Spring flowers in our garden

Rani and I both love beautiful gardens but we are far too lazy to achieve our ambitions. The gardens along the walkway leading to our house and in a few other places are quite pretty just now, so I thought I would capture a few shots before the weeds take over. Please note I have attempted to identify these flowers but may have got a few wrong - corrections are welcome!

The yellow irises were already growing here when we moved in. They are lovely but bloom only for a very short time

 

These phlox were also here when we arrived and surprise us every spring. I think the white flowers are a rock cress (see better picture below)

These cress are very hardy and tolerate dryer areas of our garden. They also spread very quickly

The lupines were lovely when we left for a walk this morning but a deer must have come through and cropped the blossoms today! Looks like it was done with bypass clippers... The lupines were planted from Nova Scotia seeds from my parents' garden and come back every year.

We have three peonies that are all descended from one plant that was here when we moved in. This little one only has one flower and bloomed for the first time last year.

These came from a hanging planter we bought the first year we were here. We were surprised but happy when, after planting them in the late summer, they came back the next year

We planted this rock cress in year one and they survive in our dry sandy soil with infrequent watering

These blue bells are all over the garden and come up under plants we have added, dying away in the late spring

This azalea bush has lovely blooms but has not grown substantially in the 5 years since we planted it - a testament to our gardening abilities

This columbine has pink flowers. The rest of our columbines are purple as opposed to our native ones, which I believe are orange.

Vinca grows well here. A variety of these periwinkles survived 10 years of benign neglect at the cottage.

This sedum has pretty yellow flowers and survives neglect and dry soil. We brought some to the cottage garden, too.

Rani has always wanted her own banana tree. Her mother and sister both have banana trees in their UK houses. This one survived the winter under a bucket with a pile of sawdust around its base. It is just getting started for the year.

This lilac bush dominates the garden outside our back entrance and blocks a good chunk of our washing line. We really need to cut it back this year. We have some blossoms in a vase now and they fill the living room with their lovely thick scent

Cottage on De Courcy Island

My parents built a cottage in the late 70's on an acre of lake front land on Ponhook lake in Nova Scotia. My brother and I spent our adolescence there swimming and boating and when we were in college having friends over and partying. When I left Nova Scotia in 2003 and there was no one left to use or look after the place, we sold the family cottage to friends. Being without a cottage was liberating in some ways because I no longer felt obliged to spend much of my free time in one place and was now free to travel  in my spare time. However, over the years, I missed having a place in the country with its wood fire, the morning mist rising on the lake, and the call of loons.

Our friend Andy, who has a cottage on Ruxton island, put us onto the idea of buying an inexpensive place on an island. Ruxton and neighboring De Courcy island are about 4 hours sail north of Maple Bay where we keep our boat. They have no BC ferry service, so you can only get to them by private boat, water taxi, or float plane. These islands are off the grid, with no power or wired communications and it is this and their inaccessibility that has, at least until recently, kept prices relatively low. This has begun to change during the Covid pandemic, which has increased demand in general for country properties.

Over the last two years we looked at lots on both islands and even put in offers on a couple of lots on Ruxton, but ended up buying an A-Frame a few weeks ago on De Courcy, about five minutes walk from the beach at the south end of the island. The lot is about one acre and the cabin is powered by a generator that charges a bank of golf cart batteries to provide electricity. The current solar panels provide only a small amount of electricity due to their size and tree shading. There is a propane fridge and stove, a drilled well, and an indoor bathroom and septic system. The home is insulated and the systems are adequate for full time living. In fact the previous owner lived on the island for much of the year, leaving only for a few months in the winter.

The A-frame cottage has a large screened in porch - this picture is several years old and was used to sell the property. The grass has reverted to moss and natural plants and the deck needs work...

We plan to spend about half our time out here at least during the spring, summer, and fall. The residents we have met have been very welcoming and are an eclectic and talented group of people, many of whom make the island their full time home. Some work from the island and there are even families who send their kids to Gabriola for schooling. There are no shops, but there are some families that sell eggs and apparently other produce will be available later in the year. Otherwise, one must go to Gabriola island or Nanaimo for groceries. 

Swamp Angel anchored at Pirate's Cove marine park on De Courcy island

The island has a marina run by a few of the locals and moorage is available for island residents only. We have not arranged this yet and anchor our boat in the provincial marine park lagoon or off the south beach.

Rani kayaks near Swamp Angel at anchor off the south beach. Valdes island is in the background and we look forward to exploring its trails

A bonus of living on De Courcy is access to the lovely wooded trails and tide pools found in Pirate's Cove marine park. We walk in the park most days. Rani has also been invited to walk with some of the local women who walk around the island each day on the road system. 

Rani enjoying the scenery along the Pirate's Cove park trail

The roads are provincially maintained and suitable for vehicles, although the only way to get a vehicle on or off the island is via a barge service. 

We bought a somewhat decrepit 1993 Dodge Caravan with the cottage. Very useful for getting supplies to and from the boat.

