House Exterior Summer 2017

This is a post to just mention some of the exterior work that I will need to tackle soon.

Over the winter or spring, I noticed that my electrical pole had come loose from the top, where it's anchored to the house. The reason: the two top plastic brackets had broken. Easy fix, but it took me about a month to pick up the supplies and actually get it done. I replaced all 4 brackets with new ones, and I did that yesterday.

In the photo below, the blue arrows show the brackets I replaced. The red arrow is another clip that had been torn out. The clip was still attached to the wire, so I only had to change the screw.



I should note that even though this was only about a 20-30min job, this was TERRIFYING for me to do, because it involved being up about 15 feet on a crappy and rickety ladder. I don't deal well with heights.

The entire top of the pole was curved away from the house. I thought I had taken a "before" photo. I looked everywhere for it, and apparently I didn't take one.



There are still a whole bunch of other small issues on the outside of the house that will eventually need attention.

There's still the hole in the fascia from the squirrels (which is blocked-up with metal mesh wire). Then there are the old grooves/tracks/brackets from previous electrical hookups. I'd love to remove all this and patch the siding. I have all the siding that was on the porch that I could use here. Currently these tracks are letting in some water into the porch. I still have the hole in the ceiling tongue and groove inside the porch. All the porch windows are also badly in need of restoration. Lots of the putty is flaking out and they need paint.



I have an oak sapling growing under the porch as well. Probably due to a squirrel, since the large oak tree is about a block away. I've sprayed it with Round-Up (poison) but it will need another application. I also still badly need to redo the porch bottom. I'm getting rid of the lattice and installing panels.



A while back I had a piece of metal fascia flashing that tore off this corner of the house. I also have a few torn-off roof shingles.



Then there are the garage/shop doors. I've hated the olive garage door since BEFORE I owned the house. It's hideous. I had planned to install folding doors, but I may just keep this door. Either way I want to paint this either white or light grey like the porch base. I also need to fix the trim around the 2 doors.



Two problems here. For some unknown reason, my exterior plug isn't working anymore. I have no idea why, but it will need to be fixed. Then there is the window. This is not high on my list, but the wood frame around the cement (that holds in the window) is pretty badly rotted. There is always water splashing on this window (it's always dirty).



On the other window, I noticed that the chip-board (installed by a previous owner) is starting to rot and flake apart. It might be nice to close this off with brick or cement, or even metal flashing rather than wood. I was also told a few years ago that the black PVC pipes for the furnace are no longer up to code. They now need to be the white PVC, since apparently there's a chemical in the off-gassing that causes the black pipes to deteriorate.

Seaway International Bridge Walk

Hey blog buddies, I can't believe how far behind I am with posts on my blog lately. I've been meaning to make a post for the bridge walk for over a month now.

For those of you who aren't familiar with my home city of Cornwall, Ontario, I'll give you just a very quick overview.

For the longest time, we were mainly known for our stench, as a paper mill town. If you've ever passed through a city/town with a paper mill, you'll know what I mean by the smell. For the most part of my life, I lived at the far end of town way east of the paper mill, so the smell wasn't an issue, but any time we'd drive near the factory the smell was unmistakable. The stink is mainly caused from the boiling of the wood pulp in chemicals to soften and bleach it. The paper mill actually shut down operations several years ago, and 90% of the vast property and buildings have been cleared.

One of the other major landmarks in Cornwall is the Seaway International Bridge, which connects Cornwall to Cornwall Island (Native Reserve) and then leads to New York state (USA) by a second (suspension) bridge.

A few bridge facts:
- Built in 1962.
- 3000 tons of rebar were used in the construction of the deck.
- 41,000 tons of concrete were used.
- The bridge contains 5700 tons of steel girders.
- It took 32,000 gallons of paint to paint the bridge.
- The bridge is 120 feet high. The bridge was originally built to allow tall ships to pass underneath it, but none ever did.
- The bridge cost 8.2 million to build in 1962, which is roughly equivalent to 43 million today.
- 78% of the bridge is over land.
- Over the past 52 years, 78.2 million cars and 3.9 million transports have crossed the bridge.

That said, the bridge is being demolished starting this week. A new (and short) low bridge has been built, and is already in use, and will replace the old bridge. The old bridge has been costly over the years to maintain, and is in pretty poor shape (as you'll see from the photos).

I had been hoping to be able to make it onto the bridge to take photos for several months, but as soon as the new bridge went into operation, the old bridge was barred-off with a barbed-wire fence.

Then, in early July, just a few days before the event, I saw on Facebook that the Seaway International Bridge Corporation was going to open the bridge to everyone for the "Final Bridge Walk" which was to take place Tuesday July 8th, from 2pm to 8pm. I found it a bit odd (and unfair to a lot of people) that the bridge would only be open to the public for such a short time, and on a Tuesday (when a lot of people would be at work), but I made plans with my boss to leave a bit early for the event.

I left work around 3pm, and I made it to the bridge around 3:45 or so. This was a VERY hot and hazy summer day. One of the hottest days this summer.

