasking on this project was an absolute necessity if we were going to see any kind of progress. While hammering and sawing noises were going on upstairs I put myself to work in what is now the dining room and I must say when only cosmetic changes are needed for the most part it goes very quickly and you will see improvements on a daily basis.

I had decided when I saw this lovely large bright room that I wanted some architectural interest and as it involved the other "B" in B&B it had to be impressive. I choose a deep red/wine color for the upper portion of the wall as I felt it would really make the red in the stained glass adorning the front window really pop out and it surely did. I want to take a moment to talk about paint. I have always said if you want to make a wow and quickly, paint the walls, it is the cheapest and fastest way to make a total makeover, and really what is the worst that can happen? If you hate it, change it, don't be afraid of color, I can guarantee you, if you break out of the beige box you will not be disappointed and you will have more comments on your cozy room than ever before. As for choosing red, here again be warned it is not the easiest color to work with, a tinted primer is a must and even then be prepared that you will need 2 coats and maybe even 3 depending on what was on the wall and quality of paint.

I will include some before pictures of the dining room and as you can see it is a lovely large room and so I was eager to start here.

So this is one of the few rooms that was going to be wallpaperless, so just imagine the stripping that went on here before the paint, but really much like giving birth you really do forget how bad it is until you need to do it again. For the lower half of the room I wanted an ivory color with alot of molding detail, and this is where it got tricky, as "my" project suddenly needed my Mr. to do all the cutting of the actual molding and this was going to pull him away from the ever important new bathroom. But bless him he did as asked and the look is exactly as I had imagined, take a look, let me know what you think?

Notice as well the crown molding at the ceiling? I love the look of this but here's a secret it is actually a synthetic material which is a foam base. The good news is it looks really authentic, and it is light to work with, once painted it is fantastic. Bad news is, in old homes like this where nothing is square, well the corners are not as easily modified as when using wood, if you can live with slightly less than perfection then this may be a viable solution and relatively inexpensive as well, another plus is it is really light and easy to work with. This product is meant to be just glued on but I did not feel confident enough with that so we added a few nails using our air gun set on a light setting, the results were quite impressive.

Next I will talk about a faux tin ceiling, but much like the task itself I need to be well rested before tackling, I will be back.

Unseen Improvements

In any major renovation there is alot that needs doing that you cannot see. For the most part this really is the blood, sweat and tears of the job. We determined early on that the attic had vermiculite as an insulation source, now that would not have ordinarily bothered us but we know from the sale of our last house that it is a bother to any future buyers of our home.
Here is a site with an overall of asbestos (often found in vermiculite insulation}

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/yohoyohe/inaiqu/inaiqu_001.cfm

So basically asbestos is fine until disturbed, which is exactly what we did. Why? In the event we were ever to sell this home we would be asked to lower our price by thousands of dollars as removing vermiculite is a bargaining tool in many home inspections. I do not have an issue with that per say, in all liklihood now that I have been educated as to it's existence I may do the same thing.

We choose to do the removal ourselves GASP you say, well it has become very big business to have an abatement done on your home, in some cases it is extortion by fear, that being said we did our homework and dug into this job almost as soon as we arrived. I am in no way suggesting this is a do it yourself job and if any of the "professionals" are reading this they are probably having a good old fashioned freak out, so if you can pay to have it done then I say fill your boots, but for us this was not an option.

So my Mr. and our youngest suited themselves up in their bio suits with taped wrists and ankles and headed into the dreaded attic, as far as I am concerned the bats hanging upside down watching the operation were of far greater concern. Don't get me wrong we did take this seriously, even though it is PROLONGED exposure to asbestos that is the danger, we had a fan in the attic hatch acting as a negative pressure to prevent any fibres from entering the home, as well the hatch itself was sealed with a plastic tube for entering and exiting. After each day of sucking out the dreaded vermiculite suits were ripped off and disposed of and new ones replaced the next day. In all it took about 4 days to remove over 40 large bags of the stuff and then this was taken to the local dump whereupon it is buried (don't as me about the safety concerns there.)

We never tested our insulation so as far as we know it did not contain any asbestos at all but felt regardless it would still be an issue with any buyer intent on making a deal so why keep it.

So that was our first major task completed and I wish I had pics of my guys all suited up but it seems they have gone missing, ah well a job well done and now an attic empty of insulation in the month of March Brrrrrr!

Important Message

I interrupt this blog for an important message! Well actually not that important, however I felt I needed to post this sooner rather than later as I have had so many requests for a certain recipe that I will interject here.

