About two weeks ago the construction crew jaws at the Monday House fell through the floor when a giant moving van crept down Monday Street. Surely that wasn’t for the Monday House, where maple flooring was just going in? Fortunately, it turned out to be to a neighbouring house. Chaos averted.

But that time eventually did come when the immovable moving date and the in-progress renovation coincided, and the Monday family movers arrived. 

The sofas and beds were stacked in the centres of rooms, and draped in tarps. Boxes were stacked where-ever room could be made, such as here in the Baby Monday room (the family is bunking with friends until the house is safe enough for them to resume normal life):

Now, crews have to work around piles of stuff in the middle of certain rooms. The crew also thinned out their tool collection, taking off site certain saws, ladders,  and things they envisioned they could do without or could bring to the site in the trailer as needed.

Recall that most of the old trim was removed and has been cleaned for reuse:

These old baseboards and door casings will fit in numerous locations, but there are now some bigger archways and openings than before. And the old addition behind the kitchen at the back of the house didn’t have baseboards before.

So the renovated and rebuilt Monday House will have a mixture of old and new wood trims. It was decided to use all new trim in the back porch / playroom area. Here it is being primer painted in the driveway:

And here carpenter Chris installs the apron piece of trim beneath the window sill. Although it is new trim, it was selected to be very similar to the old materials in size and configuration:

If all works out, there won’t be much apparent difference between old and new:

While it is possible to have new wood milled to exactly match the old trim, this is considerably more expensive.

Here is a modern trim similar to the old window and door trim:

It is not as wide as the old trim, and for bigger door openings, something a bit wider is wanted. Add this piece:

and you get this substantial wood trim that fits\s in beautifully:

Here’s the back playroom /addition with window trim and baseboards:

Those baseboards and casings were installed by the carpenters contorting themselves around the heap of boxes of kid toys and kitchen goods boxes filling up the centre of the room.

Many first-time house renovators are shocked at how many wood shims get used in a house. To make trim straight, IKEA kitchen rails straight and plumb, to wedge floor boards on joists, and shim windows. Here’s two bundles of shims:

And here they are in use, keeping a door frame straight and plumb. The nails are driven through the frame wood and through the shim and into the 2×4’s that make up the wall:

The surplus shim is trimmed off, and the door casing installed:

This week the former owners of the Monday House (from about 1959 to 2016) provided this 1960 picture:

In the 1950’s, this lady immigrated from north eastern Italy with her husband to the land of opportunity. Within a few years, they purchased this house, a huge step up from life in post-war Italy.

There is an Italian song about moving to Canada, it characterises Canada as the land of houses with lilac trees. In a particularly auspicious omen, notice the lilac tree by the left-most veranda pillar. It is still growing and blooming there.

Children who were born and grew up in the Monday House visited the construction site over the weekend. We dug up some good luck omens from the back yard.

St Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of Padua, the family’s Italian home:

There was also a statue St Joseph, patron saint of real estate sales. If buried in the land, he will help the sale. It obviously worked:

The two figurines are now back at the retirement condo in Nepean.