When I arrived, I was pleased to see that MANY people had turned up for the event.

The first portion of the bridge has tall chain-link fences, so some photos were difficult (or a bit tricky) to take.

This photo shows Brookdale Ave. on the east side of the bridge. The east side has the majority of Cornwall, while the west end has smaller subdivisions, and newer neighbourhoods. Directly to the west of the bridge is actually the Howard Smith Paper Co./DOMTAR paper mill property. As I was touring/walking on the bridge, all the first photos focused on the east, and I planned to take photos of the west side on my way back, since there was much less to see on that side.



Here is a good photo that shows the condition of the deck. 52 years of patch work in every conceivable material has taken its toll on the roadway.



One of the old lights. The gaps in the fence on each side of the lights provided the only easy way to take good photos.



Here's a good shot pointing north-east towards my house (completely obscured by a tree, but visible later). In the FAR distance (under the crane), you can see the water tower.



Cornwall Water Tower:



A little farther down, my house was visible. It was easy to spot by looking for my neighbour's distinctly shaped front porch.



Note the three houses with the triangular pointed roofs to the left. Here's the "ground" view of my place, also showing those three houses.



This was the best "bird's eye view" (zoomed-in version of the earlier photo) that I was able to get of my house 'as viewed from the bridge'.





This was farther down the bridge.



Some of the views of the bridge may seem odd, as this one below, because the bridge actually has an "S" shape, so the curves allowed for some neat photos. Showing west side. You can see the second bridge in the distance at the upper right. You can also see the new low bridge at the bottom right.



General view of Cornwall/downtown. If you look very closely on the far right, just barely touching the horizon is the dark brown-black steeple of Trinity Church (my favourite church). I made an entire post over a year ago, showing the interior of the church (along with a video clip that shows the exterior) here:
My 1923 Foursquare - Cornwall Homes - Trinity Anglican Church



The church steeple in the centre top is St. Columban's which will be shown again. Here's a photo from the ground that shows this church. The church is a few blocks east of my house.



Centre of the bridge/girders.



A shot straight down Water Street, which then turns into Montreal Rd. (Hwy 138 South). The park along the waterfront is Lamoureux Park, and it's the location where all our outdoor concerts/events, hot air balloon festivals, and Canada Day celebrations take place. There is actually a carnival that was going on at the time, and you can spot a Ferris wheel.

Also visible in this photo is Nativity church (the church I attended as a kid) with the red roof (just right of the centre, and actually on the same street, which curves).

There is also a white dot visible on the horizon, just left of the centre road, and this is the ball over the Nav Centre (formerly Nav Canada) building (see image below).



Here are two photos of Nativity Church. This first black and white photo was photographed by Cory Marsolais from the apartment building directly across from the church.



Here is a shot of the interior of the church, taken by Richard Pilon. The interior is beautifully painted in light blue and gold, and features ornate oak woodwork.



A small paragraph of info about the church can be found here:
http://www.cornwall-lacac.on.ca/bignativity.html

This is an overall view of Nav Centre (viewed from the river, pointing north):



To give you a rough idea of distance, it would take me about 30 minutes to walk to the church (from the bridge), and another 40-50 minutes to walk all the way to Nav. It doesn't look that far in the photo, but it's quite far.

Also just barely visible in the park is the clock tower. If you scroll back up to the photo and look just a bit south of the red church roof, near the road in the park is a tiny triangular roof (just over a dark tree top), which is the roof of this clock tower:



This shot is taken from the same spot, but turned towards the north. Again, you can see St.Columban's church,



This is past the portion of the bridge with the chain link fence, and this time, looking to the west across the St. Lawrence river. The portion to the right is part of the old canal system, and to the right of this is parts of the old DOMTAR/paper mill property.



In the distance above, you can sort of see the Saunders Hydro-Electric Dam. Here's an up-close photo of the dam by Dean. I have other photos farther down. If you want information about the dam, have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam



Another shot of Cornwall, a little farther down the bridge. In the lower right is part of the new border/customs location as part of the new bridge. The water here is part of the old canal.



Another shot back on the west side, showing the remains of the former paper mill.



I took some photos with the railings partly to show how low they are. They come up just above knee-level, and made me quite nervous. In the distance is the dam.



West side, showing some of the curvature of the bridge. Again, the water here is the canal, not the river.



Here is the brand new low bridge. It was built right alongside the old bridge on the west side. This is the portion that spans the St. Lawrence river.



Here's a close-up of the dam. In the water, you can spot one of the old piers from an old train bridge, which collapsed long ago (early 1900s).





I'm not a huge "selfie" guy, but I took a few with a great view of the city behind me. It was starting to get cloudy at this point.



I like this one because you can see the steel girders in the sun glasses.



More artsy/interesting photos.









Second street (one of the main roads through town) looking west. This smoke sack was attached to the huge main building of the paper mill, to the left of the road. There were originally plans to blow it up in a big celebration, and have a big draw for who would win to push the button, but apparently there were too many concerns about carcinogens/chemical residues from all the dust it would create, so nothing has been done with the stack for a few years now. It's one of the last remaining things left to demolish on the property.

