A Busy Summer

It is amazing how fast this past summer went by! I suppose one reason is because I was pretty busy with my various home renovation projects. And during that time I also acted as general contractor for some renovations at my mothers place as well as trying to maximize time spent at the summer camp.
At the end of July Desiree and Daelyn spent some time with us out at camp. Desiree had even come with a to-do list of activities she hoped to accomplish. I can say with confidence that we were able to do them all, from blue berry picking, making a pie, to metal detecting and fishing!

Here they are swimming with Janice:



Daelyn enjoyed herself down at our little beach digging in the sand:



And how can someone be camping and not roast marshmallows!



As usual the fishing was pretty good too as the small mouth bass were very cooperative!



I took a big bite out of the home renovation master plan by finishing to lay the new bamboo flooring in all the rooms except for the kitchen plus painting the master and spare bedroom. On the outside I took advantage of the fact that Jordan came to stay with us for almost a month and a half. During that time we stripped off the rest of the siding, put up foam board insulation on the 3 sides that had not yet been done followed by plywood sheathing. Then we took out the last of the old windows, replaced them with new and then put up house wrap. I then finished up by replacing the soffits and fascia as well as a new storm door on the porch.

Here are some pictures I took at various stages of the exterior work.

Jordan stripping off siding from the west side:



The house with the foam board, plywood sheathing, new windows, house wrap, soffits and fascia plus new gutters installed:



The next job planned is to put up either siding or some other exterior finish but that will be next years project!

In addition Jordan, myself and by sister Nancy and brother Stephen put up siding on 3 sides of my mothers house. There we did like at our house in that after the old insulation was removed we put up foam board insulation followed by plywood sheathing and house wrap before installing the siding.

Here is the south side of the house after the siding had been removed.



And here is Jordan screwing down the plywood sheathing on top of the 2 inch foam board on the north side. Together with the house wrap this will make her place much less drafty as well as warmer come winter time.



Here is Nancy finishing the south side with siding:



And Stephen and Jordan doing the same on the North side.



And here is the back:



Now our mother can live more comfortably this coming winter. Next year our brother David will act as general contractor as we will need to replace the roof!