Blueberry crumble muffins
1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 c veg oil ( I use whatever I have, canola, sunflower??)
1 egg
milk
1c blueberries (or whatever)
Crumble topping
1/4c sugar
1/4-1/2c flour
1/4c butter
1tsp cinnamon

prepare your tins, I use spray oil then dust with flour and they will pop right out. I also use the mini loaf tin so it looks like everyone gets their own little tea cake, but muffin tins are fine.
Mix flour,sugar, salt and baking powder. In a 1 cup measure crack the egg and whisk it with the oil, then add enough milk to fill it to the top, then mix with the dry ing. just until moist and fold in your fruit.
Bake 20-25min at 400

Please note this will only make 6 good size muffins so double if you need a larger batch. Get creative with fruit, peaches are fantastic as is apple (add a bit of cinnamon to the batter for apple), really any fruit works.

I have had rave reviews for these from many of our lovely guests so felt they needed to be shared. Please let me know how they turn out.

Now back to serious business......

Moving in

Let me start this entry by giving you somewhat of a time line. The house hunt commenced in September, so we found and then began the purchase of our future B&B. This was successful and we closed on that home at the end of October.
We listed our existing home sometime near the end of October. Our home sold in January and we had a closing date for the end of February. This means we had a big old house that we knew was going to sit empty until we sold, which turned out to be 4 months. That being said we were not completely comfortable with this, add to that the insurance company was no more thrilled than we were, so what to do?

Fortunately for us we have amazing kids, and the youngest volunteered to stay in the house from December until the end of February when we would arrive. Now picture an old, empty house at night with only one person in it, I must say the creaks and groans were somewhat daunting even to a fearless 21 year old, but bless him he stuck with it.

So we loaded up our huge rented truck and made our way East. Moving in the winter is not something I would ever recommend to anyone. By the time we got all of our worldly goods into the house the temperature plummeted indoors and felt below freezing as the doors were open for so long, but in it all came to await placement another day, in fact the tricky part was deciding where to put everything in the interim as we would be under construction very soon.

Some pictures have been added to give you an idea of what lay ahead for us, I can hear you gasping from here, but not to worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel or so I have been told.

Ok, so just to be clear, I have nothing against wallpaper as you will see in future posts, however there comes a time in history when we just need to say good bye to the old and embrace the new. Embracing the new involved hour upon hour of paper stripping making me somewhat of an expert. Being a self proclaimed expert I will pass along to you what worked for me.

There are many products out there designed to remove paper, from chemical peelers to steamers to scoring tools. I did try some of the chemical solutions added to water and frankly found no difference to just using water. In fact unless you are prepared to get down and dirty with this job, then abdicate and allow someone else the pleasure. A bucket and a good sized sponge did the trick and in my opinion is the only effective way to tackle this job, yes the water does run down your arm and into your armpit but you will get used to it after a few hours. Let the wall soak for a few minutes and the paper will just peel or scrape off, if there are multiple layers obviously this takes longer, but in some cases the top layers are dry and brittle and will peel off dry leaving you the final layer to soak and scrape. A word of warning about the scoring tools, these are designed to leave a porous finish to the paper so the water will soak in better, however they can also leave grooves and dammage the walls. We were dealing with plaster walls so I would never recommend on this surface simply to soft and you will need to plaster over the grooves caused by the tool, not worth it in my opinion. This tool needs to have just the right ammount of pressure put to it in order not to press to deeply against the wall.

Once you have removed the paper there will be residue left, kind of a gummy stickyness which is just old glue. If you are painting the previously papered walls you will need to wash the walls down. I used TSP powder added to water and it worked beautifully, it is hard on the hands so I suggest rubber gloves for this job. ( I didn't use them, but that's just me)It is probably a good idea to clean the walls even if you are going to re-paper, a good clean surface is much better for hanging new paper.

SUCCESS!!!!

As the search continued for the perfect house we also considered an existing B&B that might just be for sale. I had fantasies of fast tracking this undertaking with nary a lath and plaster dust bunny to be seen. Alas it was not to be, the ones I could live in were waaaaaaay out of our price range and the one that might have worked had suffered the fate of having all of its character stripped out of it, sigh, back to square one.

There was however one house added to our list fairly late in the game and I for one was quite excited to view this one. Finally the day came, and I must admit as we drew closer my heart was doing a little salsa but in a good way. My first impression, green. Not a good green, picture a mint variation of pepto bismol. On the plus side, it was quite large, right on the old highway, a two lane route favored by tourists, and the price was great.

To say my Mr. was uninspired from the outside would be an understatement, partly because his heart had not recovered from the rodent infested morgue we had seen previously. As we entered what would come to be “our house” I instantly saw the potential of this big old place and went to work on convincing my better half why this needed to be the place for us. Was it the dream house I had envisioned? Well, no, it seemed to meet the criteria of location, style of home, this would be a start up operation and it was the right size for the venture we were looking for, having said that, this old gem needed a lot of work. A LOT of work! I could envision it working, my Mr. spent roughly 10 minutes in the house and was then outside checking on property criteria.