All the residential areas to the west are a few blocks away past the trees.





One of the 2 main designs of expansion joints used on the deck.



Heading back into Cornwall (back to the starting point).



I finished the bridge walk just shortly before 5pm, and as soon as I got home, it started to rain.

Overall, it was a great afternoon, and they had the entire event really nicely set up. They had large placards (not shown) that had photos of the bridge's construction, along with the facts I noted earlier. They also had one or two spots where they were handing out free bottles of water (because it was insanely hot), and a few benches set up for people to sit. Near the middle of the bridge, they had sidewalk chalk and were letting people (lots of kids) write their names and draw on the bridge. It was too bad that my Mom couldn't come (she was at work) and that my friend Lynne couldn't come (she lives over in Ottawa).

I hope you guys enjoyed these photos!

"You Learn Something New Every Day"

I tend to like this idiom (title), and I find it to be true a lot of the time, but I just came across a term I wasn't too familiar with, and it really hit home for me (literally!)

Sweat Equity: is an interest or increased value in a property earned from labor toward upkeep or restoration.

How did I just learn this term TODAY? Seems pretty amazing, since it's what I've been doing with this house for over 3 years.

:D

In other news, prepare yourselves for a surprise project that I'm nearly finished! I should be posting about it in the next day (either late tonight or tomorrow).

Cornwall Homes

I realize that I haven't posted any more local homes for quite a while. I currently have a stash of about 18 photos left from my favourites. I'm posting half of those in this post, and saving the others for a future post. After that, I'll have to go photograph others.

This post will focus on some of the more popular or better known "beautiful old houses" in Cornwall. These are on the main roads, and are generally in very good condition.

Let's start with the County Courthouse (Old Historic Cornwall Jail). This building served as a prison up until 2002, when it was decommissioned. The original building was built in 1833, with several additions added later. The building has been mostly preserved "as-is" when it was closed down. When visiting the cell blocks, and other sections of the prison, you get a grim feeling of what it would have been like to be confined here. Tons of peeling paint, graffiti, and an endless expanse of cement and iron bars.

Many people were hanged in the courtyard up until capital punishment was abolished in Canada, and the prison is said to be haunted by several spirits (many ghost tours are held at the site).

Part of the original courthouse and front lobby were restored/renovated, and feature beautiful woodwork and stone interior walls (in the lobby).

Read more about it here:
http://cornwalljail.wordpress.com/

The building itself is quite beautiful, with a wonderful classic shape, stately doors, and beautiful mature trees.



The next most popular old building is the Cornwall Community Museum, also known as the Wood house (named for the Wood family who were the original inhabitants).
http://cornwallcommunitymuseum.blogspot.ca/

The stone house dates to around 1840, and features beautiful Greek Revival details (popular at the time), such as the front door columns, and the style of the interior casings. Three generations of the Wood family lived in the home up until the 1950s, and then the house became the local history museum. The home was more recently moved to its current location in Lamoureux Park (a much more scenic location not too far from its previous site), and a very large archive/basement/storage area was built under it.

At one time, there was a large ornate Gothic gingerbread porch on the front of the house.



If you want to see some of my interior shots of the Wood House, I have some at the end of this post (last 6 photos) I made back in 2007 when my friend Larry visited. You can also see a few goofy photos of me in there, and Ottawa.
http://sooth.livejournal.com/479994.html

The next house is the former Chesley Inn. This house was built in the 1820s, and served as a meeting place for the community, and a place for travellers to stay. It's not exactly on a main road, but it's one of the oldest buildings in town, and one of the only ones built in this Georgian style. It's in need of some care (paint, shutter repairs, and yard maintenance, but it's a beautiful home with tall ceilings and several fireplaces.



Next is this beautiful home (I believe the style is Italianate, but I'm not 100% sure). It's currently occupied by lawyers' offices for Adams Sherwood Swabey & Fallon. The building is kept in absolutely pristine condition. Just this past year, they completely stripped and repainted the front archway, and replaced the light fixture. The previous year, they reglazed/repainted the 8 cupola windows. I do believe that all the arched windows are replacements, but they are high quality and custom made to match the originals exactly. The building probably dates to around 1870-1880.



I don't know the story behind this one, but it's on one of the main roads (Second Street), and the bright red roof with green trim is quite eye-catching. The building was sold a few years ago and I have a few interior photos.



Lastly, this is a wonderfully detailed Victorian on the corner of Second & Amelia. It's across the street from the site of the old public library (now an art gallery and custom framing shop), and also across the street from Central Public School (which was largely demolished and completely rebuilt in a modern style).



Original windows, porch details, and doors. An interesting note that I'll point out, is that the triangular embossed/decorated roof panel, as well as the upper column "brackets" have been used on a few other Victorian houses in town, which makes me think that at one time they were "stock items" or available to order from a catalogue.