The cottage is located by a 'wetlands' area

The cottage overlooks what the realtors call a wetlands area. It is full of bird life now and the frogs sing us to sleep each night. 

Down by the water at the edge of the property

Deer proof garden   

There is also a garden fenced off from deer to the rear of the house. It has not been tended for a long time (the picture above is several years old) so we will be doing some restoration this summer.

The beach at the south end with Swamp Angel at anchor in the distance

Another view of the coves at the south end of the island with the mountains on Vancouver Island behind 

A cozy fire in the living room. Most furniture, dishes, and linens came with the place.

A raccoon makes its way across the pond by walking on water (probably on a submerged log!)

Upstairs is accessed via a real stair case rather than a loft ladder. The main bedroom is a good size and there is a small guest bedroom too.

There is a small work shop near the main house as well as a good sized wood shed and a building to house fuel  for the generators

Seaweed on the south beach

We are looking forward to sharing this place with friends and family when Covid restrictions are lifted.

A new bedroom

The Crofton rental house was a two bedroom house when we purchased it. To make it more attractive to renters we decided to add a third bedroom in the basement. There are large windows in the basement, two of which were in rough shape and needed replacing, so we decided to locate the bedroom such that it would have one of these new windows as well as an original fixed one on the other wall.

Our initial plans were for a large 16 by 12 foot room with a regular sized closet located so as to hide the cast iron plumbing. This, however, prevented movement around the basement stairs in one direction and obstructed access to the bathroom plumbing. So we opted for a smaller room, with an angled entrance to allow a four foot passage between the door and the stairs and moved the closet to the other side of the room to stay away from the bathroom plumbing.

Starting to frame up the walls

The photo above shows the first wall in place. Note the use of pressure treated lumber to raise the sill off the concrete just in case we experience issues with moisture. The basement perimeter has been completely ground out and filled with hydraulic cement as have all cracks in floor and wall and this, combined with drainage improvements outside, appears to have corrected the slight seepage issues we had initially. The ceiling was made from the existing 1/4 inch plywood that has been taped, plastered, and skip troweled to give a stucco appearance without reducing the ceiling height too much. We installed 4 LED pot lights - which were quite inexpensive (less than $100 for four) and very simple to install in 4.25 inch cutouts as they simple snap into place on spring loaded arms.

Doorway framed and door hung, knee wall in place so we can add electrical outlets and insulate the concrete wall.

Framing complete, insulation in place and closet framed out (on left). Note the angled doorway wall.

Our new tenants plan to put either a large armoire or a desk in the closet nook, so we decided to leave it quite open with an option to put on a door in the future. We also made the closet extra deep at about three feet.

Most of the drywall cutting was fairly simple but there were a few trickier cuts. We used a knife for most cuts and snapped the drywall and cut out the outlet boxes with an oscillating tool.

Rani screws in some drywall

We watched some excellent YouTube videos on dry-walling from Vancouver Carpenter and tried to put into practice what he suggested for tackling corners (inside and outside) as well as flat and butt joints. I made a hawk from plywood and bought 4 inch and 3 inch drywall knives to add to my 6 and 12 inch ones.  This project was the first one that Rani has helped on, after getting out of her quarantine. She has been a great help! 

Mudding the closet

Outside of bedroom with taping underway

Taping and mudding the flat joints.

We had some nice weather so took a break from dry-walling to install the two new windows in the back of the house.

Old window comes out. The window sill was rotted so we put in a new one of pressure treated wood

One new window in place. The blue stuff around the window is a butyl tape that seals the window frame to the underlying sheathing. 

Thermoproof is a local company that makes excellent vinyl windows. The window has been trimmed out with comb-face and sealed again with plenty of caulk.  

Back inside, we finished the plastering and sanding in a few days (3 coats) and then painted. 

Painting with our favorite colour - Burmese Beige, which we also used in the main floor bedrooms

Repainting the yellow trim on the original window. Rani actually did this job - I am just touching up.

After trimming out the windows inside, the next job was to install the floor. We used an underlay that allows for airflow underneath in case of moisture issues and is also waterproof and insulating.

Putting down the vapour barrier underlayment. You can see the cap we have added to the knee wall also in this photo.

We chose a "Canadian Walnut" laminate flooring made in Germany that has lovely colours and looks quite close to real wood due to beveled edges and varied grain and shade.

Flooring laid and window trimmed out

The last step was to install baseboards and a threshold. We also painted the outside of the room in a brighter whitish khaki.

Room finished - note electric baseboard installed.

We don't have a great picture of the room interior, but the above photo should give an idea of how it looks. We are happy with the results and were able to remain within our materials budget, with the exception of a bit more cost for lumber and trim wood than I had estimated. The project took about four weeks to complete.