As is usually the case in house hunting it is often the woman who holds sway, and although I did some convincing that was certainly the case here. Slowly we both came to realize that with a wall moved here and a bathroom constructed there, this just might work, so then on to the technicalities of purchase. Once the decision was made we once again through our rose colored glasses fixed firmly in place felt this would all happen without a glitch and we would be ensconced in our new home in the near future.

Some advice for any out there planning a similar endeavor, as we quickly learned, some mortgage companies will not endorse a home being used as a B&B, this we found out soon enough and I must admit were quite deflated as we had been with this particular institution for some time. Thankfully for us finding another mortgage was relatively easy as I had been associated with my bank for many years and they took care of us without any issues, even though we had not yet sold our current home. Having said that, at the time of purchase the home was just that, a home, not a B&B, therefore we purchased it as such, so be advised that we can at times give more information than is really necessary and thereby shoot ourselves in the foot needlessly.

So mortgage hurdle accomplished, next would be insuring this old treasure, easy peasy right? No. Again be advised that some insurance companies will not insure a B&B, we had to search, but did eventually find one that would, obviously they are out there as there are a proliferation of B&B’s in Nova Scotia. So another hurdle successfully jumped.
I have included a few pictures to give you an idea of what we saw initially and give you a feel for the place, enjoy.

The Elimination process

                                 

So the decision has been made to begin our new life as B&B owners, so predictably out comes my checklist. Prepare house for sale, check. List our home with a local agent, check. Stage the home to look like a model home at all times, check. Prepare for our house hunting trip East, check.

These were exciting times, as often is the case the idea or anticipation of a dream is more of a high than the actual reality of that dream.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of highs since the dream became a reality; however I believe to take such a monumental plunge we do really need to see things at least initially through rose colored glasses.  It’s the old “If I knew then….” but who would take risks, chances, adventures if all you could envision were problems and obstacles? I digress.

We felt fully prepared when we arrived in Nova Scotia with our stack of MLS listings in hand. In fairness, it is mostly thanks to our lovely daughter in law, who is a native of this gorgeous province that we were as organized as we were. She helped us chart a route of house hunting so we could maximize the 7 days we had to find and then hopefully purchase our new dream home. We really had no criteria for location, but as we began looking at homes we soon realized that there were locations that would just not work.

One example was a stunning stone mansion with most of its original features intact right down to the indoor recessed shutters on all the windows. Size was perfect, layout would need some work and grounds lovely, however it was so far from any beaten path that tourist drive-by traffic would be virtually non-existent.  In another instance the home once again was a large Victorian but the price was high and then to factor in renovations to make it B&B worthy, well, too rich for our blood. One home in particular that my Mr. had been fond of for years turned out to be the greatest disappointment upon viewing it.  Location was in a very popular town so that was a plus, price was ok as well, upon entering this one we were hit with the unmistakable odor of decaying rodent, in fact I am sure there were more than one. Nothing says GET OUT like the smell of dead mice, but to be fair even if we could have championed the deceased, the home had been broken up into apartment like dwellings and would cost a small fortune to restore to a single family style dwelling. Add to that was the fact that this particular town had regulations an arms length that you had to meet before you even began to get the dream from fantasy to reality, it was over before we began really.

First the dream

                                            First the dream

Welcome to all of you who will share in the documentation of our B&B experience.

We will start at the beginning and my writings will include stories, anecdotes, perspectives, opinions, how-to blurbs and hopefully a lot of humor!!

Writing about this adventure and at times utter insanity is almost as fulfilling as actually taking on the challenge of not only a move to another province, buying a large home and then proceeding to gut it in order to begin the B&B journey.

Our first introduction to the B&B experience came by way of a gift, and while I was very grateful for the gift of this weekend away from 3 young children, I must admit I had mixed feelings. It has been my experience that typically it is the male counterpart who is most likely to balk at the thought of staying at a B&B, but in our case it was me who had the issue as I felt that staying in a complete strangers home was, well, just a wee bit creepy.  Once I got past the initial awkwardness, I was able to see what the attraction was. This particular home was a beautiful sprawling Victorian bursting with antiques; one didn’t know where to look as there was just so much history and character to be felt there.

Over the years we or rather I broke out of my comfort zone and frequented a variety of Inns and found ourselves critiquing (not in a malicious way) the places we had chosen to stay. Eventually the path led to us realizing that this was something that not only we would love to do, but that we would be darn good at. So due to circumstances, 3 kids at home being the largest of those circumstances we kept the dream alive by discussion (at times rather animated) of what and when we would endeavor to run our very own B&B.

Fast forward to roughly 2 years ago when we said “ok, this is it, now or never.”

So specifically we were looking at a few criteria:

• Where
• Style of home
• Existing or new start up
• Size of operation