Success!

We've had quite a lot of rain the past few days, and the church basement has remained dry. Ta da! Let's hear it for Paul Davis!

Next project: obtaining a third quote on the gothic windows. For a project this big, I want to know all my options.

Interesting junk mail

We put a sign in our mailbox saying "No flyers please," as well as the red dot Canada Post says to use if you don't want junk mail. The result? A mailbox full of flyers.

In the city, you get ads for Harvey's hamburgers, opticians, and fancy brick driveway treatments. Here in the village, you get flyers for tractor hitches, rain gauges, flail mowers, post drivers, and hay bale tarps. I love it!

Three Cheers for Paul Davis!

Right before we came home from the church, we got a day of heavy rain, and --sure enough--more leaks in the furnace room. I know, right? So we called the patient Scott at Paul Davis and left a key for them in a lockbox, and they came out and did more repairs. They think the problem is high hydrostatic pressure beneath the church, and water is forcing its way up between the concrete pad and the wall, where they meet. They have jackhammered out a trench all along the base of the wall, tarred it, put in a waterproof lining and dimpleboard, installed a tile leading into the sump pump (I'm beginning to think this entire building depends on that sump pump), and then cemented it all over again. They also did something with gravel and sand to correct a negative slope. They'll come back on Monday to clean up and doublecheck it all. All done very cheerfully, without fuss, and without further cost. Isn't that amazing? What a great company! 

If this fix doesn't work, I'm just going to install a pond liner in the basement and throw in a couple of koi.

Quote on storm windows

We had someone come out from Trillium Glass in London to look at the stained glass windows. Trillium was recommended to us by St. James Presbyterian in Forest, who had their stained glass protected by vented storm windows, which we thought would be just what we need. We want to protect them, give us more insulation, and stop the heat build-up that is warping the lead. 

Aaron seemed very knowledgeable and experienced and easy to work with. He would do all the prep/painting and clean-up, and his windows would be thick-paned and powder-coated white to fit the exterior of the church really well, so you wouldn't see nasty silver aluminum. He had some great ideas for venting so that warm air could be channeled into the sanctuary in winter and vented out in summer. Humidity and cold will always be a problem in this location, though, and the R-value of the storm windows, while it will be better, won't be wonderful. 

It turns out Trillium can also help fix the stained glass itself, if I run into tricky bits. Aaron thinks the lead, though misshapen, is still in salvageable condition. Not a lot of the solders have popped. Apparently they have a vat they can dip the windows in to easily remove the cement, which would save me weeks or months of work. I'm wondering what it would cost to have a vat of my own, actually. I have 55 window sections to process, which is practically an industrial scale, so I may as well set up a commercial venture to do it... 

I'm also finding more cracked and broken glass than I first identified, and matching the glass may be difficult. One of the worst breaks is in one of the name plates (poor Ms McRorie), but Trillium can do hand-painted replacements if necessary. Ultimately, we need to decide where best to put our money, and where we'll get the most bang for our buck. Decisions won't be easy, I think. 

My husband found some inexpensive scaffolding that will be safer to work on than ladders. It has already come in handy putting up the front light fixture. It's a cheerful yellow and can double as a workbench. He has also splurged on a band saw so that he can make replacement frames, as many of them are rotting and splitting. As he is removing the stained glass frames from the apertures, we're finding the original installers didn't stain or protect the wood throughout, but only where it was visible. This means the unprotected wood has been absorbing water for the past 80+ years. Even if we can salvage most of it, matching the stain to the old sills and baseboards will be tricky. They won't have the same patina, of course. And any new pieces he has to make will be of a different kind and age of wood, so it will take the stain differently. So...do we just do our best and end up with mismatched stain for a patchwork look? Do we sand it all down and lose the patina but maybe get better matching with the stain? Or do we throw caution to the wind and paint the wood one uniform colour? (which would be easiest but sad.)

Decisions, decisions!