    

Refinishing the wood floors

The wooden floors in the Crofton house were not cosmetically attractive, but much of this was caused by a layer of glue that had been used to fasten down a foam backed carpet. I remember a similar approach to laying carpet in the house I grew up in in the 1970's, so suspect that during the heyday of wall to wall carpeting, the hallways and living-room had been covered in a tasteful orange, yellow, or green covering. The good thing about this is that there was little damage to the maple floors. 

Living room walls have been repaired and gas fireplace vent installed in the wall. Ready for floor refinishing 

Living floor detail showing stains and glue, plus old varnish

The bedrooms are floored in Douglas fir and these had not been carpeted as far as I could tell. There were some scratches from beds and deeper grooves from a door that was a bit too close to the floor.

Bedroom floor in the middle of wallpaper removal. The old floors had a nice red patina but were water stained and scraped up

After much research on YouTube and in various blogs, I decided to use an old fashioned drum sander to take off the old finish and get the wood flattened and ready to varnish. The main alternative would have been a large multi-pad random orbital sander, but I had read that these were very slow and frustrating to use on floors that had a lot of marks or old varnish. I also rented an orbital edger.

Drum sander waiting for its first use in the hallway. 

 

Orbital edger - a quick and powerful way to sand the edges in the hands of a professional

On one excellent set of videos by Ben from HowToSandAFloor (e.g, his demo on drum sanding) I learned that the orbital edger is the most dangerous sander as far as doing instant damage to a floor - even worse than the big drum sanders, which can put a big groove in a floor in a second of inattentiveness! Ben is absolutely right and I quickly decided that the edger was not going to be a tool I would use on this job. In addition to being hard to control and cutting unevenly on the relatively hard maple floors in my amateur hands, the sanding disks clogged up extremely quickly with old melted varnish. Not being able to use the edger safely meant that I spent many hours hand scraping and using my small Bosch random orbital sander with the most aggressive paper I could find (40 grit) to finish the bits I could not do with the big drum sander,

N95 respirator helped with the dust, although the drum sander did a pretty good job of transferring the dust to its bag

The trick with the drum sander is to always keep it moving and to NEVER stop or change direction with the drum in contact with the floor. You start walking forward or backwards with the sander and gently tilt it down to make contact, like and airplane taking off or landing. It took a couple of days to get comfortable with this and by the end of a three day weekend I was feeling relatively confident. 

Drum sanding the living room maple floor after one pass - the dark areas on the edges will be finished later

I sanded first with 36 grit, then moved to 60 and finished with 100 grit. To run each grit over the living room took well over an hour, because you go both up and back on one pass and then move over about 4 inches at a time to overlap the last 8 inch pass. It took me at least twice as long to do each room as I had expected. You also need to unload the dust bag quite frequently and I filled two garbage bags full of sanding dust. 

Hallway after 60 grit sanding. Note the new drum sander sheet ready to fit

First pass in the master bedroom. All that lovely red colour has been removed but will come back over the years as the UV light ages the wood.

Bedroom floor - I am emptying the dust bag on the sander and cleaning up between changes of sandpaper

I was extremely concerned that the drum sander would be too vigorous a machine for the softer Douglas fir floors, but I was wrong. Maybe because I had practiced on the maple floors first, I did not have an issue using the coarse 36 grit drum on the softwood floors. I did make sure I kept moving smoothly and quickly with the sander. Note that the coarse grit paper is mandatory if you have a varnish on the floor because the finer papers will simply gum up and become useless almost immediately if this varnish is not removed first.

The random orbital sander at work on the edges in the bedroom. I also used a hand scraper and had to keep this very sharp using a file in order to remove the old varnish quickly. 

 Finishing the edges took another couple of days of scraping and sanding before I was ready to apply a varnish.

Living room floor ready to varnish. Note a few stains to the top right of this picture. These may have been caused by a dog. I tried to bleach them out with oxalic acid and while this did lighten the stains it also lightened the surrounding wood. I should perhaps have bleached the entire floor...

I chose water based varnish from Varathane that I had used in our own house with good results. It is not as hard as an oil based varnish but dries clear, does not yellow, goes on easily by brush or roller (although this can cause bubbles). It is also better for your brain in that it does not produce too evil an odour.

Living room floor varnished with gas fireplace ready to install

Hallway with first coat of satin varnish

Second bedroom ready for its final coat of varnish

I was very happy with the final results in the bedrooms.

Once the varnish was on I could see all the imperfections of my sanding - mostly small drum marks from starting and ending each pass but also lighter drum marks in the middle of the floors. If I was to do this again, I would rent one of the American Sander 3 pad random orbital sanders and make a pass with this at maybe 80 grit over the entire floor. This would also make finishing the edges quicker than with the small handheld random orbital.

The project was not all that expensive except in terms of labour, which as I mentioned above I grossly underestimated. The time spent could have been reduced by at least a day, though, if I had rented the big random orbital sander as well as the drum sander. I used a bit over 3 gallons of varnish at about $70 (Canadian) per gallon and the sander rentals and sand paper came to about $150.